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It's not that I am against mental health care in Oregon. I am against this particular method of funding it.

For those folks not in Oregon or not familiar with the history there was a state-wide measure last January that would have raised taxes state-wide to cover the costs of among other things mental health. This measure failed. Upon looking at how the vote went county by county, it was discovered that the measure passed in Multonomah county. The current measure asks only the people in Multnomah county if they want to support only the people in Multnomah county via a similar tax.

This is a state-wide problem and needs to be viewed and addressed state-wide.

Oregon is in crisis. Schools are falling apart. We are shortening school years and laying off teachers. We don't have enough police and other public services. There is a need for mental health care.

The economy here is horrible. Individual citizens are having to make due with less money and be personally more efficient with their spending. There is an attitude that government needs to do the same. We hear stories about how there is not enough money right along with stories about how money is wasted.

While the truth may be that Oregon is not wasting any money and desperately needs more cash to fund the services that people need, the public perception is that Oregon would have enough money if it spent it properly.

While the amount of money that will be dedicated to Klingon will probably be in proportion to the actual cost of the Klingon problem (minimal), the whole concept fuels the fire and the belief the Oregon collects enough money in the form of taxes and just needs to spend it better.

A: According to the bill's sponsor, the nature of state procurement rules makes open source procurement difficult. Because there is no sponsoring organization that will bid contracts for typical open source alternatives, agencies may be bound by law or regulation to ignore them. (1) changes that.

This is the key. And yet, when I listened to the arguments given in the General Committee, not one person mentioned this! NO ONE! They all talked about how great open source software is and how it works so much better than proprietary software, etc. Which doesn't address why we need this bill AT ALL!

Then I heard the paid lobbyists and watched them trounce all over the proponents. In an argument between geeks and paid lobbyists, I can tell you who is going to win every time.

Oh well. My rep supports it, but she represents what has to be one of the most liberal bodies of people in the country (inner SE Portland), so I guess that's not a surprise.

Oregon Department of Human Services salary info can be found here.

Oregon Department of Human Services salary info can be found here.

Given the opposing response, and knowing Oregon's tendancy try and go against the ignorant, I'd say this has a good chance of passing (even if it won't go through congress anywhere nearly as fast as the 70 MPH speed limit bill, which the Oregon House of Representatives passed today). This shouldn't stop Oregonians from contacting thier congresscritters about this matter.

Given the opposing response, and knowing Oregon's tendancy try and go against the ignorant, I'd say this has a good chance of passing (even if it won't go through congress anywhere nearly as fast as the 70 MPH speed limit bill, which the Oregon House of Representatives passed today). This shouldn't stop Oregonians from contacting thier congresscritters about this matter.

With states considering passing certain laws that would potentially allow for disruptive protesters to be jailed for a mandatory 25 years, events like this aren't entirely surprising.

The only surprising thing is how willing people are to overlook events like these. While they can say that they don't have the facts, they should really be worrying that they don't have any legal channels to obtain them.

Hopefully the majority's attitude will change sooner rather than later.

The Second Superpower has no teeth...well maybe very small teeth as this bit of legislation shows. Talking about a new anti-terrorism bill that would jail street-blocking protesters. From the article it identifies a terrorist as a person who "plans or participates in an act that is intended, by at least one of its participants, to disrupt" business, transportation, schools, government, or free assembly. Hmmm...disrupting free assembly? Wouldn't that make the person who proposed the bill and all those who vote for it terrorists?

Yup...

And Oregon has no sales tax. ;)

In some states, it is illegal to do this.

In some states you can not be held to a change in polisy unless you get a promotion. A promotion ,in Oregon, consists of a title change, increase of pay, and a increase in resposabilty.

It is likley that your state employment agency has these guidlines on line. such as boli for oregon.

Talk to a lawyer. Find out what your rights are.

If I ever found out I lost a job opportunity because of a credit report, I would sue.
Credit is not a indcator of a good employee. My credit rating suck, why? I was out of work for 3 months. almost everyday my boss thanks me for working here because I am pulling there product back from the brink of disaster.

I know men whose ex-wife screwed them over, should they not be able to work?

In Colorado, it does apply. Or at least the Attorny General thinks so, and probably in your state as well. Collect the name of the caller, the name of the business, the time and date of the call, and send it to your AG's office. One quick phone call from the AG to the company in question will usually stop the company from calling those on the DNC. If not, prosecution will occur if enough complaints are made.

I couldn't find anything for Colorado with a quick search, but this link has sued companies for violating thier DNC policies.

• How little we are aware of the true cost of things
• How easy it is to be conned into believing everything is OK

The cost of producing ethanol varies with the cost of the feedstock used and the scale of production. Approximately 85 percent of ethanol production capacity in the United States relies on corn feedstock. The cost of producing ethanol from corn is estimated to be about $1.10 per gallon. Although there is currently no commercial production of ethanol from cellulosic feedstocks such as agricultural wastes, grasses and wood, the estimated production cost using these feedstocks is $1.15 to $1.43 per gallon.

From Biomass Energy's Bottom Line

So it costs more to use ethanol than gasoline? Of course, you will find different numbers for different methods, you should compare with other possible fuels, you should not look just at cost but also at the overall energy balance, you should take into account whether it is renewable or not, you should see what might occur if large scale production and consumption were to be set up, you should compare combustion emissions, and so on.

