Sam Goldsmith

Attention Email Subscribers!

2012-02-13T01:14:00.000-05:00

Two important message for all you lovely folk who subscribe via email:

1) I love you. I know this is a relationship with a lot of readers, but we can make it work.

2) Just a heads up: When you're reading everything in an email browser, you sometimes miss out on embedded gold, like my paragraph formatting (so far you've read almost 3 paragraphs) or the following video:

So if something feels like it's missing in the post, that's probably because it really is. You might have to actually visit the blog page itself to get the full experience.

But you're perfect. Don't change.

"Job Creators" Has A Subliminal Message

2012-02-11T00:45:00.001-05:00

Like a lot of people suspicious of trickle down economics, I have a real problem with the recently-made popular phrase tossed around by the right: "Job Creators" in reference to wealthy employers. Not the problem that many leftists rightly point out, that the wealthy aren't necessarily creating jobs and often do just the opposite, but instead the subliminal message it implies.

After all, there is a sliver of truth buried within the phrase's propaganda: a work/money trade, also known as a job, isn't possible without an entity with money to offer. The phrase "Job Creators" reminds us that the working classes don't hire, which is why concentrated wealth is necessary.

That overinflated emphasis on the working class's reliance on the wealthy elite is what bothers me most of all. It serves to diminish the importance of workers in our society, portraying them as marginal and dependent on the upper classes, who are in turn implied to be superior and essential. It's just true enough to appear as unbiased while concealing a dangerous undertone.

In the end, the expanded use of "Job Creators" is another example of the widespread and growing hatred of the poor within the country, especially as perpetrated by the far right. I'm sure there are plenty of other language games people are using to paint the lower classes in an irrelevant and selfish light and to subtly idolize the obscenely wealthy.

Will truth win out over perception? Can we think of the rich as job creators without forgetting the invaluable contributions of the working poor to our society? Not if the wealthy are "Job Creators" and the poor are the "Moocher Class."

Bullying Is Bad

2012-02-09T16:21:00.000-05:00

It's something we learn when we're children, running home in tears after being cornered by the big kids, jostled around, called names, threatened for our differences - either interpreted or blatant - jeered at, made to force back our tears. It is said that everyone had a bully growing up, and if you can't remember his name it was probably you (unless you're a weird loner kid like I was, who mildly participated on either side off and on). It feels horrible to be bullied, and the easiest reaction to succumb to is that of revenge.

We can see a prime example of grown men engaging in this juvenile behavior that, I'm becoming more and more convinced, is one of the most difficult habits to grow out of. First, we have popular sex advice columnist and LGBTQ activist Dan Savage, of whom I am an unashamed fan, who famously redefined Rick Santorum's last name as a disgusting reference to anal sex in 2003; luckily for the now current presidential candidate because of his inexplicable success in the Republican primary yesterday, that definition is no longer the first result when you enter his name into Google. Explaining why he did it (to Santorum and not other politicians who hurt the LGBTQ cause, such as Obama), Dan Savage says:

It was Santorum equating loving, committed same-sex relationships with dog f***ing and child rape... Santorum argued in favor of states being allowed to arrest, prosecute, and imprison Americans—gay and straight—for private, consensual, adult sexual conduct. Santorum cemented our enmity when he went on to compare gay relationships to incest and Islamic terrorism.

I can read the pain in Savage's words here, and I can't blame him, someone being bullied to such an extreme - even more than bullied: denied basic civil rights - just "for the way he loves." The same pain is evident in his recurring blog post theme "O They Will Know We Are Christians When..." where he vilifies the Christians who vilify homosexuals.

But along with the pain there is a toxic hatred, and the bullying has reversed course. Savage himself writes like an insecure bully, and his prank on Rick Santorum is comparable to cyber bullying. Now we have two bullies - Santorum and Savage - fighting their hateful battle on the national stage with rights and legislation on the line. Christians and Republicans who support the LGBTQ cause feel alienated by Savage's hate, and moderate right-wingers who want smaller government are alienated by Santorum's righteous hate. And as the nationwide bullying epidemic increases, the country bears witness to speeches like this one, riddled with groundless hatred:

And the result? Polarization. Is it any wonder a moderate president like Barack Obama could be ridiculed as a godless Socialist by Republicans and a right-wing Republican in disguise by progressives at the same time? There's no room for moderation in a battleground of intimidation and fear.

Of course it's not just Rick Santorum and Dan Savage who perpetrate bullying (remember this charming video from Rick Perry?). But it's a pertinent example because Savage often voices support for anti-bullying legislation to protect gay children in schools, while Santorum feels for some reason I can't quite fathom that Obama is doing all he can to destroy God in America, as the video above shows.

How can two people be so vehemently against bullying while being such bullies themselves? No self-respecting teacher would allow such behavior in the classroom, so why is it politics as usual?

This endless cycle of hurt and pained revenge doesn't have to continue. We don't have to put up with such bigotry, both on the right and the left. I don't want to live in a country where the side that bullies best gets the rights and protections of law. If we truly want a country where we coexist and work together for a better future, the America that belongs to everyone as I learned about in school, we cannot tolerate this blatant manipulation of bigotry and bully tactics to gain power and influence. There will always be repression and discrimination as long as the bigots and bullies, the very people the Constitution was written to protect us from, run our country.

But most importantly of all: Don't hate! Don't hate Republicans, Liberals, Muslims, homosexuals, fundamentalists, Jews, or even other hateful people. Don't respond to hatred with more hatred, or else you will have become the very thing you hated in the first place! And if that happens America will become a country of slaves to avarice, oppression, and injustice.

I would like to leave you all with a beautiful story read on the Moth by Ernesto Quiñonez about the dangers of bullying based on his experiences growing up in Spanish Harlem. Surviving from his own pained and hateful lashing out, he says:

Prejudice is so evil that it can creep up on you, and before you know it you yourself have become the bigot.

Please listen to it here. It's one of the best uses of 12 minutes I can think of.

Ben Mayer Goes To Portland Part II

2012-02-05T03:24:00.000-05:00

With Ben's final day in Portland we returned to the Columbia River Gorge, this time to Eagle Creek. This time I only had my 55-200mm lens, usually reserved for bird-watching. Not usually the best for landscape or waterfall photography, but I had to make do. But there were certainly perks. Snow on the ground being one of them, the incredible blueness of the river being another, along with its huge swelling flow, so big that the popular view of Punch Bowl Falls was completely covered by the fast-moving river. And as a final bonus I got to see easily missed Metlako Falls (as shown above) and sexy Loowit Falls.

Punch Bowl Falls as seen from above. I took this shot with the lens that no longer works. As you see, it does indeed generate photographs with recognizable content. However, the colors are duller and darker. I must fix it.

Impact! Eagle Creek hammers into a rock.

A side stream makes its way to Eagle Creek. This time of year, with all the snow melt, the canyon walls practically oozed streams like this one, complete with a host of seasonal cascades and waterfalls. Gorgeous!

A surfable rapid in Eagle Creek

The top of Lower Punch Bowl Falls, which boomed impressively... not the small falls I jumped off in the summer!

Sexy Loowit Falls has that seductive curve at the base. I'm not sure how tall the falls truly is - I've heard 60 and 100 feet... very different figures, but I'd err towards the 100 side - but it sure it elegant. Between the swirling pool and the voluptuous twist at the bottom... what a model!

This is the last photo I took with my broken 18-55mm.

Snow covered the hills as we walked by. It made a better picture in my mind than in reality. As was many pictures of the day with the lens I wasn't used to.

Eagle Creek

Loowit Falls as seen from later on the trail.

Loowit Falls meets up with Upper Punch Bowl Falls. They both fall into the same pool. Rats. I guess this means Loowit's already taken.

Metlako Falls is 100 feet tall and can only be seen downriver from a lookout ridge. This is the only view you get. But to get there you have to follow a trail that looks like it's leading you amiss - it's not marked until you get there for some reason. Anyway, here it tumbles into Eagle Creak, making its own cloud of mist above. We could see the cloud of mist for about a quarter of a mile before we reached the waterfall. Beautiful.

