False advertisement

This post it totally about how the GOP is skewing facts to make it seem like Gov. Palin is anything but your standard self-righteous, manipulative conservative willing to crush anybody who thinks differently than her. That's all we need in Washington is more boneheaded stubborness. It continually amazes me how gullible and naive some Americans can be. What kind of idiot would vote for someone simply because of their sex without doing any research to figure out who they really were. Fortunately there are people out there who can voice thier opinions better than me so first I would ask that you Google Anne Kilkenny and hear from someone who's dealt with Palin first hand. The rest of this post is taken from a letter written by
Gloria Steinem: an author, feminist organizer and co-founder of the Women's Media Center.

"Here's the good news: Women have become so politically powerful that even the anti-feminist right wing -- the folks with a headlock on the Republican Party -- are trying to appease the gender gap with a first-ever female vice president. We owe this to women -- and to many men too -- who have picketed, gone on hunger strikes or confronted violence at the polls so women can vote. We owe it to Shirley Chisholm, who first took the "white-male-only" sign off the White House, and to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who hung in there through ridicule and misogyny to win 18 million votes.

But here is even better news: It won't work. This isn't the first time a boss has picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes everything most other women want and need. Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It's about making life more fair for women everywhere. It's not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It's about baking a new pie.

Selecting Sarah Palin, who was touted all summer by Rush Limbaugh, is no way to attract most women, including die-hard Clinton supporters. Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Clinton. Her down-home, divisive and deceptive speech did nothing to cosmeticize a Republican convention that has more than twice as many male delegates as female, a presidential candidate who is owned and operated by the right wing and a platform that opposes pretty much everything Clinton's candidacy stood for -- and that Barack Obama's still does. To vote in protest for McCain/Palin would be like saying,"Somebody stole my shoes, so I'll amputate my legs."

This is not to beat up on Palin. I defend her right to be wrong, even on issues that matter most to me. I regret that people say she can't do the job because she has children in need of care, especially if they wouldn't say the same about a father. I get no pleasure from imagining her in the spotlight on national and foreign policy issues about which she has zero background, with one month to learn to compete with Sen. Joe Biden's 37 years' experience.

Palin has been honest about what she doesn't know. When asked last month about the vice presidency, she said, "I still can't answer that question until someone answers for me: What is it exactly that the VP does every day?" When asked about Iraq, she said, "I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq."

She was elected governor largely because the incumbent was unpopular, and she's won over Alaskans mostly by using unprecedented oil wealth to give a $1,200 rebate to every resident. Now she is being praised by McCain's campaign as a tax cutter, despite the fact that Alaska has no state income or sales tax. Perhaps McCain has opposed affirmative action for so long that
he doesn't know it's about inviting more people to meet standards, not lowering them. Or perhaps McCain is following the Bush administration habit, as in the Justice Department, of putting a job candidate's views on "God, guns and gays" ahead of competence. The difference is that McCain is filling a job one 72-year-old heartbeat away from the presidency.

So let's be clear: The culprit is John McCain. He may have chosen Palin out of change-envy, or a belief that women can't tell the difference between form and content, but the main motive was to please right-wing ideologues; the same ones who nixed anyone who is now or ever has been a supporter of reproductive freedom. If that were not the case, McCain could have chosen a woman who knows what a vice president does and who has thought about Iraq; someone like Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison or Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine.. McCain could have taken a baby step away from right-wing patriarchs who determine his actions, right down to opposing the Violence Against Women Act.

Palin's value to those patriarchs is clear: She opposes just about every issue that women support by a majority or plurality. She believes that creationism should be taught in public schools but disbelieves global warming; she opposes gun control but supports government control of women's wombs; she opposes stem cell research but approves "abstinence-only" programs, which increase unwanted births, sexually transmitted diseases and abortions; she tried to use taxpayers' millions for a state program to shoot wolves from the air but didn't spend enough money to fix a state school system with the lowest high-school graduation rate in the nation; she runs with a candidate who opposes the Fair Pay Act but supports $500 million in subsidies for a natural gas pipeline across Alaska; she supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, though even McCain has opted for the lesser evil of offshore drilling. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger.

