MEANWHILE, ON LINEOUT
Kelly O gets down with the clown
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Boucing Souls > banjos
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Will Danny Brown get another on-stage blowjob at Sasquatch?
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You should definitely give a fuck about Yevtushenko
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Look at all the fun things you can do at Folklife—good music! Fried sandwiches! And bed making?
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Sasquatch! starts today—are you ready!?
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Slog
News & ArtsFriday, May 24, 2013
Books A Gigantic Bookstore/Warehouse in Kent Is Closing
Posted by Paul Constant on Fri, May 24, 2013 at 11:52 AM
GalleyCat says that Once Sold Tales, an online retailer in Kent, is closing, and the owner needs to get rid of 500,000 books. A Redditor explains:
Carrie will be operating her website and selling books at the warehouse (1$ for paperbacks, 2$ for hardback, or 1.50$/lb) until the end of May … Details are still getting worked out but it looks like 10 dollars for 8 books or 18 for 16.
If you're into spending your days rifling through a warehouse packed with dirt-cheap books, it sounds like a road trip might be in order .
Occupy / Transportation New California Law Could Prohibit Protesters From Riding Public Transit
Posted by Brendan Kiley on Fri, May 24, 2013 at 11:51 AM
A local ABC affiliate describes the situation this way: "BART is rolling out a new plan that will allow it to ban passengers who don't behave."
But the RT blog describes it this way: "New law will ban protesters from riding mass transit in California... that power could be used to prevent political protesters from getting to demonstrations or essentially going anywhere."
The law is here and states, among other things, that possession of any illegal substance, "lewd" behavior, "unruly" behavior, or pretty much anything a transit cop decides is undesirable—they get a lot of discretion—can lead to a year-long prohibition from public transit. (It seems one must have gotten three infractions in 90 days.)
This measure was put in place, in part, because of repeated protests against BART in San Francisco after a BART cop shot and killed a mentally ill homeless man. (A few years prior, a BART officer shot and killed an unarmed 22 year-old.) BART, of course, defends the law as an attempt to "create a safer, cleaner environment for BART riders and employees."
But even the ABC report recognizes that "AB 716 won't only target violent behavior. It can be applied to protestors who have been arrested during free-speech movements."
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Boom China Approves 220-Story, 4,450-Apartment Pinnacle of Density
Posted by Dominic Holden on Fri, May 24, 2013 at 11:22 AM
This news is approximately three hundred million internet years old (I saw it Monday), but it hasn't been on Slog yet.
Treehugger reports that a firm called Broad Sustainable Construction has obtained final approval to begin, starting a June, building a 220-story tower in Changsha, China, that reaches a half mile high, making it the world's tallest building. Ominously, they're giving it the same name as that bland restaurant on top of the Space Needle: Sky City.
Unlike decorative towers that serve airplane food and trophy skyscrapers like the Burj Khalifa, this Sky City is supposedly functional, affordable, and comparatively inexpensive to build. Many components of the pre-fab modular construction are being built off site, so the on-site construction schedule is only about three months. "It all just bolts together," writes treehugger. "BSC claims that by building this way, they eliminate construction waste, lost time managing trades, keep tight cost control and can build at a cost 50% to 60% less than conventional construction."
But the description gets a little breathless. "By using elevators instead of cars to get to schools, businesses and recreational facilities, thousands of cars are taken off the roads and thousands of hours of commuting time are saved," they gush, adding that it will include nearly one million square feet of vertical organic farms. "The numbers continue to stagger. In one building, there will be accommodation for 4450 families in apartments ranging from 645 SF to 5,000 SF, 250 hotel rooms, 100,000 SF of school, hospital and office space, totaling over eleven million square feet. The building footprint is only 10% of the site; the rest is open parkland."
Here's a video:
I'm admittedly enchanted—it's a giant, modular arcology, you guys!!—but the pinnacle of density is not the pinnacle of destiny. In fact, it's arguably a relic of the past (towers in the park, anyone? and care to live in a mall?), and even if it's less expensive than other super skyscrapers, high rises are always more expensive to build and more complicated to finance than low-rise buildings, which provide ample density for a city and relate better to the street. Still, it's an amusing experiment in super-high-density-construction that isn't just for the rich. Though I doubt those 210th story penthouses are gonna be doled out to proles, either.
