Parachute Jump, Coney Island, Brooklyn, USA 10.03.10
From this morning’s cold & windy NYC waterfront/barrier island ride.
03.10.10
Brooklyn Chocolate Egg Cream
Sans egg. Sans cream.
17.10.10
Unless the administration seriously envisages a future that includes the continued private ownership of Libya and its people by Qaddafi and his terrible offspring, it’s a sheer matter of prudence and realpolitik, to say nothing of principle, to adopt a policy that makes the opposite assumption. Libya is—in point of population and geography—mainly a coastline. The United States, with or without allies, has unchallengeable power in the air and on the adjacent waters. It can produce great air lifts and sea lifts of humanitarian and medical aid, which will soon be needed anyway along the Egyptian and Tunisian borders, and which would purchase undreamed-of goodwill. It has the chance to make up for its pointless, discredited tardiness with respect to events in Cairo and Tunis. It also has a president who has shown at least the capacity to deliver great speeches on grand themes. Instead, and in the crucial and formative days in which revolutions are decided, we have had to endure the futile squawkings of a cuckoo clock.
Christopher Hitchens (via kateoplis)
Hitchens’ headline is even more scathing…and spot on:
Is Barack Obama Secretly Swiss?
The administration’s pathetic, dithering response to the Arab uprisings has been both cynical and naive.
25.02.11
via womenscycling:
Sarah Hammer on her winning ride in the Individual Pursuit, Track World Championships 2011 (by britishcycling.org.uk)
1. Sarah Hammer (USA), 2. Alison Shanks (NZ), 3. Vilija Sereikaite (Lithuania)
More photos from day 3 of the Track World Champs 2011 from British Cycling
Congrats Sarah!
25.03.11
via queenstage:
Taylor Phinney’s story about his last day in Romandie. Phinney, with his pedigree and already huge palmares, was a center of a bidding war amongst teams. A lesser guy would sit back and allow himself to be coddled and fawned over. It’s nice to know he has a scrap dog fighting spirit that forced his number to get cut off!
(via @taylorphinney)
Taylor Phinney doesn’t quit. America. Fuck yeah!
(via cycleboredom)
01.05.11
via thepoliticalnotebook:
This is Samar Hassan, now 12 years old. She was the screaming 5-year old girl in the striking photo taken by the late Chris Hondros, a photo that has become emblematic of the Iraq war. She had never seen the famous photo of her, blood-spattered, the night her parents were killed by American soldiers in Tal Afar in 2005. She now lives in Mosul, with her older sister and her sister’s husband.
The photograph of Samar is frozen in history, but her life moved on, across a trajectory that is emblematic of what so many Iraqis have endured. In a country whose health care system has almost no ability to treat the psychological aspects of trauma, thousands of Iraqis are left alone with their torment.
Read more at the New York Times.
(Photo Credit: Ayman Oghanna for The New York Times)
So incredibly sad how WE completely messed up Iraq & so many Iraqis lives in addition to the dead and wounded brave men and women of the US Armed Forces.
Was It Worth It President Bush & NeoCons? I think NOT!
BTW - the Boogie man was chillin’ in Pakistan with his wives…
(via kateoplis)
07.05.11
NYT: The Road to Gay Marriage in New York
The story of how same-sex marriage became legal in New York is about shifting public sentiment and individual lawmakers moved by emotional appeals from gay couples who wish to be wed.
But, behind the scenes, it was really about a Republican Party reckoning with a profoundly changing power dynamic, where Wall Street donors and gay-rights advocates demonstrated more might and muscle than a Roman Catholic hierarchy and an ineffective opposition.
It’s always about money. While emotional appeals help push a narrative, in politics, it’s solely about the money. And sometimes, the ends justify the means.
The #Truth about #NY & the #USA
25.06.11
“Last Stop USA” - During WWII 40k troops/month pass thru Piermont Pier on their way to Europe. Many were part of The D-Day invasion forces. More than 533k returned to the #USA first stepping on US soil in Piermont, NY. “Lest We Forget,” many who embarked from Piermont never returned. #4thOfJuly #America #Veterans (Taken with instagram)
02.07.11
1 day, 4 hours, 30 minutes, 42 seconds - morning ride #ConeyIsland #USA - they’re setting up for tomorrow’s contest…#BikeNYC #cycling (Taken with Instagram at Nathan’s Famous)
03.07.11
MASSIVE #RESPECT to the US Women’s Team for never giving up. I DVR’d the game and haven’t had a chance to watch…yet.
