The plot thickens:

ITALIAN authorities have issued an arrest warrant for a fourth suspect following the murder of Meredith Kercher, the British student, in Perugia.

Police refused to name him, but he is believed to be a north African linked to drug-dealing who lived near the cottage where Kercher was killed.

The folks at Fox News want you to take a long, hard look at what they’re trying to beat. All these clips are taken from actual broadcasts.

We act surprised that the Republican lawmakers and evangelical priests who have railed against a sexualized culture are turning out to be the most sexualized among us. We’ve had the clues for years—demand begets supply. Pictures and more over here.

Thanks, tipper NaFun.

Originally posted Friday at 6:45pm

In late September or early October, Mars Hill—the hipster yet ultraconservative church—fired one pastor and put another on probation.

In a letter to church members, Pastor Mark Driscoll—one of the cofounders of the church—referenced the church’s recent rewriting of its bylaws, and stated that the two men, “curiously were among the least administratively gifted for that task, and chose to fight in a sinful manner in an effort to defend their power and retain legal control of the entire church.”
Pastor Paul Petry, who preached at Ballard, was fired, while Bent Meyer, who preaches at the Shoreline location, was put on probation. The dramatic move caused quite a stir at Mars Hill, and members of the church aired their grievances in a long and lively thread on the church’s private online message board.

Things got even uglier in a September 30 sermon, when Driscoll—who’s been the face of the church since it was first established in 1996—stated, sternly referencing the two dissidents, that “There are a few guys right now, if I wasn’t going to end up on CNN, I would go Old Testament on ’em. There’s no, like, attorneys and blogging, just like I punched you in the mouth, now shut up. That’s clean; it’s simple.”

According to one former Mars Hill member, there are people rescinding their memberships because of the decision. Mars Hill currently has five locations—in Ballard, Shoreline, West Seattle, Redmond, and Wedgwood, with a new site replacing the Tabella Nightclub in Belltown on the way—and around 24 pastors.

Neither Petry nor Meyer would comment.

Update:

“Members’ Site Temporarily Shutdown Article posted on Friday, November 16, 2007

Dear Members,

Unfortunately an unidentified member of Mars Hill has been giving contact information and/or access to this site to those outside the membership including media representatives. Therefore, for the protection and privacy of our members we are going to temporarily suspend access to the site.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you in the meantime. If there are vital pieces of information you need from the site then we would encourage you to email Pastor Zack Hubert who can assist you. We know this is inconvenient and it is sad that someone has violated their membership covenant and the privacy policy of this site.

We encourage you to spend this time in prayer for your church.

Sincerely,

The Elders of Mars Hill Church (posted by Pastor Zack)”

Sunday November 18, 2007 The Observer

Health workers are struggling to control a surge in an ‘untreatable’ hospital-acquired infection that is estimated to be killing hundreds of patients a year. The number of cases of Pseudomonas rose by 41 per cent from 2,605 in 2002 to 3,663 last year, according to Health Protection Agency figures.

Cleaning agents that hospitals rely on to kill bacteria are proving inadequate, while most antibiotics that usually help patients repel infections are ineffective. It often contaminates water and moisture, so is a particular problem in breathing equipment, intravenous lines and catheters. One child cancer patient caught it when his lips were sprinkled with holy water at a Leeds hospital.

American woman, get away from me
American woman, mama let me be
Don’t come knockin’ around my door
Don’t wanna see your shadow no more
Coloured lights can hypnotize
Sparkle someone else’s eyes
Now woman, I said get away
American woman, listen what I say.

posted by news intern Brian Slodysko

photos by Robert Whitlock

Protesters at the Port of Olympia attempting to blockade military equipment returning from Iraq finally packed up their civil disobedience and went home Thursday, after the last equipment convoys left the port for Ft. Lewis.

According to the Olympia Police Department, the last of the military trucks departed at 4:20 p.m. to minimal resistance, though five arrests were made. Some equipment remains in railcars on port property, which Olympia Police say they will be keeping a close eye on.

It was a long ten days for all involved, with 63 arrests made over the course of the week plus. The few remaining protesters joked about setting up a dinner table at the entrance gate so they could sit down for a meal while blocking the last convoy.

Thursday’s demonstrations brought an anti-climatic close to a protest that began with powerful images of non-violent demonstrators standing down a military convoy.

And while the demonstrations started as a powerful, media concious effort, keeping a tight hold on the reins proved difficult for organizers as days passed.

On Tuesday an estimated 200 people took to the streets, resulting in 43 of the 63 arrests. After it was all said and done, dozens had been hosed down with pepper spray, a police cruiser’s windshield was shattered, a policeman was hit in the knee with a rock, and a few windows were smashed at a downtown Olympia U.S. Bank.

Noah Sochet of the Olympia Port Militarization Resistance, the group spearheading most of the effort, defended protesters’ actions, saying he was surprised the violence and vandalism were as limited as they were. Sochett said OPMR has no official leadership structure, which causes ambiguities in the group’s strategy.

