Even when the buildings don't actually fall down, LEED is questionable

Turns out that, like so many other things in America since R. Reagan told Americans that the only thing they needed was a sunny optimism, LEED is a lot more about marketing than engineering.

As the proud owners of a $34 million "LEED-Certified" disaster, people in Salem and Marion County should probably be open to the message that it's time to rethink our certifications. Unless builders and architects are willing to offer performance guarantees for how the building will work in practice, any money spent on certifications might just as well be spent on building a corral for the Magic Unicorn that they promised you too.

(I think of this video every day when I see the "LEED" plaque on Courthouse Square -- no doubt the LEED salesmen are insisting that it's a chance in a million for gravity to pull down a building.)

As we contemplate our diminished circumstances

This makes more sense than ethanol does. Image via WikipediaWe should never forget that Oregon and the US Government continue to shovel billions of dollars into a Rube-Goldberg scam called ethanol -- which is, at bottom, nothing but a way to launder fossil fuels into a so-called "renewable" fuel.

Littering: It's OK if you bully City Hall enough

The Gannett chain, owners of the Salem Statesman-Journal, are really throwing their weight around and doing their best to intimidate Salem's City Council by threatening legal action against the city if it takes any action against the weekly dumping of tons of unwanted waste paper and plastic bags on Salem's streets -- with costs of cleanup all billed to us, with all profits from the unwanted junk going to Gannett.

The photo shows just one of countless examples of Gannett's narcissistic, socially destructive behavior -- that's 15th St. NE, not too far from the Statesman-Journal presses. Four, count 'em four dumped advertising junk bags left foul the streets and block proper drainage.

The legal issues are interesting, because it shows bullying at its finest. Gannett has no legal leg to stand on if Salem passes a content-neutral ordinance that requires anyone who distributes unrequested commercial materials to collect any remaining outside a day or two after they are first dumped. That would simply be an ordinance for the public health and safety, what the legal types call an exercise of the city's police powers.

But after learning that Gannett has been threatening to throw its weight around over the issue, I realized that we can even do it better with an even more untouchable ordinance that Gannett would like even less: Require anyone distributing unrequested commercial flyers or other dropoff materials to register the dropoff with the city, provide a toll-free collection number, and to post a bond to ensure proper collection of unwanted copies -- say, a nickel for each copy to be distributed. There'd be no opportunity for censorship or government meddling: the city could not stop or hinder the dropoff. The only thing the registration would do is establish the dates where the dropoff was going to occur and the number of copies (to set the bond amount). Then, after each dropoff, anyone who didn't want the junk would call the toll-free number provided by the distributor, give their address, and the distributor would have to collect the material within 24 hours.

Any copies that remain on the street 48 hours after distribution are charged against the distributor's deposit at the rate of 50 cents each. City Neighborhood Enhancement Services staff collect the dumped-and-forgotten copies and keep the 50 cents to improve Neighborhood Services throughout the city.

Or, I suppose, Gannett could stop dumping garbage on Salem streets and making us pay for cleaning it up.

WORD: America just going through the motions on reforms

Fake ice is just as real as our commitment to dealing with reality. Image by Kyle May via FlickrSad but true.

Spotted: An extremely sane Republican . . . lost in a primary of course . . .

Amazing - a Republican from South Carolina no less.

http://www.samefacts.com/2010/11/watching-conservatives/so-much-for-consensus-climate-solutions/

Local Heroes: Salem's coolest new nonprofit's cool new newsletter

Local Harvest, which is about a year old right about now, having just gotten started last year, is still in the lead for Salem's coolest nonprofit for 2010. Now they've gone and got a newsletter even (pdf), so you can see some of what you missed if you didn't sign up to help out.

Thanks so much for your support of Neighborhood Harvest. Almost 800 community volunteers picked more than 50,000 pounds of fruit and vegetables this season, with half donated to the Marion-Polk Food Share. We wanted to send a link to our first newsletter, and invite you to join us again next year.

Best wishes!

Steering Committee Members
Neighborhood Harvest of Salem

And don't forget to thank these local heroes for supporting Local Harvest:
Thanks to our supporters!

