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Saturday, May 31st, 2008
Posted by Cheryl Tucker @ 05:00:28 am
 The News Tribune ran an Associated Press story Thursday about how sales of Spam and other lower-cost foods have increased as folks deal with tighter budgets. Alas, the price of Spam is also up – about 7 percent from this time last year. An average 12-ounce can costs $2.62. I suspect this much-mocked lunchmeat has many more fans than one might suspect. It’s very popular, for instance, among Hawaiians and other Pacific islanders. In Hawaii, Spam is on McDonald’s breakfast menu. And at L&I Hawaiian Barbecue (a chain with locations in Lakewood and Federal Way), you can order spam musubi (think sushi that uses a slice of Spam instead of raw fish) and saimin (noodle soup) with grilled Spam. I’ve had both and they’re very good. But my favorite way to prepare Spam was concocted on a trip up the Eastern seaboard many years ago with college pals. While camping beside a lake in Maine, we made kabobs by alternating chunks of Spam and pineapple, glazed with a mixture of pineapple juice and mustard. Then they were roasted over a campfire. I’ve had a soft spot for Spam ever since. You can find lots of Spam recipes on the Internet. For a site that includes a recipe for Spam musubi, click here.
Categories: Taking notice
• 1 comment
Posted by Kim Bradford @ 04:57:29 am
Members of Metro Parks' controversial revenue task force will get a chance to defend their work Wednesday at the City Club of Tacoma's monthly dinner. The evening is billed as an opportunity for the volunteer task force members to weigh in on the uproar over their work to identify revenue-generating opportunities for the parks district. It's worth remembering that the controversy didn't stem from the task force members' ideas as much as it did the poor job the parks district did in spreading the word. Neighborhood councils didn't hear anything about the task force until after it had completed its work, and even then only by way of rumblings in the community. Such secrecy, intentional or not, tends to invite suspicion that the fix is in.
Categories: Taking notice
Friday, May 30th, 2008
Posted by Kim Bradford @ 05:19:41 pm
Morgan Alexander's letter to the editor last Saturday about the sewage smell on the Ruston Way waterfront got some notice at City Hall. In his weekly report to the council, City Manager Eric Anderson attributed the stink to rotting wood waste from the waterfront's industrial past:
Categories: Taking notice
• 1 comment
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 03:01:23 pm
One of Hillary Clinton's more plausible-sounding arguments for seating all the delegates from the disqualified Florida primary comes down to: "The Republicans made us do it." That is, Florida's Republican legislature forced the state Democrats to accept the Jan. 29 primary date that ran afoul of the Democratic National Committee's rules. So don't punish Florida Democrats for something the conniving, vote-stealing, chad-contesting Florida GOP foisted upon them. But the argument is merely plausible-sounding. It falls apart when you look at the history. The early primary – designed to upstage Iowa and New Hampshire – was championed by a Democratic state senator, Jeremy Ring. He introduced the bill in the Florida Senate; a Republican introduced it in the House. Republicans did control the legislature, yes, but the measure passed with overwhelming support from Democratic lawmakers. After the date was set, Florida Democrats fought their national party for months to keep it. They had the option of ignoring the results of the primary and relying instead on caucuses, as Washington Democrats routinely do. Instead, the Floridians insisted on selecting their delegates with a primary they knew was breaking the DNC's rules. Sorry, Hillary. This one won't persuade anyone who's not already on your side.
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 01:56:24 pm
Saturday Sunday: 2. After five years of bloodshed, the formidable weight of the U.S. military is barely holding Iraq together. Next door, the United States appears completely out of options in dealing with Iran's apparent drive for a nuclear arsenal. Monday: About our editorials:
Categories: What's coming
Thursday, May 29th, 2008
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 06:06:38 pm
Jonah Goldberg, whom some of you may remember as a columnist we recently dropped, opened his new rant about Scott McClellan with this gem of a lead:
If Goldberg had come up with a sentence like that more than once a year, we never would have dropped him. Anyway, he got me going on the word "crapweasel," which I'd never run into before. (To what subculture have I just proven myself a clueless fool?) I had to turn to the ever-helpful Urban Dictionary, the great wiki of slang, for definitions of crapweasel. Here are three of its definitions:
Other words you may have missed in your journey through life: "craptacular," "crapulate," "craptastic," "craptasm," "craptaculicious" and so on. Check the dictionary. I don't think they count in Scrabble.