Regardless, the night’s vandalism and violence stands in opposition to the OPMR’s stated goals and the “peaceful protest” mantra chanted by the crowd that week. It also doesn’t undo the all the attention the demonstrators brought to the ongoing occupation of Iraq; nor take away from the fact that they outmaneuvered the military for several hours, successfully shutting down the Port of Olympia.

“We don’t deny the things that happened, but the purpose of the demonstrations was to stop the shipment of military equipment. Because we don’t have central leadership everybody has a different idea of what the goals of port militarization resistance are,” said Sochet.

Tuesdays’s events turned the tables on the OPMR, which had benefited from a media savvy use of tactics, and the regional press has been pretty hard on them for not keeping things non-violent. Even the anti-Iraq war Olympian ridiculed
the group for protesting the war by blockading equipment that’s coming back from Iraq.

Conservative demagogue Michelle Malkin jumped into the fracas, labeling the activists as punks, whiners and thugs , before maligning them with Al Jazeera.

Sandy Mayes, who’s been serving as a de-facto media contact for the OPMR says Tuesday night’s coverage is hijacking the narrative of the week as a whole. She says she distinguishes between powerful images (people locked together across a freeway onramp) and sensational images (protesters throwing rocks), and placed the onus on those covering the events.

“It’s out of my hands, but out of everything that happened I consider [the vandalism] to be quite minor compared to everything else that happened. Someone throws a rock and it somehow eclipses everything that happened earlier in the week?”

Christopher Frizzelle will be on with Goldy tonight at 7pm talking about this week’s arts feature on the Lawrimore Project plus Amanda Knox’s bad short story.

Goldy will try to steer the conversation towards Dino Rossi and Frizzelle will rightly direct it to this week’s national book awards.

Tune in tonight at 7.

Dance

‘Geography’ at On the Boards

• See what else is happening in Theater on Saturday »
• More Stranger Suggests for this week »

posted by news intern Brian Slodysko

Not resigning anytime soon: Hugo Chavez revises Venezuelan Constitution, mandates sweeping socialist reforms.

Sedition: 15,000 Pakistani troops headed towards Pakistan’s northern border to quell extremists.

Lynnwood PD corruption: FBI tailed deputy chief as he ditched shredded papers in dumpsters prior to raid of his home.

Breaking news: Giuliani pushed for increased health care coverage as mayor of New York, not as conservative as he says.

Back to the table: Studios forced to negotiate with writers as shows switch to re-runs.

One small step above LaRouche: Ron Paul supporters raided by FBI for minting “Liberty Dollars” bearing Paul’s likeness.

Catch a bus this holiday season: Gas prices expected to hit all time seasonal high.

Department of no shit Sherlock: Scientists say pesky issue of global warming must be addressed, suggest U.S. and China sign Kyoto Protocol.

This week in steroids: Prosecutors waited until Bonds broke Aaron’s record before proceeding with indictment.

An inconvenient pain in the ass: Al Gore going to White House to be honored by man who stole election from him and still won’t sign Kyoto Protocol.

Harvard football player: kicks the shit out of people on the field, sings Pavarotti in his spare time.

B.C. Dud: Dollar’s fall removes incentive for dope smugglers.

Sweet Craving: Sugar more addictive than cocaine.

Smart Shrinking: American Psychiatric Association backs medical marijuana.

Activists Cheering: Judge rules pot charge Unconstitutional—in Canada.

Victory Fleeting: Remember the Drug Czar boasting last week that we’d reduced the cocaine market in the U.S.? The Department of Justice’s 2008 Drug Threat Assessment says that “progress” will blow over.

In many of the cities in which cocaine shortages were reported, DTOs [Drug Trafficking Organizations] will most likely reestablish cocaine distribution at or near 2006 levels in the near term…. Despite the disruptions, wholesale distributors will most likely either reestablish distribution with their original sources of supply in Mexico or establish new sources of supply with other Mexican DTOs. In fact, cocaine availability may already be returning to previous levels in some areas.

He’s Still a Douche: Ron Paul would legalize marijuana by executive order. Of course, he will never do anything by executive order.

No, Mon: Judge rules against religious pot defense.

Hashing Out the Details: When is medical marijuana not actually marijuana?

Crosstown Trafficking: NYPD detective allegedly conspired in cocaine and heroin ring.

Salvia: Smokin’ in Seattle.

Pasco: Manufacturing meth could land Francisco Rubio-Perez in prison for life.

No news today, because I spent most of the day in the Church of Stop Shopping (comes out the 30th) and ’50s Paris (comes out next week). Is The Red Balloon the best kids’ movie ever or what? It gave me a tremendous craving for a Technicolor lollipop.

New to theaters this week:

Lindy West reviews the reanimated Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf: “Robert Zemeckis’s retardedly modern, 3-D, motion-capture reworking of Ye Olde English yarn uses technology to murder the shit out of entertainment.”

Andrew Wright on the Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men: “The most perfect fusion of literary and filmmaking sensibilities since Polanski’s hallowed Rosemary’s Baby.”

