About eight years ago, the same day that Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, my family and I moved from the Wallingford neighborhood of Seattle to Astoria — specifically to the Emerald Heights Apartments, past the Alderbrook neighborhood at the very eastern edge of the city. So many times was I asked why I moved to Astoria that I actually started a website with that domain (I’ve since taken the site down). [Read more]
Happy 5774!
The seagulls swooped in immediately to consume our breadcrumb sins, and just like that, we were cleansed! We had just completed the Tashlikh ceremony to conclude the first Rosh Hashanah morning and afternoon service on the North Coast in 50 years, after a wonderful evening service the night before.
How the World Can Be the Way It Is
I’m reading a book by this title, by Steve Hagen, published in 1995. The book has recently been revised and retitled Why the World Doesn’t Seem to Make Sense, published by Sentient Publications. Hagen is a Buddhist teacher with lots of credentials. Anyway, the book so far has been pretty repetitive, basically saying that Reality (with a capital R, the real thing) is different from what we think it is.
[Read more]
What’s Next for Nurses at CMH?
In an earlier post on the Edge’s Forum, I talked about the current labor negotiations between the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA), representing the nurses at Columbia Memorial Hospital (CMH), and the hospital management. The union negotiating team is currently busy preparing a counter-proposal to the hospital’s “final offer”.
[Read More]
What If We Mined It All?
Today I encountered three stories of the displacement of indigenous peoples and environmental destruction in the name of progress. The first was from a talk by Arundhati Roy given at Northwestern University on March 18 called Reimagining the World.
My Ballot Choices for May 21 Special Election
It’s really hard to believe that, here in the 21st century, we still vote by filling in dots on a piece of heavy paper. Remember to use a pen (blue or black ink only), and of course your vote won’t count if you either don’t fill in the oval completely, or G-d forbid, go outside the line!
The Fundamental Constant Root
Way back when I was in high school, while most students went out and played after lunch, I sat in a classroom and did math problems with the Math Team. Yes, geek I was, and still am. Even then, I was gearing up for a life in academia (I now work at Clatsop Community College). Here, for the first time, I am reprinting the beginnings of a major paper that could have gone on to shake the very foundations of mathematics, science and engineering.
Open Forum on the Edge
For the rabbi’s first blog entry on the Edge, we’ll go to the daily paper in the area, and respond to the Open Forum letters to the editor section. I hope to make this a regular feature of this blog, as well as muse about myriad other things that crowd my mind and need to get out. Hope you can join me for the ride…
Let’s Jump Off the Cliff!
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about this fiscal cliff thing since the election. The media has consistently told the story that the cliff would be devastating to the economy, without giving any details. What we really need, though, is a large reduction in defense spending, accompanied by a large increase in taxes, mostly sin taxes, with carbon taxes and tariffs on imports and exports joining in. [Read more]
My Ballot Choices
On this Hallow’s Eve 2012, we are only 6 days away from another scary event – Election Day! Here in Oregon, we have the luxury of mail-in voting, and though we got our ballots almost 2 weeks ago, I just opened mine yesterday, and don’t intend to send it in (actually, bring it in to the county offices) until the last minute, as I always do.
[Read More]