Still Not Getting It, But Not Stealing Babies

(10/1 - after further review I regret not qualifying evangelical Christians with a some or a lots. To encompass ALL evangelical Christians with this post is a mistake. You can read more explanation in the comments.)

In a world where evangelical Christians are so very close to getting some legislation that will lend support to the legal enforcement of commandment #6 (it’s the murder one).

In a world where evangelical Christians are SO NOISILY in need of a constitutional amendment to define marriage which will help support legal enforcement of…ummm…which commandment is being used to in defense of that one?

In a world where these two things are linked from a Sunday morning church pulpit less than a mile from my home by the simple explanation that gay people are orchestrating an effort to make same sex marriage legal so that they can “sweep in and take the babies” that are no longer going to be aborted.

"We have to steal these babies from the hand of this dragon." - says the man from the pulpit as he describes adoption.

Our congress, comprised of representatives defined as much by evangelical Christianity as anything else, has approved President Bush’s detainee bill. A bill that denies habeas corpus to foreign nationals designated as terrorist suspects. Not only that, the House has approved President Bush’s warrantless wiretapping programs.

We’re told it’s Those Other people we’re wiretapping. We’re told it’s Those Other people we’re detaining. We’re told that it is good for America that we’re wire tapping and detaining them in a figurative and literal “over there” so that we don’t have to do it over here. I concede; it is good for much of America that we’re doing it over there to those other people.

What I want to know is which commandment is the greatest, the one about not killing? What about the one regarding stealing? Then there's the one about idols? That’s way up there on the list, right?

And then there’s that pesky guy who, when asked that very question, would say something crazy like “love those neighbors ‘over there’ as you’d love yourself.” And another time he’d say “do to Those Other’s as you would have Those Other’s do to you.” A guy who talks like that, well, he wouldn’t last long in this world, would he.

I can’t wait to hear the religious right go off on congress for passing those two bills. They’re going to go ballistic when they learn that congress, run by our representatives, has passed a couple bills that go directly against the greatest commandment.

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Readers: please be alert and let me know when this starts to happen. It’s only a few days to Election Day, religious leaders in my state are trying to use congress to outlaw abortions, and I’m having steal difficulty hearing these through the babies noise.

Insolicited, Unexpected and Doing It Anyway

Is it spam? Is it real? Even if it’s real do I really want to post it? It’s unsolicited and unexpected! I don’t know who these people are! I assume most of the other blogging bicyclists I know of received the same e-mail. I wonder how many will post what they received?

And so it goes that I’m posting content from an unsolicited and unexpected e-mail…but first:

Thich Nhat Hanh is the real deal. I know of Thich Nhat Hanh because I listen weekly to public radio’s Speaking of Faith. In March he was featured. He is a Buddhist. The website is here. The transcript is here. The podcast here. I recommend the podcast because hearing the man speak is to hear peace.

UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Personal trivia: the “Christian conference center in a lakeside setting of rural Wisconsin”, where the radio show was recorded, is a conference center my family has connections to.

What about the e-mail?

Thich Nhat Hanh is apparently speaking to UNESCO on October 7. He will propose that UNESCO organize a Global No Car Day. Part of the effort to convince UNESCO to accept the proposal involves a petition that is attempting to gather 10,000 signatures by October 7. The petition is located at the Deer Park Monastery website.

I have signed it.

Here is the message:

From Nobel Peace Prize nominee and Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh:

Only collective awakening can help us to solve the difficult problems in our world like war and global warming. In an upcoming talk which I have been invited to give at UNESCO (United Nations Education Science and Cultural Organization) on October 7th, I will propose that UNESCO organize a Global No Car Day-- a day when people refrain from using their cars, except in emergencies.

It may take six months or more to prepare for such a day. UNESCO can promote this day around the world and use it as a means to educate and inspire collective awakening concerning the present environmental dangers facing all of us on planet Earth. I will suggest that UNESCO itself, from the director to ambassadors and other members, try to live in such a way that the message becomes a true message; not just a call for action, but action itself.

In our daily lives, we should each try to drive a car that doesn't pollute the environment, or ride a bicycle more often, or use public transportation. Every one of us can do something to protect and care for our planet. We should live in such a way that makes a future possible.

Thich Nhat Hanh
September 16, 2006
Deer Park Monastery, Escondido, CA

I have also responded to the invitation in their e-mail to help develop and promote a Global No Car Day. I wonder what that might mean?