Me on the first Hollywood adaptation of a Gabriel García Márquez novel, Mike Newell’s Love in the Time of Cholera: “There’s nothing less magical—or less realistic, for that matter—than prosthetic sagging breasts.”

And in On Screen this week: Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko follow-up, the insane Southland Tales (Quoth Bradley Stienbacher: “Much like Mulholland Drive (a film it desperately wants to be), Southland Tales refuses to cough up easy answers; unlike Lynch’s film, however, you can’t help but feel that the only journey Kelly is taking you on is one deep inside his own bong.”); the surprisingly elegant and enjoyable food-policy doc King Corn (me: “If you’ve already read The Omnivore’s Dilemma, King Corn will be fascinating. If you haven’t read it, the facts will come as a shock.”); and Charles Mudede on a slick piece of dactylic tetrameter, Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium (“Everything is wrong with this film. In it, zero is new; dead tired are its plot, imagery, themes, and acting. The movie wants to look and feel fresh, but it instead presents us with a series of heavy corpses: the corpse of the music, the corpse of the set design, the corpse of the dialogue. Even the special effects are not special.”).

For all your movie times needs, Get Out.

Tonight in Music: Grandy gets stoked for M.I.A.

The New Dreaming: Charles Mudede gets stoked for the Program.

The Real Dreaming: Jonathan Zwickel gets stoked about the songs he writes while he sleeps.

The Purest Hiphop: Charles Mudede gets stoked again, now for Zulu Radio Live.

Its Sounds Like Liquid: Trent Moorman gets stoked about the Boredoms and Senju Muneomi.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year: Music nerds get stoked for Idolator’s Critics Poll.

Last Night: Jeff Kirby got stoked for the Velvet Teen.

The best thing about the Olympic Sculpture Park is Wake—graceful and industrial. The worst thing about the Olympic Sculpture Park is the concrete warehouse right behind Wake—a “historical site.”

Behold them both.

And say goodbye to the ugly box. Constructed in 1939 for Glaser Brothers, purveyors of wholesale cigars and tobacco, the utilitarian one-story building at 3031 Western Avenue is now used as a parking garage. The Department of Neighborhoods calls it one of the category 4 historical sites, which “have been so altered that they would not qualify as Seattle landmarks.” But according to city data, there have been few alterations to the property. It’s just ugly.

Good riddance. Martin Selig, Seattle’s most infamous developer and delinquent payer of electricity bills, owns the site. And earlier this month he paid $2,370 to start the application process to obtain a master use permit. The preliminary proposal, says Michael Dorcy of the city’s Department of Planning and Development, is for a 14-story, 78-unit apartment building. Here’s a rendering.

More after the jump.

Continue reading "Looking Down on the Olympic Sculpture Park" »

This just in…

You guys have any idea why a pair of helicopters has been hovering over the CD between 23rd/Jackson and 23rd/Massachusetts for at least the last 20 mins? Something must be going down.

Anybody?

Sports writer David Zirin argues that the citizens of Seattle should pull a Green Bay Packers on the Sonics and buy them from Clay Bennett.

Municipalization means turning the Sonics into a public utility; call it a kind word for expropriation. Basketball fans should press the state of Washington to sue for the right to buy the team back from Clay and his cronies. They should claim that the SuperSonics and Storm are the intellectual property — the eminent domain — of the people of Seattle, and therefore the city has far more of a claim on the team than the Bennetts of Oklahoma.

Courtesy Ingrid.

This was in the night stand next to the bed in my hotel room in Portland last night. The newish Hotel Deluxe is in the old Mallory Hotel building. I miss the Mallory.

What a drama queen. I’m sure God hates his guts.

(Thanks to Good as You.)

The body of slain student Meredith Kercher was returned to Britain on Sunday, despite a request for a second post-mortem from defense lawyers.

Seattle native Amanda Knox, who was Kercher’s roommate; Knox’s boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito; and Diya “Patrick” Lumumba, a 37-year-old Congolese immigrant who owned the bar where Kercher worked, have been detained as suspects in the Nov. 1 slaying.

We know what the Brits are thinking: Knox (the American hussy) is amoral to the core and (like the culture that made her) has the ability to tolerate extreme levels of violence. That African beast? Nothing to an American babe. They can take it. Poor Kercher, the delicate thing. Let her death be a lesson to our girls and government: maintain a good distance from Americans. They are a ferocious people.

An American babe!

8th and Virginia, MIDTOWN!

Residents at the Cosmopolitan condos, on 8th and Virginia, are banding together to stop a massive office development from blotting out the sun on the west side of their building.

Back in 2006, before the condos opened, developer Schnitzer West was working on a 14-story office project next door to Cosmo. That April, the city changed zoning regulations and Schnitzer resubmitted design plans for a 500-foot mega-office

Last week, in response to Schnitzer’s development and, they say, a lack of response from the city, Cosmo residents posted an open letter to Mayor Nickels, decrying the public process.