Makes you want to scratch your head, don't it?

If you ever have to ride at night, in the rain, or carry stuff, expect to pay extra for lights (as required by law), full-length fenders (unless you like the "dragged through the mud" look), and luggage racks, possibly panniers or a trailer for larger loads. If you go the Boy Scout method and have lights, speedometer (bikes have to follow the same rules of the road including speed limits (I learned the hard way in downtown)), luggage rack, fenders, airhorn, and a rear-view mirror, expect to pay closer to $850.

Either way, you're right, bicycles are far more practical and far less expensive than a Segway.

If you bought a TV in 1970 for $400, you would likely spend another $400 in the next 4 years having it repaired. But then there was a revolution. Famous quality control expert W. Edwards Deming and others helped managers realize the importance of doing things right. Now airplane, computer, television, and drug makers, to give just a few examples, are extremely serious about quality and reliability.

The quality revolution has not yet come to the legal profession. Laws are still allowed to be sloppy. Often imperfect results are simply ignored.

The DMV laws are an example. The auto insurance law in Oregon is based on "belief" and is structured in such a way that you can lose your driver's license because of a clerical error. It doesn't seem to bother the law makers that "belief" cannot be reliably known, and the insurance companies sometimes make mistakes. Amazed? Skeptical? Have a look at Oregon law ORS 806.245 (b).

The laws define driving as a "privilege" in spite of the fact that driving is a necessary freedom for a large percentage of us. Calling driving a "privilege" supports a system in which insurance companies make more profit.

Oregon law ORS 25.750 suspends a person's driver's license for being behind in child support payments. But there are obvious problems with this. Not having a driver's license is likely to make someone, usually a man, less able to pay.

The child support law supports a common fraud: A woman convinces a man she is serious about having a relationship, when in fact she has no serious intent. Even though there is an understanding that they will not have a child, the woman deliberately becomes pregnant. The woman disconnects from the relationship, but gets paid by the man for her personal project of having a baby. The child support also supports the woman, who can quit her full-time job and get an easier part-time job to supplement the money from the man.

Your telephone always works. Electricity is always delivered. The reliability comes from investigating and correcting any problem. In contrast, there is little desire to clean up faulty laws. Lawyers don't want to disturb a system that pays them $100 to $350 an hour. Often laws are allowed to be so confusing that citizens can't understand them.

Part of the reason that laws lack quality control is that there are people who want to use the power of government to make money. If you lose your driver's license in Oregon for a reason not related to safety, once you get your license back you will have to pay about $3,000 extra to some auto insurance company, even though the risk is not greater. It is easy to construct a more perfect auto insurance law, but that would reduce the unearned profit of the insurance companies.

This scheme of using the laws to make unearned profit is used in other areas, also. In Oregon, if a car is towed because of being in a wrong parking place, the cost of the tow to the car owner is far greater the true cost. The extra money goes to the towing company.

Part of the problem of making laws is that lawmakers often don't realize that lawmaking is difficult. The author of this article has, at different times in his life, repaired the automatic flight control systems of aircraft, worked in a Physics research laboratory, and written complex computer programs. None of this is as difficult as making good laws. However, people with no experience recognize that they should not repair aircraft. In contrast, the only requirement to be elected a lawmaker is popularity, and that is considered sufficient preparation.

Why don't judges demand quality control in laws? One reason is that the legislature tells them they can't look before they decide. Oregon law ORS 183.400 (4) limits the power of the Judiciary: A DMV agency rule, for example, can only be examined to see if it (a) violates constitutional provisions, or (b) exceeds the statutory authority of the agency; or (c) Was adopted without compliance with applicable rule-making procedures.

That means that, if the DMV says that black is white, judges must pretend they don't notice. Why? Well, (a) there is nothing in the constitution that prevents someone from saying something that is obviously crazy. (b) As long as the rule is about cars or driving, it is within the authority of the DMV. (c) And, since the DMV mostly makes it own procedures, it is unlikely a rule won't be in compliance.

If you studied American government in high school, you learned that the U.S. Constitution establishes separation of powers. The executive, legislative, and judicial branches are not allowed to interfere with each other. In Oregon, there are numerous ways this sensible law is not observed.

For example, the DMV is an agency of the executive branch, but it is allowed to make rules that bind the citizen as surely as any law. The only way an agency rule differs from a law is that it is not called a law.

The DMV has its own judges called ALJs, Administrative Law Judges, who decide whether those rules have been observed. So, the DMV has departments that perform functions of all three branches of government.

The ultimate method of assuring there won't be close scrutiny of the application of law is used in Oregon: The Legislative branch doesn't give the Judicial branch enough money to operate. More than 40 people have told the author that the Courts are under-funded and under-staffed. Starving the judiciary is the surest means of preventing good judicial action.

Do you want to experience for yourself how laws are made in Oregon? The Oregon Department of Transportation is developing a system to charge by the mile for driving in Oregon, and you can participate at the February 14, 2003 meeting. ODOT plans to install GPS radio receivers in every car to track where each car goes.

GPS stands for Global Positioning System. The system uses satellite radio transmissions to show pilots or hikers their position, for example. The GPS would calculate how many miles you drove in Oregon, and you would pay when you bought gasoline. See the December 31, 2002 Associated Press article at StatesmanJournal.com: Oregon drivers may pay more: http://news.statesmanjournal.com/article.cfm?i=541 84

Also see the Oregon government's own web site: Road User Fee Task Force, http://www.odot.state.or.us/ruftf/documents.html.)

