"wear it humbly"

In my time, I have twice grown a full beard, once for a competition, and once for a fundraiser. My barbaric exploits are nothing, though, compared to those of young Burke Kenny, beard champion at 26:

The 26-year-old Olympia resident recently returned from the World Beard and Mustache Championships in Trondheim, Norway, where he took first place in the "full beard with styled mustache" category. He won the same title four years ago in England, when he became the youngest international facial-hair champion....

The international competition featured about 20 categories. The Americans brought home six gold medals, and four of those were grown by men from Washington state, Kenny said. Besides Kenny, they were Bruce Roe of Bremerton, who won for Hungarian mustache; Craig "Rooty" Lundvall of the Everett area, who won for full beard natural; and Keith "Ghandi Jones" Haubrich of Seattle, who won the freestyle mustache category.

What is it that makes the Evergreen State such a haven for bearded folk? Could it be the 58-degree rainy weather in July?

The Wire short-circuits in Seattle

Anyone interested in criminal justice and civil liberties in the Age of Perpetual Terrorism should read Brendan Kiley's deconstruction of an FBI investigation gone wrong--because it could never go right.

"The degree of surveillance and monitoring has been extremely expensive," the officer tells Rick, sounding equal parts intimidating and frustrated. "When you've gone to the QFC and Corsair and Tubs. Think over the last two years—everything you've done in private and on the streets, people you've talked to, what you've had in your possession, conversations, intentions, plans... I have to emphasize the level of surveillance we've run over the last two years. Tell us about all the drug deals in The Yard. You want me to tell you about the red cabinet where you keep the drugs? The cocaine? We have hundreds of hours of surveillance, wire, video..."

"That would seem to be an absurd waste of state financing and funding," Rick says. "And that actually scares me more than the charges... You guys aren't after anything bigger than this? This is it?..."

The Seattle police seem to think that Rick's guns point toward some kind of guilt.

"Why the need to have so many weapons on the premises?" one of the officers asks.

"My home?" Rick asks, sounding flabbergasted. "That's my home. I own a small amount of firearms legally, most of which are locked in an extremely secure gun safe in an unloaded manner. I'm a man from Oklahoma," he continues, "and there's no such thing as a man from Oklahoma who doesn't own a firearm or two. Even the hippies own guns."

The agents sit silent, seemingly flummoxed. They've pursued this target for years, luring him into a bust that they hoped would scare him into giving up some valuable intelligence about domestic terrorists, or city politicians, or at least some drug dealers. But they've fundamentally misunderstood their own investigation.

And what does it get them? Four indigent poker players.

The defendants are quiet, well dressed, and bewildered by the charges. One of them told me that the poker stakes were so low, he would lose or win $100 at most in the course of a night. ("All those guys were broke, broke as a joke," Mia Brown agrees. "They'd borrow five dollars from someone to go put on the card table. It was small and it was stupid.")

The defense lawyers will be bewildered by what they find in the discovery process--all the paperwork and evidence and audio and video surveillance accumulated by the two-year investigation that involved the FBI, SPD, SWAT teams, and federal firearms and immigration and customs agents. One defendant's discovery request turned up nearly 2,000 pages of documentation and over 100 CDs and DVDs, and even that defendant's attorney had to file extra requests because he said there were big gaps of time missing.

Why did law enforcement dedicate such massive resources to bust some penny-ante card players for charges that only one person has faced in the past 10 years?

One of the defendants, Brady McGarry, had a simple explanation: "If you spend that much time and money, you have to put somebody up on that cross."

Read the whole thing, if you have the patience--and stomach--for it.

the Seattle Times endorses legalizing marijuana

The Seattle Times has taken up the cause of legalizing marijuana. First, in its own editorial:

Marijuana should be legalized, regulated and taxed. The push to repeal federal prohibition should come from the states, and it should begin with the state of Washington.