Because Cosmo was still vacant when Schnitzer’s designs were changed, the city’s requirement to notify nearby residents wasn’t triggered. Because of the lack of communication from the city, Clifford Tatum, Cosmo’s Community Committee Chair, says residents didn’t have the opportunity to back out purchasing their units without losing their deposits, which were between $15,000 and $50,000. “We entered into a purchase agreement in 2005. At the time, the lot across the street was permitted for a 12-14 story building. We were fairly comfortable with that,” Tatum says.

But hey, so what if rich people don’t have a view, right? Well, Tatum claims it’s about more than that. “It’s not about the view,” he says. “It’s the fact that this building is 15 feet away. There’s some consideration for light, for privacy—there would be office workers looking in our windows.” Indeed, a rendering from Schnitzer’s website does seem to indicate that the 500-foot office building will eclipse Cosmo’s west side.

Tatum says attorneys are looking into the building plans but that he’s hoping this can be settled through communication with the developer. “We don’t particularly don’t want to go down the lawsuit path,” he says. “[We’d like to] facilitate a better neighborly relationship. “

Those celebrity caricatures outside City Market loved muchly on Slog? Well, Cain Morehead—City Market’s resident artist—sent three of them to us and now they’re hanging in The Stranger’s office, high above Annie Wagner’s cubicle. Check it:

Long live City Market! (Thanks, Cain!)

…sounds a lot like what I’ve been saying. Daniel Politi at Slate on the Washington Post’s lady-like refusal to print the word “bitch”:

The WP’s Eugene Robinson writes about the now-famous incident where Sen. John McCain was asked at a campaign event, “How do we beat the bitch?” Except he can’t write the word “bitch” because, even though it’s regular fodder for prime-time programming, it’s “a word that most editors won’t print in a family newspaper.” Doesn’t this extreme puritanism surrounding “naughty words” ultimately just seem condescending to readers? And, just for the record, the Post has published the word several times, and the the NYT doesn’t seem to have a problem with it.

Slate, of course, is owned by those timid bitches at the Washington Post—and Slate was recently called out for bleeping profanities on their podcasts.

What the hell do you have to do to get sent to this prison?

I mean besides a million crunches, regular body waxing, ruthless eyebrow plucking, cheekbone implants, etc.

Via Towleroad.

…the way our very messy divorces expose our highly questionable “business” practices.

The Biblical Gospel of Matthew famously admonishes Christians not to try to serve both God and wealth. But a pastor’s estranged wife says he has blended the two so thoroughly that his church should be counted as an asset in their divorce.

A judge agreed in a decision published this week to hear arguments on the claim, and he ordered a financial appraisal of the church. Lawyers involved in the case said it could represent the first time anyone in New York state has tried to treat a religious institution as a marital asset.

The wife argues that her husband of 31 years used his Brooklyn church as a “personal piggy bank,” setting his own income, spending the congregation’s tithes as he pleased and running a catering business from the building, according to an account of the claims in state Supreme Court Judge Arthur M. Diamond’s decision….

The wife said $50,000 of the couple’s money went into starting the church, and she should share in value.

“That church is no different than any other business he might have opened,” said the wife’s lawyer, Robert Pollack.

A church is a business—in exchange for your your money you get guilt, hang-ups, and judgement—oh, and “salvation.” And every once in a while your kids get raped. Such a deal!

OMG, OMG, OMG! When I was looking at this, I, like, TOTALLY missed this.

How could I?

Thanks, Slog commenter, Matt.

In other news: Boy George has been charged, and will stand trial, for abducting a Norwegian manhooker. According to the best sources available to source on such short notice, The Boy and some unspecified other guy (who was totally Andrew Ridgley, I just know it), allegedly rendezvoused with the aforementioned Norwegian manhooker, and retired with him to George’s London flat. Then the pair promptly chained him to the wall and accosted him with various whips and big floppy dildos. Apparently the manhooker was less than pleased with these arrangements (what did he expect? Crumpets with nuns? I ask you.), for in a flurry of drama and intrepid general gayness, the manhooker broke free from his wall and ran flailing for the police. Which in London are called “bobbies”. Which has nothing to do with the absolute fact that Boy George has begun to look exactly like a bald Elizabeth Taylor—-and not Young Elizabeth Taylor who could totally pull that shit off, but the crazy-ish 8,000 year old hip-wreck Elizabeth Taylor, who probably actually is bald in real life now, come to think of it. Never mind.

Weird fucking British.

As opposed to his 2004 run when he obscured his social conservative views, Dino Rossi is quickly emerging as 2008’s religious right candidate.

He came out strong this week against state rules that prevent pharmacists from refusing to fill Plan B prescriptions on religious grounds.

Follow-up act? This weekend, Rossi is speaking at the Faith and Freedom Network youth leadership conference in Yelm. The sponsor, the Faith and Freedom Network and Foundation, is an evangelical lobbying group in Olympia.

There’s not an in-depth description of the “Change Your Culture” retreat. The only specifics I could find were these—on the registration form: “Students should bring: Bible, notepad, pen, pillow, 2 days worth of clothing & shoes, sleeping bag or linens & blankets.”

