Empty Holster Week - Part 3

Another day, another "sorry, no empty-holster sightings here" report.

Sure, I don't spend all day standing on "The Quad" watching students march through the rain. I walk to the office from the parking log, take a break outside, look through the windows from time to time, trudge back to the car ... I don't see empty holsters.

Deciding that a little research is in order, I look through the student newspaper. Nope, no articles about Empty Holster Week, let alone Islamic Fascist Awareness Week. Could it be that I reside in a Politically Unaware Student Environment (PUSE!)

In Other News ...

I voted today in the November 6, 2007 Oregon State Elections. Easy ballot (they're mailed to us here in Oregon, you know) with only three issues:

State: Ballot item rejecting Measure 37, which originally refused The State to impose zoning restrictions on property owners which were not in effect when the property was originally bought. VOTE: No (Sorry, Fish, don't mean to make your life harder).

Too many stories about property owners (farmers, mostly) wanting to build a second house for The Next Generation, and being forbidden; or trying to dry up a quarter-acre marsh because the mosquitoes were eating up the grandchildren, but forbidden because it was a 'protected Wetland.

State: Ballot measure to change the state constitution to impose an even more exorbitant tax on tobacco. Vote: NO! This state has been receiving millions of dollars from The Tobacco Industry, presumably to use in treating citizens who have health-problems due to tobacco-product usage. But this is the same argument used to justify this measure. The Tobacco Industry funds received have NOT been used for this purpose, yet this is the same argument used to justify this measure. This is the first time a Constitutional Amendment has been proposed to impose a tax on a product. With any luck, it will be the last time. This is Oregon, the state which has infamously rejected Petition signatures and then unilaterally redefined procedural objections to review the objections of the petition signers who can prove that their signatures were in fact legitimate. (Complex subject, see here for a more understandable explanation.)

The bottom line is that this Red State is ruled by a liberal Democrat Governor, who historically as ALWAYS used the Bureaucracy to undermine the expressed will of the people. He's turning this green haven into Kalifornia North. I won't vote for anything that appears on his ballot.

Local: County measure to add 5% to the property tax to pay for improvements in police and 'other' county Support Services. Vote: NO! It breaks my heart to vote against anything that might help SWMBO (a county employee) earn a decent living, but the County is as Red as the State.

"This is just another Peyton Place and we're all Harper Valley hypocrites!"

Other:
The Wonders of Amazon.com -- good deal on Miami Vice Seasons 1 & 2
Good deal on the Jack Reacher (author Lee Child) book that I've read but don't actually own -- Running Blind. (The link is for the audiobook - no current amazon listings for the hardcover, which I just bought and AM reading as soon as I sign off here!)

Got 'em both, I'm spending more time blogging than I am reading or Pastell-a-visioning.

Must -- Resist -- The -- Fisk -- of -- Death!~