In 1998, Washington was one of the earliest to vote for medical marijuana. It was a leap of faith, and the right decision. In 2003, Seattle was one of the first places in America to vote to make simple marijuana possession the lowest police priority. That, too, was a leap of faith, and the right decision. A year ago, City Attorney Pete Holmes stopped all prosecutions for simple possession: the right decision.

It is time for the next step. It is a leap, yes — but not such a big one, now.

Second, in an op-ed written by Norm Stamper, a former police chief, and the anti-Kerlikowske:

A fundamental change in drug policy seems daunting, but we've done it before with the repeal of alcohol prohibition. Today, you no longer see gangs shooting each other over beer and liquor market share. And both the president and Kerlikowske have compared drug use to cigarettes, pointing to the success of public-education campaigns in reducing the number of smokers.

But have they forgotten that we have not sent one person to jail for smoking Marlboros? If we can successfully manage alcohol and tobacco under a public-health model, we can do the same for all other drugs.

Here in Washington state, talk of legalization has hit the mainstream, and has prohibitionists on the defensive.

And it's about time.

RIP, Denis Dutton

Denis Dutton, founder of the essential Arts and Letters Daily, has passed away. Nick Gillespie's kind words are worth reading.

In effect, Denis created the world's greatest coffee house and magazine rack, a place where interested customers could dawdle all day while reading an endless stream of fascinating material pulled from the far edges of the galaxy.

Agreed.

Added: Stephen Metcalf's appreciation is also good.

the eternal awkward stage

It's one thing to believe stupid things when you're young. It's another to publish them for all the world to see.

It's another thing, still, to try to erase your former stupidity.

Zeiger, the author of two books and many columns, essays and blog posts about politics and local history, recently had his writings purged from a number of websites, including “Intellectual Conservative.”

Morrell’s campaign and the House Democratic Campaign Committee noticed the missing articles Saturday, the committee said. The group opened its general election campaign with a news release questioning why the articles, more than 50 by their count, were disappearing. The committee said Zeiger was taking them down to hide his “extremist” views. Field director Alex Hur said: “Voters deserve to know what a candidate’s values really are.”

Zeiger said those articles don’t all represent his values anymore, so he had them removed. They would be a “distraction” from the campaign, he said.

The writings aren’t from very long ago, mainly 2003 and 2004. But Zeiger is just 25, and he was in college at the time. He said he’s “grown up since age 18 and 19 when the really provocative stuff was going up.”

I'd say Zeiger is sincere, even if he's chosen the dubious strategy of purging the past. (If you're not inclined to give him the benefit, at least read his own reflections on his brief career as a pundit.)

I can empathize with Zeiger; the poems, political cartoons, and essays I crafted in high school were heartfelt but brainless, and it's easy for me to repudiate them as adolescent folly.

The only smart thing about them: they weren't published. No eternal awkward stage for me.

the franchise for felons?

A little over a year ago, I blogged about an LD topic that led to quite interesting debates: whether felons should have the right to vote. In Washington, if an appeals court ruling holds up, they soon may.

The ruling, handed down Tuesday by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle, found that Washington's criminal-justice system was so "infected" with racial discrimination that a ban on felon voting violated civil-rights protections.

The state hoped to have the case heard during the U.S. Supreme Court's fall session, McKenna told reporters at a hastily arranged news conference at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Meanwhile, the state also plans to file by next week a motion to stall enactment of the court ruling. McKenna said courts routinely grant such motions if a case is being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

I used to think it was obvious that felons should be denied the franchise--after all, they'd abused the law, so why let them shape it?--but in a democracy, the law isn't perfect, and it's even possible that laws can be shaped with disenfranchisement in mind. At any rate, Vermont and Maine, the two states that allow felons to vote, haven't fallen into the sea... yet.

Stephen Toulmin passes on

The New York Times notes the death of Stephen Toulmin.

Stephen Toulmin, an influential philosopher who conducted wide-ranging inquiries into ethics, science and moral reasoning and developed a new approach to analyzing arguments known as the Toulmin model of argumentation, died on Dec. 4 in Los Angeles. He was 87.

