Posted Tue, Mar 13, 8:48 p.m.

Carlson does highlight an issue but frames it as a conflict. I would argue that funding is reform and vice versa. These are not opposed, except in the partisan world of politics and elections. The evidence is overwhelming that smaller classes produce better results, but that's exactly what the R's ...

Posted Tue, Mar 13, 8:38 p.m.

Royer provides helpful information but fails to address the basic question of why do we need a non-profit sector in the first place. The rise and fall of donations means that the needy are at the whim of voluntary contributions--if I feel like giving I'll give, if not, not. Shouldn't ...

Posted Thu, Mar 8, 8:34 p.m.

Sorry, Editor Joe, but you're clearly not snarky enough to sub for Scan--no Everett hubris, no Nordic depression, no bad puns, or barely understandable allusions to obscure factoids. Oh, well; sometimes we just cope in this land.

Posted Wed, Feb 29, 6:56 p.m.

Thanks, again. Mine eyes glazeth over in looking at the stats, but in the November 2007 ERFC report the warning signs are clear: a "hot" housing market, declines in employment in key sectors that might be tied clearly with the sub-prime loans. It gives one pause about how "smart" those ...

Posted Wed, Feb 29, 6:35 p.m.

dbreneman is right to ask for the exact title, but what is happening is not a redefinition of marriage as a legal institution but a recognition of citizenship. Marriage is still marriage before the law, granting married couples the same rights as they have always been granted. An adult citizen ...

Posted Tue, Feb 28, 8:04 p.m.

Thanks for the excellent commentary, Mr. Nelson. I have a question that is probably naive in the extreme, but here goes: Why didn't economists, especially state economists who are paid to predict, see that the housing bubble would eventually burst, leaving property taxes and then sales taxes in the lurch? ...

Posted Mon, Feb 27, 11:26 p.m.

I disagree with Pastor Andrew's reasons for boycotting these places, but the idea of holding businesses morally accountable is not. Currently I will not patronize Shell, adidas, Lowes because of their social policies; I would now support Nike (if I needed anything they design) because of its good work in ...

Posted Mon, Feb 20, 8:37 p.m.

I'm with Sarah90 but would go one step farther: the poor are not targeted for good or ill, they are simply ignored, more or less as they always have been. To TVD, be careful about the vague belief in the abstract "good jobs" as a solution. These aren't just sitting ...

Posted Sun, Feb 19, 9:30 p.m.

The single, most important line in Mellinger's fine piece is this: "A dozen elderly Chinese women participated with the help of a translator hired by Friends of the Food Forest." I doubt there have been many projects (the DWIDCG excepted) that have consulted Chinese-American grannies about their opinions. Because the ...

Posted Thu, Feb 9, 11:04 p.m.

I'm not sure what TVD means by "devotion to his family"? Cheating on your wife is devotion to family, even if your wife covers for you? Kennedy lied about the missile crisis, got us deeper into a debacle in Vietnam that cost 2 million lives, reluctantly came to support vaguely ...

Posted Wed, Feb 1, 8:35 p.m.

I absolutely agree with Godden on this and thanks for the timely reporting, but the PATRIOT Act of 10 years ago reminds us that Canwell was just a chapter in a long book of Republican anti-civil rights work and fear-mongering. Given the chronological age of most of them, I'm not ...

Posted Fri, Jan 27, 6:26 p.m.

Spot on about Egan's piece and the association with Murrow is apt. This was a bracing dose of piquant prose--substance with bite. Nice pick, Scan.

Posted Thu, Jan 19, 8:52 p.m.

@toughbretts, To say that parents are theoretically responsible is not to say that children are actually taken care of--they still need help regardless of how their parents act. If you want to prosecute the parents in court, that's one thing, but to deny children what they need is quite another. ...

Posted Thu, Jan 19, 7:11 p.m.

I've never quite understood why governors appoint business people to positions of educational responsibility--they are vocational experts, if that. There is no discernible reason why they might have any good ideas about education. sheesh.

Posted Tue, Jan 17, 10:24 p.m.

Hold on now, before we go gaga over the "honest-but-humble-labor" nonsense. A cosmetologist earns, on average, about $25,000/yr. Exactly how many children and what kind of life would that support? Where would this person, most likely, have to live and where would his kids go to school? The best the ...

Posted Tue, Jan 17, 9 p.m.

@ toughbretts Why punish the children? What did they do?

Posted Wed, Jan 4, 7:29 p.m.

My only quibble with the Hirabayashi take is that Japanese-Americans were held in concentration camps or prisons, not "detention centers." They weren't merely detained on their path to a full life; their lives were in many cases destroyed.

Posted Tue, Jan 3, 8:34 p.m.

Two things: 1) Jackson's point, as I see it, is the incongruity of guns in national parks--like guns at a Quaker meeting; 2) Why did Barnes, after an altercation in Skyway, head to a National Park?

Posted Thu, Dec 29, 7:03 p.m.

Cashews are local?

Posted Wed, Dec 21, 11:06 p.m.

Well, I seriously disagree with Mr. Smith. First, I would argue that citizens should vote the content of the proposition not the purported "message" that gets sent for the simple reason that you can't control how the message will be received. To vote No on the bag ban would not ...

Posted Tue, Dec 20, 11:09 p.m.

Thanks and while I appreciate the tribute to my hero, some of the record needs to be set straight. Wenceslas Square (Vaclavske namesti) is not across from the Presidential Palace, which is across the Vltava River and up a rather steep hill. Though modest, Vaclav Havel was not a "shy, ...

