I think a sign of Boris’ competence as the Scourge of Possums is my reflection, just now after hanging up the phone, that I really should add to speed dial the Multnomah County Animal Services’ Dead Animal Pickup number.  I think this is number 4 on the dog’s tally, possibly 5 if my suspicions about a recent victim of a Boris attack having crawled under the deck to conveniently expire.  Stupid fucking possums.

Unrelated, but speaking of critters, I doubt anyone can ever be an effective legislator if he becomes known as “Senator Men’s Room”. 

Further to the discussion of Congress, recently two events with such members have been held locally.  The first was Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, holding a “town hall” meeting, where he was apparently barracked by anti-war activists.  In the words of the Oregonian: “Although few senators can match U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden’s long record opposing the war in Iraq, it didn’t protect him from being thoroughly roasted Tuesday by angry anti-war activists at a town hall meeting in Portland.”  Choice quotes: “Do you have any idea how angry we are at the Democrats?” and “How do you sleep at night?”  All this because Wyden has not dropped everything to impeach the Chimpy McHitlerburtoncheney, nor has he immolated himself publicly in the Senate rotunda in order to halt funding for the Iraq war.

The second event starts Brian Baird, U.S. Representative from certain parts of Washington State, including bits just across the river from Portland.  Baird is another Democrat with an unblemished anti-Iraq-war voting record, but his own experience while visiting that country recently has caused him to publicly reverse course and support the surge.  For this he was mau-maued in a meeting yesterday with his constituents.  “We don’t care what your convictions are,” said [a constituent of Baird’s and resident] of  Vancouver. “You’re here to represent us.”  [Constituent] added, “You’re not representing us with this stance.”  Another said, “You’ve screwed up, my friend. You have screwed up, and you have to change course.”

Disagreement in the polity is vital for democracy, and the anti-war position is obviously valid and relevant to any discussion with our representatives.  However, the solipsism on display by these people is absolutist and detrimental to public discourse.  It also displays an utter ignorance of the principles of representative democracy.  The idea that one’s representative might not be in lock-step agreement with one, nor perhaps that others in the district are equally in disagreement, doesn’t enter into it with these folks.

My U.S. Representative and I do not agree on the Iraq war, but I would never shout at him any of the imprecations above.  Since my U.S. Representative is Earl Blumenauer and he once looked at me like he thought I was a car thief, I probably wouldn’t be having many conversations with him anyway, but still.

Hey ho, Chochachos, Mrs The Fyd has a new blog, here.  In other news, I am reading Peter Brown’s The Making of Late Antiquity and I wish I was that smart.

My headphones, Koss PortaPros, seem to be about to fail.  Recently they have been yielding more distortion than music, leaving me with the feeling that I will hear the beep of Sputnik at any moment.  Luckily I have spare headphones, and more luckily Koss will repair for free (with a small s/h charge) the product for its lifetime.  I’ve already sent them in a couple of times when I inadvertently yanked one or the other of the cords from the set (this model’s only real flaw).  So off they go.  Along with the s/h charges I’ve already paid, I’ve sent in for replacement earpiece pads several times, at an additional small cost.  I suppose over the years the accumulated funds I’ve paid almost equal the cost of the original purchase, but it’s well worth the price.

I recently changed my cell phone ringer to Ice Cube’s “Down For Whatever”.  It still shocks me when it starts playing, especially at work.  From their reactions I guess none of any overhearing co-workers have seen Office Space.

In other news Boris went out of his way to avoid a squirrel carcass recently encountered on a sidewalk.  Considering (a) it looked quite fresh, (b) he goes apeshit over live squirrels, and (c) he has set land-speed records for destroying stuffed AKC-approved squirrel toys bought from Target, then one must conclude that Boris is a wuss.  Only he continues to bravely defend the back yard from desperate possums, which did not disappear along with the undergrowth in the vacant lot next door, unfortunately.

Vinnie continues to experiment with the number of tennis balls he can fit in his mouth.

I am married to a wonderful person who saw a cat injured in the street  yesterday and, unlike the other drivers who were swerving around it to continue on their trips, stopped her car in traffic and picked up the cat and took it to the emergency pet clinic.  There to wait for two hours while no one updated her, nor did she hear anything when she left and only this morning did they finally tell her that the poor blighter was DOA.  One would think they would be more forthcoming to the one person that day on that street who didn’t want to leave a cat to die in pain on the road.  Isn’t that the behaviour animal care professionals would want to encourage?  Anyway, I am married to this Mrs The Fyd and lucky I am.

