Posted Fri, Apr 20, 10:16 a.m.

The article's actually raising more nuanced points than just bewailing the change of the basic business model from paper to electronic media. It's criticizing Amazon's specific ways of doing an e-business, not the fact that it's electronically based. I would much rather give my money to Elliott Bay Books--they'll order ...

Posted Fri, Mar 9, 8:23 a.m.

I think there should be a tax on the media ginning up the stale and predictable Comeback meme.

Posted Tue, Feb 21, 2:11 p.m.

@common1sense, yes, I've eaten mulberries, from a tree at a small organic farm in Olympia where I worked two summers during college (1989 & '91) and have remained a visitor and friend ever since. The mulberry tree is doing fine, which makes me think they probably do well in this ...

Posted Mon, Feb 20, 8:45 a.m.

This is an exciting story! Thanks for reporting it, and in such depth. I hope this concept takes off and inspires many more.

Posted Sun, Sep 18, 11:19 a.m.

I actually enjoyed Lillian Daniel's piece (or what I've read of it, anyway, here in Tony Robinson's piece). It was a rant, but for one thing it made me aware that people say odd things to pastors on planes.I don't mean to take away from the beauty of anyone's sunset--but ...

Posted Thu, Sep 8, 7:58 a.m.

Very true. I think you're describing two different ways of relating to fear, I think at some level it's a choice. The first takes enormous courage, and also I think some kind of faith--faith in other people, in oneself, in spiritual sources. The second is powerfully instinctive, and amounts to ...

Posted Wed, Aug 24, 2:47 p.m.

Knute says: "Science was once utopian, then became a practical problem-solver, then part of the problem." True, and at the same time there have always been people who saw science as a threat because they thought it competed with religion as a way to determine ultimate truth, instead of seeing ...

Posted Wed, Aug 24, 2:28 p.m.

@BlueLight: ?? I don't know how I sound to you, but I'm very sure I'm not feeling arrogant or condescending, and I don't see how you get that from anything I wrote. I'm still very interested in figuring out how to have better conversations with people who see political issues ...

Posted Wed, Aug 24, 10:13 a.m.

@BlueLight: I think that contempt and blame are rotten planks to try to build anything with, and I think that's true whether the contempt is coming from the left or the right or where have you. I don't think you rebuild a house by attacking the house. I think it ...

Posted Wed, Aug 24, 9:35 a.m.

I think Americans have to choose whether to put our energy into trashing our government, or trying to improve it. You can't do both. And as to "with us or against us" partisanship. It takes two to tango. We all have the choice as to whether or not to indulge ...

Posted Mon, Aug 8, 10:34 a.m.

I'm disappointed to hear that McKenna resorts to the "gay marriage threatens our children" bogeyman. I agree that he's a very smart man so I assume he knows this is nonsense. As a couples therapist I see how marriage can be threatened above all by the way partners treat each ...

Posted Mon, Jul 25, 1:28 p.m.

This is really fascinating--especially the "dull opponents to sleep" strategy! DeVoe sounds like a woman of great patience and persistence.

Posted Fri, Jul 22, 12:06 p.m.

@Andy--thank you for enlightening me as to the term for this. "Breakage" seems like a very apt word here. Especially when you consider that people are running into these issues in much more difficult situations than either my client or I face in this case. Psychotherapy is relatively easy to ...

Posted Thu, Jul 21, 7:26 p.m.

@Benjamin--thanks! But I disagree, partly, with your conclusion. What I experienced with this particular insurer (and have had similar experiences with one or two others) is worse than bureaucracy, it's borderline criminality. Many insurance companies behave much, much more responsibly than this. As for how a single-payer system would be, ...

Posted Thu, Jul 21, 12:20 p.m.

What a lovely piece about one of Seattle's best places to watch for birds. I always wonder, when I go there, what kind of sleeping bodies left the smashed-down patches of grass here and there--deer? Now I know a bit more of the story.

Posted Thu, Jul 21, 10:15 a.m.

@kilgoretrout--true, the public and private sectors can be equally bad at delivering health care. And both can do a much better job, too. The state's Uniform Health Plan has been generally great to work with in my experience and from what I hear from colleagues; so has Premera/BlueCross. Today, I ...

Posted Sun, May 22, 10:44 a.m.

Joe, I'm writing with a certain amount of trepidation, not only because I don't want any of the vociferously opinionated online partisans who follow this case to call me names or hack my email, but also, and more to the point, because the ongoing publicity around this case makes me ...

Posted Mon, May 16, 11:25 p.m.

Judy, thank you for this--I hadn't heard about Whitaker's book, and it sounds like important reading. As a psychotherapist, I'm glad to hear signs of a more realistic dialogue about the role of medication in mental-health treatment. I know that the medical model appears to offer a nonjudgmental, pragmatic way ...

Posted Thu, May 5, 1:56 p.m.

I guess I can't think of a better place for a walled fortress to blend in with the neighborhood.

Posted Wed, May 4, 9:07 a.m.