Posted Tue, Dec 20, 10:52 p.m.

TVernon hardly gets it that Midday Scan is not meant to be investigative journalism but an overview of what others are saying out there with some intentionally sardonic humor for color. The ad hominem attacks are completely without merit, out of bounds, and completely silly.

Posted Mon, Dec 19, 8:26 p.m.

Ms. Lightfoot, Thanks for this moving piece. I'll be mobilizing some folks to help out and get involved. You've done what advocacy journalism is supposed to do.

Posted Mon, Dec 19, 7:49 p.m.

I'm with Egan and, per the NYT cartoon, sitting in my dotage waiting for Facebook and its ilk to just go away, and I have no relatives north of Gnome.

Posted Thu, Dec 8, 10:50 p.m.

Jessemulert has the right idea--it's about perspective. Stafford nowhere talks about the relative venality of WAMU executives in the sub-prime debacle that destroyed thousands of lives. He doesn't talk about the Savings and Loan debacle that we all paid for, or Enron or World Com, or Bezos and Seattle Times' ...

Posted Sun, Dec 4, 6:30 p.m.

Thanks, Pastor, for a reminder that we need spaces--religious and secular--that are outside the rather sick culture of stuff and phoney partying and saccharine music and hype. Sarah90, You'll appreciate that my QFC is thinking Jewishly--gelt in red and green foil and a large end-cap display of Jewish food for ...

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

Huh. I wonder if the "buy local" angle caught on in Dubai and Indonesia--hmmm . . . looks like Boeing and the area would be out some big bucks. Amazon might be in some world of hurt and, oh yes, Microsoft wouldn't have any problem with piracy. How can we ...

Posted Sat, Nov 26, 9:18 p.m.

TVD and DMorrill, You miss two key elements in this discussion that I argue smacgry got right. The urban sprawl that gave us Ballard and Laurelhurst and West Seattle will be phasing out of the urban picture because the next generations(plural) will not be able to afford single-family dwellings, the ...

Posted Sat, Nov 26, 8:36 p.m.

Thanks, Prof. Morrill, and sorry if I was a bit testy, but simply the release of data is not the same as information or knowledge, which happens when data is seen in its context. In fact, the release of data into the current set of cultural assumptions reinforces those assumptions ...

Posted Fri, Nov 25, 10:41 p.m.

O.K., thanks, Prof. Morrill, but I'm not sure what your piece means. Is this a good mix? That Issaquah has a bunch of rich people is obvious and that SE Seattle has poorer folks is also obvious. And? It almost sounds as if you're happy that we have poor people ...

Posted Fri, Nov 11, 9:51 p.m.

I don't quite agree with Orino's voting strategy (though I understand it), but the other points are exactly right--procedural democracy (more voters) isn't the same as substantive democracy (understanding the issues and participating in debating, even formulating them, then deciding). More dumb voters will not improve outcomes. The voting-by-mail issue ...

Posted Thu, Nov 10, 8:42 p.m.

Getgrip, I think you fail to get real. This was a grab by the big guys to grab even more and they fooled you into thinking it would be good for you. The winners are Kroger, Safeway, Winn-Dixie, Bacardi Ltd. The losers are the local employees of the liquor stores ...

Posted Wed, Nov 9, 9:59 p.m.

Boys, boys. First, there is nothing "sophisticated" or "grown-up" about consuming alcohol--that's a created myth of liquor company advertising, no different than what drives young teens to want to smoke. Second, there will be no "Likker Locker," because Costco cleverly arranged to have sales reserved for larger stores like themselves ...

Posted Sun, Nov 6, 7:50 p.m.

Vladimir Lenin said the same thing as Cameron--bring on the famine, regardless of how many die, because that will provoke the revolution. It is a profoundly immoral position. The suffering that bankruptcy will bring to the poor and vulnerable is unconscionable. For shame.

Posted Sat, Nov 5, 8:37 p.m.

I agree with anotherview and louploup's position and the best summation of this point was in a NYT letter years ago. The writer pointed out that "The U.S. is not the richest country in the world; it's just the country with the most rich people." Socially produced wealth is locked ...

Posted Fri, Nov 4, 11:03 p.m.

For the life of me I don't understand why people want excitement and blood sport in politics, especially Seattle politics where most electeds are mostly decent folks with liberal politics reflecting the electorate. The chattering classes want red meat (it pays their bills), but democracy isn't about creating high drama ...

Posted Wed, Nov 2, 11:08 p.m.

Woofer and Borkowski, you are spot on in your analyses. Djinn: I'm not sure why you expect a 20-watt public to elect a 100-watt candidate. That we get 40-watts might be the best the romanticized public can expect. The "public" is not some thwarted intelligent body that is the victim ...

Posted Wed, Nov 2, 12:08 a.m.

If this is just "eyes of the beholder" (crankyoldlady) or "easy to make and hard to prove" (Harris Meyer), then why the gag order on the victims in the settlements? And why make settlements with accusations that are just perception or hard to prove? Why not start by believing the ...

Posted Thu, Oct 27, 10:14 p.m.

I think you need to make a distinction between government and administration. Governments are structural (majoritarian democracy, proportional democracy, direct democracy) while administrations are the implementation of one of those; in the U.S. case (FDR, Reagan, Clinton, Bush, Obama, etc.). Most commentators fuss over the administration level--new policies enacted by ...