Ben Mayer Comes To Portland Part I

2012-02-03T17:09:00.000-05:00

My cousin Ben was in town for the last couple of weeks taking a class to become a wilderness first responder (congrats, cousin!). With the couple of days he had left before returning to Michigan we went on a couple of hikes, checking out the amazing unique beauty of the Columbia River Gorge. Luckily the first day was also Courtney's day off so we all got to spend the day together and see a number of waterfalls:

First stop was Multnomah Falls. Now way could Ben come all the way out here from Michigan and not see this.

Next was Horsetail Falls, which raged much stronger than last time I saw it.

Just above Horsetail Falls sits Ponytail Falls, also much stronger than I remember. I didn't dare venture near the stream this time.

The trail joined up with the Oneonta Gorge trail where we saw Middle Oneonta Falls. Lower Oneonta Falls is only accessible by stream wading because the Oneonta Gorge is so narrow, and Upper Oneonta Falls is only seen by a steep scramble off trail. I didn't think it was worth it, so we only saw the middle falls.

Finally we came to our destination: the 100-foot tall and aptly named Triple Falls. Below is the gang: Me, Courtney, Ben, and two of Ben's friends.

We had some extra time so we also did the short walk to Latourell Falls. These waterfalls are different beasts in winter flow.

A side stream falls towards Triple Falls

An experimental shot I took of Ponytail Falls, with 8 seconds exposed of a tree and 2.5 seconds exposed of the waterfall.

Multnomah Falls billows

The stream just above Triple Falls

The river just above Triple Falls

Multnomah Falls and the river flowing from it

A stream makes its way to Triple Falls

Seeing double at Triple Falls

Latourell Falls. Moments later I took a nasty fall and broke some of the plastic on my 18-55 mm lens and now it won't stay attached to the camera body. It was a terrible loss and hopefully won't be too expensive to fix.

Lincoln City Retreat

2012-02-02T15:06:00.001-05:00

While now isn't exactly the time of year one expects to spend a weekend on the beech, that's exactly what I did to say sayonara to January. I was just there for a full day, but I got to see the sun rise over the beech and an inland waterfall, as the weather was surprisingly pleasant along the Oregon coast.

Before I show pictures of Drift Creek Falls, I want to include directions for how to get there. There aren't very good directions online and sources are conflicting about what to do, as I discovered. Here's what you do:

- From Lincoln City, head east on S Schooner Creek Road. You can get there by turning east onto SE 48th pl. which turns into Schooner after about a mile.

- After a few miles, turn right (south) on S Anderson Creek Road.

- You should come to signs for Drift Creek Falls Trailhead in a couple of miles, telling you to turn inland (east) onto S Drift Creek Road. Take that road and follow it and the signs for 10 miles.

Okay, on to photos!

Drift Creek Falls stands at 80 feet tall, and the flow was so high that the small opening was barely enough to contain the falls. You can see the results of a recent avalanche due to a similarly roaring flow.

Dawn on the coast

Drift Creek Falls blows blue with power. Perhaps it was the mist in the air reflecting light, but it was still pretty cool. Down below, a couple of guys get as close to the falls. Later they went swimming in a nearby pool and one lost his wallet. Don't worry - he found it eventually.

Sandy beeches

I took this picture entirely by accident on the trail to Drift Creek Falls. I think my hand must have slipped and I took the shot by accident. Good thing my lens cap was off! It has a really cool watercolor feel to it.

A suspension bridge hangs about 240 feet above the ground, passing above the 80-foot falls. It results in some interesting views of the falls.

The river rages on.

The weather was so beautiful that on my first night I went down to the water and tried taking pictures of the stars. Stars! Stars I haven't seen since moving to Portland due to cloud cover, and yet here I could see the Milky Way. I figured I'd try some super long exposure shots that show how the earth moves and makes star swirls. This one was supposed to be for 20 minutes but camera ran out of batteries after 15, so this is the only one of its kind I managed.

Photos From Sunol

2012-01-17T15:03:00.002-05:00

Joel and Dad eating lunch at the watering hole downstream of Little Yosemite, Sunol, California.

We watched the sun rise just above the dry hills.

The river downstream of Little Yosemite. The water was low and still, so there were many reflections.

A cascade I like to call "Lower Little Yosemite Falls" in low flow. Waterfall reflections aren't common because usually they churn up the water around it. Not this time!

A cow on the edge of oblivion.

Joel surveys the landscape.

Joel and Dad eating at the watering hole.

Kaboom!

A section of the river in Little Yosemite Valley

The sun rises over us hikers.

The low flow made Little Yosemite Falls pathetically weak, but the pool (which people sometimes dive into in warmer weather) very clear and still.

The infamous blue rock.

Lower Little Yosemite Falls. The rocks just above the falls look a little like an eagle.

The entrance to Little Yosemite Valley

Another Kaboom!

The family

A little cascade tucked in between three boulders.

The old rock walls of Little Yosemite Valley were like the wrinkled face of a wise old man.

Joel and Dad eat lunch above the sky.

Burgess Falls The Painter - My Last Stop In Tennessee

2011-12-30T18:15:00.000-05:00

A part of photography is being in the right place at the right time. A much larger part of photography is making whatever time you've got the right time. It's well-known to photographers that the best time to take pictures of bodies of water is usually early in the morning, late at night, or on moderately cloudy days. Because water is reflective, taking pictures of it with the sun high in the air above it will result in overexposure of the water and underexposure of everything else, making high quality landscape photography nearly impossible.

Standard shot of Burgess Falls

I got my first view of Burgess Falls at about 11:15 on an almost cloudless day - basically the worst possible waterfall photography conditions. And yet I got a great photo shoot out of it. I'm very proud of myself, especially since I haven't been completely satisfied with how my shots have come out in the last couple of shoots. And now I am here to present you with the results. Enjoy!

Burgess Falls is 136 feet tall and is the third of three waterfalls in rapid succession in the Burgess River. Burgess Falls was fortunate enough to be in the shade, having carved out a magnificent amphitheater in the limestone, but the surroundings were too bright to photograph together with the shady falls, as the photo to the left demonstrates.

The flow was particularly high. Normally Burgess Falls looks like an El Capitan-shaped peninsula with a smooth green-water top and cascades trickling down either side. Not when I saw it. It was roaring gushed over the intricate rock shapes I expected to see and the resulting mist drenched me.

The water level I expected to see in Burgess Falls. I got this photo from the internet.

Despite Burgess Falls' power, it still possessed grace. The streaks of water looked like paint strokes and the shapes of the unique rock formations beneath the sheet of white water were still evident. I felt that Burgess was an artistic falls.

Burgess Falls Negative - Looks like a demon mask worn during carnival in Venice

I haven't done much stream-wading photography, so I gave it a shot a little above Burgess Falls. The river widened significantly and by the trail there was less than an inch of water, so there was no danger at all. I'm not crazy enough to do something dangerous in search of a good shot. I know I can get the good shots without the danger. All that happened here was the sole of my shoe getting a little wet.

Another stream wading shot

The limestone walls of the amphitheater that Burgess Falls has carved for itself. If you look close (or on the larger version by clicking on it), you can see tree roots poking through the stone walls, as if they had been separated from the bare trees below and were reaching out towards them.

Winter trees watch as a bush tries to withstand the violent pull of water just before the edge of 20-30 foot Upper Burgess Falls

An eddie forms at the base of Upper Burgess Falls in the caramel-tinted water.

Withstand!

At the base of Burgess Falls. The a pool of water reflects the waterfall, which looks more like an iceberg at this angle. To get to the base I had to traverse a column of mist. Thankfully it wasn't a cloudy day or else I would have never dried!

Middle Burgess Falls. Note the awful contrast because the sun was shining on the falls directly from my right.

