This is from an article on Salon.com.

Reading it made me wonder why there is such urgency in some quarters to have a parking garage downtown. Would a parking garage give back to the community the land that is used for parking lots?

"In cities, the parking lots themselves are black holes in the urban fabric, making city streets less walkable. One landscape architect compares them to "cavities" in the cityscape. Downtown Albuquerque, N.M., now devotes more land to parking than all other land uses combined. Half of downtown Buffalo, N.Y., is devoted to parking. And one study of Olympia, Wash., found that parking and driveways occupied twice as much land as the buildings that they served."

Link

In the world torture, forced labour camps, child slavery and ethnic cleansing are still as prevalent as they were last century, our fight for survival may hinge on just a few people in "power".

But Canadian lawyer and Holocaust expert David Matas disagrees. He says human rights

are not the domain of specialists, but belong to everybody.

A Jew and a devoted campaigner for the "underdogs" of society, Mr Matas draws his inspiration from his roots.

"As a child I was very much struck by the Holocaust. I wanted to do something about it. My contact with human rights gave me a way of doing it," says the 64-year-old Oxford University graduate who for the last four decades has worked for the rights of Colombians, Turkish Kurds and Nigerians to name but a few. For the last year he has lobbied for the persecuted Falun Gong practitioners in China

.

"What I've been trying to do is a learn lessons from the Holocaust and apply them as a legacy to the victims of the Holocaust," he continued.

So why would a Jew take on the mission to defend the rights of millions of people in China – a country just as foreign to him as Israel would be to the average Australian? The answer, he says, is simple: "Because we are all human beings."

"The Falun Gong, in my view, are victims of bigotry. If you look at what's being said, it's prejudice against the group. If these sorts of things were said against the more traditional victim groups – the Jews, the blacks – people would jump on it right away.

Today I went out to give the theif a little message. When I set out it began as not too bad of an evening. But within a minute or two of getting downtown it began to rain. And by the time I began painting it was pouring, and by pouring, I mean buckets. By the time I got back home, I was soaked to the bone and shivering, and to think my plan was to regroup and go out bombing later….

Rick, is there an issue with comment posting?  Twice my comments have been queued and now I just get Access Denied.

Rick, as for your comment to DJW - the argument was about Meta and her skipping out on a scheduled event, not Doug.  But...

I've had at least 20 minutes of face time in public settings with our next Mayor.

Wednesday, Oct. 3, 1:00 PM
at The Evergreen State College, SEM II-E1105:

"FEMALE FACES OF WAR"
A new 20-minute documentary featuring the frequently marginalized voices of US women soldiers, soldier's mothers, and Iraqi refugees, followed by...

THE IRAQI REFUGEE CRISIS
With speaker Zahra Sultan. Zahra is an Iraqi refugee who fled to Jordan in 2001 to escape Saddam Hussein's regime. Zahra has since become a social worker and advocate for the massively growing number of Iraqi refugees, as well as other refugees in Jordan. Since the US war and occupation in Iraq, there are now over 2 million external Iraqi refugees and another 2 million internally displaced Iraqis.

Zahra is also featured in Female Faces of War. Her blog is at www.zahrairaq.org

This event is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by SESAME (Students Educating Students About the Middle East) and the Women of Color Coalition.

For more information, go to:

www.evergreen.edu/sesame
sesame-evergreen.blogspot.com

So, I'll post my response to the Absent Candidates thread here.  Is anyone else having problems posting comments?  Rob and Meta are able to just fine.

... I don't think you need an online debate to figure out who the OlyBlog candidate will be.  Let's talk about community policing, please!  It's only going to push Meta further from center.

Meta, if you were scheduled to be there (according to the agenda, you were) you should have been there.  You weren't.  It says something, to me, about your desire to become mayor.  A single vote can make a difference.  Look at the primary results for proof.

I don't want you to be our mayor.  But, I'm not going to hide behind a proxy while doing it.  Good day.

The candidate was walking the streets of Olympia about 35 years ago, leading with his chin as he was rounding the SW corner at Washington and 5th heading south. He was short and rumpled, his hair was white and unkempt. He had an ill-trimmed beard in an era when beards were rare in Oly. His big black-rimmed glasses were crooked.

I stopped him and mentioned I was planning on voting for him in the upcoming primary (it was either for the U.S. Senate or Governor). He seemed quite friendly when he asked if I subscribed to his periodical, The Saturday Evening Free Press.

I was not a subscriber. Now a real salesperson would've taken that opportunity to lure me in. But instead, his mood completely changed within nanoseconds-- the candidate/editor exploded at me in a scene-causing rage. After unleashing a long list of expletives, he stormed off screaming at me over his shoulder, "Don't waste your vote on me, you little punk! Give it to someone who wants it!" Holy Tourette, Batman, what in the Hell was that?

I just had a John Patric encounter.

He's been gone for over two decades now, but if you were a Washington State voter between 1960 to the early 1980s, chances are you had the opportunity to cast your vote in the primaries for John "Hugo N. Frye" Patric. Yes, he frequently used that pen name in quotes on the ballot. "Hugo N. Frye." Get it?

John Patric (born 1902) grew up in Snohomish. His father ran a hardware store, his mother was the town librarian. During his high school years, John was President of his student body, the only election he ever won. He was also editor of the school magazine.

There is no question I drew this, probably about 20 years ago, but I have no memory of creating it. Today it is on eBay, for sale by a former publisher of mine. Since the whole episode is a bit odd, and since "odd" and "OlyBlog" both start with the letter "O," I'll post it here.

That didn't make any sense did it?

You may now return to your regularly scheduled existence.