Author: Philip Weiss

My thoughts are with you Robert

I’ve posted some of Robert Jimenez’ signs and postings before. He tends to frighten other people, but locals like him. He’s harmless. He just wants to tell the world about the demon conspiracy.

Today Robert and all his signs but one were gone.

Photo of Robert's sign announcing Irene's death
Irene passed away Sunday as she was at Leon Sullivan Nursing Home the last 30 days ±

The sign had blown into the street, but one of the neighbors set it back up.

Irene was the owner of the house Robert lived in. I put that in quotes because Robert slept outside on a plastic chaise lounge under an awning, sometimes watching a portable DVD player. Whenever his signs were gone in the past, it meant he’d been committed for 72 hours. Now I worry that this will be a little bit more permanent. I worry that Irene’s family will sell the place and Robert will have to move on. I worry that they’ve already done so.

Even though he was mentally ill, Robert loved Irene. I worry that he’s taking this badly.

If he ends up in your neighborhood, keep an eye on him. Don’t let anyone give him shit because he’s crazy. Take care of him for us Eastlakers.

Shoe Peg Corn

Got this recipe from my cousin’s wife, Leah. Essentially, this is homemade creamed corn. But it’s way better, and super easy.

  • 4 cans corn, drained (white corn suggested)
  • 1 stick butter
  • 1 8 oz. block cream cheese
  • 1 jalapeño pepper
  1. preheat oven to 375°
  2. soften butter in microwave (or leave butter on counter to soften ahead of time)
  3. dice jalapeño finely (or use pre-diced canned jalapeño, though not as good)
  4. combine butter and cream cheese well
  5. add corn
  6. add jalapeño
  7. mix well
  8. bake in 9 in. by 13 in. pan for 30 to 35 minutes

homemade creamed corn

Gram’s sugar cubes

8 sugar cubes in a box
Gram's sugar cubes

Gram gave me two boxes of sugar cubes in January. Gramps and Gram had just moved to Ida Culver House. Ida Culver has all you can drink coffee and sugar packets, so she didn’t need these. Out of those two boxes, I have 8 cubes left. I need to get some Folger’s for the last sugar cube, because they drank gawdawful bad coffee. I will cry when I use the last one. I might use it Christmas Eve, which would be one year exactly since the heart attack that convinced them to move. Better to get the sad out all at once. (As if that’s the end of it!)

Pie Night Goes Public

In lieu of regular content on this blog (for the moment), I give you a Pie Night announcement!

Photo of pie and coffee
Photo by Jessie Lynn McMains (CC By-Nc-Nd)

The next Pie Night will be Saturday the 15th of January at 7:30 PM.

What is Pie Night? Pie Night is where I make a lot of pie in a glorious attempt to buy friends. If I can be bribed by pie, I figure a lot of other people can be too. Feel free to bring your own pies (not store bought), though this is by no means required. The only requirement for attendance is that you eat pie!

Please note the start time and the location! There are some changes this time around. Voxx Coffee (Facebook) has graciously agreed to provide the space free of charge. The start time is a little later than previous start times as well. We’ll have 2½ hours to consume pie. Please do not bring beverages. Voxx has beverages (including beer and wine) at reasonable prices.

Please respond here or add yourself to the Pie Night Facebook event if you intend to come! Invite your friends too.

Muslims Wearing Things

King (then Prince) Abdullah of Jordan appears in a 1996 episode of Star Trek: Voyager

A few days ago N.P.R. news analyst appeared on Fox News where he commented that he worries whenever he sees Muslims:

when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.
– NPR Ends Williams’ Contract After Muslim Remarks

As noted by the story title, N.P.R. let Williams go after he made those remarks. There’s been a hue (sp?) and cry over this firing, many considering it unfair. As stated by N.P.R., Williams’ contract with N.P.R. requires him to adhere to N.P.R.’s policy on speaking even when he speaks elsewhere. He’s not allowed to do partisan speeches, for instance. N.P.R. wouldn’t approve of expressing irrational fear of Muslims on their network, so he’s not allowed to do it on Fox News either. So they fired him.

Juan Williams has a long history of going beyond what he’s allowed to do by his contract. This is important in my assessment.

I think it’s legitimate to argue that the punishment did not fit the crime. I disagree. But it’s a legitimate argument. Because of his long history of violating N.P.R. policy, this incident is a last straw situation. It’s unfortunate that Juan Williams lost a platform to speak (it is a form of censorship), but I think it is entirely within N.P.R.’s prerogatives.