I don't doubt her sincerity. As a lifetime member of the National Rifle Assn., she doesn't just support killing animals from helicopters, she does it herself. She doesn't just talk about increasing the use of fossil fuels but puts a coal-burning power plant in her own small town. She doesn't just echo McCain's pledge to criminalize abortion by overturning Roe vs. Wade, she says that if one of her daughters were impregnated by rape or incest, she should bear the child. She not only opposes reproductive freedom as a human right but implies that it dictates abortion, without saying that it also protects the right to have a child.

So far, the major new McCain supporter that Palin has attracted is James Dobson of Focus on the Family. Of course, for Dobson, "women are merely waiting for their husbands to assume leadership," so he may be voting for Palin's husband.

Being a hope-a-holic, however, I can see two long-term bipartisan gains from this contest.

Republicans may learn they can't appeal to right-wing patriarchs and most women at the same time. A loss in November could cause the centrist majority of Republicans to take back their party, which was the first to support the Equal Rights Amendment and should be the last to want to invite government into the wombs of women.

And American women, who suffer more because of having two full-time jobs than from any other single injustice, finally have support on a national stage from male leaders who know that women can't be equal outside the home until men are equal in it. Barack Obama and Joe Biden are campaigning on their belief that men should be, can be and want to be at home for their
children.

This could be huge."

Snot is dead!

Yep, it was a sad day when I showed up in Minneapolis a couple weeks ago. I'd gone up for work, but came in a weekend early to hang out with Kamath and his fam. We were trying to figure out what to do and the evening news mentioned that Joe Kudla, aka. Thomas Snot had died. There's an obit. at their webpage. Too bad for us.
On Saturday we went to the Walker Art Center to check out some sculptures, play a little mini-golf and generally not appreciate any of the art that was on display. The sculptures and low impact, low carbon buildings were cool. We watched put together by Sundance films talking about 3 ways to limit what goes in a landfill: 1) At the landfill, sort out all the stuff that has any value and make it available to the public: appliances, clothes, wood, compost, etc. 2) use all the misprinted food wrappers, and old billboards and posters and make clothes and accessories out of them: purses, bags, hats, etc. 3) recycle old computers: refurbish ones that can be refurbished or pick out the parts with valuable metals in them so they can be recycled. Personally, 1 and 3 are right on, but accessories! It's a good idea, but if you're making a movie and you want to pick 3 ways to improve the world through recycling I'm not sure if buying a handbag should make the list.

That night we decided to head downtown and Abi joined us. We hit up a real good pizzeria then went to Gameworks to play video games and have a few drinks. The four of us played a racing game and while Kamath and I fought for first S-works passed us to win. Kamath and I played your standard shooter; at the end 153 kills for the Lamestar, 5 for Kamath! Guess scoring expert on the pistol range back in the day payed off. After this we decided to go check out Tropic Thunder. Long story short, I don't think I'll see a Ben Stiller movie ever again. It had it's moments, but the comedy is just too blatant for me. It's like listening to a kid tell the same knock-knock joke over and over. The Sailor has assured me it was good and that I was just not in the right mood. Really though, I'm tired of having to be in the right mood for a movie. Ah well, $10 down the drain.
The next morning Kamath convinced me to go to Bootcamp with him at his local gym. It's one of these circuit courses that's supposed to keep you're heart rate up. I usually don't eat breakfast before something like this, but Kamath said I'd need it. As I'm unable to turn down food, I gorged my self. Not a good idea before any workout, let alone a Bootcamp thing. I had to walk away twice during the class so as not to throw up. I was pretty happy I was coming from altitude; I think it was the only thing keeping me from passing out!
During the work week Jacko and I were hugely successful. We were out measuring the depth to water in different residential and municipal wells around the Minneapolis metropolitan area. General results were that water could be found anywhere from 15 to 150 ft and Czech food is extremely good and filling! One day I had a bratwurst hamburger on a pretzel bun, on another goulash and dumplings, crazy soups, great beer, it was too fun trying to find a place that wasn't amazing! I gained 10 lbs! We worked through Saturday. Sunday Kamath and S-works went to the Renaissance fair for a few hours before I took off to Sioux Falls, SD. I picked up a Puke & Snot dvd and caught the new show. A new guy was filling in for the season. I'm not sure what'll happen next year.
I'd been dreading Sioux Falls since leaving Denver. Nothing like your "friends" telling your boss that you suck behind your back and then having to spend a week with them pretending like you don't know. Made for a great birthday you can guess. I made it a point to try and talk to the Pirate, which conveniently proved a very viable excuse for not going out with everybody. I was comfortable enough by mid-week to at least have dinner with them. On the last night I went out to the pub with everybody and felt like I'd really missed out. Who'd a thought a great pub with great microbrew and great imports could be found in Sioux Falls! Monks House of Ale Repute: pretty friggin awesome! Google it.
That's the scoop. I'll be back for a while and should be more regular again. Oh, Bobbo and I just saw Babylon A.D. and it was really good all up till the last 20 min. It still felt worth the money though.