Another standard shot of Burgess Falls, but because of the sun on the limestone walls both colors and contrast are not particularly good.

A small cascade makes its way to Burgess River to eventually jump over Burgess Falls. Another example of stream wading.

The water strokes of Burgess Falls combined with the light shining through trees above create all sorts of wild shapes. Some of them look like phantoms to me.

Another Burgess Falls Negative.

You can see the mist droplets on my camera lens in my second iceberg composition.

You can almost hear the roar of the falls.

The base of Upper Burgess Falls again. Doesn't it look like a root beer float?

A man lives in Burgess Falls! Can you see him? His face is in the upper middle-right of the shot. This photo, as does the one at the beginning of this post, once again hi-lights how the streaks of water look like bristles of a paintbrush, and with its paintbrush Burgess Falls creates textures.

Holidays in Tennessee: Photos Round II

2011-12-28T12:34:00.000-05:00

St. Nick the Electric Magician. After 3 seconds of exposure on the tripod, I shook the camera violently around for a couple more seconds to get this electric effect.

Dancing Christmas Lights. This is just me moving the camera around for the entirety of the 3 second exposure.

Dancing Hanukkah candles. This Jewish family celebrates both Hanukkah and Christmas.

Christmas tree lights reflected in the globe

The family plus a couple of friends by the Jewish Christmas tree

Parthenon replica near the Vanderbilt campus. It was very out of place.

Courtney (right) with her good friend Rebecca

Face off! Red Wings vs. Predators, my first-ever hockey game!

This is an example of why the Wings crushed the Preds so soundly

The lights protect Courtney. I held the camera still for a couple seconds, then moved it for a second to draw that trail with the ceiling lights.

Courtney's father and sister unaware of the impending lighting strike

Dancing Christmas star

Christmas tree star. This one's a 20-second exposure, but I zoomed in slowly after the first 10 seconds.

Christmas tree halos

Falls Creek Falls and Assorted Tennessee Photos

2011-12-24T20:14:00.001-05:00

At 256 feet, Falls Creek Falls is the tallest waterfall in the US east of the Mississippi River.

Library fountain in downtown Nashville

Forest shot with tungsten light setting

Forest shot with normal lighting

Rachel, Courtney's sister, looking out over the Cane Creek Cascades: a roaring, stinky waterfall

Looking out over Cane creek with the top of Rockhouse Falls on the right. Cane Creek Falls is out of frame on the left. Both waterfalls drop majestically and powerfully into the same pool, but they were too far apart to fit in the same shot without a wide-angle lens. Some day when it's not so rainy and cold I'll return and see both waterfalls from the base.

Library fountain

Misty Falls Creek Falls

The base of Falls Creek Falls, long exposure

Waterfall cradle

The 3 second exposure made Rachel cold so she put on a hood while she waited for me to take the pictures.

Library fountain

Peering in on Falls Creek Falls

Courtney's dad leading her mom by hand to the slippery base of Falls Creek Falls

Falls Creek Falls

Happy family: Me, Susan (Courtney's mom), Courtney, Rachel (her sister), and Anthony (her dad)

Not The Gays' Fault

2011-12-14T12:37:00.001-05:00

It turns out the "threat to marriage" is a quite nuanced. According to a recent report, new marriages have dropped by 5% - in other words, people aren't getting married in as large a number as they used to. Many people are now staying single, living with their partner without marrying, remaining widowed, or are separated. In fact, the number of married people in America is so low that it's almost not even a majority anymore. As Stephanie Coontz, a family life historian at Evergreen State College says:

"...we can no longer pretend that marriage is the central organizing principle of society. We have to take account of the many, many social networks and relationships that people cycle through, marriage being just one of them." (Source: NPR News)

(Source: NPR News via Pew Research Center)

So what is the cause of this decline? Why is it that people aren't lined up to be married like they used to? What exactly is threatening this o most sacred of sacred institutions? Surely our bigoted presidential candidates Rick Santorum, Rick Perry, Michelle Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, and Mitt Romney would say it has something to do with Don't Ask, Don't Tell being repealed. But surprisingly - by which I mean "to nobody's surprise" - the lower marriage rates have nothing to do with homosexuality.

One non-gay reason people aren't getting married is simply that times are changing. For example, folks younger than 30 (my age group!) are getting married only 20% of the time compared to fifty years ago when it was 60%. My parents got married when they were 22 - I'm 23 and plan to be unmarried for years to come. I've had many a conversation with young'uns my age who are in the same boat: having reached the age their parents were when they married, we get a little freaked out that we, at this unstable phase of our lives where we don't have careers or even firmed-up plans, could be settling down and starting families.

This brings me to the most non-gay factor of all for these low marriage rates: the economy. People of marriageable age are less likely get married because they aren't in a stable enough situation to start a family. Jobs are hard to find, and good jobs even harder, especially for those who don't have graduate degrees (which require more years to delay attaining a career). Speaking of the economy, here's some food for thought: there's a distinct "marriage gap" between the rich and the poor. Wealthy people are much more likely to get married than working class people without college degrees. The threat to marriage, as it turns out, is "yet another consequence of the nation's widening economic inequality" (NPR News).

Very not-gay.

Not long after many huge multi-national corporations including Google, Microsoft, Levi, Nike, and CBS told a federal court that DOMA (the Defense Of Marriage Act) is bad for business, we learn that unregulated business, the cause of our crappy economy, is actually bad for marriage. Now, I'm not very sentimental about marriage and I believe LGBTQ activists could have other objectives - such as bully prevention, obtaining hospital visitation rights, and securing equal opportunity employment. On the other hand, I'm sick of fundamentalists blaming the gays for the destruction of family values when every indicator points to other factors. If preserving marriage is really a priority for fundamentalists (which I don't believe it should, but what do I know?), then what they need to do is fix the economy and close the gap between the rich and the poor. That would be a much better method for protecting marriage than bigoted discrimination.

Not Just The Party Of No

2011-12-08T17:17:00.001-05:00

It's a common belief that, to solidify power over people, there needs to be a common enemy. After 9/11 that enemy became the loosely-defined "terrorists," but it hasn't always been that way. Naomi Klein persuasively argues in Shock Doctrine that neo-liberal economics - the theory that government regulation of any kind is harmful to the economy, a theory that has resulted in the economic ruin of developing nations in Latin America, Africa, and Asia - could not have succeeded without outside threats. One example she cites is former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's breaking of labor unions and abolishing rent controls, something she believed at the beginning of her term to be impossible in a democracy. But once she added a perceived threat, in this case war in a British territory, democratic process was put on hold, and amid the confusion of British citizens was able to enact her radical and harmful economic policies.

This long held tradition of "othering" in order to gain power would, of course, not cease in the 21st century. And here we turn to the current Republican party and one of the most offensive campaign ads I've ever seen (and I've seen this one):

The Republican Party is no longer simply the party of no, doing everything it can to make the Democrats look incompetent and then blame them for not accomplishing anything - a formidable strategy. We saw them after 9/11 become the party of fear, taking away our 4th amendment rights in the name of national security, spying on us, and throwing us into indefinite wars with irrelevant nations despite warnings from the international community and the UN. Basically, 9/11 allowed the government to circumvent the law momentarily.

Well, the momentary chaos is over and fear mongering, while still effective, isn't working quite like it used to. "Othering" terrorists, Middle Easterners, and Muslims isn't enough anymore. So they have turned to Americans themselves, completing the transition into a full-fledged Party of Hate. In Rick Perry's ad, which hardly stands alone, the target of their hate is homosexuality. A staple for religious fundamentalists, denying rights to homosexuals has long been on the conservative agenda. Now, many gay rights activists wonder why conservatives would focus so intently on the sin of homosexuality while ignoring other strange biblical decrees given the same emphasis in the text, such as stoning adulterers or not wearing clothing made from more than one material. Others wonder why the party of "family values" is riddled with sex scandals (in both the straight and gay varieties). So who are these people to deny gay rights? They're hateful breeders of hate, plain and simple. If we hate gay people enough, people like Rick Perry reason, then there's a chance we might forget reason and actually vote for people like Rick Perry.

