A bastard finally caught

and another
has a new cellmate!

Serbian President Boris Tadić confirmed during a news conference in Belgrade that Hague fugitive Ratko Mladić has been arrested.

It's been a long, long time...

and so much
has been happening!

a new bike

a new marriage

and
a whole new spring

Why be conservative?

why
not?

I don’t have much faith in my fellow man. In fact, my own conservatism has much to do with the fact that I reject the entire notion of human improvement altogether. Grandiose liberal efforts do not work, not because they are simply led by the wrong kind of men, but because they are led by men, period. “Progressivism” is a great idea. But most progressives can’t balance their checkbooks much less create nirvana. “Feminism” sounds swell. Too bad females are most cruel to other women. “Multiculturalism” is well intentioned. Yet it seems every time different cultures cohabitate it creates more friction than friendship.

I’m a mess too ... I’m awful with money, eat poorly, drink too much and don’t spend enough time with friends and family. But then again, most of those same friends and family are guilty of the same flaws and faults.

Jack Hunter
August 09, 2009

Bikers behaving badly?

Boston responds...

Vélomania

...what Dalí & Hitler
had in common

Rebecca Seal, over at the UK's Observer, highlights some of the fascinating ways bikes have played a key role in the culture and politics of over a dozen countries. Among some of the more amazing things I didn't know:

Salvador Dalí was a real freaky bike freak.

...had an Italian Bianchi cycle in his studio and said he would have liked "the whole of France" to cycle: "The Tour de France on bicycles produces in me such a persistent satisfaction that my saliva flows in imperceptible but stubborn streams."

Bike lanes had Hitler's blessings.

...Germany pioneered the creation of cycle paths in the 1930s - because the Nazi party wanted cyclists off the roads. By 1936 they had outlawed cycling groups.

Bike in Bolivia at your own peril.

The La Paz-to-Coroico route, dubbed "the world's most dangerous road" with a fatality every two weeks, can be cycled with a tour group called Gravity Bolivia. Descending 3,600 metres steeply from the peaks, the narrow track snakes along the side of the mountains, with a perilous drop to one side.

Driven to distraction

hands free hazard
Part II

Slate has more on the Feds' refusal to pursue research on the cellphone use of cagers. It goes one step further by exploring possible ways federal agencies have suggested to prevent driving and dialing. They range from the obvious - Stop the vehicle in a safe location that is off the road, well away from traffic, before they receive or place their calls - to the doubtful - Allow a passenger to receive or place calls. How many cagers actually have passengers? And if they do, isn't someone else yacking away next to you just as distracting?

Two other suggestions seem to be equally obtuse.

Mass transit. The most efficient way to let people yap while traveling is to pack them in a vehicle with a single designated driver. That's called public transportation. Transit agencies should take steps to facilitate passenger phone use, such as improving underground transmission. If noise is a problem, agencies can restrict phone use to texting. The important thing is to get phone users out of their cars.

As a frequent mass transit user, I can easily imagine how wonderful it would be surrounded by even more loud cellphone user.

Software. ...some automakers now include a lockout feature to keep drivers from performing complicated tasks—like entering destinations into a car's navigation system—while the vehicle is moving. Maybe phones could be similarly disabled by integrating them with car software.

Don't even get me going on the American obsession with tech fixes; especially when a rather obvious solution already exists. In fact, it's one that goes all the way back to the invention of the telephone. Answering a phone is completely voluntary.When it rings, pings, or plays your favorite iTune you are under no obligation to respond. Isn't that why voice-mail was introduced in the first place???

Hands free hazard

feds keeps cager
safety data secret

Today's NYTimes reports that the Federal government's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration not only refused a request to research the link between cellphone use and road accidents but chose not to publicize previous research and warnings ... back in 2003! Fortunately, the Center for Auto Safety and Public Citizen filed a successful Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for the agency's findings. And The NYTimes has published the documents here. Some of the more amazing, but not surprising, excerpts from the article include:

The highway safety researchers estimated that cellphone use by drivers caused around 955 fatalities and 240,000 accidents over all in 2002.