BlueLight, I think that's a larger question that deserves a lot of room for differences of opinion. It's true that Progressive-era social programs have not eliminated tragedy from the human experience! and probably never can, no matter how well funded. And of course there are limits to everything human, including ...

Posted Wed, May 4, 8:30 a.m.

Thank you, Judy, for reporting on these program cuts and the research on the cost-effectiveness of prevention. I think the bottom line is that it's better to prevent complex trauma than to live with its consequences--medical, mental, social. I've been reading Charles Dickens a lot this year. His novels were ...

Posted Mon, Apr 18, 8:20 a.m.

As far as I can tell, Crosscut's editors aren't deleting snark, which is snide, sarcastic commentary. The story that had the comments shut down was about the possibility that people of color may be especially hard hit by budget cuts to food assistance and other safety-net programs. The story mentioned ...

Posted Fri, Apr 15, 8:18 a.m.

@BlueLight--I doubt I would come to share your view, because I think that there are many specific differences between different efforts, and those differences matter. I think there are many interesting problems in the cultural clashes and the bureaucracy inherent in our system's ways of trying to protect and heal ...

Posted Thu, Apr 14, 8:53 a.m.

Daniel, thanks for reporting on this fascinating development. I have a question about the precedent--do you think it's likely Congress could start using this kind of end-run to delist other endangered species? If so, which ones are most vulnerable? I also think BlueLight raises a good question (though I do ...

Posted Thu, Apr 7, 4:32 p.m.

Thank you Collin for this report on a critical and disturbing issue. I wonder how much it costs the average taxpayer to support, say, Basic Health and Apple and the Disability Lifeline combined, or food stamp programs. If you have that kind of information it'd be interesting to know. I ...

Posted Tue, Mar 1, 7:44 a.m.

Thank you. Excellent piece providing some much-needed perspective.

Posted Thu, Feb 17, 12:14 p.m.

Hear, hear, Judy! Though I am willing to concede that the black-and-white thinking John Carlson is extolling has its uses. Sometimes saying, "us is us, and them is them, and who the hell cares about them?" increases our odds of surviving. Well, it's debatable, anyway. Our best leaders have always ...

Posted Tue, Jan 18, 1:56 p.m.

I didn't read Huck Finn in school; I read it at home, and loved it without ever suspecting that it had a message that was supposed to be good for me. Or bad. I thought Twain made it very clear that people who called other people by the n-word were ...

Posted Wed, Jan 12, 8:14 a.m.

@dbrenemen--good point. I haven't often heard any of those commenters calling for killing people in so many words. Though Ann Coulter pretty much says that liberals are traitors and traitors should be shot. I guess I'm talking about the jeering, contemptuous tone and the paranoid characterization of people who disagree ...

Posted Tue, Jan 11, 8:11 a.m.

@dbrenemen--Hm. I don't think I'm proclaiming anything. I mentioned that I work in the mental health field because that offered some background for my comment about psychotic thought processes. I have listened to these folks. I don't consider them my enemies, and I did clearly say I see the left ...

Posted Mon, Jan 10, 1:38 p.m.

@TaylorB1--I agree (and am fascinated to hear that there's a non-gun-related meaning of crosshairs. I can't wait to learn what that might be.) As a mental health professional, let me add that one thing to keep in mind is that people in a psychotic state are often acutely sensitive to ...

Posted Fri, Jan 7, 4:09 p.m.

p.s. @BlueLight, @Cameron et al. -- I respect your right to your opinions, of course, but I can't help thinking that you have no idea who is really helping you, and who is not. There are some good things about our government, and if we don't appreciate them we could ...

Posted Fri, Jan 7, 4 p.m.

Oh, the agony of bureaucracy! I remember when I worked in Olympia in the 90s, and the state auditor wrote up a state worker for using a single letter-size envelope for personal use. (And spent money producing and distributing that report.) When I was a budget analyst, and my job ...

Posted Thu, Dec 16, 4:33 p.m.

Voters believed con men like Tim Eyman, who promised that we could cut taxes forever without actually having to make any hard choices, or take responsibility for the results. It's a flattering message, and it comes with a scapegoat people love to hate--government. Since government is inherently frustrating and far ...

Posted Fri, Dec 10, 2:27 p.m.

Fascinating article! I've just been reading Charles C. Mann's "1491," which describes research into, among other things, agricultural practices in the Americas before Columbus, which fed millions of people. One of the practices was the use of perennials. Another was a novel use of low-temperature burning to actually build healthier ...

Posted Thu, Dec 2, 12:05 p.m.

@Madrona-- This seems to raise the question, can cultures learn? We know they can adapt in all kinds of astonishingly imaginative ways. Societies have found ways to live, more or less sustainably, in deserts, mountains, the Arctic, equatorial jungles, etc. Some cultures do much better than others at living sustainably. ...

Posted Tue, Nov 23, 9:52 p.m.

@eyesopen--I think you're right that the student is having an educational experience in speaking up and having her concerns heard. And maybe I'm being critical without knowing the facts. But in general I stand by the idea that we should teach our kids to respond creatively and thoughtfully to ideas ...

