not religious enough

That seems to be the problem. No one meets anyone else's expectations. For the conservative part of the Republican Party, you are not sufficiently pious enough if you are pro-choice. Even Sam Brownback, who's about as conservative as it gets, was recently taken to task for voting to approve Katherine Sebilius as the new Health and Human Services. It's not enough that Brownback is from the same state as Sebilius and as a likely gubernatorial candidate in 2010, he just might need the votes of a few moderates to get elected. No. According to the far right rodeo clowns, because Sebilius was pro-choice and Brownback voted for her, he must have sold out his principles. The 'yur either 'wid me or 'agin me approach to the world. I've never been a fan of Brownback, but I don't see how it is possible to be pro-life for fetuses and pro-death for everyone else out of the womb. Abortion? NO! Death penalty? OK! Torture? OK! Saturation bombing? You bet. Napalm? Sometimes. If you're a Republican.

On the other hand. The Democrats often show similar wishy-washy religious views. When Bush was in office, his brand of religion was labelled as scary by the left. (I'm not saying it wasn't) but Bill Clinton's brand of religion was upheld as being well "full of grace". Until that we found out he wasted and then he was just a hypocrite like the rest of us.

Same for Barack Obama. He's either a pious compassionate Christian or a devout Muslin depending upon your point of view. People love big hats. But what they love even more are Big Hats in Church. That is until they don't. Or until the Rev. Jeremiah Wright is unearthed God-damming America in front of - God forbid! BLACK PEOPLE IN BIG HATS WHO VOTE-and then everyone was down on the big hats AND the Sunday-go-to-meeting brand of churcy black folk that suggests that some forms of social injustice should not be tolerated in the present day America-Land of the Free, Home of the Brave. That must mean they're a Muslim or they like big hats.

All said though, you do not have permission to shoot people--no matter your religion! Hats you can wear.


Note: I wrote most of this post over a month ago and then set it aside for other interests. It seemed appropos to revisit it again, especially in light of Sunday's shooting of one man in church by another man who felt the first man wasn't churchy enough. Now before you go saying, "hey wait a minute, that fellow was crazy!, you should realize that both sides have been using this same rhetoric to describe the other.

take my backyard. PLEASE!

My friend Evan, who lives in DC and is hipper than most of us, turned me on to this group, Sharing Backyards, that helps link urban dwellers with too much backyard to those that don't have enough. They encourage the use of organic gardening practices. Sounds like a way I might be able to stay on top of the section of my gardening that seems to be slowly turning into a seed bank--for weeds.

Right now the program is largely in Cananda but the program has begun to expand into the US including Washington, DC, Portland, OR, and Boise, ID.

both sides now

We're guessing that the shooting of Dr. George Tiller will do little to bring activists, many polarized by 30 plus years of intolerance, to the table in order to respectively dialogue on abortion issues - but you never know. The alleged shooter, a wacko, felon from Merriam, Kansas fits the profile of an anti-abortion zealot with end-of-the-world leanings. You know the type, believing that if they shoot someone then the world's salvation will arise; funny how infrequently they think to shoot themselves first. Oh, if only that were part of the indoctrination! How easy life would be.

Republican rodeo clowns, right after they say prayers for the families and shed a few fake tears, will likely use any reaction by the left to drive a wedge through the easily fractured Democrats. Obama should quickly address the nation about the need to have conversations designed to bring solutions to the table rather than loaded weapons.

tainted sno-cones linked to wichita abortion shooting?

WICHITA, Kan.
Just hours before the fatal shooting of Dr. George Tiller, officials at the Sedwick County Zoo in Witchita, Kansas reported that four people had became ill after eating tainted snocones.

How could this have happened? The bottle of flavored syrup used to make the snocones looked exactly like a bottle of chemical degreaser. At most zoos this would not have led to problems. However, until the incident occurred, the Sedwick County zoo maintained a policy of storing flavored syrups and toxic chemicals on the same shelf. Officials issued an apology to any one that may have been harmed by the process.

livestrong (and astana) wait for another day

Centenary Maglia Rosa goes to the Russian rider.