Categories: Taking notice
Wednesday, May 28th, 2008
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 10:43:34 am
It was kind of funny a year and a half ago when 9-year-old Semaj Booker bluffed his way past Sea-Tac Airport security, then sneaked on, not one, but two Southwest flights all the way to Dallas. On his second attempt, Tuesday, it wasn't funny anymore. This is looking less like derring-do than a pint-sized punk getting an early start on a career of petty crime. Maybe the appearances on "Inside Edition" and "The Dr. Phil Show" went to his head. After that, maybe being just another 10-year-old seemed a little dull. Whatever. Semaj got his 15 minutes of fame last year. Now he may be headed back to juvy and a lot more than 15 minutes in a place where the studio lights don't shine.
Categories: Taking notice
• 2 comments
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 04:32:56 pm
Contrary to a posting here Saturday, Deputy Prosecutor Mark Lindquist's campaign for Pierce County prosecutor does not have the endorsement of the current prosecutor, Gerry Horne. Lindquist does have Horne's good will, though. Here's what Horne has to say:
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by David Seago @ 11:33:31 am
It’s in the best interests of Pierce County residents and businesses to prolong the life of the privately owned landfill near Graham that takes their garbage. That’s the primary motivation behind the county’s proposal for a new long-term contract with incentives for sharply reducing the amount of waste sent to the dump. The federal government’s big immigration raid at an Iowa meat-packing operation raises the question: What about the employer who knowingly hired so many illegal aliens? About our editorials:
Categories: What's coming
Posted by David Seago @ 11:07:19 am
Is "full-blooded American" code for racism? I think it is. But syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker is either oblivious to it or willing to play word games. The TNT, which carries Parker's column, didn't publish her May 13 offering. Editorial writer Kim Bradford, who was choosing the columns that week, found it offensive. Good call, but worth a discussion here. I only found out about it today when Romenesko, a newspaper-industry blog, noted that many Chicago Tribune readers objected to the column's thinly veiled racism. In a column about the flap, the Tribune's ombudsman criticized Parker but argued that it was better to run the column to get the race issue out in the open and confront it. That's a fair point. But I would have killed the column, too. I'm half-tempted to drop Parker's column given what it says about her way of thinking, but Bradford thinks that's going too far. I'll let Kim weigh in here if she has more to add. You can read the Parker column in question here. Editorial writer Cheryl Tucker adds:
For that matter, you could argue that American Indians are the true "full-blooded Americans." But fewer of them are "full-blooded" these days. When it comes to DNA, America truly is a melting pot.
Categories: Taking notice
• 8 comments
Monday, May 26th, 2008
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 06:30:50 am
Reading eulogies for Fort Lewis soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan reminded me of my first visit to Arlington National Cemetery years ago. My idea was to see some of the famous landmarks: the Iwo Jima Monument, the Tomb of the Unknowns, the USS Maine Memorial, Robert E. Lee's mansion, etc.  As my little tour bus plodded from one memorial to the other, my focus gradually shifted to what we were passing through: the ocean of small, white gravestones. The cemetery holds the remains of 300,000 servicemen and women, three-fifths the population of Seattle. The gravestones go on and on and on. The impact is cumulative. I started thinking about the individual loss behind each stone. Then, as the bus kept cresting the gentle, grave-covered slopes, and new fields of the dead kept coming into view, I was gradually overwhelmed by the immensity of the collective sacrifice. I was weeping long before the tour was over. On Friday, reading the accounts of so many young widows and children left behind by Fort Lewis soldiers, I choked up again. Words seem wholly insufficient to honor these dead and their loved ones. Tears begin to do them justice.
