Portland is still putting a Bird on it!

Rachael Townsend spotted the handmade sign, stapled to a telephone pole, while on a walk with her mom near Scott Elementary School.

“Are you tired of Tinder?” it asked. “Want to meet a local? My boredom can benefit you! Let me interview you and potentially find you a perfect match!”

The sign made Townsend laugh.

“I just thought, ‘That’s hilarious – I’m going to give it a shot,’” the 37-year-old massage therapist recalled.

Townsend rarely used dating apps like Tinder, finding them “too anxiety-producing. I didn’t feel like this was the way I was going to meet somebody.”

So, following the sign’s instructions, she texted “Match” to the phone number listed.

A reply quickly arrived, assuring her, “This is no joke. I’m a real person.”

It was January 2021, and though Townsend didn’t know it, she was getting in on the ground floor of a unique Portland experiment.

Not long after that text exchange, she found herself bundled up and wearing a mask on a fold-out chair in a snow-clogged driveway. Opposite her was Autum Bird, a 33-year-old local barber. Bird, a laptop on her knees, peppered her with questions:

https://www.oregonlive.com/history/2022/06/having-trouble-finding-a-meaningful-relationship-in-portland-put-autum-bird-on-it.html

Asking for advice.

As a mystery writer wannabe - I have completed two manuscripts and have a story concept for a third novel in a series - I am really struggling with the whole butt-in-chair routine given my sense of despair and loss of bearings in the midst of our current political, social, physical and environmental states if chaos. Since it’s not how I make a living this is not an urgent problem for me, but if there was a way for me to find my way back to focusing on something positive - like good, old fashioned murder, mayhem, truth and justice - my waking hours would be much better spent than with my current pattern of worrying and doomscrolling. So please weigh in on how you’re managing to cope and stay creative and productive in the midst of so much overall misery and uncertainty.

For Moi, recreational writing is a lot cheaper than knitting.

All are punished!

Depraved indifference to human life!

What Is Depraved Indifference

Depraved indifference is a type of conduct that lacks so much regard for the life of another person that it may warrant criminal liability to the same degree as a person intentionally committing a crime.

When assessing a person’s act, to qualify as “depraved indifference”, it’s important to look at the risk generated by the person’s conduct and not necessarily the consequences of injuries caused by the conduct.

In the United States, a depraved-heart murder or depraved indifference murder is a type of murder caused by a person’s depraved indifference to the human life although the person may not have had an explicit intention to murder.

In this type of situation, the defendant recognizes that his or her actions can result in the death of another or there is a high likelihood that another may die but chooses to ignore the risk.

The law considers that the person’s indifference or lack of concern for the risk to the life of another is so grave that the actions should be considered as a crime as if the person had malicious intent.

https://lawyer.zone/depraved-indifference/

Russian army, Texas law enforcement.

It’s the corruption, stupid!

A gun lobby sleeper cell?

Oregon Independent gubernatorial candidate, Betsy Johnson, has run hard hitting TV ads about how she will solve all of our problems by using her experience in our state legislature to bring the two parties together to solve our most urgent problems. They are good, hard hitting ads with a strong centrist message.

When Tina Kotek won the Democratic nomination last week I worried that her strong liberal record as our House Speaker since 2013 might make her vulnerable to Johnson’s, perhaps broader, statewide appeal.

This evening, however, when questioned by the host of a local NBC affiliated news show, she doggedly tried to defend her unwavering pro-gun lobby voting record and dug in on her pro-gun lobby stance. Which, for me, begs the question of where her loyalties truly lie and why she’s running as an Independent candidate for Oregon’s governor.

GOOD GRIEF, SCAM ALERT!

I just received this text message:

[ALERT] Your profile shows you voted Republican in 2016.

Who did you vote for in 2016?
CLINTON… (removed link)
TRUMP… (removed link)

Please correct your record in the next 23 minutes. Failure to respond will interfere with our 2022 voter turnout strategy.

Stop Republicans

Reply Stop to end

Here is a balm for the soul.

As cynical as it sounds, what about quantifying gun

violence’s total economic cost? Or the total economic/productivity cost of ignoring public safety measures during a pandemic. Oh, never mind.

Let us prey!

Is that what those Baptist preachers have been saying all along. Is it really just a matter of semantics?