Chow A Review of the New Seafood Restaurant From the Owners of the Seven Matadors and Kickin' Boot Whiskey Kitchen*
Posted by Bethany Jean Clement on Fri, May 24, 2013 at 11:21 AM
- Kelly O
- Manager not pictured.
The manager at Ballard Annex Oyster House is so smooth and good-looking, it's like you're in a movie. You're the extras out to dinner at the tastefully upscale, bustling seafood restaurant. The manager—who's suavely introducing himself and asking if he can get you a drink before the waiter, who will also introduce himself, arrives—is played by The Rock, at last realizing his dream of running his own restaurant from The Rundown. When you say you don't know what you want to drink yet, The Rock graciously allows this—reassures you, even—and, muscularly, moves on. No explosion ever occurs...
*Plus Its Portland Cousin, Southland Whiskey Kitchen
Film Pushing Rope
Posted by Paul Constant on Fri, May 24, 2013 at 11:20 AM
- The Hangover, Part III: If you squint, you can see what remains of Zach Galifianakis's self-worth and dignity.
While it's true that The Hangover, Part III doesn't exactly duplicate the plot of the original Hangover, the way the atrocious Part II did, it doesn't bring anything much new to the screen, either. Doug (Justin Bartha) is kidnapped by a mob boss named Marshall (John Goodman), in order to convince the Wolfpack (Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis) to chase down Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong), who has stolen millions of dollars' worth of gold bars from Marshall. It gets more implausible from there, with a series of heists and stunts and a chase scene or two, all around Tijuana and Las Vegas. I laughed out loud a couple of times—is it telling that the best jokes in the movie have to do with cocaine, I wonder?—but mostly, I just wanted it to be over.
The problem is that it's the same humor as the other two Hangover movies, over and over again. Ken Jeong acts batshit crazy, Zach Galifianakis is inappropriate to just about everyone, and Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms get all the "can you believe this shit" lines, playing the fussy adults who have to chauffeur the hyperactive kids from one set piece to another. But they're not even given character arcs this time, unless you count bugging your eyes out and shouting "ALAN!" over and over again as a symbol of emotional growth.
None of this would matter if there were a lot of crazy humor in The Hangover, Part III, but there just isn't.
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Music Kelly O Gets Down with the Clown
Posted by Kelly O on Fri, May 24, 2013 at 11:01 AM
Insane Clown Posse play El Corazon tonight and tomorrow night. Tickets are still available here.
- Violent J, the Duke of the Wicked, is on the left. Whoop, whoop!
You're playing El Corazón May 24 and 25. Why the two ICP Seattle shows?
Well, it's a small club, and it's been YEARS. No one would book us in Seattle for many, many years. Juggalos have a bad reputation, so for a long time, the closest we could come was Portland.
I have to ask. Your songs mention it, your fans guzzle it... why Faygo?
You gotta remember, we started out way back in the early '90s, comin' off the heels of the Beastie Boys and Run-DMC. DMC rapped about Adidas, and that was kinda like their thing, and the Beasties, at least back on their first album, used to mention White Castle hamburgers. Those things would link you to a group back then. When we were sitting around working on our very first songs, we wanted to incorporate who we were. We always drank Faygo.
Why not Vernors? That's from Detroit.
Vernors was expensive! Faygo Cola was only 69 cents for a two-liter. We used to leave the house and walk to the store with no money, and by the time we walked through the alley to get there, we would find at least seven empty bottles on the ground—then we'd walk away with a new ice-cold two-liter of Faygo, for free.
The Stranger Suggests
VISUAL ART
Sherry Markovitz
She's a Stranger Genius Award nominee and you need to see her mesmerizing new work.
SIFF SIFF Picks of the Day!
Posted by David Schmader on Fri, May 24, 2013 at 10:37 AM
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Animals / Sports Hockey Players With Pets
Posted by Megan Seling on Fri, May 24, 2013 at 10:25 AM
hockeyplayerswithpets.tumblr.com! hockeyplayerswithpets.tumblr.com! hockeyplayerswithpets.tumblr.com! hockeyplayerswithpets.tumblr.com! hockeyplayerswithpets.tumblr.com! hockeyplayerswithpets.tumblr.com!
