Lucky White Girl

Republican strategists have lost their edge (thankgod)

Now that I've had a few days  to mull it over and get over my initial reaction of 1.) Sarah who? and 2.) how desperate! I feel all the better about the Republican VP pick because I think it totally plays to our advantage.  But I am amazed that the Republican strategists on McCain's team could be so stupid and I'm even more amazed at those people who are saying it's a "brilliant" choice.  Brilliant?  Are you fucking kidding me??  How out of touch can you be?

If the idea was just to find someone with a vagina instead of a penis that's a pretty pathetic understanding of the average female voter.  And if they think that former Clinton supporters are going to be so distracted by that vagina that they won't even notice the woman's reactionary Reformation-era policies they must think female Democrats are pretty stupid.  I am seriously offended by that, and you should be too. 

So if the choice of Sarah Palin for VP isn't going to get "the female vote" who's it intended to get?  Religious nuts?  Maybe.  But even they have got to be turned off by the idea of having such an inexperienced person so close to the Presidency especially when McCain's so old and historically 1 out of 3 vice-presidents do actually become President.

Did the smart strategists who worked the last two elections all just suddenly abandon the Republican party this year?  Seriously.  They are in dire straits.

U.S. behind the curve on bicycle commuting

"Germans are 10 times more likely than Americans to ride a bike and three times less likely to get hurt while doing so"

Why?  Because in the United States "car-centric transportation policies and suburban sprawl continue to make bicycle commuting rare, arduous and dangerous"

That's from a great front page article in the Washington Post today on the decline and rise of bicycle commuting in various countries.

*** Watch the REALLY COOL VIDEO of the robotic bike parking facility at one of Tokyo's busiest train stations! ***

While I think it's always a good idea to do more to make bicycling in the city safer, as someone who has been a bicycle commuter most of her adult life in a variety of cities, I want to stress that, overall, commuting by bike is rarely arduous and not as dangerous as people tend to think. 

I've never had an accident.  Partly that's due to luck but partly it's also due to hyper-vigilance while biking and not being afraid to look silly or uncool by wearing things to make me more visible to drivers.  My current get up includes a yellow jersey, blue helmet with flashing red light on top and probably my best safety device is one of those cheap plastic pinwheels attached to the rear of my bike.  You can pick one up for $1 at a dollar store (grab a few for backups because if you leave your bike locked outside in public areas, kids are tempted to snatch them off).

But there's only so much a cyclist can control.  The margin of error is really narrow.  Often I've made a miscalculation trying to get through a particularly difficult intersection and it was only luck that saved me.  It seems sometimes the last thing on the minds of urban planners --far behind cars and pedestrians-- are cyclists.  There are places in my commute that are just impossible for a bicycle to maneuver safely without breaking a traffic law.  These are things that could be easily improved often sometimes with simple road markings but the political will is just absent in this country.

The article says that when cities do start putting the effort into incorporating bicycles into mass transportation plans they see "an almost instantaneous surge in cycling".  Britain has done some quick infrastructure fixes to encourage the use of bicycles.  Charging a $16 "congestion charge" for cars driving into the city and saw an increase in bicycle commuters of 25% within a year.  They increased city spending on bike lanes by 10% and cycling in London doubled.

In Europe where they've been doing these sorts of things for three decades, you get results like that statistic cited above: they have the highest per capita cycling rates in the "developed" world and the lowest rates of cycling accidents (don't know if the article's authors consider China "developed" yet or not but they do talk about how spurts of economic growth in previously poor countries can spur a decline in cycling as people understandably associate cycling with poverty and cars with prosperity).

I like buses and trains but nothing is as convenient as my bike.  Maybe that's because I grew up in this country and have that streak of "American independence" that means I like to have complete freedom to leave whenever I want and go wherever I want by whatever route I want.  I love bicycle commuting and I can't wait for the rest of the country to figure it out!

Two words.

Sarah who?

Dem's party!

I've been slammed at work, but saw this during one of my brief 30 second breaks... I absolutely LOVE it!!!

McCain: Wealthy and Clueless

If I ran the world!

If I ran the world I'd make citizenship not a lottery based on where one was born but instead something everyone had to earn.  It'd work like this: the country you worked hardest to be a part of was the country you belonged to.  Then, people who walk for days across mountains and deserts, suffering extreme hardship and nearly dying along the way would earn a thousand times over the right to vote in their chosen country.  Literally, they'd earn say, a thousand votes. 