Six months ago Asatana was considered the best cycling team in the world. Led by the best rider in the world, Alberto Contador, and backed by a cadre of tested domestiques that included Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer, Yaroslav Popovych, Andreas Klöden, and Chris Horner. Astana looked poised to potentially take the centenary Giro. Once Contador decided to sit out the Giro to give himself a better chance to win his second Tour, Astana was forced to look to Leipheimer to carry the burden as team leader and Lance, among others, to work on his behalf.

Lance, for his part, seems to have upheld his part of the bargain and his training regime appears to be well on track to peak in July. Leiphemer, who was hyped as a potential winner of the Giro, proved that for as much improvement as he's shown in the last few years, he isn't likely to win any of the Grand Tours.

As Astana regroups and tries to figure out the financial future of the team, it's likely that the lineup for Le Tour will feature Contador as the team leader and Armstrong as his sidekick. It remains to be seen if they can work together for 3 weeks. But if they do work together on the tough mountain stages, it could be difficult for the competition; Armstrong might find himself on the podium in Paris-not the top rung but a rung none-the-less.


This year's tour seems custom made for Astana. It opens with a short time trial and three days later there's a team time trial. Near the end of the race, nested between several mountain stages, there is a 40-km time trail. On the Saturday before the finish, which frequently has been a flat stage that allows only for little drama except a bunched field sprint at the finish, the race organizer have throw the formidable Mount Ventou, in their way. Contador and Leipheimer could potentially vie for time trial stage wins but that part of Armstrong's game appears the weakest at the moment.

sports metaphors needed: price? $2,500

Former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush both received $150,000 apiece to have a "conversation" in Toronto yesterday. The lowest priced of the 6,000 available tickets was $250. VIP tickets ran $625 and for $2500 you could sit front row and get your picture taken with both presidents. If $2500 seems like a lot of money to you (it does to me) just to put it in perspective, a center-court ticket to the NBA finals at the Staple Center in LA will set you back a similar amount. An infield box seat for this year's MLB AllStar game in St. Louis is also going to cost you about $2,500. The NBA finals and All-Star game are likely to be more entertaining than Bush/Clinton acting nice and holding hands under the table.

Note to entrepreneurs: selling 5,000 of the "conversation" tickets at the lowest value ($250) would gross 1.25 million. This doesn't account for any VIP tickets or concession sales. So, after paying off the two shills, you'll have pocketed nearly a million dollars.

Photo: Prince Albert launches one @ Busch Stadium, the site of this years MLB AllStar Game.

flance meets lance in the tour of missouri?

Organizers for the Tour of Missouri announced today that Floyd Landis will bring his team OUCH Presented by MAXXIS (that's really the name) and race this fall in the 3rd annual Tour of Missouri. If the Astanan/Livestrong? team is still around by them (and they are signed up to race the TOM perhaps we could see a showdown of comeback proportions between the two.

Putt-Putt enters the sustainability dialogue

Perhaps you missed your callling as a Pro Putt-Putt player. So perhaps did I. Regardless, let the fun begin.

"visitors will also be able to experience putt putt as a means for embodying and moving through art and ideas. Each hole will be designed by a different group of artists or architects around themes of urban sustainability."--from the wesite of The PuttingLot, Brooklyn, NY

Photo: Sven Teschke, Eternite style putt-putt course, Germany, Creative Commons Liscense

spring rise on the mo river

The much talked about and frequently overstated U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) sponsored spring rise on the Missouri River arrived this week in Missouri. The rise is represented by the small bubble that peaked on the 24th at Leavenworth and the 25th at Kansas City. Preceding the USACE event is a much larger spring rise sponsored by the wacky, irreverent environmental group known as Mother Nature. That group, using an untested method that some refer to as a "rain dance", also plans a small rise for this week that will likely mask any remains of the USACE pulse in downstream river reaches.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon unsuccessfully sued to have the rise stopped. And current Missouri Attorney General Chuck Koster, who wants to be Missouri's next U.S. Senator, called the spring rise a "man-made flood" and warned that, "we're risking the lives and livelihoods of Missourians" with this event. Their overreaction is likely due to a sincere desire to cultivate friends, allies, and large political contributions from Farm Bureau members but Koster was probably right about one thing when he said that "the benefit may be non-existent."