Toulmin's model was, and is, highly influential in the world of debate. The claim-evidence-warrant structure (along with backing, qualification, and rebuttal), is useful both as a thinking and teaching tool.

If you're a high school debater or debate coach, tomorrow at practice, in the midst of your jabbering about impacts and turns and advocacy, take a break and have a moment of silence for Stephen Toulmin.

standards-based grading in Spokane

Spokane's elementary schools will now employ a 4-point grading scale based on state standards, the local newspaper reports.

Most elementary students in Spokane Public Schools are seeing their new report cards for the first time this week; instead of A, B, C, D or F, it’s 4, 3, 2 or 1...

Instead of one letter grade for a whole topic, the numbers correlate to specific elements of learning within that topic. Instead of a grade for “writing,” for example, a student might receive separate grades for “writes in complete sentences” and “understands punctuation and capitalization.”

Spokane tested the grading scheme for three years before implementing it district-wide, a smart move.

I hope someday high schools adopt a similar scheme--one that translates directly into a grade point average, rather than the percentage-based adjustments we use now.

Capital to rejoin Narrows League?

It appears that Capital, along with the three other remaining teams from the tiny Western Cascade Conference (itself part of the WCC/OWL--confused yet?), will rejoin the Narrows League next year.

The Narrows League will absorb the four remaining Western Cascade Conference teams: North Thurston, Timberline, Yelm and Capital, all Class 3A teams.

That will make the Narrows League, which was founded in 1979, as a 15-team league.

The Narrows League had previously been resistant to adding Class 3A teams. Several Tacoma schools could end up in the 3A classification next year as they were “opting up” to remain in the Narrows League. Gig Harbor had 3A numbers as well and opted up.

A committee will meet next week to being figuring out how this re-configured league will look and function.

My guess is it'll have two subdivisions, hopefully based on geography to make travel and gate proceeds best for all involved.

At least two good things about this, from Capital's perspective: first, playing in a bigger league means more battle-testing before the playoffs. Second, it restores the full import of the traditional crosstown rivalry with Olympia--now the game would matter for more than pride.

Capital's proven that it can hang with 4A schools. Next year, we'll have to do more: we'll have to beat them.

[via Meg Wochnick]

grades are arbitrary?!!

Yep.

A "D" average is good enough to earn a diploma, according to the Seattle Public Schools.

The district is considering dropping graduation standards from a "C" average to a "D" average in order to boost the number of college-ready students.

The school board is doing its own math on the district's logic.

According to an administrator, the district wants to offer more advanced classes and raise the bar. In order to do so, it needs money. To get that money, it has to find a way to keep more kids in school. So a "D" might be good enough to graduate.

What does a "D" mean?

Some places, you pass with a C. Others, you pass with a D. Some places, a C starts at 70. Other places, a C starts at 62.

Yep. Grades are arbitrary.

Which is what makes arguments over changing grading schemes so much fun.

flip forward to the future

I'd love to know what late adopters like Christina think of Google's in-development "Fast Flip." (Initial impression: not for laptops with small screens.)

[Via the old-school-new-school New York Times.]

in today's education headlines

1. Kent teachers defy court order; continue strike. (There's no Becca Bill for teachers.)

2. Obama urges all children to assimilate into the Borg.

3. An instrumental version of "Ave Maria" breaches the wall of separation, apparently.

Happy school year, everybody.

(Oh, and one more: Washington's doomsayers predict swine flu for a third of us.)

Obama's speech to schools echoes a previous president

In the Olympia School District, we won't be in school on Tuesday when President Obama delivers a speech to the nation's students. Nevertheless, the controversy over the speech has prompted Superintendent Lahmann to issue a statement:

On Tuesday, September 8, President Obama will do a national address to students about education. The national media has focussed on concerns that have been raised about the address being shown in schools. We have received a few emails and phone calls of both support and opposition about having students watch the broadcast.

Since our students do not start school until Wednesday, September 9, it seems obvious that we will not be broadcasting the President's message to students live. If parents or community members contact you about this issue, please remind them when school starts.

