Showing posts with label oregon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label oregon. Show all posts
9 Hours, 235 Miles, 150 Balloons
Kent Couch is no couch potato.
Couch, a 48-year-old gas station owner from Grants Pass, OR, attached 150 giant party balloons to a lawn chair, filled them with helium and sailed away into the wild blue yonder.
Well, into Idaho over the Fourth of July weekend.
Reports said that Couch's goal was to fly 300 miles or more from "his gas station in central Oregon to somewhere in Idaho, preferably Boise."
If at first you don't succeed, fly, fly again. This was Couch's third attempt at lawn-chair flying.
“The first time, nobody wanted to be involved at all,” Mr. Couch told the Associated Press in a phone interview Wednesday. “They were thinking I was a lunatic, I mean a balloon-atic. My friends shunned me. But this time it's different. “
Couch is part of a small, but dedicated group of flying lawn-chair enthusiasts.
* Priest Tethered to Helium Balloons Still Missing off Coast of Brazil, details the exploits of these brave, some say crazy, souls, including Couch's earlier attempts.
Mr. Couch made his first ascent in 2006, floating for six hours before shooting out a few balloons with his pellet gun to descend. He apparently shot out too many balloons because he had to use his parachute to land. He never found the lawn chair.
Last year, he flew 193 miles before running low on helium and landing in a patch of sagebrush. A gust of wind blew away that chair. It was found in May by a ranchers checking the fence line on their eastern Oregon property.
Couch said that while flying in a lawn chair tied to ballooons is "inherently risky, the ride is generally carefree".
Couch's flying machine may be somewhat primitive, but his flying technique is also low-tech.
“If I get up around 15,000 feet, I'll pop a couple balloons,” Mr. Couch said. “If I get too low, I'll release some water. All the way you go it's like a seesaw, up and down, up and down. You can't feel yourself going up and down. You have to look at the altimeter.”
So how did Kent Couch do? Did he make it, or will there be a fourth attempt?
* LIFT: Each giant helium-filled balloon gives about four pounds of lift. Couch's lawn-chair getup weighs about 400 pounds; Couch and his parachute, about 200. About 150 balloons are needed to lift the total of 600 pounds into the air.  * MEASUREMENTS: Couch uses an altimeter, a device which shows how high off the ground he is. Parachutists use an watch-like altimeter strapped to their wrists--Couch probably used one of these. Some reports also said he carried a Global Positioning System device. * CONTROLS: To descend, Kent Couch uses a BB-gun pistol to pop a few balloons. A blow gun with steel darts was also used, according to some reports. "I'd go to 30,000 feet if I didn't shoot a balloon down periodically," Mr. Couch said. To gain altitude, he dumps some of the 45 gallons of Kool-Aid he brings along. * COMMUNICATION: Couch's communication system consisted of a satellite phone. |
Kent Couch created a sensation in the tiny farming community of Cambridge, Idaho, where he touched down safely in a pasture and was soon greeted by dozens of people who gave him drinks of water, local plumber Mark Hetz said.
"My wife works at the City Market," Mr. Hetz said. "She called and said, 'The balloon guy in the lawn chair just flew by the market, and if you look out the door you can see him.'"
"We go outside to look, and lo and behold, there he is. He's flying by probably 100 to 200 feet off the ground.
"He takes his BB gun and shoots some balloons to lower himself to the ground. When he hit the ground he released all the little tiny balloons. People were racing down the road with cameras. They were all talking and laughing."
The 235-mile journey by helium-balloon-in-lawn-chair took about nine hours.
Couch was encouraged by his trusty spouse, Susan.
"He's crazy."
What's does the future hold for Kent Couch?
One report said that "if all goes well this year, the lawn-chair pilot says he'd like to fly across the English Channel and even Australia."
The world is your oyster--once you've flown to another state in your lawn-chair.
Sources:
* Man flying to Idaho in chair
* The Flying Lawn Chair Open Registration Thread - Closed
* Lawn-chair pilot lands safely in Idaho
The Oregon Health Plan:
When the Government Runs Health Care
"Elect me and your health care problems will all be over." The people of Oregon fell for that line almost 20 years ago. Expecting Utopia, what they got was a reality check: a lottery to pick who's covered and suicide coverage--instead of cancer drugs. |
In 1989. Oregon became the second State, after Hawaii, to attempt complete medical coverage of it's citizens.
It has not gone as planned.
In fact, it seems to be approaching disaster. Within a few year:
In early 2003, the Oregon Health Plan (OHP) implemented cost saving strategies, reducing benefits and increasing cost-sharing for a substantial portion of its members
Cost-sharing meant that people were being charged premium for the previously funded care. So we have a reduction in Medical care and services, and increased cost. But the degeneration of the plan did not end there. In March of this year, wire services carried the following:
Tens of thousands of Oregonians queued up quickly for a chance at the state’s latest lottery, but this one is no game.
