Nearly 50% of Seattle's daily papers are reasonable. Sometimes.

The P-I shows what a sensible newspaper operation can do in the wake of a tragedy today by publishing a number of pieces that don't directly admonish the Seattle Times (because fancy dailys don't play like that), but could be seen as a reaction to yesterday's idiocy in the Times. One is headlined "No rave crackdown coming," and contains passages like the following:

"Some tragedies defy any sort of rational response in terms of regulation because they're completely irrational events you can't really predict or prevent," said Sidran, who defended the Teen Dance Ordinance, which was enacted in the mid-1980s.

The ordinance prevented minors and adults from patronizing the same dance clubs, and many music industry professionals complained that it crippled their business. With Mayor Greg Nickels' support, the City Council repealed the ordinance nearly six years ago.

Sidran still believes teens are in harm's way without stricter rules. But, he said, "this kind of homicidal psychopathic violence is not what the Teen Dance Ordinance was about and is just a terrible tragedy."

Yes, yes, the politicians all say that the Teen Dance O would do nothing to prevent this tragedy blah blah blah, but why are the politicians being bombarded with that question over and over in the first place? We mean, of course we need some legislation in the wake of this tragedy that outlaws freaking the fuck out and blowing away a bunch of people who invited you to a party. That much is clear. We can't have kids slipping through that loophole again.

And the other is an editorial by Robert Jamieson which is almost enough said. He's a reasonable man. That piece is entitled, "Ease up on parents whose teens were being teens."

Ah, but they had to sneak a little voyeur thing in there as well - More text of the 911 calls that occurred during the Saturday morning shooting. They also have audio today, which, personally, we aren't listening to. We can't see what there is to gain by doing so except the experience of some ghoulish thrill. We're linking to it here not because we think you might by up for the ghoulish thrill, but so that you also can turn your noses up at it.