Take A Look In The Mirror

This morning's readings revealed on the Rubber Side Down blog that his company is screening the movie, An Inconvenient Truth. After the showing there is discussion planned and details provided by a segment of the company around how they're going to corporately curb their emissions. I think this is an incredible exercise for a company to do, and I am very interested that he promises to report back how the day goes.

From his lack of desire to be confronted by a movie (by Al Gore?) with global warming facts he already knows and believes, to the prospect of being involved in an open discussion about an issue as charged as global warming. I identified a lot with his post. (I hope I'm not mischaracterizing his words too badly.)

Where I work a “Please turn out the lights” sign has appeared in the bathroom. I was happy to see that. I've become pretty aware of unnecessary lighting myself and I wonder who else has.

Now, the light gets turned off once in a while. :)

The idea of a corporate discussion around the movie overlaps slightly with this excellent post on the Sans Auto blog. He laments:

"We don't have people over for dinner and we don't recreate with friends and neighbors. The result of this isolation has been greater distrust in society as a whole. We have a tight knit group that we interact with (primarily family) and we don't venture out much. This limits our ability to influence people and get ideas out and give diverse groups opportunity to think about new ideas. So there is value (capital) in socializing and being involved in different groups."

This is a pretty thick post that I recommend. It's a thoughtful reflection of his time spent listening to Robert Putnam, author of "Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community." I wonder what the author gives for evidence of or ideas for revival.

To tie this all together: an afternoon of movie going and potentially divisive discussion (as truly laudable as I think it is) doesn't serve to change minds very well. Companies of course get to dictate their direction, "like it or not this is what we're doing." People would probably be better served by, figuratively or literally, going bowling. From what I've read, the global warming movie is also about Al Gore going bowling.

Interestingly or ironically, A League of Ordinary Gentlemen is on its way to my home from NetFlix. Excellent, more time at home sitting alone in front of my television. Then I can blog extensively about it.

Rethink

Today was World Car Free Day. I mentioned that to someone at work. She said she hadn’t heard. Yeah, usually only people like me know that sort of thing.



I don't know if this is Martino's work but that's where I got the image from.

Lots and lots of cycling bloggers are talking about how rainy it’s been the past few days. My city has not been an exception. Even the turtles are confused.



I used to have a rule about riding in the rain. If it’s merely supposed to rain at ride time I ride. If it’s raining at ride time I don’t ride. And so it was that I woke this World Car Free Day morning to the three weather w’s: wet, wind and wain.

Ugh. I need inspiration! I found Tex in Luavull trying to decide what to do about all that green on his radar. He was to accompany a new rider to work. Yeah…it’s awful wet out.

Then I found Griffin at Wheel Revolution saying “Where is it you need to go today that you think you need a car for? Rethink.”

I did. I rode. I rethunked.

Wet ground means I have to take the winter route to stay out of the mud. This is an additional mile or two, which causes further discouragement. I learned some things: I wrapped my clothes and consumer electronics in plastic bags for waterproofing because I didn’t fully trust of my ballistic nylon Timbuk2 messenger bag. I won’t be doing that again. Thanks Timbuk2. Also the new jacket, while perhaps not as windproof as the old one, resisted the rain like a champ…except for the thunderstorm going on inside…but that’s my fault.

I’ve revised my wet riding rules.

A car pulled up beside me on the road. I think it’s awfully funny how it’s possible to sense that words are going to be spoken from within a car, even before the car is in appropriate position. Maybe it's the extra time it takes to reach over and roll down the passenger window. Sigh, here we go. But it was a friendly face! SteveP! You rocked my morning. Thanks!

And finally, a while ago I ordered some pieces of flair for the messenger bag. My reward was waiting at the end of my ride home.



What I wouldn’t give for one of those buttons with a bike instead of an airplane. The size of the buttons surprised me a little. They're dime size. The strap they appear on in the picture is 2 inches. That's good, I like the subtlety.

Buttons here. Suspected terrorist story here.

*** upon further review - to the extent that the buttons I display here are appropriate, the buttons for sale at the site mentioned are, um...way less appropriate. Don't go there unless you want to be even less happy about the buttons I've purchased. Thanks.

*** to be even more clear...did I just point my mom to THAT site. Ew, sorry mom.

Of Poker Runs and Scavenger Hunts

If you haven’t heard about the guy whose single handedly attempting to bring some sparkling new bike culture to my city...go meet him.

