I can't say any of the candidates really got me all that terribly excited, it was mostly an exercise of picking who I hated least. As for the initiatives the only one that I think is really super critical is City of Seattle Proposition No. 1 which is the school tax levy. Initiative 1183 really annoys the hell out of me and I hate CostCo for putting it out there (I especially like the tax loopholes they put in for themselves and the bans they put against their smaller competitors) but as I explain below our dear government has passed a lovely bill that I think is worse than 1183 so now I have to vote for 1183.

• Initiative Measure No. 1125 - No

• Initiative Measure No. 1163 - No

• Initiative Measure No. 1183 - Yes

• Senate Joint Resolution No. 8205 - Approved

• Senate Joint Resolution No. 8206 - Rejected

• County Directory of Elections - Mark Greene

• Port of Seattle - Commissioner Position No. 2 - Gael Tarleton

• Port of Seattle - Commissioner Position No. 5 - Dean Willard

• City of Seattle - Council Position No. 1 - Bobby Forch

• City of Seattle - Council Position No. 3 - Brad Meacham

• City of Seattle - Council Position No. 5 - Dale L. Pusey

• City of Seattle - Council Position No. 7 - Tim Burgess

• City of Seattle - Council Position No. 9 - Sally J. Clark

• City of Seattle Proposition No. 1 - Levy, Yes

• Seattle Transportation Benefit District - Proposition No. 1 - Yes

• Seattle School District No. 1 - Director District No. 1 - Sharon Peaslee

• Seattle School District No. 1 - Director District No. 2 - Kate Martin

• Seattle School District No. 1 - Director District No. 3 - Harium Martin-Morris

• Seattle School District No. 1 - Director District No. 4 - Marty McLaren

Note: For brevity's sake I'm omitting any uncontested races.

Finally, a short ballot! But still, an important one. Please, if you do nothing else, please vote REJECTED on Seattle Referendum 1. Let's do whatever we can to stop the insane tunneling project.

• King County Proposition No. 1 - Veterans and Human Services Levy - Approved

• Count of Appeals, Division No. 1, District No. 1, Judge Position No. 2 - Michael Spearman

• City of Seattle Council Position No. 1 - Michael Taylor-Judd

• City of Seattle Council Position No. 9 - Dian Ferguson

• City of Seattle Referendum 1 - REJECTED

• Seattle School District No. 1 Direction District No. 3 - John Dunn

Inhuman Bondage - The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World by Dr. David Brion Davis is a summary of Dr. David's research into slavery in the "New World" (i.e. the Americas). Although wonderfully written the subject matter makes it a hard read.While I have no illusions about the barbarity of humanity reading the details is still a hard task. But a worthwhile one. What I give below is but the thinest summary of some of the key points made in the book. The book itself is incredibly rich with endless detail and anecdote to make the history come alive. I heartily recommend the book.

Dr. Abuelaish, the author of the book, has suffered in ways that are awful to contemplate. The book explores the doctor and his family's history, how he achieved what he has, who his family was and how he has reacted to what has happened along with some ruminations on how the Israeli/Palestinian peace process can move forward.

1491 - New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus by Charles C. Mann explores what was known as of 2005 or so about the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus. The book shows that just about everything I was taught about the Indians wasn't so much wrong as misleading.

There have been plenty of books on the financial crises but most aren't quite as entertaining and, to be frank, potty mouthed, as this one. Matt Taibbi is a muck racking reporter for the Rolling Stone who, I suspect, will be the first up against the wall when our corporate overlords decide they can stop even pretending to care about the rule of law. The book lays out some of the facts about how exactly a bunch of insanely greedy evil doers destroyed our economy with the active help of 'our' government. I can't say these folks are criminals because we live in a criminal state where the evil doers simply have the laws changed to make their acts legal. In this blog article I look at the part of his book that deals with the mortgage crises.

Anarchy Alive by Uri Gordon is an overview of the modern Anarchist movement. Dr. Gordon is an active member of the Anarchy scene and he wrote this book from his perspective as an activist. The book attempts to explain the characteristics of the modern Anarchist movement and the issues Dr. Gordon thinks it needs to address.

What is free will? This book presents the views of four different philosophers on the topic. The book defines free will via a question - what are the prerequisites for someone to be held morally responsible for their actions? What is especially great about this book is that the authors could see each other's sections in the book so that as the book progresses each author can refer to what the authors in the sections before them said. Then at the end each of the four authors gets another chapter in which they can refer fully to what the other three authors said and respond. I especially liked the fact that the authors really engaged with each other's points rather than just throwing stones at each other. Below I explore the key points that each of the authors made and why I'm not fully buying any of it.