Categories: Editorial cartoons
Sunday, May 25th, 2008
Posted by David Seago @ 03:38:17 am
The skyrocketing price of gas was topic No. 1 all last week as it approached the shudder-inducing $4-a-gallon mark in the South Sound. Here’s something else to make you shudder: Arjun N. Murti, the Wall Street analyst nobody believed a few years ago when he predicted oil would hit $100 a barrel, now predicts it will hit $200 a barrel. The New York Times says gasoline would – yikes! – hit $6 a gallon if that happens. Oil hit a record $136 a barrel last week. Politicians, including Washington’s U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, made hay by blasting “greedy” oil companies. But the causes of the spike in oil prices are more complex. Rising global demand for oil is certainly a factor. But not many unhappy motorists, for example, realize that about half the runup in gas prices over the past five years is attributable to the falling value of the dollar in relation to the euro. When the dollar is worth less, oil sellers demand more dollars for their product. Conservative economists and the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page blame the Federal Reserve for lowering interest rates too much and letting the value of the dollar fall. But the Fed lowered interest rates because it was worried about the economy falling into recession. We just have to pick our poison, I guess.
Categories: Taking notice
• 2 comments
Saturday, May 24th, 2008
Posted by David Seago @ 05:57:21 am
King’s Books on Tacoma’s St. Helens Avenue is an unlikely venue for a political fundraiser. But it’s a logical place for one starring Pierce County deputy prosecutor and thriller writer Mark Lindquist. Lindquist, an all-but-announced candidate to succeed retiring Prosecutor Gerry Horne in two years, will read from his latest novel, “The King of Methlehem,” at 7 p.m. May 29. “A discussion of literature, politics and Pierce County will follow,” the invitation says. Perhaps Lindquist will share meth recipes. The fundraiser is for the county Democratic Party, not for Lindquist. U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Tacoma, former governor and county executive Booth Gardner and Horne are billed as hosts. Lindquist is the party favorite for the prosecutor’s race, and having Horne’s backing is a major advantage. I asked Lindquist how “Methelehem” fared with the reviewers:
. And here’s a capsule review from the Los Angeles Times:
Categories: Taking notice
Friday, May 23rd, 2008
Posted by David Seago @ 06:11:04 pm
TNT reporter Nikki Sullivan’s front-page story today on an inappropriate mix of religion and political fundraising in Fircrest for GOP gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi came up at the ed board’s daily topic meeting. We decided it didn’t call for an editorial; the article was embarrassment enough. But we all agreed it looked bad for the head of a non-profit Christian businessman’s group to be caught fibbing about what happened. And it looked bad when the group and the Rossi camp decided beforehand to exclude the press. Dwight Mason, president of the Christian Businessmen’s Connection local chapter, may have trouble explaining to a Sunday School class why he told Sullivan “no funds were solicted” for Rossi at the luncheon. Unfortunately for Mason, he was caught on tape doing exactly that. That’s a no-no. Non-profit groups are forbidden by IRS rules to raise money for candidates. That was cheesy. But just as cheesy was the state Democratic Party’s attempt to make the incident into a major scandal. “Rossi Brings Extreme Social Agenda to Religious Non-Profit,” blared the headline on a party news release today. Subhead: “Rossi: Anti-choice, anti-science Bush Republican mixes religion and politics in violation of the law.” The release went on to accuse Rossi of espousing “an extreme social agenda” and accusing him of following “the lead of George Bush” in mixing religion and public policy. Well, of course the Democrats want to do everything they can to link Rossi with one of the most unpopular presidents in U.S. history. Just about every Republican candidate this year has that problem. But “extreme social agenda?” C’mon. I happen to disagree with Rossi and many positions of the Religious Right. But this sort of blather mocks the religious convictions of a large segment of Washington’s population. Calling Rossi’s views “far outside the mainstream in Washington state” is gratuitously offensive, not to mention arrogant, to many people of faith. What’s so ironic is that on the national level, Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have been doing everything they can to portray themselves as faithful churchgoers and Christians. The governor would be smart to tell her party PR machine to tamp it down.
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 03:34:40 pm
The relentless attacks on the Airbus tanker contract by Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell are making some folks in California nervous. Ronald Sugar, the chairman and chief executive officer of Northrop Grumman Corp., just published the piece below in the Los Angeles Times. Northrup Grumman is Airbus' American partner in the huge Air Force tanker contract, which our home-state senators say wuz robbed from Boeing. Note how defensive Sugar is in describing "the North American subidiary of EADS, parent of Airbus" as merely "one of Northrop Grumman’s partners" in the project. He points out that the Boeing tanker would have "included parts made in Japan, Italy, Britain and Canada." Somebody's obviously got this guy's goat.