The Poker Run was a great time. Half of the riders I’d never seen before. I had a pair of 2’s which wasn’t going to survive. I really wanted to win the bike too. The final bar, having been overtaken by German Fest was a bit of a bust, except riding into the festival as a group of well lit cyclists was very cool.

Final beverages on the Snakepit: deck reminded me of being somewhere I’d never been. I couldn’t figure out where all the urban ness had come from.

Next up is Snakebite’s Road Hog and Bicycle Scavenger Hunt. Calendar properly marked. Dude.

After the Fall Comes…Part III: What’s Up?

All references to temperature are wind chills.

The torso and the arms, that’s what’s up.

Apparently I’ve got a lot of room for improvement. The data shows my perceived comfort is all over the place which is very different from my legs. Most of the time I was on the warm side which I’m pretty sure reflects a fear of being too cold…so I over dress, right?

I think it’s pretty telling that between 45 and 20 degrees I was too warm 5 times. Between 2 and 13 I was also too warm 5 times. As the temperature drops I put on too much.

The base layer – the thickest, tightest, warmest Under Armor there is. Probably this piece…although it makes me look nothing like that. Think sausage, yeah, that’s closer to reality.

The long sleeve jersey – nothing unusual here. Around the mid-50’s this lightweight jersey goes on and tends to stay on to the teens. It’s a staple.

The thermal jersey – I wear a Cannondale thermal jersey. It’s a couple years old and didn’t appear to be similar to anything they have available today. It’s made from pretty thick polyester. I don’t think it’s water or wind proof.

The windproof shell – this is the single most important piece to me. I use a Fox Storm-something jacket. It’s wind and water proof and a couple years old so I can’t point to it. Because this piece gets so much use and current versions of the jacket are on clearance I’ve added a new Fox Stormshield jacket to my collection for this year. Again, this is a shell jacket; there is no thickness to it whatsoever.

Finally, the windproof jacket – this is the matching counterpart to the tight. It’s very similar to (might actually be) this Sugoi Invertor Jacket. The front is made from a thick nylon spandex blend. The back is relatively thin to let off heat, but I think this causes it to overlap the comfort of the full coverage windproof shell.

As temperatures fall from 55 degrees the long sleeve jersey and the windproof shell is the first combination. These get me down to the mid-20’s.

From the mid-20’s to the mid-teens I go with the base layer and the windproof shell or the thermal jersey and the windproof shell.

From the mid-teens to last year’s max low of –(7) I used the base layer and thermal jersey and alternated between the windproof shell and the windproof jacket. At these temperatures both combinations were a little bit warm, which shows there’s good potential for going lower on the thermometer.

T-Shirt #21

KW in Portland, OR:

20 essays and not a one from Portland. How could I say no? Speaking of Portland; the Transit Librarian's brother just moved from Portland to 1 block away from me. Coincidence? Yes, actually.

Here’s the thing: consortiums of politicians, business leaders, scientists and academics from around the world all concur: there is no doubt that global warming is accelerating, and no doubt that the burning of fossil fuels is the primary cause. We may, possibly, have ten years to turn things around; at best.

In ten years time, my son will be 21. He, his contemporaries, and all that come after will know that we all knew the extent of our impact on the climate; that we all knew the exact nature of our sins. He will know that the people who where operating cars did so knowing they were robbing future generations of…well…a future; robbing them of air and water, polar bears and ecosystems.

Someday my son will be looking at me with those beautiful hazel eyes, and holding me accountable for what I did, or failed to do, to address these issues. Could there be any greater call to action than that?

So, really, there was never any question, I chose a house based on it's proximity to bus lines and began reducing my car use. Still, each year, average temperature rose, and each year the tomatoes in my back yard, and the figs on the tree in the front yard, ripened earlier and earlier. So, last year, I bought the best bike I could afford, along with a trail-a-bike for The Boy, and gave away my car.

This was not a stoic exercise in self deprivation: with this change came countless blessings. The time the Boy and I spend cycling is some of the best time we have with each other. The human pace of cycling has made our life so much saner. Slowing down has allowed us to know our neighbors and community in a way we never did before.

Still, at the end of the day, it is a moral imperative for me. The fate of the world my son will inherit is in my hands. I do not question whether my actions are enough, I know simply I must do what I can do.

After the Fall Comes…Part II: Leggings

All references to temperature are wind chills.