And thanks to all that hatred, another gay teenager has committed suicide because of bullying. The hate-mongering is working, folks.

The other major target of Republican hatred (besides Democrats, Socialists, Liberals, Immigrants, and Communists) is, as I've said many times, the poor. And, by extension, Occupy Wall Street.

So say "so long" to the party of "no" and the party of "fear." Now we can expect a reign of hatred and intolerance should one of the Republican candidates take the White House next year. Happy holidays.

Silver Falls State Park Photos

2011-11-21T21:54:00.001-05:00

South Falls Lodge

Yesterday I found myself in Silver Falls State Park, a park famous for its "Trail of Ten Falls," a special 7-mile loop trail that passes by 10 major waterfalls as well as a number of side-streams. By taking a short cut I got to see just about all of them in the eerily misty day that followed a night of light snow, and I saw 8 of the 10 majors falls as well as walking over the barely-mentioned Frenchie Falls and another unnamed seasonal waterfall. Here is a small sample of the photos I took quickly during the hike.

First stop: South Falls, a 177-foot graceful beauty and one of the most photogenic waterfalls I've ever seen.


We got there just at the time of morning that the sun			started to shine through the mist and hit the falls.

South Falls "negative" - Into The Abyss

Enchanted forest sunlit through the mist

Looking down on South Silver Creek

Walking behind Lower South Falls

Lower South Falls

An unnamed waterfall

Lower North Falls. The logs are much more impressive in person. The falls is 30 feet tall.

Drake falls. At 27-feet tall, this waterfall is terribly unphotogenic

Double Falls is the tallest waterfall in the park. At 178 feet, it's a foot taller than South Falls.

Middle North Falls

Winter Falls

Some of the few remaining autumn leaves in front of Winter Falls

Enchanted forest

Enchanted Forest

Guardian Tree

North Falls, a very powerful 136-foot drop. Also a great deal colder than the South Falls area.

Peering at a misty North Falls. It looks peaceful here, but it's a huge falls and roars a huge roar.

Photos From 11/11/11 Hike and the 11/10 Bike Trip

2011-11-12T21:40:00.001-05:00

Upper McCord Creek Falls. This was the final destination on the Veteran's Day 11/11/11 hike. It's a 2-tiered 55-footer that feeds the 215-foot tall Elowah Falls, which I only saw from above on this hike.

Elowah Falls from above

View of the Columbia River from the trail

Close up on Upper McCord Creek Falls


I snuck down a dried-up river bed to the base of the waterfall to get	some of the shots like this.

McCord Creek above the falls

Upper McCord Creek Falls "negative." Looks kind of like the droid general from Star Wars Episode III

Green grows behind the waterfall

Upper McCord Creek Falls

On November 10, I took my bike out to look at Mount Hood. The mountain was too far away for good pictures, but the fall colors were out and I got some good "watercolor" photos. I call this one "Spirit of Autumn."

"Bonfire"

"Ancient Paper"

"Forest Fire"

Earthquakes Happen In Turkey

2011-11-10T16:04:00.001-05:00

You probably heard about the giant 7.2 magnitude quake that hit the eastern Turkish city of Van a couple weeks ago, killing roughly 600 people. Well, there was an encore yesterday, a 5.7 magnitude earthquake knocked over 25 buildings, killed a least 8, and wounded at least 20. One of the buildings, the popular Bayram Hotel, was "at least 40 years old, and had been renovated last year." To make matters worse, there were violent clashes between police and protesters upset at the lack of the government's earthquake preparedness.

In Berkeley, where I've lived most of my life, all buildings are under strict code for earthquake preparation; buildings are designed to withstand a sizable amount of disturbance in the event of a quake. It would be illegal for a building not to meet earthquake standards, especially if it had been recently renovated. Turkey's buildings are not up to code, not from what I saw while living in Istanbul. In my neighborhood of Bahçeşehir there was a big surge in construction of rectangular, cinder block apartment complexes - mine, built 2 years ago, was 12 stories high. In the event of an earthquake like that in Van, Bahçeşehir would crumble.

The good news is that Turkish authorities are working on new disaster measures. The bad news is that those measures probably won't have anything to do with bringing buildings up to code, instead focusing on "evacuating settlements in areas of high risk and offering residents new homes built by state-run construction company TOKİ [the company that built the apartment complex I lived in] through long-term payment schedules." In other words, Turkey isn't going to try and build better earthquake-safe buildings and minimize the damage done. It's just going to improve efficiency for the clean-up.

It is clear that earthquakes happen in Turkey. There have been three quakes larger than 4.7 in Turkey since October 23rd when the huge 7.2 quake hit and 1,400 "smaller tremors." To prevent deaths and injuries caused by earthquakes, Turkey needs to construct smarter buildings in addition to having an efficient evacuation plan.

Done With Chase

2011-11-08T15:17:00.001-05:00

Now I hold in my hand all the money in my name, in the form of a check from Chase Bank. This morning I closed my final account with Chase, and until this afternoon when I open a new account with local Portland credit union Advantis, my life's savings are tucked in the back of my wallet.

It reminds me of living in Turkey, where I kept all my money in cash in an envelope in the top drawer of my nightstand. I could count out a few thousand Turkish lira and know exactly how much money I had saved throughout the year. I paid rent in cash, bought groceries in cash, bought plane tickets in cash, and didn't use a credit card almost at all. This cash-based everyday life actually made it much easier to plan a budget because I could hold in my hand the exact amount of money I had left, so I could see it either grow during moments of frugality (and salary) and shrink during splurges (travel during holidays). I could see and feel it.

It's both terrifying to know that if I was to be mugged at this particular instant I would have nothing left. Or, more likely, if I were to misplace it. But it's also very empowering. I know exactly where my money is. It's so close I can feel it, the stuff that's going to keep me fed, clothed, and warm. And in this moment I find it strange that so many people don't know exactly where their money is. We know it's in a bank, but we don't really know what the bank does with it, our money specifically. It's much more comforting knowing exactly where my money is and how much is there. Much more real than a bunch of numbers in an ATM.

Move your money; keep it local.

In Fond Memory Of Simon Benson

2011-11-03T20:29:00.001-04:00

The poor keep getting poorer, yet poverty still isn't a political issue except to Republicans who want to raise taxes on the least wealthy.

That famous bridge is called the "Benson Bridge"

Today I've been thinking a lot about philanthropist Simon Benson, and not just because I'm a waterfall lover. Benson is most famous today for having donated Multnomah Falls, Wahkeenah Falls, and the surrounding area to the Oregon government which, along with donations from other wealthy landowners, allowed the government to not only build Historic Highway 30 but make it an incredibly scenic drive, passing by Crown Point and seven waterfalls. He's also famous in Portland for the copper drinking fountains he erected around the downtown area so that everyone in the city could have water. He died in 1942. He was over 90.

In contrast: a couple days ago I came upon a 2005 memo from Citigroup detailing how the wealthy should approach the current political/economic world. The memo defined the US as a "plutonomy," which is characterized by a large and ever-expanding gap between the rich and the poor:

In a plutonomy there is no such animal as “the U.S. consumer” or “the UK
consumer”, or indeed the “Russian consumer”. There are rich consumers, few in
number, but disproportionate in the gigantic slice of income and consumption they take.
There are the rest, the “non-rich”, the multitudinous many, but only accounting for
surprisingly small bites of the national pie.

The rich, according to the memo, have no need for anyone who isn't rich. As the memo later goes on to point out, the wealthiest 1% accounted for almost the same household income as the poorest 60% in 2000; therefore there is no need for the wealthy to appeal to the "average American consumer" (largely regarding the consumption of stocks in this case, referred to as "toys for the wealthy having pricing power, and staying power"). The rich can simply stick to themselves and get richer together. But this doesn't mean the poor and middle class can simply create wealth among themselves:

In plutonomies the rich absorb a disproportionate chunk of the economy and have
a massive impact on reported aggregate numbers like savings rates, current
account deficits, consumption levels, etc. This imbalance in inequality
expresses itself in the standard scary “ global imbalances”. We worry less.