Posted Thu, Oct 27, 9:33 p.m.

Usually I agree wholeheartedly with Dick Lilly, especially his insightful analyses of education; here I demur. People keep trying to turn the Occupy movements into action committees, but I think they are better analyzed as second-wave feminist consciousness-raising events. They are meant to get you to think about your current ...

Posted Wed, Oct 26, 10:23 p.m.

On the liquor issue, it's not so much underage drinkers, though that is a serious concern, but domestic violence, which tends to increase with access to alcohol, especially hard liquor. I haven't seen a bit of evidence that the current policy harms anyone--even sots like me who have to plan ...

Posted Sat, Oct 22, 6:34 p.m.

Benjamin Lukoff, Andy, and dbreneman, you haven't articulated what your moral position is other than "I'm a moral person." What does that mean? That you think you're a moral person? On what moral basis would you decide to end the life of your parent or child? Contra dbreneman, religious positions ...

Posted Thu, Oct 20, 10:11 p.m.

First, American political culture dictates that you claim a religion, whether you actually believe all the tenets of it or not. I doubt seriously that any President actually paid more than lip service to religion as president--that includes Jimmy Carter. Just move on. Second, the identification with a religion suggests ...

Posted Thu, Oct 20, 9:14 p.m.

Pinchot's ethic works well if you're part of the "greatest number" but not so good if you're a Native American. On your riff on Lakoff; it depends on what you mean by "substantive movement." In the era of Arab Spring, it's not all that clear what really triggers change, even ...

Posted Thu, Oct 20, 9:05 p.m.

In Valdez's piece I can't quite figure out what's broken, except that he thinks elections ought to be exciting with lots of drama, angst, and fighting. It does make work for pundits, but I'm not convinced that's the right criterion for structural decisions about governance. In the last paragraph he ...

Posted Sun, Oct 16, 8:14 p.m.

Once again, Kugiya does a magnificent job of contextualizing food culture--at the global and local levels. That's so rare in the food review business. Congratulations!

Posted Sat, Oct 15, 7:15 p.m.

The size of Westlake "park" eloquently describes the relationship of citizen to consumer in Seattle. We really have no adequate and beautiful public space, just the claustrophobia of tawdry commerce.

Posted Fri, Oct 14, 9:48 p.m.

Thanks for this. It opens windows onto issues and ideas that have been, are, or are becoming lost to U.S. consciousness. It reminds me of the troubling but wonderful novel, Monkey Bridge, by Lan Cao about similar issues in Vietnam around the same time.

Posted Fri, Oct 14, 9:35 p.m.

People like Connelly, Cornfield, et al. treat Occupy Seattle as a political/policy movement but it isn't--it's a cultural movement that isn't particularly interested in trying to bring an ask to the legislature or even the mayor. And the reason is simple: the legislature--even the good folks--will simply mangle it into ...

Posted Thu, Oct 13, 10:31 p.m.

Mr. McKay, while I appreciate the attempt to draw parallels with the past, I must disagree. I would argue that politics is not a unitary thing that persists through time with simply different players repeating strategies and getting similar outcomes, or not. Too much violence is done to the differences ...

Posted Thu, Oct 6, 11:03 p.m.

Sarah90 is basically right but I don't agree that all protest is only authentic if it's high heroism and risky. There are multiple forms of protest and opposition and they should be commended--whatever the points of view. The Civil Rights movement, the anti-Soviet movement, the Arab Spring were not rationally ...

Posted Thu, Sep 8, 8:46 p.m.

gloomy gus, I disagree. I'm criticizing the messenger for bringing us the wrong story and belittling the victims in the process. Journalists make decisions and Scigliano made a bad one in diverting our attention from what really needs solving to silly political posturing--as if the latter is news.

Posted Wed, Sep 7, 9:18 p.m.

How disgusting: turning the exploitation and degradation of girls into a Seattle-media-political issue. "Heart-string plucking"? Not if you're one of the girls trafficked; it's a bit more serious than that. Scigliano has dropped right into the cesspool of exploiting the exploited. His journalism is no different than the politics of ...

Posted Wed, Sep 7, 8:28 p.m.

Snoqualman, It was probably true a decade or two ago when the state funded higher education, but not the case today (with obvious exceptions as noted in the article). 50-60%, or more, of the teaching work is done by faculty not on tenure track and not earning the "big bucks." ...

Posted Wed, Sep 7, 8:08 p.m.

PBK was originally a drinking club, where participants would meet in pubs to discuss serious topics (seriously), but the drinking part was ruined when the "Greek" system came into play and the hoities dropped the intellectual pretense and just drank (to this day); PBK went the purely "intellectual" route--a sad ...

Posted Tue, Sep 6, 9:17 p.m.

Thanks for some intriguing speculation. Just have to mention that W&M; also got the UW's Stephen Hanson as their new vice provost of international studies. Hanson is also a Russianologist. Hmmm, something afoot Watson?

Posted Fri, Aug 12, 10:20 p.m.

The basic question is: What are the rules of the public space? Anything goes? Civility? Politeness? Is the public space overseen by: Law? Common sense (mine)? Needs of commerce? Culture? Who decides what's right to do on Seattle streets? Me? The City Council? A referendum? Should there be community standards? ...

Posted Wed, Aug 10, 9:13 p.m.

Nice piece--insightful and inspiring. I might suggest that the key is not the scarcity/plenty axis but some form of sustainability (I know that word is overused but it comes closest.). We might think of our communities in ways that can withstand the next downturn, but also the next upturn, which ...

