Category: current events

So, gas prices are going up, again. I’m getting emails from MoveOn with “$4.00 per gallon?!” in the subject line. They are collecting signatures for a petition to Congress saying “Gasoline price gouging should be made a federal crime before the summer price increases hurt more American families.” And, then, like a dose of reason, this Canadian blog post shows up on the radar. Does it not seem strange that gasoline is as cheap as it is? Most people would say it’s not cheap, as they’re currently flying off the handle with rising prices. They’re even organizing gas boycotts to …

Back at the beginning of the year, Ian’s “Quote of the Day” list sent this out: “This is a marine biological station with her history of over sixty years … Take care of this place and protect the possibility for the continuation of our peaceful research. You can destroy the weapons and the war instruments, but save the civil equipments for Japanese students. When you are through with your job here, notify to the University and let us come back to our scientific home. “The last one to go” – Katsuma Dan, marine biologist, from a handwritten notice he left …

So, the fourth anniversary of the Iraq war came and went with a flurry of emails urging me to join this vigil, that march, to make more calls, write more letters. Maybe I’m feeling pessimistic, but what’s the point? Does it really matter to the cabal in charge that I don’t like the war? That there were so many candlelight vigils, so many marchers? I don’t think so. It didn’t matter to them that people thought it was a bad idea to begin with. As long as whatever world-domination need they have is getting scratched, and the coffers of their …

Apparently, I’m suffering from “Daylight Saving Time Jet Lag”, as Ian put it this morning. The clock may say it’s time to wake up, but my circadian rhythms want that hour back. I don’t like DST. According to my mother, I never have. And this year, I like it even less. By extending DST for one month, starting on the second Sunday in March and running to the first Sunday in November, “Daylight Saving Time” now lasts for 34 weeks. That’s 65% of the year. Which means that “Standard Time” is only 18 weeks (35% of the year). If “standard” …

The Stranger has an excellent write-up on the Viaduct advisory vote here in Seattle next month. Key points: A new viaduct would be “on average, 71 percent larger than the current viaduct, not 50 percent—in large part because modern safety standards require wider lanes.” Any views currently enjoyed from the Viaduct would be blocked by “a solid 32-inch-high wall and a 10-inch open rail—another casualty of modern safety standards.” “The lengthy construction means the new viaduct wouldn’t be ready for use until as late as 2020.” A new Viaduct comes with a $3 billion sticker price, but “factor in financing, …