Lawmaking is made to look very official and respectable. But underneath, it often isn't. One of the Oregon government's web pages says that ODOT's work is based partly on the "results of research of consultants from Oregon State University and Portland State University". However, it takes someone who has a minimal understanding of GPS about 10 seconds to realize that the system they are considering won't work. The GPS system depends on receiving the GPS radio signals. Anyone who covered the GPS antenna with aluminum foil would show that they had driven zero miles in Oregon, and therefore would pay no tax.

Aside from the fact that it won't work, there are so many other problems with this idea that they cannot all be listed here. For example, a system that charges by the mile will make the road taxes for SUVs the same as the cost for fuel-efficient vehicles. At present, owners of SUVs pay more because they pay a tax on gasoline. Another problem is that tracking where each vehicle goes means that there will be no privacy.

See the DMV laws for yourself:

ORS 806.245 (b): http://www.leg.state.or.us/ors/806.html
ORS 25.750: http://www.leg.state.or.us/ors/025.html
ORS 183.400 (4): http://www.leg.state.or.us/ors/183.html

January 2, 2003, 9:56 AM, #1 (file lics001h.htm)

Michael Jennings
Futurepower
P.O. Box 14491
Portland, OR 97293-0491

503-233-7820

E-Mail: MJennings AT myrealbox DOT com

(Take out the spaces, change AT to @, and change DOT to a period to e-mail the author. The coded e-mail address helps discourage misuse of the address by computer robots that harvest email addresses for sale to those who send unwanted e-mail.)

If you bought a TV in 1970 for $400, you would likely spend another $400 in the next 4 years having it repaired. But then there was a revolution. Famous quality control expert W. Edwards Deming and others helped managers realize the importance of doing things right. Now airplane, computer, television, and drug makers, to give just a few examples, are extremely serious about quality and reliability.

The quality revolution has not yet come to the legal profession. Laws are still allowed to be sloppy. Often imperfect results are simply ignored.

The DMV laws are an example. The auto insurance law in Oregon is based on "belief" and is structured in such a way that you can lose your driver's license because of a clerical error. It doesn't seem to bother the law makers that "belief" cannot be reliably known, and the insurance companies sometimes make mistakes. Amazed? Skeptical? Have a look at Oregon law ORS 806.245 (b).

The laws define driving as a "privilege" in spite of the fact that driving is a necessary freedom for a large percentage of us. Calling driving a "privilege" supports a system in which insurance companies make more profit.

Oregon law ORS 25.750 suspends a person's driver's license for being behind in child support payments. But there are obvious problems with this. Not having a driver's license is likely to make someone, usually a man, less able to pay.

The child support law supports a common fraud: A woman convinces a man she is serious about having a relationship, when in fact she has no serious intent. Even though there is an understanding that they will not have a child, the woman deliberately becomes pregnant. The woman disconnects from the relationship, but gets paid by the man for her personal project of having a baby. The child support also supports the woman, who can quit her full-time job and get an easier part-time job to supplement the money from the man.

Your telephone always works. Electricity is always delivered. The reliability comes from investigating and correcting any problem. In contrast, there is little desire to clean up faulty laws. Lawyers don't want to disturb a system that pays them $100 to $350 an hour. Often laws are allowed to be so confusing that citizens can't understand them.

Part of the reason that laws lack quality control is that there are people who want to use the power of government to make money. If you lose your driver's license in Oregon for a reason not related to safety, once you get your license back you will have to pay about $3,000 extra to some auto insurance company, even though the risk is not greater. It is easy to construct a more perfect auto insurance law, but that would reduce the unearned profit of the insurance companies.

This scheme of using the laws to make unearned profit is used in other areas, also. In Oregon, if a car is towed because of being in a wrong parking place, the cost of the tow to the car owner is far greater the true cost. The extra money goes to the towing company.

Part of the problem of making laws is that lawmakers often don't realize that lawmaking is difficult. The author of this article has, at different times in his life, repaired the automatic flight control systems of aircraft, worked in a Physics research laboratory, and written complex computer programs. None of this is as difficult as making good laws. However, people with no experience recognize that they should not repair aircraft. In contrast, the only requirement to be elected a lawmaker is popularity, and that is considered sufficient preparation.

Why don't judges demand quality control in laws? One reason is that the legislature tells them they can't look before they decide. Oregon law ORS 183.400 (4) limits the power of the Judiciary: A DMV agency rule, for example, can only be examined to see if it (a) violates constitutional provisions, or (b) exceeds the statutory authority of the agency; or (c) Was adopted without compliance with applicable rule-making procedures.

That means that, if the DMV says that black is white, judges must pretend they don't notice. Why? Well, (a) there is nothing in the constitution that prevents someone from saying something that is obviously crazy. (b) As long as the rule is about cars or driving, it is within the authority of the DMV. (c) And, since the DMV mostly makes it own procedures, it is unlikely a rule won't be in compliance.

If you studied American government in high school, you learned that the U.S. Constitution establishes separation of powers. The executive, legislative, and judicial branches are not allowed to interfere with each other. In Oregon, there are numerous ways this sensible law is not observed.