Posted Mon, Aug 8, 9:10 p.m.

Thanks, Prof. McKay for an insightful piece. I grew in Washington on the Oregon border in a blue-collar, rabidly Democratic household, but my mother made one exception for a Republican--Mark Hatfield and his principled opposition to Vietnam.

Posted Tue, Aug 2, 9:40 p.m.

I add my kudos to a fine analysis that helps me understand, at least partially, the issue on my ballot. Three points I would add. First, there are multiple legitimate stakeholders in this fray: bicyclists, the Port, salmon advocates, Ivar's, car drivers, transit advocates, state taxpayers, Waterfront Park advocates, West ...

Posted Thu, Jul 28, 9:46 p.m.

This piece is an excellent meditation on the disaster of modern life that visits even the most benign of societies. Outrage and analysis--we need more of both so that we might better understand why we have all failed. Thanks for writing this--the toughest of jobs--especially because it's close to your ...

Posted Thu, Jul 28, 9:33 p.m.

David Smith, You're right again, in the short run. YOU will not use Link, but the the next generation will, not as interested as you were (or me) in a single-family dwelling in a quiet residential neighborhood (the Beaver scenario I referenced). Seattle is urbanizing and that old scenario is ...

Posted Wed, Jul 27, 8:12 p.m.

David Smith, You're absolutely right that I'm enjoying something that has a time horizon, but my point is that whatever system we design, it can't simplistically be built on the sole principle of efficiency in the present context. We also need aesthetics, reliability, decent treatment of the vulnerable, and, yes, ...

Posted Mon, Jul 25, 8:50 p.m.

David Smith is a good example of the Cattle Car Theory of Transportation, namely, take out your sharp pencil and calculate the maximum number of bodies you can cram into the smallest space and move them from point A to point B at the absolute lowest cost so we all ...

Posted Tue, Jul 12, 9:42 p.m.

@coolpapa The School Board is elected by parents, so, eo ipso, the School Board knows what is right for the children, right? The parents must know who is best to run the district, right? But why do we think that parents know what's best for their children's education? Their intuition? ...

Posted Tue, Jul 12, 9:40 p.m.

@coolpapa The School Board is elected by parents, so, eo ipso, the School Board knows what is right for the children, right? The parents must know who is best to run the district, right? But why do we think that parents know what's best for their children's education? Their intuition? ...

Posted Fri, Jul 1, 11:05 p.m.

The problem with education is that everyone has had some; therefore, everyone thinks s/he is an expert, including well-meaning reformers who form NGOs that address the issues. That's fine and we appreciate the concern, but these folks often have no idea how difficult it is to teach a human being ...

Posted Mon, Jun 20, 9:42 p.m.

I agree with Sarah90, though I would caution us to be careful about the phrase "small business" and not to confuse it with "mom and pop." Both terms warm the cockles of our hearts, but some define "small" business as being up to 500 employees (the next level is "corporate"). ...

Posted Fri, Jun 17, 10:25 p.m.

Charity is a sign of failure, the failure of a society to allow people to earn their way in life and provide for their families in a dignified way. Christianity joined with politics to raise charity to the level of a moral virtue in order to distract us from the ...

Posted Thu, Jun 9, 11:27 p.m.

Two points: We might be experiencing the endgame of the single-family dwelling and the internal combustion engine. Both, as cultural norms and economic drivers, were products of the post-WWII American economic explosion. The Leave-It-To-Beaver era is passing, and, though people--especially families-- still prefer the single-family dwelling and its picket fence, ...

Posted Sat, May 28, 4:56 p.m.

Thanks, Mr. Kugiya, for an excellent piece connecting food, work, and a sense of place. The South End is such a terrific place to live.

Posted Thu, May 19, 10:36 p.m.

I agree with sarah90, but I think Ms. Kadleran's point about costumes is relevant. Theater is also a visual medium in which visuals convey meaning. Why else would a director "update" the costuming, except to suggest contemporary relevance. Msmucker's attempt to recast the kippah as a possible symbol of Buddhism ...

Posted Mon, May 2, 10:31 p.m.

Thanks for a bucket of ideas on education reform, Mr. Brewster. However, I might want to wait on the Texas experiment to see how it pans out. Namely, I'm not sure it's wise to rush 16-17 year olds out of their peer group and drive them through a college curriculum. ...

Posted Thu, Apr 28, 9:43 p.m.

To set the record straight, J.W. Harrington, chair of the Faculty Senate, served on the search committee. The chair of the search committee, Dean of the Law School Kellye Testy, regularly sought faculty input. Given the principle of shared governance at the university, Chancellor Kenyon Chan and Dean Ana Marie ...

Posted Thu, Apr 21, 10:41 p.m.

Thanks so much for this meditation on Oates. Your take returns us to the real reason for literature (and art and boxing)--to engage the world honestly, stripped to its essentials, with danger as a fundamental. Oates points out that boxing, unlike all the other "sports" that we watch, is not ...

Posted Thu, Apr 21, 10:18 p.m.

I'm not quite sure why a Tlingit totem pole is not "our," but a Horiuchi sculpture, or a Koolhaas, or a Scandinavian whatever, should be embraced as "our." Who are "we," Mr. Berger? Are there no Tlingit in Seattle?

Posted Wed, Mar 23, 7:50 p.m.

