Here is a selection of items that caught my attention recently:

1. A headline from a local news outlet:

Police arrest suspect who harassed man with gun

In Seattle, gun owners have to expect to be harassed.  People here are prone to let their emotions get the better of them when they express themselves on matters of public policy.  Seattle is not only anti-gun.  It’s also anti-harassment.  It’s difficult to judge which of those attitudes will get the upper hand in any situation until it plays out.  In this case, the harassment must have been fierce.  Myself, I would have expected the police to arrest the person with the gun.  You never know.

2. The accountant for a company where I have an investment is late in producing some tax forms. She sent a message out to all of the company’s clients telling us that she was running late, something we already knew.  She closed with this sentence:

Please bare with me.

I don’t see how that’s going to help.  However, the forms haven’t arrived yet and I am thinking seriously of giving it a try.  I don’t see how it can make the situation worse.  On the other hand, it’s been chilly here for the last few days.  She is located in Texas, where the weather is warmer, so it’s less of a concern for her.

3. Another headline:

King County Council votes to put tax funding crisis centers on April ballot.

Here is a case of good intentions gone wrong.  King County, whose county seat is Seattle, has a median household income of about $106,000 per year.  That’s the highest in the state.  It’s not enough to put the county in the top 20 in the U.S., but it is still some 35% above the national median household income of $78,000.  At that level of income, a reasonable person has to expect a hefty tax bill.  Oliver Wendell Holmes said that he didn’t mind paying taxes because with them he bought civilization.  A visit to downtown Seattle might have caused the eminent jurist to reconsider.  Even so, if people are in crisis over their tax funding, that means they are doing well enough to pay for their own counseling.  The rest of us should not have to pay for someone else’s first-world problem.