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by David Seago @ 11:23:52 am
A Wall Street Journal article I spotted this week makes Tacoma's decision a decade ago to go into the broadband cable business look especially prescient.
This fear of being left behind in the broadband revolution is precisely what city leaders feared when the City Council authorized Tacoma Power to build an $80 million, high-speed fiber-optic network and go into the cable TV business with its Click! Network. Click! is a done deal and holding its own in competition with cable giant Comcast. But elsewhere, Comcast and other big cable companies fighting municipal cable plans with lawsuits – including one aimed at stopping Chattanooga, a city about the size of Tacoma. The benefits to Tacoma: Good broadband capacity for businesses, lower rates for cable TV due to competition, a wider choice of broadband Internet service providers and a "smart grid" electrical network for Tacoma Power. Side note: Our publisher in 1996, the late Kelso Gillenwater, was convinced the city was getting in over its head in a telecom business it didn't understand. But the rest of the TNT editorial board favored the move. Gillenwater gumpily decided to go along. Gillenwater was a very smart guy. But this was one case when he turned out to be wrong. I'm not sure he ever admitted it, though.
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by David Seago @ 10:34:29 am
Saturday: The nighttime seatbelt patrol coordinated by the region’s law enforcement agencies is a great idea. Too many drivers think cover of darkness is a good excuse to dispense with using their seat belts. Sunday: We hail the U.S.-Canada harvest agreement that will finally address the issue of overfishing of chinook salmon that migrate northward from Puget Sound. It’s been a long time coming. A Justice Department investigation vindicates the FBI agents who sounded the alarm about abusive interrogation tactics employed against terror suspects at Guantanamo – and stands as a harsh rebuke to an administration that has no qualms about stooping to torture. Monday: We observe Memorial Day with a remembrance of some of the Fort Lewis soldiers who have been killed abroad in the past year. Tuesday: Letting the MLK overnight shelter for homeless people close is not an option for Tacoma city officials. Both compassion and common sense dictate that a way to keep the shelter operating be found now that the MLK Housing Development Association has decided to get out of the shelter business. About our editorials:
Categories: What's coming
• 1 comment
Thursday, May 22nd, 2008
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 03:05:08 pm
You get what you pay for. That's as true in the air as it is on the ground. Air travelers are raising a fuss about American Airlines' announcement that it will begin charging $15 for the first piece of checked baggage, which was previously a freebie. This isn't profiteering on American's part, and it won't be profiteering when its competitors adopt similar policies. They are simply passing on enormous increases in the price of jet fuel, just as service stations are passing on the rising prices of wholesale gasoline. In 2004, the airlines were spending $22.7 billion on fuel. This year, they are projected to spend $59.5 billion. No industry can take a hit like that without cutting expenses or raising prices; the airlines are doing both. If they don't, they go broke. In fact, American's major U.S. competitors have all more or less gone broke in recent years, surviving only after getting their finances overhauled in bankruptcy court. This is a perpetually staggering industry that lurches from loss to loss, barely holding on with its intermittent profitable years. According to the Wall Street Journal, some analysts are projecting losses of at least $7 billion in 2008.
Categories: What's coming
Posted by David Seago @ 11:28:23 am
Today's lead editorial noted how professional initiative promoter Tim Eyman is trying to intimidate local officials around the state who might be considering local car license fees to pay for street improvements. Here's a sample of Eyman's charm offensive. This from an all-points email aimed today at Kitsap County and City of Bainbridge officials:
Yes, Eyman fancies himself the taxpayers' friend. But he's no friend of drivers putting up with bad roads and streets that can't be fixed because previous Eyman initiatives have decimated local road funds. Call him Mr. Pothole.