I absolutely agree with the goal, but I don't quite understand the leap into volunteerism at the end--and thousands of volunteers, to boot. The costs of coordination alone should give us pause. But what about accountability? If little Jan gets a lousy but well-meaning tutor/mentor how will the school district ...

Posted Tue, Mar 22, 10:08 p.m.

Thanks, afreeman, I see the point, but I'm not sure not crying wolf will get the voters to vote rationally for the common good any sooner (In general, I do not hold to the idea that "the people/the voters" are the innocent rational actors and the politicians are trying to ...

Posted Mon, Mar 21, 3:16 p.m.

Thanks Mr. Davis for a piece helpful to understand at least part of the predicament in the state's budget. I do disagree with crankyoldlady on a couple of her points. First, the "government" isn't responsible for reducing class sizes and providing COLAs to teachers; those were Initiatives to the people ...

Posted Fri, Feb 25, 7:07 p.m.

Ah, but the deeper Nord-Everett hubris raises its head: that's not 11,000 aerospace jobs, Mr. Jackson, but direct and indirect jobs. In other words, 10,000 Everett bartenders now have job security serving, to be sure, akvavit.

Posted Sat, Jan 29, 5:56 p.m.

Many thanks, Mr. Alben, for this excellent reminder of two great political thinkers. To read them reminds us of how far our current political thinking has shifted away from the moral issues that should inform politics. Heschel had a profound ability to connect morality, politics, policy, non-fundamentalist religious sensibilities, and ...

Posted Wed, Jan 12, 9:22 p.m.

Thanks for the piece, Mr. Van Dyk. I do have two problems with your argument. First, you suggest that Ray's racism is not a personal derangement but Hinkley's obsession with a movie start is. Does this mean that racism or abetting racism is a reasonable, rational response? What makes one ...

Posted Wed, Jan 12, 9:11 p.m.

Thanks for the piece, Mr. Van Dyk. I do have two problems with your argument. First, you suggest that Ray's racism is not a personal derangement but Hinkley's obsession with a movie start is. Does this mean that racism or abetting racism is a reasonable, rational response? What makes one ...

Posted Mon, Jan 10, 10:51 p.m.

Thanks, Reverend, for a solid take on the issue, especially the distinction between being legally responsible and morally implicated, which describes too many now who react with derision and hate to anything and anyone they disagree with. Adding violent imagery and language raises the moral stakes. It's also the case ...

Posted Thu, Dec 30, 5:45 p.m.

Thanks for a nicely turned semi-tongue-in-cheek essay on one of those small cultural moments that might start something--who knows. I'm not a big fan of cities being sources of identity, but I could warm to the idea of an Asian twist on a predominantly Scandinavian base. We might even have ...

Posted Tue, Dec 21, 5:20 p.m.

A belated thank you for this well-done piece and sorry I missed it the first time around. The idea is a solid one and indirectly confirmed by my son, a senior in a Seattle high school, who had to correct his physics teacher and last year had to repeatedly help ...

Posted Thu, Dec 16, 9:14 p.m.

Your honesty is appreciated and refreshing.

Posted Thu, Dec 16, 8:18 p.m.

A nice analysis, Mr. Brewster, of the (il)logic of contemporary politic-speak. At least Murray had the cover of a metaphor that suggests the saving of hostages is better than the shooting of captors. Gregoire didn't even try; as you point out she just opted for the immoral, claiming to be ...

Posted Tue, Dec 14, 9:09 p.m.

Fascinating discussion, but my take is a bit different and focuses on the culture of wealth. In the post-WWII era the U.S. had absolutely no global economic competitors (Europe and Asia were devastated), so its economy expanded at a phenomenal rate. This left several cultural legacies: - an expectation that ...

Posted Mon, Nov 29, 6:30 p.m.

While I don't share orino's snarkiness, the point is well-taken: this approach to history can easily turn into civic solipsism and artifact nostalgia ("I touched Yesler's lumber!")--hence the jokes about pith helmets are appropriate--a vestige of the British imperial past that should be forgotten not remembered. And I'm still not ...

Posted Fri, Nov 19, 9:50 p.m.

Thanks, Bella, for your thoughtful comments. My short take is that we need to work toward a goal of employment that, first, meets the needs of citizens and secondly the desires of citizens. We should focus on decent, safe work at a reasonable wage and, when one's working life ends, ...

Posted Thu, Nov 18, 7:33 p.m.

PJS, I can't, for the life of me, understand why you use the private sector as your benchmark of how people ought to work. I fear you have bought into the myth that markets are natural facts like the laws of thermodynamics and are the most efficient form of employment. ...

Posted Wed, Nov 17, 6:43 p.m.

1) Read Warren Buffet's op-ed piece today in the New York times; 2) That government can be corrupted, or, at the very least, distorted is true, but it's always by the economic elites who want you all to themselves--e.g., the opposition to I-1107 was wholly funded by the American Beverage ...

Posted Tue, Nov 16, 9:04 p.m.

A nice Swiftian piece, Prof. Sell, and rejoinder to those who think one can solve a public policy problem with an ideological solution ("less government!" "live within your means!" etc.). As much as I decry the specifics of Eyman's initiatives, at least he's adopted the socialist position that democratic government ...

Posted Wed, Nov 10, 9:48 p.m.

Nice guys do finish first. Niehaus won his World Series.

Posted Thu, Nov 4, 9:40 p.m.