Saw the highlights last night and was immediately taken back to the 1999 Women’s World Cup here in the States.
I was lucky enough to see the first day of matches at a sold out old Meadowlands/Giants Stadium and subsequent matches in DC. That first day was amazing on many fronts and prompted me to send a souvenir from that first match along with a note to my then 3 year old niece. The note was about her being able to do whatever she wanted in her life no matter what anyone says, no matter whatever obstacles put in front of her. She’s now a very sick teenage sweeper on a select team in Texas.
Here’s a good analysis of the match by Roger Bennett.
via motherjones:
WE DO BIG THINGS.
(Source: kateoplis)
11.07.11
New US National Men’s Team Coach Jurgen Klinsmann on what the USA needs to do to become a real player on the international football stage…from last year’s World Cup after the US’s run ended.
When I heard him say this I immediately thought: “US Soccer, hire him ASAP!” It took a year and I appreciate what Bob Bradley did but it was clear he wasn’t the coach to carry the US to the next level. Now with Klinsmann on board, are you kidding? One of the most electrifying player/coach is now heading up the US National Men’s Team?
YYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSS!!!! I BELIEVE! USA! USA! USA!
30.07.11
So, what’s an older-and-wiser Obama to do between now and next November to replicate the easy re-election victory enjoyed by Clinton? “Accomplish or at least appear to be trying to get things done, worry about the base only to the extent that you avoid a primary [and] put all your focus on independents,” advised one former senior Clinton administration official. How much or little Obama chooses to take that advice could well determine whether he spends his early 50s in or out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
What Barack Obama can learn from Bill Clinton - The Fix - The Washington Post (via apsies)
#AreYouBetterOffNowThanYouWere4YearsAgo?
And I will vote for a protest candidate in the meaningless primary and only vote for him in the general election if it’s close because in the end a moderate Republican (President Obama) is better than a right wing Republican.
…and he’s getting not getting a penny in donations from me this time. In the end
(via joshsternberg)
04.08.11
Martyrs Crypt Entrance - More than 11,600 US Revolutionary War Prisoners are buried here. They could’ve gone free if they joined the British. None did. Few survived. #Brooklyn #NYC #USA #History #Heroes (Taken with Instagram at Prison Ship Martyrs Monument)
05.08.11
![thenoobyorker:
What Happened to Obama? [h/t whiporwill]
IT was a blustery day in Washington on Jan. 20, 2009, as it often seems to be on the day of a presidential inauguration. As I stood with my 8-year-old daughter, watching the president deliver his inaugural address, I had a feeling of unease. It wasn’t just that the man who could be so eloquent had seemingly chosen not to be on this auspicious occasion, although that turned out to be a troubling harbinger of things to come. It was that there was a story the American people were waiting to hear — and needed to hear — but he didn’t tell it. And in the ensuing months he continued not to tell it, no matter how outrageous the slings and arrows his opponents threw at him.
The stories our leaders tell us matter, probably almost as much as the stories our parents tell us as children, because they orient us to what is, what could be, and what should be; to the worldviews they hold and to the values they hold sacred. Our brains evolved to “expect” stories with a particular structure, with protagonists and villains, a hill to be climbed or a battle to be fought. Our species existed for more than 100,000 years before the earliest signs of literacy, and another 5,000 years would pass before the majority of humans would know how to read and write.
Stories were the primary way our ancestors transmitted knowledge and values. Today we seek movies, novels and “news stories” that put the events of the day in a form that our brains evolved to find compelling and memorable. Children crave bedtime stories; the holy books of the three great monotheistic religions are written in parables; and as research in cognitive science has shown, lawyers whose closing arguments tell a story win jury trials against their legal adversaries who just lay out “the facts of the case.”
When Barack Obama rose to the lectern on Inauguration Day, the nation was in tatters. Americans were scared and angry. The economy was spinning in reverse. Three-quarters of a million people lost their jobs that month. Many had lost their homes, and with them the only nest eggs they had. Even the usually impervious upper middle class had seen a decade of stagnant or declining investment, with the stock market dropping in value with no end in sight. Hope was as scarce as credit.
