Brutal there, OrcasThunder, but entertaining. :)

I have well over 100,000 safe miles albeit with plenty of heart- stopping very close calls while motorcycling.  Mostly all across the western USA and western Canada, particularly the Sierras, Pacific Coast and all across the extended northwest, including the Beartooth and Jellystone at night and more.  This doesn't count many hundreds of thousands of additional miles over several decades of a fair bit of driving, in my other vehicles also the same places and more.   No question about it, no matter now great your "personal radar" might be, especially in watching for deer or elk and other animals easily large enough to kill you at speed (!) whether on a motorcycle or in a car (like one poster said, plenty of people die when deer end up through windshields), you really can dramatically increase your odds by focusing massively on conditions, time of day and year, plus your speed, your position on the roadway especially relative to which side a deer could most easily and quickly surprise you from, etc.  Other obvious things like really knowing your car and your own skills also make a huge difference.  Sometimes albeit happily more rarely, braking will kill you or another, instead of swerving and perhaps even accelerating, as well.

Too many drivers of cars and also riders of motorcycles, too often find themselves immersed into other thoughts or activities that can take them well away from that split second extra edge they might otherwise have, in event of a surprise of many varieties, each of which can kill you.  No question luck ultimately plays a big part, too but no question also my paranoid radar while driving but especially riding, has helped save myself and others, countless times - a number of which I've witnesses including some rangers and law enforcement professionals (one young girl tried committing suicide on Hwy 101 one time and actually some deer almost leaping out prior reminded me to bump up my personal radar so that's why I didn't hit her).  One of my most recent breathtakingly close ones was a trotting, full grown Bison in Jellystone coming around a bend in the dark.  Due it's shaggy not light-reflecting fur and the position of it's eyes, even my extra lighting and care at the time, only allowed for that split second no time to even think just react, shift to the left, as the Bison trotted in the opposite direction down the middle of roadway,barely wide enough for two cars not coordinating closely.  I did spend the next 20 minutes on my motorcycle uttering Holy **** repeatedly to myself, however.  Full grown Bisons are awfully large when you can literally reach out and touch them as they barely miss running over you and you're riding on a cruiser.  The point of all this is, for you drivers and riders out there on your phone or even in conversation with someone with you,think really hard about that little bit of extra attention this is taking, in consideration of your setting and conditions.  I've told passengers since I was a teen, not to expect anywhere near the level of conversation with me, ever since at 15 a car full of my classmates had all died which made a huge, shaping impression on me forever after.  This was compounded by not one but a few carloads going over Southern California mountain cliffs, who were neighbors of mine.  I typically enjoy driving and riding far more than most, expressly since my personal paranoid radar has long since become second nature.I encourage those of you who might not do this or have loved ones who might learn from these examples, to discuss these topics.  The odds you will help save a life one day and potentially that of someone you love, is actually pretty good over enough time and miles.

True to his style, Reed quietly won accolades from his peers across this nation, when Congress enacted Elections Reform in response to the Bush-Gore Recounts mess in Florida. Those accolades came in the form of as material a vote of confidence as your colleagues could do, with their electing him to run their group, the National Association of Secretaries of State, as President to lead them nationally, through that critical task handed them by Congress.  As I recall, one key reason for this vote by his peers nationally; all Secretaries of State regardless of party, was expressly due the fact that in virtually every other State except Washington, the Secretary of State's Office had long before become one annointed as political thank you by the winning Governor,or other party operatives and leadership.  Consequently, Reed was one of the only,if not at the time, the only such Secretary of State anywhere in the country, with any real professional elections experience.

So if I am indeed recalling correctly these very little known details about Reed, and little known due his low key style, certainly relative to what his responsibilities and consistent across-the-aisle approach and accomplishments might otherwise suggest...it seems prudent the voters of Washington State study closely the underlying motives and proven experience and pertinent endorsements of, each and every candidate.   For example, are any of those running largely to get themselves personally over the finish line for the state rules for retirement requiring enough years to qualify for same?  It does happen and surely is well earned when it is a consequence of actually running to Serve the Public, versus other obviously not stated reasons.  Incidentally I know this happens because I've had elected officials tell me this was their own primary driver for similar decisions but at least the public ended up in those cases with impressively over-qualified hence crazily under-priced genuine Public Servants in those "lesser" offices, so sometimes this calculation can work for everyone. But the Office of Secretary of State is an increasingly key and high profile office in more recent years so the genuinely best qualified candidate for the job really is what should be the over-arching key arbiter, as opposed to the political allegiance and party machine anointing.

Between GMO Frankenfoods, a Drugged Nation and much more, we Truly Have Realized the Dream; the Better Living through Chemistry One, from the Decades Ago Mantras & "Jingles," that Jumpstarted Our Nation Post Depression and WWII through the Power of Consumption, into the Then Leading Producer, of All That Was Good...See the TV Commercial Says So Wally!