In other words, the rich get more than they're due, implying that the poor and middle class get less. In the memo's words, "At the heart of plutonomy, is income inequality. Societies that are willing to
tolerate/endorse income inequality, are willing to tolerate/endorse plutonomy." And where do the rich get their "disproportionate" funds?

Oh, but exploiting the lower classes isn't all that's on the mind of the wealthy. The not-wealthy represent the threat of backlash against this status quo because "Low-end developed market labor might not have much economic power, but it does have equal voting power with the rich." In other words, the major threat to the rich maintaining its hold on disproportionate resources is democracy, people exercising their political rights. Indeed, one thing the memo cites as feeding plutonomic culture is "capitalist friendly governments and tax regimes." The government supports the wealthy getting richer. Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine makes a similar point, that the neoliberal free-market economic reform the US saw first in the 1980's was not suited for democracies and only ruthless dictators (like Agusto Pinochet in Chile) would dare to enact economic reform so devastating to the population. In order to implement these reforms in a democracy, the democratic society needed to receive a "shock" that would cause the normal rules of democracy not to apply (Hurricane Katrina, for example, resulted in the near complete dismantling of New Orleans' public school system). in the 2005 Citigroup memo we see another example of how the disproportionately wealthy's biggest obstacle to attaining even more wealth is democracy.

Tellingly, the memo reads, "How do we make money from this [plutonomy] theme?" immediately after stating that "we have no view on whether plutonomies are good or bad, our analysis here is based on the facts, not what we want society to look like."And that's all that matters to these wealthy completely free-market capitalists, isn't it? It is barely thinkable to use this new perspective on the terrible imbalance in wealth to combat the evils of corporate greed. By concerning themselves solely with profiteering off plutonomy the authors of this memo are clearly expressing their "view on whether plutonomies are good or bad." Greed is good. It's more important to use our wealth to acquire more wealth than to benefit those less fortunate. It makes me sick.

There were between 30 and 50 of us protesting

Today the CEO of JP Morgan Chase (which will cease to be my bank in 2 days!) was giving a business talk here in Portland. Needless to say, Occupy Portland was there, and I hung out and shouted slogans with them for an hour or so. This time I wasn't playing journalist so I got to take some pictures. And while I was protesting there in Portland, former home of Simon Benson, I wondered, not for the first time, what someone like him, a self-made immigrant logger, would think of this protest. As part of the wealthy, would he identify with the 1%? Would he keep Multnomah Falls to himself, use the money that could have built the water fountains instead to buy profitable equities? Maybe if he were born in this culture of greed you'd see protesters carted away at the foot of the waterfall. I can't say for certain why Benson was so invested in the community, and I certainly can't say that all the wealthy in the world are money-grubbing exploitation artists. But for the large number that are, like the high-ups at Chase and Citigroup, there need to be serious regulations.

The police were ready across the street. Everyone knew there were quite a few (some said 12, some said 30) riot police around the corner in the even of violence. Nothing got out of hand, though, and these horses and a few bike-riding officers were all that were needed.

There were lots of news reporters as well as police. I felt that the event got much more attention than it deserved from each party (I'm pretty sure I got on TV). We weren't even protesting very well. We couldn't coordinate our cheers so every time we tried to make noise it died out after a few seconds. I liked this woman, though. Her sign says "Move Your Money," and she would say so to people who walked by on the sidewalk.

The woman from the picture at the top of the post being interviewed.

What Occupy Wall Street Protesters Want

2011-11-03T00:16:00.002-04:00

I've heard some complaints about the Occupy Wall Street movement, mostly that their demands aren't clear or that they aren't proposing any solutions. One person said that if the protesters really wanted to make a change they should vote for a political candidate who agrees with their positions - and then proposed that the Tea Party is the ideal party for your average Wall Street protester (I can't even read that whole article it's so wrong). Others say that the movement isn't diverse, and others still say that many of the campers are actually homeless who don't care about the cause and are only there for the free food and shelter.

All claims leveled by people who haven't made much of an effort to actually talk to the protesters, campers, and casual supporters of the movement, such as myself. At least, that's how I understood these claims that teeter between uninformed and offensive. On the other hand, I myself haven't spent much time in the camps at Occupy Portland; I went to the global day of protest and I've passed through the occupied park a handful of times, usually leaving after a half hour when nothing happened. So today, in order to stay honest with my beliefs, I went to Occupy Portland with the intention of talking to people from all sorts of different walks of life, and I tried to get a better understanding of how people deeply involved in the movement would answer the criticisms raised against them, especially in the wake of the increasing tension between protesters and the police. It turned out, surprise surprise, that the protesters were eager to share their thoughts and engage in meaningful discussion.

I will not be using anyone's name in this post.

First I talked to an Iranian immigrant who said the movement reminded him of the sixties. He didn't camp in the park, but he said he visited the occupation often and hoped that the movement continued. He had a camera around his neck and took pictures of the signs, like a good number of "Occupy Tourists" (like me!) walking through the park. He said that America is a different country because here the rich only get richer and the poor only get poorer, and that's why he supported the movement. He said it's a shame that nowadays people graduate college to find no jobs waiting for them.

Second I talked to a pair of Portland city workers from the Health and Human Services department. A white man and a black woman, they wore plain clothes and no badges identifying their job, which was to check the park for potential health hazards. When I asked if they'd found it healthy, they said, "It could be worse." Considering how many people have lived here for as long as they have, it could be much worse. I remembered all the people sneezing and coughing as I'd entered the camp - the cold of winter has arrived with November here in Portland. They said they talk to the protesters about cleaning up trash or washing dishes or taking days off from working in the kitchen when they're sick and so on. I asked if protesters would cooperate with the requests to which they responded that the city and the protesters have gotten along very well. They didn't spell out their opinions on the movement, but they seemed comfortable enough walking through the campsite, giving me the impression that they sympathized with the protesters as people even if their thoughts on the politics of it were more complicated.

Then I had a very brief conversation with a middle-aged man dressed in a business suit walking through the area. I asked him what he thought of it all, to which he said, "It's crazy," and walked off. He definitely gave the impression he didn't want to talk to me at all, and who could blame him? I was walking with my beat-up bike wearing pants with chain grease on them and a three-and-a-half-day-old beard. I'm sure I looked just like one of "them." It's too bad, even if it was expected. I can't say I learned much from him.

If I didn't take much away from my conversation with the business man, the next person I talked to did: a young white man who had been occupying Portland for well over a month, who would prove to be my longest conversation partner of the day. When I told him about my run-in with the business man he said his curtness was because he was afraid of the truth of Occupy's message. He said that we all learn as kids that greed and war is bad (his sign read "$5 trillion spent on war" with the "war" in blood red, as he made sure to point out) and people who are confronted with that guilty truth again as adults feel the need to get defensive. This got at the core of what Occupy Wall Street meant for this young man: this movement is delivering the truth. The goal of Occupy Wall Street is "outreach" - "education," in another word. When I asked him what he thought the movement aimed to do he answered it was to "educate everyone" about corporate greed. He deeply believes that if everyone in the bottom 99% economically in America was educated in this way then real change could occur, and Occupy Portland's role was to facilitate this educational outreach. How do we outreach? By protesting and letting the world know we're "pissed off." When I told him the suggestion I'd heard to vote for a proper candidate who supports the movement's views, he laughed. He said that people just go back and forth between Democrat and Republican because we're always fed up with whoever's in power. Many people in the Occupy movement, he says, don't vote at all because they see there's no point. Talking about third party candidates brought us to campaign finance laws and how they're structured to prevent anyone from attaining power without help from major corporations, so the Occupy movement will never have their desired candidate. I said that perhaps the movement is strong enough to produce its own candidates at the local level, which he felt was an optimistic view of what the movement could accomplish. We haven't reached enough people with the proper education to reach that stage yet.