Colorado burning

The big news this week was that Green Mountain received a bolt of lightning Monday and the half of the mountain closest to me burned away. It was pretty cool to watch the smoke boiling away. The other big news was that some of the Nebraska folks are in town for a conference, which always means there's some good drinking to be done. I haven't found any group of folks in Denver that are near as cool as the folks I met in Lincoln, so much props! I also found a cool job opening for the US AID, which could be very fun and would put me all over the world! I'm so excited about it I've been doing the application at work, which means I'll be in the office this weekend. That's OK because I've been going hard the last few weekends and could use a break!



Here's the recap from last weekend. Friday a water main blew at work and we were told to go home. Sweet! So, I took Sarama to Chatfield for a big walk and some swimming. I think she's finally given up thinking she can walk on water.




After I got back the Sailor and I took off after work to go to Copper mountain for the bike tour I've been talking about forever. After picking up our race packets we frantically searched for a place to eat. We found an Italian place to carbo-load, but they wanted $18 a plate! After a few tries we found a place with the kitchen still open and I still ended up paying $18. Beggars can't be choosers. After a sleepless night we got up about 5am and were supposed to meet the rest of the Sailor's friends with we were riding. At the start line I finally realized that of all the Sailor's friends, I'm the only guy! I'm thinking to myself, "if these chicks are half as cool as the ones I've met already then I'm in for a good day!" At about 6:30 we were on the road and starting up the first pass. It was crazy! Thousands of riders huffing and puffing up this thing with all kinds of wild bikes! The first aid station was at the top and it was like a huge party with everybody milling about eating and drinking as many fruits, cookies, and muffins as they could. After this we rode down to Leadville on which I got up to 50 mph according to the GPS. There was some road construction after town and we all got a little dirt on our tires. It wasn't near as bad as I thought it would be and I didn't flat so I was pretty happy. At the top of my next pass I had my rear brake looked at because it had started making a horrible squeak whenever I tried to slow down. The mechanics couldn't figure it out so I just barreled down to Vail. Somepoint at the top of this pass I must've hit the Stop button on the GPS so I don't have a speed for the descent, but I was going as fast or faster! In Vail we had a nice big break at that aid station. I think I ate an entire bag of Chips a'hoy and Oreos. Then there was Vail pass. At one point the grade got really steep and lots of people were walking. When I got out of the saddle to attack the guy in front of me swerved over and I had to hammer the brake to avoid collision. Then my rear tire wouldn't move! I barely unclipped before falling over and then tried to figure out what had happened. I couldn't figure it out and in the end just unhooked the rear cable and finished the ascent without a rear brake. With the adrenaline of the near crash I was able to really motor up the final climb. At the top of the pass I hit the aid station mechanic tent and had them sort out the problem. I figured I was way too spent at this point to be messing with my breaks before the most dangerous downhill (apparently they were already cleaning up the mess of a wreck down the trail!) Turns out when I hit the brakes I knocked the rear wheel out of alignment! I'm not sure how one could do such a thing, but somehow I managed it. Well we finished the ride had a big meal, looked at some pictures, then took off back to Denver.



On Sunday Bobbo and I hit up the Renaissance festival. We got there by catching a ride with one of Bobbo's friends. Sometimes I'm amazed at who is allowed to have a driver's license, or even how some people have stayed alive so long driving the way they do. Even at 80 mph I don't think we were more than 10 ft behind the car in front of us! Usually I'm okay with this kind of stuff, but gradually depressing either the brake or the gas pedals was an unknown concept. Wham! I'm thrown forward with the brake pedal on the floor! Wham! I'm thrown backward as the gas pedal seeks the pavement! You only got 160,00 miles out of your old Accord? Drive like this and I don't wonder why. OH! to top it off she was sending text messages the entire time! Yeah, I don't need to hang out with her ever again. Anybody who cares that little about the other people in the world is not worth my time.