See Evgeni Malkin with a camel! See Brian McGrattan with a fuzzy puppy! See Zenon Konopka with a rabbit! See Evgeni Malkin with a flamingo! And a parrot! And... where are you getting all these animals, Malkin?
This is the best thing to ever exist on the internet.
TV / Film / Teh Internets "Arrested Godfather"
Posted by David Schmader on Fri, May 24, 2013 at 10:17 AM
Mitchell Hurwitz's masterwork meets Francis Ford Coppola's masterwork, courtesy of Slacktory.
Transportation Governor Inslee Officially Declares State of Emergency in Skagit, Snohomish, and Whatcom Counties
Posted by Paul Constant on Fri, May 24, 2013 at 10:17 AM
The PDF is here. If you hate PDFs, the text of the proclamation is below.
WHEREAS, a section of the Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit River in Skagit County collapsed on May 23, 2013, closing the Interstate in both directions, requiring implementation of detours through adjacent neighborhood roadways, causing extensive disruption of the primary north and south bound transportation route through Western Washington, and impacting our citizens, businesses and economy in Skagit, Snohomish and Whatcom Counties; and
The estimated cost to repair the bridge is $15,000,000. Repairs and necessary interstate highway closures require the approval of Washington’s Secretary of Transportation, and the Washington State Department of Transportation is coordinating resources and working to implement damage repairs. These emergency conditions warrant closure of affected roadways for a significant period and implementation of emergency procurement procedures to hire a contractor to repair the damage; and
The roadway damage and its effects continue to impact the life and health of our citizens, as well as the property and transportation infrastructure of Washington State, all of which affect life, health, property, or the public peace, and constitute a public disaster demanding immediate action; and
The Washington State Military Department has activated the state Emergency Operations Center, implemented response procedures, and is coordinating resources to support local officials in alleviating the immediate social and economic impacts to people, property, and infrastructure, and is continuing to assess the magnitude of the event.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, Jay R. Inslee, Governor of the state of Washington, as a result of the above-noted situation and under Chapter 38.52 and 43.06 RCW, do hereby proclaim that a State of Emergency exists in Skagit, Snohomish, and Whatcom Counties in the state of Washington, and direct the plans and procedures in the Washington State Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan be implemented. State agencies and departments are directed to utilize state resources and to do everything reasonably possible to assist affected political subdivisions in an effort to respond to and recover from the event. As a result of this event, the Washington State Military Department, Emergency Management Division, is instructed to coordinate all incident-related assistance to the affected areas.
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Olympia Is Brett Hamil the Most Attractive Person In Washington State?
Posted by Dominic Holden on Fri, May 24, 2013 at 9:55 AM
Anyone who can talk about the dance tax and regressive taxation like this wins in my book:
Thanks to tipper Jeremy!
Celeb The Pleasures of Twitter
Posted by Charles Mudede on Fri, May 24, 2013 at 9:08 AM
Do you want more?
Hilary Clinton trouser suit rainbow. It's just kind of great. I don't know why. twitter.com/FelicityMorse/…
— Felicity Morse (@FelicityMorse) May 22, 2013
Transportation / Olympia The Only Thing More Tragic than a Bridge Collapse Would Be a 10 Cent a Gallon Increase in the Gas Tax
Posted by Goldy on Fri, May 24, 2013 at 8:57 AM
Not a coherent post, just a few quick thoughts about last night's collapse of an I-5 bridge over the Skagit River in Mount Vernon:
- No one died. Amazing, given the amount of traffic this bridge routinely carriers, and the fact that the roadbed plummeted
120 feet(some other number, I'm told) into the river below. Only two cars were dropped into the river, and all three occupants survived. Again, amazing. And bravo to the quick work of the first responders. - Our transportation infrastructure is awfully fragile. And I'm not talking about the concrete and steel that crumbled and fell after being hit by a truck. Squeezed between the Cascade mountains and the Puget Sound, we have few north/south alternatives to the I-5 corridor for moving people and goods between Seattle and BC and everywhere in between. Like the bridge itself, parts of our transportation infrastructure are short on redundancies, with potentially huge economic consequences for the region. Last night Governor Inslee said that the state has "emergency contracting procedures that are already being put into place," so the expectation is that the bridge replacement will take months, not years. But when the Big One hits, don't expect reconstruction to be so fast.
