After I finish listening to the "Classic Starts" Audiobook collection, I plan on working my way through this list:

Can you afford a 30% utility rate increase? Puget Sound Energy (PSE) is proposing major utility hikes: 30% on electricity and 20% on natural gas over the next three years. The biggest driver? Compliance costs tied to our state's Climate Commitment Act (SB 5126 in 2021, enacted 2023) on the gas side, and the Clean Energy Transformation Act (SB 5116 in 2019) on the electric side according to The Center Square. Both expensive energy policies are from WA Democrats. These sharp increases need approval from the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission, which is appointed by the Governor. Energy bills have already jumped 12% this year alone. Many WA families and individuals cannot afford this. It’s time for policies that lower the cost of energy, instead of ones that constantly raise prices. #UnaffordableWA #PowerWA #waleg

Now this is legislation I can support.

One of the most important books in education history may also be one of the most overlooked. Stanislas Dehaene's 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘞𝘦 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯 shifts the focus from how educators can promote learning to something far more fundamental: the biological requirements for learning itself. Dehaene would know. He's the most cited neuroscientist of learning in the world, the first-ever lifetime professor of Experimental Cognitive Psychology at France's most prestigious research institution, and the Director of NeuroSpin, France's advanced brain-imaging research centre. (He's also the President of the Scientific Council of the French Ministry of Education.) So how could a major work by such a major figure be overlooked? Well, it 𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘯'𝘵 been overlooked outside of education. Last year Dehaene won the Lewis Thomas Prize for scientific writing with 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘞𝘦 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯 featured prominently in the citation. And 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘞𝘦 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯 is currently available in 31 editions and translations worldwide. So why aren't more people talking about it inside the evidence-based education community? I don't know. But I'm going to be shouting about it from the rooftops.

If schools required boys to do things like this regularly, many problems of modern education would all but vanish. Boys crave adventure, risk, and things that unsettle many overbearing modern adults, who are depriving them of these things.

Thankfully, there is a WA law for this. Many teachers don't know it and/or won't demand it be followed.

I posted before about how high taxes on distilled spirits are in WA state x.com/bkheywood/status/20619… But it can be helpful to understand how greedy that tax really is: The company that aged your whiskey for years takes home less than a third of what Olympia pockets at checkout. 🏛️ WA State: $8.98 on a $30 bottle 🏭 Distillery profit: $2.86 on that same bottle On a 1.75L handle? State takes $15.82. Maker clears $4.29. Not only are they greedy but they have a spending problem and still want even more.

Voyager 1 is 24 billion kilometers from Earth. It communicates with us using a 23-watt transmitter. Less than a refrigerator light bulb. The signal takes 22 hours to reach us, traveling at the speed of light. By the time it arrives, it's 20 billion times weaker than the power of a digital watch battery. NASA's Deep Space Network picks it up using 70-meter dish antennas cooled to near absolute zero to reduce electronic noise. The engineering required to hear a 23-watt signal from 24 billion km away is arguably more impressive than the spacecraft itself. Launched 1977. Still transmitting. Still being heard. We built something that works perfectly, 47 years later, in conditions no one has ever tested in. That's what engineering for the long term looks like.

It's a spending problem. I love my salary. I make more than most elementary teachers in the nation.

🚨 SOCIALIST SEATTLE MAYOR CRIES as Largest Bagel Franchise OFFICIALLY Shuts Down For Good! 🔥 👉 After 25 years and serving over 7 million bagels, Blazing Bagels — Seattle’s iconic local chain with 5 locations — has collapsed. Employees were stunned when they received a sudden email Thursday night: effective immediately, all locations closed, no warning, no severance. The family business survived recessions and a pandemic, but couldn’t survive Seattle’s crushing $21.30 minimum wage, skyrocketing taxes, and anti-business policies. With downtown office vacancy at a record 35.6%, more restaurants are shuttering while Mayor Katie Wilson responds to fleeing businesses with one word: “Bye.” Hardworking employees are now jobless, and communities are losing beloved institutions. Is this the final warning for Seattle’s economy? #SeattleCollapse #BlazingBagels #SocialistFailure

China currently has 1,200 coal power plants in operation and emits more CO2 than the US, India, Russia, Japan, Mexico, Germany & Canada COMBINED. The WA State Climate Commitment Act is a scam- meant to funnel our tax dollars to NGO’s who donate back to Democrat war chests.

I'm going to vote for HOLYK for Senate. It's time for a change.

Best trip ever. Bucket list done. Everything else is icing on the cake, likely not as icy. Alaska cruise photo album: photos.app.goo.gl/V4u8a9ovxe…

Gov. Ferguson’s Office of Financial Management (OFM) is warning every state agency to brace for the “most challenging budget” they’ve faced. I wrote a few months ago that if the 2027–29 budget grows at its historical average pace, the state would spend every dollar of the new income tax and still face a deficit of at least $7 billion. Now OFM is confirming the shortfall is real, but they are blaming inflation, population growth, and economic uncertainty for the shortfalls ahead. Unfortunately for OFM, the actual data completely disagrees. Over the past decade, inflation rose 39% and the state’s population grew 14.2%. Spending grew far faster than both combined, as the chart below shows. Outpacing inflation and population growth by this margin for years shows this is a spending problem. Don’t let them rewrite the truth. #waleg

If public schools were able to require a parent to come to the school every time their child misbehaved, the issue would be solved in a week. I’d love a policy where if the child is disrupting, the parent comes and must spend minimum 30 minutes with their child (somewhere private) and regulates their child or takes them home for the day. No punishment, just parental restoration instead of making the school do it.

Washington needs to wake up. We are about to lose our AAA bond rating and that will be devastating. @GovBobFerguson is projecting another huge budget shortfall after 1 million people moved into the state. They are all freaking out because of it. Guess what the one thing is they AREN'T talking about? Cutting spending in any way. They are only looking at ways to generate more money. 🤨 What's happening here is NOT political. This is just basic governance and finances. It has nothing to do with Democrats or MAGA. When you don't have enough money to cover your expenses you start cutting things you don't need. If people do not vote out the ones doing this WA State will be destroyed. This isn't about Trump or anything else. This is about saving our home. WAKE UP!! #wakeupwashington

Yikes.

Yikes.

OMG. No! I used to be a Democrat. Now, I will never vote blue. I've had enough. Pray. God will lead the way. Turn away from the wicked.

💯

THIS is why I will stand on my soap box about only K-8 being compulsory!!! 9-12 should be based on what a student wants to do in life. If the want college, they can do all the pre-reqs. If they want to join a trade, they should start learning that trade. There is NO reason for a kid who wants to learn construction to take Algebra 2 or 3rd year arts