The tight: the previous iteration of the Sugoi Firewall. I wore these 95% of the time and I can prove it. Windproofing is the key for me in all this winter gear. The fabric is tough too. It survived a January 30 pavement slide without so much as a scuff. I used the tight alone starting at 50 degrees down to about 15 degrees.

The long underwear: to squeeze a little more use out of the tights I put a pair of long underwear underneath. The underwear is a very light, thin, and cheap polypropylene fabric. Thin is important because thickness restricts motion making for more difficult miles. The undies paired with the tights got me down to about 5 degrees.

The extremes: below 5 degrees I tended toward a Smart Wool Midweight Tight coupled with the (legendary if you believe the marketing (I did!)) Mile Marker Sports XC Cross Pant. The Smart Wool Midweight Tight is you guessed it, 100% wool. 1 billion sheep can’t be wrong, eh? The Mile Marker Sports XC Cross Pant is made from their secret blend of 85% polypropylene and 15% lycra. Oops, I’ve said too much. Just call it 3SP.

I rode twice at –(7) windchill. Once with the long underwear/tight option and once with the wool tight/XC Pant option. Both times my leg perceived comfort was 0 (perfect). It’s likely that the XC Pant and the wool tights are just another option and not necessarily a necessity for extreme cold.

But options are important because once in a while the stuff has to go through a laundry cycle. To be a little easier on The Wife (who has not certified me to do laundry) I don’t wash my leggings after every ride. Last winter I stayed alert and evaluated each piece daily usually washing pieces the day after they needed it.

Yes, This Blog Has Pictures

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I have a pack rat. A very neat one.

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Finally, Martino's Bike Lane Diary is featuring a pretty darn funny YouTube video demonstration of how to steal a bike in New York City. It's a recent post. You won't have to scroll too far.

After the Fall Comes…Winter: Part I

School starts…80 degree mornings turn to 50 degree mornings and the long sleeve jerseys come out of the closet…a weekend trip to the Minneapplecity reveals people are getting their snowmobiles out…and this morning I fetched the tights from a pile of clothing I left behind last April 5.

Raise your hand if you’re riding through winter.

I’ve got a series of posts in mind describing how I keep riding through the winter. Today I’ll start here with how I stay motivated.

For me, staying motivated is very closely related to avoiding getting overly cold on rides. If you’re a geek-boy like me you have geeky ways to manage these things.

This morning’s temperature was a calm 45. I haven’t ridden in 45 degree temperature since April 5. On that day I know exactly what I wore and how comfortable I was when I wore it.

Did I mention I’m a geek?

I keep a list on a spreadsheet: date, temperature, wind direction/speed, windchill, feet, legs, hands, body, head, a perceived comfort scale (-5 to 5) for each body section, and a cumulative perceived comfort scale.

It might be over engineered but here’s how it works. I wake up and learn the temperature is 15 degrees with an east wind of 10mph. Brrrrrr…that’s impossibly cold. I’ll freeze if I ride today. I wonder…

Sure enough, last November 30, 14 degrees and 6mph wind. My perceived comfort shows my feet were -2 and my body was +3. Everything else was 0 (perfectly fine) so with some minor adjustments I think I’ll be able to make it to work without major discomfort. Because I know this…

the temperature is no excuse to not ride today!

PS: the tights were good for 45 degrees this morning but it was 70 when I returned home. I remember thinking I should pack regular shorts for the ride home. I didn't. I rode home in my underwear. Practice, practice, practice.

T-Shirt #20

LV in Cottonwood, MN -

A Different Take On the World

I am a person who enjoys commuting on a bike as much as riding it casually. I loved being able to ride to work in Sioux Falls. I loved people being amazed that a person can ride across town on a bike, in 40 degree weather. I was glad to say that there were many days that I didn't need to rely on a car for transportation.

Then I moved to rural America. This has hindered my choice not to drive a vehicle. It isn't because I have to drive to work. It is because I have to drive a work vehicle after I get there. There is really no way for me to get around this. I do still ride my bike to work everyday and I am proud to say everyday and mean everyday.

But, what I have come to realize with commuting on a bike is that world seems to slow down. You have the time to notice the people out tending to their yard. You see the new business coming to town. You see the new houses being built. I very much enjoy this time to appreciate the community that I live in.

I have noticed lately that I am driving a lot slower when I am in a town. I like to go through the residential areas, much like I would on a bike. I slow down to see the people and the buildings that make up each place. It allows me to relax, if even for a minute.