...hands-free headsets did not eliminate the serious accident risk. The reason: a cellphone conversation itself, not just holding the phone, takes drivers’ focus off the road, studies showed.

The research mirrors other studies about the dangers of multitasking behind the wheel. Research shows that motorists talking on a phone are four times as likely to crash as other drivers, and are as likely to cause an accident as someone with a .08 blood alcohol content.

“We’re looking at a problem that could be as bad as drunk driving, and the government has covered it up,” said Clarence Ditlow, director of the Center for Auto Safety.

What's going on in Iran?

in Iran?

CHICAGOANS TO RALLY IN SOLIDARITY WITH IRANIAN PROTESTERS EVENT SCHEDULED FOR SATURDAY JUNE 20, 2009, 4-6PM AT DALEY CENTER PLAZA

Supporters in Chicago have secured permission to stage a peaceful rally at Daley Plaza, where a crowd of approximately two-hundred is expected to gather. Rally participants will attempt to amplify the stifled voices of Iranian protesters who struggle to be heard amid a media clampdown in Iran.

The rally, which will take place on Saturday, June 20, 2009 from 4-6pm, is organized by a group of young Iranians who have become acutely aware of the power and value of their civil rights as U.S. citizens and residents. They understand that electoral fairness and freedom of assembly are precisely what the Iranian protesters are pursuing in the face of tear gas, police batons, and gunfire. Planned and carried out almost entirely through social networking sites, e-mail, and text messaging, the rally itself seeks to mirror the activities of Iranian protesters whose use of technology in furtherance of democratic ideals has captured the attention of the world.

More info here.

Happy Tax Day!

from
John Stewart

Tempest in a Tea Party

Put your money where your pedals are? Part II

Representation
without taxation?

Last Thursday I posted about Oregon House Bill 3008. Proposed by State Rep Wayne Krieger (R), it would require all bikers to register their trusty steeds and purchase $54 licenses every two years. Not surprisingly the bill has sparked a pretty heated debate within the vélotariat. Perhaps it's my advanced age, but I don't think the idea of a bike tax is all that outrageous.

Indeed, it's quite common around the world. Many countries currently require bike licenses. And they've been doing it since the late 19th Century. The Netherlands issued the bike license above for 1932-33. Although not as stylish as its art deco predecessor, Switzerland continues to issue an annual red-metal license tag like this 1986 example to the right. And here in The States, many cities such as Los Angeles and Stillwater, in MN, currently require licenses. It would appear then that in all these instances local governments and their rolling citizens alike generally share the opinion first expressed by Oliver Wendell Holmes that Taxes are the price we pay for civilization. So for me then there are three big issues:

Is a bike tax unfair?
Is it unduly burdensome to bikers?
Will the generated revenues be used wisely?

More thoughts
later...

Lex Luther bailout

with
John Hamm

from
Funny or Die

Rock Obama

too funny!

Put your money where your pedals are?

Oregon pols
propose bike tax,
part one

Embedded video from CNN Video

Wayne Krieger and three other colleagues in the Oregon House of Representatives are sponsoring House Bill 3008 to require all riders to register their bikes and purchase licenses. BikePortland covers the details paraphrased here:

The $54 licenses must be renewed every two years at the same price. Other fees include; $1 for transferring a license between bikes owned by the same person, $2 if you want a duplicate license, and $5 to transfer the license from one rider to another. Failure to register would carry a maximum $25 fine. Altering bike serial numbers or licenses would be Class D Traffic Violations with a maximum $90 fine. The resulting revenues will go into a Bicycle Transportation Improvement Fund that would then be used to fund bicycle related transportation improvement projects.

Needless to say, Portland's bikers aren't buying it. Their primary fear is that the license fee will discourage new bikers. Others feel that Oregon bikers already support the state's transportation system through their state and local taxes. They also point out that bike traffic doesn't even come close to grinding down the pavement the way cager traffic does. Still others have concluded that the bill is a not so subtle attempt to keep tabs on the presumably more politically confrontational vélotariat.

