briandoleary.com Blog

Comment on “Spread the Wealth” in Saturday’s Oregonian.  The Letters came out tonight online.

I am now writing some content over at Bleacher Report.  It is a sports site.
Here’s my profile.  I hope to have more content up soon.

This post can be found at bleacherreport.com.
Fans of a new soccer stadium are the squeaky wheel nowadays in Portland.

While soccer is a good and decent sport and I see no reason why Portland wouldn’t support an MLS team, there is no need for our city government to finance stadia.  The loud support, while enthusiastic and often well meaning, is not wise support.  (more…)

In response to Putting Country First from The Oregonian:

While correct in noticing the strides the military is making in accommodating immigrants, the editorial board misses the boat entirely on one thing in particular.  The relativistic notion of open-mindedness that the board seems to think comes part and parcel with immigration policy should not be encouraged.  An open-mind can be fine, but not if it is used to accept the failing status quo and loose standards.  As Chesterton wrote, “[m]erely having an open mind is nothing.  The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.”

The feel-good approach with open borders–if the ultimate goal is not to make citizens and patriots out of those who wish to live in America–does not and will not work.  Certainly, the federal approach to immigration at large is not at all solid, rather inhabiting the saccharine taste and airy consistency of cotton candy.  Citizenry and patriotism must be not only the goal, but the mandate, of not just the immigrants in the Armed Forces, but for all those who cross into our great nation.  It is high time our native-born citizens realize this and become better patriots themselves.

Please, tax my beer!  It is such a drag, especially on a hot summer’s eve, to be subjected to the cold, crisp bitterness of an American lager upon my lips.  How sagacious it is to stop such a sickening seasonal self-indulgence.  Sipping suds should be stopped, similarly to smoking.  The sin tax for cigarettes is surely a success.  Who among us has really taken notice of tobacco burning lately?

Candy is criminal, too.  An impost should be imminent.  Cola and coffee must also be quashed by compulsory contribution to Congress.

Almonds also–candied and a component of Joy–must have a duty imposed immediately.

Coriander, cumin, and catsup… Oh, the humanity!  Tax it all.  Unnecessary extravagances must be eliminated.

We should value Volsteadism.  It worked so well for us in the past.  With the President predicting the throes of the Thirties once again, why not join in on the nostalgia here in Oregon.

~~~If you think my trite alliteration is annoying now, just wait until they start taxing everything under the sun for no particularly good reason and I begin to practice the alliterative arts a little bit more.~~~

I submitted a couple pithy letters to The Oregonian this week.  Perhaps we’ll see one or both in the future, but for now, here they are: (more…)

Most people want somebody to blame for their shortcomings.  In our age it is George W. Bush, lately of the 27% approval rating.  Blame him for the poor economy, the unforeseen Iraqi insurgency, global warming, his accent and so forth.  Because he is a Republican and says he is a conservative, I guess those groups are bad, too.

These logicians reaching such astounding and concrete conclusions tend not to be bright.  H.L. Mencken did not have it wrong when he wrote “that the average citizen is half-witted, and hence not to be trusted to either his own devices or his own thoughts.”

(more…)

[Ed. -- Also found here .]

Reference: Portland will spend $500 million to stimulate local economy

What, Portland mayor Sam Adams can’t do any better than to ape President-elect Obama and the United States Congress with his “stimulus” plan? He and the other bumps on the 4th Avenue log choose to “stimulate” our local economy by allotting a half-billion dollars in some manner yet-to-be-determined. Interesting that other than the $500 million said to be in play, they claim that this reality is not really true. This is not an amusing paradox, it is falsehood and more than hints toward graft. They say the money is not “sitting in some bank account waiting to be doled out.” Huh? Something is rotten in the City of Portland. Eh, Horatio?

Does Sam not learn from history or current events? Going deeper in debt, especially by implementing hair-brained government spending programs, run by career bureaucrats without a clue, is unwise. Nothing is so simple, however, for these gatekeepers than spending money that is not really theirs to begin with. I’d imagine these do-gooding dimwits get a decent rise out of it as well. (more…)

Now that Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice have been elected to the Hall of Fame, the discussions begin in earnest once more.  Did they deserve it?  Who is going in next year?  Which player not in deserves it the most?  Murph or Hawk or neither?

Rickey was a lock.  Period.

Rice was a great player and, in my opinion, a Hall of Famer.  He led MLB in hits, runs, and RBIs from 1975-1986.  Enough said. (more…)

I chose to comment on an article that a friend sent me about the potential rise of “prarie populism,” et cetera.  I link to Pat Buchanan and his take on what Obama’s decisions might be with regard to our economy.

Non-linked stuff:  I am still shellshocked from the goings-on in Chestnut Hill.  Coach Jags is out a week ago, and at the time I write this, his replacement is yet to be named.  The Dentist’s boys took it to the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill, then lost to the mighty Crimson and were subsequently ruined by the Hurricanes.  On the heels (pun?) of this, Coach York’s squad is scuffling.  Gene “Old Navy” DeFilippo needs to pull the right strings… and quick.

Rod Dreher — A Populist Prarie Fire from the Right?

Isn’t the “Palinism” Dreher writes about really just electoral politics by another name?  Co-opting and deflecting “legitimate populist anger by allowing its adherents to hate elites without really challenging the system” sounds not only like Palinism, but Bidenism just as well. (more…)