Just to be on the safe side, residents still are urged to seek higher ground.

star trek in search of salvation from the terminators

I knew it. I knew it was coming. But this is not the future my mother warned me about. And in this future, I don't know if we can win this war.--John Connor, Terminator Salvation.

Thank goodness the world is actually quite different than the one depicted in the summer blockbuster.
------------
Exerts from Paul Hawken's Commencement Address, University of Portland, May 3rd, 2009

When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. The poet Adrienne Rich wrote, "So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world." There could be no better description. Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refuge camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums.

....

There is a rabbinical teaching that says if the world is ending and the Messiah arrives, first plant a tree, and then see if the story is true. Inspiration is not garnered from the litanies of what may befall us; it resides in humanity’s willingness to restore, redress, reform, rebuild, recover, reimagine, and reconsider. "One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice," is Mary Oliver’s description of moving away from the profane toward a deep sense of connectedness to the living world.

...

Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would become religious overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead the stars come out every night, and we watch television.

This extraordinary time when we are globally aware of each other and the multiple dangers that threaten civilization has never happened, not in a thousand years, not in ten thousand years. Each of us is as complex and beautiful as all the stars in the universe. We have done great things and we have gone way off course in terms of honoring creation. You are graduating to the most amazing, challenging, stupefying challenge ever bequested to any generation. The generations before you failed. They didn’t stay up all night. They got distracted and lost sight of the fact that life is a miracle every moment of your existence. Nature beckons you to be on her side. You couldn’t ask for a better boss. The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic, not the dreamer. Hopefulness only makes sense when it doesn’t make sense to be hopeful. This is your century. Take it and run as if your life depends on it.

long live kazahastan

Cycling has changed considerably over the last decade as money from corporate sponsorship has increased dramatically. Kazakhstan, before they stopped paying the bills, was shelling out in the neighborhood of 15 million US dollars per year to underwrite the Astana team. Now Astana riders sport faded jerseys sans the Astana logo and yellow bracelets that symbolize their hope for a payday. Luckily the country is still independent.


Cycling has long been a sport where one goal was for riders to get the sponsors name out in front of the peleton. For lesser riders, meaning those who aren't likely to contend for the General Classification in stage races, a long breakaway means a chance to get the sponsors name mentioned numerous times during the race coverage.

Stage victories are even more prized because the rider, wearing the sponsors jersey, stand each day at the podium to receive the blessings of the crowd and cheeky kisses from young women. In the last few years, teams have been padding their rosters with sprinters whose only job is to try and capture stage wins. Mark Cavendish, the little guy with a big Isle of Man attitude, is probably the best at winning the bunched field sprint. His team, Columbia High Road, doesn't have a rider in the race for the General Classification, so they are content to bag stage wins. Before he withdrew from this year's Giro, Cavendish stood on the top of the podium after 3 stage wins. He also won three in last year's Tour de France. In total, Cavendish has won 37 stages in the past 2 years, but no Grand Tours. He rarely loses in a mass sprint, in part because he's so damn fast, but also because his teammates work very hard to set him up for the win.

Once opportunities for sprint finishes disappear from the Grand Tours (they usually account for about one-third of the stages), he frequently withdraws from the race. He did this in last years Le Tour and he did the same thing in this years Giro. I understand why he does it, to save himself from the grueling aspect of the mountain stages. These withdrawals, some argue, lessen the stage wins--that Cavendish really belongs on the track from whence he came. Under this approach the prima donna rules the peleton and dictates the race strategy; if you know you're not racing for the full three weeks, then you can blast away on the flat stages and go for broke at the end. It's not likely to change as long as the price tag to keep a team up and running is so steep. And, like any sport cycling benefits from repeat winners who love to talk smack about their competitors to the press.