- 70,000 vehicles a day. That was the typical weekday capacity of the Skagit River bridge. It is also roughly the capacity equivalent to the 17 percent in bus service that Metro would be forced to impose should the legislature fail to approve a transportation funding package that includes 1.5 percent local MVET option for King County. This bridge collapse will rightly prompt an expensive, expedited, bridge replacement. But Rodney Tom and his Republican senate caucus seem perfectly comfortable with slashing equivalent transportation capacity from King County. Go figure.
- The only thing more tragic than a bridge collapse would be a 10 cent increase in the gas tax. Will this bridge collapse push lawmakers to finally come to terms on a transportation funding package? Hard to say. The two sticking points have been the Columbia River Crossing bridge (more on that in moment) and a proposed 10 cent a gallon gas tax increase to fund new projects and additional maintenance. Democrats will argue that the bridge collapse proves we need more transportation dollars now. Republicans will argue that the bridge collapse proves we need to re-prioritize our transportation spending. I can see both sides digging in their heels as they wait to see how the public responds to their message. But in the end, I'm guessing the GOP's patrons in the business community will push them to approve a package that includes some sort of tax increase.
- “Quite frankly the Columbia River Crossing was the first i thought of" when she heard an I-5 bridge had collapsed, state senate Democratic transportation committee co-chair Tracy Eide told the TNT's Jordan Schrader. But will this move her Republican colleagues to drop their opposition to the CRC? Republicans oppose it because they say the designs are too low, but probably more so because it includes light rail connecting Portland, OR, to Vancouver, WA. Yet the federal and Oregon funding that has already been approved is contingent on the bridge including light rail, so there really isn't any room for Democratic compromise on that issue if the goal is to get this project going. Washington State has many bridges in worse stages of disrepair than the existing Columbia River bridges, the Republicans might argue. So yeah, I can see them digging in their heels on this one.
Anyway, more for sure after I've had some time to talk to the players. And Happy Memorial Day to all of you with plains to head north of Mount Vernon this weekend!
News Morning News: The Bridge Collapse, Obama's Speech, and a Crop of Terrible Movies
Posted by Anna Minard on Fri, May 24, 2013 at 8:34 AM
I-5 Bridge Over the Skagit River Collapses: Despite the shocking pictures, there are no fatalities in last night's dramatic collapse of a bridge between Burlington and Mount Vernon. It happened at 7 p.m., and traffic will be messed up for a while. As to the cause of the collapse, Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste says, "For reasons unknown at this point in time, [a] semi struck the overhead of the bridge causing the collapse." That driver is cooperating with authorities. Here's an interview with a survivor (that picture is amazing), and Paul's collection of news updates as they happened last night.
One Quick Note, Now that the PNW Is the Top National News Story:
Dear national media, Skagit sounds like badge-it. Not bag-it. From @levipulk
— seattlepi (@seattlepi) May 24, 2013
Obama's Big Speech Yesterday: Outlined his second-term counterterrorism strategies, including shifting away from the use of the C.I.A.s Counterterrorism Center, continuing drone strikes, and promising (again) to close Guantanamo.
Department of Energy to Clean Up Leaking Hanford Tank: They've promised to offer a plan by June 14 as to how they'll pump out the "highly radioactive waste."
Taliban Launches Coordinated Attack On UN Compound: Explosions and gunfire erupt in central Kabul; casualties are still unknown.
Melinda Gates: Comes in third on Forbes' list of most powerful women in the world, behind German chancellor Angela Merkel and Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff.
SWAT Team Fatally Shoots Fife Father Holding Son Hostage: "Police said the man was using his son as a shield inside the house and at one point dangled his son out a second-floor window," reports KOMO. Police shot and killed the man early this morning; his son is safe and with family members.
