Seattle is the stupidest city in the United States. For example, one time, I saw this news story on the TV about the Alaska Way Viaduct and a public hearing they had on replacing the infernal thing (for those who don't know, the Viaduct is this massive, ugly, pointless double decker freeway that blights downtown Seattle and was damaged BADLY in the last quake [when you drive on it, you can literally feel the concrete crumbling away beneath your car]). They interviewed this annoying lady from Emunclaw or Federal Way or some other stupid surburb out there, who came to the hearing to voice her opinion that "they should keep the existing Viaduct because I like the view when I'm driving on it." I just looked at her and thought, "Lady, who the fuck cares what you think?! I hope you're driving on it when it collapses on top of you." See, this is representative of the stupidest thing about Seattle - the endless process to get any massive public work off the ground. The Viaduct is being held up by wooden support splints, engineers are warning everyone that it'll tumble in the next quake, and they're holding feel good public meetings to discuss what they should do to replace the infernal thing! Same thing with the light rail line - approved by voters in 1996, they're just started to build the thing this year. God knows if we'll actually ever see the monorail! It's soooo frustrating. Every half-wit in Washington State has to be given an opportunity to voice their opinion on EVERYTHING, money, a rare commodity in this, the economic Romania of North America, gets burned fighting back and forth about it, and nothing gets built - oh, except new stadiums that the voters totally voted down but they went ahead and built anyway. It drives me crazy and really riles up my dictatorial instincts. Don't get me started on the whole initiative process. There's no logic or understanding of the overall picture here! Meanwhile, Portland finishes their latest light rail line 4 months early and a million American dollars under budget. Way to go Portland. Portland really lives up to it's motto, it truly is "The City That Works."

As far as intellectuals are concerned, you should check out Minneapolis. I've never encountered as many Foucault worshipers as I have in the Twin Cities. Now if they'd just spend a little more of all that thinking time on their wardrobes...