I have attached a copy of a Question & Answer release that the Department of Education sent out related to the President's speech. If staff wants to record the President's speech and use it later as part of a lesson, they may do so just as they would use an other supplemental resource. Given the concerns that have surfaced, please be sensitive to the controversial nature of any use.

The last time a president asked for a bully pulpit at the front of your classroom? Back in 1991, when Bush--George Herbert Walker Bush--asked for support of his educational goals.

Jim Lindgren links to the story, and does a little WestLaw digging to find media reactions.

In October of 1991, I must have been in seventh grade. I don't remember Bush's speech in the slightest.

waiting for the Big One

Northwesterners have heard for years that a massive earthquake is bound to crash Washington state sometime, maybe soon, and it'll make the Nisqually Quake of '01 feel like a rumble of indigestion in comparison. And now, it might hit closer to home than we think.

Whereas scientists once predicted that a mega-earthquake would be centered just off the Northwest coast, now – using data from the tremors research – they say that it could be 30 miles or more inland, under the Olympic Peninsula, which lies to the west of Seattle and Tacoma across Puget Sound.

“The closer you are to the source, the stronger the shaking,” said Steve Malone, a research professor emeritus at the University of Washington.

Exactly how much stronger, and how much more damage such a quake would cause in the Puget Sound area, hasn’t been calculated, Malone said.

Read the whole thing to find out what researchers did to come to a new, controversial conclusion, and why not all geologists are convinced.

Also, if you own a home anywhere within commuting distance of Seattle, you might want to think about buying earthquake insurance.

the long arm of the law

Back in February of 2008, Capital High School went on lockdown because of a nearby bank robbery. At the time, I wrote,

For about 45 minutes, my advisory class sat in darkness near the inside wall, taking naps and chatting quietly about There Will Be Blood and the magic that is Daniel Day-Lewis. I totally called the bank robbery angle.

When they announced the lockdown's conclusion, saying that the search had been called off, I told students it was because the cops had probably caught the bad guy.

Nope.

Roughly a year and six months later, they finally have.

An anonymous letter to the Olympia Police Department in January helped detectives make an arrest Wednesday in a year-and-a-half old armed bank robbery on the west side, court papers state.

Abraham Sebastian Anthony, 22, turned himself in at a local state Department of Corrections office after he was identified as a suspect and located in Lansing, Mich., as part of Olympia Police Det. Jeff Herbig’s investigation, court papers state.

Olympia Police Det. Dan Smith said Anthony admitted to committing the robbery after his arrest and said he did it to get money to feed his OxyContin habit.

The investigation of the Feb. 12, 2008 armed robbery of the Columbia Bank on Harrison Avenue had stalled until an anonymous letter sent to OPD in January said that Anthony was responsible.

There's one tiny transposition error in the article: the robbery occurred on February 21st, not the 12th.

word to principals: you are not cops

The drug war has apparently driven an East Hartford, Connecticut administrator to distraction--and resignation.

A middle school assistant principal facing charges related to sending a student to buy drugs in order to catch another student selling them has agreed to resign.

Amy E. Watson, 37, of Ellington, will step down effective Friday, according to school board Chairwoman Mary Alice Dwyer Hughes....

Watson has been on administrative leave pending an investigation into whether she paid a student to buy drugs from a suspected drug dealer March 11.

Edwin Soto, 50, of Suffield, also was arrested in the case. He was the school security officer.

Watson surrendered to police May 8 and was charged with risking injury or impairing the morals of a child and tampering with a witness.

The last time we had a drug-related story this silly, the Supreme Court had to weigh in. Are some principals spending all their free time watching The Shield?



[via Obscure Store]

plagiarism charge hits Seattle pol

If there's an excuse for plagiarism, Seattle mayoral candidate James Donaldson is going to find it:

Seattle mayoral candidate James Donaldson rolled out a 32-page plan of his ideas for Seattle last week. He called it, "James Donaldson's Plan for Seattle."