Okay, now that that's out of me: the festival. As you'd expect all the crazies from crazy town come out to these things. Easily the best people watching I've found. Between Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean there's tons of different folks at this thing. Last year we missed the Joust so figuring out those show times were the first priority. Luckily there was one starting right away so we grabbed a pint, a patch of grass, and settled in for the spectacle. The debacle? Be happy the video is grainy because it looks more realistic:

After this we made our way up to the Puke and Snot stage. These guys are friggin hilarious! Definitely the most intelligent, witty act I've ever seen. Because of the election year they went really after it. It would not have been good to be a Republican in that crowd! Once again they brought me tears and stomach cramps! Ahh, they're too funny. I got to see them once when I was like 8 years old and remember really laughing although I'm sure I understood only half the jokes.

By the time we got home I was spent. Monday was a tough one.

Oddly shaped sunburns

We've all done it. Trying to put sunscreen on and there's those spots on your back you just can't reach. Yesterday, I thought I'd go for a 3.5 hour bike ride in a running singlet. Yeah, my shoulder blades are as pasty as they could be, but between there and my spine I'm thinking there'll be blisters. The ride was good though, the last big ride before the Copper Triangle this coming weekend. Yesterday I did 52 miles and about 4000 ft of elevation gain. I smoked the first half, but the last 10 miles was pretty much straight up 1000 ft. I'm very happy I've got the triple for next week. I think I'll be fine for race day. It's weird calling it 'race day' since there's no official start and I don't think there's official timing. It's more like a fun ride, I'll start calling it that. Anyway, I'll take big breaks in Leadville and Vail and should be fine.

Saw Batman last night and it totally lived up to the billing. Ol Bobbo said he like Ironman better, but it was no comparison for me. I like my stuff frivolously dark and serious and this was right on.

Yesterday I also did some Dragon Boating. The one race I did was fun, but the old style Good Ol'boy club was in full effect and as a newbie I was told to ride the pine. I've got better things to do with my time than watch a bunch of old, out of shape, has beens not even be able to go hard the whole 90 seconds of a race. Their logic was I didn't have enough boat time, but in the race I was in we were totally out of sync and still posted the fastest time of the day. Just goes to show that only at a very high level does technique ever really matter. I ditched and did the bike ride instead, what a great trade!

The week before I was in Minnesota doing some ground water sampling with Jacko. It was pretty fun if a little hectic. Things started off shitty the first night. I got to the hotel to learn my wireless wasn't working on the laptop. This was pretty crucial as I needed to send some data to guy back at the office for a presentation Friday. I took it in to the MN office and the IT guy didn't get a chance to look at it Monday. Tuesday I got it fixed and when the IT guy came to make sure I didn't really screw something up he told me that my hard drive was dying and I should back up before it really crashed. Conveniently all my external hard-drives were back in Denver, so basically I couldn't use my machine all week. Dude only got half the data and I got pretty far behind on some other stuff. I guess this week will be busy. On the plus side I got to hang out with Kamath a few nights while I was there. I first saw him at this restaurant called Good Earth, which was the best food I've had in a long, long time. His wife, son and brother all came and we had a great time. I went over to his place the next two nights and we just caught up and had fun.

The weekend before that the Sailor, the Damn Yankee, and I rode up Mt. Evans from Evergreen. Everyone did pretty well the first half, but then we started to break apart. It was about 36 miles round trip with about 3500 ft of climbing up to about 11,500 ft. The Sailor did awesome and really pushed hard. After the ride we went to the Colorado Music Festival for some music and volunteer work for Zero Hero. We caught Citizen Cope (put me to sleep), Adam Bird (dude can work a fiddle), JJ Grey and the Mofro (don't remember at all), Spoon (the best so far), and Tom Petty. Tom's show was as good as you'd expect, but he brought out Steve Winwood who'd played earlier that day! If I had wanted to see Steve Winwood I would've went and saw Steve Winwood! WTF! It was a good time.

long-short weekend

these things have kind of devolved into weekend updates. Yeah, it's pretty sad I know, but the monotony of the week is...well... monotonous to talk about. This last weekend the sailor and I figured out a good way to get around Chatfield and put in a casual 50 miles. Sunday we did Lookout mountain which is about 1500 ft elevation gain over our 7.5 miles. For the Copper triangle we'll have to do about 4 of these, although the first two are have a much lower average grade. Vail Pass though equates to two of these. Lookout was easy with a double chain ring. I'm starting to think maybe investing in the triple chain ring may not've been needed. Ah well, it'll now be a true touring bike. Have to start looking for a new roadie!!