When I asked him what he thought of the people who don't understand Occupy Wall Street's demands, he said, "That's bullshit! We have tons of demands!" Talking to him I could understand how a person could be confused. "Tons of demands" does not equal "ease of understanding said demands."

He had protested at Occupy Seattle, so I got an opportunity to hear how Occupy Portland is different from other movements. It seems that Portland's is much bigger as well as more representative of the community. This is partly because the community is deeply involved with Occupy Portland. While I was talking with the young man a restaurant down the street donated lunch; the young man got the last veggie sandwich and ate the pasta salad side off a pocket knife. In fact, later in the day a barbecue caterer donated ribs for lunch. The young man took justifiable pride in the donations that poured in. He said that people donate lunch every day - he works for Food Not Bombs and makes a lot of the food himself. He feels very at home in the community built by Occupy Portland. He said something very powerful about it, which I wish I knew word for word but instead have to paraphrase: it's very easy to be angry but do nothing, but at Occupy Portland it's easy to be angry and do something. Everyone takes care of each other there and together they facilitate an environment of civil action. Compared to isolated frustration, this community could turn anger into change and, ultimately, power. I asked if he thought people might leave when the weather gets too cold and rainy. He said no, but even if they were forced out by weather or law enforcement they'd be back again in the spring. I asked him what he thought about the snowstorm in New York and its effects on the protesters, but he hadn't heard of it. I thought it strange that someone so involved in the movement wouldn't be more aware of the father encampment in New York.

On the whole he reminded me of the typical left-wing activist I grew up with in Oakland and Berkeley, just as intolerant as the right-wingers we're taught to hate. The liberal bent really came out when talking about the police, which he believed to be oppressing the protesters whenever they get the chance and being unfair on the whole, even though everything I've read shows that the city and law enforcement are being more than reasonable to the protesters, even when the protesters have provoked them. When I pointed out that the police are only doing their jobs and they're taking pay cuts like the rest of the 99%, he couldn't agree more. He even estimated that there were "two or three or four" off-duty cops protesting with him. But he still feels the protesters should still resist, mostly because they're being forced into riot gear by the corporatist government trying to crack down on the protest, a stance both double-sided and stereotypical.

Then, after a couple of short conversations with other campers about switching to a local credit union, I came to the tent for 90.7 KBOO, a Portland-based radio station that broadcasts from Occupy Portland. The host had a black man in his 50's with him named King J or King Jay (the only name I'll use) who was an anti-violence advocate. He spoke about how long the wars have been going on and how the army needs to completely leave Iraq and Afghanistan at the very least - he was skeptical that Obama will stick to his word and withdraw completely from Iraq by January. He also spoke out against police brutality, especially in the Oakland cases, condemning the use of violence. But his most powerful message was about urging us to vote, which he said was the most important right we have:

If you're old enough to go to war you're old enough to vote. I know you can't wait to buy [alcohol]... but voting trumps it everything else... Especially for black people. Our people died so that we could vote. I know that if I didn't vote my great-grandfather would rise out the grave and beat me with an ugly stick. [slightly paraphrased]

Yes, voting is a right that people throughout history, not just black but all sorts of people, have shed blood for. I wished the fatalistic young man could have heard King J. I didn't get to talk with him myself, but I did talk to his wife and a young ethnically ambiguous woman who was camping out. Both are very supportive of the movement as a way to advocate for peace.

Next I talked to a middle-aged couple who aren't camping out but come to the camp every day. The woman is an educator, and I didn't catch what the man's job is. While talking with them I met a tall black woman whose name I'm ashamed to have forgotten (Antoinette?) who works in Mayor Sam Adams's office, who comes to the camps every day to check for health hazards. "I'm a 99 percenter," she proudly proclaimed, "but I have to make sure everything's safe." I talked with the couple for a while about all sorts of things, ranging from the police brutality in Oakland to Latin American history to my being new to Portland. Only when I left did I realize I'd forgotten to ask the "journalistic" questions I'd set out to ask.

I then wandered to the veterans' tent, where I found the view that most conformed to my own. They were a jovial bunch who had seen most of the world when you combine their service; they weren't strung out on antidepressants as far as I could tell, but had instead turned their difficult experiences into passionate dissidence. One veteran put his demands succinctly: for the UN to make a resolution forcing all countries in the world to disarm. It would take that level of action, he said, to keep our kids from war. He knows it won't come true, but he's still asking for it. All five of them agree that the recent police brutality was horrible and that the protesters should avoid provoking the police - nonviolent protest is the only form of protest that should be practiced. They too dismissed the idea of simply voting in a candidate who agrees with the Occupy platform. Simply put, there is no candidate. There's always war, no matter who's president.

Finally, I asked a couple of police officers what they thought of the movement. They had no opinion, being on duty. I should have guessed, but you can't blame me for not trying.

Conclussion: I must say I was disappointed in the lack of clarity in the message. It seems that even within my small sample size in the camp I got a wide range of demands coming from the very personal experiences of the individuals demanding them. I've always felt the Occupy movement's demands could be summed up easily as "economic justice," but that's just my take. On the other hand, things still seemed to fit together. It probably had something to do with that community that the young man talked about. A community of people who are dedicated to big level change, so big that the US government is too small a venue for it. Because to defeat the barons of war and corporate greed we are going to need a unimaginably huge pool of resources.

"Waterfall Negatives"

2011-10-31T21:01:00.002-04:00

After my experience with Wahclella Falls the other day I've come to realize that one of my favorite things about waterfalls are the jets of water that shoot down, at the same time coming apart as the waterfall expands or dissolves into mist and coming together in jet streams. It helps to explain why I tend to like waterfalls much better than cascades (when the water falls along the side of a rock or a hill rather than through the air). In light of that I revisited some of my old photos and tried some color editing to isolate some of the waterfall jets like I did for my Wahclella Negative and Horsetail Negative. I think the style really emphasizes what's going on with the water, both how it's jetting (not a fast enough exposure to freeze the water in place except in the case of Courtney's Multnomah Falls photos) and breaking apart into specks of mist. The photos can sometimes look grainy but when I zoom in on them with my computer I can see that it's really a lot of individual water drops. I've also been looking at some of the paintings of Japanese artist Hiroshi Senju, who is famous for his waterfall paintings, like the one at the top of this post. Anyway, with no further ado, I hope you like some of the results of my photography experiments:

Lower Düden Falls

Upper Düden Falls

Latourell Falls (Photo by Courtney)

Lower tier of Multnomah Falls as seen above from Benson Bridge (Photo by Courtney)

Wahkeena Falls

Now before I go, I need to address the current holiday. Yes, today is Halloween, and most of my readers know that I hate Halloween. But this year I have discovered something Halloween-themed that I can get behind! The waterfall that needs no introduction:

Yes, this waterfall is actually called Blood Falls, and it's real. It lives in Antartica, so sadly I'll probably never see it. Iron-oxide mixes with salt water to give it that eerie red hue. One website reports that it's 5 stories tall (compare it to the tent in the lower left-hand corner).

Happy Halloween

New Song - "Man"

2011-10-29T18:29:00.000-04:00

It's been a long time since there's been a post like this! It seems that while I was about politics First Regrets was quietly preparing its newest single, the first complete song entirely recorded outside of Istanbul in 2011. It's called "Man" and you can listen to it at the official First Regrets MySpace page where it will appear 4th in the list, or you can simply listen here:

Man by First Regrets

Fun fact: I wrote the music for this song the day before my cousin Andrew got married! It's one of the last things that happened in the world while my cousin remained unmarried. I recorded the keyboard part while my brother slept on the other hotel bed; no one suspected a thing. But I didn't write lyrics until a couple days ago.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please let me know. I still have room for many more drafts to come.

