The news that a man died after jumping this morning from the Capitol Blvd bridge onto I-5 seems to be the talk of the town today. While I was out and about on errands, including getting my hair cut, I overheard or was in several conversations about it, and about suicide and stress (especially financial stress) in general.

I advise caution when reading The Olympian comment threads on this and any other traumatic story. Personally I don't see why comments are enabled on stories like this. Or at least the comments need to be real time moderated.

We can't prevent all suicides but we can prevent some. If you are concerned about someone, maybe you can help. I've used the Crisis Line in the past to figure out how to support a elderly neighbor going through profound depression.

We weren't able to prevent the death this morning, but maybe we can educate ourselves and each other. Maybe as a community we can help connect people with support and healing.

The Seventeen Traditions, by Ralph Nader

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Landscape of My Boyhood 1
1. The Tradition of Listening 33
2. The Tradition of the Family Table 39
3. The Tradition of Health 47
4. The Tradition of History 51
5. The Tradition of Scarcity 59
6. The Tradition of Sibling Equality 63
7. The Tradition of Education and Argument 69
8. The Tradition of Discipline 79
9. The Tradition of Simple Enjoyments 85
10. The Tradition of Reciprocity 93
11. The Tradition of Independent thinking 99
12. The Tradition of Charity 105
13. The Tradition of Work 111
14. The Tradition of Business 117
15. The Tradition of Patriotism 123
16. The Tradition of Solitude 129
17. The Tradition of Civics 135

I just went to The Olympian website looking for news about the suicide jumper on Capitol Blvd... and was surprised to find an article that paints Triway in a pretty negative light and casts doubt on their ability to responsibly develop the Isthmus.

Excerpt:

Residents have complained of crawl spaces filling with water and lawns installed improperly — among many other things.

Triway project manager Janine Smith declined to comment, "until we have a meeting with the city of Olympia."

Triway is the same major South Sound developer that has asked the Olympia City Council to raise building height limits on the strip of land between Budd Inlet and Capitol Lake.

What's going on here?

Here are some photos from the Monday, October 6, 2008 No LNG Rally at the Washington State Capitol Campus Legislative Building.

No to LNG Washington State Capitol Campus Rally

LNG Means:
• More Global Warming
• More Big Oil Profiteering
• More Wars

We want renewable energy.
Power Vote

http://www.powervote.org/

Lots of senior leadership at the Tacoma News Tribune walked through the door. Mike Gilbert, a 21 year veteran and military reporter; Susan Gordon, 25 year veteran and environmental reporter; Casey Madison, the papers photo editor; Bill Hutchens (no idea what he does, but he's been around a long time); and photog Russ Carmack, who has been with the paper since the early 70.

The Olympian, for the most part, was spared the loss of senior people. Mary Tracy, a newsroom assistant; Kirk Ericson, a senior copy editor, blogger and 20 year veteran; Keri Bremmer, Thurston County and Health reporter; and Karen Crist, another copy editor are out the door.

Makes sense that senior people would take the buyouts, they're cheaper to replace and the packages were probably good enough to allow them to transition to retirement or some other career. Its probably good that even more senior folks didn't hit the door.

It will be interesting to see how the Olympian copes with the loss of two copy editors. You might see more mistakes and errors in the paper.

Also, anyone see the irony in letting go of the one person writing "health" news at the Olympian while the paper is "playing offense" with a new health website?

In the end, it might be that Ken Balsley is correct, the South Sound (south of Vashon) will be a one newspaper region:

News operations would be coordinated out of Tacoma, but McClatchy would keep a small contingent of writers and reporters in Olympia, to cover state government.  Most sports coverage will come out of Tacoma, as most of it does now.  More and more stories about the Mariners or the Seahawks carry a Tacoma byline.

Some odd things about this cycle of gathering UML license plates. First, I'm sure I saw Roger Moore driving 007 UML. Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. Sean Connery is the only real Bond, James Bond. I don't buy it. Roger Moore was actually a better Bond.

Also, right after I spotted 842 UML, I saw 824 UML. It's all in The Plan. Cue the Theremin music.

Here are the UMLs for today, all recorded on the handy-dandy grid: 007, 032, 065, 213, 216, 219, 266, 295, 303, 373, 429, 484, 518, 520, 586, 619, 690, 731, 791, 812, 816, 824, 830, 842, 866, 951, 974.

From TPM:

Who They Are, What They're About

So we have McCain today getting his crowd riled up asking who Barack Obama is and then apparently giving a wink and a nod when one member of the crowd screams out "terrorist."

And later we have Sarah Palin with the same mob racket, getting members of the crowd to yell out "kill him", though it's not clear whether the call for murder was for Bill Ayers or Barack Obama. It didn't seem to matter.

These are dangerous and sick people, McCain and Palin. Whatever it takes. Stop at nothing.

See for yourself:

The look on McCain's face reveals that he in fact heard the man shout "terrorist," and yet he says nothing. As Josh Marshall appropriately says, it's the "Scare-Talk Express."

I've seen a few posts in regards to the desire of Olympia Businesses to increase the sustainability of lifestyle and would like to see something like this in town...everything is well-thought out, from plant based food choices to what happens with the waste.

I just saw this article and I couldn't resist. It almost raises my opinion of the candidate, except that it lowers the term "clowning" to its most dangerous level: a foolish show-off. I've tried to be a neutral and apolitical clown, but if I don't speak my truth I'll just explode.

Like a big ol' esploding ceegar!

Mishaps mark John McCain's record as naval aviator

By Ralph Vartabedian and Richard A. Serrano / Los Angeles Times

....

Southern Spain, about December 1961

McCain was on a training mission when he flew low and ran into electrical wires. He brought his crippled Skyraider back to the Intrepid, dragging 10 feet of wire, sailors and aviators recalled.

In his 1999 autobiography, "Faith of My Fathers," McCain briefly recounts the incident, calling it the result of "daredevil clowning" and "flying too low." McCain did not elaborate on what happened, and The Times could find no military records of the accident.

Oh.

I see.

It is a dog.

And he is smoking a cigarette.

As usual.

OK. Fine. Go ahead little UMLs. Set me up. Knock me down. 

I don't care. I enjoy it. Ha ha! I'm laughing, see? Very funny. Verrrrrrrrrrrrrrry funny.

Next time. Next time. We'll see. We'll see who laughs next time.