Big Brother in Portland

A police state in the USA? The FBI was caught with its hand in the cookie-jar today when it tried to recruit a mid-level city employee to report on the activities of city councilmen, other employees etc. When questioned, the FBI admitted that it had no ongoing investigation into illegal activity on the part of the city government of Portland, Oregon. Could the fact that Oregon, and especially the Portland metropolitan area is Blue have anything to do with this?

Time to go metric

It seems that it is way past time to make the final plunge and finish the conversion to the metric system. We started many years ago and then abandoned the effort having managed to convert only soft-drink bottles to metric sizes. Yes, there are some conversion costs for some businesses; but the long-term benefits would more than make up for those costs. Our products would cost less to produce and market in the global economy if only one system was being used. Public education would soon have everyone comfortable with the new units (which are the ones used by our military establishment, for example).