My thoughts
later...

Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot!!!

yet again...

Back in February the new voice of the Republican Party bloviated over a proposed Madison, WI ordinance that would impose a $100 penalty for cagers opening their car doors unsafely or interfering with traffic and $50 for leaving them open longer than necessary.

Frankly, if the door opens into a bicycle rider I won't care. I think they ought to be off the streets and on the sidewalk. Don't misunderstand here, you bike riders, do not misunderstand this, but I mean if you're going to get in the street, get over there, get over as far right in the lane as you can. You ought to see Saturday morning where I live. It looks like a swarm of mosquitoes. It causes you to take an alternate route. And so now poor bike riders, some old codger opens the car door, bam! The bike rider does a head flip over the door. I haven't seen that. Now they want to fine you for not only opening the door, you don't close it soon enough, you get a $50 fine in Madison, Wisconsin. (laughing)

Perhaps, Rush should get off the drugs and get on a bike? Then he just might join Jim Morrison!

Yes, he did.

Some men see things as they are and ask ...

"WTF's in it for me?"

Repeal Day!

the death of
a noble experiment

It was 4:32 pm, 75 years ago today. The Chicago Tribune announced that Utah was the 36th and final state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the US Constitution. At that moment, the 18th Amendment, passed 14 years earlier, was repealed. Originally known as the Volstead Act, it had prohibited the production, sales, and transport of intoxicating liquors within the US as well as their import to and export from foreign countries. And so once again is was legal to whet your whistle in public. The Windy City did not suffer all that much during its 14 years in the desert. Wily entrepreneurs, taking matters into their own hands, opened numerous establishments for those wishing to imbibe without undue notice from Chicago's Finest and the FBI.

View Larger Map

Amazingly, many of these establishments have survived to the present day. Some have changed names along with owners. Others have changed little except for the LCD TVs suspended over the bars.

Celebrity roll, Part II

Bill's
in the saddle

Back in March 08, I posted several pictures of celebs on bikes. I completely missed this one! Perhaps Bubba knows something about the future of our economic crisis that we don't? Actually,

[...] In the waning days of his presidency, Bill Clinton sat down with Vanity Fair to personally caption a selection of unpublished pictures taken by White House photographers. The diamond in the rough: this William Vasta shot of the commander in chief bicycling through the Old Executive Office Building during the taping of a video (later shown at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner) that satirized his idle hours as a lame duck. By William Vasta, 2000; Vanity Fair, December 2000; © William Vasta.

Pissed off in Kansas

or pissed on?

Former US Representative, Jim Slattery, is running for the US Senate against the Republican incumbent, Pat Roberts. State polls have him running far behind Roberts. So it isn't all that surprising that this new TV ad gets down and dirty by hosing Roberts's close associations with the oil industry.

Giving Europe a Soul?

Wim Wenders asks
"What is Europe?"

One of Germany's foremost filmmakers, Wenders delivered the following speech at A Soul for Europe, a conference held on 19 November 2006. Declaring that Europeans must believe in the power of their own imagery, he will return to Germany in the new year to make films on his country's post-Cold War realities.

"What is Europe?"
"How is Europe?"

One has the impression
that Europe is a wreck,
fucked,
"foutue",
if you think back to the constitution disaster,
reflect on Europe's actual political influence
or on the lack of enthusiasm shown by its citizens
for "the European Cause" in recent times.
"The Europeans" have had it up to here with Europe...

On the other hand,
Europe is heaven on earth,
the promised land,
as soon as you look at it from the outside.
Over the last couple of months,
I have seen Europe from Chicago and New York,
from Tokyo and Rio,
from Australia,
from the heart of Africa, the Congo,
and, just last week, from Moscow.
I am telling you:
In each case, Europe appeared in a different light,
but always as paradise,
as a dream of mankind,
as a stronghold of peace, prosperity and civilization.

Europe:
Now you see it,
now you don't.

Those who have lived for a long time in Europe
seem weary of it.
Those who are not there, who live somewhere else,
want to get here at any price and join us.

