Scam Alert -- Wildly overpriced "water supply line" insurance targets seniors in NE Salem

Image via WikipediaI usually keep my day job and LOVESalem pretty separate, but there are times when the interests merge, such as when I learn that there's a scam targeting seniors here in Salem.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave

Image via WikipediaLooks like one of the urak-hai, the extra corrupt and nasty orcs, was working for Rupert Murdoch while also working both sides of the street in the much-ado-about-nothing "Climategate" "scandal".

That was the imbroglio manufactured by a credulous press that finds actual science all much too confusing and prefers something much simpler and more familiar: stealing emails and excerpting little bits in a carefully chosen order so as to make them appear to say something nefarious.

"Climategate" could safely be forgotten if it hadn't been carefully created just when needed to prevent global action on climate, and if it had not become an article of faith among the know-nothings in the GOP and their house organ, Faux News (another of Sauron's legions).

Still no slippery slope from Death with Dignity

Image via WikipediaOne of the worst things about our debased media culture is that there is absolutely no memory -- the press is so busy chasing the latest skirt scandal that they never have any time to reflect, to ponder, or to go back and review the scare-story predictions made about the parade of horrible things sure to result when some tiny step towards progress threatens to occur.

Consider Oregon's Death with Dignity law. It's worth noting, again and again, that every single claim about the horrific outcomes has been wrong, year after year after year. People are not flocking to Oregon to kill themselves. The handicapped and disabled haven't been encouraged to off themselves. People who are "sad" don't get lethal prescriptions. Docs aren't encouraging patients to off themselves as soon as the insurance money stops.

The uber-claim of the anti-dignity folks was that letting people die without excruciating pain would somehow "devalue life." Well, to the extent that "life" has been devalued in Oregon, it has been because the people who opposed Death with Dignity also relentlessly oppose and create obstacles to letting people control their own lives in those critical areas around whether or not to give birth, marry, or depart this mortal coil.

The basic principle of the people who fought to try to force the rest of us to face death on their terms alone is that you do not have the right to decide the most intimate matters of your own life -- whether you give birth, or whether you can marry the person you love, or whether you should be able to avoid a hellish end of unbearable pain.

It's important to remember and to bring this up because the people who fought against letting us decide to hasten our own deaths are absolutely fanatical in their virulent hatred of freedom and their determination to roll back progress. They want to force rape victims to bear their rapists' child; they want to make it impossible for same sex couples to marry; they want to deny the poor access to birth control; and they want to return to the time when only the rich could get help from a doctor to ease their suffering from a terminal illness.

If you value your freedom, if you think that you and you alone should decide the most intimate matters of life, then you need to be alert to who these people are. Because the media never holds them to account and points out that none of the horrible things they said would happen ever do.

As we enjoy the bliss of a gorgeous Oregon summer, take a moment to remember that there are people who hate that you might decide what is best for you for yourself, without giving them a say or letting them decide for you. And join or send something to the groups that fight for your rights all year long.

• American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon
• Americans United for the Separation of Church and State
• Compassion and Choices
• Human Rights Campaign of Oregon
• Oregon Hospice Association
• Planned Parenthood