Civilization Triumphs!

The Cafe du Monde reopened today, 19 Oct MMV. Now, you don't have to go to SW 6th and Alder to Island Joe's for your morning beignet and chicory cafe au lait fix.

Wednesday's Oak Lodge Community Council Special meeting

AGENDA: Special meeting
October 12, 2005
Rose Villa
13505 SE River Road
Oak Grove, Oregon

7:00 PM -- Call to Order: Dick Jones, Chairperson

ROLL CALL: Bill Bader, Bill Brown, Wilma Brown, Frank Budwill, Sue Conachan, Edith Coulter, Rosemary Crites, George Dietz, Jerry Foy, Bryn Gillem, Chuck Gode, Milo
Haas, Thelma Haggenmiller, Richard Holmes, David Jelinek, Dick Jones, Jim Knapp, Elinor Kuhns, Bill Neels, Elaine Neels, Chuck Petersen, Margaret Pritchard, Paul Savas, Eugene Schoenheit, George Schneider, Eric Shawn, Susan Shawn, Kent Squires,
Julie Stanley, Dr. Elton Storment, Bob Waldt, Leonard Waldemar, Don Wake, Suzanne Wake, Roy Wikman and Doug Woods.

7:05 PM – Land Use Issues for Voting

Introduction of procedures by Chairperson. Eligibility for Voting, Time Limits, presentations by those in favor, the Council’s on-site review and those opposed.


Z0772-05 The applicant is seeking to partition a parcel into two lots. It is located on the east side of River Forest Drive near the intersection with River Forest Rd. This parcel has 22,100 sq. ft. and is zoned R-10 This application in some form has been before the OLCC several times in the last 18 months.

Z0370-05 This is an appeal of a staff decision dated August 25, 2005 involving adding 4 residential lots and an open tract for future development at the end of Minerva Lane off Oetkin Rd. The appellant believes the proposed roadway will take place on her property as well as environmental concerns. The applicant letter is the agenda.

Z0651-05 The applicant is seeking approval for 10-lot subdivision. The lots will range between 8,030 and 11,912 sq.ft. This parcel is 2.99 acres located at 15510 Wallace Rd. It is zoned R-10.

Z0758-05 This application is for Design review for a third warehouse structure on Ken Hood’s former property and a proposed monitoring Plan for traffic on Vineyard Rd.

8:00 PM General Matters for Discussion

Review Clearwater issue-Eugene Schoenheit

8:30 PM – Meeting Adjourned

Disaster survival

What should be the final word on disaster survival: Rescue yourself.

Avoiding water-damaged cars when buying

An estimated 570,000 cars were 'totalled' as a result of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, as per the head of the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) in media releases last week. And, as per NPR and other news sources, about half of storm-damaged cars which should have been parted out or scrapped will be resold through various kinds of chicanery.

So, here's NADA's tips on how to avoid getting a Katrinamobile.

TripAdvisor.com

Did some trip planning a while back, and found that Trip Advisor was the most useful of the sites used, far more than the major sites, when it came to studying the different places to stay out of town. The post-mortem reports from conventioneers who stayed in various different hotels were pretty close to what the reviewes on TripAdvisor had to say. Its reviews also match up accurately with Clackablog's experiences with the resorts in his old home town on the Gulf of Mexico (nowadays, a tourist trap/geezerville).

Red Light Cameras Cause More Accidents. Again.

The District's red-light cameras have generated more than 500,000 violations and $32 million in fines over the past six years. City officials credit them with making busy roads safer. But a *Post* analysis of crash statistics shows that the number of accidents has gone up at intersections with the cameras. The increase is the same or worse than at traffic signals without the devices. Three outside traffic specialists independently reviewed the data and said they were surprised by the results. Their conclusion: The cameras do not appear to be making any difference in preventing injuries or collisions....

Del Quentin Wilber and Derek Willis, *The Washington Post*, 4 Oct 2005, A01

Project Censored

Project Censored's report on the twenty-five most important, yet under/un-covered stories of 2004-2005, has some doozies.

I imagine my friends in the Great White North will be just a wee bit flamed when they read Number 16. Number 25 is undeniably true; first responders know the highest public risk is from our our sadly insecure chemical infratructure, easily used against us. And, no, Abdul, I don't feel like telling you how.

The societal risk from Number 18 was exquisitely explained by Robert Frezza (Major, USA, Ret.) in his superb FIRE IN A FARAWAY PLACE for, like Dean Ing, Jerry Pournelle and the Admiral, Frezza doesn't need Western Union to send a message.

But, Numbers 4 and 11 will lead us someplace I don't care to go; Oceana, or Epsilons, perhaps, but nowhere the Founding Fathers would recognize, or desire, I fear.

And how will we get there? Just review this bon mot from Number Three about our peculiar and most recent election:

The Edison and Mitofsky report dismisses the possibility that the official vote count was wrong, stating that precincts with electronic voting systems had the same error rates as precincts with punch-card systems. This is true. However, it merely points to the unreliability of punch-card and electronic systems, both of which are slated for termination under the Helping America Vote Act of 2002. According to the report, only in precincts that used old-fashioned, hand-counted paper ballots did the official count and the exit poll data fall within the normal margin of error.

Also, the report shows, the discrepancy between the exit polls and the official count was considerably greater in the critical swing states. And while this fact is consistent with allegations of fraud, Mitofsky and Edison suggest, without providing any data or theory to back up their claim, that this discrepancy is somehow related to media coverage.

In other words, the vote was skewed where it needed to be skewed, and only hand-counted paper ballots were immune to distortion.

Enough hard thinking. The Manchurian Candidate's on.