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August 14, 2008 Opinions |
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—Editorial—
Mosquitoes With WNV Really Bug Me
Mosquitoes have been a little more than a nuscience in the past in North America, nothing more than a bothersome little buzz that flies around your ear keeping you up at night and producing an occasional welt. But now those little blood-sucking insects can cause more than just an annoying itch.
In 2007 there 3,404 confirmed cases of West Nile virus (WNV) and 98 deaths nationwide; in Oregon there were 26 cases of West Nile Virus last year.
Two weeks ago mosquitoes with WNV were discovered in Baker County. A little over a week ago a young boy was admitted to St. Elizabeth Health Services for WNV, but it was undetermined whether he contracted it here or at his home in Nevada.
I remember a few years ago veterinarians and epidemiologists were saying it’s not a matter of if the virus will hit Oregon, it’s a matter of when, and it appears when is now.
So far experts say the best way to protect yourself against mosquito bites and the WNV is to wear insect repellent. Unfortunately, it takes a pretty potent chemical like DEET to ward off one of the hungry bugs and it poses one of those - are the preventative measures worse than the disease quandaries.
Products containing DEET have the following warning labels:
• Do not apply over cuts, wounds, or irritated skin.
• Do not apply to hands or near eyes and mouth of young children.
• Do not allow young children to apply this product.
• After returning indoors, wash treated skin with soap and water.
• Do not use under clothing.
• Do not spray in enclosed areas.
So basically what they are saying is that in order to safely repel mosquitoes, only adults can spray it outside on their shoes – and I doubt mosquitoes, as talented as they are, could bore through a 1/4” thick Nike anyway.
Warnings also state not to be exposed to prolonged use of the chemical. What does that mean – protect yourself from mosquitoes three days a week and take your chances the other four?
I don’t like the idea of using toxic chemicals or the risk getting bitten by an infected mosquito – that doesn’t leave a lot of options – or at least I thought until I started looking into non toxic mosquito repellents and was amazed at all of the alternatives I found.
Iowa State University Department of Entomology did a study and came to the conclusion that the oil in catnip is 10 times more effective at repelling mosquitoes than DEET.
Other oils that have been found useful as mosquito busters include citronella, lemon eucalyptus, cinnamon, cedar and peppermint.
We also had a reader write in this week with a recipe for mosquito repellent that includes Avon’s Skin So Soft.
I’m not advocating these remedies because I’ve never tried them, don’t know if they work and don’t know if they could cause skin/respiratory problems. Nor would I want to discourage the use of DEET, if that’s the only alternative to being infected with WNV. But I would like to know if there are better, safer alternatives.
I think nature provides some of the answers. Birds, especially swallows, bats, dragon flies and frogs eat mosquitoes so it makes sense to try and attract these outdoor friends to your yard. One report I found stated that a bat can eat 600 mosquitoes in an hour. That’s pretty amazing when you consider I can only manage to flatten about three an hour. Bats are kind of creepy critters, but not as creepy as WNV.
The Baker Vector Control District has done a great job at keeping the mosquito larvae populations down in this area, but I’m wondering if there is more that we can do. If you have discovered ways to keep mosquitoes at bay, please write to us (P.O. Box 70, Baker City, OR 97814, news@therc online.com) or call (541-523-5353) and share your discoveries. (DS)
—Guest Opinion—
Oregon’s Land Use Wars Against The Middle Class
By Steve Culley
Martin Luther finally got fed up and nailed a challenge to the establishment to the Cathedral door. He was a heretic of course and ran the risk of being burned at the stake. I’m a land use heretic. I proclaim that the Tom McCall doctrine of state wide land use laws have destroyed the Oregon I knew and it is time for a reformation. Instead of being a forward looking system it has instead returned us to the feudal system of medieval Europe wherein only the rich can be landed gentry, the peasant can own nothing and as far as I know there is no requirement that the people buying that land we saved have to be U.S. citizens. I hate to think what might happen if communist China decides to spend that trillion U.S. dollars they have in the bank in Oregon. Being communists they would feel right at home.
The old environmentalists of the 70s knew the driving force behind all environmental issues was the number of people impacting the world we live in. McCall got us to believe that if we just planned and zoned and controlled the herd we could stave off that inevitable “sprawl” or country living as it used to be called.
Those sinners who would have liked to own a piece of land in a Jeffersonian republic had to be brought under the control of a system with shades of Mao and Stalin whereby forced urbanization would save farmland, open space and wildlife habitat. There was no reason to limit immigration, which accounts for 90 percent of our 100 million added people since we bought the McCall doctrine. Oregon is the green state we said and land use organizations sprang up nation wide even though our middle left coast state is the only one that has seen fit to have all decisions subject to the whims of a few true believers of a centralized state in Salem. The environmentalists of today form organizations and collect money to fight for fish, water, land, forests, etc. and ignore the root cause of the destruction. Like lemmings off a cliff they march toward a green nirvana.
It is the young people who are just now starting to raise their families, who have children, grandchildren, to us baby boomers who should be paying attention and attending the meetings that the high priests of green, Thousand Friends of Oregon, and the LCDC hierarchy put on because they and their kids will be the ones impacted by decisions that are made now. I see little chance of that happening.
Politics is a dirty word so let the few make their decisions for them seems to the norm. Mention LCDC to them and you will get a “what’s LCDC?” Ignorance seems to be bliss. No matter that the knuckleheads who endorse this system think, an over populated over regulated state is the wave of the future.