just say no to the devil

Finally a Republican with enough spine to stand up the Dick. Perhaps this is Colin Powell's way of making amends to the country after lying for them and being exposed for a dupe. If more folks threw water on Cheney's white phosphorus skin, he'd quickly melt into a puddle of clothes.

eurosport to lance armstrong: tweet off

The European press has renewed their love-hate relationship with Lance Armstrong. Lance, as the alleged instigator of the protest last week during Stage 9 of the Giro D'Italia, was branded a troublemaker by some members of the press. Lance claims he wasn't the instigator of the boycott and only asked by others to speak on the behalf of the peleton which was concerned about rider's safey. The slow-down by the cyclists was brought to a head after a particularly gnarly crash the day before when Spanaird Pedro Horillo Munoz lost control on downhill, hairpin turn and plunged 60 meters over the mountain guardrail and into ravine. He was airlifted to a hospital after being rescued by a team of climbers. His injuries were substantial and serious. Professionally cycling, especially in the Grand Tours is a very tough and dangerous sport. Downhill speeds on some of the mountain stages in this year's Giro have neared 70 mph. Imagine what traveling 70 mph on a 15 pound bike would feel like. The slightest road imperfection could take you down. It would be like going down on a motorcycle-on the interstate.

The issue in stage 9 that brought the race to a crawl supposedly had more to do with automobile traffic and parked cares being too close to the race course although the frequency and severity of crashes in this year's race likely was a factor as well. Unfortunately, the riders picked Milano, which loves the cycling like few other towns in which to make their concerns known. Not everyone was happy with the action, including some riders. Lance apologized to fans the next day for the protest but then stated he was done talking to the press since they got the story wrong. This is problem for Eurosport which has put together a daily segment called "Planet Armstrong" to recount the Italian adventures of the most famous one-nut cyclist in the world.

Now, in return, the Europress has vowed to stop reading Lance's twitter posts because he won't talk to them.

This is what they're missing:
Getting a massage. Great Lake Swimmers on the ipod.
about 6 hours ago from TwitterBerry

St 14 done. Hot, hilly, and fast. And this insanely steep finish in Bologna. Break went early and stayed away.
about 7 hours ago from TwitterBerry

which is you'll have to agree isn't really very much. It's hard to write stories around Twitter posts. Now I goint to stop trying!

this is the way we've always done it

Sadly, the tradition of racism lives on.

the black and white prom

One question that immediately comes to mind is which one do you attend if you're brown?

Maybe they could invite the President to the commencement ceremonies and then all the white students could sit on one side of the room and all the black students could sit on the other side of the room. The President could be in half-face, one side white, the other black so that he could rotate back and forth, revealing his black side to the white students and his white side to the black students. Or vice-versa if they want to just keep doing things the way they've always been done. Funny thing about the picture though; it's hard to tell which side of the face you're viewing.

Oh yeah. Right. It's the Presidential side.

still the dick

Being the first vice president who had also served as secretary of defense, naturally my duties tended toward national security. I focused on those challenges day to day, mostly free from the usual political distractions. I had the advantage of being a vice president content with the responsibilities I had, and going about my work with no higher ambition. Today, I’m an even freer man. Your kind invitation brings me here as a private citizen – a career in politics behind me, no elections to win or lose, and no favor to seek.--Former Vice-President Dick the Dick Cheney speaking to the American Enterprise Institute, May 21, 2009

Sometimes it's hard to imagine a bigger Dick than Cheney. If this man is so free, so unfettered from political ambition, then why is he worried about his public image so much. If he has no favor to seek, then why is he making the talk show rounds to try and convince the world he shouldn't be tried for war crimes?

Poor W, didn't have the intellect to run the country and still doesn't have the brains to defend himself and his policies. The fact that Cheney is the one doing all the ranting and raving tells you what you already knew-Cheney was Gepetto and George his wooden creation.

Aside from that, Americans would be advised to ignore the Devil in Vice-Presidential clothing. Let's focus instead on health-care reform, education for our children, and environmental stewardship; let's leave the devil to Daniel Webster.

the fox network's gay american idolatry

This picture pretty much sums up the Fox Network's obsession with gay American Idolatry and more evidence that the Fox network is really comprised of self-hating homophobes.