The long weekend

The weekend started out Friday with Bobbo, his brother Ripped, a bunch of Ripped's friends and two 14ers, Grays and Torres. The plan was to bag Grays, cross a saddle, and do Torres. Ripped and two of his friends decided to do a more challenging route up Torres first. I would've like to've gone, but it was Sarama's first 14er and I think it would've been too much for her. Bobbo and the ladies decided to take my way, but Sarama and I ended up by ourselves quickly. I was at the summit pretty fast, but had to hang out on top a bit cuz of some pretty bad nausea. This has happened the last few times I've been up high and it's definitely a result of the activity and the food I've eaten or not eaten rather than anything related to altitude. After about a half-hour on top waiting for my stomach to settle down I decided that I'd walk down to the bottom of the saddle between the mountains. Luckily my stomach stopped bothering me by the bottom and I was able to ascend Torres without trouble. Whaddya know as soon as I top out there's Ripped and the fellas just putting their packs down (this is where the video is from. Just a little crowded up there). We got some pics, ate a snack, and then headed down. As you can tell from the pics Sarama had no troubles.
After we got back to town we had a quick nap and the Sailor came to meet us for fireworks. We hiked up Green Mountain and watched things blow up all over the horizon. In my opinion it's the best way to see fireworks on a holiday. The next day the Sailor and I got up early and knocked out a 45 mile bike ride to get ready for the Copper triangle. It was nice and casual and although we were both tired by the end there was still a little gas left in the tank. I think if we keep going at it we should be set by the first weekend of August.
Hobstar came into town that evening and after not eating all day dude inhaled two monstrous burritos. and still had room for more! After this we hit up Applejacks and found some of the Alaskan Smokehouse Porter! A day finished with a pint of that stuff is a good one indeed. The next morning I sent Hobza off and then finally rested. I was pretty beat up from the previous two days, but that's what weekends are for!
I'll try and get out on the rock this week. The finger is feeling better than it has in a long time so I'm pretty amped.

foot in the stirrup

Yep, not quite back in the saddle yet. I finally got on the rock again today with Boysenberry and his son, T-rex. Didn't tell Eight about it because I didn't want to say the finger was ready and then have it blow up again. So, I figured today'd be an easy day out; Boysenberry hadn't climbed in 20 years and his son, only since this winter. They said that they were both climbing 10's in the gym, but I still wasn't going to let someone I didn't know belay me on lead if I didn't know the real deal. I set up a little TR on an 8 (top pic) just to see where everybody was. Lucky for me nobody was boasting. We each flew up and then T-rex wanted a shot on a 5.7 lead that continued from our anchor. He'd led before, but never set an anchor. I walked him through it and then had him take apart the anchor we were using and he had no troubles setting his anchor. Anchoring to bolts is never hard, but your first anchor is always a fun one; you double, triple, quadrouple check everything as you set it and then do it all over again before coming down and even still look up at it hoping and praying you did everything right. Boysenberry cleaned from the bottom; so the 8 then the 7. I decided to take a more direct line under the 7. It's my favorite kind of climb; a frictioning 10b (the bolt line starting at the center of the top pic) and I made it up without a hitch, although the finger was starting to ache. As I finished and cleaned the anchor T-rex picked the next route; an 8+ with a nice crack through an overhang. He wanted the lead so we geared him up and he got on... for 2 bolts to the crux at the overhang. He almost got it, but just couldn't quite clip the bolt above the lip. This is where the kid showed true smarts; admitted he wasn't doing it that day and said he'd save it for another. He came down, we swapped gear and I rallied up to the anchor. A great first day back for me not having climbed at all in 3 months. Course I'm paying for it now; it's only been a couple hours and the finger has swelled up again. Ah well, the hand therapist wanted a story for tomorrow anyway.