Portland Icons

List some PDX icons; businesses, people, habits, places, ideas that are uniquely Portland.
I start with Powells Books and Mt. Hood. Your suggestions?

Veni Vidi Vici

From Julius Ceasar in 47 B.C. commenting on a short war:
It means:
A) I came. I saw. I conquered
or
B) I came. I saw. I concurred?
G'pa the grump

Unconditional love

Relative to the Prodigal son story:
"Unconditional love is an illogcal notion, but such a great and powerful one". Source: The Year of Living Biblically, page 275 by A.J. Jacobs. Very good book.

John, the family Commie?

Family Goes to Old Town

New Years Eve day most of the family went to VooDoo doughnuts in Old Town (A PDX icon?). The Pearson kids were skiing and I didn't give Courtney enough notice. The line to VooDoo was halfway round the block so we had lunch at Dan & Louie's Oyster Bar. Laura and friend stayed in line at VooDoo and joined us later with doughnuts. We had a rousing and noisy time.
The first image about bail bonds is from Las Vegas; Where else?
I don't know how to get rid of the duplicate image of Dan & Louie's.
G'pa Le grump

I love this new song....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3f3qFHS8O4&feature=

Picture's from G'ma & G'pa's 50th Anniversary Party!

Thank you everyone for coming! I had such a great night talking with each one of you.

Will gets his Bear!

Will had the chance to recieve his Bear Award this last week for Scouts. Just a couple pictures!

Blog Updates

Hey, Everyone! Just wanted to let you all know that I updated the blogs design. I will try to post more often now that I have a new account. Does not seem like many are posting anymore...

Very good lecture from BYU proffessor Bradshaw

http://mormonstories.org/?p=1158

Time to Kill this blog?

No one posts except me - and rarely. No one responds.
Many of you have your own blogs.
I suggest we kill this blog.
Vote to kill or not to kill.
I vote to end this blog.
G'pa the grump

Great sentence; can't you just feel it?

"Mark Schrader motored up the Columbia River aboard his 64-foot steel sailing cutter, Ocean Watch, on Wednesday, soaking up scenery so relentlessly green and air so deliciously damp he knew he was nearly home".
Katy Muldoon, To sea to see in How we live secton of Oregonian on 11 June, 2010

And:

Mega congratulations to Amber on winning a $10K scholarship from Lipton Tea for designing a logo or graphic.
G'ma played a major role here by "e-recruiting" tons of "e-friends" to vote Amber into final competition. (Need a good PR prson?)

And:

Congratulations to Laura on graduating from Middle School where a couple of hundred screaming, ear splitting, shrieking pubescents celebrated a symbolic move from childhood to teen-hood.
Tomorrow she and I are off to NYC.
G'pa the Commie grump??

For Dad....and Andrea....a little humor

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-may-12-2010/back-in-black---glenn-beck-s-nazi-tourette-s

Immigration

Hooray for the Arizona immigration bill. Something needs to be done while the Feds dither in Washington, more concderned with re-election than with the business of the people.
G'pa the militant liberal

"Economist" newpaper on the U.S, Health care bill

There is of course a flurry of words being written now on the recently signed Obama Health cae bill. Read a lot and be skeptical. Here are some noteworthy comments from the "Economist":

"All this points to the only certain thing about Obamacare; this is just another episode in the long saga of health reform. Indeed by adding tens of millions of people to an unreformed and unsustainably expensive health system, this reform makes it all the more urgent to tackle the question of cost.
On that, at least, the left and right seem to agreee. Paul Krugman, an economics professor at Princeton and a liberal booster of reform wrote on the eve of the votes; "There is, as always, a tunnel at the end of the tunnel; we'll spend years if not decades fixing this thing". Robert Moffit of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank opposed to the effort, agrees, albiet in darker terms; This marks the begining of the next phase of this hundred years war".
"Economist", March 27th 2010, page 32

From the "Oregonian" Monday, March 29

Here are a two quotes I like:

"... Before Bush the younger, we leftists weren't that afraid of how stupid Republicans could get. Now we are very, very afraid of how stupid the Repulicans and tea partiers and militias might get."
From a letter to the Editor by Ron Brandstetter

"On Monday March 15, Moodys Investor Service-the bond rating agency-published a paper warning that the exploding U.S. government debt could cause a downgrade of Treasury Bonds. Just six days later the House of Representatives passed President Barack Obama's health care legislation costing $900 billion or so over a decade and worsening an already bleak budget outlook.
Should the United States someday suffer a budget crises, it will be hard not to conclude that Obama and his allies sowed the seeds because they ignored conspicious warnings."
Editorial column by Robert J. Samuelson

In my opinion, cost may be the reason to worry about the Obama health plan. The irrational, emotional right wing blather about socialism, unconstitutional, government takeover, "I worked for mine. Let the poor do likewise", deceit, and "feelings" against the legislation are just that; uniformed blather. Few if any of us likely know what we are talking about-yet. We need to read the bill (if possible) before we continue raving for or against.
G'pa the grump or socialist or commie or whatever..

Economist newspaper on Democrats

"Democrats believe some odd things too; a recent Pew poll found that they are roughly twice as likely as Republicans to believe in reincarnation, spiritual energy and astrology. But such beliefs have few political consequences. Democrats have not yet tried to spread the idea that voting Republican will ensure that you come back as a cockroach".
"Economist" page 38, March 13 2010

This Speaks To My Soul

This address by Apostle Jeffrey R Holland given at the October 2009 conference is so powerful!
It reminds me of King Benjamin's speech which I love so much.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUqNW_PTTp0

Vote Republican

"Vote Republican. That way you don't have to think."
Bumper sticker

Bunga

Obama

This one isn't a "rant". It does have a few "digs".
How about the 5.7 percent growth in national output for the last quarter? That is a roaring good number. Much of it could have been the result of the Obama economic stimulus package. Bet the right wing talking heads will dismiss it as a lie or...

How about Obama standing before the smug black robed Suprme Court in his State of the Union address and telling them how disappointed he is in thier ruling on corporate political contributions? Most sensible people disagree with them.

How about Obama meeting with the republican leaders for a speech and Q & A - in public? The "last guy" only spoke to carefully screened audiences.

I think Obama should scale down his health plan goals. The public isn't with him. The R's view it as if were a "Bolshevic Revolution". They are out to defeat him, the public good be damned. It is dangerously costly.

Good idea to keep the phone number of a reliable plumber, electrician, towing compnay, mechanic, garage door repairman and other help handy. We had a little plumbing problem this morning. We had business card for a good plumbr who showed up on time and did good work

Bunga or G'pere Le grump or whatever

Something un-political...entertaining....and thought provoking