Categories: Taking notice
• 10 comments
Posted by David Seago @ 10:34:20 am
 Passengers are furious about American Airlines’ $15 charge for the first bag of luggage, but no amount of outrage can change the inexorable laws of economics: Airlines can’t stay in business if they lose too much money, and they’re losing tons of it now as result of higher fuel costs. We didn’t expect to see it this soon, but this is what life will be like when the world’s oil supply truly begins to run out. Maj. Margaret Witt, a highly decorated flight nurse from McChord who was discharged for being gay, won a key appeals court rulling this week that tilts the legal odds in her favor. This case is likely to go up to the U.S. Supreme Court, but we’re rooting for Witt: It’s stupid for the military to discharge outstanding officers like Witt when there is no evidence that their homosexuality is causing any problems in their work. About our editorials: Wednesday, May 21st, 2008
Posted by David Seago @ 02:18:40 pm
Well, where else would a former commander of the battleship USS Iowa want to kick off his legislative re-election campaign? Rep. Larry Seaquist, D-Gig Harbor, will launch his 26th District legislative campaign June 9 aboard the USS Turner Joy, a mothballed Navy destroyer now serving as a museum ship in Bremerton. Seaquist has to be one of the most intellectually interesting members of the Legislature. If you check out his personal website, you’ll find he has worked on military strategy and policy at the highest levels in the Pentagon. In civilian life, he served as a technical adviser for “The Grid,” a cable-TV series about British and American counter-terrorism agents fighting a cell of foreign terrorists. Seaquist also heads an international conflict-resolution group. He and his wife, Carla, a playwright and writer, have joined West Sound residents in forming a new group called Refreshing Democracy – an effort to move beyond partisanship in seeking solutions to today’s social and political issues. Mentioning the Turner Joy reminds me that the ship’s fans originally tried to get Tacoma to take the newly mothballed ship as a floating museum but didn’t get much serious interest. It’s just as well, because a few years later Bremerton lost its pride and joy, the USS Missouri, the legendary “Mighty Mo.”
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by Cheryl Tucker @ 11:19:37 am
A reader from Steilacoom wrote this letter to the editor about the Bonney Lake "bikini barista" issue (which we're editorializing about Thursday). It was tempting to see how readers would react to it, but ultimately we deemed it too offensive to appear in print. Anybody disagree?
Posted by David Seago @ 05:12:16 am
If the point of stimulus checks was to be sure the money gets spent to goose the economy, why were college students left out? Mark Casey wants to know. The young freelance writer is pitching a self-syndicated column aimed at under-35 readers. Excerpt from a sample column:
Nice try, but no sale – on both the idea and the column.
Categories: Taking notice
• 1 comment
Tuesday, May 20th, 2008
Posted by David Seago @ 06:21:22 pm
It was good to see former governor Booth Gardner at the TNT today, although the purpose of his visit was somber. Gardner, who is battling Parkinson's disease, is serving as the poster child for the death-with-dignity initiative heading for the November ballot. In that capacity he joined Robb Miller and Arlene Hinckley, of Compassion & Choices Washington in an editorial board meeting on Initiative 1000. Miller and Hinckley did most of the talking, but Gardner's passion for the measure was obvious. Ironically, he would not be eligible for aid-in-dying, as the proponents prefer to call it, because Parkinson's is not considered a terminal disease. But Gardner, who turns 72 in August, said he believes he should have "control" of his own death. Gardner favors loose-fitting sweaters and pullovers now because he has difficulty with buttons. He said he was unable to drive before he had successful "deep brain" surgery last year; now he's happy to be driving again. Is that risky? I asked him. "Well, I don't try to read the newspaper or anything when I'm driving," he joked. The former governor walks with a choppy, stumbling gait – a common Parkinson's trait that often results in falls and injuries. Another thing Gardner regained after the surgery was his smile – something that had disappeared as the result of stiff facial muscles. Partly because of that smile and an impish sense of humor, Gardner was a likable, popular governor who could have had a third term if he wanted it. He's still an endearing figure. It's hard to disagree when Gardner looks you in the eyes and says he should have the right to decide when to go. Details on the initiative are available at the campaign website.
Categories: Who's visiting
• 1 comment
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 04:59:37 pm
Initiative 1000, the "Death with Dignity" petition drive, has a curious agenda for the English language. It doesn't propose merely to let doctors help dying people end their lives. It proposes to outlaw the use of the word "suicide" or "assisted suicide" to describe the practice. State agencies would be barred from using those terms; instead, they would be required to use "obtaining and self-administering life-ending medication." Leave aside the word "medication," which is also debatable in this context. "Suicide" is what really puts the proponents on edge. Three of them – including former Gov. Booth Gardner – came by today to promote the initiative, and they made it clear that we mustn't describe "self-administering life-ending medication" as an act of suicide. In fact, they left a seven-page press kit, titled "Language Matters," that suggests that "assisted suicide" is "inaccurate, biased and pejorative." Touchy, touchy. The much preferred term: "aid in dying." Language does matter. The problem is, "aid in dying" is vague – deliberately so. Several of my own loved ones have died, and I, among others, provided aid to them. But that aid did not include "life-ending medication." So "aid in dying" doesn't describe much of anything – it's euphemistic legerdemain designed to avert the gaze. Similarly, my loved ones all died with dignity, but they didn't take the hemlock. "Death with dignity" isn't descriptive, either.