For example, the DMV is an agency of the executive branch, but it is allowed to make rules that bind the citizen as surely as any law. The only way an agency rule differs from a law is that it is not called a law.

The DMV has its own judges called ALJs, Administrative Law Judges, who decide whether those rules have been observed. So, the DMV has departments that perform functions of all three branches of government.

The ultimate method of assuring there won't be close scrutiny of the application of law is used in Oregon: The Legislative branch doesn't give the Judicial branch enough money to operate. More than 40 people have told the author that the Courts are under-funded and under-staffed. Starving the judiciary is the surest means of preventing good judicial action.

Do you want to experience for yourself how laws are made in Oregon? The Oregon Department of Transportation is developing a system to charge by the mile for driving in Oregon, and you can participate at the February 14, 2003 meeting. ODOT plans to install GPS radio receivers in every car to track where each car goes.

GPS stands for Global Positioning System. The system uses satellite radio transmissions to show pilots or hikers their position, for example. The GPS would calculate how many miles you drove in Oregon, and you would pay when you bought gasoline. See the December 31, 2002 Associated Press article at StatesmanJournal.com: Oregon drivers may pay more: http://news.statesmanjournal.com/article.cfm?i=541 84

Also see the Oregon government's own web site: Road User Fee Task Force, http://www.odot.state.or.us/ruftf/documents.html.)

Lawmaking is made to look very official and respectable. But underneath, it often isn't. One of the Oregon government's web pages says that ODOT's work is based partly on the "results of research of consultants from Oregon State University and Portland State University". However, it takes someone who has a minimal understanding of GPS about 10 seconds to realize that the system they are considering won't work. The GPS system depends on receiving the GPS radio signals. Anyone who covered the GPS antenna with aluminum foil would show that they had driven zero miles in Oregon, and therefore would pay no tax.

Aside from the fact that it won't work, there are so many other problems with this idea that they cannot all be listed here. For example, a system that charges by the mile will make the road taxes for SUVs the same as the cost for fuel-efficient vehicles. At present, owners of SUVs pay more because they pay a tax on gasoline. Another problem is that tracking where each vehicle goes means that there will be no privacy.

See the DMV laws for yourself:

ORS 806.245 (b): http://www.leg.state.or.us/ors/806.html
ORS 25.750: http://www.leg.state.or.us/ors/025.html
ORS 183.400 (4): http://www.leg.state.or.us/ors/183.html

January 2, 2003, 9:56 AM, #1 (file lics001h.htm)

Michael Jennings
Futurepower
P.O. Box 14491
Portland, OR 97293-0491

503-233-7820

E-Mail: MJennings AT myrealbox DOT com

(Take out the spaces, change AT to @, and change DOT to a period to e-mail the author. The coded e-mail address helps discourage misuse of the address by computer robots that harvest email addresses for sale to those who send unwanted e-mail.)

If you bought a TV in 1970 for $400, you would likely spend another $400 in the next 4 years having it repaired. But then there was a revolution. Famous quality control expert W. Edwards Deming and others helped managers realize the importance of doing things right. Now airplane, computer, television, and drug makers, to give just a few examples, are extremely serious about quality and reliability.

The quality revolution has not yet come to the legal profession. Laws are still allowed to be sloppy. Often imperfect results are simply ignored.

The DMV laws are an example. The auto insurance law in Oregon is based on "belief" and is structured in such a way that you can lose your driver's license because of a clerical error. It doesn't seem to bother the law makers that "belief" cannot be reliably known, and the insurance companies sometimes make mistakes. Amazed? Skeptical? Have a look at Oregon law ORS 806.245 (b).

The laws define driving as a "privilege" in spite of the fact that driving is a necessary freedom for a large percentage of us. Calling driving a "privilege" supports a system in which insurance companies make more profit.

Oregon law ORS 25.750 suspends a person's driver's license for being behind in child support payments. But there are obvious problems with this. Not having a driver's license is likely to make someone, usually a man, less able to pay.

The child support law supports a common fraud: A woman convinces a man she is serious about having a relationship, when in fact she has no serious intent. Even though there is an understanding that they will not have a child, the woman deliberately becomes pregnant. The woman disconnects from the relationship, but gets paid by the man for her personal project of having a baby. The child support also supports the woman, who can quit her full-time job and get an easier part-time job to supplement the money from the man.

Your telephone always works. Electricity is always delivered. The reliability comes from investigating and correcting any problem. In contrast, there is little desire to clean up faulty laws. Lawyers don't want to disturb a system that pays them $100 to $350 an hour. Often laws are allowed to be so confusing that citizens can't understand them.

Part of the reason that laws lack quality control is that there are people who want to use the power of government to make money. If you lose your driver's license in Oregon for a reason not related to safety, once you get your license back you will have to pay about $3,000 extra to some auto insurance company, even though the risk is not greater. It is easy to construct a more perfect auto insurance law, but that would reduce the unearned profit of the insurance companies.

This scheme of using the laws to make unearned profit is used in other areas, also. In Oregon, if a car is towed because of being in a wrong parking place, the cost of the tow to the car owner is far greater the true cost. The extra money goes to the towing company.

Part of the problem of making laws is that lawmakers often don't realize that lawmaking is difficult. The author of this article has, at different times in his life, repaired the automatic flight control systems of aircraft, worked in a Physics research laboratory, and written complex computer programs. None of this is as difficult as making good laws. However, people with no experience recognize that they should not repair aircraft. In contrast, the only requirement to be elected a lawmaker is popularity, and that is considered sufficient preparation.