In closing, I would like to encourage everyone to slow down and take the residential streets. See the places off the beaten path and notice the beauty in the everyday world around us. Granted, bike when you can, but enjoy the times you have to drive. It can still be a moment to leave the rat race and see a detour.

MinusCar: Sandwich Delivery Specialist

I arrived at my customary sandwich shop to pick up my lunch a couple days ago. The (I’ve always presumed) owner asked me what was up with the riding of the bike all the time.

While I was thinking “the car’s gotta go, man” I launched into a 20 minute explanation of how, a year ago I found myself in an existential crisis and I realized that I needed to make some fundamental changes in my life so I started with ditching the auto and blogging this thing called The MinusCar Project, and a couple people actually read it and at least one of them is really cool, and it’s led to all sorts of interesting experiences and other changes and…he…said…what’s blogging?

And then I remembered that it was the other way around, I was thinking that other stuff and actually said, “The car’s gotta go man.”

He responded that he’s really been thinking about hiring a bike rider to deliver his sandwiches. You know they do that in the bigger cities, and we go right over that way so much of the time and a bike is just as fast as a car for that.

I put on my best Keanu Reeves and said, “whoa.”

And I got my sandwich and went to my customary quiet place and ate and all I could think about was a hundred different ways that I could help this guy start delivering sandwiches by bike.

So, if my job moves to India tomorrow I know where I'm going Monday...and I'm calling up essay #1 and finding out what's up!

T-Shirt #19

HC in Sioux Falls -

I’ve always been amazed at how little what we know affects what we do. We know certain things are bad for us and for our relationships, but we continue down the wide path toward destruction anyway. My example is (sorry, it’s borrowed): “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

David Laibson, behavioral economist at Harvard describes this human behavior in economic terms.

“There’s a fundamental tension, in humans and other animals, between seizing available rewards in the present, and being patient for rewards in the future. It’s radically important.”

Consider a project like starting an exercise program, which entails, say, an immediate cost of six units of value, but will produce a delayed benefit of eight units. That’s a net gain of two units, “but it ignores the human tendency to devalue the future,” Laibson says. If future events have perhaps half the value of present ones, then the eight units become only four, and starting an exercise program today means a net loss of two units (six minus four). So we don’t want to start exercising today. On the other hand, starting tomorrow devalues both the cost and the benefit by half (to three and four units, respectively), resulting in a net gain of one unit from exercising. Hence, everyone is enthusiastic about going to the gym tomorrow. (http://www.micromotives.com/tag/david-laibson/ (March 6, 2006))

It’s a paradigm shift, and paradigm shifts are hard; fundamental human behavior makes it that way. Someone said paradigm shifts take a generation, but that’s too simple of a theory. There was a time when we knew earth was the center of our solar system. Another time we said we could never get rid of slavery; after that, we still said women should not vote.

Minus is the New Plus describes a paradigm shift that society has not made, yet. Until we make the shift, each generation must relearn what its previous generation failed to embrace.

PS: Someone should write another essay on “the chasm.” That’s the marketing term for the time-space between a product’s initial sales and mass sales. Change the words to “early adopters” and “mass acceptance”.

T-Shirt #18

DT in Louisville, KY -

Surprised into Flight

Having once tasted freedom – wind-howling, heart-blasting, soul-soaring freedom – how now shall I return to the cell? For twenty years I had been caged like an animal. Cramped within four walls. Two tons. Heavy metal and plastic and wheels. I entered my prison daily and worse, I did so of my own free will. My heart's desire was to be caged within my car. I longed to drive, even if it was only around the block.

Worse yet, I paid for the privilege to enter my prison. Month after month, I'd make payments to the insurance company, to the loan company and to the parking lot. I paid for gas. I paid for oil. I paid to have the oil removed and replaced. I paid for antifreeze, for windshield wiper fluid, for air conditioner coolant. Poisons, all. I'd daily shill out my contributions to the oil industry and yearly to my government. I paid to build more and more roads on which my rolling concentration camp might lumber along. I paid to protect the oil on which I was dependent.

I paid.

Daily. Yearly. Dearly, and in ways I hardly realized.

You see, I didn't realize I had been caged. No one told me. According to all the advertisements, personal liberty and beautiful women could only be had by owning and driving a car. The cage was a necessity. Thus I was told and thus I believed.

Or perhaps I knew it was a lie all along. After all, it has never been a secret that cars vomit smoke and oil and all manner of noxious muck, that they cost personally and societally.