OVER THE TOP
$1,000 or above

Shannon Blake
Renato and Maria Labate
Lake Labish Farms
The Marble Center
Molly Pearmine McCargar
Norman and Kay McDonald of McDonald Family Farms
Karen and Steve Weiss
Dick Yates and Nadene LeCheminant
Mike and Lisa Zwart

TOP OF THE TREE
$500−999
Nathan and Alicia Bay

BRIMMING BARREL
$250−499
John Savage

BOUNTIFUL BUSHEL
$100−249
Matthew and Kimberly Boles
Lisa Clark-Burnell and Kelly Burnell
Jeffrey Egan, in memory of Diana Egan
Roz Shirack

NEIGHBORHOOD HARVEST OF SALEM was established in January 2010. The 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization is a project of Friends of Salem Saturday Market and supports Marion-Polk Food Share through donations of produce. Our mission is to build community, alleviate hunger, preserve our heritage and promote simple, sustainable lifestyles.

The Best Short YouTube of the Year, 2010 Winner

Double-click for full-screen version.

On the folly of hoping for A while rewarding B

Mayor Janet Taylor pens on op-ed piece calling for high-speed rail in the Willamette Valley. While she is also pushing to blow hundreds of millions on a new auto bridge to speed commuters up and down I-5 and blowing millions on an airport that will probably never have scheduled air service again.

Do not miss "INSIDE JOB" at Salem Cinema

Image via WikipediaWall Street, all Republicans and the vast majority of elected Democrats, caught in their permanent cringe, all hope that you will NOT go to Salem Cinema at Broadway & Market to see "INSIDE JOB." Reason enough for you to go.

But there's also that the movie does a good job explaining why Salem is hurting so badly now -- thanks to the bipartisan alliance of thugs who waltz between Wall St. and "regulatory" jobs in Washington, people throughout the mid-Valley are being laid off, laid bare, laid out, and laid six feet under, all for the greater glory and profit of those thugs -- not a single one of whom Obama has even spoken harshly to, much less jailed.

Do not miss it.

UPDATE: The movie does a great job unmasking the thugs, the same crowd that Krugman, the Nobelist who should also win a Pulitzer, skewers here.

A kind word for Obama: At least he's not insane

Image by yksin via FlickrBarry O. has been a terrible disappointment, a man who never went into a negotiation without first giving his opponent all his bargaining chips.

UPDATE: Alas, it is true that he has a spine of overcooked pasta. He doesn't even know how to turn aggressive overreaching by his opponents to his advantage. Pitiful.

But then you read something like this and you realize how lucky we are that John McCain and Sarah Palin aren't in charge.

An Unknown Soldier

. . . Several U.S. senators had gathered at the Halifax International Security Forum, an annual gathering that is the brainchild of Peter MacKay, Canada's defense minister. One of them, Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, immediately put President Obama on notice.

Resurgent Republicans would be looking for him to "be tough with Iran beyond sanctions." If it came to war, the United States should "sink their navy, destroy their air force and deliver a decisive blow to the Revolutionary Guard, in other words neuter that regime."

Sure, Graham conceded, "you can expect, for a period of time, all hell to break loose." Another war is the "last thing America wants." But a nuclear-armed Iran was unacceptable and containment "off the table."

This is dangerous talk from an influential Republican who sits on the Armed Services Committee. The United States, in its current depleted state, cannot afford another war in a Muslim country. It cannot find itself fighting across a 2,000-mile front stretching through Arab, Persian and Central Asian worlds. You could forget about the tenuous progress in Iraq and Afghanistan, where Iran can flick switches. From Lebanon to Gaza, on Israel's borders, tensions would boil.

But Graham's words were instructive. The pressure on Obama from Congress is going to grow. David Broder of the Washington Post even suggested recently that a war in Iran might spur the U.S. economy, just as World War II did.

The United States does not need the stimulus package from hell. This is a moment of great American uncertainty, a volatile passage. Sunni Pakistan has nukes and Al Qaeda. Shiite Iran has neither. It would be tragic to ignore the lessons of Iraq, stumble onto a war train armed with flimsy evidence, and imagine Iran is close to a bomb when there's no conclusive evidence it's made the decision to build one. Remember, the mullahs love ambiguity. It's their element, along with maddening inertia. To risk "breakout" is to risk the Islamic Republic. Hence the waiting-for-Godot aspects of their nuclear zigzag.

When I heard those words — "neuter that regime" — what I saw was a shattered body in Tampa. A third U.S war is inconceivable.