Why don't judges demand quality control in laws? One reason is that the legislature tells them they can't look before they decide. Oregon law ORS 183.400 (4) limits the power of the Judiciary: A DMV agency rule, for example, can only be examined to see if it (a) violates constitutional provisions, or (b) exceeds the statutory authority of the agency; or (c) Was adopted without compliance with applicable rule-making procedures.

That means that, if the DMV says that black is white, judges must pretend they don't notice. Why? Well, (a) there is nothing in the constitution that prevents someone from saying something that is obviously crazy. (b) As long as the rule is about cars or driving, it is within the authority of the DMV. (c) And, since the DMV mostly makes it own procedures, it is unlikely a rule won't be in compliance.

If you studied American government in high school, you learned that the U.S. Constitution establishes separation of powers. The executive, legislative, and judicial branches are not allowed to interfere with each other. In Oregon, there are numerous ways this sensible law is not observed.

For example, the DMV is an agency of the executive branch, but it is allowed to make rules that bind the citizen as surely as any law. The only way an agency rule differs from a law is that it is not called a law.

The DMV has its own judges called ALJs, Administrative Law Judges, who decide whether those rules have been observed. So, the DMV has departments that perform functions of all three branches of government.

The ultimate method of assuring there won't be close scrutiny of the application of law is used in Oregon: The Legislative branch doesn't give the Judicial branch enough money to operate. More than 40 people have told the author that the Courts are under-funded and under-staffed. Starving the judiciary is the surest means of preventing good judicial action.

Do you want to experience for yourself how laws are made in Oregon? The Oregon Department of Transportation is developing a system to charge by the mile for driving in Oregon, and you can participate at the February 14, 2003 meeting. ODOT plans to install GPS radio receivers in every car to track where each car goes.

GPS stands for Global Positioning System. The system uses satellite radio transmissions to show pilots or hikers their position, for example. The GPS would calculate how many miles you drove in Oregon, and you would pay when you bought gasoline. See the December 31, 2002 Associated Press article at StatesmanJournal.com: Oregon drivers may pay more: http://news.statesmanjournal.com/article.cfm?i=541 84

Also see the Oregon government's own web site: Road User Fee Task Force, http://www.odot.state.or.us/ruftf/documents.html.)

Lawmaking is made to look very official and respectable. But underneath, it often isn't. One of the Oregon government's web pages says that ODOT's work is based partly on the "results of research of consultants from Oregon State University and Portland State University". However, it takes someone who has a minimal understanding of GPS about 10 seconds to realize that the system they are considering won't work. The GPS system depends on receiving the GPS radio signals. Anyone who covered the GPS antenna with aluminum foil would show that they had driven zero miles in Oregon, and therefore would pay no tax.

Aside from the fact that it won't work, there are so many other problems with this idea that they cannot all be listed here. For example, a system that charges by the mile will make the road taxes for SUVs the same as the cost for fuel-efficient vehicles. At present, owners of SUVs pay more because they pay a tax on gasoline. Another problem is that tracking where each vehicle goes means that there will be no privacy.

See the DMV laws for yourself:

ORS 806.245 (b): http://www.leg.state.or.us/ors/806.html
ORS 25.750: http://www.leg.state.or.us/ors/025.html
ORS 183.400 (4): http://www.leg.state.or.us/ors/183.html

January 2, 2003, 9:56 AM, #1 (file lics001h.htm)

Michael Jennings
Futurepower
P.O. Box 14491
Portland, OR 97293-0491

503-233-7820

E-Mail: MJennings AT myrealbox DOT com

(Take out the spaces, change AT to @, and change DOT to a period to e-mail the author. The coded e-mail address helps discourage misuse of the address by computer robots that harvest email addresses for sale to those who send unwanted e-mail.)

If you bought a TV in 1970 for $400, you would likely spend another $400 in the next 4 years having it repaired. But then there was a revolution. Famous quality control expert W. Edwards Deming and others helped managers realize the importance of doing things right. Now airplane, computer, television, and drug makers, to give just a few examples, are extremely serious about quality and reliability.

The quality revolution has not yet come to the legal profession. Laws are still allowed to be sloppy. Often imperfect results are simply ignored.

The DMV laws are an example. The auto insurance law in Oregon is based on "belief" and is structured in such a way that you can lose your driver's license because of a clerical error. It doesn't seem to bother the law makers that "belief" cannot be reliably known, and the insurance companies sometimes make mistakes. Amazed? Skeptical? Have a look at Oregon law ORS 806.245 (b).

The laws define driving as a "privilege" in spite of the fact that driving is a necessary freedom for a large percentage of us. Calling driving a "privilege" supports a system in which insurance companies make more profit.

Oregon law ORS 25.750 suspends a person's driver's license for being behind in child support payments. But there are obvious problems with this. Not having a driver's license is likely to make someone, usually a man, less able to pay.

The child support law supports a common fraud: A woman convinces a man she is serious about having a relationship, when in fact she has no serious intent. Even though there is an understanding that they will not have a child, the woman deliberately becomes pregnant. The woman disconnects from the relationship, but gets paid by the man for her personal project of having a baby. The child support also supports the woman, who can quit her full-time job and get an easier part-time job to supplement the money from the man.