Healthcare is so tragically broken, and not even remotely today, a "Free Market" system, it needs a Fresh Piece of Paper, "Do Over" Restart!   It cannot be done properly overnight, even in a four year elected politicos, focused on nothing else, term.  Even if both parties really tried doing so, together.

It is important enough, to warrant a Moonshot Like Mandate, like Going to the Moon in the 1960s, that Galvanized Our Fellow Countrymen, and Intoxicated very nearly the Entire World, with Enthusiasm.  It should be like the Successive Ten Year Plans, Rebuilding Post WWII Japan, largely from Dust and Debris, into a Global Economic Powerhouse stepping Up as a Team Player, with the Rest of the Growing Free World Leading Nations.

Much of Healthcare today is a Cat and Mouse, Knowing Winks-Laden Web of Undercurrents, Richly Rewarding Even Supposed Foes, on Opposite Sides of the Tables, be they Malpractice Lawyers,Their Close Brethren Lawyers Elected to High Offices or Appointments, or Malpractice and Other Insurers, and More.  The Rich and Powerful, at The Top and In All Corners, are All Driven to Maintain the Status Quo; the Mess Serves them All Very Well, Thank You.  Lawyers might as well be right next to Every Doctor, much like they are with the Remote Controllers of Drones Killing those who would formerly have been detained, into detention centers and interrogation, to try and learn how best to stop, the Next Disgusting Attack on Western Civilization Itself, and not "just" America.  Okay sorry for diverging and Next Time I will say what I Really Feel, rather than Holding Back!  :)

Than You Open Forum Players, for My Morning Smile Break! Wonderful to Watch this "Spontaneous Combustive," "Collective-Wit Making...". So to speak. :)

I'm saddened but glad you made this clearly tough choice, wh344. Takes far more courage than what many and perhaps even most might otherwise say! We all need to be realistic about our own limits, realities to include balancing what pursuits we choose with the risks inherent to them. Like getting out of bed or into the tub since so many accidents as we all know, actually happen in the home. I hope I do as well as you on facing my own realities when it is time for me, as I'm behind you some in years. Good On Ya' as the Scots and some Irish say!

One value of the Motorcycle Safety Foundation course, includes some stats you might be challenged to otherwise find not to mention the obvious of some riding practice and reminding/ training, etc.  So yes, the stats show that for whatever reason riders in our extended region, still manage to forget all those trees and much more like rain and usually cooler nights, etc...can sneak up on you around a corner with a very bad surprise!  So just because you are riding well within your own, your bike's and condition's "limits" the rest of the time, going from dry to wet and mossy, or leafy or gravel or oil slick or...anyway, people forget and they too often pay and despite the amazing strides in our gear,like costly but very sticky tires, ABS brakes increasingly available and even traction control gaining ground!  But like the SUV drivers I've seen overconfident due these gizmos and more on their machines, off the road plenty of times in snow and ice...they still only help "generally.". Which is why when I go around a bend I cannot see exceedingly well in lighting making it crystal clear, I never go faster than a family sedan might.  Hence one reason I'm not as fun to ride in a group with as many of my sport bike rider buddies, but also why by the time I was 30 and only via riding after hours and only as some of my hobby pursuits, I had over 100,000 safe miles of riding under my belt.  Luck in there, too of course, plus paranoid radar and more.  But after a while it all becomes second nature which is why the stats also make clear the safest drivers in cars, are motorcycle riders!

That's the idea, actually! It is a stealth plan to expand the tax rolls and more, beginning with the requirement, of course, for Minimum Wage and other pertinent rules, the parents will be obliged to apply that bottle of fortified wine price against, plus the appropriate required accounting and more. Soon, we see a multiplier effect of fully five or more employed as a result and with any luck, they are mostly more government workers who are required by law in our state to also be union members, so we can help to offset the hit that Governor Walker and the People of the Great State of Wisconsin clearly supported, in allowing state workers to actually choose if they want to be part of a union. Okay yes, I diverged, but wasn't it fun everyone?! Not yet? Well, your turn then; you'll see!

NYC was in a dangerous downward spiral years ago and it took just one mayor, tapping into a deeply felt "silent majority" saying, "Enough!"

Seattle needs look to NYC among some other vibrant downtown cores, so we don't repeat all the same mistakes before coming to our collective senses.  That is, as opposed to the same Nanny State mentality and more, that has helped wreck our Nation's Primary School System, with the Epidemic of fully 1/3rd not even graduating, etc.

With any luck, a kids playground will have fathers nearby, not standing for crap from scum and juries will back them when said scum try to sue in a system well out of balance in so many ways.  But the pendulum swings so the days are numbered for those leaching off the current out of balance state.  So save your dollars from your largesse, as Collective Wisdom readies to prevail, one way or another.

Okay, sorry...not enough rest with too much weekend work compounded by too much caffeine.  So perhaps a less "looming threat" tone better?  Happy to watch others write their version of same, Thank You!  Input good.