The Faith and Freedom Network and Foundation, a 501(c)4, describes themselves this way:

While [the] core mission of representing people of faith in Olympia, Washington, has not changed, the social environment has changed, particularly during the past few years. People of faith, their churches and their organizations have been pressed into even greater action by the issues surrounding gay marriage, the removal of the Ten Commandments, and other Judeo-Christian expressions of faith from our public life. The continual erosion of freedom to express their faith in traditional ways at sporting events, school clubs, graduation and commencement exercises, and even at Christmas, has caused all people of faith to focus on appropriate responses.

Another speaker who will be addressing the students at the Faith and Freedom Network youth leadership conference is Casey Luskin (an intelligent design advocate with the Discovery Institute.)

…and Richard Curtis visited as often as he could because, hey, he wasn’t paying for it. Washington state taxpayers were. From the Spokesman Review:

An awful lot is known about then-state-lawmaker Richard Curtis’ recent trysts with men at a Spokane Valley adult bookstore and downtown hotel last month. But here’s something you probably didn’t know:

You paid for the trip.

Curtis’ travel records, obtained Thursday by The Spokesman-Review through a public records request, show that Curtis’ three-day trip to Spokane cost taxpayers nearly $800.

They also show that during his three years as a legislator, Curtis was a prolific traveler, racking up more than $18,000 in expenses in 37 overnight trips around the state, as well as to New York City, San Francisco and Boston. Several of those overnight stays were in Spokane.

It was on those taxpayer-fincanced trips to Spokane that Curtis became a regular at the Hollywood Erotic Boutique, where the staff dubbed him “the cross dresser,” and where he would ultimately meet Cody Castagna, the admitted hustler and alleged extortionist. The $800 tab the state picked up for Curtis’ October visit to Spokane was a steal compared to an earlier visit.

The biggest bill of Curtis’ legislative career, in fact, stemmed from a June visit to the city. Over the course of six days, taxpayers picked up a $2,876 tab for Curtis, including a $332-a-night room at the Davenport Hotel, airfare, and $443 to rent a black Chrysler convertible. For five nights, his hotel bill alone—including several in-room movies and room-service meals—was $1,937. The state didn’t reimburse Curtis for the movies.

Jesus… with the state picking up every expense save Curtis’ dirty in-room movies and the $10 he paid to lurk in the Hollywood Erotic Boutique’s “theater,” you gotta wonder why Curtis didn’t just pay Castagna the $1000 he demanded—“for the bareback sex,” says Castagna; “or else I’ll out you,” says Curtis—and consider it one very expensive lesson learned. Castagna left with Curtis’ wallet after the cross-dressed, freshly-fucked legislator fell asleep. Curtis should have cancelled his credit cards, given Castagna the dough, and made a mental note to always lock his wallet in the in-room safe before bringing a hooker back to his room.

Of course, I’m sure Curtis is kicking himself now for not paying Castagna and calling the police—in fact, the police report indicates the Curtis began kicking himself while the police were still interviewing him.

On a gray and cold Wednesday afternoon, I decided to go to Green Lake and support intrepid joggers with bottles of water and free entertainment. I slipped on red booty shorts, a pink tank top and white orthopedic shoes I’d bought for a Richard Simmons Halloween costume and brought along an old boom box loaded with all the disco songs I could find on my friend’s IPod. I also brought a roll of white streamer paper people could tear through and feel as if they’d just reached the finish line of a marathon.

My friend Tristan helped me set up the finish line near Green Lake Stadium. It felt vaguely illegal tying a weak barrier across the congested path, but I figured I could lower the finish line with my hand if someone was trying to break a jogging record and didn’t want to slow down their time by tearing through the streamer. I lifted the streamer up from the ground and a jogger quickly tore through it. Then, while he was running, he turned his head back and glared at me intensely. This was the moment I realized I might die wearing a bad Richard Simmons costume.

I turned to my friend with a pained expression on my face. In order for people to enjoy running through the finish line, we’d have to prepare them for it. I grabbed the streamer and yelled at the next jogger, “Would you like to run through this? Like in a race?” The woman was wearing headphones and she ignored me. She ran through the streamer like it was something that was always there. She didn’t even flinch. I retied the streamer to the pole. Another jogger came running by and I asked her the same question. She stopped, took the headphones out of her ears and said, “excuse me?” I asked her, “Would you like to run through this streamer? Like you’ve reached the end of a race?” She shook her head no, and carefully climbed over the streamer. “Yay,” I said. “You did it.”

By this time there was a large pile of discarded streamers on the side of the path and I was concerned I would receive some sort of trash violation. Besides, the finish line was supposed to be fun, and people did not understand the joke. I threw out the streamers and began passing out water to people. I offered water to a middle-aged couple and they politely refused. The next couple saw the first couple refuse, and also refused the water I’d bought for them. Finally, a woman took a water bottle. “It’s not poison,” I joked. She didn’t laugh. I watched her as she passed by the trash cans to make sure she didn’t throw out the bottle. Another disco hit by Ashford and Simpson began to play on my speakers and I readjusted my sweatband so that the dangling parts weren’t right in front of my eyes. Why weren’t people accepting free bottles of water from me?

