Search Results for 'Sl'

[villagegreen]

I’ve lived just south and slightly east of the Belvidere neighborhood (a block from Budha Ruksa) for 4 years now and, yes, you’ll get used to the constant background noise of the trains and ships. Imagine that, there’s actually real industry going on in our tech oriented city!

However, occasionally, I am still amazed at the loudness and length of some of the train horns late at night. It’s definitely not every night, but every so often I’ll wake up at 2 or 3 in the morning (with the windows open) and be amazed at how loud they are (and prolonged). I don’t know what it is (the winds or warm air), but they’re so loud sometimes that I can’t fall back asleep. The length and decibels seem a little extreme at that time of night, but at least most of the time I’m asleep during these episodes. :) It’s definitely a minor annoyance, far outweighed by the awesomeness of the neighborhood!

[waterworld]

Way back at post 11, HMC Rich asked “Why then does USAID send people and money to help build or rebuild religious institutions?” apparently in reference to Carson’s quoting the language of the First Amendment. I didn’t know that USAID funded religious institutions, so I thought I’d look into that. Turns out, this goes back to President Bush’s efforts to expand the availability of government money to religious organizations.

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In 2001 and 2002, Bush issued Executive Orders 13198, 13279, and 13280, which collectively directed a number of federal agencies to “identify and eliminate regulatory, contracting, and other programmatic obstacles to the participation of faith-based and community organizations in the provision of social services by their Departments,” and “to ensure equal protection of laws for faith-based and community groups that apply for funds to meet and administer social service programs domestically and abroad.” In other words, let’s give religious institutions an equal opportunity to apply for federal funding to support humanitarian projects.

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I’m a little bit baffled, and very disappointed, that so many people condemn the notion of opening an Islamic center a couple of blocks away from Ground Zero. Such condemnation is inconsistent with our history and constitutional commitment to religious freedom and tolerance. And I agree with everyone who’s already pointed out that Islam didn’t attack us, a group of extreme, violent radicals who purport to embody the principles of Islam attacked us. Muslims died in the attacks on September 11. Muslims fight in our nation’s war against Al Qaida alongside people of other faiths. Muslims live and work in Lower Manhattan and have the same interests in providing services to the community as people of any other faith. And considering the Bush Administration’s policy of equal-access to federal financial aid (which has not been reversed by the Obama Administration), it would seem that an Islamic center in Lower Manhattan would not only be legal, as everyone seems to recognize, but would be eligible to compete for federal funds for humanitarian programs, just like all the other non-profits in the area.

[pam]

I love listening to the trains….. you will learn to find it comforting along with ferry and other ship horns and ships loading from Harbor Island.

[bebecat]

I grew up listening to the industrial area all night long. Pigeon Hill. Even 44-50 years ago work was happening on Harbor Island all night long. You will get use to it or put on soft noise to drown it out.

[DP]

Smitty: What are the chances of us persuading you to spread a little sedition within the Hallways of Power?

We could print up tracts, just like the evangelical Christians do, with slogans like:

Do you know where your soul is going after the Recession?

      and

Believe on the Recovery and Thou Shalt Be Saved!

You could leave stacks of them in the executive washroom or surreptitiously tuck them into lapel pockets when you bump into people in the cafeteria.

Whaddaya think, guy? I’m trying to brainstorm solutions here . . .

 

 —Yeah, Baby!!

[dutchelm]

The train whistles blew all night long on monday evening and well into tuesday morning. it ridiculous – long drawn out whistles, some repeated whistles. is there a reasonableness in it? isn’t there a limit to traffic at night while people are trying to sleep? we have recently moved to the belvidere neighborhood and had no clue about the trains. is the noise related to ramp up in steel plant work? is there noise year-round? these things are important at 2 and 3 in the morning. otherwise, we love our new neighborhood…

[Carson]

The same ad was also posted on Craigslist today but just deleted. I also called the number to ask, just went to a voice mail with a name I couldn’t really understand, maybe a Daniella?

[lilith]

I was at the same Yancy/Avalon intersection yesterday, waiting for my turn to go. My strategy for that left turn is to stay to the right enough that a car can pull up on my left (not my usual strategy for left turns, where I generally claim the whole lane). I then signal left and make eye contact with the driver, so we’re clear on what’s happening. If it looks like it’s going to be a while before I can go, but there is an opportunity for a car to make it, I wave them past me.

