September 18th, 2008
Yep, the Republican Party is putting George “I Still Eat Ham Sandwiches” Allen up on stage as part of a rally in Fairfax aimed at drawing minorities to the Republican Party. Do you think he’s going to bring the noose he used to keep in his office with him? Is he going to welcome all the brown Virginians he sees to the Real America?
Hilarious.
Update: I’d completely forgotten about the video about George Allen and his love for black people. Give it a watch:
I know, this was mighty white of me, wasn’t it?
September 16th, 2008
Not good for anybody, this:
Pakistan’s military said today its forces had received orders to fire on US troops if they entered Pakistani territory, after a cross-border raid inflamed public opinion.
The country’s civilian leaders, who have taken a tough line against militants, have insisted Pakistan must resolve the dispute with the US through diplomatic channels. But the military has taken a more robust line.
General Athar Abbas, an army spokesman, told the Associated Press that after a cross-border assault in the south Waziristan region earlier this month, the military told its field commanders to take action to prevent any similar raids.
Not good at all.
September 12th, 2008
One boggles:
A houses in North Texas burned down, killing two occupants, because the local authorities had switched off the fire-hydrants to stop terrorists from poisoning the water supply through them[.]
Update: Funny, I read through the original story to make sure the reason for turning the hydrants off was really as claimed by the summary, but I missed the whole no dead people bit. Stupid, indeed. Anyway, corrected. Thanks, Unacoder.
September 10th, 2008
If you live in DC - or a city of any size, I suspect - you noticed a lot more bikes on the streets than usual, this summer. For any number of reasons, I’ve been very interested in their stories. The following was posted to a local DC cycling listserv by someone who had just finished his first summer’s worth of bike commuting. I hope you’ll find it as interesting as I have.
Last year I bought a bike to help lose weight and get back into shape. I rode bike trails all summer, sometimes riding 80 miles a week. By the time 2008 came around I was 60 pounds lighter than I was when 2007 started.
So when spring of 2008 came I was working long hours and needed a way to keep the weight off. By April, gas was hitting $4 a gallon. The choice was clear, it was time to start bike commuting. Thanks to the folks on this list I figured out a route and my first day for bike commuting was April 16th. I started out riding two days a week but after about a month I went to riding three days a week, and taking Metro on Monday and Friday to stage my clothes.
So I’d like to point out some observations about my summer spent commuting:
- I only drove to work four or five times, and only once because it was raining. A couple of times I drove in because I overslept and was running late.
- Riding in street traffic isn’t half as bad as it looks.
- I saved enough money on gas to buy myself a brand new 17″ laptop from Best Buy.
- Despite all the horror stories, I found out that the drivers in this city are remarkably tolerant of cyclists.
- I only had someone come up behind me on the street and lay on the horn one time. Happened on M. St SE on my way home. The driver never even passed me because they wound up taking a right turn while I was still in front.
- The only other negative experience was when some jerk decided to blast me with his horn while I was using the pedestrian crossing over Washington Blvd coming off Memorial Bridge. I hate this crossing with a passion. Half of the time you have to play “chicken” with the cars to get them to stop.
- I only had two close calls. Once, a tourist did a 270-degree turn at the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery and almost hit me. It was slow speed so I think it only would have wound up with a crunched bike rather than a crunched cyclist. I think I scared him more than he scared me because I was yelling WHOA like a maniac.
- The other close call was with a pedestrian on that narrow sidewalk on 50. She was coming right at me and I was sure she would see me. Wrong. At 7AM, pedestrians are looking at their feet, sleepwalking. They will not notice the 200LB cyclist bearing down on them, even though they are facing you.
- I learned to ring my bike bell. A lot. Pedestrians sleepwalk. A lot.
- Sometimes you will see other bike commuters do things you should not attempt. Like, riding on 50 where the Glebe Road overpass is. I decided to try it myself the next day. And as soon as I was on the other side I decided to never try it again.
- I really, really, miss the cutoff in Fort Myer. That hill is nasty.
- The Maine Ave fish market stinks in the morning. In the afternoon it smells like french fries and Old Bay.
- Riding in the rain isn’t so bad when it’s warm. One morning I showed up at work, sopping wet and covered with mud from the construction site in Fort Myer. Kevin the security guard took one look at me and said “Cyrus, you crazy!”
All in all it was a very positive experience. I kept in shape, learned a lot about riding bikes, and had fun.
Very cool, no?
(And on that positive note, I’ll leave this place alone until Friday. See you then.)
September 9th, 2008
Yes, he’s coming back for next year. Despite lots of evidence to the contrary, I don’t feel like I’ve really got much to say about it. He’s an amazing athlete who has my respect. I also think he’s a doper and a liar. Go on and square those, if you can. He says that this return is (in part) about pushing the cancer research mission of the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Well, if that’s what’s it’s really about, good for him and all of us. If not, well . . .
Anyway, all that said, there’s no doubt that he’ll bring public attention back to cycling. Nike wouldn’t make this video about anyone else:
But that wheel, in the last seconds of the video? I hope it catches him, this time.
September 8th, 2008
My first draft of this turned into a paen to This American Life. But we’ll just have to save that for another time. Instead, I’m just going to recommend that you listen to this episode. It was something that I thought I should post about the day it was aired, and has since been recommended by readers at either end of the traditional political spectrum (thank you Tyler and Sasha). What’s so special about it? Well it:
lays out how the finance guys and the people facing foreclosure are connected by a chain of middlemen, and that together, they all brought about the current housing and credit crisis.
And it does it in a very personal way - a few minutes talking with each person in the chain, from borrower to the final Wall Street guy that sells the resulting securities to global moneymen. If you’ve ever found yourself glazing over when you hear news stories about Fannie Mae, subprime loans, Countrywide Finance, etc., you owe it to yourself to spend 50 minutes on this radio show. You can stream it for free from the linked site, but I highly recommend setting This American Life up as a regular (free) podcast subscription via iTunes.
Special request: if you actually end up listening to it, would you mind posting back here with a couple of lines on what you thought about it? Even if it’s “Eh, just couldn’t hold my interest”, I’m quite interested in what you think about it.
September 6th, 2008
Robert Novak, last seen fleeing the scene after he hit a pedestrian, pens a column in which he blames it all on a brain tumor. He also has a curious way of describing things:
The person I hit, identified by police as Don, with no fixed address, was taken to George Washington University Hospital, where police said, “There are no visible injuries.”
Of course, Don has a last name, which is known to Novak and anyone else who can read. “No fixed address” lets us all know that Don’s homeless, and thus it’s probably his fault. Finally, Don did indeed have injuries, requiring that his shoulder be reset. But these are all minor details, I suppose, to someone who’s put his hate of pedestrians into the public record poor, suffering Bob Novak. Funny how he still manages to retain his ability to be a complete ass though, isn it?