The sky began to darken and rain trickled down into my headband. I still had about twenty bottles of water to pass out. That’s when a gray-bearded man wearing a Raccoon hat and walking a fully-clothed dog tapped me on the shoulder. “Could I have a bottle of water?” he asked me and shot me a huge grin. “Sure!” I replied, thankful someone was expressing interest in my assignment. “You know, I love what you’re doing here,” he said to me. “I’ve lived a lot of places and I’ve traveled to over seventy-five countries. I’ve taught English, Psychology, History and Political Science. I’m a gay man and I love life. Just love it. I’ve been very blessed…” I waited for him to say “And I’ve never seen such amazing generosity in Seattle, never before have I been greeted with such kindness,” but he didn’t. He just went on and on about his life. I felt like he was reading me a scripted monologue he’d been tweaking in his head for the past fifty years.

In the end, I passed out about thirty water bottles, mostly to joggers, mostly younger folk. And I didn’t get beat up for wearing the gayest outfit Green Lake has ever seen.

Steven Blum
Public Intern

Assignments? PublicIntern@thestranger.com

The Daily Mail—your source for the latest, most up-to-date news on the Amanda Knox case—now reports that, contrary to yesterday’s report, Knox didn’t kill her roommate because she was a slutty, sexually aggressive man-eater with a bitch for a mom and a heart of stone. At least, not entirely. Today, the Mail blames the falling-out with her roommate on Knox’s “hygiene habits”—specifically, her failure “to flush the lavatory.”

Miss Kercher, 21, from Surrey, is said to have had frequent arguments with her American friend who is now a prime suspect in her murder.

Friends said the girls fell out over 20-year-old Knox’s lack of cleanliness and after she failed to flush the lavatory in their flat in the Italian town of Perugia.

So now you know.

O, those wacky Catholics! (Or “Wacacolics”.) What WON’T they do to defend their naughty, boy-buggering, probably-dead-person-stepping-over priests?

Now, from the minds that gave you ritualistic cannibalism and the general worldwide ban on genitals, The Greatest Insurance Ever Underwritten!

If you are a clergyman who has faced allegations of sexual wrong doing (molestation, rape, lewd behavior, sodomy, pandering, soliciting, etc.), we have many services available to aid you in this, your hour of greatest need.

Onsite quotes and roadside assistance optional!

11/16/2007

Dear Prayer Warrior,

This article was written following an interview yesterday with Toby Harnden of the Telegraph, Britain’s No. 1 quality newspaper website.

Thank you for continued prayers as we fight the good fight.

Pastor Hutch

Posted by Ryan S. Jackson

Trying to successfully register as press for the King County Republicans’ Fall Dinner while admitting that yes, you’re there for The Stranger, is something like approaching the desk and announcing you’re a sexual predator. In a room where one of the KVI right wing radio guys is being treated like a rock star and the tables for the silent auction gleam with almost erotic reverence for Ronald Reagan, you feel very much alone.

This wasn’t the story I was there for, however. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, newly minted by Iowa polling as tied with Mitt Romney for the lead, was making the keynote speech at the dinner and had agreed to a short press appearance, a rarity for candidates visiting this state and much-remarked-on by the assembled reporters.

The press conference was somewhat sparsely attended: myself (yes, I was able to make it in), David Postman of the Times, Hendrik Hertzberg of the New Yorker, Neil Modie of the PI, and a blogger from Sound Politics. Some of the highlights from the press conference:

Continue reading "Meet Mike Huckabee" »

A body dies. It gets stiff. Its blood pools. It begins to rot, with bacteria rooting around in its animal proteins, ripping them up and grinding them down. Things fall apart; things smell bad.

Two organic compounds bloom on the putrefying body—putrescine and cadaverine. The pair is responsible for the foul smell of a dead body—and for the taste and smell of semen.

Every sperm swims into the womb with a little death on its back.

The library has a pretty good new blog, although if you’re at least 20, you’re too old for it. It’s for you, teens.

The realm of the three kingdoms…
…will be represented during The Program, a five-day hiphop festival curated by the Blue Scholars.

If Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland made even a little effort, the three cities could be experienced as one urban realm. The Program is a kind of hiphop expression for that desirable connection, the linking of the three into one idea, one consciousness, one movement. Swollen Members, Dyme Def, Sirens Echo are some of the many regional acts that will rock the one reality in the dead middle of December. To read more about The Program, go to its website. There’s lots to see; lots to think about.

This is the new dreaming.

Once again, last night’s Seattle Center skatepark meeting proved that no one wants a skatepark at 2nd and Thomas. A crowd of about 40 skaters, parents and members of the Seattle Center business community crowded into one of the conference rooms on the top floor of the Center House to express their dissent over the City Council’s push to replace the Seattle Center Pavilions with a skatepark. The biggest surprise of last night’s meeting had to be that both skaters and Seattle Center businesses seem to be on the same page.