Thanks, staybailey, for a thoughtful piece. A couple of comments: To your #1: I think in line 3 you might better use "inconsistent" rather than "hypocritical." Ideologies are not necessarily morally consistent. To your #2: I agree with the thrust of your point as I understand it: The attempt to ...

Posted Thu, Oct 28, 10:21 p.m.

But health and safety are core functions of government. That's why we have DUI laws in the first place (and speed limits, and laws against public defecation, and food inspections). I see no prima facie reason why the state shouldn't exercise that legitimate function at the prevention end of the ...

Posted Fri, Oct 8, 10:14 p.m.

I wonder what will happen to this debate when the majority of autos are electric or fuel-celled and the environmental costs of driving an automobile are greatly reduced. Will we need more or less road capacity? Where does the titanium and rubber in bicycles come from anyway (Not to mention ...

Posted Sat, Sep 25, 9:41 p.m.

Benmc reduces the public policy argument to personal, psychological resentment. In fact, I really don't care that others get rich: Ichiro and ARod and Oprah can keep their gazillions--if folks are dumb enough to pay that money to watch boys and girls play, well, those people deserve to be fleeced. ...

Posted Wed, Aug 18, 10:17 p.m.

To Andy: I'm not sure what you mean by "Rational, free thinking people--alone or in groups--listen to their preferred music when and where they want." Preference (especially music preference) is not rational, but subjective and emotional, so I'm not sure what's rational here. Surely a mosh-pit (do they still exist?) ...

Posted Wed, Aug 18, 9:11 p.m.

In response to SeeBee and as a long-time resident in Rainier Valley, I can't think of any place that Rainier Ave. S. is NOT four-lane to vehicular traffic. Certainly not from Jackson through Columbia City through Rainier Beach. Unless you mean a stretch as RAS turns east and south toward ...

Posted Tue, Jul 6, 9:27 p.m.

Was the U.S. Civil War religious? WWI? WWII? Korean War? Vietnam? Iraq? Afghanistan? Sure, religion is used as a moral cover, but none of these wars have anything to do with religious doctrine. Secular states are far more likely to attack in the name of their own power than are ...

Posted Sat, Jun 19, 10:27 p.m.

My point is simple: McGinn is not a democrat, he's a populist. He and his supporters are captured by a belief that they know better, that all previous decisions by legitimate representative bodies were "confused" (a la counermeme) or that critics are grounded in ad hominem attacks (a la cocktails42, ...

Posted Fri, Jun 18, 10:54 p.m.

Well, there's a lot more certainty in the responses here than I have. I don't know why McGinn was elected, though others seem to know the answer. I guess he's legitimately the mayor, though. I don't know why voters approved the I-90 corridor for Light Rail, but they did, so ...

Posted Fri, Jun 11, 10:14 p.m.

I agree with afreeman that this is one of Robinson's finest pieces. The good Reverend has captured the logic of a catastrophe and laid that logic squarely on the doorstep of the rising American middle class and its need for excessive amounts of consumer goods. I also agree with lorenbliss ...

Posted Mon, Apr 26, 10:29 p.m.

drumcat: there are 613 commandments in the Torah (Old Testament); the modern Christian world extracted the ten from Sinai, but they are just the tip of iceberg and the easy ones. Some are much tougher, e.g., #308 "Not to punish anyone who has committed an offense under duress (Deut. 22:26). ...

Posted Sun, Feb 28, 8:24 p.m.

Silverberg's thoughtful piece has two flaws: It perpetuates the present and it satisfies his personal preferences. First, Silverberg is trying to make the current situation work, but there is no prima facie reason why commuting patterns will be the same in twenty years. If the solution is present-oriented it will ...

Posted Mon, Feb 22, 9:16 p.m.

A nicely nuanced analysis and a well-structured piece; helpful in putting McGinn into the historical context. I am reminded of the deep populist strain in Northwest politics (down to the dress code), which is where I see McGinn--and not as a "liberal" in any traditional sense of that word. Unfortunately, ...

Posted Thu, Feb 18, 8:31 p.m.

Enforcement is not the issue. The issue is, as I see it, the urbanization and civilization of a rural (if you want to be romantic call it "Wild West") population. The progress of civilization and the making of citizens has been the slow but inexorable realization that individuals in the ...

Posted Fri, Jan 15, 11:14 p.m.

Andy's attempt to use Robertson to discredit Christian moral and social theory is gratuitous. Robertson is a wacko and has no place in this discussion. Andy's second point is well taken, though I would phrase it somewhat differently. The genius of King was that he was able to translate his ...

Posted Fri, Jan 8, 9:30 p.m.

Thanks for an important piece that we all, of whatever age, should consider for several reasons: 1) "work" is moving outside of its normal frames and taking on new forms and meanings that do not easily map onto the idea of "employment"; 2) for we boomers there will be a ...

Posted Fri, Jan 8, 9:05 p.m.

Mr. Van Dyk, I'm just kind of baffled why you think Lieberman is smart. I've listened to him but I just don't hear it or find it in his changing positions. He doesn't seem to be driven by any consistent set of values or policy positions (except pro-Israel) or have ...

Posted Sat, Jan 2, 7:29 a.m.

Thanks, Mr. Robinson, for the helpful and hopeful piece to start off our new year. It reminds me of Aristotle's claim that what separates humans from other animals is the drive to improve ourselves, to "flourish," in his phrase. No other animal tries to do this, certainly not in any ...

Posted Mon, Dec 21, 5:41 p.m.