Posted Tue, Nov 23, 5:24 p.m.

What a shame that no one encouraged that student to write the best, most persuasive paper she could write, arguing whatever she wanted to say about Brave New World. Now that would be something to be proud of!

Posted Mon, Nov 22, 7:35 a.m.

Having worked in state government in the '90s as a budget analyst for OFM, and as a small business owner today, I can relate to the frustration with certain rules, but I just don't think it makes sense to throw up our hands and say that government is an inherently ...

Posted Fri, Nov 19, 3:33 p.m.

@dbreneman--Not to overthink the plumber analogy, but what I meant was that we expect plumbers to think that more plumbing is the solution to any plumbing problem; and I think we likewise expect that a governor would think that regulation should be helpful, not harmful. Governors are in the making-things-better-by-making-and-adminstering-rules ...

Posted Thu, Nov 18, 5:25 p.m.

Regulatory reform is not a new idea in Olympia. But the idea that the governor, the head of the executive branch, would identify rule-making as a problem to solve by calling for a stop to it, is puzzling and odd. That's like having the head of the plumbers' union declare ...

Posted Thu, Nov 18, 9:38 a.m.

This is a disturbing thing for Gregoire to do, and I wonder why she's doing it. Any theories?

Posted Thu, Oct 21, 10:32 a.m.

Thank you for this excellent look at a critical issue. One of the problems with antipsychotic prescriptions for children is that they have known serious side effects in adults--such as diabetes and tardive dyskinesia (Parkinson's-like motor symptoms). As a psychotherapist, I think these medications should be used only after other, ...

Posted Thu, Oct 14, 8:42 a.m.

Hm. I quite enjoyed this piece and think it clearly expresses a more interesting and nuanced list of lessons than "when the wave hits, head for high ground." More like, "remember that you're in tsunami and quake country; plan and build accordingly--don't just ignore the history and then be shocked ...

Posted Wed, Aug 11, 7:21 a.m.

Great story!

Posted Wed, Aug 4, 8:35 a.m.

Our family had a similar experience when my mother-in-law was very ill. She was transferred from her hospital to a nursing home to recover. The nursing home staff all seemed like decent enough people, caring and professional, yet they consistently interpreted her as being more permanently damaged than she actually ...

Posted Tue, Jul 20, 9:26 p.m.

I put in an Emily Dickenson poem--who knew she, too, writes like David Foster Wallace?

Posted Sat, Jul 17, 7:39 a.m.

What a lovely piece of writing. I feel as though the oil spill, being so unimaginably vast, wiped out my ability to grasp its reality along with those 500-plus miles of beach it's contaminated so far. I can't imagine what it must be like to live on the Gulf Coast ...

Posted Tue, Jun 8, 4:03 p.m.

Well, we do have Tim Eyman and ourselves to thank for the transit cutbacks--once upon a time we had a way to pay for transit and road maintenance, too, but since we were not willing to pay for it it's not surprising that it's getting cut to ribbons. And apparently ...

Posted Tue, Jun 8, 3:56 p.m.

This case is Seattle's Rashomon. People let themselves be consumed by whatever version of the truth they see in it, with a lot of inevitable projection and imagination filling in the gaps between known facts. As a narrative it's pretty irresistible--it has not one but two damsels in distress to ...

Posted Tue, Apr 13, 11:26 a.m.

I agree that Rev. Robinson's analogy to Tiger Woods et al. is off the mark. If the controversy were simply about priests having consensual adult relationships, then it wouldn't be nearly as agonizing. But I basically appreciate this article, because in my own considerable experience with this issue, both personal ...

Posted Thu, Mar 25, 5:42 p.m.

@Seattle Observer: I agree with you about the '60s--the antiwar movement had its low points. But maybe you can help me understand something that completely baffles me--why the tea partyers are so worked up about health care reform. The government already requires us all to have car insurance, so why ...

Posted Wed, Mar 24, 8:43 a.m.

Maybe all protests have their destructive or ugly elements. I remember seeing WTO delegates looking actually frightened while being blocked by human cordons. And my left-leaning college had a chapter of Shining Path! But some protests are better than others, by which I mean more creative, more interesting, less violent. ...

Posted Sat, Mar 13, 3:42 p.m.

Glenn Beck is a paranoid piece of work. His demonizing demagoguery does remind me too of Joseph McCarthy. Having grown up in churches that openly sought social justice, I know what a distortion it is to imply that that phrase is some kind of code word, or that churches that ...

Posted Fri, Mar 12, 8:54 a.m.

p.s. I'm not being sarcastic--I really like the Elephant Car Wash sign. It doesn't blow my head off, but it's the kind of kitsch I like--unpretentious and surprising. I think there are two separate questions-- a policy question, Should the Chihuly Museum Be Stopped? and a question of taste. I'm ...

Posted Fri, Mar 12, 8:31 a.m.

I'm waiting for the Elephant Car Wash Museum.

