But Why?

Oregon Live headlined today that they think downtown Portland is unsafe and uninviting. I can't imagine why. Maybe we should alask the developers of the new Ritz Carlton hotel that has halted construction midway, or the other new and first class older hotels like The Benson who are dying from low vacancy rates. Ditto cultural events in downtown, the Oregon Historical Society Museum, etc, ad nauseam. Perhaps the Portland City Council can add a new business tax to put Portland's homeless in the hotels and buy them season tickets to cultural events. See - problem solved!

https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2021/05/downtown-in-distress-portlands-core-is-unsafe-and-uninviting-residents-say-in-new-poll-threatening-citys-recovery.html

Oregon is a Bottom Feeder

The American Legislative Exchange Council puts out an annual report ranking states by State Gross Domestic Product. It looks at the move out/move in ratios, wage growth, job creation, etc. And guess who finished in the bottom 10 states in the country? You guessed it - Oregon! We had great company: California, New York, Illinois and other blue states. Tax the snot out of businesses, regulate the bejeepers out of 'em, spend like there's no tomorrow ... yeah, that's the ticket! And it's also probably just a coincidence that Oregon hasn't landed a major new high tech plant in 20 years, including the two that Intel has recently announced that went to Arizona. Gosh, maybe we can all work for the government.

annual-rich-states-poor-states-report-winners-losers-fall-along-red-state-blue-state-divide

End the Idiocy with Masks and Sports

A young female runner from Summit High School collapsed just short of the finish line while running the 800 due to total oxygen deficit. She was wearing a mask because Oregon it. It's time to end at least this particular idiocy regarding masks. Young people are basically unaffected by Covid - they don't get it and they don't transmit it. It should be ended before a young person is seriously injured or dies from this fiat that is based at this point on superstition rather than science.

https://www.oregonlive.com/sports/john_canzano/2021/04/high-school-coach-calls-on-oregon-health-authority-and-governor-to-reconsider-mask-mandate-for-distance-runners.html

Yes, Virginia - There Are Still Good People Out There

Charles Barkley recently opined that in his experience, there are good people of all races who get along just fine, but that the politicians are dividing us to raise funds and stay in office. Good call Charles and this story illustrates his point.

Mrs. Hamilton was a cook at a frat house at LSU and had fed and been a friendly ear to a lot of college students over the years. Recently an alum found out that at age 73, she still had to work at two jobs to make ends meet, primarily because of a $45,000 mortgage still hanging over her. He spearheaded a fund drive to pay off her mortgage and the picture shows her "boys" giving her a check more than sufficient to clear the mortgage. Yes Virginia, as Charles says, there still are good people out there. Be one of them.

https://www.upliftingtoday.com/2021/04/fraternity-house-rallies-to-pay-off-mortgage-for-the-woman-who-cooked-for-them-for-14-years/?utm_source=wnd&utm_medium=wnd&utm_campaign=syndicated

A Lament for Portland

It's not fun to watch someone kill themselves slowly. Chronic drug use, alcoholism, anorexia, etc. is ugly and unfortunately rampant in our society. It's not fun to watch an entire city kill itself either, but as this requiem by Patrice Lewis laments, Portland is doing just that. 

As a resident of Oregon, it used to be fun to go to Portland for a play, a pro basketball game, a dinner. No more. Lewis points out that on the night after President Trump's 2016 election, rioters trashed the Pearl District where maybe 1% of the voters voted for him. The idiocy has continued and worsened. The city is eating itself and the rest of us can only stand by and watch. 

Looking across the country we see other major cities like Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago all going down the same garbage chute. "Progressivism" is such a misnomer. It is a giant step backwards in barbarism. It is nothing but a plague of locusts. 

https://www.wnd.com/2021/04/lament-portland/

Viewpoint

"Started out as a good idea - Let's be nice to people' - and finished up as a humorless, censorious, literal-minded, posturing idiocy,"  John Cleese of Monty Python fame commenting on "Wokeism."

https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/john-cleese-mocks-hank-azaria-apology-apu-simpsons