Monthly Archives: August 2003

The Way of Castenada

This entry was posted in Literature on by

I have read all or part of each of Carlos Castenada’s books and still reach for one from time to time when I need to refresh the way I look at the world, when my vision has stagnated. Castenada himself was always a mystery and early on I decided that while I’d be happiest if the narratives could be verified through peer review (I don’t think this has happened) that they might be fiction did not really take away from their transformative power.
Amy Wallace has released a new book, SORCEROR’S APPRENTICE: My Life with Carlos Castaneda, which Castenada aficionados may want to read.

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On the Dole

This entry was posted in Seattle on by

You and I are subsidizing the builder and the folks who are going to live on this new hillside scar. According to the Seattle Times:

About one-fifth of the funding for the nearly $178million interchange and road, and much of the drive, came from Port Blakely Communities, the company building a 3,250-home “urban village” called the Issaquah Highlands on the south end of the Plateau.

The rest came from taxpayers to the tune of about $43,815 per home (assuming 80%).
There is a lot of glowing talk in the article about future tax benefits to the state and local communities and improvements in traffic flow. But there were other solutions to the traffic problem that did not involve lining a corporate pocket book with tax payer’s money (cf, bush and the Texas Rangers). Look at these projected tax revenues on a net instead of gross basis they won’t glow quite so brightly and, of course, they do little or nothing to compensate the out of area taxpayers who contributed significant federal dollars to the project.
Let’s send Port Blakely an additional bill.

Late Night Reading

This entry was posted in Late Night Reads on by

Robert Musil explores the question: Is California a high tax state? The answer is not as simple as we might think at first glance.
Body and Soul links to Allen Brill’s discussion of bush’s faith: here and here.
bush does some math at Dohiyi Mir.
The Angry Economist suggests that NASA is already providing too much safety for their astronauts.
Good Night!

fuzzy words drive fuzzy policy

This entry was posted in al Qaeda bush Iraq US Foreign Policy War on Terrorism on by

When looking for the answer to a complex problem it is often the simplest that provides the most clarity. Eugene Oregon, responding to a Postrel post, provides a pretty simple answer to why the US invaded Iraq:

Thus, the simplest explanation for why we started this war is because the neo-cons wanted to. And September 11th just gave them a convenient excuse to do so.

While he is probably correct about why we started the war Eugene does not really address the question that Postrel

But Bush’s vagueness is maddening to people who are paying attention and confusing to people who aren’t.

and Josh Marshall are talking about:

But the White House is being run by men and women who’ve already made a lot of really stupid mistakes that are going to cost a lot of American lives, money and credibility. And now they’re trying to hide from accountability in their own idiot abstractions.

Not only can they hide from accountability but they can also forge ahead with their agenda for as long as they are able to fool enough people with fuzziness. If there is no tangible enemy there does not have to be a tangible end to the fight and this may be exactly what the bushies want.