The meeting started off with Center staff rifling off the numbers and details about the cost factors that lead to a reduction in size of the project (who knew it costs $5,000 just to relocate an ATM?). According to the Center’s numbers, 41-48% of the cost of the $2.9 million skatepark is attributable demolition costs.

The loss of either of the Pavilions—used by Bumbershoot, Folklife, the Children’s Festival and apparently as a homeless shelter—would require relocating events to the Bagley Wright Theater, Memorial Stadium, EMP or the Exhibition Center. The Center admitted that the move would have a fiscal impact on the events—$80,000 annually if Pavilion A is removed—which clearly miffed festival organizers.

During the public comment period, reps from the Italian Festival, the Bite of Seattle and the Japanese Cultural Festival all spoke to the geographical and financial hardships they’d likely face with the removal of Pavilion A, and were quick to suggest other sites on the Pavilion’s campus. Yutaka Sasaki, of the Japanese Cultural Festival, suggested the Center “give [the skaters] Mercer Arena,” he said, to much laughter and applause. Remove the roof, it’s got a deep pit, stairs and handrails.”

While Center businesses and festival organizers are clearly unhappy with the current plan, their ire was directed solely at the City Council and decision-makers at the Center.

Continue reading "A Report From Last Night's Skatepark Meeting" »

Goth-Hop

Grayskul at Chop Suey

• See what else is happening in Music on Friday »
• More Stranger Suggests for this week »

A pet peeve I’ve got with the media—high brow, mainstream, and alt media—is its obsession with and ability to get inside the Democratic party and analyze and parse every utterance and cough.

There’s an obligatory attempt to do this with the Republicans, but it doesn’t strike me as earnest or consistent. Or successful.

That’s why I always appreciate it when Postman files interesting reports like this one about the GOP.

Notice, though, that Postman begins his account saying: “I learned this: Many Republicans remain undecided about the race for their party’s presidential nominee…”

Could you imagine if he was just learning that about the Democrats less than two months out from Iowa? Not a chance.

My point: The GOP remains a bit of an alien species to the press, and so, just getting the basic sense of GOP voters seems a mini-revelation to be posted on the The Seattle Times main political blog.

What was up with that weird (and seemingly inspired-by-Prince) closing question at the debate last night?

MARIA PARRA SANDOVAL: Maria Parra Sandoval, and I’m a UNLV student. And my question is for Senator Clinton. This is a fun question for you. Do you prefer diamonds or pearls?

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: Now, I know I’m sometimes accused of not being able to make a choice. I want both.

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

MALVEAUX: Do we get to ask any of the other candidates or I supposed just Senator Clinton?

BIDEN: I’m for diamonds. Diamonds.

Marc Ambinder has the explanation for all this, and some back-and-forth between Ms. Sandoval, a Truman Scholar who is furious because she wanted to ask a more substantive question, and CNN, which had had enough of substance by the end of the debate.

Also: CNN has apparently done this before.

The Fundy Pharmacists’ argument that they shouldn’t have to do anything on the job that conflicts with their religious beliefs got put to the test in the 7th Circuit. The fundamentalists’ argument lost.

In this case, a guidance counselor at a rural Wisconsin school complained that she was unjustly fired for following her religious beliefs on the job: She refused to give out literature about condoms and instead, gave out abstinence-only lit. Not surprisingly, several teens got pregnant. (She also prayed with students when they came to her with their problems. Probably the pregnant ones.)

The 7th Circuit ruled against the guidance counselor, as Decision of the Day nicely summarizes:

[She] was fired for her conduct, not for her religious beliefs. Although Grossman’s religious beliefs clearly influenced her conduct, in the end, the school has a right to police the conduct of its employees.

Here’s a great excerpt from the court’s decision which isolates the leap of faith that fundamentalists expect others to take with them, and explains why others shouldn’t be required to:

Were a jury to find that the school administrators wouldn’t have refused to renew the plaintiff’s contract had it not been for her religious beliefs, the judge would have to set aside the verdict as based on speculation rather than on a defensible view of the evidence. For at bottom the plaintiff has nothing to go on besides the words “philosophy” and “philosophical” in the notes of her conferences with her supervisors, as if the school administrators had engaged her in a theological debate. They had not. The reference to her preferring abstinence as a strategy for preventing teenage pregnancy to contraception (and likewise the references to her “belief” in abstinence and her not making a “good fit” with the school) related to her approach to the problem of teenage pregnancy rather than to her theological views. Those views were the cause of her approach, but so far as the record shows it was the approach that concerned the school administrators. So summary judgment was rightly granted for the defendants.

An argument I would add: If the guidance counselor wants the administration to believe that her conduct and philosophy aren’t separate issues, she’s acknowledging right off the bat that she was knowingly pushing her religious views onto students at a public school. Not allowed.

What’s happening in Iraq is not a war but an occupation. This distinction is very important. A war and an occupation are not the same things. The expression, “war on terror,” has the echo of some sense; the expression, “occupation on terror,” makes no sense at all. Yet that is what Americans are paying for: a nonsensical occupation on terror. A state of war requires a state. Iraq as a state is not at war with the US. It doesn’t have an army, and barely has a government. What’s there, what rules, is the force of an occupying power. Not war spending, but occupation costs.