Officials began drawing names last week for a chance at some rare openings in the state’s healthcare plan.
Announced in February, the lottery drew 91,675 hopefuls in 30 days. The winners will receive a postcard notifying them that they can apply for the Oregon Health Plan.
"Budget limitations capped the Oregon Health Plan standard benefit package in mid-2004. Now the plan has room for a few thousand people. The lottery winners will be the first new applicants since the cap was imposed.
When it was fully funded, it was considered a trailblazing program.
In 1996, the benefit package enrolled five times as many people as are enrolled today, and only 10.7% of Oregon’s population lacked insurance, compared with about 16% today.
Yes, you read that correctly. Not only are the numbers of uninsured increasing dramatically, with only 24,000 insured, but to get on the 'Universal" plan, you must participate in a lottery.
In June of 2008, it got far worse.
The "Universal" plan does not, apparently include medical care for seriously potentially terminal disease.As The Catholic News Agency reported:
Oregon health plan covers assisted suicide, not drugs, for cancer patient"
Eugene, Jun 6, 2008 / 01:09 am ( CNA).- An Oregon woman suffering from lung cancer was notified by the state-run Oregon Health Plan that their policy would not cover her life-extending cancer drug, telling her the health plan would cover doctor-assisted suicide instead.
That was not a misprint.
On October 27, 1997 Oregon enacted the Death with Dignity Act which allows terminally-ill Oregonians to end their lives through the voluntary self-administration of lethal medications, expressly prescribed by a physician for that purpose.
In 2008, as a cost control measure, Oregon apparently incorporated the act into it's failing health care plan--because it is far easier to kill patients than to save them. The publicity of the story ultimately saved the patient. The manufacturer of the life preserving drug stepped up and offered it to the patient.
The story appears to be a happy ending for Barbara Wagner, who has been notified by a drug manufacturer that it will provide the expensive medication, estimated to cost $4,000 a month, for the first year and then allow her to apply for further treatment, according to a report in the Eugene Register-Guard.
But the word from the state was coverage for palliative care, which would include the state's assisted suicide program, would be allowed but not coverage for the cancer treatment drugs.
"To say to someone, we'll pay for you to die, but not pay for you to live, it's cruel," Wagner told the newspaper. "I get angry. Who do they think they are?"
Dignity?
Anything but. Oregon now has half the physicians it needs. It rations health care like no other State. It has become a bizarre replication of the Soviet health care system of old;socialism run amok.
The cure? You guessed it?
"We don't know, and the American public doesn't know, what is going to happen in the next two to three to four years nationally," Speight said. "There are things we can do at a state level that can work with a national model."
Yeah. They want you to pay for their failure and participate in this irrational death factory.
images:
* onthefencefilms
*
sources
* http://www.commonwealthfund
* http://seattletimes.nwsource
* http://www.worldnetdaily.com
* http://www.catholicnewsagency
The following links will take you to Jennifer Moss pictures and videos. Be warned: they are all NSFW.
Photo #1 - Jennifer Moss: Naked Lady to March Topless in July 4 Parade-Photo 1
Photo #2 - Jennifer Moss: Naked Lady to March Topless in July 4 Parade-Photo 2
Video #1 - Jennifer Moss: Naked Lady to March Topless in July 4 Parade-Video 1
Jennifer like to skate.
Video #2 - Jennifer Moss: Naked Lady to March Topless in July 4 Parade-Video 2
"Earth Friend Jen" hugs and kisses a tree.
Video #3 - Jennifer Moss: Naked Lady to March Topless in July 4 Parade-Video 3
Jen skates around Ashland.
They are all separate links for the workplace-viewing-challenged.
by Mondoreb
"I am wearing a hemp g-string. The real American fabric of our lives!"
--Jennifer Moss, formerly "The Pastie Lady" & "Earth Friend Jen"; new nickname: "The Naked Lady"
for the environment and hemp.
Jennifer Moss, the Environmental Exhibitionist--also known as "The Pastie Lady", "The Naked Lady" and "Earth Friend Jen"--is back in the news again. This time, the former resident of Ojai, CA has announced that she'll march--or skate--topless in the Ashland, OR (her new home) 4th of July parade.
This is not as big a step for Moss as one might think: she usually skates and bikes around town in a hemp g-string and pasties. So, she's losing about 5-6 square inches of covering for the Fourth of July event. But the town's Chamber of Commerce says the parade is a family celebration and she can't participate nearly nude.
If Moss can't roll in the parade, she says she'll sue.
No word on what she'll wear--or not wear--to court, in the event of a legal wrangle.
Moss often rides topless through the streets of Ashland, a town that requires the groin to be covered. Apparently, the Ashland Chamber of Commerce isn't too thrilled about seeing more of Jen. They're saying that the parade is a family event and Jen's toplessness is more than most families want to see.