Anyway, yesterday I was waiting and had just missed my chance to go, when a big green muscle car (not sure of the type, but it was very nice) pulled up next to me with a young man driving. I signaled, he waited, then after a couple minutes I waved him through. He pulled up next to me and said, “Let’s go for it!” He then pulled through the intersection slowly, blocking for me.

It made me smile, and I thought about the angry woman, and what a different experience it is when people are just plain nice.

So thank you, muscle car guy.

[dhg]

THERE IS a shinto temple close to Pearl Harbor. There is a giant US military base within 20 miles of Hiroshma. There are many muslims working in lower Manhattan. They want to worship in a converted Burlington Coat Factory. Good for them.

One thing I’ve recently sussed is that the Republicans are really good at taking a NON-ISSUE (i.e. burning the flag!!!!!!!!!!!!) and turning it into a referendum on patriotism. Who cares if they give all the breaks to the uber-rich and the middle-class loses. We’re patriots!

[mpento]

I just don’t think that Obama is that stupid (I could be wrong). All this election stuff going on and he dangled a carrot infront of the republicans and they jumped on it. Also I was surprised that the “popular” media seemed to agree that he was stating that he is in favor of the mosque being built when he is obviously just stating they have the legal right. Fear the mosque instead of fearing the economy is going down the toilet. One just produces religious war the other will bring an end to the world as we know it!

[JanS]

DP…I think you’re stretching that just a bit. He is not calling anyone Nazi’s…he’s using a familiar quote that is used in many instances – not just to accuse people of being Nazis. I agree with him…you can’t have it all ways. They own the property…they should be allowed to build what they want there, within the bounds of zoning and laws. Monument to religion? It would be an education center, too. There is a smaller mosque only 4 blocks away…should that one be torn down?

I just don’t understand people who stretch things like you are to inflame the discussion. You know very well what he was saying. Again…not all Muslims are terrorists. The ones who brought these buildings down had incredibly skewed views of what they believe.

[DP]

Keith Olbermann is doing that thing where you don’t quite call your opponents Nazis, but you do put them squarely on the Nazi continuum.

Olbermann: They came first for the building permits . . .

A few months ago, someone on this very forum tried to characterize people who supported a state income tax as being on the Nazi track, too. Remember that?

So let me try to get this straight now . . .

People who want an income tax are well on the way to becoming Nazis. —Right?

And people who don’t want a monument to religion near a religious-inspired massacre are Nazis-in-training, too. —Right?

So . . . um . . . at this point I’d like everyone who’s not a Nazi to leave the room.

 

No doubt, some bigots are exploiting this GZ mosque brouhaha to bash Muslims, and we should stand together against that.

(Let me think for a second, here. Yup. I’m against that.)

In the meantime, though, other questions are still open. Questions like:

 

• Is it really a good idea to build a mosque right there?

    — and —

• Are there alternative locations for the mosque part of this project? Locations that won’t piss off half the country?

 

Think of the mosque proposal as analogous to a Japanese cultural group wanting to build a Japanese military history museum within view of the Pearl Harbor Memorial. Or an American energy consortium proposing to hold a nuclear power exposition outside the “atomic dome” in Hiroshima.

Legal? —Maybe.

Insensitive? —Probably.

Foolish? —Definitely.

 

I’m going to make a prediction. I predict this thing will roil on for several more months, until everyone’s had a chance to sound off about it one way or the other.

In the end, the developer, one Mr. Feisal Abdul Rauf, who is an otherwise sensible and fairminded man, will either drop the project all together or just the mosque part of it (what Rauf calls a “prayer room”).

Rauf is not doing Islam or his fellow Muslims any good by pushing this thing, and I think he’ll eventually realize that.

Coming up next: Who gets to say what Tom’s religion means to Dick.

—Is it Harry? Or what?

 

 

Peace Out!

-D.P.

[Smitty]

I can tell you this – we have reduced workforce and do not plan on hiring back even if things recover.

It’s amazing what a recession can do to help find synergies, streamline processes and maximize the labor you have.