In that context, Americans needed their president to tell them a story that made sense of what they had just been through, what caused it, and how it was going to end. They needed to hear that he understood what they were feeling, that he would track down those responsible for their pain and suffering, and that he would restore order and safety. What they were waiting for, in broad strokes, was a story something like this:
“I know you’re scared and angry. Many of you have lost your jobs, your homes, your hope. This was a disaster, but it was not a natural disaster. It was made by Wall Street gamblers who speculated with your lives and futures. It was made by conservative extremists who told us that if we just eliminated regulations and rewarded greed and recklessness, it would all work out. But it didn’t work out. And it didn’t work out 80 years ago, when the same people sold our grandparents the same bill of goods, with the same results. But we learned something from our grandparents about how to fix it, and we will draw on their wisdom. We will restore business confidence the old-fashioned way: by putting money back in the pockets of working Americans by putting them back to work, and by restoring integrity to our financial markets and demanding it of those who want to run them. I can’t promise that we won’t make mistakes along the way. But I can promise you that they will be honest mistakes, and that your government has your back again.”
A story isn’t a policy. But that simple narrative — and the policies that would naturally have flowed from it — would have inoculated against much of what was to come in the intervening two and a half years of failed government, idled factories and idled hands. That story would have made clear that the president understood that the American people had given Democrats the presidency and majorities in both houses of Congress to fix the mess the Republicans and Wall Street had made of the country, and that this would not be a power-sharing arrangement. It would have made clear that the problem wasn’t tax-and-spend liberalism or the deficit — a deficit that didn’t exist until George W. Bush gave nearly $2 trillion in tax breaks largely to the wealthiest Americans and squandered $1 trillion in two wars.
And perhaps most important, it would have offered a clear, compelling alternative to the dominant narrative of the right, that our problem is not due to spending on things like the pensions of firefighters, but to the fact that those who can afford to buy influence are rewriting the rules so they can cut themselves progressively larger slices of the American pie while paying less of their fair share for it.
But there was no story — and there has been none since.
I warmly remember the optimism and fear that plagued Berkeley on election day, I can only imagine the shared disappointment in Berkeley today. President Obama was never going to accomplish all of his campaign goals, most of us knew and accepted that reality. However what I did not anticipate, and I suspect many of you, was the lack of leadership on almost every possible campaign promise and issue. Pragmatism will only get you so far, at some point you need to step into the ring and fight back. As cliche or as impossible (given the political climate) as the aforementioned may seem, it’s not an unrealistic request.
But the arc of history does not bend toward justice through capitulation cast as compromise. It does not bend when 400 people control more of the wealth than 150 million of their fellow Americans. It does not bend when the average middle-class family has seen its income stagnate over the last 30 years while the richest 1 percent has seen its income rise astronomically. It does not bend when we cut the fixed incomes of our parents and grandparents so hedge fund managers can keep their 15 percent tax rates. It does not bend when only one side in negotiations between workers and their bosses is allowed representation. And it does not bend when, as political scientists have shown, it is not public opinion but the opinions of the wealthy that predict the votes of the Senate. The arc of history can bend only so far before it breaks.
If you have the time, read it.
No comment required.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lpkxk98jxI1qzy416o1_400.jpg)
What Happened to Obama? [h/t whiporwill]
IT was a blustery day in Washington on Jan. 20, 2009, as it often seems to be on the day of a presidential inauguration. As I stood with my 8-year-old daughter, watching the president deliver his inaugural address, I had a feeling of unease. It wasn’t just that the man who could be so eloquent had seemingly chosen not to be on this auspicious occasion, although that turned out to be a troubling harbinger of things to come. It was that there was a story the American people were waiting to hear — and needed to hear — but he didn’t tell it. And in the ensuing months he continued not to tell it, no matter how outrageous the slings and arrows his opponents threw at him.