Posted Thu, Mar 11, 10:08 a.m.

@hacknflack, I notice you're not saying that Chihuly's glass work is art because it really does something powerful for you. You're saying that no one has the right to call it schlock because it's a financially viable operation. Where's the fun in a rule like that? To borrow from Emily ...

Posted Mon, Mar 8, 10:02 p.m.

I appreciate this piece, and think it's clear enough that Rev. Robinson is not playing psychiatrist, nor is he suggesting that Amy Bishop should have recited the abovementioned prayers. He says that her case seems symbolic of the general problem that it is hard for people to own their own ...

Posted Wed, Dec 2, 7:53 a.m.

Mr. Van Dyke: I don't get the impression that you were there. For one thing, it was a protest, not a riot. The reason the TV news kept looping that same shot of the Weekly box crashing through the Starbucks window (or whatever window it was) is that there wasn't ...

Posted Wed, Nov 25, 3:25 p.m.

Back in the early 90s I worked in state government and in fact worked on the state budget. (I haven't worked for the state for a long time and have no plans to do so again, so while I'm opinionated I'm not biased that way.) Ms. Gunn, you've written approximately ...

Posted Tue, Nov 24, 12:09 p.m.

The problem is that the corporations are all competing with each other, so unless they're all held accountable to the public interest, it's in their individual interests to get away with as much piracy as they can, offload costs to the public sector in the form of pollution, health care ...

Posted Mon, Nov 23, 7:35 p.m.

It's time for a tax increase! And not the regressive sales tax, which is part of the problem here--in a recession the sales tax revenues obviously plunge. Does Gregoire have the cojones to institute a state income tax? As for the Microsoft loophole--I agree that the state government's not in ...

Posted Thu, Nov 19, 9:28 a.m.

What a lovely article! I'm a psychotherapist, and in my work I've often had the experience of being able to connect and have good, enjoyable, meaningful conversations with people who have mental illnesses such as schizophrenia. Whatever we mean by "mental illness," isolation makes any kind of mental illness worse, ...

Posted Thu, Nov 19, 8:33 a.m.

Thought-provoking comments, too! I'm creeped out by "Bodies" because they use bodies of nonconsenting and likely murdered people. This piece reminds me that such practices are nothing new, that "Bodies" is just the latest in a long seamy tradition of resurrection men profiting by desecrating the dead. It would be ...

Posted Thu, Nov 12, 8:21 a.m.

Well, I'm still deeply disappointed in her vote in Bush v. Gore. She stopped a democratic process of vote-counting and joined with her conservative colleagues on the Court in awarding the Presidency to the candidate they personally preferred. Not her finest hour.

Posted Sat, Nov 7, 5:23 a.m.

I've never enjoyed Michelle Malkin, I find her brand of paranoid egotism boring as hell. Same with Ayn Rand. I want to like both of them just for being unconventional and ambitious. But it's hard to like or admire a "writer" who has no curiosity.

Posted Thu, Nov 5, 7:26 a.m.

It sounds like the race should never have been approved for Lincoln Park. I can understand why cyclocross racers would be disappointed by the last-minute cancellation, but I'm very glad the mistake was caught before the race, which was appropriately moved elsewhere.

Posted Tue, Nov 3, 12:28 p.m.

I have to agree with the neighborhood on this one. If the bike race tears up the park then the park's not a good place for it. This isn't about "who has access to the park?"--every cyclist has the same access the rest of us have to Lincoln Park. The ...

Posted Thu, Sep 17, 7:32 a.m.

@mryett--thanks! It's an easy site to use, great resource to have. From the page you sent, I got to the Central Area Motivation Project's site where one can easily make a donation online.

Posted Wed, Sep 16, 11:45 a.m.

Good article, thanks. Do you have info. on how one can make donations to local food banks? Animalal--sounds like you want to volunteer at your local food bank so you can provide the manpower to do all the monitoring you're suggesting.

Posted Tue, Sep 15, 12:20 p.m.

You're describing a city I want to grow old in and raise a family in--a city that's urban yet also in nature. When cities were relatively few and most people in the world lived rurally, we could get away with razing the trees and generally imagining ourselves to be above ...

Posted Wed, Sep 2, 2:16 p.m.

This is good news! Thanks for reporting on it.

Posted Wed, Sep 2, 1:44 p.m.

Cameron--do you have data on the state budget to show that there is fat in it? Having worked on the state budget myself in the mid-1990s, I can tell you that there's not more fat than you'd find in any big organization, public or private sector. There are limits to ...

Posted Sat, Jun 27, 2:20 p.m.

Sad news about the Island on Madison--Charley's been laid off. Dropping by Island and renting DVDs with--or sometimes in opposition to--Charley's advice has become a real, integral part of living in this neighborhood. He's put me onto some treasures; he's tolerated my more dubious choices (Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants ...

Posted Sat, Apr 4, 6:25 a.m.

Piper, the problem with your manifesto is that there are limits in the natural world. You have the freedom to want whatever you want, but you don't have the freedom to have your cats and sea otters, too. At least, not unless you come up with a way to keep ...