Manufactuaring & construction are obviously different stories and will need labor when demand comes back, but corporate America is going to stay thin, regardless. (imo)

[Ken]

Olbermann excerpt for those who can’t access videos:

What was that about Iraq? Why did we go into Iraq? To free the world, and especially Iraq’s citizens of the tyranny of Saddam Hussein. That’s its supporters defense of the Iraq invasion of this hour. Well who lives in Iraq? Muslims. I hate to reveal this to anybody on the right who doesn’t know this but when they say Iraq is 65% Shia and 32% Sunni you do know that Shia and Sunni are forms of the Muslim religion, right?

We sacrificed 4,415 of our military personnel in Iraq to save Muslims, and there are thousands of us still there tonight to protect Muslims, but we don’t want Muslims to open a combination culinary school and prayer space

in Manhattan.

From the beginning of this nation we have fought prejudice and religious intolerance and our greatest enemy stupidity exploited by rapacious politicians. It is only 50 years now, this month since Americans publicly and urgently warned their countryman not to support a presidential candidate because he was Roman Catholic. He would bow to the will not of the American people, but of the Pope. He would be a papist. He would be the agent of a foreign state. His name was John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

Despite the nobility of our founding and the indefatigable efforts of all of our generations, there have always been those who would happily sacrifice our freedoms, our principals to ward off the latest unprecedented threat, the latest unbeatable “outsiders”. But once again at 45 Park Place, we are being told to sell our birth right. To feed the maw of xenophobia and vengeance and mob rule.

The terrorists who destroyed the buildings from which you could only see 45 Park Place as a dot on the ground, wanted to force us to change our country, to become more like the ones (they) knew. What better way could we honor the dead at the World Trade Center than to do the terrorists heavy lifting for them.

Do you think 45 Park Place is where it ends? The moment this monstrous betrayal of our America gained the slightest traction, the next goal was unveiled. “No more building permits for any Mosques in this country” brayed the man from the euphemistically named American Families Association. Of course, he said maybe the permits could be granted if the congregation was “willing to publicly denounce the Koran.”

They came first for the building permits….

[JoB]

HMCRich…

pssst…

fighting on the other side of those islam conflicts you allude to are … christians…

and when it comes to the big ones..

we invaded them :(

[HMC Rich]

It is two blocks from Ground Zero. A little close but not on Ground Zero. A former coat factory. Hmmm.

Carson started out with a quote about separation of church and state. Why then does USAID send people and money to help build or rebuild religious institututions? Just asking since some think religion is so bad.

I find it Ironic that the “Cordoba House” will be named after the church that was conquered by Islam in Spain and turned into a mosque.

Most disconcerting is why the President even said something and then backed away?

Carson, maybe you should try to start an outreach program for Republicans.

RAK, please look up how many conflicts are in the world currently and who is involved. Islam is involved are most of the conflicts. There is a high percentage of Christians involved in War. Jews not so much. I wish the Arabs would leave them alone, but they never will.

The KKK…Robert Byrds former club? Not wanted, not accepted.

I have wasted too much time on this thread. This is silly.

[JoB]

it’s a church…

the muslim faith didn’t bring the towers down

fanatics did..

fanatics who may have used faith as an excuse.

[RAK]

I believe the President defended the right without comment on the judgment. Personally, I think the judgment is questionable but the right is absolute in the USA. My goodness, not all Muslims are terrorists (though I think some of their practices are weird). Christians and Jews have an equal criminal, terrorist history.

[Carson]

DOC, you are dead right, and several Republican members of Congress seem to think they (Muslims) don’t have the right to build a house of worship on private property and have been questioning Obama’s support of the 1st Amendment. Personally, I am far more offended by American Priests molesting American children. The children trusted the priests, we have never really trusted foreign Muslims and knew the day was going to come eventually.

[DOC]

Carson, I may be very wrong on this, but this is what I understood. Obama agrees that the mosque should be built there because it legally can, but may or may not agree with the morality of it. I think most New Yorkers are wanting to stop the building of it there through legal means, essentially saying “you can’t legally build that there”.

Frankly, I agree with Obama. I believe that it has every right to be built there, regardless of whether or no I agree or not. Either way, there are Mosques all over the city, including 4 blocks from the WTC site.