Moss says she'll sue the town if she isn't allowed to march, skate or ride topless.
ALSO at DBKP: * Jennifer Moss: The Naked Lady Pictures and Videos * Pastie Lady Rolls North to Oregon * Jennifer Moss, Pastie Lady: Environmental Exhibitionist Too Liberal for Liberal Town |
Jen Moss has been known as "The Naked Lady" since she moved to Ashland in May from Ojai, Calif., drawn by the town's nudity laws. They specify only that people must cover their genitalia in a city park or the downtown commercial district, which means Moss need not cover her breasts.
The police in California, she says, harassed her when she rode her bicycle wearing a G-string and pasties.
The popular holiday celebration is a big deal in Ashland, drawing thousands of onlookers, including many families, according to reports.
The Ashland Chamber of Commerce learned of her coverage plans from an online posting. She promised to lead in-line skaters "wearing only a hemp G-string and blowing a conch shell."
"We don't feel that someone in the parade who is topless or nearly naked is appropriate for a family audience," said parade chairman James Kidd.
Kidd said that parade "entries must be appropriate for a family audience."
"She's welcome on any other day of the year to do that," he said. "But not on the Fourth of July while in the parade."
But not all of the City Council agrees with Kidd. Council member Eric Navickas said he's favors a topless Moss. He somehow worked in a reference to U.S. foreign policy to justify parading a topless Moss in front of the kids on the Fourth.
If she can't be in the parade, Navickas said, it would be "an interesting commentary on our society that we're willing to tolerate dead bodies through our aggressive foreign policy from the war, but not healthy, naked bodies."
Moss was arrested several times in Ojai for skating nearly nude in front of churches on Sunday as church-goers were exiting services.
After all that, she then packed up her pasties and headed north to Ashland.
The Environmental Exhibitionist professes a love for the earth, trees and hemp.
She didn't say, but her loves also include attention.
by Mondoreb
Sources/images:
* ojaivalleynews
* Oregon woman plans to parade topless on July 4
* Jennifer Moss: The Naked Lady Pictures and Videos
* Pastie Lady Rolls North to Oregon
* Jennifer Moss, Pastie Lady: Environmental Exhibitionist Too Liberal for Liberal Town
NSFW video
Not Safe for Work
----
Video #3: Jennifer Skates Around Ashland, OR (1:25 minutes long)
NOTE: Through about half of this video, the cameraman is taking footage of the sidewalk of Ashland.
Find more videos like this on EQ CONNECT
Jennifer Moss, formerly known as the “Pastie Lady” or “Earth Friend Jen”, when she pedaled the streets of Ojai, CA, rolled north to Ashland, OR. Now, she’s known as “The Naked Lady” and will march topless in the town’s Fourth of July parade.
Moss, pictured above, is wearing a hemp g-string. Tagged “The Environmental Exhibitionist” by DBKP, she claims that she wears her skimpy outfits to call attention to environmental issues.
Apparently, the cameraman was so moved by the persuasiveness of Moss, that he forgot to shoot her skating--for about half of the above video.
by Mondoreb
Source/image: connect.eq.tv
NSFW video
Not Safe for Work
----
Video #2: Jennifer Hugs and Kisses a Tree (1:14 minutes long)
Find more videos like this on EQ CONNECT
Jennifer Moss, formerly known as the “Pastie Lady” or “Earth Friend Jen”, when she pedaled the streets of Ojai, CA, rolled north to Ashland, OR. Now, she’s known as “The Naked Lady” and will march topless in the town’s Fourth of July parade.
Moss, pictured above, is wearing a hemp g-string. Tagged “The Exhibitionist Environmentalist” by DBKP, she claims that she wears her skimpy outfits to call attention to environmental issues.
by Mondoreb
Source/image: connect.eq.tv
NSFW
Not Safe for Work
---
"I am wearing a hemp g-string. The real American fabric of our lives!"
--Jennifer Moss, formerly the "Pastie Lady", now known as "The Naked Lady"
Jennifer Moss, formerly known as the “Pastie Lady” or “Earth Friend Jen”, when she pedaled the streets of Ojai, CA, rolled north to Ashland, OR. Now, she’s known as “The Naked Lady” and will march topless in the town’s Fourth of July parade.
Moss, pictured above, is wearing a hemp g-string. Tagged “The Exhibitionist Environmentalist” by DBKP, she claims that she wears her skimpy outfits to call attention to environmental issues.
G-string: does the "g" stands for "Good golly, Miss Molly"?
by Mondoreb
Source/image: connect
NSFW photo
Not safe for work
----
Jennifer Moss, formerly known as the "Pastie Lady" or "Earth Friend Jen", when she pedaled the streets of Ojai, CA, rolled north to Ashland, OR. Now, she's known as "The Naked Lady" and will march topless in the town's Fourth of July parade.
