If you dig low-rent supervillians, don’t ask- just watch.
You’ll only be able to watch Act I until Sunday, July 20th. Act II comes out this Thursday.
(Okay, you have questions. Here’s the Master Plan.)
Category: Personal Page 36 of 59
As sad as the death of Alice Swanson has been, the level of genuine interest in understanding what happened so that a repeat occurrance can be avoided has been very encouraging. As I posted yesterday, it’s appearing that the driver (in a large garbage truck) failed to see her in the bike lane next to him, and turned right into her, across her path. This is a situation that I think most of us who have used bike lanes have encountered. The solution I’ve arrived at – beyond the hypervigilance any rider should have – is to move to take the lane before any intersection. This puts you squarely in view of the driver behind you while barring the possibility of there being a vehicle next to you in a position to come across in front of you.
There are many different situations that require different tactics, of course. Yesterday, I linked to Dave Zabriske’s Yield to Life foundation, and they have some excellent tips – both for cyclists *and* motorists. As many have suggested, there’s also a role for larger education campaigns aimed at both groups. But in the end, I think it’s primarily a cultural issue – we simply have to be more aware of others. There’s no special societal prescription for that, I’m afraid. But whatever the path to it is, I bet it starts with each of us.
Recommended resources:
Bicycle Safe – Some excellent situational analysis, recommending smart tactics. Worth a quick look.
Lane Control video – A very informative video illustrating the benefits of taking the lane (from Cyclistview.com) I learned a few things from it. About 10 minutes.
Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute – Helmets aren’t a guarantee, but they’re a damn smart hedge.
Related posts:
- The Facts of Alice Swanson’s Death
- DC Cyclist Killed
- Weighing in at Washcycle
- Gwadz recounts the difference that seconds make
Photo couresty Ryan Dudek
So, around 9p, we hear the fireworks start popping off. While there was no particular interest in being part of the crowds this year, we’re only a few miles from the Mall and the sky above the house was changing colors in time with the booms. So, on a lark, we jump into the car to head down Wilson Blvd. until we can see the pretty colors. The best place for that turns out to be (unsurprisingly) the parking lot of the former Taco Bell/Bardo property. So we pull in (along with maybe a dozen other cars) to the empty-about-to-be-bulldozed lot. We take in – along with families, new couples, old marrieds, and pretty much a cross section of Arlington – a celebration of American independence.
And then someone yells “Tow truck!”
Yep, some sorry son of a bitch came in and towed a family’s car (still posted from the old Taco Bell days). Despite the guy running along side the car and pleading, the truck took the car. So the rest of us spent the next 10 minutes with one eye on the fireworks, and another on the parking lot. One kind soul blocked off one entrance with her car (she could see the fireworks from it) so we didn’t have to worry about that one. I kept my eye on the other, and am glad I didn’t have to find out if my plan for that one worked.
And while I was annoyed, it struck me that I was standing in the middle of America. None of us could afford a view of the Mall from our homes. We were just trying to take a few minutes to be a part of the common experience. But to do it, we had to head someowhere less than ideal, and worry a bit about some asshole that was so selfish he’d ruin it for the rest of us so he could put another dollar in his pocket.
But we did it. The kids next to me – moving between Spanish and English – were jazzed. The family over there – talking about how the son really only knew a few words of Farsi – was quietly enjoying itself. The Arlington old-hands behind us were annoyed that the Odyssey condo building had ruined yet another view from the formerly all-seeing hill in Courthouse.
And we were all Americans.
I love my city.
We’ll start with the greatest of American traditions – adopting that which came from another country. This is the Canadian Five Man Electric Band’s Signs:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1Q7cP3ij5g[/youtube]
The Andrews Sisters Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy gives us the ideal:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYoM0qQL6mE[/youtube]
CCR’s Fortunate Son makes it a little more real:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBfjU3_XOaA[/youtube]
Then there’s Nina Simone’s American classic – Mississippi Goddamn (the recording is more important than the (not original) vid, here – need to ff through the first 30 seconds or so):
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TV7f4umNpo0[/youtube]
And finally, from one of America’s greatest bands:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmrVYMCm8AY&feature=related[/youtube]
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And an extra one, which gives me hope for the future:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4IECGgyLKo&feature=related[/youtube]
Okay, I just need an excuse to post this:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfOhmUDrm1c[/youtube]
Maybe it should be the International Edition. Certainly there’s no one in the US wasting time at work reading this. Independence Day is probably the most widely observed holiday in the US – moreso than Christmas or Thanksgiving. In my first years on the bottom rungs at a law firm, I worked all of these holidays. Plenty of company on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Fourth of July? Ghost town. Anyway, light posting today (unless it really starts to rain). If you’re French, take a half day off, since you helped and all.
