Ah. So that's why Seattle's such a little suck pot.
I've been here since 91 and now it all makes sense.
You need to develop a sense of intellectual challenge.
I lived here from 1971-74, 1989-93, and 1997-present. I wouldn't live anywhere else.
The people who make this a miniature Canada are my friends and neighbors, and I don't have a problem with them. I enjoy their liberal foibles, and I especially enjoy pricking their little balloons. All it takes is a smidgeon of intellectual rigor and an understanding of the Constitution -- and pop! goes their balloon. It's so easy and so much fun.
Despite the problems pointed out most eloquently by the author of this article, if a plebiscite were held in Western Washington about seceding from the US to become a Canadian province, it would narrowly win.
I recall one fine Sunday a couple years ago when I visited Everett and Seattle and walked the streets of both. Everett is a laid-back navy town, and the streets were clean. In Seattle, however, while reading in a public park, I encountered a drunk who wouldn't leave me alone except to go over to a wall and pee. A short time later, across the street from the posh Westlake Mall, I had to step over a urine stream coming from behind a trash receptacle, where a guy was defecating. "I'm sorry man," he said. "When you gotta go, you gotta go." I knew for a fact that there were public restrooms inside Westlake Mall, not two hundred feet from where we were standing (and yeah, he was standing while doing his business). But that's Seattle for you.
Incidently, Everett has record levels of homelessness, unemployment, drug use, unwed motherhood, you name it. Still it's leagues above living in Seattle.