As much as I agree with the hilarious post about how “Seattle is objectively superior to the place you grew up,” I have to admit it’s not perfect. Like our main news station running a terrible piece on how Arizona sandstones prove Noah’s flood. Thanks for the uncritical support of young earth creationists, KOMO! I understand you’re busy and couldn’t get around to interviewing any legitimate researcher at the University of Washington. It’s hard picking up the phone or riding a bus for ten minutes.
Of course, Seattle is home to the Discovery Institute, so maybe it shouldn’t be so shocking when biased journalism like this springs up.
Seattle? Isn’t that somewhere near Vancouver? Or am I thinking of Tacoma?
:(
Makes me miss Seattle. Not the lame news story, but the pictures and snarky amusing comments.
The other reason Seattle isn’t perfect is that it’s cloudy for most of the winter…
Clouds are good. Sunny weather is overrated (speaking as an Israeli in western Washington). The only problem with constant clouds is that local creationists may believe the argument from the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics because they may have forgotten that the sun exists.
To be fair, you kinda can’t blame Seattle residents for believing a story where it rains for 40 days and 40 nights.
40 days and 40 nights of rain? that’s nothing…
Really I think Seattleites are more tolerent, perhaps too much. And the local news media – all of the stations – run the same stuff. The stories are either half-baked or recycled from elsewhere (because we recycle!) I quit listening years ago!
I have lived and worked in Portland, OR, for 8 months and I approve of this message! Hell yeah.
As a relatively recent transplant to the PNW (Everett), is it worth writing a letter to a few people at the news station or taking up a bit of advocacy for this topic? When I lived in KS (oh, so glad to be out of that place!), I had a network of friends and colleagues that I could forward something like this to and they would get some followup media coverage correcting the (plentiful) ignorance of the story.
Is there a Washington Citizens for Science group? Maybe someone needs to get one started.
You do have that silly sales tax thing up there…
I swear, between the Discovery Institute, Microsoft Windows, and Starbucks coffee, it’s a wonder the rest of the country hasn’t disowned us.
Eh, you’re probably safe so far as us Oregonians are concerned so long as Californians keep being Californians. Particularly if they keep being Californians in Oregon.
Which Vancouver? ;)
Well, Seattle is not only home to the Discovery Institute, it’s home to the “I’m a Mormon” bus ads, one of original homes of the Tea Party Movement, has a fairly large number of scientologists, and a major chunk of anti-vaccers started out on Vashon Island (close enough to Seattle to call it a Seattle problem). I could also rant about the small town vibe and lack of support for the arts (in the government, culture, and the arts community itself), but those are definitely issues I’ve picked up since moving here. Oh, and upper-crust focus on eco issues rather than social issues drives me BONKERS, but I’m a Southern liberal so that’s where my focus generally is.
Anyway, it has problems, Seattle does. That said, it’s so naturally beautiful I’m not sure I could live anywhere else. Except maybe Paris.
Minor correction: the story originated in the Tri-City Herald, but KOMO ran it on their website.
The scarier thing here is that a NUCLEAR SAFETY ENGINEER working on an enormous nuclear cleanup site TAKES THE BIBLE LITERALLY.
In this case, the story was recycled from some rag in the Tri-Cities. Mind you, I think KOMO did take some severe flak over running this story.
Mental compartmentalization is a wonderful thing. Or so I hope.
Everett? What’s that? Oh, oh yeah– it’s what I write for a return address when I mail my bills. I actually avoid downtown Everett almost as assiduously as I do Seattle.
Feel free to continue that practice.
@Trebuchet: Don’t know at all about downtown Everett, but if its even half as bad as downtown Seattle, I’ll stay away.
I’ve only visited Seattle, but the things that made it seem really cool to me were:
– Mountains nearby
– And ocean nearby, and the fresh seafood that goes with it
– A nifty aquarium
– An underground Lost City
– A pseudo-Army-surplus store that sold all sorts of gourmet MRE’s *not* made for the US Army
– Hippie chicks who don’t believe in Jesus
– A frikkin’ Monorail. You park you car out where there is parking, get on the monorail to downtown, and ride buses around downtown for free. How cool is that?
I don’t know how many of these things it still has, but they’ve added a science fiction museum since I was there.
Paul,
yes, the mts are cool, but sometimes blow up.
fresh seafood, try Pike Place Mkt. the fish fly there :-)
the aquarium and underground seattle are waycool too
and the light rail doesn’t get anywhere near the ridership it ought to in an area stereotypical ecofreeky. :-)