I am sympathetic to the plight of illegal immigrants. I have known several, worked with them, and been friends with a few. Workplace raids with mass arrests, like the Fresh Del Monte plant bust here in Portland last month, do not have a good flavor and I commiserate with the families.

That said, when you’re writing a newspaper report that is only a thinly disguised hit piece on the Bush administration, you would be better off not including any statistics that your readers who are not innumerate can use to obliterate your premise.

On the front page of the Oregonian June 15, 2007, issue, is a headline “Raid reflects feds’ new tack: Target workers”. The lead: “Federal agents are dramatically expanding the arrests of ordinary undocumented employees in workplace raids. That’s a significant departure from the practice of targetting illegal immigrants who have committed other crimes.”

The side bar gives a graph with these numbers:

Year     Criminal Arrests     Illegal-imigrant arrests
2002    25                        485
2003    72                        445
2004    160                      685
2005    176                      1,116
2006    718                      3,667
2007    613                      3,226

The bars representing illegal-immigrant arrests soar dramatically in the last two years, while those for criminal arrests seem to barely budge.  The text states that arrests for “alleged criminal violations . . . have increased . . . since 2003 . . . . But arrests of workers solely for being in the country illegally have ballooned”.  It quotes the mayor of another city subjected to similar raids: “This was an act of intimidation.”

I have my concerns about both the current situation and the late failed attempts at reform.  This kind of political hit piece won’t help things.  Did the editors or reporter not notice the simple fact that their numbers show each year that criminal arrests as a percentage of total illegal-immigrant arrests are:

2002 5%
2003 16%
2004 23%
2005 17%
2006 20%
2007 19%

Other than the first year, those are fairly stable percentages.  The thrust of the numbers is that criminal arrests are rising in ratio with all illegal-immigrant arrests.  There is no disproportionate targetting of undocumented workers, pace the article’s implications.  Obviously immigration enforcement is being ramped up.  Whether that is good or not is another topic altogether.

I have done what the Constitution requests but does not quite require of every American male.  Today I bought a pickup truck.  Below is a picture to contemplate while wondering how much of my future life wll be spent in auto parts stores.

I am posting this via the free wifi at the Sacramento airport.  I flew down for a few days visit with my father.  He lives across from the Crocker Art Museum, which I hadn’t visited in awhile, so we went in to see what Wayne Thiebaud paintings were on exhibit.  Very scrumptious.

On Sunday we went to San Francisco to see a Giants game.  They lost.  That evening we went as usual to City Lights and I won when it came to getting books.

Now I wait for the plane.  For the first time I have an “A” boarding pass with Southwest Airlines.  That is something to be proud of.

Yesterday afternoon I went out for a bike ride. I was in a quiet neighborhood when I came to a four-way stop. There was a car already to my right at the intersection, so I waited for him to move. For a few seconds I waited, then I noticed he had something to his lips that he was concentrating on. At first I thought it was a bottle, then I realized it was a bong. Just then he coughed out a cloud of smoke and raised an arm and waved me through ahead of him. So I biked past while the man took another bong hit.

This morning Mrs The Fyd and I went for massages. That is a far more respectable, and mostly legal, manner of indulging oneself. The only detracting factor: listening to the same Enya CD for an hour.

Mrs The Fyd has mad crochet skills.  If you had such ability, and you added to this profound concern for the comfort of cats, you could only hope to one day produce this:

Mrs The Fyd is oddly reluctant to publicise this ingenious accessory.  If you or a beloved has been searching for the perfect cardboard box cosy, you might be able to importune the maker at http://www.cozyyarns.com/.

Scene: Young woman slouching against car, her midriff pillowing above the cut of her low-cut pants.  Strapping young police officer standing in front of her, pencil to notebook.

Officer [automaton]: Tell me again why you threw your glass of water on your boyfriend?

Woman [sullen]: He told me to git off his porch.

As we pass I can see, beyond the mess of overgrown bushes in the front yard, a young man and a second police officer talking on the front porch.