My own version of LCDC, the Land Conservation and Development Commission, or Department of Land Conservation and Development is that it’s an organization of damned fools who want to make sure you always live in a house that costs much more than it should because land has been forced artificially high by limiting the supply. This is done by zoning almost all of the land outside an urban growth boundary into large unaffordable blocks of subprime timber grazing or exclusive farm use land that are saved for the newly arrived who made their money in big population areas. They lived most of their lives there and now want to escape from their over populated homelands. Usually they have a leftist bent to them that would recoil at the notion of stopping any more people from coming into the country because, “we are a nation of immigrants,” “they are just here to feed their families,” “are looking for a better life,” etc. The political parties left and right form an unholy alliance in the push for “comprehensive” immigration laws or translated as blanket amnesty because those on the left think with their hearts instead of their brains and the right likes a labor surplus. Farmers and ranchers see tough land use laws as a way to keep foo foo coffee drinkers from moving in next door. Both compete for the votes of the newly arrived third world new comers and the native born Oregonian lives behind an urban growth boundary because we have too many people “sprawling.”
It’s time to return land use decisions to the county level. We will have to fight the same fights because as of yet the national policy of unlimited population growth is still in effect and there are great pressures to increase the numbers of new Americans instead of stopping growth. But at least the people making the decisions will be close at hand, not some faceless true believer at the top of 15 appeals and years away. It’s a concept of local control over your lives, democracy and freedom, something that is rapidly going out of style.
I say that the whole thing has to be changed. The McCall doctrine must be repudiated. Close up shop on LCDC. Put them out of business and chalk it up to a dark ages of Oregon history. Save the money and the aggravation.
How to do that with so many true believers among those on the left side of the state and in the legislature? I say get two county commissioners with some guts and pass an ordinance opting out of statewide land use laws. The Oregonian will raise hell, the governor who plans to move here after his years of sticking it to us will have a proclamation, the legislature will threaten pulling funds and Thousand Friends will howl at the moon. But I think several east side counties will follow suit. The feel of revolution and reformation will be in the air. It will feel good.
Of course finding two commissioners with a will to fight might be a problem.
Elections could change that, but if not much happens on that front then maybe a revolt whereby property tax payers buy a Certificate of Deposit instead of paying their property taxes might be effective for convincing the leadership to change thinking. Foreclosure will take about 3 years. The county couldn’t survive 3 years now if a significant portion of their population got on board. With the drying up of timber money that period of time would be much shorter. I’m sure there are other creative ways to get a point across. Little things like refusing to recycle would force mandatory higher costs for curbside recycling if the city continues to support the state laws.
I have to admit I heard some good things while I stayed at the LCDC meeting. County governments are catching on to the fact that Oregon is saved for the rich and that it is a playground for the second home absentee land owner who fancies himself a rancher. Wallowa County is 67 percent absentee land owners and I suspect that other counties have a problem, but there has been no study on just who it is that owns Oregon. I was in Grant County a few weeks back and heard rumors that Arabs were buying it up. Who knows? What is plain as day is that Oregon embarked on a class war when it instituted statewide land use laws.
In the next few weeks the call will go out to attend BIG LOOK meetings. These are an outgrowth of the measure 37 revolution. The true believers panicked and thought maybe they ought to give the illusion that the all powerful gods of green actually care about the peasants, but I think it will be more of the 1970’s snow job that gave rise to this insanity in the first place. The legislature will have the final say and Measure 49 showed us where they stand. Give your opinion, but keep in mind that Thousand Friends have already stacked the deck with testimony from the left. What needs to b done is getting on with the death of state control and return to county level land use decisions.
— Letters—
The Audacity Of Hope
To The Record-Courier:
A short time ago, I was cautioned by an Obama fan that I shouldn’t make any pronouncements about Barack’s running for president without first having had the experience of reading his book, “The Audacity of Hope.” With a bit of difficulty, I finished the lengthy work. He writes well, for a lawyer, but has that lawyerly love for stringing clauses together with semicolons. The fifth sentence in the prologue is 98 words long. And would you believe a sentence 150 words long? (p. 96)
His words ring with the audacity of hope, but often do little more than recount where change is needed to return our nation to what it once was. In Chapter 8, he and his editor talk about America’s past and present relations with the rest of the world revealing the sound ways and the mistaken ways problem situations have been dealt with. Throughout the chapter I kept waiting for suggestions of what could be done to effect change but came away disappointed. After reading the 362 pages of interesting economic, political, racial, and cultural history, my evaluation has not changed much. His campaign still appears low on substance, high on whine.
Therefore, my gratuitous advice to Senator Obama would be that he remain in the Senate and, hopefully, accomplish something there. If the United States elects someone from the Senate to the highest office in the land, he or she should at least have a noteworthy record as a senator. While he is gaining experience in the Senate, the fledgling Senator from Illinois might be able to inspire his colleagues to alter the ways they conduct business, thus providing positive change. He should listen to Senator Byrd who reportedly cautioned him that he would do well, but should not be in a rush as so many senators have been by fixating on the White House. (p.100)
I think the man truly believes he can bring about the change he talks about; however, his approach reminds me of two of the most memorable dreamers in Literature: Don Quixote de La Mancha and Walter Mitty. “To hell with the handkerchief, Dulcinea.”
Robert Heriza
Baker City
East-West Shrine Game Thanks You!
To The Record-Courier:
An event the size of the Oregon East-West Shrine Game requires hundreds of hours of planning, full community involvement and businesses dedicated to its success.
The East-West Shrine Game is lucky to have a group of businesses and people who willingly donate their time, services and materials needed to make this happen. Sometimes in the rush to complete this project, a Thank You can be overlooked, but they are never forgotten.
If I have forgotten to Thank You personally; on behalf of the East-West Shrine Game, I express my sincere appreciation for your generous support in making the 2008 East-West Shrine Game the huge success it is.
No matter where I go in Shrine, I always say, “The funest day I ever have, is Saturday in Baker City!”
Tom Reeves, Chairman
East-West Shrine Game
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