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Here we are again in chilly November, breathing the crisp, cold, polluted-with-fireplace-smoke air, a refreshing reminder that the Forest Fires of Summer are only six months away, or maybe five months if dry, hot summer again comes early. You have your well-to-do neighbors who love charring logs to thank for the smog that covers Portland every winter, plus those who can afford a house, but apparently can’t afford heating, so burn garbage instead.
Multnomah County has its toothless, futile No Burn Days, but without anyone enforcing them, the smoke curls into the air and into your eyes, nose, throat and—wait! isn’t there a medical specialty for that? You wonder why Portland’s physicians haven’t protested the dangerous wood smoke, but maybe they are enjoying the fees from asthmatic kids, the emergency room visits of oldsters with COPD, and the like. What about the environmentalists? Narry a complaint from them, because…….fireplaces are an American right? like eating meat? like working for polluting corporations? like not paying your taxes if you can afford a fancy lawyer? like ruining the earth for your children?
Now how’s that for a rant? Too bad the idiots who should read it, won’t. Excuse me, I have to go cough up my guts.

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