The water was almost up to the boardwalk - about two feet or so shy of the mark.

The water was very high when I took this photo. According to www.saltwatertides.com, the high tide for Sunday August 3rd, 2008 was 15.5 feet at 8:35 pm (about 5 minutes prior to this photo being taken.)

This area is known to have tides of over 17 feet. A 17 foot tide this night easily might have been at or above street level, especially during inclement weather conditions.

If there were to be rain in a high tide situation like this, or in particular a storm with heavy rain and heavy river flow, it would push the water that much higher.

Many buildings with businesses in the area would likely suffer flooding in such a situation.

Is this a sign of impending sea level rise? I don't want to be a fear-monger. But this is a reality that the best science of the day suggests we will have to confront sooner or later. Could it be sooner rather than later? Discuss.

p.s. oh yeah, didn't a big piece of Antarctica break off recently?

Mutant Snap Peas.

One of my favorite things to grow is sugar snap peas. They're easy to grow, you barely have to take care of them, and they're delicious.

I've got a good sized set of vines growing right now, but one vine seems to be a mutant freak.

Here is a good and ordinary sugar snap pea. It's a little immature, but you can see how nice it looks:

It has come to my attention that Gary R. Tabor, candidate for Thurston County Superior Court, has received considerable campaign support from the Olympia Master Builders (www.omb.org). Maybe you have seen the advertisements on IT Buses [pdf].

Tabor's challenger, Ed Holmes, is not without his own issues. As the director of the Thurston County Prosecutor's Office he is accused of mismanagement.

The campaign of Gary R. Tabor has received over $15,000 from Olympia Master Builders via the OMB political action committee "Peoples Choice for Leadership" (this information is tricky and very difficult to find on the Washington Public Disclosure Commission website (www.pdc.wa.gov, but here's a short-cut: type "peoples choice for leadership" into first entry field ["filer name"]). In a time of increasing environmental peril, is this the kind of influence over the judiciary that will do society good?

It seems that those of us who are concerned with the issue of how to best approach the problem of creating a truly sustainable society are left with a difficult choice.

Is it too late to organize a write-in campaign?

- bert

Make a difference in the lives of others! Become a volunteer tutor! Mason County Literacy and Thurston Bookends will be hosting an ESL (English as a Second Language) volunteer tutor training on the 22nd and 23rd of August at South Puget Sound Community College. Please contact 360-464-8578 or 360-426-9733 for more information on the training and on how to become a volunteer tutor.

Also, we have other urgent needs for volunteers especially in Shelton in the following areas: data entry, creative work, clerical work, bilingual-Spanish computer class, database management, childcare and more! We also have several workstudy and internship opportunities.

We look forward to hearing from you! :)

Washington Times: "Border patrol agent held at gunpoint" (06 AUG 2008):

A U.S. Border Patrol agent was held at gunpoint Sunday night by members of the Mexican military who had crossed the border into Arizona, but the soldiers returned to Mexico without incident when backup agents responded to assist.

It was unclear what the soldiers were doing in the United States, but U.S. law enforcement authorities have long said that current and former Mexican military personnel have been hired to protect drug and migrant smugglers.

Um - and all we do is send unarmed National Guard members to the U.S. - Mexico border?

According to The Army Times ("Deployment Shuffle", 28 JUL 2008), there are currently 18,000 Army personnel in South Korea and 45,000 in Europe. You could easily shift the vast majority of the soldiers - all from the Korean peninsula and a large chunk from Europe - to the U.S. - Mexico border without negatively affecting the mission these soldiers would be leaving.

I can promise you that putting every soldier in South Korea on the U.S. - Mexico border would be infinitely more useful - and justifiable - than having troops in a country for 55 years.

Since 1996, there have been more than 200 confirmed incursions by the Mexican military into the United States.

This is crazy! We can't even get a handle on our own border and we wonder why we do a poor job at nation-building.

There's literally a war - some of the incidents have involved .50 caliber rifles being shot at Border Patrol and local sheriff vehicles - and the federal government just buries its head in the sand because it's too afraid to up the ante.

awaiting productions of a new KAOS radio show....I'm just a musician who's intentions are good.....rules of radio redefined. Plan to play mostly underground music with a certain, special theme that has never been done before (to my knowledge) on radio. It will be fun! But, this is the early stage. Nothing is concrete yet. I will keep olyblog updated on the process.

No one wears masks or hoods or black.

The police are welcomed and families feel safe and welcome.

People chant about building things rather than tearing them down.

Protestors are always courteous to their neighbors.

Participants sing appropriate songs but don't yell or scream.

Everybody smiles.

Members self police and guide those who are straying from the rules.

No one destroys property or harms others.

Someone hires a PIO to put a good face on the protest. (Peace needs good PR)

Those that choose civil disobedience should peacefully allow themselves to be arrested and removed.

The police should arrest those who practice civil disobedience instead of escalating things with pepper spray etc.

...you may say I'm a dreamer but I'm not the only one.

Anyone else care to imagine? 

I was asked to endorse Jamie Moore for Thurston County District Judge and I met her and her family after a Creative Theatre Experience play at Baskin Robbins and she seems nice and all.

However, in all fairness, I need to see what the other ELEVEN candidates are about. So, here are some links with bits of info that I could find about the race - I'll keep adding links as I find them.

This race goes right to the General Election in November - no judge race in the primary!! (the Primary ballot just came to my house).

Olympian Article by Brad Shannon (could this be more worthless?)

Thurston County Auditor Candidate Filing

Voting For Judges.Org info page

Candidates on the ballot for county district judge seat, Olympian by Brad Shannon (more substantial than Shannon article above)

God bless college ranking polls and the Princeton Review..

In addition to the high ranking among "Birkenstock-Wearing, Tree-Hugging, Clove-Smoking Vegetarian"institutions in the recent Princeton Review Best 368 College Rankings, Evergreen also performed well (16th overall) among the best schools for producing Dodgeball Targets.

The first category was based upon "a combination of survey questions concerning political persuasion, the use of marijuana and hallucinogens, the prevalence of religion, the popularity of student government, and the students' level of acceptance of the gay community on campus."

The second: "a combination of survey questions concerning intercollegiate and intramural sports and the popularity of the Greek system."

Does this tell us anything we didn't know?

Here's a link to the photo set: Port of Tacoma War Protest August 4th and 5th

bert