I apologize for the bad-spirited tone at the end; I did not mean it personally toward Ms. Lightfoot or Murro. A bit of a hot-button issue for me. Again, sorry.

Posted Sun, Dec 20, 10:48 p.m.

A beautiful kaddish that renews a sense of life.

Posted Sun, Dec 20, 10:34 p.m.

Ah, Morro, Morro. It's not about the grumpiness of the Soviet times; it's much more about the grumpiness toward inane tourists who don't know the difference between Jan Hus and Jan Zizka, who have never heard of Karel Capek, Jan Masaryk, Milos Forman, Tom Stoppard, Milan Kundera, Dvorak, Smetana, Martinu, ...

Posted Sun, Dec 20, 4:40 p.m.

We Czechs can't be more precise; that's as good as it gets for the great unwashed not versed in the language itself. And, besides, as the medieval streets of Praha will attest, it's not about the destination, it's all about the journey.

Posted Fri, Dec 11, 10:12 p.m.

If you think that the "rich and poor alike use government services," then you might be interested in this that suggests the rich and the poor are not exactly treated the same in this society: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/12/health/12medicaid.html?emc=eta1\ The fantasy of equality is just that, a fantasy.

Posted Fri, Dec 11, 9:27 p.m.

Microsoft makes its profit in part because Washington citizens subsidize the roads and infrastructure that get its employees to work each day. To take one small example: Microsoft does not pay the gasoline tax; its employees do. To his personal credit, Bill Gates returns some of that profit to the ...

Posted Thu, Dec 10, 9:49 p.m.

Thanks for a thoughtful piece and I agree that much of this issue is how we have and do frame the issue of collectively paying for the common good. I must say that I'm astounded by the anti-poor comments that suggest "they" are trying to get away with something and ...

Posted Fri, Nov 27, 5:24 p.m.

Thanks for the provocative article, but I'm not sure what you mean by "united us as Americans" in paragraph four. I'm not sure, for example, what "united" means here--certainly not that we all understood these events in the same way. Maybe, you mean that the medium tried to unite us ...

Posted Fri, Nov 20, 9:28 p.m.

It was a good event and many, many thanks to Mr. Brewster for his relentless efforts to create a public space where we can find, build social, political, and cultural community. Someone once said we need three places in our lives--a place to live, a place to work, and a ...

Posted Wed, Nov 18, 9:01 p.m.

Excellent meditation on the exhibit. The nicely turned dactylic hexameter of "a full human skeleton that hung like a dry cleaned suit in the corner of one room" is, itself, worth the price of admission. Two issues emerge: 1) is a corpse worthy of human dignity or does the science ...

Posted Tue, Nov 17, 7:57 p.m.

Thanks for a serious piece and a solid analysis. We need more of this in the public discourse. The underlying angst here is that a state (U.S., China, Afghanistan) should be moral. But that's like asking Walmart to think about the ethics of selling crappy goods from China. States, or ...

Posted Mon, Nov 16, 9:14 p.m.

Three points on Brewster's provocative analysis: I'm not sure that independents truly are; it strikes me as more of a form of identity politics of a false individualism (the myth of the rugged individual so popular out here in the wild West), so I'm not sure anyone knows what voters ...

Posted Fri, Nov 13, 9:02 p.m.

So should the moral/ethical society we want to live in be driven by hustling people? I wonder what that does to our human relationships and to the next generation. I think I'll go watch "The Hustler" with Jackie Gleeson and Paul Newman and think about this.

Posted Fri, Nov 13, 8:43 p.m.

The Tantrum in Seattle was a terrible failure to take the unique opportunty to engage the rest of the world in a serious conversation about fairness of trade and human rights. I met with representatives of nine developing nations who were crushed by the failure of the talks to produce ...

Posted Thu, Nov 5, 8:19 p.m.

I found Robinson's piece an eloquent meditation on a serious problem in our intellectual and moral culture. Thanks for more to ponder.

Posted Wed, Nov 4, 7 a.m.

My MacNamara reference was to the excessive reliance on cost-effectiveness as a public policy tool to the exclusion of other values and other tools. MacNamara, by his own admission, did exactly that and it was a human disaster. Van Dyk is doing the same when it comes to moving people; ...

Posted Tue, Nov 3, 7 p.m.

Van Dyk subscribes to the Cattle Car Theory of Public Transportation, learned at the knee of Robert MacNamara, namely and as Van Dyk puts it so eloquently, "bus and bus-rapid-transit service would take more people to more destinations, far more cheaply, than the planned light rail system." Maybe, but bus ...

Posted Thu, Aug 27, 8:56 p.m.

Thanks, Mr. Jackson. The point you make so succinctly is as true in public service as it is in private life: human decency matters.

Posted Wed, Aug 19, 10:35 p.m.

Three quick points to follow up Brewster's ongoing insightful analysis of local politics. First, Katrina and the disaster preparedness drills we've gone through since 9/11 have taught us that cities must be able to function under duress or disaster or we could be in big trouble. The snowstorm suggested that ...

Posted Fri, Jul 24, 6:20 p.m.

An excellent piece for we Seattleites to read and reflect on the complex and deep history of the Puget Sound region. I agree with "kieth" in part that 'preserve-it-because-it's-old is not a powerful driver for public policy, but Jackson has gone further than that with "The Collins battle also raises ...

Posted Wed, May 6, 9:52 p.m.