Regardless, it looks as though Jack Bauer will live for another 24 hours.

the difference a president makes

The country made a huge leap forward today, one that the Bush Administration had worked valiantly for years to impede, and one this President hurdled in less than 4 months. The improvement?--greatly improving the mileage requirements of vehicles sold in America. American automakers, who after watching their companies fail, may finally be getting it, will have to improve the average mileage of all vehicles to 35.5 mpg by 2016. That's up almost 10 mpg from today and represents a significant improvement in energy policy. Automakers will complain that they can't make money on these small cars but the last time I looked, they weren't making money on big ones either. Time to rethink the business strategy and we now have the leverage to make it happen.

Now the next step. The largest US consumer of petroleum products is the military. They consume about 21 billion gallons per day (CIA, 2005). We are making wars so that the military can fuel its vehicles in order to fight those wars. Time to stop. How about an all electric assault vehicle? Leave it to the Swiss! I'm not sure it makes sense but how much of the military does?

You can read a lot more about issues related to US military consumption of oil at the Energy Bulletin. Some interesting facts. No one seems to know exactly how oil the military consumes primarily because the actual numbers go unreported. (Only Cheney knows for sure). Also, vehicle fuel accounts for about 3/4's of the military's consumption yet most energy reduction programs brought forth by the Department of Defense are targeted at buildings.

I guess some day we'll learn or we'll start a war trying.

duped again by the forces of evil

Note to Dems: Just Say No to Torture.

While most of us are hoping to move beyond the first 100 days and want to look to this administration to lead us into an era of significant, meaningful change that works on problems such as clean water, livable cities, health-care reform, and PEACE the Democratically controlled Congress continues to wade knee deep in the Potomac muck. Aided and abetted by an unholy trinity of Dick and Karl (history will prove they are the same person), Sean, and Rush, the Dems continue to fall for the sucker punch of negativity known as--the conservative pundit.

When will the Dems learn they are being played by the Repubs? Look closely behind the curtain and you'll see the FatBoys with the Little Things smirking with the realization that they've duped the country again into arguing about conservative issues so that progressive changes won't be addressed. We spend an inordinate amount of time and energy debating issues that won't be solved by sparring matches of the empty body politic that are televised on FOX and CNN and endlessly replayed on MSNBC and drive-time radio.

The only way to really answer the torture question is to have a war-crimes trial and neither party wants this since they are both culpable. As long as the country is mired in these who-knew-what-when debates we can't move forward with more compelling issues such as why do we continue to spend the bulk of our tax dollars on the military while our country's health care system, jobs, and infrastructure goes to hell-in-a-handbasket?

Get a grip folks. Let's solve the problems that to keep our neighborhoods livable. Cheney doesn't have much time left; he's a mope and a dope. Forget him.

Remember. It's the ECONOMY stupid!

summer program threatens to replace teenagers with pesticides

Warrior Ant Press has obtained information from a Crop Life Ambassdor that exposes an evil plan whereby some members of Congress hope to replace twittering teenagers with pesticides. However, First Lady Michelle Obama has been working quietly behind the scenes on a summer program that may save a few teenagers from 'replacement'. The program has been labeled elistist by some but other critics have gone even further, calling the program, which hires troubled youth to pull weeds from the organic White House kitchen garden, a new form of slavery.

sir. lance-a-lot

Eurosport is reporting that some riders in the centenary Giro D'Italia are tiring of the obsessive media focus on Lance Armstrong. Even the venerable New York Times, which has a history of covering cycling like television covers hockey, is posting daily updates about Giro stages. In the pre-Lance-rides-the-Giro world, the Giro (pro-cycling 2nd biggest event behind Le Tour) rarely rated a mention in the Times.

Michele Scarponi, Giro D'Italia Stage 6 winner, illustrates the extent by which the media is overplaying the lance-a-lot card.(Reuters)

sir. lance-a-lot rides the Giro