Posted Sat, Mar 28, 7:59 a.m.

I think it makes sense to name the larger body of water, of which Puget Sounds is the southern tip. And Salish Sea is a beautiful name. It's a good point that the new name might be an opportunity to try to draw attention to the urgent condition of Puget ...

Posted Wed, Mar 18, 8:36 a.m.

I think one of the reasons why people aren't supporting newspapers as much as in the past is overstimulation. While it's true that there have been disappointing failures in the mainstream media coverage of certain issues--the Teflon-coated coverage of Bush in the 2000 campaign, for example--it's also true that you'll ...

Posted Tue, Mar 17, 3:33 p.m.

Right up until the last, the P-I did some terrific investigative journalism. I hope the web-based P-I can continue that tradition in some form.

Posted Mon, Mar 16, 10 p.m.

Wow. Tim Eyman, why don't you go kick a puppy or whatever it is you like to do when you don't have an indulgent liberal audience to sneer at, and let the grownups think about what it means to us that our city's oldest daily newspaper is shutting down.

Posted Wed, Mar 11, 8:25 a.m.

Love the line about McMansions competing with Mount Rainier for the views!

Posted Mon, Mar 9, 9:56 a.m.

Great article, I appreciate the info. I don't know much about environmental law, but this article gets me wondering whether the legal traditions we have are as limited, when it comes to grappling with global climate change and widespread extinctions, as Newtonian physics is. When environmental problems cross borders and ...

Posted Wed, Feb 25, 9:20 a.m.

How does the bill mandate density in existing neighborhoods? I think that's the question. If Seattle were a Monopoly board we could just replace houses with hotels, no problem, but what does it mean to mandate 50 unite/acre density in an area that includes stretches of Rainier Ave. and residential ...

Posted Wed, Feb 18, 1:45 p.m.

This does sound appalling, but on the other hand I'm not sure a belief in creationism is incompatible with a belief in scientific theories of evolution. They're only in conflict if both beliefs must be literal. Personally I'd probably be in that confusing margin if I had been polled, because ...

Posted Fri, Feb 13, 8:31 a.m.

Oh, please, Crosscut editors, consider moderating the comments. I love the interplay of differing opinions and responses, but the contemptuous name-calling is so boring and rude, it's no fun. Commenters: would you please try to make your point without dragging in a stereotype to support it? About the article--I'm hopeful ...

Posted Wed, Feb 11, 7:19 a.m.

Fascinating! Thanks for this article. It's comforting to be reminded that the Earth has survived so many cycles of catastrophic change and recovery.

Posted Fri, Feb 6, 8:20 p.m.

PJS: Rice's attempts to negotiate a truce in Gaza were undercut by Bush. I think the new administration stands a much better chance of doing some good there. And you can dismiss everything Obama says as empty rhetoric, but I think stating an intention of closing Gitmo is meaningful and ...

Posted Thu, Feb 5, 8:16 p.m.

I have a completely different read. I think Obama is doing am impressive job so far, following through on campaign promises. He's ending torture, restoring respect for the Constitution, staffing national government, initiating peace negotiations in Gaza, addressing the Muslim world, generally sending out a clear and decisive shift in ...

Posted Thu, Feb 5, 10:12 a.m.

Well, I enjoy kvetching. Why? Because it's a way of making observations. A world without complaining would be a quiet and stilted place. Give me a group of passionate kvetchers any day; I like people who would never be caught dead singing "Up With People." Lisa, some of your observations ...

Posted Tue, Jan 13, 12:16 p.m.

Important to know about--thanks for the reporting.

Posted Fri, Jan 9, 10:14 a.m.

Mr. Schneider--Why do you want a gun in a National Park? I'll tell you why I'd prefer you didn't have one--because I don't want to face more of what too often I find in National Forests: scary, irresponsible behavior. I took my stepkids to Goldmyer Hot Springs once, and on ...

Posted Wed, Dec 17, 7:59 p.m.

MadisonAve: Well, I'm glad we cleared that up--you didn't mean to insult Skip by calling him a cynical burned-out hippy from Kirkland (!)--(which I take it is a bad town to be associated with?) But seriously, it sounds like his writing pisses you off and you have some things to ...

Posted Wed, Dec 17, 8:49 a.m.

Those three calamities were all, arguably, the predictable outcomes of the Republican party's enthrallment with the radical Karl Rove politics of image over substance. Katrina was the logical result of an administration that held government in contempt and thought it could dictate reality to suit its pet theories and its ...

Posted Wed, Dec 17, 8:11 a.m.

MadisonAve: I know Skip, and you obviously don't at all. For one, he doesn't live in Kirkland. And he's not a hippy. Hippies don't write columns about civic issues, hippies write articles for the Whole Earth Review about raising goats and legalizing hemp. As for whether Skip is a carpet-bombing ...

Posted Wed, Dec 17, 8:01 a.m.