In the end, Juan Williams suffers very little harm from it anyway, which is unfortunate. He immediately received a $3 million deal from Fox News, so he’s hardly getting screwed over.

One (of many) of the irrational beliefs Juan Williams holds is that someone can tell what a Muslim looks like by his/her Muslim garb. I think you’d be surprised. Muslim women do not all wear burkas. Muslim men do not all wear robes or beards. An anonymous (so far as I know) blogger started a new blog today that is simply titled Pictures of Muslims Wearing Things. It aims to post pictures of Muslims wearing all sorts of clothes. Now perhaps you will look at it and think, Well obviously that’s a Muslim, I can tell. But I think most people will be surprised by how they look. Muslim garb is hardly what people think.

Opinion on I-1107: repealing taxes on soft drinks

Initiative Measure No. 1107 concerns reversing certain 2010 amendments to state tax laws. The measure would end sales tax on candy; end temporary sales tax on some bottled water; end temporary excise taxes on carbonated beverages; and reduce tax rates for certain food processors.

I’m in favor of sin taxes if I agree that the items being taxed are sins. It’s simple economics: tax the things you don’t want to happen. When the price goes up, people do them less. It’s the principle behind cap-and-trade and carbon taxes. It’s the principle behind congestion tolls. It’s possible to raise such taxes too high. When a thriving black market in the item comes around, then you know the taxes are too high.

I’m all for taxing candy and soft drinks. There exist relatively cheap, relatively healthier alternatives that people can buy instead, if they want to avoid the tax. If you can’t go without your Coke Zero, pony up.

The soft drink industry has spent something like $16 million to pass this. The advertising campaign says it’s all about the taxes on grocery items that were included in the tax for technical reasons. a) the taxes on those items are around $4 million. The beverage industry could have donated the $16 million to grocery manufacturers 4 times over, and we wouldn’t have a need for the initiative (if even that’s a concern). b) The opponents of the tax could have crafted the initiative to repeal just the grocery tax part, but they did not. Their arguments hold little weight with me because of this.

I’m for keeping the tax and voting no on I-1107.

Opinion on I-1100 and I-1105: Privatizing Liquor Sales

Initiative Measure No. 1100 concerns liquor (beer, wine and spirits). The measure would close state liquor stores; authorize sale, distribution, and importation of spirits by private parties; and repeal certain requirements that govern the business operations of beer and wine distributers and producers.

Initiative Measure No. 1105 concerns liquor (beer, wine and spirits). The measure would close all state liquor stores and license private parties to sell or distribute spirits. It would revise laws concerning regulation, taxation and government revenues from distribution and sale of spirits.

The state government should not be operating private retail stores absent some important reason. The fact that Washington State does is (I assume) a vestige of the repeal of Prohibition, combined with a large amount of inertia. It does make getting liquor for minors somewhat more difficult, but not exactly because security at these stores is tight. They do have a better record at refusing sales to minors. But I think the real reason state liquor stores do better is that they aren’t so busy and there aren’t too many of them. The stores have a high markup, and limited selection. As some bars have noted, they cannot get some liquors for their businesses and service is not good.

There are two initiatives on the ballot that would get the state out of the liquor selling business. If both pass, how things will shake out will be anyone’s guess.

I-1100 is the Costco sponsored initiative. It removes a lot of the regulation on liquor sales as well as getting the state out of it. Places that have a license to sell beer and wine could get a liquor sales license, and the state would be limited in what it could regulate with regards to liquor sales. The key part for Costco is that it eliminates the current three tier system: manufacturer, distributor and retailer. As a retailer, they could skip the distributor and go straight to the manufacturer. The measure retains the current taxes on liquor.

I-1105 requires the state to close its stores, but retains more of the regulatory framework. The three-tier system would remain in place. Retailers must by from distributors. And distributors cannot offer better prices to one customer that to another, though they could offer volume discounts. Costco doesn’t like it, because they would like to negotiate lower prices directly from manufacturers that aren’t available to other retailers. The WSLCB would create a new license for retailers and establish the rules for it. For instance, they refrain from issuing new licenses in areas that are saturated with liquor sellers. The measure would remove most taxes on liquor sales (not sure about sales taxes) and direct the WSLCB to propose a new tax to the legislature.

