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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 24, 2015)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Saturday, January 24, 2015 Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN DANIEL WATTENBURGER Publisher Managing Editor JENNINE PERKINSON TIM TRAINOR Advertising Director Opinion Page Editor EO MEDIA GROUP East Oregonian • The Daily Astorian • Capital Press • Hermiston Herald Blue Mountain Eagle • Wallowa County Chieftain • Chinook Observer • Coast River Business Journal Oregon Coast Today • Coast Weekend • Seaside Signal • Cannon Beach Gazette Eastern Oregon Real Estate Guide • Eastern Oregon Marketplace • Coast Marketplace OnlyAg.com • FarmSeller.com • Seaside-Sun.com • NorthwestOpinions.com • DiscoverOurCoast.com MIKE FORRESTER Pendleton Chairman of the Board STEVE FORRESTER Astoria President TOM BROWN Bigfork, Mont. Director KATHRYN B. BROWN Pendleton Secretary/Treasurer JEFF ROGERS Indianapolis, Ind. Director OUR VIEW Intra-party attack ad funded The devotion leap by Loren Parks T OTHER VIEWS You may have been ecstatically don’t lead to anything constructive, ÀLSSLQJWKURXJKODVWZHHNHQG¶V and they are contributing to the newspaper (that’s how we like to obsolescence of the Republican imagine it!) when you were stopped 3DUW\LQ2UHJRQ$QRXWRIGLVWULFW cold by the back page. Republican attacking a freshman There it was: a full page moderate of his same party? How advertisement from some guy VKRUWVLJKWHGLI.URSI¶VJRDOLVWR you’ve never heard of, attacking make Oregon a more conservative $WKHQDEDVHGVWDWHVHQDWRU%LOO place. As your grandmother taught: Hansell for all sorts of alleged \RXFDWFKPRUHÀLHVZLWKKRQH\WKDQ political crimes, vinegar. from defending Spewing vinegar, Loren Parks illegal immigrants, Kropf and his loony to being nice to backer are going funded the liberals and letting about it the wrong “sexual criminals” political action way. (And if you out of prison. loony is out of committee that think It’s a hit job and line, we recommend we guess no one is you check out Loren funded the shocked by that sort Parks’ YouTube Capitol Watch channel and watch of slop anymore. But this one KLV³VHFRQG PAC. was moderately therapy sessions” surprising because that include a game Hansell, a Republican, was being show buzzer and repeated shouts attacked by someone in his own of “Disconnect!” to help people party, and it’s not even close to overcome everything from traumatic a primary election. The ad was dancing experiences to hurt feelings created and purchased by the and eczema. The octogenarian also right wing Capitol Watch PAC, a has a lot to teach you about sex, if JURXS¿QDQFHGE\1HYDGDRGGEDOO you can stomach it.) millionaire Loren Parks and led by Sen. Bill Hansell won the election former Republican state rep Jeff — he got more votes than both .URSI+HLGHQWL¿HVKLPVHOIDV7KH his Republican opponent in the Honorable Jeff Kropf (Retired). primary and his Democratic foe in The East Oregonian navigated the general — and short of criminal, the Oregon Secretary of State’s ethical or moral violations, he holds RQOLQHFDPSDLJQ¿QDQFHGDWDEDVH that seat until his term is up. to follow an Alice in Wonderland If you want to lobby him to rabbit hole maze and connect the change the way he votes, do your ¿QDQFLDOGRWV&DSLWRO:DWFK3$& best, Kropf and Parks. Make your so far lists a single contributor — case to Hansell and see how he Taxpayers Association of Oregon responds. PAC — which touts itself as If you want to lobby the voters advocating for lower taxes. Parks of District 29 to elect a more has been the Taxpayers Association FRQVHUYDWLYHFDQGLGDWHWKHQ¿QG PAC’s biggest contributor for the one. Finance their campaign, parade past three years: giving $55,000 in them around the district and put their 2012, $50,000 in 2013 and $40,000 QDPHRQWKHEDOORW7KHQOHW¶V¿QG in September 2014. out if a majority of residents agree Parks also contributed $98,173 to with your choice. the Protect Oregon Driver Licenses If so, you get what you want. If campaign to help defeat the 2013 not, the people get what they want. driver’s card measure. And Kropf is Either way, we all live with the the founder of the Oregon Capitol results for four years. Watch Foundation, which gave Thankfully, the man behind this $10,862 to that same campaign. ad had the guts to sign his name to Among four red “x’s” notched it. But he didn’t have the guts to say against Hansell’s freshman voting where he got his money when we record in the ad, one was to his bill asked him. to give special driver’s licenses to Kropf paid for the ad space (with “illegals.” Parks’ money), which means he can Maybe you have problems with pretty much say what he wants and Sen. Hansell’s voting record, and call himself what he wants. you’re certainly entitled to those But honorable isn’t a word we’d feelings. But these sorts of attacks use to describe Jeff Kropf or this ad. Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of Publisher Kathryn Brown, Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, and Opinion Page Editor Tim Trainor. Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily that of the East Oregonian. he online dating site OkCupid info at twice the rate as on a regular asks its clients to rate each day. other’s attractiveness on a scale The dating sites have taken the of 1 to 5. When men rated the women, information available online and the median score was about 3 and WULHGWRXVHLWWRPDWFKXSVSHFL¿F the ratings followed a bell curve — a individuals. They’ve failed. An few really attractive women and an exhaustive review of the literature equal number of women rated as by Eli J. Finkel of Northwestern and unattractive. others concluded, “No compelling David But when women rated men, Brooks evidence supports matching sites’ the results were quite different. The claims that mathematical algorithms Comment median score was between 1 and 2. work.” That’s because what creates a Only 1 in 6 of the guys was rated as relationship can’t be expressed in data having above average looks. Either the guys or photographs. Being in love can’t be done who go to places like OkCupid, Tinder and E\DSHUVRQLQDVHOIRULHQWHGPLQGVHWDVNLQJ other sites are disproportionately homely, or Does this choice serve me? Online dating women have unforgiving eyes. is fascinating because it is more or less the Looks, unsurprisingly, dominate online opposite of its object: love. dating. But I learned some details from When online daters actually meet, an “Dataclysm,” the book by Christian Rudder, entirely different mindset has to kick in. If ZKRLVWKHFRIRXQGHUDQGSUHVLGHQWRI they’re going to be open to a real relationship, OkCupid. they have to stop asking There’s a gigantic superstar where this person rates in effect. Women who are comparison to others and rated in the top 5 percent start asking, can we lower of attractiveness get a vast the boundaries between self majority of the approaches. and self. They have to stop The bottom 95 percent get thinking in individual terms much less. For men, looks and start feeling in rapport barely matter at all unless you terms. are in the top 3 percent or so. Basically, they have to The hunks get barraged with take the enchantment leap. approaches. This is when something ,W¶VEHWWHUWRKDYHDSRODUL]LQJSUR¿OHWKDQ dry and utilitarian erupts into something a bland one. People who generate high levels passionate, inescapable and devotional. of disapproval — because they look like goths Sometimes a student becomes enraptured or bikers or just weird — often also generate by the beauty of math, and becomes a higher levels of enthusiasm. mathematician. Soldiers doing the drudgery Racial bias is prevalent. When Asian men of boot camp are gradually bonded into a are looking at Asian women they rate them as passionate unit, for which they will risk 18 percent more attractive than average. But their lives. Anybody who has started a mere when they are looking at black women, they job and found in it a vocation has taken the rate them as 27 percent less attractive. White enchantment leap. and Latino men downgrade black women by In love, of course, the shift starts with nearly the same percentage. White, Latino and vulnerability, not calculation. The people Asian women have similar preferences. LQYROYHGPRYHIURPVHO¿VKQHVVWRVHUYLFH When people start texting or tweeting from prudent thinking to poetic thinking, from to each other, they don’t turn into a bunch a state of selection to a state of need, from of Einsteins. Rudder looked into the most relying on conscious thinking to relying on