Your telephone always works. Electricity is always delivered. The reliability comes from investigating and correcting any problem. In contrast, there is little desire to clean up faulty laws. Lawyers don't want to disturb a system that pays them $100 to $350 an hour. Often laws are allowed to be so confusing that citizens can't understand them.

Part of the reason that laws lack quality control is that there are people who want to use the power of government to make money. If you lose your driver's license in Oregon for a reason not related to safety, once you get your license back you will have to pay about $3,000 extra to some auto insurance company, even though the risk is not greater. It is easy to construct a more perfect auto insurance law, but that would reduce the unearned profit of the insurance companies.

This scheme of using the laws to make unearned profit is used in other areas, also. In Oregon, if a car is towed because of being in a wrong parking place, the cost of the tow to the car owner is far greater the true cost. The extra money goes to the towing company.

Part of the problem of making laws is that lawmakers often don't realize that lawmaking is difficult. The author of this article has, at different times in his life, repaired the automatic flight control systems of aircraft, worked in a Physics research laboratory, and written complex computer programs. None of this is as difficult as making good laws. However, people with no experience recognize that they should not repair aircraft. In contrast, the only requirement to be elected a lawmaker is popularity, and that is considered sufficient preparation.

Why don't judges demand quality control in laws? One reason is that the legislature tells them they can't look before they decide. Oregon law ORS 183.400 (4) limits the power of the Judiciary: A DMV agency rule, for example, can only be examined to see if it (a) violates constitutional provisions, or (b) exceeds the statutory authority of the agency; or (c) Was adopted without compliance with applicable rule-making procedures.

That means that, if the DMV says that black is white, judges must pretend they don't notice. Why? Well, (a) there is nothing in the constitution that prevents someone from saying something that is obviously crazy. (b) As long as the rule is about cars or driving, it is within the authority of the DMV. (c) And, since the DMV mostly makes it own procedures, it is unlikely a rule won't be in compliance.

If you studied American government in high school, you learned that the U.S. Constitution establishes separation of powers. The executive, legislative, and judicial branches are not allowed to interfere with each other. In Oregon, there are numerous ways this sensible law is not observed.

For example, the DMV is an agency of the executive branch, but it is allowed to make rules that bind the citizen as surely as any law. The only way an agency rule differs from a law is that it is not called a law.

The DMV has its own judges called ALJs, Administrative Law Judges, who decide whether those rules have been observed. So, the DMV has departments that perform functions of all three branches of government.

The ultimate method of assuring there won't be close scrutiny of the application of law is used in Oregon: The Legislative branch doesn't give the Judicial branch enough money to operate. More than 40 people have told the author that the Courts are under-funded and under-staffed. Starving the judiciary is the surest means of preventing good judicial action.

Do you want to experience for yourself how laws are made in Oregon? The Oregon Department of Transportation is developing a system to charge by the mile for driving in Oregon, and you can participate at the February 14, 2003 meeting. ODOT plans to install GPS radio receivers in every car to track where each car goes.

GPS stands for Global Positioning System. The system uses satellite radio transmissions to show pilots or hikers their position, for example. The GPS would calculate how many miles you drove in Oregon, and you would pay when you bought gasoline. See the December 31, 2002 Associated Press article at StatesmanJournal.com: Oregon drivers may pay more: http://news.statesmanjournal.com/article.cfm?i=541 84

Also see the Oregon government's own web site: Road User Fee Task Force, http://www.odot.state.or.us/ruftf/documents.html.)

Lawmaking is made to look very official and respectable. But underneath, it often isn't. One of the Oregon government's web pages says that ODOT's work is based partly on the "results of research of consultants from Oregon State University and Portland State University". However, it takes someone who has a minimal understanding of GPS about 10 seconds to realize that the system they are considering won't work. The GPS system depends on receiving the GPS radio signals. Anyone who covered the GPS antenna with aluminum foil would show that they had driven zero miles in Oregon, and therefore would pay no tax.

Aside from the fact that it won't work, there are so many other problems with this idea that they cannot all be listed here. For example, a system that charges by the mile will make the road taxes for SUVs the same as the cost for fuel-efficient vehicles. At present, owners of SUVs pay more because they pay a tax on gasoline. Another problem is that tracking where each vehicle goes means that there will be no privacy.

See the DMV laws for yourself:

ORS 806.245 (b): http://www.leg.state.or.us/ors/806.html
ORS 25.750: http://www.leg.state.or.us/ors/025.html
ORS 183.400 (4): http://www.leg.state.or.us/ors/183.html

January 2, 2003, 9:56 AM, #1 (file lics001h.htm)

Michael Jennings
Futurepower
P.O. Box 14491
Portland, OR 97293-0491

503-233-7820

E-Mail: MJennings AT myrealbox DOT com

(Take out the spaces, change AT to @, and change DOT to a period to e-mail the author. The coded e-mail address helps discourage misuse of the address by computer robots that harvest email addresses for sale to those who send unwanted e-mail.)

Another pdf HERE that gives a high level use case of the process using a GPS.

Found a pdf on the Oregon Dept of Transportation web site dated July 2002 HERE . Provides a little insight into their thinking...

If you look at the OR DOT preliminary report the basic reason is that fuel tax revenue are declining. Why? Increased fuel efficiency of all things! They are particularly concerned about hybrids which you know get double mileage -- and so pay half the tax. You can imagine what horror electric vehicles would bring.