California State Senator Introduces State Reporter Shield Act: Ted Lieu, a Democrat from Torrance, proposed the bill in response to federal seizures of AP reporters' phone records, saying, "A free press is necessary for a free people. Actions that chill freedom of the press hurt the foundational core of our democracy."
UW Gets Its Largest Freshman Applicant Pool Ever: More than 30,000 students applied to be part of UW's freshmen class this year, up 16 percent from last year. Down from 65 percent last year, about 61 percent of Washington students were accepted to the university.
The Worst Movies for Sale at Cannes Film Festival: The Guardian collects a gallery of the "Palm d'Awful," including Sharknado and Bring Me the Head of the Machine Gun Woman.
Economy Life Without Economics: Part Six
Posted by Charles Mudede on Fri, May 24, 2013 at 7:56 AM
And what is the profession of economics (which is not really about economics but about asset management and things of that nature) like in advanced capitalist societies (ADS)? It has its equivalent in traffic engineering...
- The Greenest of Green Cars
In the way that the only goal, maintaining high rates of growth, of the economics profession in its present state doesn't solve any real thing, the traffic engineer's goal, undoing jams, solves zip in the big picture of our present social and environmental situation. Economic growth at even a compound rate of 2 percent has no actual meaning for a society that's so wealthy that it has to socially manufacture poverty. Similarly, clearing up traffic congestion has no actual value—indeed, it makes things worse by decreasing the misery for drivers and increasing the number of cars on the road. The success of a traffic engineer, like the success of an economist, means nothing in reality but something in our distorted view of it.
Film Fast & Furious 6: Justin Lin's Automotive Ballet Careens to an Explosive Conclusion
Posted by Paul Constant on Fri, May 24, 2013 at 7:51 AM
- The Gang's All Here: "What is this, a table? I can't drive a table!"
I don't think the financial success of the Fast & Furious franchise is entirely attributable to fast cars and cheap thrills. I think a great deal of the movie's appeal at the multiplex comes from the fact that it's the only major summer movie franchise that features a truly multicultural cast. Not only that, these movies are totally blasé about the fact that they star a multicultural cast; nobody is a token character, none of the characters spend time dwelling on their differences. These are highly unrealistic movies—about which more soon—but the cast may be the most realistic set of faces you'll see in a blockbuster all year, if you live in a major American city. Part of the appeal of a Fast & Furious movie, I think, comes from that recognition.
Which is good, because even the most unrealistic movie needs to have some sort of a base of realism on which it can build. And Fast & Furious 6 is one of the most unrealistic movies you'll see this summer. Director Justin Lin, now on his fourth Fast & Furious film, has taken a fairly unassuming street-racing series and made each movie crazier and crazier until finally, with what might be his final entry in the franchise, he has given birth to a whole new genre: Car-fu. Using absolutely no 3D and plenty of what appear to be practical effects (with lots of CGI tossed in for good measure), Lin has become the John Woo of the demolition derby, tossing what feels like a good-sized mall parking lot full of cars around his sets until it becomes a kind of surrealistic ballet. You've got cars crushed by debris. You've got cars skidding daintily on their bumpers, perpendicular to the ground. You've got cars lashed to each other, flying through the air. They pirouette, they dance, they dive, they leap. They fold like origami, they roar, they butt into each other like rivals during mating season.
And the automotive violence rubs off on Fast & Furious 6's human cast, too. When The Rock, as a law enforcement officer named Luke Hobbs, tosses a bad guy around a Moscow interrogation room, it's not a body doing violence to a body. It's one of Lin's automotive crashes, dolled up in human form. Hobbs sends the crook sailing through the air into ceilings and floors and walls, only to pick him up and chuck him again, until he becomes injured and so turns into some sort of a simpering, whining...pedestrian, begging for mercy. And Vin Diesel's Dominic Toretto only has one signature move: The flying head butt. Toretto leaps at his target with his whole body, bringing his gigantic, gleaming dome down square on the poor sap with a sickening bludgeoning sound effect. It's not so much a physical assault as it is a hit & run.
The plot—what little there is—calls back to just about every Fast & Furious movie that came before, and so it's a mess to explain.
