We understand that several dozen Republicans were elected last November to the House of Representatives in part because they pledged to pursue fiscal sanity in the Capitol.

We recognize too that those lawmakers don’t want to appear, in the eyes of their constituents, as spineless sellouts less than a year later by voting to increase the nation’s debt ceiling.

It’s a lot easier to kill yourself in government-approved fashion in Oregon if you’re a terminal cancer patient than if you’re a convicted double murderer.

Which seems to me a curious situation to prevail in a state that doesn’t trust people to handle certain other, rather less vital tasks.

Pumping fuel into our cars, for instance.

It’s not that I expect Oregon to treat a person on death row, and one who’s at death’s door, as identical cases.

That would be inappropriate, even a trifle silly.

Baker County ranchers have a rare chance to prepare for, rather than react to, the listing of an endangered species.

We hope a lot of them take advantage.

The species is the sage grouse. About one-third of Baker County, mostly in the sagebrush-rich eastern and southern sections, is habitat for the chicken-size bird.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has decided that federal protection for the sage grouse is warranted, but that other species are higher priorities.

There’s a whole lot of hands reaching for a share of federal dollars these days.

But few can make a more compelling case than the one presented by counties in the West, including Baker County.

Here’s why: In dozens of western counties the federal government owns a majority of the land. But the feds don’t pay property taxes on those tens of millions of acres, which deprives the counties, and their public schools, of a significant source of money.

It’s easy to forget the soldiers.

Too easy, for those of us who live, almost without exception, lives of tranquility.

The headlines tell of debt ceiling debates and prospective presidential candidates and mothers acquitted by a jury but convicted by the court of public opinion.

Iraq and Afghanistan can begin to seem more distant, more historical.

Until you read about Spc. Christopher Soderholm, a National Guardsman from Baker City whose story, in the July 13 issue, is like a dash of frigid water splashed on your cheeks.