Pubdate: Thu, 01 Sep 2011 Source: Albany Democrat-Herald (OR) Copyright: 2011 Lee Enterprises Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/HPOp5PfB Website: http://www.democratherald.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/7 WHY IS SPACE STATION THERE? The International Space Station may have to be abandoned for a while if the Russians can't fix what might be wrong with the Soyuz launch vehicle, which now is the only means of getting people there. This raises an old question: Why exactly is that space station there? For years it has circled the Earth in near orbit. Its ostensible purpose is research. Every once in a while we hear of some school project in which seeds or bugs or even mice are taken to the space station. The results of this experimentation don't come readily to mind. Maybe one of the purposes of the station is to give school children something to think about. Questionable zone Linn County has determined that a fledgling "horticulture center" with a marijuana orientation is allowed in the "urban development II" zoning district on a little side street near where Oakville Road meets Highway 34. It's the right decision, but it also again calls into question the nature of that zone. The neighborhood is a semi-industrial one. Qwest is there, and there are other workshops and offices. Nobody lives within a stone's throw of the former Oregon Medical Marijuana Patient Resource Center. The place produced little traffic. If people wanted to meet there and get tips about medical marijuana, they would bother no one. They would interfere with nothing. No job-producing industry would be affected, let alone displaced. But because it might be considered a club, the zoning did not allow it. So a reasonable person is forced to ask: If it bars a few people from meeting quietly inside a building without ill effect on anything or anyone, in a free country what is the legitimacy of such a zone? Reading not optional Oregon is telling young people in high school now they can't get a diploma unless they can demonstrate the ability to read. This is supposed to be a big advance. But learning to read has been the single most important core subject since they invented schools. How was it possible for anyone to get a diploma without being able to read? Who knows, but it's good that finally the subject gets the attention it needs. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.