Here are many, created by Jeremy Kalgreen (whose graphic design stuff is also delightful.)

(Thanks for the heads-up, MetaFilter.)

Hey, not all Catholic priests are into raping altar boys. They still like ‘em powerless though:

A Roman Catholic priest who worked as a chaplain at a women’s federal prison pleaded guilty Wednesday to sexual abuse for having sex with two inmates.

Vincent Inametti, 48, faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $500,000 fine for two counts of sexual abuse of a ward, U.S. Attorney Richard B. Roper said. Inametti, who remains free on bond, is to be sentenced in March.

Thanks to Slog tipper Todd.

In this portrait by Roger Shimomura, a young boy—a stand-in for himself—finds himself painting the tar-papered barracks of a Japanese internment camp, as well as the Idaho landscape in the distance. Shimomura was in a camp from age 2 to 4, but this isn’t based on a memory. It’s a projection of his adult self backwards, a foreshadowing that this camp will always edge his way onto his canvases.

Shimomura’s show at Kucera through December 22 takes up the entire first floor of the gallery. I’ve always been a little undecided on his work, feeling that his heavy black cartoon outlines contain the heavy emotional content of the work in a way that’s slightly uncomfortable. All that rage refusing to roar. It’s using pop backwards, not to flatten affect but to heighten it in relief. Looked at another way, I suppose the lines seem about right for imprisonment.

When I visited the gallery yesterday, I was won over to their range. Kucera pointed out in particular a nice detail: that the shadowy portraits—the ones where the black oozes out of its outlines and into the subjects themselves—take on nuclear overtones.

This one’s called Bad Dream:

This one is Shadow of the Enemy:

In this one, Shimomura goes right for it and asks, Would you have done it to Ichiro?

Does she spin clockwise, counter-clockwise, or both?

Clockwise? Your right brain is in charge. Counter-clockwise? Your left.

Explanations are here and here.

With every blink, she switches direction for me. Any wonder why my handwriting is so bad?

The conventional wisdom is that Hillary Clinton is back on her game. I tend to agree. The debate last night was really heated, but Clinton joked about having brought an asbestos pant-suit at the beginning and then proceeded to knock back John Edwards and Barack Obama every time they trained their fire on her.

The crowd was also a factor in this debate (it was Las Vegas, after all). There were shouts that interrupted Obama and boos at Edwards for attacking Clinton after a question on the “gender card” and the “boys club.” You can read a bunch of reviews on the “That’s Why the Lady is a Champ” theme here. You can see a roundup of the television talking heads’ reaction here. And you can watch a “replay” of my liveblogging here, or, heck, with this cool new application we’re using I can just drop it in… here:

Burger King Whopper

Taco Bell Nachos Bell Grande

KFC Famous Bowl

Yum! More here.

Heated: Democratic Debate in Las Vegas.

Rejected: District Court says Bush’s fuel efficiency standards don’t cut it.

Freed: Benazir Bhutto released from house arrest.

Charged: Home run king, Barry Bonds, indicted for perjury in steroids case.

Found: DNA—supposedly Amanda Knox’s and victim Meredith Kurcher’s—on kitchen knife.

Congressional Budget Stand-Off: “With no resolution of a stalemate that has tied up money for all agencies except the Pentagon.”

For Those That Don’t Like Creepy Corporations: “Just Following Orders” provision for Telecoms stripped out of FISA bill.

For Those That Don’t Like Creepy Corporations Pt. 2: PI catches Boeing spying on its employees.

I thought there was some sort of bike protest in Portland tonight—tons of brightly lit bikes, locking up multiple blocks downtown, with police cruisers escorting them through the center of the city. I took this picture on Broadway looking toward Portland’s Pioneer Square. The streets were dark and wet, but there were lots of parents with very young kids on the backs of their bikes—so not a “protest” crowd. Still, I thought it might be response to the recent deaths of two cyclists here. No, as it turns out, that protest is tomorrow, and it’s sponsored by the activist group Bike Portland. Tonight’s event was the Bike Light Parade, part of the Portland Department of Transportation’s “see and be seen campaign,” which encourages cyclists to light up their bikes for safety.

Anyway, it was an inspiring sight. Between Portland’s kick-ass light rail system and a city hall that actually listens and responds to the concerns of cyclists, well, Seattle’s got a lot of catching up to do.

“A Cowlike Dinosaur Comes into Focus.”

Here we go.

I’m using a nifty new liveblogging tool this time. It does away with all that hitting of the refresh button, which should be great (for you and me). However, it does have an automatic sound effect that we haven’t yet been able to silence. Each time I post you’ll hear the tapping of keys—unless you turn off your volume or hit the speaker button at the bottom of the liveblogging window.

Also: You can send me comments through the embedded liveblog (the spot for dropping your comments is right above the “Cover It Live” logo). Bring ‘em on. If they’re witty and/or wise, I’ll include them in my liveblog.