Winning the birthright lottery and getting yourself born in a particular country would earn just one vote. 

People already in their country of choice could earn more votes and higher citizenship levels by doing various things such as contributing in certain ways to one's community.  Helping others get citizenship points would earn the most votes of all.  You'd lose citizenship points/votes if you killed people who chose citizenship in other countries.

Citizenship.  It's not a right; it's a privilege!

I don't know about you but...

Two kinds of border patrol

This week's edition of Bob Edwards' Weekend on public radio (and XM) is a rebroadcast of a 2006 show about immigration.  The first part is an interview with a border patrol agent and I didn't catch this part when I heard the broadcast over the weekend (ergo my initial post praising the program).  He does a pretty good job of dehumanizing people.  No explanation of who they are, the circumstances that led them to risk their lives to cross the border into the U.S.  Nothing.  They talk like people crossing the border are a plague of bugs that must be processed and controlled.  It'll give you chills.

Then I guess to balance out the show he interviews two Samaritans (that's the name of the group) who patrol the trails leaving out water and other essential supplies for migrants.  One's a doctor.  The other is a photographer.  This is the part of the show that's worth a listen.  The stories they tell of the people they meet out there, the brutal conditions they have to go through...

And unlike the border patrol agent interviewed, the Samaritan was able to put a human face, not only on the migrants but on the opposition as well, in this case, the border patrol agents.  He said he has an appreciation for the agents as well, saying they're only enforcing laws they didn't make. and the laws they have to enforce determine the strategy they have to use.  He said he's met agents who agree with promigrant groups essentially saying, yeah "we're enforcing laws that are forcing people farther and farther out into the more dangerous places.."

He says he "knows from having spoken to a few of the [agents].... in the summer especially a lot of them consider their job as much rescue as arrest and they don't relish finding bodies out in the desert any more than the rest of us do.  They're human beings."

One of the Samaritans tells a story of a woman and her two sons who got lost in the desert.  She fell ill and the coyote left her.  She died and her father spent weeks looking for his daughter's body.  He found three other bodies before he found hers.  This, and no one can tell me we live in a civilized country.  Not with people dying like cattle in the desert.

crimey, it's amazing that anyone could be so cold-hearted to have anything but immense compassion for people forced to migrate in these conditions.

Cross posted at Citizen Orange

Wake up call.

Democrats, listen up.  This is serious.  If you have any shred of faith left in this country you'll shake yourselves out of complacency and get out there and win this election.  Michael Moore will tell you how:

"For years now, nearly every poll has shown that the American people are right in sync with the platform of the Democratic Party. They are pro-environment, pro-women's rights and pro-choice. They don't like war. They want the minimum wage raised, and they want a single-payer universal health-care system. The American public agrees with the Republican Party on only one major issue: They support the death penalty.

So how come the Dems keep losing elections?  Moore's got some good advice but I've heard another commentator (sorry forget who) provide a more pop-psychology-like answer.  He described it as a case of party-wide Stockholm syndrome: after years of being held hostage by Republicans the Dem's started identifying with their captors, mistaking the Republican/big business interests for their own. 

What they need is an injection of backbone.  They need confidence.  So read that quote from Moore up there again and commit it to memory because you know from personal experience it's all true.  People really are liberal.  It's okay to say it: Compassion is cool. Not acting like an asshole on the world stage, that's cool too.  Going back to being the aw-shucks down home good-guy Jimmy Stewart of the world instead of cold-gun-gripping-dead hand of Charlton Heston --that's about as cool as it gets.

Take the Georgia-Russia conflict for example.  Do you want someone who sees the world like this guy, who once said that he "looked into Putin's eyes [and] saw three letters a 'K' a 'G' and a 'B'," [insert eyeroll here] McCain's reaction to the Russia-Georgia crisis. 

Or like this guy (Obama's reaction):

Obama called on the international community to condemn Russia’s actions and to pursue an end to the conflict.

"There should also be a United Nations mediator to address this crisis, and the United States should fully support this effort. We should also convene other international forums to condemn this aggression,” he said.

Despite describing the conflict a “turning point” in the relationship between Russia and the West, Obama appealed for talks with the Putin government as well as “friendship with the Russian people.”