So I guess they are trying not to discriminate against older and larger cars, who would pay much more fuel tax than hybrid, esp. as they raised the tax rate to compensate. An alternative might be a direct ad valorum tax on each automobile, paid with registration -- that would cut against expensive and new cars, unfortunately discouraging trading up.

I am sympathetic with their need to maintain constant income, it's how they maintain the roads. As for their methods?

A bizarre side effect of a good thing, I'll say.

> While the age of consent in many states is 18, it isn't uniform for all 50 states. It's 16 for several states, and some have conditions, such as 17, but 14 if you're less than 5 years apart.

The site you mentioned (ageofconsent.com) didn't mention the 5 years apart bit, so I'll try and explain it. In some states it is an exception, in others it is a defense (NOT an exception).

In Oregon, ORS 163.345 says that if the only reason consent could not be obtained was because of age, then "it is a defense the actor was less than three years older than the victim at the time of the alleged offense." (Also note that this does not apply to rape in the first degree (ORS 163.375), where the victim is under 12.)

In states such as Oregon, statutory rape is statutory rape regardless of the age of the other actor (and both actors can be charged if they're both under the legal age of consent). What you're talking about is age as a defense. According to my criminal law teacher, this means that the burden of proof is on the defendant to prove the age difference.

Maryland's law surprised me (since everything is a crime in Maryland). While actually getting to the text is a challenge, you can try this. Anyway, article 27, section 463 defines second degree rape. Subsection three (3) says "a person is guilty of rape if the person engages in vaginal intercourse with another person who is under 14 years of age and the person performing the act is at least four years older than the victim." So, I guess, it *is* an exception in Maryland.

Hope that clears this up a little...

(disclaimer: IANAL. I took a criminal law class in high school... oh, and I was in mock trial)

Here's the O DMV site (scroll down to HB2133)

The longer part of the story is that Oregon relies heavily on the gas tax for its roads, and discussions of the impact on those fees as more vehicles go hybrid or electric (or propane, etc.) left some elected officials wondering where it's going to come from in a few years. Hencem the knee-jerk, short-sighted reaction.

Disclaimer - I live in Illinois and own a Honda Insight, and so I'm not directly affected by this change, but it's a peek at the chill tidings ahead. BTW, it's quite the "geek" car right off the lot! CVT (trans.) makes me dread when I have to drive a regular Auto or even a stick. It's a two-seater, but most of the time it's just me going to work and driving home, just like everyone else on the road. We've got the station wagon for driving my daughter around, so it was the logical "second car" for the house. (Sorry, got OT).

In 1997, the Navy disposed of its first reactor compartment from a "Los Angeles" class submarine. Until then, the submarine reactor compartments had all been about 33 feet high, 40 feet long and weighed about 1,130 tons. The Los Angeles class compartments are slightly longer and considerably heavier, at about 1,680 tons.

From the Oregon Office of Energy.

I don't know what kind of cop you were talking to, but you don't need a piece of paper to prove your identification. Stating your name and a way for them to check is just fine.

Either that, or your part of Oregon is different than my part of Oregon.

They CAN detain you, if they have probable cause, and hold you until they figure out who you are. That is NOT the same as an arrest, and you MUST be released in a certain amount of time, unless you give them good reason to not.

For those interested, the Oregon Revised Statutes are located here.

here is a link to what he's talking about.

It produces $60,000 a year worth of electricity

The actual Law is here
Its statute 164.377.

Oregon Supreme Court declined to hear my case, leaving standing the unfavorable decision of the Oregon Appeals Court as the final authority

I'm sure merlyn/Mr. Schwartz has allready discussed this with his council, but of course the supreme court can take the case and over-rule the state court, the plaintive cries of certain states rights activitists notwithstanding. That's not going to happen, which basically means we need a political solution.

Individuals in Oregon can contact their governor individually, although such petitions are, unfortunately, unlikely to work.

Some form of organised lobbying - from an oregon based trade organisation of engineers or programmers, mayhap? (I'm a biologist) - might successfully generate a pardon, or at least get the law struck from the books. Certainly, I think it's a legitimate avenue for such an association to act, since the oregon computer crime law (which I can't find under that title but which is somewhere here) obviously opens its membership up to wanton and unjustified prosecution.

Although Intel is likely to announce that it's a criminal trial and Intel cannot drop charges, we could bring pressure to bear on Intel. I only buy AMDs anyway, but a threatened slashdot-sponsored boycott, if everyone on slashdot is as convinced of his fundamental innocence as I am, might scare them a little.

More than likely the poor slob is screwed.

Oregon Supreme Court declined to hear my case, leaving standing the unfavorable decision of the Oregon Appeals Court as the final authority

I'm sure merlyn/Mr. Schwartz has allready discussed this with his council, but of course the supreme court can take the case and over-rule the state court, the plaintive cries of certain states rights activitists notwithstanding. That's not going to happen, which basically means we need a political solution.

Individuals in Oregon can contact their governor individually, although such petitions are, unfortunately, unlikely to work.

Some form of organised lobbying - from an oregon based trade organisation of engineers or programmers, mayhap? (I'm a biologist) - might successfully generate a pardon, or at least get the law struck from the books. Certainly, I think it's a legitimate avenue for such an association to act, since the oregon computer crime law (which I can't find under that title but which is somewhere here) obviously opens its membership up to wanton and unjustified prosecution.