I will be voting for I-1105 and against I-1100. While I think anti-drinking goes too far sometimes (like freaking out over restaurants that allow patrons to drink in their sidewalk seating), the fact that liquor is intoxicating means we should be exercising some discretion in how we sell it. I-1100 doesn’t allow for that. For instance, I-1105 could allow the WSLCB to require that liquor be sold in separated areas from other goods, while I-1100 does not. I’m not so keen on the requirement for three tiers, though I do like the requirement that distributors offer uniform prices. I’m agnostic toward the tax change. It comes down to the ability to regulate liquor retailers.

Opinion on I-1098: High-earners income tax

Initiative Measure No. 1098 concerns establishing a state income tax and reducing other taxes. The measure would tax “adjusted gross income” above $200,000 (individuals) and $400,000 (joint-filers), reduce state property tax levies, reduce certain business and occupation taxes, and direct any increased revenues to education and health.

This one is another easy one for me. Washington has one of the most regressive tax structures in the country, because it relies heavily on the business and occupation tax, and the sales tax. Both of those taxes make low income folks pay a larger percentage of their income in taxes than higher earners. The B&O tax because it gets passed on in prices, though a fair amount of it is non-consumer goods. As people make more money, the marginal sales tax rate with respect to a person’s income falls because consumption falls off at higher incomes. Money moves from consumption to investment. To explain, if you are broke, the next $5 you get will be spent on food (or gas, or whatever). If you made $1,000,000 last year, the next $5 will much more likely be used to buy stocks (or bonds or whatever). The sales tax on the poor person’s $5 is going to be approximately 50¢ where the sales tax on the rich person’s $5 will be close to zero. The choice to not spend is constrained the poorer one is.

We also rely heavily on a property tax, but that also gets passed on to anyone who lives in the state. It’s either direct, or paid out in higher rent. I don’t think property taxes are as regressive as the sales tax, but they are still regressive.

I1098 establishes a high earners income tax for the state, while cutting a portion of property taxes and B&O taxes. Income taxes can sometimes be regressive, but they are easier to structure to avoid it. In this case, it’s very progressive. People who need the next $5 to eat won’t get taxed. People who invest it in stock will. For that reason alone I am for it.

I also think it will help stabilize the state’s revenue somewhat. Not completely, but a bit. Aggregate income is a better gauge of the state’s economic activity than consumption. Consumption can only drop so low, and it can only climb so high. It allows the state to skim off the income in good years for the bad. We currently do that with sales taxes, to some degree.

The only arguments I’ve seen against it are hysterical rantings. The legislature will extend it to other people in 2 years!! Yup. They could. They could establish an income tax and extend it right now. This changes nothing with regard to what the legislature could do. And it changes nothing as far as people’s ability to oppose it. If people are against increasing the tax, and the voters don’t want it, they’ll vote them out. Or have a referendum against the law.

I’ve also seen but I’m not rich even though I made nearly $2,000,000 last year. And even no one I know who makes $200,000 is rich. It’s not fair to MEEEEE! Here’s something to think about: SHUT THE FUCK UP! You are rich. This is not the end of the world. You can better afford this than someone making $20,000. They’ve been sucking it up for years. Now you’ll have to for a bit.

By the way, in case you were wondering, these opinion piece aren’t really intended to convince people. These are polemics which explain my reasoning for voting for them. I fully realize telling a rich person to STFU isn’t going to convince them to vote for this.

Game playing

Been feeling a little shut in lately. A few things in the last few years have reduced the amount I’m prodded to get out, so I have to prod myself. And I’m not particularly good at that.

Made myself go out dancing last night. I didn’t stay out long, nor did I feel socially comfortable enough to chat with anyone I didn’t know, but it was a start.

Earlier yesterday, I helped Kim move, and then stayed at her place for a while afterward and played a game with fellow movers while Kim unpacked. Kim’s roommate Ian picked up Killer Bunnies at a convention, and some folks had heard good things about it, so we played that. We were actually playing with a bunch of the expansion packs too though. The game ended up being boring, but the company was great.

Today I decided to go to Emily’s regular Sunday game event at Captain Black’s. Met a few nice people in addition to Cody and Emily who I already knew. We played one game of Burn Rate while we waited for everyone to arrive. I vaguely remember having played it before. I got some lucky cards at the beginning. It felt like I won because of luck rather than strategy.

Then we played Dominion. We had enough players to play two separate games, so we did. The web site says it’s supposed to take about 30 minutes. Our three person game took a couple of hours. Winning strategies weren’t apparent early on, so I kind of floundered for a bit. Still took second, though I was way behind the winner (71 to 34).

Really enjoyed myself. I need to do this more.