McCain's response is to fan the flames.  Way to go, man.  You think that's what leadership is?  C'mon now!  People have seen enough good movies to know that's not what heroes do.  Real heroes practice moderation and restraint.  To quote another Democrat (who should've followed his own advice more often) real heroes are grownups who resolve their conflicts with "words not weapons".

I don't know about you but I don't want someone who continues to pick fights with every country who happens to not agree with us.  I'm sick of it.  And I think the majority of the people in this country are sick of it too.  I want someone who can WORK with the global community not bully it into submission.  I want a grown-up in the White House.

Red and Black zupelic

Okay this recipe I made for dinner tonight was soooo good I am recording it here for posterity.  Caz calls it "Red and black zupelic".  It's really healthy and really simple.

Start with red rice.  1 cup rice to 1.5 cups water.  Toss some olive oil and salt in for good measure.

Saute the following, adding the ingredients to an iron skillet with olive oil in the following order:

garlic
red onion
red pepper (from farmer's market)  
green pepper (from farmer's market)
zucchini  (from farmer's market)

can organic black beans

salt and pepper to taste.

yum!

Escort

This morning on my way to work I passed a Planned Parenthood clinic being picketed by young religious zealots.  There were two clinic escorts in orange vests standing guard out there.  I gave the escorts a thumbs up sign and wished them luck but then later, after I arrived at the office, I thought you know, I should do more.  I should sign up to be a clinic escort!  So I went back down to talk to them about how to volunteer. 

I can't wait to start.  This is so good.  There's nothing like that feeling of accompanying someone else as they try to employ their right to do something.  Solidarity is the most exhilarating feeling in the world I think.  I think that's why I liked accompaniment so much in Colombia.  Even better than fighting for someone else's rights, is actively trying to stand back so they can fight for themselves.  It's the opposite of the do-gooder, save-the-world attitude.  That's so empowering!

I can't wait to be a clinic escort.  I'll take the brunt of the patronizing anti-women propaganda so that young women entering the clinic don't have to.  They have enough worries.  Dealing with religious hatred shouldn't be one of them.

Contagion

Wal-Mart: it's viral.

Life's easier on two wheels

I bought a new bike trailer today!  I haven't had one since I purged my old B.O.B. trailer before I went to Colombia a few years ago. I loved my B.O.B. trailer.  I had the one that looked like a cooler on wheels.  It's like having a trunk but it had two drawbacks. 

One is a design flaw that's common to a lot of trailers actually and really it's only a design flaw from a certain point of view.  It attached to the rear axle of the bike.  Axles are not designed to pull weight and I ended up breaking a few pulling heavy things.  It's okay if you don't plan on hauling a lot but I almost always push the limits on what I want to transport with my bike: 40lb bags of dog food; piles of compost, bricks.   So this time I wanted a trailer that attached to the frame.  The frame is stronger.

Also, you couldn't lock the lid down which was a definite drawback if you live in a big city and people tend to strip your bike of anything not locked down.  I could have relatively easily rigged it up to take a lock but never got around to it.

So my new trailer is every bit as good as my old B.O.B. trailer, which they seem to have stopped making (not all B.O.B. trailers, just the cooler-looking one) and it actually improves on the old one in these two important ways: It has an option of attaching to the frame instead of to the axle and it's lockable! oh and it also has 2 wheels to the B.O.B. trailers one which makes it more stable but less maneuverable. (I'm okay with that)

I rarely miss owning a car and I miss it even less when I have a bike trailer.  They just make life so much easier.   Hauling rock salt this winter? No problem!  Want a watermelon at the farmer's market?  No problem!  Take yer dog to the vet?  No problem!  You can do anything with a bike trailer!

Oh the best part? It's only $199.

The party of stupid.

Paul Krugman's column yesterday is pure gold.  The GOP has seemed really desperate lately.  I think they're grasping at straws.

So the G.O.P. has found its issue for the 2008 election. For the next three months the party plans to keep chanting: “Drill here! Drill now! Drill here! Drill now! Four legs good, two legs bad!” O.K., I added that last part.

<snip> know-nothingism — the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there’s something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise — has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy. The [GOP]’s de facto slogan has become: “Real men don’t think things through.”

A concise history of black-white race relations in the U.S. by Ampersand

Sorry it's been awhile.  I've been in a funk.  Just found this cartoon though by a blog friend, Ampersand (Barry), whose group blog (Alas, a Blog) is probably blogrolled down there in the list (and if not it should be). Click image to enlarge.