Most people who don’t want it built there, don’t want it there because it is a muslim building and they don’t want muslims there (IMHO). I see it as them ignoring the constitution to serve out their own prejudice. A small group of fanatics destroyed the WTC, not the other 1 Billion. It would be like saying no more churches in Kansas because Fred Phelps lives in Topeka. Although I would like to see him and his family dead frankly…

[cjboffoli]

I was surprised today when my yard waste pick-up was refused. They didn’t check off a reason on the little slip they left. But it was a first for me in years of curbside pickups as I’m fairly meticulous about following the recycling and yard waste guidelines.

When I called they told me that they were concerned about the “white powder” in my yard waste container. When I explained that it was simply wheat flour they told me that they refuse to dump a container like that because the powder might blow around and they don’t want to get in trouble for messing up the alley. I guess I can understand that, though the alley post-garbage pick-up is usually pretty littered anyway. I suppose I should be grateful in this day and age that they didn’t call in a haz-mat team.

Just wanted to warn people to cover up your white powder foodstuffs or dump them into a paper bag first.

[KBear]

I just re-read the voter’s guide online. It doesn’t specifically say he GRADUATED from the Evans School of Public Affairs, but if all he took were a few courses, I’ll agree it’s misleading.

[West Seattle Art Attack]

Guidosmom,

Blackbird vs. Blackboard. Two totally different things.

Now for a review. We went on opening night on the 13th. Couldn’t get in until 8:30 because it was so popular and we didn’t decide to try it until about 3:30 that day. We had the tasting menu at $25 per person. It was opening night so we anticipated a few glitches and knew there was a chance some of the dishes would be hit or miss. We were right and wrong. It seemed they hadn’t quite gotten their rhythm down (who could after one night?). Service was a bit uneven although the entire staff was very nice and friendly. So we were right about a few understandable glitches here and there but we were so wrong about the hit or miss food. The kitchen was firing on all cylinders. Dish after delightful dish appeared at our table and was quickly devoured. Each dish was something special. They all arrived at our table within seconds of being plated. The food was hot and so, so good. Combinations that seemed unusual and unique (gnocci, smoked trout and peas) were a wonderful burst of complimentary flavors and textures. For our $25 we were treated to 5 dishes (scallop ceviche, fried okra, pork verde, smoked trout gnocci, frogmore stew and flan with lavendar cream for dessert. We left full and extremely satisfied. We spent the weekend raving about Blackboard to our friends and some of them have already visited and posted their positive comments on Facebook. This place rocks. Once they work past a few of the anticipated growing pains the reservation list will be full days in advance. . . . . Next time I have to try the sliders, pork belly and halibut. . . . yum!

[villagegreen]

Went this past weekend and had an amazing meal! We weren’t super hungry, so just had two items and drinks: 4 Sliders (red wine and shallot, foie gras, truffle, blue cheese), beer battered okra with watermelon rind ketchup, Pimm’s Lemonade, and Fishtale Organic Pale Ale. Hands down, the best sliders I’ve ever had – and cheap at only 12 bucks. The fried okra was the perfect compliment (since they don’t do fries). Loved the watermelon ketchup.

Seriously, this place should be an instant West Seattle hit. It’s infinitely approachable – great friendly service, non-pretentious, kid friendly, and awesome food at an extremely reasonable price. Like a more down to earth Spring Hill.

There’s only one thing I’d changed (I can’t help myself, I’m a nitpicker). They’ve really gone for the bistro feel, with the goldish/tan paint job and black and white stripped bench backs. But for some reason they’ve left the burgundy carpet. This place is screaming for wood or concrete floors. The carpet just feels heavy and dated. And with a kid dining there the night we were, spilling food all over the floor, it would seem advantageous to get rid of it. Just a minor quibble, though, as the food was stellar!

[JustSarah]

TCBY still exists?

I love Red Mango for *real* frozen yogurt… mmm. Actually, I prefer Pinkberry, but I only get to have that when I’m down in California. Both are good, but Pinkberry has a delicious dark chocolate flavor.

Still, an original Red Mango frozen yogurt topped with blackberries and raspberries, please! Or pomegranate w/ dark chocolate chips… or Pinkberry chocolate topped with coconut flakes and toasted almond slices…