common words and phrases used on Twitter. their own brilliant emotions. For men they include: good bro, ps4, my When you look at all the people looking for EHDUGLQQEDKRRSLQDQGRIIVHDVRQ)RU love and vocation today, you realize we live in women they include: my nails done, mani a culture and an online world that encourages pedi, retail therapy, and my belly button. DYHU\GLIIHUHQWPLQGVHWLQDWHFKQLFDO People who date online are not shallower culture in which humanism, religion and the or vainer than those who don’t. Research humanities, which are the great instructors of suggests they are broadly representative. enchantment, are not automatically central to ,W¶VMXVWWKDWWKH\¶UHLQDVSHFL¿FPHQWDO life. state. They’re shopping for human beings, I have to guess some cultures are more commodifying people. They have access to fertile for enchantment — that some activities, very little information that can help them OLNHQRYHOUHDGLQJRUPXVLFPDNLQJFXOWLYDWH judge if they will fall in love with this person. a skill for it, and that building a capacity for They pay ridiculous amounts of attention to enchantment is, these days, a countercultural things like looks, which have little bearing on act and a practical and fervent need. whether a relationship will work. OkCupid Ŷ took down the pictures one day. The people David Brooks became a New York Times who interacted on this day exchanged contact Op-Ed columnist in September 2003. They’re shopping for human beings, commodifying people. YOUR VIEWS Neighbor appreciated alert from police after incident This letter is in response to the recent articles covering the investigation of the possible shooting on Snyder Road on January 16. It is troubling to learn that Umatilla County Sheriff Terry Rowan believes the incident, as it was reported that night, should not have reached “the level that it went to the Neighborhood Watch.” When that incident was reported to Neighborhood Watch members, there was no reason to believe it was a hoax. Hindsight in this case should not change the decisions in the future to report possibly dangerous situations to the Neighborhood Watch members. As a member who lives a farm or two away from the incident area, I appreciated receiving the report. It put me on alert exactly as it should have done. Better to be safe than sorry. Marcia Lorenzen Pendleton Open letter to Rep. Read, speaker of the Oregon House Congratulations. I hope as you take on this obligation that you will lead your Democrat colleagues in a direction of common sense, ¿VFDOUHVSRQVLELOLW\DQGRSHQPLQGHGQHVV As I see it, the Democrats’ legislative agenda ahead is fraught with status quo tax and spending, leftist progressive thinking and PLVJXLGHGIDX[FULVLVUHDFWLRQVZKLFKWKLV state and its people, frankly, cannot afford. The proposed bills tied to energy and climate change/global warming have to be considered within the framework of all the science that is out there and not just that science WKDWKDVEHHQFKHUU\SLFNHGE\WKRVHZKR JHQHUDWHWKHLUOLYLQJDQG¿QDQFLDOVWDELOLW\E\ destabilizing our economy and information SRROVWKURXJKRXWFRPHRULHQWHG³VFLHQFH´ (i.e. government agencies, academia and environmental activists and their attorneys). Further, and extremely importantly, I hope you will see the necessity to move against the overreach of the federal government into the everyday issues that should be the responsibility of the states and the individuals within those sovereign states. You need to look at what the rest of the nation has recognized and mandated at the November 2014 elections and move Oregon RXWRIWKHGROGUXPVFUHDWHGE\WKH'HPRFUDW run politics of this state for the last 30 years. ,WKDVQ¶WZRUNHGDQGUHVSRQVLEOHIRUZDUG thinking Democrats are recognizing that. I am DSURGXFWRIWKHRQFHWRSRIWKHOLQHHGXFDWLRQ system in Oregon and know it can be that again if we look, not forward, but back at and emulate what made it great in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. It can be done! Good luck and good vision to you. Tim K. Smith Hines, Ore. The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less for publication in the newspaper and on our website. Submitted letters must be signed by the author and include the city of residence and a daytime phone number. Send letters to 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.
