Oregon owns 1.5 million acres of School Trust Lands that must be managed for the benefit of public education. When profits are earned, the money goes into the Common School Fund, an endowment. Last year, the Fund distributed more than $70 million to local schools. The Trust Lands are managed by the State Land Board, […]
Author and media consultant Peter Leyden and political commentator Ruy Texeira have declared all out war against conservatives. These regressives (they think they are “progressives” but they are not – they are dragging us backwards toward the Dark Ages) argue, quite correctly in my view, that America is currently divided into two camps, and one […]
Mileage standards and tariffs help some – while penalizing countless others, often severely It’s become a recurring, frustrating pattern, as legislators and regulators ignore the immutable laws of unintended consequences, to drive political agendas or aid favored constituencies, while harming others. A good example is corporate average fuel economy (CAFÉ) standards on vehicles. Originally enacted […]
The island’s demise was a human and Little Ice Age tragedy, not “ecological suicide” In a recent New York Times column, Nicholas Kristof misleads us about the awful history of Easter Island (2,300 miles west of Chile), whose vegetation disappeared in the cold drought of the Little Ice Age. In doing so, he blinds modern […]
Those who can remember a half century back will recall these words, spoken by Captain James Kirk of the starship Enterprise at the beginning of each episode of Star Trek: “Space—the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission—to explore strange new worlds—to seek out new life and new civilizations—to […]
How often have you heard that assault rifles should be banned because they are not intended for hunting? Invariably, in the face of that argument some well-intentioned patriot will attempt to persuade us that such weapons are sometimes used to hunt. And that is true only in the sense that one might attempt to eat […]
From the Oakland v. oil company lawsuit to ridiculous “research,” the onslaught never ends Anyone who thought “manmade climate cataclysm” rhetoric couldn’t possibly exceed Obama era levels should read the complaint filed in the “public nuisance” lawsuit that’s being argued before Federal District Court Judge William Alsup in a California courtroom: Oakland v BP and […]
The Oregon Legislature has adjourned. What is left in its wake is a sludge of bills that go against most Oregonians. Here is an example. DACA and TPS enrollees get Oregon ID, permits and driver cards now sanctioned by Oregon Revised Statutes. Thats even after Measure 88 failed. (Measure 88 also tried to give ID […]
Ontario’s plans to reduce plant food would kill jobs and do nothing to control Earth’s climate In its March 19 Speech from the Throne, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government asserted, “you cannot be serious about lowering emissions and fighting climate change without a price on carbon pollution.” Nowhere did the speech specify what this supposed […]