Just because I'm so happy about how the song turned out, here's another picture of a waterfall I forgot to put in the blog post yesterday:

Horsetail Falls. I think this was 1/125 second shutter exposure.

Wahclella Falls Waterfall Expedition

2011-10-28T18:24:00.000-04:00

Yesterday a couple of friends and I hit the road for the Columbia River Gorge in search of new waterfalls to pursue. This time we took the Wahclella Falls trail, one of the easiest and most popular hike in the Gorge that ends in a major waterfall. I had been aching to get out to the Columbia River Gorge before the fall leaves fell of the trees and I ended up having a great time.

The trail was absolutely gorgeous and colorful, open to the sun while trafficking next to the river. There wasn't much uphill compared to other Gorge hikes I've been on. I think a lot about which hikes to take potential out-of-town visitors, and this trail was without a doubt the place to take people who don't particularly care about hiking - easy and rewarding for every step.

Check out those fall colors!

On the way to Wahclella Falls is the much smaller Lower Munra Falls, which would be unassuming if not for being just a couple feet away from a bridge you cross within the first half-mile on the trail, coming out of nowhere just after you turn a bend. The 50-foot cascade is hard to understand - I didn't get a handle on it (or any good pictures) until the return journey. It's a shy sort of waterfall forced into the forefront of the trail, and only after approaching it from the distance when it was easier to see did it look much more natural. Unlike the other waterfalls I saw that day, Lower Munra Falls wanted to be a secondary feature of the landscape, accentuating the river, trees, and hillside landscape. I bet it would be much happier without the bridge, even.

Close-up on Munra Falls. Those little trails actually looked like trickling bubbles. Up close the waterfall actually looked a lot like a jacuzzi.

Half a mile of moderate uphill later was Wahclella Falls, the main fall dropping 60 feet at much greater power than the slightly shorter Lower Munra Falls. I'd seen pictures of Wahclella Falls before, and while I knew it was one of the most popular waterfalls in the Gorge I admittedly didn't have high expectations. The falls looked powerful and short, like a dwarf. Not graceful and dainty as some shorter waterfalls are to make up for the power and force of their larger cousins. From the pictures Wahclella looked like it wanted to fall more or come out in a thinner stream - whatever it was, the waterfall's proportions looked all wrong.

It turns out I was all wrong. Wahclella took its strangely shaped body in stride, being beautiful in a completely different way than I've seen in a waterfall. It was charismatic: it had corralled a sizable pool of water, boulders, and plant life at its base where it was the sovereign, and I got the impression that these aspects of nature had gathered willingly to the waterfall. There was even another waterfall above Wahclella Falls, called East Fork Falls, that flows into Wahclella Falls just before the drop. It was magnetic and wise, and I felt drawn to it. It made me just want to follow it.

Wahclella Falls was also helpful. While I was struggling to find ways to photograph it using tactics I've used in the past, I wasn't discouraged and frustrated but instead encouraged to try out new photography skills, and the waterfall rewarded me with great pictures. For example, being a powerful waterfall, Wahclella Falls kicks up a great deal of mist, making close-range photography just about impossible. I had really wanted a close-up picture of the base of the falls to show how strong it was churning up the water at the base, but when my lens grew covered with mist I couldn't take the picture. But with my fuzzy lens Wahclella Falls took on a new kind of beauty, the graceful beauty I couldn't see at first, especially with the sun reflecting off East Fork Falls above it. I took pictures like I'd never taken before:

Misty Wahclella

Blue Wahclella. The jets on this waterfall came out really well at 1/200 second shutter speed. This one looks like a dolphin jumping out of the water.

After Wahclella Falls we had enough time to check out Horsetail Falls and Ponytail Falls (AKA Upper Horsetail Falls). Horsetail Falls is just across a parking lot when you drive on Historic Highway 30, so it wasn't very far out of our way. Because of its ease to see, Horsetail Falls is also a pretty famous waterfall in the Gorge, and it might have been impressive had it been easier to get to. Being so exposed made it look naked and self-conscious.

Doesn't it look like a horse's tail?

This waterfall is too famous for me to be the only photographer around

Ponytail Falls was a short, half-mile hike past Horsetail falls, but it was almost entirely uphill - we had to climb Horsetail Falls to get at the falls behind it. And Ponytail was very close behind it. Both Horsetail Falls and Ponytail Falls are very aptly named. At Ponytail Falls we saw the best combination of fall colors near a waterfall. Plus you get to walk behind Ponytail Falls on the trail, which is a cool bonus. However the sun was in the wrong spot for the pictures I wanted most, so a lot of my shots came out less vibrant than I'd hoped. I'll have to go back.

First sighting of Ponytail Falls from the tail

Even so, if Wahkeena Falls required me to challenge myself to photograph it, Ponytail Falls was so photogenic that I barely had to try in order to make it look good. The water leaped out like an excited puppy (or "pony"), starving for attention. I happily obliged. But as I obliged I fell part-way into the river. That's how it goes sometimes. It was totally worth it.

Courtney, Katie, and Me at Wahclella Falls

"Class Warfare"

2011-10-26T16:21:00.000-04:00

The incomes of the top 1% wealthiest American households increased by almost 300% between 1979 and 2007 according to a report from the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) that can be accessed via this NPR report. The report goes on to search for the reasons for this huge increase, providing three hypotheses:

1. Companies have grown larger and more complex. So a single executive can have a bigger impact on profits. Therefore, it's rational for companies to pay executives a lot more.

2. A shift toward paying execs with stock options means that the value of their pay packages can shoot way up when the stock market rises.
3. "Weaknesses in corporate governance have enabled corporate executives to overpay themselves." In other words, it's not rational for companies to pay executives so much.

When Rick Perry announced his 20% flat tax yesterday, which experts say will be a boon for the rich, he said, "We need a tax code that unleashes growth instead of preventing it; that promotes fairness, not class warfare." Also after Obama's proposal in September to increase taxes on the wealthiest of Americans republicans cried class warfare - Paul D Ryan said on Fox News that "Class warfare may make for really good politics, but it makes for rotten economics." However, Republicans have made the case for taxing the poor more strictly because they benefit from the services provided by taxes. This gets to a new political strategy: to antagonize the poor. This gives poor people a lot of reason to feel defensive. That's because the poor "moocher" class just takes and gives nothing back. And the hatred of the poor runs so deep that some of the crowd at a Republican presidential debate shouts "Yeah!" when a candidate is asked if an uninsured sick man should be allowed to die untreated, or cheer when a candidate says that the jobless are at fault for not being rich.

Do you see the problem here? If you want to tax the wealthy it's class warfare, but if you want to tax the poor it's politics as it should be. As I mentioned in an earlier post, John Stewart did a great job highlighting this disgusting hypocrisy.

Reading about Rick Perry's 20% flat tax plan made me think about Republicans' fear of class warfare. Sure, there's Occupy Wall Street, which is seen as class warfare (Fox News is slandering the movement by associating it with the misunderstood organization ACORN). It's certainly a class struggle - people are holding signs that say "Tax the rich" and chanting "Banks got bailed out! We got sold out!" But it's not "warfare" because the movement has been largely non-violent (I know, I'm writing this on the same day violence broke out at Occupy Oakland, which is still much less destructive than the Tea Party's form of economic protest in my opinion).

So I believe that while Republicans - and, indeed, the super wealthy - are afraid of "class warfare" in the form of tougher regulations on business and higher taxes, many Americans feel that "class warfare" has already begun and that they are the victims. To propose taxing the poorest in America and then turning around to say you want to avoid class warfare is idiotic and transparent: once again, we see that the Republican candidates belong to a party of the rich and will do absolutely nothing for the poor (and, just to add, Democrats are better by only the tiniest bit).

And the proposed tax hike on the poor won't even do much to ease the country's budget woes, as John Stewart pointed out. The anti-poor rhetoric is not only hateful but untrue and economically unsound and immoral, so unless the candidates and their followers are completely misinformed and can't think for themselves, its only purpose would be to rile them up. In other words, incite class warfare.

