Seattle’s love for boondoggles

Welcome to Seattle. 

Seattle is a city that will vote repeatedly for a mass transit solution they want and never get it…while its leaders put together another system that was in debt 1 billion dollars before a single foot of track had been laid. 

Below is video from the Seattle Times that shows an invitation only Sounder Light rail ride for area reporters.  The video shows the mayor of Seattle beaming over the accomplishment of 2.3 billion dollars being spent on 14 miles of rail line that doesn’t YET go anywhere useful.

Even though it’s a waste of money, I hope to ride on it some day for fun.  As soon as it goes some place different than Tukwila.

The Dangly Bits Show

I'm co-hosting a half hour podcast every Thursday night called The Dangly Bits show which is a spill-over of the The Dave and Steve Show. We do on occasion talk about politics and current events. You can find the show every Friday posted on The Dave and Steve Show website.

Dave (of the show) has really given me the forum to shape a midweek show out of the loosely FM talkradio style format. It's light so don't expect some of the heaviness of this blog or my two attempts at podcasts from last year. Please give it a listen...you can stream to it from the website or look it up in the iTunes store.

Change?

Seven soldiers died in Afghanistan this week.

The longer we are in that country, the easier it will be for the Taliban and different militias to resent our presence and mobilize forces against us. Sadly, I'm afraid more will die there for no good reason.

If this bugs you then just close your eyes and repeat the following to yourself until you begin to feel better:

They hate us because of our freedoms.
They hate us because of our freedoms.
They hate us because of our freedoms.
They hate us because of our freedoms.
They hate us because of our freedoms.

All you Obama supporters that emailed me and told me he was the peace candidate have some splainin' to do.

Independence Day

I haven’t shared my artwork on this blog since my own attempt at making the world’s most offensive cartoon (from an earlier post) but I’ll give it another shot.  Below is a sidewalk chalk representation of Old Glory.

Some key differences I took artistic liberty with:

• 10 Stripes instead of 13.  If forced to justify this I’ll just consolidate the Carolinas and merge New York and New Jersey…oh and boot Georgia completely.
• There are pink stripes.  No this isn’t a gay rights protest nor is it promoting breast cancer awareness…I just didn’t have red chalk. 
• Only 25 Stars.  Again…if the secession movement takes off this may not be a big issue.

Hope you all enjoyed Independence Day.  Mine was pretty good like always.

Hooray Canada!

Happy Canada Day!

I asked someone recently if they knew what Canada Day was celebrating. They replied, "I think it's Canada's Independence day." Don't we take being independent so much for granted that we assume everyone has fought for it?

Not Canada though. They pretend to be free but as we saw this last year, the Queen can shut down their government if she so chooses. That's not all bad though as I wish she could shut ours down for a few months.

It's not unusual to see Canadian flags fly beneath or along side the US Flag in the Seattle area. It's been like that all my life. The cultural differences between the state of Washington and the province of British Columbia are negligible. We probably have less in common with Oregon frankly.

Have a great day Canadians! Enjoy whatever it is you're celebrating today but remember that the banks and liquor stores are closed.

Viva la Canada!

Check this out

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics has an indexing program where you can look at how many dollars you’d need now to equal a dollar from years ago.  The oldest year you can look up is 1913…the creation of the Federal Reserve. 

Go ahead…select different years from the drop-down list.  You’ll get a good picture of how well the Federal Reserve and Congress has taken care of the value of our dollar.

Shoes – update

I got a lot of feedback on this post.  Emails, comments, Facebook thingies, you name it.  Nearly everyone had advice and I would say there was not much of a consensus (except maybe that I'm a jerk) which I think really just shows how much of a conflict there is when confronted with this sort of thing.

None of you changed my opinion but I'll share insight that I did not share within the original post.   After all, this was a bit of a thought experiment.

1. The man mostly had legitimate food in his basket and paid for it with cash.  He was not using any governmental assistance to purchase this.  I suspect it's true for the coffee too.
2. I absolutely did not judge him to be a panhandler/bum.  He fit the profile of someone who was simply poor.
3. He is not unlike about dozen other people at this same store, at this same time, just about everyday.
4. I'm not a bleeding heart.  I don't help people with a gesture to make myself feel good.  I help where I see help will actually help.
5. He seemed genuinely happy and greeted people around him.
6. I never, at any point, felt like I was enabling him to have a certain lifestyle by buying him shoes.  He needed shoes.  I don't consider poverty to be a crime or a virtue.  The poor will always be among us.
7. I called myself judgmental and this was a problem for three of you.  Being both judgmental and discriminate are good things.  We practice judgment and discrimination every day in the choices we make.  They are good things when done with the right motivations. 
8. My first instinct on this was to buy him shoes.  This was MY first instinct...I totally understand if it wouldn't be yours.  I don't compel people to apply my own convictions of mercy and charity to their own lives.  Any thinking person could raise credible arguments for letting him continue in those shoes…many of you did.
9. I’m also wearing worn shoes and with my longer hair and beard I could’ve been a candidate in someone’s eyes for help also.  That makes me laugh kind of.
10. Based on all that I've told you...I still decided not to get him shoes.  I judge that as a mistake...in this case.