Piper--you can get historical info. about the transportation budget from the state Office of Financial Management and the legislative transportation committee staff. Should be no big mystery there, you just have to request the info. from the 2003 budget and from then on.

Posted Sat, Dec 13, 10:49 a.m.

Why on earth would you be glad about that, if it were true?

Posted Fri, Dec 12, 8:04 p.m.

I don't know the quote you're referring to. I would be surprised to learn that Christine Gregoire doesn't trust OFM any longer--that's as broad a generalization as saying that she doesn't trust the Governor's Mansion any longer, or she doesn't trust I-5. That's what OFM is--a big hunk of the ...

Posted Fri, Dec 12, 10:47 a.m.

Sure, let's get rid of Washington State OMB. It's not doing anything for anyone. OFM, on the other hand, is a real agency that handles, analyzes and oversees every financial aspect of the executive branch of state government--all the agencies, public schools, and state assistance programs, from formulating the budget ...

Posted Mon, Dec 8, 8:33 a.m.

Ted Van Dyk's comment exemplifies some of his less enjoyable habits as a writer--which I would love to see more often addressed by either him or his editors at Crosscut. "Brian Sonntag (A) was reelected by a huge margin and (B) deserves voters' trust." Both points may be true, but ...

Posted Wed, Dec 3, 3:56 p.m.

Wow, I'm the first tree-hugger to comment on this item? I have to say that I think this is a great idea. Urban trees are not merely aesthetic or ornamental. They improve the air we breathe, stabilize soils, take up water and release it gradually through the summer. They cool ...

Posted Mon, Nov 17, 9:31 p.m.

Wait, is grumpy ivan the same as the Vashon Orca?? Never mind. What I meant to say is that I enjoy Crosscut quite a lot, appreciate Chuck Taylor, and wish you success in exploring the nonprofit model.

Posted Wed, Oct 29, 1:05 p.m.

The problem with Sarah Palin is that there doesn't seem to be a there there--except for a powerful resentment against educated people. If she were an impassioned populist reformer--or just passionate about anything larger than herself--I'd respect her. Maybe she'll grow and develop some actual passions and become a politician ...

Posted Thu, Oct 23, 8:40 a.m.

Keith, if Obama were being investigated for ethics problems we would all know about it. He's been investigated and vetted, too, and there have been news reports about his past. Go to the New York Times website and search the archives if you don't believe me. There's just not that ...

Posted Thu, Oct 23, 8:34 a.m.

Wow, we liberal elites are bad people, aren't we? We just hate because, I guess, we are hateful. And we live in basements papered with hate-filled Communist pamphlets, from which we crawl out now and then to spew anti-American hate on nice, all-American folks. Seriously, Mr. St. Clair, show me ...

Posted Wed, Oct 22, 10:34 p.m.

Oh, please. What a crock of self-pitying distortion. John, if your implied accusations were on target, then we would be finishing eight years of Democratic dominance of the White House and the popular culture. Howard Dean would be President, because the fawning, liberal-loving media wouldn't have made a big deal ...

Posted Tue, Sep 23, 5:02 p.m.

Cross of Golden Parachutes!: Nice line. To address your question--McCain's gambit can only work if American voters have zero memory. I hope people do remember at least a few months back, if not years, and recognize McCain's conversion as a desperate last-minute flip-flop. And I hope people hang that cross ...

Posted Tue, Sep 16, 7:29 a.m.

RE: Palin More Qualified Than Obama: Hm. I disagree about the "lipstick" comment--I've seen the video and I don't think Obama's comment was a sexist slam on Gov. Palin. I don't see any signs in his manner or the context of his comment that he's doing anything other than using ...

Posted Mon, Sep 15, 11:30 a.m.

RE: Palin More Qualified Than Obama: I'm a woman and I don't think Obama's sexist. Whatever it is you've heard him saying, would you mind being specific about it? I think he's surrounded by strong, self-respecting women and girls--his wife, his daughters, many of his campaign staff and advisors--who wouldn't ...

Posted Mon, Sep 15, 10:13 a.m.

Obama's qualifications: I'm supporting Obama because I think he's qualified to be President, more so than any of the other candidates this year. There's no simple way to measure readiness. It's not just the number of years on your resume. I think the most important thing is the way a ...

Posted Sat, Sep 13, 3:33 p.m.

RE: The Willing: Do you have any evidence to back up your assertions? This American wants to see in a President a willingness to fight when necessary, and a willingness to listen to and respect the people serving in the armed forces, and to stand behind them and their families ...

Posted Thu, Sep 11, 11:02 a.m.

Tree love: The problem, it seems to me, is that people don't value trees as much as we should, for our own sakes. I guess the problem is that people, of course, want to use their land as they choose, and it's hard to stop people from cutting trees down ...

Posted Fri, Sep 5, 10:22 p.m.

RE: Why the Panic?: You lost me at "them." I think you'd probably call me a liberal--and I've got to tell you, in my experience we're a lot like the conservatives I know. We're human beings. We don't all know each other, we don't all think alike, and we're not ...