Teh Internets Watch the Columbia Glacier Recede
Posted by Eli Sanders on Fri, May 24, 2013 at 6:00 AM
If you haven't already, spend a moment with Timelapse. It takes decades of government satellite images and turns them into short movies that show you what we've been doing to the planet recently.
In addition to watching the Columbia Glacier recede, you can watch coal seams being opened up in Wyoming! And sprawl sprawling in Las Vegas! And rainforest disappearing in Brazil! And, if you use the search function, Seattle densifying!
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Transportation / Breaking News An I-5 Bridge Over the Skagit River Has Collapsed
Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, May 23, 2013 at 7:25 PM
The news is blasting across Twitter right now:
BREAKING: The I-5 Bridge over the Skagit River has collapsed. Cars are in the water. Avoid the area. More soon.
— KOMO News (@komonews) May 24, 2013
Looks like both the northbound and the southbound lanes are out. The best person to follow for up-to-the-minute updates on Twitter at the moment is is Lynsi Burton, a reporter for the Skagit Valley Herald. KOMO radio is taking calls from witnesses. You can listen in on their website. One witness says a 50-foot portion of the bridge is gone and rescuers are on the scene. More updates as they come.
UPDATE 7:32 PM: Here's a picture from the scene:
Via @gina_svh - the I-5 bridge over Skagit River between Burlington & Mt. Vernon WA. Cars and people in the water. twitter.com/Gina_SVH/statu…
— Bobby (@BobbyRobertsPDX) May 24, 2013
UPDATE 7:34 PM: Based on witness reports and the above photo, it sounds like they're talking about this bridge, which was built in 1955 and which Bridgehunter.com says got a satisfactory rating back in 2010:
Inspection (as of 08/2010)
Deck condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Superstructure condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Appraisal: Functionally obsolete
Sufficiency rating: 57.4 (out of 100)Average daily traffic (as of 2010)
70,925
UPDATE 7:40 PM: KING 5 has another photograph of the scene. At least two cars are in the water, and all north-south traffic is stopped.
UPDATE 7:48 PM: Holy shit, these pictures are incredible:
Pic of#Skagitbridgecollapse taken by friend of @annakxly4 NB lanes collapsed into river. Several cars submerged twitter.com/kxly4news/stat…
— kxly(@kxly4news) May 24, 2013
UPDATE 7:58 PM: I'm depositing more on-the-scene tweets after the jump, so this post will load in a timely fashion.
UPDATE 8:01 PM: KING 5 is streaming live from the scene right now.
UPDATE 8:22 PM: Marcus Deyerin on Twitter is saying that two people are being extracted from a truck that's in the water at the moment. Authorities are asking people to stop coming to the scene, as they're getting in the way. Also, they're asking residents of Skagit to stay off the phone if they can, as lines are getting tied up.
UPDATE 8:28 PM: Rescuers in boats are at the scene. I've put another photo after the jump.
UPDATE 8:30 PM: On Twitter, Skagit Valley Herald reporter Gina Cole says: "Stretcher with second person pulled from river. Unsure if person is alive, but no applause from onlookers this time when they reached land." KOMO says one person has been pulled from a car and two have been rescued from a truck. Here's a KOMO live feed.
UPDATE 8:35 PM: I've heard from multiple eyewitnesses on different news livestreams that the collapse appeared to happen because a wide load truck struck a beam on the bridge. We're a long way from discovering the reason for all this, though.
UPDATE 8:58 PM: The Seattle P.I. says the bridge was declared "safe and sound" by Washington's Department of Transportation in 2008.
UPDATE 9:05 PM: Brian Rosenthal at the Seattle Times writes:
Rescuers think they have pulled everybody out of the water, but they’re not sure, [Marcus] Deyerin [of the Northwest Washington Incident Management Team] said.
Anybody still in the water will probably not be rescued, officials said.
UPDATE 9:08 PM: And then there's this update, from the Everett Herald:
Everyone accounted for, no fatalities in #Skagit County bridge collapse, according to reporter on scene.
— The Herald (@EverettHerald) May 24, 2013
Governor Inslee and Transportation Secretary Lynn Peterson are about to get in a plane and fly to the scene.
UPDATE 9:17 PM: And with the news that there were no fatalities, that's the end of this live-Slog. Any new developments will appear as new posts on Slog tonight.
