Washington’s legislators are feeling benevolent. Or maybe embarrassed. Fourteen years ago, was the last time lawmakers looked into the state’s problem gambling policies. Since then “the gambling industry has nearly doubled to more than a three-billion-dollar industry.” ‘Industry’, used twice in ten words or less by the lawmakers, is often meant to describe “economic […]
Letter: When government gets it right
Almost ended the article right there for lack of evidence. From slow-closing toilet seats to marijuana-made-mobile, people are – and government, comprised of people, is – enamored over the extravagant, captivated with the costly, beguiled by bureaucracy. We are ever in search of a better mousetrap. “According to the United States Patent Office, over 4,000 […]
Letter: When the feathers fly
“Chickens cross road, some escape after semi crashes snarling I-5 near Olympia” read The Seattle Times headline this morning. Wonder if any were roosters who crossed the road, escaping to crow another day. To warn, which is one purpose of the rooster’s call for alarm. There was a guy in history who each morning forever […]
American Lake’s Milfoil topic of TWNA meeting
The February 7 (6:30 pm) meeting of the Tillicum Woodbrook Neighborhood Association will discuss, among other topics, American Lake’s Milfoil matter. Background on the Milfoil matter includes a lake survey and a petition for American Lake waterfront property owners to sign for presentation to the Lakewood City Council to enable a vote for the establishment […]
Letter: Monkeying around with tax dollars
Chimpanzees – for “their care, maintenance and transportation, owned or controlled by the National Institute of Health” (NIH) – for the fiscal year 2018 received authorized funding in the amount of $9,400,000 (p.171). That’s $18,650.79 per chimpanzee. And that’s even though the 504 NIH-supported chimpanzees are “no longer useful for biomedical research” according to conclusions […]
Letter: “Splendidly short fuses”
In his syndicated column of July 4, 2008, Pulitzer Price-winning columnist for the Washington Post and Newsday, George Will wrote concerning the birth of our nation, specifically of those in Mecklenburg County, N.C.: “The impatient patriots here had splendidly short fuses in 1775.” But now, our current age is described by G.K. Chesterton as “a […]
Letter: Leaving no tern un-stoned
This is not an article about marijuana. The title just got me thinking about someone who leaves no stone unturned in his or her relentless effort to right a wrong. The joke – and play on words – concerns ‘scientists’ who, wanting to study the effects of cannabis on birds – terns specifically – got […]
Letter: Protest Signs
They seem to be popping up more lately. Anonymously stuck in the ground through obviously no little effort, they are there to declare and denounce in no uncertain terms the protestors’ grievous feelings toward matters so heinous, so outrageous, so egregious that nothing will do but to leave behind a monument to their misery, a […]
Letter: Hire the homeless – Lakewood should apply
Bipartisan Senate Bill 5261 would create a pilot program to hire homeless persons for local beautification projects. Lakewood should support passage of the bill and at the same time apply to be one of only three cities statewide to be so honored.Lakewood has long advocated for help to the homeless. “The City of Lakewood is […]