Posted Thu, Sep 4, 6:26 a.m.

RE: Which "us" are you talking about?: Hm. I really think you're missing the problem here. I can completely appreciate how obnoxious it is to feel stereotyped or talked down to. I'm from Ohio myself, descended from a long line of farmers, and I share some of your biases myself ...

Posted Wed, Sep 3, 8:05 a.m.

Which "us" are you talking about?: Hi Piper, I don't see Sarah Palin the way you do. I see her as someone who has a lot of good qualities, but would not be a good President (a real possibility if she's McCain's VP). I think she'd likely be as big ...

Posted Wed, Sep 3, 7:35 a.m.

RE: Slimecut: This piece was neither. A smear job is a lie told cynically in order to manipulate the gullible. If the writer of this email is lying, please show us how. And as for bias--are you suggesting that the writer wants to hate Palin because of Palin's race or ...

Posted Wed, Aug 27, 7:40 p.m.

RE: The Point: I'm not a climatologist, so I'll leave the explanation to the thousands of scientists who could do a better job than I can.

Posted Wed, Aug 27, 7:54 a.m.

RE: The Point: I understand that cars are a major contributor to global warming. That doesn't mean I want to use a street party as a justification for punishing some car-owners arbitrarily. If the parties were announced well enough in advance, and clearly enough, that people knew when to move ...

Posted Tue, Aug 26, 5:20 p.m.

RE: Huh?: That, and nobody's cars are towed by surprise to close the I-90 bridge or the other abovementioned streets. When they're going to shut down one of the Lake Washington bridges there are notices posted for days in advance. I think the nasty surprise of having one's car towed ...

Posted Wed, Aug 20, 6:57 a.m.

What terrible news!: I love Seattle's independent news stands--they're an irreplaceable part of the city's culture. These jerks at Source-Interlink couldn't even bother to offer extended notice of their plans, to allow Washington state newsstands more time to find alternate distributors?? I will never buy a magazine again from a ...

Posted Tue, Aug 5, 3:10 p.m.

RE: esponding to AerosmithNirvana: I just tried to find an answer on Wikipedia, and the entries under "collective noun" were making my head spin. But I believe there's some confusion here about the difference between different kinds of collective, mass or group nouns. AerosmithNirvana, I see your point and I ...

Posted Wed, May 14, 6:55 a.m.

For her own sake she should leave gracefully now: Interesting points, but when I see the spectacle of Hillary Clinton, former admirer of Eleanor Roosevelt, now happily exploiting the racism of some of her supporters, I think she's already been in this campaign far too long for her own good. ...

Posted Thu, Mar 6, 8:38 a.m.

RE: 'yahoo' logic: I was the one who used the word "yahoos," not S.E. But I rather carefully said people were "acting like yahoos"--I think "yahoo" is an accurate term for a kind of reckless, selfish behavior, but not for people. But I regret having used a term which could ...

Posted Wed, Mar 5, 8:47 a.m.

She's no kid.: Hillary Clinton has lost the last ounce of the considerable respect I used to have for her as a politician. She's resorted to Karl Rove's tactics, which seems to be what she's learned from her experience defending against that crap herself for all those years. What I ...

Posted Wed, Mar 5, 8:34 a.m.

Who's going to protect us from the armed park visitors?: Those who know and love Goldmyer Hot Springs (near Snoqualmie Pass in the Cascades) know what it's like to dodge bullets--irresponsible people with ammo like to hang out on the forest roads, drink and shoot. Last time I went there, ...

Posted Tue, Feb 26, 1:30 p.m.

Fascinating: Great article! I have to say it's consistent with everything I'm seeing about the Clinton campaign's shortcomings, and the Obama organization's strengths.

Posted Thu, Feb 21, 9:33 a.m.

The way Hillary's campaigning is making me lose respect for her: Let's see--a whole lot of previously checked-out voters, many of whom are young, respond with enthusiasm and deep excitement to what Obama has to say. Does Clinton notice this, realize the importance of this shift from apathy to activism, ...

Posted Tue, Feb 12, 8:07 a.m.

It's Hillary herself who is persuading me not to vote for her: I'm a feminist, and am delighted that a woman is a serious contender for the nomination this year. Beyond that I think it would be sexist to blindly support her just because she's a woman. I respect HRC ...

Posted Sat, Feb 9, 4:19 p.m.

just come from the caucus: and Obama can light up a room even when he's not in it! Our precinct was packed, standing room only, and Obama supporters outnumbered Hillarians two to one.

Posted Sat, Jan 26, 8:37 a.m.

RE: Pass the hat: "Casual observers with zip at risk?" This is what you call the people who live in the city and are affected by the way the cityscape changes? I don't consider myself a "casual observer" in relation to the Pike Place Market, the International District, or any ...

Posted Fri, Jan 18, 10:06 a.m.

RE: people: I agree very much--children are a big part of the soul of any community.

Posted Sun, Nov 25, 6:34 p.m.

