HorsesAss.Org

Now that there has been some time with the free ride area gone, here are some random things I’ve been wondering. Some of them I’ve mentioned on Facebook or Twitter, but mostly, it’s just off the top of my head.

– Do you say “thank you” if you’re exiting from the rear? I don’t but enough people do that it makes me wonder if I’m being impolite.

– How many times do you yell “Back door, please” before you walk to the front? I think two.

– Is there a better way for bikes and buses on Third Ave? I don’t even take my bike on Third, because yikes. It’s probably not great for bike lanes. I don’t know if there’s a better solution than bikes being more visible and obvious how they’re going to move. Not really novel to Third?

– Are the drivers trying to stop with the back door open in front of a tree or a telephone poll?

– What’s the way they deal with fare evaders getting on the back? I’ve only seen it a couple times, but it seems like they go over the intercom asking once and then don’t do anything, but I don’t know if there’s a better way or if that’s official policy. I remember being on the bus in London once and the driver was like “we’re not moving until you pay.” That doesn’t seem good in the moment, but maybe longer term it makes more sense???

I just get all sputtering and what-the-fucky when discussing the idea that teachers should be armed. It’s such a horrible idea, I can’t even comprehend where it’s coming from. Fortunately, Aphra Behn over at Shakesville has an amazing post on the subject.

Unlike the jackasses in Oklahoma, Texas, and Virginia, who apparently think that any old person can do what a SWAT team does, I actually have respect for law enforcement. I understand that it takes a lot of training, and a particular set of aptitudes, in order to do that kind of work. I understand that what they do is not a matter of attending a training session or two. I also understand that they get paid to be alert to danger, and to proactively respond to it. That’s their job, and I respect that. I even understand that not all law enforcement and security forces have the same training, that some are very specially trained to handle things like hostage situations or gunmen who threaten large crowds.

But that is not my job. My job involves things like palaeography and reading microfilm, or grading papers, or going to yet another meeting about campus recycling. Nor is it the job of teachers at the elementary and secondary level.Their jobs are focused more on teaching and service than mine, and their training is a little different from mine–they take classes on their subject area and on the actual craft of educating, rather than focusing on how to produce scholarship. But you know what they don’t take classes on? How to take down an armed gunman without shooting innocent civilians. At least, they don’t teach that at my university’s College of Education.

– We’re recycling more than we’re throwing out. Yay. Maybe because of the recession. Boo.

– How can someone even pretend not to understand that head on a pike is a metaphor?

– Rahm can’t have this Seattle bicyclist.

– Every “pro-life” evangelical, every Operation Rescue picketer, every March for Life participant, every Christianity Today editorialist, every Catholic bishop, priest and pope knows that the murder of 20 children is essentially different and far worse than any 20 abortions. All their beloved rhetoric of “abortion is murder” and “abortion kills unborn children” turns to ashes in the wake of incidents like the slaughter in Newtown.

– I’ll believe action on gun control when I see it.

– Rick Snyder decided to enact GOP legislation and it made him super unpopular.

Yesterday I had a little fun goofing on the idea that the people running for mayor was boring. I don’t think it’s boring. I love civics. Yay for civics. Maybe it’s because it’s a year out and I’m more freaking out about how much Christmas shopping I have ahead of me instead of politics. This time though it’s a well known quantity running, so I’ll be on my best behavior when writing about Peter Steinbrueck’s bid for mayor.

Former city council member Peter Steinbrueck is (though not yet officially) running for mayor.

Justin Simmons, the head of the Metropolitan Democratic Club, wrote a letter to Steinbrueck supporters today announcing that he will head up the Steinbrueck for Mayor campaign.

Zzzzzzzz. No! I’m awake. I’m staying awake through this. I think I have a Peter Steinbrueck shirt somewhere. I think about him for like half a second every time I go shopping at Pike Place and I pass a picture of his father, or a park named after his father. Basically, yay for the fact that his father saved Pike Place in the 1960’s. There’s a lovely Richard Hugo poem about it that I can’t find online.

But I’m not writing about Victor. Peter. He was generally considered a good lefty when he was on the council but hasn’t been in elected office in 5 years (it’ll be 6 by the time the election comes around). Now he has insiders and people who hate transit supporting him.

“We have already signed on an impressive number of leaders in these communities in and around Seattle, including Nick Licata, Tim Harris, Dorry Elias-Garcia, David Bloom, Kay Bullitt, John Fox, Yusuf Cabdi, Brita Butler-Wall, Paul Benz, Vivan Lee, Sarajane Siegfriedt, and many others.”

Jesus, it’s a Ted Van Dyk away from a list of people who were vaguely movers and shakers in 1975. Really should be relevant to peopzzzzzzzzzzzz. I didn’t fall asleep! It should be relevant to people who stopped paying attenzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. I’m awake! It will be a relevant run to people who stopped paying attention to Seattle before grunge (that’s not totally fair, and I even like a couple of them). Zzzzzzzzzzz

Please join us tonight our last meeting of the year at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally. The following two Tuesdays fall on Christmas day and New Year day.