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Even if it’s fake, it’s funny.
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Did you skip over the guest Midweek Makeover: Cover Girl Edition post? Go back and check it out – more cover goodness (and High Fidelity-level music dorkery in the comments).
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No more SuperValues meals? The American Family Association is calling for a boycott of McDonalds, because McDonalds apparently lacks the requisite hatefulness to stay in the AFA’s good graces (something about daring to be interested in marketing to gay people). And when know what happens when you lack hatefulness (stolen from the comments at WaPo):
I have to confess to an illicit affair with Mayor McCheese. It started out so innocently; we bumped into each other at a food convention and started chatting about McDonald’s new policy. The conversation began to turn and soon we were discussing the appeal of hot beef and soft buns. We sneaked away to his hut and there I touched his pickles and sniffed his onions. He made sure there were plenty of condiments for us both, and it ended with secret sauce. I have never met any faster food in my life. Now he refuses to return my calls. I am at my wit’s end. If loving him is wrong, I don’t want to be right.
Now, there are a billion reasons not to eat at McDonalds (your health primary among them), but this will make me at stop there more often when I want a Diet Coke.
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More later. Maybe. Enjoy the holiday.
The NYT:
The military trainers who came to Guantánamo Bay in December 2002 based an entire interrogation class on a chart showing the effects of “coercive management techniques†for possible use on prisoners, including “sleep deprivation,†“prolonged constraint,†and “exposure.â€
[ . . . ]
The 1957 article from which the chart was copied was entitled “Communist Attempts to Elicit False Confessions From Air Force Prisoners of War†and written by Alfred D. Biderman, a sociologist then working for the Air Force, who died in 2003. Mr. Biderman had interviewed American prisoners returning from North Korea, some of whom had been filmed by their Chinese interrogators confessing to germ warfare and other atrocities.
That’s right. The US national security hinges upon (to hear the President and his defenders tell it) adherence to Chinese-developed torture techniques studied and determined to result in false confessions. And what was on this chart, exactly?
The chart also listed other techniques used by the Chinese, including “Semi-Starvation,†“Exploitation of Wounds,†and “Filthy, Infested Surroundings,†and with their effects: “Makes Victim Dependent on Interrogator,†“Weakens Mental and Physical Ability to Resist,†and “Reduces Prisoner to ‘Animal Level’ Concerns.â€
The only change made in the chart presented at Guantánamo was to drop its original title: “Communist Coercive Methods for Eliciting Individual Compliance.â€
We – as in me and you – need to make holding everyone involved in the adoption of torture by the US gov’t to account.
Apparently it’s been a confusing issue for the United States.
This is the cell on Robben Island that he spent 17 years in:
Remember, one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. And I never needed the US government to tell me which Nelson Mandela was. Neither should you.
Best when viewed at its original resolution.
Today, Major General Antonio Taguba (Retired) – who on active duty was in charge of the Army’s investigation of Abu Ghraib – put himself on the line when he wrote a preface to a report on US toruture of detainees, saying that it:
“tells the largely untold human story of what happened to detainees in our custody when the Commander-in-Chief and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture. This story is not only written in words: It is scrawled for the rest of these individual’s lives on their bodies and minds. Our national honor is stained by the indignity and inhumane treatment these men received from their captors.
“The profiles of these eleven former detainees, none of whom were ever charged with a crime or told why they were detained, are tragic and brutal rebuttals to those who claim that torture is ever justified. Through the experiences of these men in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay, we can see the full-scope of the damage this illegal and unsound policy has inflicted –both on America’s institutions and our nation’s founding values, which the military, intelligence services, and our justice system are duty-bound to defend.
“In order for these individuals to suffer the wanton cruelty to which they were subjected, a government policy was promulgated to the field whereby the Geneva Conventions and the Uniform Code of Military Justice were disregarded. The UN Convention Against Torture was indiscriminately ignored. . . .
“After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts, and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account.”
What are you going to put on the line? Are you going to make space in your life, in your conversations, in your vote, for standing behind him? For standing up for what separates “us” from “them”?
I hope so.