RE: I question the numbers on decline of tree canopy: In less than a decade on my block, 9 big trees--worthy of landmark status in my view, all well-grown but evidently healthy--were cut down. All of them were on private lots, and all were cut down to make room for ...

Posted Sat, Nov 17, 7:34 a.m.

Provocative thesis, Mossback--: It's true that the WTO protests had a lot of out-of-town organizers, but many were local, too. I remember walking downtown past an intersection blocked by some of my oldest Seattle friends, to boogie with the turtles to Aretha Franklin tunes piped in by the Teamsters. Later ...

Posted Tue, Nov 6, 7:41 a.m.

Seattle voters have a noun disorder when it comes to transportation: The argument that we should vote for Prop. 1 because a) it's got light rail and b) it's embarrassing that other cities have light rail or other mass transit systems and we don't, ergo c) vote for the sucker--is ...

Posted Fri, Nov 2, 5:54 a.m.

That's great news!: I'm so glad to hear that the Pacific Interchange is dead (and long may it stay that way). With all respect to the Montlake folks who proposed it, I would hate to see Marsh and/or Foster Island and more Arboretum wetland covered by bridges. These are important ...

Posted Tue, Oct 23, 9:25 a.m.

But not so unique in place: I used to spend a fair amount of time in Vancouver in the '80s. One thing I loved about it was that the mountains were so close to the city--you could see them from anywhere. I could never get lost there, because all I ...

Posted Fri, Oct 5, 6:53 p.m.

Potty mouths?: I once read that a tiny, probably meaningless study or two suggested that the real difference between liberals and conservatives is emotional--specifically, which negative emotions we prefer to feel. Liberals are people who are more comfortable feeling guilty and anxious (about themselves) than fearful (of others) and contemptuous. ...

Posted Thu, Oct 4, 7:35 a.m.

Polar bears? How about your children?: Chris Vance loses me when he trivializes global warming, calling it an issue du jour, of interest only to polar bears and the "zealots" who care about them. I'm worried about global warming for a lot of reasons that are much closer to home. ...

Posted Thu, Sep 20, 9:12 a.m.

The life of the mind begins with...: Chris Vance's articles present a tragically mistaken view of how children learn, and how they can be helped to learn. It's as though he imagines that children are widgets, and the Legislature can mandate inputs which add desired features to said widgets. Vance ...

Posted Mon, Aug 27, 1:14 p.m.

RE: If you wonder why no one takes you seriously...: But apparently beginning a conversation by saying, "No one takes you seriously" is a model of civil--no, wait, "decent"--discourse? You realize you sound like that Uptight Seattleite in the Weekly, don't you?

Posted Mon, Aug 13, 1:23 p.m.

More reportage, please: Tim Eyman spins a feel-good yarn--who doesn't want to be believe they can make government better by cutting their own taxes? I'd love to see some more skeptical reporting, though, on the objections being raised to Eyman's latest adventure in governance. Is there really enough money now ...

Posted Sat, May 12, 1:12 p.m.

I feel like this story lost its way: It starts out by reporting on out-of-state contributions in local elections, always a fascinating topic, whether the cause be gay rights or gun nuts. But then suddenly it's this vague term, "the gay lobby,"--I can't tell if Jenkins is still talking about ...

Posted Wed, Apr 18, 4:21 p.m.

Rebuttal? What rebuttal?: I just re-read the Mossback article, and wonder how Williams-Derry understood it to be saying the following: "Of course, it's a common complaint. Apparently, lots of people view condo development as the root cause underlying the runup in Seattle housing prices." I counted: Mossback used the word ...

Posted Wed, Apr 18, 8:48 a.m.

So this explains ...: my experience at the 2000 Presidential Inauguration protest in D.C. I flew from Seattle to protest the stolen election, and it was a terrific protest. Tens of thousands, easily, had turned out, lining the entire length of the motorcade's route with crowds. While the protest was ...

Posted Thu, Apr 12, 8:44 a.m.

RE: What's good for the goose...ought to be good for all geese...: I think there's a nuance that gets lost in all the emotional intensity of people literally beating each other up, as in the example you cite. The nuance, as I understand it, is that individuals aren't "racist," institutions ...

Posted Wed, Apr 11, 8:05 a.m.

RE: Who can be a racist: I did say that I don't think it's racist to object to rude or threatening behavior from anyone. I'm not sure if you're accusing me of making excuses for "misbehavior by blacks;" I will very gladly admit I'm not interested in making any blanket ...

Posted Tue, Apr 10, 4:13 p.m.

groupthink and rude kids on the bus: I agree that we're all sinners and we're all responsible for ourselves, though figuring out how to take responsibility for oneself can take a lifetime, and how many of us even thought about this kind of thing when we were adolescents? Kids test ...

Posted Mon, Apr 9, 10:50 p.m.

Re: "white privilege": Oh, some of these comments are painful to read. I don't agree that "white" is a color; I think it's a racialized identity that was invented just to convey an artificial kind of specialness, with special rights and privileges. My ancestors came from Wessex, Wales, Ireland, France ...