Methadone Clinics and Zoning

Rockland, Maine, is still pulling out all the stops to keep a methadone clinic out of the downtown area. I know they say they want it in an area of certain zoning, but they're really trying to zone it into an area where it will never be able to make a go of it.

I think that drug users have become so demonized and dehumanized in our society that otherwise sensible people think strange things about them. Like that the drugs themselves make people commit crimes. Wrong. It's the illegality of the drugs that raises the price so high that some addicts resort to crime to pay for them.

I once sat on a subway car in Germany and watched a heroin user cook and shoot up. Nobody else on the car seemed too worried, either. Don't get me started about Amsterdam, where both legal and illegal substance users abound. What makes drugs dangerous is when people decide to take them and do something like drive a car or swim across the bay. What makes them even more dangerous is how the rest of society reacts to the people who are using them.

Don't get me wrong: I do not use drugs other than the occasional caffeine or alcohol or over-the-counter remedy or anything that a physician might prescribe for me. I think that most people should avoid most drugs for recreational purposes. But I do think that people should not be thought of as untouchables because they are leading a life I wouldn't lead.

Indeed, so many of my friends and acquaintances use marijuana that I marvel at the fact it is still illegal.

But when people are actually wanting help to cease their addiction, and a method of some utility exists, and the local government stands in the way....it's beyond comprehension. Makes me a little bit ashamed to be a native and former resident of Rockland.

Peace,

Tor

Categories: Maine, politics, drugs

Dirigo Must Go

Steve Bowen has written an especially good op-ed about the State of Maine's much-ballyhooed Dirigo Choice health insurance program. In a nutshell:

But if we're insuring so few, who had cost us so little beforehand, and doing it with a program that is this costly, where are the savings to be had? If we are to fund the program by raising taxes on insurance premiums that are already unaffordable, aren't we actually making the problem of uninsured Mainers even worse?

Yes, most government programs do make things worse. What's surprizing about that?

Peace,

Tor

Categories: Maine, politics

Quote of the Day

An excellent bit of theology from the episode "Our Mrs. Reynolds," of the TV show Firefly:

If you take sexual advantage of her, you're going to burn in a very special level of hell...a level they reserve for child molesters...and people who talk at the theater.
--Preacher to Mal

Peace,

Tor

Categories: movies, scifi, television, etiquette

PNS open, BNAS closed

Pinky is rightfully ecstatic. The Base Realignment and Closure Commission has voted to remove the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard from the closure list, tho it has decided to close the Brunswick Naval Air Station, rather than realign it (which is what the Pentagon requested).

In the long run, I'm confident that the Brunswick area will be better off without the base. In the short run, it's gonna hurt. The sooner the base's resources are put into private hands, the better.

I am glad that both facilities weren't axed. That would have been too much economic bad news for a state that's already on tenterhooks about so many other issues.

PNS should take some comfort from Chairman Principi's stern rebuke of the Pentagon's plans of closure. Sounds like the commissioners were really ticked off by Portsmouth's inclusion on the list.

Peace,

Tor
Categories: Maine, politics

Colin Powell's Folly

CNN is reporting that a former "top aide" to Colin Powell is characterizing his involvement in the infamous UN presentation on WMD as "the lowest point" in his life. CNN is apparently promoting a program on the intelligence failures concerning WMD in Iraq.

The most startling quote from the article:

"(Powell) came through the door ... and he had in his hands a sheaf of papers, and he said, 'This is what I've got to present at the United Nations according to the White House, and you need to look at it,'" Wilkerson says in the program. "It was anything but an intelligence document. It was, as some people characterized it later, sort of a Chinese menu from which you could pick and choose."

The truly disheartening thing about this, if it is a true account, is the way it portrays Powell as easily duped or misled. And to think that there was a great Draft Powell for President movement not so long ago.

Peace,

Tor

Filed Under:

• war

Whitney Azoy's Back!!

Whitney Azoy has written another column for the Bangor Daily News. It's been quite a while since the cultural anthropologist and expert on Afghanistan has sent a missive from that land, and, as usual, it's a wonderfully informative piece. I hope it will be just the first in another regular series.

One important part of the column concerns what the "Islamic extremists" want:

The main aim of Islamist struggle is, purely and simply, to be left alone - politically, economically, and even culturally. True, there's some talk of worldwide domination, but few Islamists take it seriously. Most, instead, merely want us out - out of Palestine, out of Chechnya, out of Iraq, out of their military bases, out of their royal or presidential palaces, out of their oil reserves and profits, even out of their print and broadcast media.

On that note, I'd like to suggest for further reading the Libertarian Party's plan for withdrawing from Iraq.

Peace,

Tor

Filed Under:

• war
• libertarianism

A $10K Wager on Climate Change

Two Russian solar physicists are so convinced that the warming and cooling of the Earth's climate is more greatly influenced by sunspots than by human activity, that they have made a ten thousand dollar bet with a British climatologist. Namely, they say the Earth will cool over the next twenty years.

Peace,

Tor

Categories: science, climate

Good Days to Avoid Irving Oil

For those of you who travel Route One in Midcoast Maine, here's a heads-up on when to take the back roads.

It sounds like the Maine Department of Transportation will be diverting random cars (i.e. cars whose drivers don't read notices about roadblocks) into the Irving convenience stores to "survey" them on driving habits. A similar thing went on in Camden some years ago. Some answers I used at the time, that you might consider using:

What is the purpose of your trip today?

I must pollute the atmosphere as quickly as possible, so my people can colonize this planet.

I hereby invoke my Fifth Amendment right not to supply answers which might tend to incriminate me.

Finding a place to hide the bodies.

I'm going to Mexico to bring back some good ganja.