We meet every Tuesday (except certain holidays…) at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00pm. Some people show up earlier for Dinner.

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out one of the other DL meetings over the next week. Tonight the Tri-Cities chapter also meets. The Longview chapter and South Seattle chapter meet this Wednesday. The Spokane chapter and Drinking Liberally Tacoma meet this Thursday.

With 230 chapters of Living Liberally, including fourteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and three more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter that meets near you.

It looks like it’s inundate your member of Congress with notes not to cut Social Security day. So I don’t want to hear that Washington didn’t do our part.

Here are the numbers for members of the House. Just call yours, the rest are just a waste of time:

DelBene 202-225-6311
Larsen 202-225-2605
Herrera Beutler 202-225-3536
Hastings 202-225-5816
McMorris Rodgers 202-225-2006
Dicks 202-225-5916
McDermott 202-225-3106
Reichert 202-225-7761
Smith 202-225-8901

And the Senators:

Cantwell (202) 224-3441
Murray (202) 224-2621

Be polite but let them know that you’re opposed to cuts in Social Security or to raising the age. If you’re on Social Security, or are nearing that age, let them know. If you’re young but resent having your generation played against retirees, let them know.

A week before Christmas seems like a not great time to announce you’re running for mayor. But fine whatever. Another ostensible liberal who zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. No I’m awake. Another candidate for mayor:

A former president of the Greenwood Community Council, who’s carved out a niche as an advocate for neighborhood organizing and education reform, Martin tells The Stranger that she’ll file paperwork this week to run for mayor. A Seattle resident since 1979, Martin runs her own design firm after getting a BA in landscape architecture at the State University of New York.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Oh what? No I’m awake. I’m awake. zzzzzzz

“I think I have a pretty nice menu of supporters… I take time to analyze issues and understand both side of the argument,” says Martin, eschewing the policy briefings she says her competitors rely on. “I think that people know that. I have a conscience. And I also have a spine.”

Oh great. Awesome eschewing of cliche. Neat. I’m zzzzzzzzzzz.

We’re still mostly talking about the school shooting from last Friday.

– How do we find ourselves asking kindergarteners to be more courageous in the face of a gunman than politicians are in the face of the gun lobby?

– Joe Posnanski’s piece was about the best at capturing the horrible mood.

– That’s why, to me, the idea of having a conversation about gun control makes so much sense. Discussion can often lead to enlightenment.

– What do we do going forward?

– Generic cartoon

And in case we’re talking about anything else:

– While the drones are certainly worst for the people they’re used on, the people who use them also face real problems.

– The legislators who concocted this scheme need these bullies in order to make it work. Never forget that this is what the anti-choice movement gives us: Legislators who are counting on the lurking threat of harassment and even violence to make their legal schemes work.

Last week’s contest was won by milwhcky. It was the swimming complex near the Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles.

This week’s is somewhere in Washington state, good luck!

Matthew 26:52
Then Jesus said to him, “Put the sword back into its place. All those who use the sword will die by the sword.

Discuss.

Sam Seder: New poll shows people hate Republicans more than ever.

Connecticut School Shooting:

• Obama’s statement on the shooting.
• Thom: Can we talk gun control now?
• Young Turks: Cenk responds to Mike Huckabee’s idiotic statement
• Young Turks: Obama tearfully mourns children killed
• Sam Seder: The NRA is a domestic terrorist group.
• Young Turks: #CTShooting (Part I)
• Young Turks: #CTShooting (Part II)

S.E. Cupp’s: New Rules for her ‘troglodyte’ fellow Republicans.

Sam Seder: The G.O.P.’s asshole problem.

Young Turks: Dick Morris cashed in on bogus election prognostications

News from the G.O.P. War on Voters:

• Maddow: GOP’s political gerrymandering delivers disproportionate representation in states. Part I.
• Maddow: GOP’s political gerrymandering delivers disproportionate representation in states. Part II.
• Ed: Attorney General Eric Holder talks ‘national voting standards’
• Maddow: AG Eric Holder takes first steps toward eliminating GOP ‘election rigging’

Liberal Viewer: FAUX News hates Gangnam Style.

Sarah Silverman: Be bro-choice:

SlateTV: Obama as an extinct lizzard.

Fiscal Cliff Notes:

• Bashir: Today in fiscal cliff.
• Ann Telnaes: A chicken hawk plays chicken.
• Sam Seder: FAUX News asks for your prayers for Speaker Boehner
• Lawrence O’Donnell: Grover Norquist, “Bi-partisanship is another name for ‘date rape'”.
• Bill Press and friends: Republicans are taking America over the fiscal cliff.
• Susie Sampson’s Tea Party Report: Fiscal Cliff at Christmas
• Stephen: “Merry Cliffmas”
• O’Donnell: Rush is right about something!
• Ann Telnaes: Debt ceiling insanity.

White House: West Wing Week.

Young Turks: Mitt Romney finally wins something:

Red State Update: FAUX News fires Karl Rove and Dick Morris.