Although Intel is likely to announce that it's a criminal trial and Intel cannot drop charges, we could bring pressure to bear on Intel. I only buy AMDs anyway, but a threatened slashdot-sponsored boycott, if everyone on slashdot is as convinced of his fundamental innocence as I am, might scare them a little.

More than likely the poor slob is screwed.

Orbital was working on the quickbird and earlybird satellites (the names got changed around as schedules, ahem, moved). At the same time I was also working on our tractor-trailer tracking system. I figured that if we could save a lot of money if just ditch our GPS/cellular tracking hardware and put giant bar codes on the trailers, and track them visually with the satellites. But, alas, we only had 1 meter resolution and even with a 53' trailer, there wasn't enough room for a suitable bar code. But, with this better resolution, my plan's now feasable!!

Fun fact: giant shipping companies lose one or two trailers a year each because they don't know where they left them.

p.s. patent pending. Ok, not really, but if anyone tries this, please let this post serve as evidence of prior art.

I know that libraries use a similar system for their online catalogs to locate volumes that may be in different branch libraries. I've seen the system also used between libraries that aren't necessarily afilliated (like interlibrary loan).

Some links to systems set up like this (there's others, these are just the ones I know about):
Longview Public Library is linked with the Lower Columbia College library
Oregon State University Valley Library; via Telnet
Oregon Union List of Serials

I went looking for a connection to NSI (which would definitely be a worst case scenario), and didn't find one (though their info is sparse on the topic of existing partnerships and affiliations) For those who are curious:

Per the SnapNames website:

Ron Wiener Co-Founder - Chairman & CEO
Raymond King Co-Founder - Executive Vice President & Director
(Click above names for photo and brief bio. See website link above for info on the other major execs)

Bill Lewis Chief Operating Officer
Len A. Bayles Vice President, Domain Name Industry Relations
Nelson Brady Vice President, Engineering
Jack Williamson, Jr. Chief Financial Officer
Roy Anderson, Jr. Vice President, Branding Industry Relations

More on Ron Weiner:
(from a speaker list at a plenary session on aviation in Oregon.

Ron Wiener has twelve years of experience as a founder and CEO of high-tech and aviation-tech start-up companies. Currently he is "Chief Mechanic" at Venture Mechanics, LLC (Portland), a venture catalyst/incubator investing in early-stage technology companies. Previously, he was the founder and CEO of PrintBid.com, which he successfully sold to ImageX.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: IMGX) in December, 1999. PrintBid.com is a B2B e-commerce site for the commercial printing industry and commands an 80% market share in its arena. Combined, ImageX.com now employs 500 people as the industry leader. Prior to founding PrintBid, Wiener was founder and CEO of Distribution Sciences Corp./JetStream Catalog(Hillsboro, OR), a leading software publisher and catalog/internet distributor of over 1,000 products to the aviation industry.

Before moving to Oregon in 1991, Wiener was founder, Chairman and Sr. VP of Marketing of Azure Technology (San Jose, CA), a venture-backed manufacturer of avionics and flight simulation products, and catalog publisher in the aviation industry. Earlier he had served in sales, marketing, product management and product development roles with Central Point Software (Symantec), ICOT (American Airlines' SABRE), Orchid Technology, Eagle Computer and The Computer Factory retail chain.

Wiener was founding president in 1992 of the Oregon Young Entrepreneurs Assoc. (merged with OEF), and author of over 150 published technical, business and aviation articles, and the book Computers and Software in General Aviation (1987). He studied Electrical Engineering/Computer Science at Carnegie-Mellon University, and serves on the Advisory Board of several other Internet companies. He has been an active pilot since 1985 and operates his B36TC Bonanza out of Hillsboro, OR.

Hello fellow slashdot users,

I found a great article with a bit of history on the Gutenberg Bible and a recent attempt to make a copy of the Cardinal Mazarin edition. It is amazing that out of an estimated 180 originals there are only 20 copies left in existence!

Enjoy...

-Shawn

"The whole world admits unhesitatingly, and there can be no doubt about this that Gutenberg's invention is the incomparably greatest event in the history of the world." -Mark Twain

You may be able to help the Greens this way in other states too; check your local Green party and/or your local election laws.

fearbush.com

You may be able to help the Greens this way in other states too; check your local Green party and/or your local election laws.

fearbush.com

Computer "trespass" laws have been on the books in other states for years--Oregon, for one (see ORS 164.377).

William Clinton President The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington, District of Columbia 20500 United States of America phone 1-202-456-1414 fax 1-202-456-2886 or 1-202-456-2461 (busy, keep trying) e-mail president@whitehouse.gov webpage http://www.whitehouse.gov/

House Majority Leader House of Representatives Washington, District of Columbia 20515 United States of America webpage http://www.house.gov/

House Minority Leader House of Representatives Washington, District of Columbia 20515 United States of America webpage http://www.house.gov/

Speaker, House of Representatives House of Representatives Washington, District of Columbia 20515 United States of America webpage http://www.house.gov/

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Governor Don Seigelman State Capitol, 600 Dexter Ave. Montgomery, Alabama 36130 United States of America phone 1-334-242-7100, fax 1-334-242-4541 webpage http://www.state.al.us/

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