Guns 10-Year-Old Girl Accidentally Shot Dead by 14-Year-Old Boy
Posted by Goldy on Thu, May 23, 2013 at 4:37 PM
Ten-year-old Maggie Hollifield was shot and killed by a 14-year-old boy outside her Virginia home, a horrific accident that should not be confused with 10-year-old Elvira Campos who was shot dead in her Sacramento County living while watching TV, or 14-year-old Daja Robinson who was shot and killed on a bus in Queens. Can't tell the players without a scorecard.
FYI, my recent gun rant here.
Media / Religion Glenn Beckwatch: CNN's Atheist Plot, Revealed!
Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, May 23, 2013 at 4:34 PM
Yesterday, Dan showed you the awkward footage that ensued when CNN news-idiot Wolf Blitzer accidentally asked an atheist if she thanked the Lord for delivering her from the tornado.
Today, Christian Nightmares notices that Glenn Beck thinks the whole scenario smacks of a conspiracy. He begins, "I really like Wolf Blitzer, and I think he's a good man," but "that questioning was peculiar, even for Wolf, who I think is a religious man." Beck concludes that Blitzer was set up by a producer who is "sympathetic to the atheist plight" or "just doesn't like Christians." That producer knew the woman was an atheist but hid the information and told Blitzer to ask the question about God in order to raise awareness of atheism. "That was there for a reason," Beck says, knowingly.
Two-Block Radius Spotted on a Window
Posted by Anna Minard on Thu, May 23, 2013 at 4:26 PM
- Anna Minard
Politics Holder Signed Off on Warrant to Seize Fox News Reporter's Personal E-Mails
Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, May 23, 2013 at 4:01 PM
Attorney General Eric Holder signed off on a controversial search warrant that identified Fox News reporter James Rosen as a “possible co-conspirator” in violations of the Espionage Act and authorized seizure of his private emails, a law enforcement official told NBC News on Thursday.
The disclosure of the attorney general’s role came as President Barack Obama, in a major speech on his counterterrorism policy, said Holder had agreed to review Justice Department guidelines governing investigations that involve journalists.
"I am troubled by the possibility that leak investigations may chill the investigative journalism that holds government accountable," Obama said. "Journalists should not be at legal risk for doing their jobs."
Yeah, well, that horse is already out of the barn, isn't it, President Obama? Ryan Lizza succinctly explains why this news matters:
How can Holder conduct a fair review of DOJ media policies when he personally approved warrant calling reporter a criminal and flight risk?
— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) May 23, 2013
Crime / Booze Yet Another Example of Oppressive Government Regulations Destroying Free Enterprise
Posted by Goldy on Thu, May 23, 2013 at 3:56 PM
A New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control investigation has found that 29 bars and restaurants, including 13 TGI Fridays, allegedly substituted cheap booze (or worse!) while charging for premium drinks:
At one bar, a mixture that included rubbing alcohol and caramel coloring was sold as scotch. In another, premium liquor bottles were refilled with water — and apparently not even clean water at that.
In January and February, investigators went to 63 establishments they suspected were scamming liquor customers. They ordered drinks neat — that is, without ice or mixers — and then covertly took samples for testing.
Of 150 samples collected, 30 were not the brand as which they were being sold.
Why can't government regulators leave the market to sort this out for itself? Nanny-statism at its worst!
Breaking News Boy Scouts Lift Ban on Gay Members
Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, May 23, 2013 at 3:35 PM
The organization's 1,400-member national council voted for the policy change, which will take effect January 1.
"No youth may be denied membership in the Boy Scouts of America on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone," says the approved resolution.
The BSA will maintain its ban on gay adult leaders.
Hooray for not excluding gay kids, but boo for the ban on gay leaders, which probably exists to mollify a few idiot bigots who still believe that all gay men are pedophiles. And, as Dan pointed out, atheists are still not invited to the club, so the Boy Scouts have a long way to go yet.