What is it then
that some HAVE,
yet no longer want,
and for which others YEARN so much?

I can just as well ask myself:
Why is it that I find Europe so "holy",
as soon as I see it from a distance,
and why does it appear so profane, humdrum, almost boring,
as soon as I am back?

When I was young,
I dreamed of a Europe without borders.
Now, I travel back and forth
without ever having to show my passport,
and I even get to use the same currency all over,
(even if it is pronounced differently everywhere),
but where has that big emotion gone?

Here in Berlin, I am German,
in the meantime with all my heart.
Yet, hardly do you set foot in America,
than you no longer say you are from Germany, France, Italy or wherever.
You come "from Europe," or you're about to return there.
For Americans, this epitomizes culture,
history, style, "savoir vivre."
It's the only thing they feel strangely inferior about.
Even rather permanently.

And even when viewed from Asia, let alone other parts of the world,
Europe appears to be a bastion of human history,
dignity, and, yes, this word again: culture.

Europe has a soul, indeed.
No need to invent or create one for our continent.
It's there in plain sight.
It is not to be found in its politics or in its economy.
It is first and foremost embedded in its culture.

I am kicking open doors.
Two years ago, the President of the European Commission
stood here in Berlin and stated the matter quite clearly.
I quote from the end of his speech:

"Europe is not only about markets, it is also about values and culture.
And allow me a personal remark:
in the hierarchy of values, the cultural ones range above the economic ones.
If the economy is a necessity for our lives,
culture is really what makes our life worth living."

I could quote other sections of his memorable speech,
in fact I'd like to read it in its entirety,
so much he took the words out of my mouth.

But, I'm afraid,
reality looks quite different:
to the outside world, and especially to its citizens,
Europe continues to present itself first of all as an economic power,
insisting on using political and financial arguments
over cultural ones at any give time.

Europe is not taking advantage of its emotional potential!

Who loves his (or her) country on account of its politics or its economy?
No one!

Just next door, 100 metres from here,
you'll find one of the "showrooms" of the European Community.
There's one like that in every other European capital.
And what's on display there?
Lots of maps, brochures, mostly economic information,
all sorts of statistics and stuff on the history of the European Union.
What a drag!
Who can possibly feel represented there?
Who are these places trying to reach,
or boring to death?

We live in the age of the image.
Today, no other realm of culture displays so much power
than that of the image.
Words, music, literature,
books, newspapers, rock'n roll, theatre...
nothing comes even close
to the authority of moving images, in cinema and television.

Why is it that today, not only in Europe,
but all over the world,
"going to the pictures"
is synonymous with
"seeing an American film"?!

Because the Americans realized long ago
what moves people most
and what gets them dreaming.
And they radically implemented that knowledge.
The whole "American Dream"
is really an invention of cinema,
and it is now being dreamed by the whole world.

I don't want to discredit this,
but merely ask the question,
"Who is dreaming the European Dream?"
Or better: How are we encouraged to dream it?

A concrete, current example just occurred to me:
In the next 2 months or so,
some 20, 30, or even 50 million Europeans
will watch one and the same film.
It started the other day:
every channel up and down,
every programme and news show,
- and I've been surfing TV stations throughout Europe -
reported at large on a film premiere in London.
As you have probably guessed already,
all the racket was about James Bond,
that knightly British gentleman,
who has been saving the world from disaster for the last forty years.
Do you recall that magnificent Scotsman, Sir Sean Connery,
who used to embody this European hero?
Or that most elegant, cultivated Irishman, Pierce Brosnan?

Now, over Christmas and through New Year's Eve probably,
millions of Europeans will all be watching, at the same time,
somebody who looks more like a thug,
and whose resemblance to Russian President Vladimir Putin
can scarcely be denied.
This new Bond is supposedly quite ruthless
and not too particular when it comes to applying violence.
What is the message here?
What is this American production trying to tell us?

All right, I might be exaggerating,
but the heart of the matter remains pretty much true:
our own myths don't belong to us anymore.
Nothing forms our contemporary imagination so intensely,
so specifically
and permanently
as cinema.
But we are no longer in control.
It doesn't belong to us anymore.
Our very own and precious invention has slipped away from us.