I'm driving this Chevette around to impress the babes.

Where did your trip start?

I don't know. I wasn't paying attention. I think I wrote it down somewhere. Lemme look.

What is your destination?

For crying out loud, I'm a young man yet! I don't have my whole life planned out!

A box in the ground. Or cremation. I'm not sure. What do you recommend?

Peace,

Tor

Categories: Maine, government

Science Fiction Television

My wife and I are big science fiction fans, especially when it's done well. We live in a rural area without cable service, and we're too cheap to pay for satellite service since we'll only be interested in two or three of the channels offered.

Therefore, we rely on DVDs for most of our television entertainment. The downside to this is that we often have to watch shows a season after everyone's been talking about them. But in terms of science fiction TV shows, watching on DVD is a great way to go.

We've just watched the two Dune miniseries that were aired on the SciFi Channel in 2000 and 2003. The first one, oddly enough titled Frank Herbert's Dune, is an okay adaptation of the classic novel. The special effects and the sets are a bit substandard, and the acting is more than quite a bit stilted, but it's much more cogent and intelligible than the David Lynch movie from 1984.

After viewing that, our expectations were low for Children of Dune. But after even the first episode, it was easy to tell we were in for a treat. It turns out that this miniseries actually was an adaptation of two novels, Dune Messiah and Children of Dune. Due to this condensation, the pacing is better. The acting is very good, and even quite moving at times. Even Alec Newman, whom I couldn't stand as Paul in the first miniseries, brings subtleties to his reprisal of the role. It's well worth slogging through the first series to get to this one.

On the recommendation of a coworker of mine, we have started watching Firefly. After only three episodes, we're hooked. We're going to try to watch all the episodes from the cancelled Fox TV series before the movie, Serenity, is released this fall.

Peace,

Tor

Categories: scifi, television, movies

Cleaning Up Belfast

Before I read this story, I had no idea that Belfast, Maine was a desireable place to go on the lam.

Peace,

Tor
Categories: idiots, Maine

Kansas Wants Its Children To Be Idiots

The Kansas Board of Education has tentatively approved new state science standards that weaken the role evolution plays in teaching about the origin of life.

This is just another reason why, ultimately, I think we have to totally demolish the public education system. We need to make an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that says government will have absolutely nothing to do with the education of children whatsoever. Liberals want to use the coercive setting of the public schools to undermine morals which parents try to instill. Conservatives want to use the coercive setting of the public schools to deride scientific thinking. Enough is enough. Let sane people pay to have their kids learn proper science, and let idiots like those on the Kansas Board of Education pay to have their kids be idiots. Highly moral idiots, but idiots.

Peace,

Tor

Categories: science, education, idiots

Colonizing Mars

The Homestead Project is thinking about the technologies necessary to colonize Mars. For crying out loud, they've even decided that they're going to plant a "First Tree," tho they haven't decided what species it will be. Why don't we make sure there aren't any native Martian biota before we go terraforming, huh?

Peace,

Tor

Categories: science, Mars

China and Tibetan Buddhism

An Associated Press article details the frustration that the Chinese government is feeling in trying to discredit the current Dalai Lama. Oh, I feel sorry for them.

Although I am a Buddhist, I am not a Tibetan Buddhist. It seems a little too mystical and supernatural for me. But I do count myself as an admirer of the current Dalai Lama.

Peace,

Tor

Categories: Buddhism, Tibet

"Mending Wall" Did Him In

Doug Latham, of Searsport, has lost his court battle with the Maine Department of Transportation. He has been ordered to remove a wall that's older than he is because it's suddenly "dangerous," according to the "yelping dogs" (per Frost).

"The galling thing is, you can go to the DOT office in Augusta and you will find a stone wall on their property that is closer to the road than mine is," [Latham]said.

Mr. Latham, of course they're hypocritical! They're government bureaucrats!

Peace,

Tor

Categories: Maine, government

Blogger Categories

I just took the Blogger satisfaction survey. If you're a Blogger user, go to your dashboard now and take it. I let 'em know that categories are where it's at. Not that I mind doing five steps to categorize my posts, but it seems that other folks have it easy.

Peace,

Tor

Categories: blogging

Ta-daaa

If you're a regular visitor to this blog, you'll immediately notice some stylistic changes. I've put quite a bit of time into this new layout, and would like to thank the folks at Blogskins.com and Freshblog for the wealth of info that they maintain at their sites.

Now, back to regular blogging!

Peace,

Tor

Categories: blogging

Stalking

For some reason, the issue of stalking has come at me from two different directions in the last week. Exseno authored an interesting autobiographical post about it, and For Better or for Worse had a creepy coworker follow Liz home from her new job. At least so far this week, the strip has covered April's departure, so it may be a while till we find out what goes on with the stalker.

Do read Exseno's post. There are some interesting comments on it, as well.

Peace,

Tor

Categories: blogs

Why Roark Loves Doritos

Here's a really interesting article for cat-lovers. A quick quote:

Researchers at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia and their collaborators said Sunday they found a dysfunctional feline gene that probably prevents cats from tasting sweets, a sensation nearly every other mammal on the planet experiences to varying degrees.

Researchers took saliva and blood samples from six cats, including a tiger and a cheetah and found each had a useless gene that other mammals use to create a "sweet receptor" on their tongues. The gene in question does not produce one of the two vital proteins needed to form the receptors.

I guess that's why Roark is always interested in corn chips, but not pudding.

Peace,

Tor

Categories: cats, science

Politics and Religion

Slublog has an especially interesting take on the homophobic rantings of the Christian Civic League's Michael Heath. I think that all people of all faiths could learn from Peter's attitude about what his Christianity means to him.

Peace,

Tor

Categories: Maine, politics, religion