Articles

Government Privatization: There’s Gold in Them Thar Bills

Scott Klug, clean cut and earnest, used to be a reporter for KING-TV in Seattle. He liked to investigate politicians. You would not have suspected that he would wind up in Congress himself one day, but that is what happened. Having returned home to Madison ,Wisconsin, Klug got elected as a Republican to the House of Representatives. Now in Washington, Read More ›

Warning: “SILLY” is Taking Over the National Agenda

The following anonymous document was delivered to this office by a conscience-stricken participant in a cult of public relations sociopaths that apparently has yet to come to the attention of the FBI, the CIA, CNN or Sally Jesse Raphael. It is reprinted here as a public service. ——————————————————————————– Confidential Update TO: Members of SILLY FROM: Your Leader When we first Read More ›

How to Reduce the Mood of Menace on Urban Streets

Could jaywalking contribute to a climate of lawlessness? Could public drunkeness? When a former mental patient wielding a sword on a downtown street can tie up traffic and the police for 11 hours, as happened recently in Seattle, can we see any relevance to our laws on involuntary treatment? The answer is “yes” to all these questions. Increasingly, law enforcement Read More ›

Is Uncle Sam About to Take Leave of His Census?

Washington State’s population is growing fast enough that the state seems likely to warrant another Congressional seat (our tenth) when the U.S. Census is taken in April, 2000–only four years from now. But the outcome is sufficiently uncertain that it may depend on what kind of Census the government holds. Will Congress fund a traditional Census that counts each person? Read More ›

Republicans Said What They’d Do, and Did What They Said

Media coverage tends to emphasize presidential politics, but the real center of governmental action these days is on Capitol Hill. The present Congress already has produced more legislative and attitudinal change than any Congress in a quarter of a century. Moreover, the record shows that members of the Republican majority did something their critics cannot honestly deny: they kept their Read More ›

Can Seattle continue to charm the technology muse?

As Hawaii is blessed with beautiful weather, Seattle enjoys an abundant efflorescence of technology innovation. We hear about it every day, but few understand where it came from. Bill Gates Jr. (the prominent attorney, not his still more prominent son), knows we didn’t exactly deserve the blessings of our Silicon Forest, but he is eager that we take care to Read More ›

Biblical Hi-Jinks in a Crucial Court Opinion

Did Christ commit suicide? That’s obviously a bizarre (and heretical) interpretation of the crucifixion of Jesus. But the idea is not too crazy to be taken seriously by a federal court seeking to overturn Washington State’s law banning assisted suicide. Did the Christian martyrs also commit suicide? After all, wrote the august Ninth Circuit Court majority in a recent opinion, Read More ›

A “Loopy ” Transit Idea that Makes Sense

He retired from the Seattle City Council three years ago and sold the family’s pharmacy on Capitol Hill soon afterwards, but he has not retired from his work with streetcars. At least one early morning a week, you will find George Benson, 78, down on the waterfront picking up trash along the tracks or over at the car barn shining Read More ›

C. S. Lewis on Dreams

Like many children, C. S. Lewis suffered from nightmares; his were often about giant insects. Like many creative writers, Lewis continued to have an active dream life and took an interest in it. He likened the pruning and polishing of creative ideas from his unconscious to waking evaluation of dreams. Some elements from his dreams found their way into his Read More ›

C.S. Lewis on Dante

In addition to referring to Dante occasionally in his scholarly books, Lewis published three essays specifically about Dante: “Dante’s Similes,” “Imagery in the Last Eleven Cantos of Dante’s Comedy,” and “Dante’s Statius” (available in Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature). Readers unacquainted with The Divine Comedy can’t realize how much it influenced Lewis. Those well acquainted with it are apt Read More ›