Posted by David Seago @ 04:18:00 pm
 You know we wouldn't run salacious photos just to jack up our page views. Tonight the Bonney Lake City Council will have a hot potato – or a hot latte, we should say – on its hands. Some citizens want the council to do something about those scantily-clad baristas who serve up peekaboo views as well as steaming espresso drinks at a local drive-through. Apparently another coffee stand offering similar service – like "apron-only days" – is scheduled to open soon. I thought about driving out to Bonney Lake to do on-the-scene research. But I can't afford the gas. Bonney Lake is waaay out there. So we'll make do with this outtake photo of Jessi Favors at work in in a Spanaway coffee stand last fall. Shows what all the fuss is about. A slightly more sedate photo accompanied this Your Voice article Favors wrote defending "bikini baristas."
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by David Seago @ 01:42:37 pm
Charlie Wiggins wants you to know he isn't running for the state Supreme Court. An earlier posting listed Wiggins, a Bainbridge Island attorney, as having filed as a candidate with the Public Disclosure Commission, but he didn't specify which seat he was after. Wiggins explains:
We made a date for early June. Stay tuned.
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by David Seago @ 11:02:42 am
The news of Ted Kennedy's brain tumor had a big impact in D.C. Love him or hate him, the Massachusetts senator is a political institution. Some of that is reflected in U.S. Sen. Patty Murray's statement today about her fellow Democrat:
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by David Seago @ 10:39:29 am
The "Friends O' Flannigan" email list is a big one, and state Rep. Dennis Flannigan (D-Tacoma) can use it to political advantage when he needs to. But more often he uses it to promote a small new restaurant or a good cause. That will be the case June 4 when Flannigan turns a campaign kickoff party into a fundraiser for earthquake victiims in China. It's typical Flannigan. Here's his invite. Even Republicans are welcome. I should also note that Flannigan has a lock on re-election in his solidly liberal 27th District.
Categories: Taking notice
• 1 comment
Posted by David Seago @ 10:28:01 am
If an “issues” campaign looks and acts like an opposition campaign, as with Human Life and its campaign against Washington’s Death with Dignity initiative, it logically should be treated as such under the state’s public disclosure laws. We don’t know what the courts will say, but we believe voters have a right to know the sources of campaign funding. Charles Waters is asking for too much when he refuses to accept a new plea deal to resolve an old murder conviction for which he has already served time. The fact remains that he killed a man, and expecting to have that removed from the record is too much. Don’t blame prosecutors for picking on him; he chose to bring up the issue himself. About our editorials:
Categories: What's coming
Posted by David Seago @ 10:13:53 am
Yesterday's post about gas prices heading for the $4 barrier prompted a note from blog reader Jamie Paulson, who belonged to the now-defunct Tacoma Biodiesel Co-op. A couple years ago the group was buying commercially made biodiesel in bulk and selling it to members. When a commercial biodiesel station opened in Fife, the co-op folded, Paulson told me. Paulson is excited about a new option: homebrewing diesel. He's hoping enough people will get together to form a homebrewing co-op, either making their own converters from a kit or buying one. Used frying oil from restaurants can be a good source of feedstock. I have to be careful about giving commercial plugs here, so heads up: Paulson is not in it for the money, but Paulson has recruited a fellow who knows all about making homebrew biodiesel to hold a workshop in Tacoma on Sunday, June 8. The class isn't free. And the instructor sells a system he claims will make biodiesel for about $1 a gallon. You can contact Paulson at info@tacomabiodiesel.org. After that, you're on your own. But if gas prices stay at 4 bucks a gallon very long, I imagine homebrewers will soon be elbowing each other at the back door of every Asian and fast-food restaurant in town. Update and clarification from Paulson:
Categories: Taking notice
• 2 comments
Monday, May 19th, 2008
Posted by David Seago @ 06:46:40 pm
Oh, boy. Here it comes: “Obama’s Communist Connections to be Revealed,” the headline on this press release says. The lead:
Some of the dirt, or mud, rather:
Sounds like a classic guilt-by-association smear to me. But we’ll see how substantial those purported "ties" turn out to be.