Whether I knew or was deceived, whether by my fault or society's, the fact remains: I had become a captive of my car. It determined my path and separated me from the great outdoors.

But now, now I am free. And it was a bicycle that led me to liberty. My cage door has opened and outside, amid the sunshine, trees, grass and fresh air, a $20 beat-up bicycle bade me come into the presence of this world and share in its pleasant grace.

Now, when I need to get from home to work, I open my house door, roll my bike out into my neighborhood and greet the little girl next door waiting to go to school. I pedal along the streets of my city, enjoying the tree-lined urban setting, old brick houses on either side, history rolling past.

As I head north through downtown, I can make my way down to the river and bike along the riverfront. I can zoom along rapturously embracing the glory of the day, moving at just the right pace. I can get to work just as quickly as I could in a car, but the journey is entirely different.

When cycling, I move at a speed that gets me where I need to go promptly enough and yet slowly enough that I can watch the mallards swimming in pairs on the Ohio River. I can watch downstream as an elegant great blue heron slowly stretches and leaps to the air, filling the city with feathered grace unknown to all but me.

When I travel by bike, I know the earth in a way that was lost to me while driving blindly around in my car. I can truly know the delight and challenge of each season as the year spins like a grand wheel.

On my bicycle, I can embrace the coming spring, and revel in the newborn daffodil and crocuses as they colorfully bid winter goodbye. I can laugh at the tickle of a sweet honeysuckle-scented shower.

On my bicycle, I can know fully the heat of a humid August day and accept it as evidence that I am alive in this world. I can appreciate the cool escape of an early morning ride through Louisville's summer, mocking the fever of the soon-rising sun.

On my bicycle, I can rattle through autumn leaves lying on the street, scattering crisp joy as I ride. I can race the sparrows, darting out of bushes as I surprise them into flight.

On my bicycle, I can breathe deep frigid winter breaths, exhaling my own clear clean exhaust into a bright December sky. It can be cold and I can dress warmly and it is okay.

As I've become a bike commuter, I've discovered that I do not need to isolate myself from this earth for comfort or safety. In the past, I tended to view The Environment as some separate thing, the good stuff of this planet that needed us to protect it. I have found, instead, that the environment is us all; the oaks, the river, the mallards, the squirrels and me. By biking, I've found my place in this beautiful fragile wild world and been made whole.

I've entered into the community that I was never truly apart from except in prisons of my own creation. In traveling this path, I've had to move deliberately in a direction opposite from the norm and accepted wisdom, but I've not been alone. I ride upstream with all of nature and the goodwill of friends who wish to break away from the foolishness of man.

On my bicycle, I've found freedom and more. With my two-wheeled connection to the world, I've no reason ever to be caged again, and that's been my salvation.

The Check Is In The Mail

This Was Not An Accident

Every day in the United States…

120 people die in traffic crashes.



7,500 people are injured in traffic crashes.



17,000 traffic crashes are reported.



Thankfully, on Friday The Wife, The Boys, and those other people were only counted in the latter category.

After failing to yield her left turn on a 40mph road the girl called her mom instead of the police.

If I had been there I would have asked her if she was talking on her cell phone while she could have been yielding.

NHTSA: Traffic Safety Facts 2004 (pdf)

(These are photo's from a body shop parking lot. Don't miss the other car in the middle photo. We're so original aren't we?)

Pepper

“Armstrong Has Another Injection Ahead of Next Tour Stage”

Oops, I typed that wrong, let me try again:

"Agassi Has Another Injection Ahead of Next Open Match"

There, that’s better.

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The Dad hit me with an e-mail today. First he mentioned putting his bike on a bus today for the first time. It was raining at the end of work.

Then he relayed something he saw during a lunchtime walk this week. A motorist drove up and stopped in a crosswalk while some pedestrians were crossing. The women walked around the front. The man stepped right up to the door of the driver, planted his feet, and waited for the car to make its turn.

Pedestrians Rock.

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If you're facing a three day weekend…have a happy holiday!

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"Blind faith in bad leaders is not patriotism."

Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson participated in a protest to welcome President Bush to the same event Donald Rumsfeld dropped his bomb on. You can view the video here or read the text here.

(Thanks BigH.)

This is the same mayor that beginning in 2002 led his city in trying to meet the Koyota Treaty goals. It's true, I read it in the August 2005 issue of Outside Magazine.

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The text of Keith Olbermann's comments can be found here.

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(This post has been slightly edited for Ariah (see comments) because I am an appeaser.)