Johnson, Nixon,Kissinger,and MacNamara and the American people murdered millions of innocent Vietnamese, Cambodian, and American human beings. Yes, murdered them. For no good reason. Hollywood movies, or plays in Seattle, or panels of pundits, can never "redeem" that--the evil was second only to the likes of Hitler, Stalin, and Pol ...

Posted Fri, May 1, 4:35 p.m.

Ah, so that's why you wear Purell in a holster where most folks have a cell phone! A vain attempt, I'm afraid, at preventing the inevitable slide of humanity back into the primal ooze--led, I might add, by Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld who have a head start. The upside, ...

Posted Thu, Apr 23, 10:43 p.m.

dbreneman is, of course, joking when saying that "enterprise, not socialism, lifted mankind up from short, brutal lives of subsistence living to the prosperity that we enjoy today." Maybe the enterprise of serfdom or slavery or the slaughter of native peoples to take their land, or child labor. The prosperity ...

Posted Wed, Apr 22, 8:58 p.m.

dbreneman is correct IF we're talking about shampoo--I can choose to use or not--but not correct if we're talking about food, shelter, health care, and, for all practical purposes, education. We do not voluntarily choose to eat, stay warm, or avoid most serious diseases. Hence, we need socialism and government ...

Posted Tue, Apr 21, 10:30 p.m.

Power corrupts? I'm always skeptical of these reductions of the messiness of politics to simplistic "truisms" that absolve us from the tough job of thinking. How about Mandela? Havel? MLK? Or in an earlier era Hammarskjold? Or Carter? Or Stim Bullit? Did they all make mistakes? Of course; they are ...

Posted Sun, Apr 19, 9:42 p.m.

The fundamental problem in Eyman's critique is not that he wants to oppose this or that particular tax or critique the sneaky way it's being enacted, but that he argues from a position, as an ideological libertarian axiom, that society is essentially a voluntary organization, a fraternity of the willing ...

Posted Wed, Apr 15, 6:58 p.m.

Excellent piece. Beneath the lively prose is a dead-serious point: we are no longer in a manufacturing world (haven't been for quite some time) but one in which intellectual capactity drives not only the economy but the culture, as well (It takes large amounts of intellectual capital to put the ...

Posted Mon, Mar 23, 9:56 p.m.

Berger has written a good starting analysis of the December fiasco and identified key issues: the ability of the mayor to deliver on basic services, the role of the City Council in oversight and leadership, the absence of principled political opposition, and, of course, the economics of Seattle election campaigns. ...

Posted Thu, Mar 19, 9:18 p.m.

Thanks for the encouraging alternative to the dominant view--I am supportive in many ways. My caveat is that you reduce transportation to the quantitative issue of cost/moving-a-body and are not touching on the issue of how we do that, i.e., the aesthetics. I commute 90 minutes each way on Metro ...

Posted Tue, Nov 18, 10:05 p.m.

Three points. David Brewster is the single best analyst of local politics and culture that we have and he needs to write more. Ivan should just go read the Stranger and leave us alone. Before he does, he owes the writers he trashed and us an apology; this uncivil discourse ...

Posted Mon, Nov 17, 10:08 p.m.

Well, steptoe, if you don't like UNESCO or Helsinki Watch (fringe?), then try James W. Nickel, "The Human Right to a Safe Environment: Philosophical Perspectives on Its Scope and Justication," Yale Journal of Internal Law 18 (1993): 281-95. But you still haven't provided a defense of a right to a ...

Posted Sun, Nov 16, 3:26 p.m.

Steptoe wanted links to the right to a safe environment. Here are some starting points: http://www.thecommonwealth.org/news/163079/166685/1800707maldives.htm http://books.google.com/books?id=m-CIrnLNj-8C&pg;=PA13&lpg;=PA13&dq;=right+to+a+safe+environment&source;=web&ots;=gOG_T6Koxc&sig;=aE7XSavE3T0tcuS32clRSTeG22c&hl;=en&sa;=X&oi;=book_result&resnum;=5&ct;=result http://soil.environmental-expert.com/resultEachPressRelease.aspx?cid=28518&codi;=38514&idproducttype;=8 http://portal.unesco.org/shs/en/ev.php-URL_ID=4663&URL;_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL;_SECTION=201.html http://www.helsinki.org.ua/en/index.php?id=1152328234 Would greatly appreciate any information on a "Right to My Life Style."

Posted Sat, Nov 15, 5:24 p.m.

Steptoe forgets that the mayor and the city council were elected by the very same majority he claims to defend in an earlier post. Granted, representative democracy provides only indirect evidence of the people's will, but I, for one, voted for the current council and mayor because they WOULD promote ...

Posted Tue, May 13, 7:26 p.m.

Glad: Well, I'm glad you got my point. Yes, I am telling you how to live your life because how you live it affects my life and that of my family and others in this community and generations to come. That's because we share the same air, water, land and ...

Posted Fri, May 9, 7:39 p.m.

No desire: I have absolutely no desire to tell Raven how to live her/his life, just so long as it doesn't involve second-hand smoke in my face, carbon emissions in my children's air, or that any of us have to pay for the medical consequences of preventable diseases and conditions ...

Posted Thu, May 8, 9:42 p.m.

Sophomoric: Berger's argument is silly. First, Berger has proven that "Consistency is the hobgoblin of petty minds." Consistency is not an argument for the city of Seattle to not do something about global warming, even if it isn't on the scale of Boeing. That's a sophomoric argument and is completely ...