Categories: Taking notice
• 5 comments
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 06:07:47 pm
Many years ago, my seventh-grade brother and another 12-year-old found a box of abandoned dynamite near a construction site. They had a grand time setting off explosions in the woods. Disobedient boy? Not exactly. My parents had never told us, "Don't play with dynamite." The necessity had probably never occurred to them. The memory came to mind when I read of the U.S. soldier who'd used the Quran for target practice. In Iraq, smack in the middle of the Islamic world, where desecration of the Quran is taken quite seriously. Somehow I doubt there is a military regulation that says, "When deployed in Baghdad, don't use the Quran for target practice." Did he break an actual rule? Who knows. The problem is, the people who make the rules tend to be adults, and no adult can outguess the schemes of a dedicated juvenile troublemaker. This particular juvenile was reportedly whisked out of Iraq and is now at an undisclosed location. I hope there are no construction sites nearby, and I hope he's not anywhere near Fort Lewis.
Categories: Taking notice
• 1 comment
Posted by David Seago @ 03:26:14 pm
The rough-and-tumble election for the state Supreme Court in 2006 has inspired the formation of a non-partisan committee to promote clean judicial campaigns this fall. That's my guess, anyway. The newly formed Washington Committee for Ethical Judicial Campaigns announced it will ask candidates for the Supreme Court and the state Court of Appeals to sign a "fair conduct" pledge. . The 12-member panel is chaired by former Division 1 Court of Appeals Judge William Baker of Everett. Another panel member, former Puyallup city manager and former state budget chief Dick Thompson, asked today for an ed board meeting on behalf of the group. From a press release:
The commission will public report which candidates have agreed to the pledge, and which have not.
Categories: Taking notice
• 1 comment
Posted by David Seago @ 02:57:00 pm
I had my first sighting of $4-a-gallon gasoline Saturday – in Oakland, Calif. Haven't seen it here yet, but it's on the way. The sign in Oakland showed regular at $4.02 a gallon. Got back to Tacoma today to find the AP reporting another record – at $3.86 a gallon – for the average price for a gallon in Washington. Here are more dismal numbers from the AP report:
Categories: Taking notice
• 2 comments
Sunday, May 18th, 2008Saturday, May 17th, 2008
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 07:04:38 am
Everyone admires people who charge into burning houses for a living. But the Tacoma Fire Department has gone wacko about telling the public about it – or rather, not telling the public about it. Consider this line from a story Friday about firefighters pulling a man from his burning house:
(The italics are mine.) The rescue happened in broad daylight. The neighbors saw it. Everyone knew the victim's name. But fire officials felt they couldn't acknowledge that their own personnel had saved the man's life! The culprit here is undoubtedly a lawyer who's told the TFD that the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act won't let any organization release any information about anyone who's had any kind of medical problem. Even if nothing about the medical problem itself is disclosed. It's a wild misunderstanding of HIPAA's actual privacy requirements. But the TFD has gone so overboard with it that it won't share details that might possibly – one chance in a zillion, in an alternate universe – let someone figure out who they've helped. For example, our news staff once asked a TFD dispatcher to merely confirm that something we'd heard about had happened. The response, in so many words: "I can confirm that there was an incident somewhere in the state." Insane! I had a similar experience last July when the nursing staff at a hospital decided they couldn't tell me anything about my daughter's condition as she gave birth during a day-and-a-half-long, worrisome labor. Even though she'd given them permission to keep me informed! (The hospital graciously apologized afterward.) But I haven't heard of any outfit that takes its misunderstanding of HIPAA to the absurd lengths the TFD does.
Categories: Taking notice
• 3 comments
Friday, May 16th, 2008
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 10:20:56 am
Saturday: Sunday: 2. The Washington Education Association’s fixation on controlling teacher salaries cost the state a $13.2 million grant to bolster math and science education. Monday: About our editorials:
Categories: What's coming
Thursday, May 15th, 2008 |