European cinema
- and it exists, in spite of everything! -
is produced in almost 50 European countries,
yet in European theatres our own European stories
no longer play a significant role.

Those images of European cinema,
could help a whole new generation of Europeans to recognize themselves,
they could define what Europe is all about
in emotional, powerful and lasting terms.
These films could convey European thinking to the world.
We could communicate our most valuable asset,
our CULTURE, in a contagious way,
could spread the word of the "Open Society,"
which was so urgently invoked here by George Soros, only yesterday,
our civilization of dialogue, peace, and humanity…
But we have let this weapon slip out of our hands.

I intentionally say WEAPON,
because images are the most powerful arms of this 21st century.

There will be no "European consciousness",
no emotions and no attachment felt towards our home continent,
in brief: no future European identity,
if we are unable to project, and to absorb,
our own myths,
our own history,
and our own ideas and emotions!

Spain, for example, has no stronger and more influential ambassador
to the world than Pedro Almodovar.
For Britain that would be Ken Loach,
Andrzej Wajda or Polanski for Poland.
Although he died some 13 years ago,
Federico Fellini continues to define the Italian soul…
And that is exactly what European cinema does -
it shapes and forms our consciousness of ourselves
and of each other!
It creates a European belief,
a European will,
that very European "soul" that we"re talking about here.

However, have a look around
at the place we actually give to our TREASURE,
what a poor role it actually plays in the cultural life of Europe.
Yes, look at how European politics
continue to dismally neglect
not only cinema, but culture in general.
Yet, this is the CEMENT,
the glue that bonds European EMOTIONS!

All these countries yearning for Europe,
including all the new and future member countries from Eastern Europe,
could on one hand have the opportunity to introduce themselves,
tell us about themselves,
win us over,
and on the other hand be welcomed and embraced
by the European CAUSE
and the European SOUL…
… if only
we would provide more support for our mutual ambassadors,
if only Europe could be brought to believe in the power of images.

Mind you, a grave error is being made here.
Europe prefers to use political and economical arguments,
over emotional ones!
Next door, in the showroom,
the most boring maps are hanging on the walls,
while in our most important embassies,
in cinemas and on TV,
the superpower of imagery, America, is pulling people under its spell,
including our European citizens, of course.

These young people
now suffering from a "European withdrawal"
will one day turn against European policy makers
with the harsh and bitter reproach:
Why did you allow
a whole generation to get bored of Europe?!
Why did you just babble on about politics,
instead of SHOWING us how much our magnificent home continent
could have meant to us!

Europe HAS a cultural history,
it HAS its own culture of life, of conflict, of dialogue,
yes, it HAS an amazing political culture.
George Soros calls it "The Open Society."
And because, as he explained, America had failed in recent times
to exemplify and demonstrate its moral and political values,
Europe represents an even more important MODEL for the world.

BUT:
This model is invalid and weak
if it has no confidence in the power of its own imagery!
No one, esteemed Mr. Soros,
will be swept away, enthused and inspired by the OPEN SOCIETY,
as long as it remains an ABSTRACT IDEA.
Such a vision has to be attached to feelings,
to places, to memories.

These "European emotions" are right in front of our eyes,
you can almost grasp them,
the citizens of Europe are certainly yearning for them…
but politics is widely ignoring them.
The field of images
is largely being left to others.

I hope that Europe is not too late in recognizing
which crucial battlefield is about to be abandoned
with little resistance.

Translation, John Bergeron

David Cameron...

joins the masses

The leader of the UK's Conservative Party had his bike stolen earlier today. Nearly 20,000 bikes are stolen in London every year.

I was cycling home and stopped to pick up some things for supper. I chained the bike through the wheel then put it around one of those bollard things. I have reported it using the police’s new online facility but I’m not expecting to get it back any time soon.

A Conservative spokesman remarked:

Obviously David is quite hacked off by the theft of his bike, especially having locked it up.