...have such shitty public schools?

Conservative blog SoundPolitics.com has some ideas why. Of course, L.A.'s public schools also suffer from many of Seattle's problems, so the discussion's relevant down here, and all over urban America. Quoth the Sound:

All these cities are "progressive": Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D. C. All of them have poor schools, and some of them have terrible schools. (All of them also have high housing costs.) And you can easily add a great many examples to that brief list. One can find university towns that are "progressive" and have reasonably good schools, but on the whole, in cities where "progressives" run things, the schools decline.

One commenter has an "answer" that I largely agree with.

It's all about supply and demand. It's too, too, too expensive for most middle-class parents to live and work in Seattle (or San Francisco. Or even Los Angeles). Taxes are too high, mortgages are too high, and, let's face it, the houses are small, transportation is bad, and the general cost of living is just too damn high.

Because of this, most middle-class parents rationally take themselves and their families out of the city. And that, in turn, means there are fewer students and less demand, city-wide, for high-quality schools. Why would a childless couple living on Queen Anne, a wealthy Madrona family whose kids go to Lakeside, or the single young people who crowd into Capitol Hill or Belltown give a rats-ass about the Seattle schools?

The dirty little secret ... is that as long as the people of Seattle continue to over-tax themselves, artificially inflate the cost of property with punitive land use regulations, promote high-density housing instead of family homes, maintain a too-small police force, and discourage the use of family cars, families will continue to leave the city and--no matter how much money you give to the schools--there will be no real demand for good services. And government will continue to respond accordingly.

Also, public schools are a state-run monopoly. And monopolies kinda suck.

Ficitonal characters run for office.

Here and here.

We are mere hours away from my purchasing the (potentially) glorious Nintendo Wii! Will I love it, or will I merely "like" it? And how will I react when Nintendo inevitably screws up the next Mario Kart installment? So much drama, so much Nintendo. It's like 1988 all over again.

NASAWatch.com is trying to figure out how Dem-controlled Senate committees will treat NASA. It's looking like a wash with how the GOP ran things.

I don't want some boring old "Democrats Win!" triumphalism. We've been hearing that from every media outlet since January. I'd rather have a bunch of strange things happen that make this election historically interesting (Because a sitting President losing a bunch of his party's seats in his second term is actually quite common).

1. Michael Steele wins in Maryland.

2. Harold Ford Jr. wins in Tennesee.

3. A gay marriage ban fails. In a conservative-ish state (Virginia?)

4. Three Republicans get elected to statewide office in CA (not including Ah-Nold).

5. The Dems win the House by one seat (Gridlock! Mayhem! Hilarity!)

6. Joe Lieberman decides he's going to be an official Independent.

7. The Virginia Senate Race remains undecided until December.

8. Lincoln Chaffee wins.

9. PA's boasts a pro-life Dem Senator and a pro-choice GOP Senator!

10. The networks once again screw up in calling several races' winners. And we all agree never to trust polls and the MSM again. Until the next election, which is just 23 short months away!

Hey Asa, what was the name of that one book where God died and fell into the ocean?