Oregon's proposed new class of terrorists

[Trei, Peter]

> Tim May[SMTP:timcmay at got.net] wrote:
> 
> 
> On Wednesday, May 21, 2003, at 02:37  PM, Trei, Peter wrote:
> 
> >> May[SMTP:timcmay at got.net]  wrote:
> >>
> >> The Oregon law makes a very broad class of forms of civil
> >> disobedience--including unscheduled gatherings which disrupt traffic,
> >> sit-ins in colleges, marches, etc.--the same as blowing up buildings 
> >> or
> >> crashing airliners, and carries a mandatory, no parole, minimum of 25
> >> years incarceration. After 25 years, the possibility of being a slave
> >> laborer (in effect) picking up trash and cutting brush for the state 
> >> of
> >> Oregon.
> >>
> > What the hell is it with Oregon, anyway? More idiotic legislation
> > seems to come out of that state, in proportion to its population, than
> > any other place except the District of Columbia.
> >
> > Peter Trei
> >
> > Disclaimer: My opinions, no one elses!
> >
> 
> I lived there for two years, 1980-82. Intel requested that I move my 
> lab up to where the memory division, so I went. Went I moved to a new 
> project, they moved me back to California...and I was able to dry out.
> 
> My theory is that Oregon is a mixture of:
> 
> -- backwoods rednecks ("We don't need no stinking jobs up here...we got 
> the mills.")
> 
> -- former Californians anxious to replicate Marin County in the 
> Willamette Valley (the famous map showing Interstate 5 veering _around_ 
> Oregon, and the famous saying "Don't Californicate Oregon," a slogan 
> written by ex-Californians)
> 
> -- the most extreme of the back-to-Nature crowd (Eugene, Medford, etc.)
> 
> -- inner city ghettoes (in Portland, notably) which are the equal of 
> any back east
> 
> 
The feeling I get is that Oregon combines the worst of California and
the 'classic Western' states.

California has a highly intrusive, interventionist government, but this
is leavened by the liberalism of many of the positions it holds. Thus,
while California is really bad for some individual rights (such as the
RKBA), it's fairly libertine on others (such as lifestyles).

In the 'classic Western' states (I'm thinking of Wyoming, Montana,
Nevada, Idaho, etc, and I don't claim to be really well informed on this),
while the general population holds pretty rightwing views, this is
leavened by a strain of semi-libertarianism in the government, in the
'don't intevene' sense.

Oregon seems to combine the worst of both, along with none of the
good points - a highly intrusive California style government, with
very rightwing views.

Peter