I would like to leave you with another chart from the CBO report detailing the federal taxes as they relate to different income groups:

You can see the large decreases in taxes during the Reagan era, mostly benefiting the top 1% of Americans, benefiting the 21%-80% income group a small amount, and actually increasing for the poor. The tax returned to its pre-Reagan levels for the the rich from 1993-1997, although in this time the lowest quintile actually saw a decrease in taxes and the 21%-80% income group remained about the same. This is also the time when Clinton's administration famously balanced the budget. Then after 2000 when the Bush era tax cuts started coming in, the US government returned to tremendous debt. Now, I know correlation isn't the same as causation, but I don't think these correlations are coincidences. And I'm sure that the government's financial problems can't be solved by taxing people who can't afford it.

Power of the Courts

2011-10-25T15:51:00.000-04:00

It looks like a large number of Republican presidential candidates are considering reigning in the judicial branch's power. Some want to dismantle the 9th circuit federal court of appeals because it's a "consistently radical" court. Some want to limit the types of cases federal courts can hear, especially regarding same-sex marriage - because if a state legislature infringes on personal liberty the federal courts apparently shouldn't have the power to adhere to the constitution. Some want term limits for Supreme Court justices. And, most startling, some want Congress to have the power to overturn a court's decision striking down legislation as unconstitutional.

As if the federal courts weren't conservative enough to satisfy them.

It's strange to me that Republicans used to be the party in favor of small government, while now they only seem to want small government where it benefits them most. It's well known that under Reagan the US government grew tremendously, largely because of military spending. As Occupy Wall Street protestors are quick to point out, the government spends obscene amounts of money murdering people in war and destabilizing governments abroad (not making us safer in fact) while trying to convince us that there's no money to pay teachers or police or firefighters, or even to prosecute domestic abusers. Spending so much money that there's nothing left - that doesn't sound like small government to me. And while one right-wing candidates is trying to cut just about everything besides the military, including the education department (hint: it's Ron Paul) and others are offering to lower taxes thinking that would somehow make the money - not so sure how this works - to cover the monstrous military budget (hint: it's the remainder of the candidates), none accept that these solutions will do nothing to affect the military, one of the largest parts of US government. If Republicans really believed in small government, I think we'd see more pacifists among them. The military uses about 2 billion dollars each day.

And now we see another example of Republicans in favor of big government. In the quest to purge the courts of "activist judges" Republicans want to move a sizable amount of judicial power to Congress and state legislatures. This dangerous idea would remove a vital check and balance from the operation of the federal government and, by weakening the courts, allow the other two branches to abuse authority. Imagine if the senate could overturn a court's ruling! You'd think Republicans would understand the value of the courts' power because they're using it as I write this to try and pick apart Obama's health care initiative.

Now, Constitutionally the federal courts don't have much power. Judicial review is not in the constitution but an invention of the Supreme Court's in 1803, led by the first Chief Justice, John Marshall. Marbury v. Madison was in 1803! Framers of the original Constitution were alive to see it. And judicial review has been an important element of American history ever since (thank you, Brown v. Board of Education!). In fact, it has been suggested that, despite not being in the Constitution, judicial review was one of the intents of the Constitution drafters. Still, the Supreme Court had no official power - Andrew Jackson famously said of one Supreme Court decision he found unfavorable, "Mr. [John] Marshall has made his decision. Now let him enforce it." The result was the Trail of Tears, a telling example of what happens when the rest of the federal government ignores the court.

There's a good reason the power of judicial review has remained in US government for over 200 years despite not being explicitly written in the Constitution: it helps our government work and keeps other branches from becoming too powerful. And yet conservatives who wish to restrict this and other examples of court power "don’t think it’s an anticourt movement. It’s a purifying of the court — trying to return it to where it should be" (Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the Susan B. Anthony List, quoted in the New York Times on October 23). It's not a purification - it's a diminishing until there are only two branches of government left and no one keeping them true to the Constitution except a couple lonely judges talking to themselves.

And yes, I acknowledge I don't like the direction the federal courts have been taking in the last decade, very conservative. But that's the beauty of it - the courts are meant to be independent of what people like me think (unlike campaigning politicians who should - should - have to answer to the public every day). They aren't held accountable for the changing whims and fads going around the political sphere. They have one master - the Constitution. And these frustrated Republican candidates are steaming because they can't make the courts dance under their fingertips. FDR had a similar confrontation with the Supreme Court, regarding his New Deal legislation, which did not bode well for him. I hope these Republican candidates come under the same kind of difficulties in politics as a result.

Last thing: I never have been able to say this before in my life, so I'm happy to announce that I agree with Mitt Romney on this issue! When asked about a possible confrontation with the court about abortion, he said, "I’m not looking to create a constitutional crisis" (New York Times again). It's not worth it to clash with the courts in order to force your little fundamentalist project into law, guys! You'll do a lot more damage that you'd realize! If the Supreme Court believes your ideologies shouldn't become law, then they probably shouldn't! That's what the courts are for - protecting us from people like you!

Pictures From Forest Park in Autumn

2011-10-23T22:44:00.002-04:00

Fall colors at SE 50th Street and Cora

SE 50th Street and Cora

Running in Forest Park

Amazing vines hanging from a tree in Forest Park

Walking the Portland Plank

Along the Portland waterfront

Blame the poor?

2011-10-19T22:36:00.002-04:00

Somehow the practice of blaming the poor has become rampant (although a slight increase in the tax on the wealthy and conservatives cry "class warfare"). The other day the newest Republican candidate to be polling well, Herman Cain, echoed this sentiment and received adulation. Here are the remarks, and they're worth the 53 seconds of your time it takes to watch.

Cheers are coming from Americans who, like me, don't have any idea what real poverty truly means.

This segment perfectly encapsulates why Cain shouldn't be a serious contender, namely that in his less-than-a-minute sound bite he makes a number of hypocritical assumptions.

First, as I've mentioned before, blaming the poor for demanding basic human rights is ridiculous. Many people fall into a state of "not having" (not having savings, not having money, not having health insurance, etc.) due to circumstances completely out of their control. Asking people to blame themselves for their bad luck and circumstances that exhibit prejudice against the unemployed is like asking George W Bush to admit he came to power largely due to the family he was born in.

Secondly, Cain says people should blame themselves because (something like this) they should be blaming the White House instead of Wall Street. Funny, because many disgruntled protestors are already blaming Obama, and the left wing is increasingly abandoning him as we speak. (On the global day of protest I attended a speaker said flat-out that we can't rely on Democrats - not just Obama but the entire Democratic party - to make sure the poor get the rights and services they deserve.) Cain lists a few of the administration's failings, as if failed economic policies the economic bailout are all the fault of non-rich people without jobs. Is he saying the Wall Street protestors should blame themselves or should they direct their anger towards Washington? I'm confused. First, "Blame the poor," then "Blame yourself," then, "Blame Washington," then "Blame the unemployed?" And people complain that Occupy Wall Street has a confusing message. All I know for sure is not to blame stock traders and rich businessmen - like Cain. Sounds like, "Blame everyone but me!" to me. Fitting for the candidate who takes economic policy advice from SimCity.

Now, Cain thinks poor people should blame themselves for their state of "not having," and what they should be doing to change this state of "not having" is to blame Washington, as many are already doing. It's not hard to tell that his true message is that he intends to do absolutely nothing for the non-rich should he become president.

Please don't vote for him.

Before I sign off I have a slightly longer video to share with you, a trailer for a documentary about the degradation of women in social media and the systematic humiliation of powerful women in the public sphere. Basically, media controlled sexism. It's amazing and heart-breaking. Watch it here: https://fbcdn-video-a.akamaihd.net/cfs-ak-ash4/349008/529/2349117563337_30441.mp4?oh=7ecb6d97833359b3ecfc9469feac8306&oe=4EA22100&__gda__=1319248128_ac8c32e870bf2d0e7f2804271b26ca66