Every time I begin to get just a little bit down about things in PDX......





.....I go up to Seattle and realise just HOW lucky I am.





First off......WELL DONE, BEAVERS!!!





Secondly, read a few interesting AP-Wire pieces in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (not a GREAT paper at all, but not horrible.....shit, unlike the tripe that comes out of The bOregonian, at lease they have a CHOICE up here) over brekker Saturday Morning at the Five Point Cafe (a place I hadn't been to in some number of years and really isn't the same at all since the smoking ban as now you really miss something in the atmosphere when you used to not be able to see across the bar through the thick, blue haze......still, though, Bukowski would hang out here)...



















...and I saw something I thought was a piece out of The Onion.....


WHAT do you call that, again???


I mean, Goddamm.....that to me sounds like getting the living hell shocked outta you!!! Nothing exciting about THAT!

And WHAT did the Oklahoma State Medical Examiner's Office call it again......"Excited Delirium" or something absolutely bizarre like that??????

No, getting abused by Pigs with a Taser is NOT what I'd call "Excited Delirium"!!!

I mean, after really good sex......or when I hit, like, $700 on a slot machine....or when I find a Geocache....or we win the pub quiz.......or some shit like that, THAT is "Excited Delirium"!!

Oh, and I don't know for certain if it's this way in the State of Oklahoma, but in Oregon, there have been conflict of interest questions in the results and findings of pig-induced Tasering deaths of civilians! Uhhhh.....it would appear that the Oregon State Medical Examiner's Office (who investigates Taser killings) receives most of its funding from the Oregon State Pig Department.......(Errrmmm.......WHY aren't these little facts publicised to a greater extent then they are now?).......



....interesting....



I'm NOT trying to excuse the irrational (and sometimes downright scary) behavior of some of these people who get Tasered, but Jesus, can you really keep the Taser on the list of "non-lethal alternatives"??

As an interesting sort of P.S./aside, Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union both have determined "Excited Delirium" to be a make-believe condition designed to protect the police departments and Taser International, Inc.



Second piece (another national AP-Wire piece) was a study on sexual statistics which was done in total privacy (to help ensure confidentially and thus, more accurate disclosure from study participants) that was really interesting. What kinda bothered me were two things - the first is the line in the second paragraff that states "...the federal government says it has authoritative statistics...."!

Is how many times people have sex something that we really want the Federal Government having "authoritative statistics" on? Don't they keep tabs on us enough already, what, with the Patriot Act an' shit??

Secondly, if you look carefully at breakdowns of certain types of behavior by gender or race, this reeeaaaalllly reflects negatively upon certain groups of people and also reinforces some really negative racial and gender based stereotypes.


Is this really a good side-effect all in the name of scientific research......?


Just wondering.......


-E-