Moss, pictured above, is wearing a hemp g-string. Tagged "The Exhibitionist Environmentalist" by DBKP, she claims that she wears her skimpy outfits to call attention to environmental issues.
Makes one want to run out and hug a tree.
by Mondoreb
image/source:
* curvyjen
Jennifer Moss, the "Pastie Lady", who pedaled her bicycle up and down the streets of Ojai, CAL, wearing only pasties and a bikini bottom, to draw attention--she claims--to earth issues, is moving north.
To Oregon, to be exact.
The environmental exhibitionist is going to colder climes and, she's hoping, an area more hospitable to her unique discussion of environmental problems.
Jennifer Moss, 32, caused community strife and gained local celebrity for the bike rides she took daily through the center of town, clad only in a hemp G-string and pasties.
But last week, she said she'd grown tired of police harassment in the Ventura County city of 8,000, and moved to Ashland, Ore.
ALSO at DBKP:
* Jennifer Moss, Pastie Lady: Environmental Exhibitionist Too Liberal for Liberal Town
Moss ought to be thinking of branching out--especially in a new locale.
Maybe she should see if she can add a pole to her bike.
by Mondoreb
source: Ojai's Pastie Lady Heads for Oregon
Will the MySpace Mayor Ride Quietly into the Sunset?
The most famous underwear in small-town mayoral politics has surfaced--so to speak--again.
This time, it has cost Carmen Kontur-Gronquist her job as Arlington, OR mayor.
DBKP has been reporting on the curveous mayor since her sexy MySpace photos were passed around Arlington and she ran into trouble last month.
More DBKP MySpace Mayor stories:  More on the adventures of the MySpace Mayor, Carmen Kontur-Gronquist and her battle to hang onto her job as the her town battled to hang onto its dignity. The stories include videos and pictures of Arlington's racy mayor and her adventures after she used the town's firetruck for a photo shoot for her MySpace page. January 13, 2008 * MySpace Mayor Poses in Underwear on Town's Firetruck January 29, 2008 * MySpace Mayor Quiet as Others Ride to Her Rescue February 26, 2008 * MySpace Mayor Loses Job after Losing all her Clothes but her Underwear |
As we reported yesterday, Kontur-Gronquist, is now looking for work.
From yesterday's story:
First, she stripped down to her bra and panties for pictures on the town's firetruck for her MySpace page.
Then, the town of Arlington, OR stripped Carmen Kontur-Gronquist of her job as mayor.
Voters in Arlington, population about 500, voted narrowly on Monday night to recall Carmen Kontur-Gronquist.
The tally was reportedly 142-139. City officials said the recall is effective Tuesday and at that time, the mayor will be looking for work.
Kontur-Gronquist said the pictures of her in black bra and panties were taken for use in a contest about fitness, but a relative posted them on MySpace in hopes it would improve the social life of the single mother.
The mayor was the center of a controversy when the pictures were circulated throughout the town.
Some of the citizens had a 'live and let live' attitude, saying that it was her private life and no business of anyone else.
Others replied that Kontur-Gronquist did her provocative photography on the town's property--the firetruck--and that wasn't exactly the image the small Oregon town was trying to project to the rest of the world.
The pictures predated her election, but she said she saw no reason to take them off the popular Web site, MySpace, once elected three years ago. Later, she closed access to them.
If one signed onto her MySpace page, the mayor indicated that her mood was "silly".
Opponents said it wasn't fitting for the mayor to be so depicted. They said they also disagreed with her on issues about water and the local golf course
.
And now, the MySpace Mayor will ride off into the sunset of media awareness.
Unless of course, the mayor gets a photo spread in Hustler or perhaps even Playboy, if she gets hard-up for cash, and re-enters the public consciousness.
She can take solace in one important point in her political favor.
At least her opponents can't say she had anything to hide.
As DBKP regular pat commented, "I would have kept her."
That thought echoed many that have appeared in the recall of the lusty politician.
Carmen Kontur-Gronquist wasn't in the public eye--aside from her MySpace exposure, that is--for very long. But she seemed to us like a "fun-loving girl".
DBKP will try and ascertain what the mayor's next step will be. We haven't made contact yet, and our emails go unanswered.
Perhaps the mayor is weighing very important financial offers--like a photo shoot in something a bit more lucrative than MySpace.
Playboy, anyone?
Attempts to contact Carmen will continue. People seem to be interested in the plucky--if injudicious--politician. And we don't feel like we know anything about her, really.
We'd hate to see her just fade away.
Carmen, we hardly knew ye.
by Mondoreb
image: file; FOX
Source: Oregon Residents recall Mayor who posed in underwear on firetruck
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.
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