Chow Showbox Sodo Cracked, FareStart Guest Chef Spectacular Tonight Cancelled
Posted by Bethany Jean Clement on Thu, May 23, 2013 at 3:05 PM
After seven years, the annual Guest Chef at the Waterfront was set to move inland to Showbox Sodo. The new FareStart Guest Chef Spectacular—tonight!—was to include the profligate eatings and drinkings of more than 20 restaurants and 20 wineries/breweries, all to benefit FareStart.
Now there's a big crack in a structural beam at Showbox Sodo, and the building has been evacuated (everybody's safe), and the Guest Chef Spectacular cannot spectaculate tonight.
Ticketholders will receive refunds; full press release after the jump.
Make a straight-up donation to FareStart over here!
And, well, here's some other food-related stuff to do.
Science What's It Like to Get Hit By Lightning?
Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, May 23, 2013 at 2:36 PM
Turns out, people become very concerned with your footwear.
City / Economy How Local-Hire Proponents Want to Turn the Creed "Work Where You Live" Into Law
Posted by Anna Minard on Thu, May 23, 2013 at 2:14 PM
Yesterday, the Seattle city council hosted a brown bag lunch chat to look at if—and how—we should mandate the hiring of local residents on city-funded construction sites, otherwise known as a "targeted local hire" ordinance. It's an issue I've had my eye on for a while, and it's likely to be a slow burn at city hall, as they hammer out how, exactly, to institute mandatory hiring practices without pissing off every involved constituency—labor, contractors, workers.
Not an easy task, but San Francisco and other municipalities seem to have done successfully.
- Anna Minard
- Got Green director Michael Woo testifies in council chamber.
Here are four points that targeted hiring proponents want to see addressed in the legislation:
• While targeted hiring focuses on hiring women and/or people of color, this local hiring would focus on residents of the city—or even residents of certain zip codes, ones with markedly higher unemployment than the rest of the city.
• A targeted hire ordinance has to include a robust apprenticeship program, said a panel of experts, and those apprentices should then be brought onto job sites.
Labor / Olympia Seattle Times Lies to Its Readers in Advocating to Fix a Workers' Compensation Crisis that Doesn't Exist
Posted by Goldy on Thu, May 23, 2013 at 1:40 PM
You know, perhaps I wouldn't be so obsessed with the Seattle Times editorial board if they weren't so eager to lie to their readers:
The state workers’ compensation reform, Senate Bill 5127, was passed by the Senate 30-19 and hung up in the House. It needs to pass in this session.
... Passage of this bill will also offset much, and perhaps all, of the $1.8 billion extra that the state Department of Labor and Industries says will be needed over the next 10 years to put the state disability funds on a prudent basis.
Without the bill, the state will have to raise taxes on payrolls, which raises the price of creating and sustaining jobs.
These are two factual assertions, neither of which are supported by, you know, actual facts. Instead, the editors' research apparently consists of credulously aping they hyperbolic assertions of an out-of-date year-old post on the Washington Business Alliance run blog, Washington State Wire... assertions that were immediately refuted in the post's comment thread by L&I Director Judy Schurke:
Erik Smith’s article mischaracterizes a number of points at yesterday’s Workers’ Compensation Advisory Committee special meeting.
First, L&I is NOT contemplating a 19 percent increase nor did we say we need to “beef up” the contingency reserve to $2.3 billion. Further, L&I does not have a budget gap of $3.1 billion.
The "$1.8 billion extra" the editorial claims that "[L&I] says will be needed" appears to come from Smith's assertion that "L&I figures it needs to beef that reserve back up to $2.3 billion"—an assertion that L&I's Schurke explicitly denies. "To hit that target it needs an additional $1.7 billion," writes Smith. But these were "theoretical financial scenarios" put forth as part of a larger discussion about how to rebuild workers compensation reserves, insists Schurke; they were never meant to represent any sort of hard "target."
Further, these theoretical financial scenarios were constructed a year ago, back when workers' compensation reserves were considerably smaller. As I recently posted, Washington state's workers' compensation system turned a $250 million surplus in 2012 while bumping its reserves from $580 million in June 2012 to $953 million by the end of December. Even if L&I was shooting for $2.3 billion in reserves (and it's not), the additional funds necessary to hit that nonexistent target have been shaved by about a half billion dollars since the Seattle Times year-old numbers were first devised.
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