A quotation from The Plot Against Public Education: How millionaires and billionaires are ruining our schools: Stephanie Simon, writing for Reuters in the summer of 2012, captured the excitement of investors eager to pounce: “The investors gathered in a tony private club in Manhattan were eager to hear about the next big thing, and education…

(published at the Bellevue Reporter) with the title “Blame politicians, poverty for school problems”) The fundamental economic fact of the last 30 years is the relentless transfer of wealth from the middle class to the rich. During the 1950s and early 1960s, the top bracket income tax rate was over 90%. Now the top rate…

I’m reading the Complete Idiots Guide to The Gnostic Gospels, by J. Michael Matkin. It’s exciting stuff — kinda like from Indiana Jones. The book reveals how contingent orthodox Christianity is. The early Catholic Church relentlessly suppressed alternative sects, some of which were close to winning out.  For example, the second century gnostic Valentius came…

Someone in my precinct emailed me (their PCO): “What is the difference between Yes on 594 and Yes on 591?” I explained I-594 is a gun control measure that requires background checks on gun purchases. Most Democrats support it. I-591 is the initiative from the gun lobby to make sure that Washington State’s gun laws…

Joshua Greene’s Moral Tribes — Emotion, Reason, and the Gap between Us and Them is a mixture of political philosophy, evolutionary psychology, and ethics. The cool thing is that Greene is a clear thinker and superb writer, so the book is accessible to the educated layperson. The central question of the book is:  In a…

This afternoon I attended Rep. Adam Smith’s salmon bake in Bellevue. I mentioned problems with our military: ex-military generals whose punditry is corrupted by connections to military contractors; cost over-runs and design flaws in the F-35; and our history of supporting the wrong side in conflicts.  As always, Smith acknowledges the existence of the problems. …

US Representative, Adam Smith (D, 9th CD WA) appeared on Meet the Press in late August with Republican Peter King from NY State. Smith said that the US must find worthy allies in Iraq and Syria. Otherwise the bombing will be ineffective.    Smith said he supports stronger sanctions against Russia and more support for the…