The stories our leaders tell us matter, probably almost as much as the stories our parents tell us as children, because they orient us to what is, what could be, and what should be; to the worldviews they hold and to the values they hold sacred. Our brains evolved to “expect” stories with a particular structure, with protagonists and villains, a hill to be climbed or a battle to be fought. Our species existed for more than 100,000 years before the earliest signs of literacy, and another 5,000 years would pass before the majority of humans would know how to read and write.
Stories were the primary way our ancestors transmitted knowledge and values. Today we seek movies, novels and “news stories” that put the events of the day in a form that our brains evolved to find compelling and memorable. Children crave bedtime stories; the holy books of the three great monotheistic religions are written in parables; and as research in cognitive science has shown, lawyers whose closing arguments tell a story win jury trials against their legal adversaries who just lay out “the facts of the case.”
When Barack Obama rose to the lectern on Inauguration Day, the nation was in tatters. Americans were scared and angry. The economy was spinning in reverse. Three-quarters of a million people lost their jobs that month. Many had lost their homes, and with them the only nest eggs they had. Even the usually impervious upper middle class had seen a decade of stagnant or declining investment, with the stock market dropping in value with no end in sight. Hope was as scarce as credit.
In that context, Americans needed their president to tell them a story that made sense of what they had just been through, what caused it, and how it was going to end. They needed to hear that he understood what they were feeling, that he would track down those responsible for their pain and suffering, and that he would restore order and safety. What they were waiting for, in broad strokes, was a story something like this:
“I know you’re scared and angry. Many of you have lost your jobs, your homes, your hope. This was a disaster, but it was not a natural disaster. It was made by Wall Street gamblers who speculated with your lives and futures. It was made by conservative extremists who told us that if we just eliminated regulations and rewarded greed and recklessness, it would all work out. But it didn’t work out. And it didn’t work out 80 years ago, when the same people sold our grandparents the same bill of goods, with the same results. But we learned something from our grandparents about how to fix it, and we will draw on their wisdom. We will restore business confidence the old-fashioned way: by putting money back in the pockets of working Americans by putting them back to work, and by restoring integrity to our financial markets and demanding it of those who want to run them. I can’t promise that we won’t make mistakes along the way. But I can promise you that they will be honest mistakes, and that your government has your back again.”
A story isn’t a policy. But that simple narrative — and the policies that would naturally have flowed from it — would have inoculated against much of what was to come in the intervening two and a half years of failed government, idled factories and idled hands. That story would have made clear that the president understood that the American people had given Democrats the presidency and majorities in both houses of Congress to fix the mess the Republicans and Wall Street had made of the country, and that this would not be a power-sharing arrangement. It would have made clear that the problem wasn’t tax-and-spend liberalism or the deficit — a deficit that didn’t exist until George W. Bush gave nearly $2 trillion in tax breaks largely to the wealthiest Americans and squandered $1 trillion in two wars.
And perhaps most important, it would have offered a clear, compelling alternative to the dominant narrative of the right, that our problem is not due to spending on things like the pensions of firefighters, but to the fact that those who can afford to buy influence are rewriting the rules so they can cut themselves progressively larger slices of the American pie while paying less of their fair share for it.
But there was no story — and there has been none since.
I warmly remember the optimism and fear that plagued Berkeley on election day, I can only imagine the shared disappointment in Berkeley today. President Obama was never going to accomplish all of his campaign goals, most of us knew and accepted that reality. However what I did not anticipate, and I suspect many of you, was the lack of leadership on almost every possible campaign promise and issue. Pragmatism will only get you so far, at some point you need to step into the ring and fight back. As cliche or as impossible (given the political climate) as the aforementioned may seem, it’s not an unrealistic request.
But the arc of history does not bend toward justice through capitulation cast as compromise. It does not bend when 400 people control more of the wealth than 150 million of their fellow Americans. It does not bend when the average middle-class family has seen its income stagnate over the last 30 years while the richest 1 percent has seen its income rise astronomically. It does not bend when we cut the fixed incomes of our parents and grandparents so hedge fund managers can keep their 15 percent tax rates. It does not bend when only one side in negotiations between workers and their bosses is allowed representation. And it does not bend when, as political scientists have shown, it is not public opinion but the opinions of the wealthy that predict the votes of the Senate. The arc of history can bend only so far before it breaks.
If you have the time, read it.
No comment required.
(via joshsternberg)
07.08.11