But parts of Donaldson's plan are copied verbatim from a similar plan released last year by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, who, like Donaldson, is a former NBA player.

Donaldson's campaign consultant, Cindi Laws, said she modeled the plan after Johnson's.

"People make these assumptions about athletes being dim ... so I looked at how it had been done," said Laws. "Kevin broke out of the pack by issuing a policy-heavy plan."

Laws said the similarities simply show that Donaldson knows a good idea when he sees one.

He just forgets the part about giving credit where it's due, right?

Throwaways:

1. When asked his opinion of Seattle's proposed plastic bag tax, Donaldson said, "Hold on, I'm Googling it."

2. Obviously, the way to combat stereotypes is to live them out. A warning, though: cognitive dissonance has a wide radius.

3. Remember, it's not the quality of the plan. It's the combined weight of its policies.

Update: Not the only time Donaldson's gone cut-and-paste happy, I'm afraid.

the grossest cure

Remember Olestra, also known as Olean? You know, back when the way to shave off pounds wasn't through a fad geographically- or masochistically-based diet, but through a quick and easy food additive-based diet? (Splenda's still trying, bless its calorie-reduced heart.)

Turns out the fat substitute may actually have a use--as part of a medical treatment for dioxin poisoning. In fact, if may have played a minor role in saving former Ukrainian president Victor Yushchenko's life. Yushchenko, as you may recall, was poisoned in an assassination attempt. NewScientist reports that skin growths called hamartomas were a critical part of the cure.

It now turns out that the lumps that grew on his face and body as a result probably saved his life by isolating the dioxin away from his vital, internal organs. They also helped to detoxify the poison, known chemically as TCDD (2,3,7,8-tetrachlrodibenzo-p-dioxin), by producing powerful enzymes called cytochrome p450s that are normally confined to the liver.

Read the whole fascinating thing.

Brian Baird will stay in the frying pan, thank you

Local Democrat Brian Baird won't be hosting any town halls this summer, blaming protesters who've been interrupting town hall meetings across the country.

Baird said his decision to scrub such constituent gatherings was partly prompted by an atmosphere of intimidation and harassment from right-wing opponents of Democratic health care reform efforts who have disrupted town hall meetings in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Texas, Ohio and Wisconsin.

“It’s a lynch-mob mentality out there,” Baird said. “There is an ugliness to it.”

The article notes that Baird is "no stranger to town hall protests." Indeed, this blogger witnessed Baird take a lot of flak--much of it personal--when he came to Capital High School to defend his support for the surge back in 2007. So I'm inclined to grant Baird the benefit of the doubt, here, if he claims to see something more vitriolic than protests past. It's not like he's known for flaking out on his constituents. But the move still strikes me as unwise--if anything, it emboldens the fringe, and reinforces their paranoia.

Last, it's clear that today's health care rabble-rousers have borrowed their tactics from the anti-war movement. After all, they've had over six years to watch and learn.

Update: On a national level, more script-flipping, compliments of Rush Limbaugh.

Update II: Jon DeVore notes that Dave Reichert has been town-hall free for his term.

Update III: And now Baird has put his foot in it. This is turning out to be an entertaining, as in tragic, summer.

Update IV: A cryptic death threat for Brian Baird? Really? People, just stop.

killing them softly with excerpts

Introductory phrase, followed by relevant link.

Blockquoted, thoughtfully chosen excerpt, highlighting the article's main argument, perhaps, or a good quote that would drum up a reader's interest or provoke some sort of analysis or observation on the blogger's part, in a way that respects "fair use."

Analysis, observation, ranting, raving, etc., perhaps with a call to read the whole thing, which, of course, would include a link.






P.S. When you click through, don't be surprised if you're asked to register for the right to read free content online. And you wonder what's really killing newspapers.

P.P.S. Should you refer to this blog post, I will find your attention flattering.

P.P.P.S. I learned about it on Twitter.

P.P.P.P.S. And thus I have reached the legal limit for postscripts.