The G.O.P. War On Workers™:

• Jennifer Granholm: “Dear GOP, Ignore the will of the people and you will fail”
• Sam Seder: Michigan Republicans stage sneak attack on union rights
• Ed: Looking at Snyder’s lies.
• Thom: The history of “Right to Work” (for less).
• Ezra Klein: Republicans attack unions in Michigan.
• Bill Press: You’d think Republicans would be against freeloaders!
• Sam Seder: Worse than Wisconsin.
• Thom and Pap: The union war has just begun against Rick Snyder.

Mark Fiore: High tech Christmas.

Ed: The GOP is running out of white voters.

Jon on Graham and Scalia’s remarks on gay marriage (via Crooks and Liars).

Pap: The MSM fails again in 2012.

Sam Seder: Michele Bachmann is back to Teh Crazy.

News from the Front Lines in the War on Christmas™:

• Jon apologizes for poking fun at FAUX News over War on Christmas™ (via Crooks and Liars).
• Young Turks: Republicans go ape-shit over Bo Obama holiday card.
• Sharpton: Bill-O the Clown still pushing a fictitious War on Christmas™
• Lawrence O’Donnell: Santa is a Democrat.
• Young Turks: War on Christmas? Mom objects to church field trip.

Ann Telnaes: The collateral damage of drones.

NPR Is All Politics.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

One of the cliches that the people who don’t want any gun control constantly repeat is that an armed society is a polite society. And while that’s always struck me as not something we need to achieve, we at least know what they mean. If you’re worried the stranger might be someone with a gun, you’re less likely to be rude to them.

But today puts the lie to the general premise. Whatever curt words and gestures were avoided by the possibility that guy might have a gun pale compared to today.

A society that can’t prevent someone from opening fire on an elementary school loses its right to be called polite.

A society where a Sikh temple or a Unitarian church have to deal with people murdering their congregants isn’t a polite society.

A society where people watching a movie have to run in horror because someone is shooting the place up isn’t a polite society.

Cafe Racer was a great place for society, until an act of horror levels beyond impolite shattered that for the people there that day.

No, there are a lot of things arms do to a society. Making it polite isn’t one of them.

Via the AP:

Twenty-seven people, including 18 children, have been killed in a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in suburban Connecticut…

Via ABC:

One shooter is described as 24-years-old, armed with four weapons and wearing a bullet-proof vest, sources tell ABC News.

Clearly, something isn’t working. Perhaps it’s time we listen to the gun rights activists. To paraphrase Portland gun advocate Kirby Ellis’ words in response to the recent Portland-area mall shooting:

“By allowing kids to carry firearms it actually gives them a chance to protect themselves in ways…if the police are not available, or they could be moments away”

“In light of the recent school shooting in Connecticut, not allowing kids to carry weapons only puts our children more at risk.”

“With the policies in place that don’t allow students to carry firearms in school, the only thing they really could do is try to seek cover and wait for the police to get there.”

So it’s clear, then…it’s absolutely the only conceivable thing that could be done to stop these tragedies….

– In response to video of a controversial SPD arrest at 23rd and Union was released late last month, the Seattle King County NAACP and the No New Jim Crow Coalition group are holding a rally Saturday against police brutality.

– Seattle has teamed up with Gigabit Squared, a startup that wants to invest $200 million in building gigabit broadband networks in six college towns around the country, to build a gigabit network.

– Lee will probably have more, but it looks like at least initially, the Obama administration won’t go after Washington and Colorado marijuana users.

– In the past year, fuelers, cabin cleaners, and passenger service workers have spoken up publicly and directly to their contractors and airlines about the lack of proper safety equipment and dangerous working conditions at our airport.

– The Global Washington conference looks like it was pretty amazing.

– West Seattle Food Bank.

– I don’t think building a death star is practical.

I wasn’t able to get off work early so I’m just heading down there now. In the mean time enjoy the NPI twitter feed. I’ll update this when I’m there. I’m sure all of the local big wigs have already had their say.

… You can watch it here if you’re inclined.

… OK. I’ve got here, so far every speaker has been opposed. Tribal people and environmentalists. There are two rooms, so I don’t know what’s going on in the other room. I think more or less the same. When I came here, there was someone who took numbers, and there were over two thousand people up the escalator they had directed us to, one of two.

… We had one person supporting the project, but it’s definitely quite heavily opposed. I forgot to mention it in the last update, but The Backbone people were out in force outside with a giant salmon.

… A lot of the people who speak in opposition live near the tracks. I don’t know if that’s a concerted effort, by the people organizing the opposition or if it’s just that those people are the ones most likely to testify.

… You can tell when people are ringers when they can’t pronounce things like the “Hiram M. Chittenden Locks” or “Salish Sea.”

… The young people speaking know that this is their future.

… In the comments Roger wonders if this is all just window dressing. Maybe, but the thing is that you don’t know what will make the difference. The room is quite full, and it looks like the other one is too.

… We’ve had Christians and now a Druid speaking out against the trains.

… The last comment was made. It was quite anti-train.