lone_pedestrian

Apparently the next one is on the 22nd of this month. My reply to Car Free Day is the same as my response to Bike/Walk to Work Week.

Everyday is a car free day, unless it is raining, snowing or over 90 degrees in which case it is a car less day. Every week is bike/walk to work week* so the sunshine cyclists and the summertime pedestrians can take their free bagels and orange juice and blow.

Of course you can make the argument that you will never get people to adopt a new and different lifestyle until you give them an event that provides a safe and encouraging setting in which to try it. I suppose it is like Talk Like A Pirate Day in that it may give the timid a new appreciation for something generally reserved for the more hardcore. It starts with Talk Like A Pirate Day and ends with regular Ren Faire attendance, role playing games and pirate themed weddings.

So enjoy the minor environmentalist thrill of Car Free Day but remember its a slippery slope** from there to those spandex shorts with a padded ass, self-satisfied transportation and planning blogging and clicky little bike shoes***.



*The only exception to this is the occasional ride with Patti's carpool but I am trying my damnedest to avoid using their car. That exception is only good for the next couple of months anyway.

**The slippery slope is a logical fallacy that only serves for making silly jokes about slippery slopes. These jokes do not constitute any support for future arguments employing the slippery slope.

***I do not have clicky bike shoes. Yet.

Despite the fact that the suburb where my parents live is well-supplied with sidewalks there are few people on any given day using them for transport. People are dropped off and picked up from the nearby Long Island Railroad Station, they walk their dogs and they take their jogs but they rarely use their feet to get from one place to another. They use their feet to circle around their homes on the familiar circuit through their own neighborhoods.

Many of the houses nearby have had sections of their yards paved over to accommodate the 3 or 4 cars "necessary" for productive adult life on Long Island. It makes me sad, especially when the reasoning behind living in a suburb is that you want more space for yourself. I certainly sympathize with that desire. I would enjoy a small yard and some dirt in which to continue my career as a herbicidal maniac. A fenced in space for Hannah to rush about in while I sleepily read a book and Dave plays about with his headphones, looping machines and electric guitar in the little garage. I cannot imagine cutting away from such a potentially personal space to make room for another vehicle. I cannot imagine working a job, the one that allows you to maintain the life you want while requiring you to sacrifice pieces of that life one little bit at a time.

You cut away the time you spend driving, you cut away the space you would otherwise enjoy for parking. It seems like you could almost fail to realize the compromises you had made because they came on so gradually. Maybe it is the desire for peace through a purchase of space that is the trap. To become attached to a particular place because it provided you with a much desired feeling seems dangerous some how. The notion that you could have that feeling as long as you had that thing seems wrongheaded and destined to lead to disappointment.

So how do you get a sense of peace without a sense of place? Can you have a sense of place without inevitably intruding on your own peace?

After watching a clip of the Rachel Maddow Show and witnessing Chris Matthews talk about how John McCain never made him feel bad about serving in the Peace Corps, and that basic level of politeness from a veteran soothed his doubtful mind just a little bit, I am convinced that what Chris needs is not a national political platform in which to vent his bizarre and defensive problems with his own masculinity, but some serious therapy.

Serious therapy with some beatnik feminist therapist who will explain to him that the patriarchy hurts men too, it pits one man against another, tapping into their competitiveness in a genuinely counterproductive if not out right destructive way. It dictates that only the killing of others is manly while service to others is a weak, simple "domestic" kind of virtue. (If you think I am exaggerating you have not read your Burke lately) After he has a couple of good cries, when he realizes that the war in Vietnam was not a test of national manhood but a major strategic blunder and that characterizing it as such a test got more people needlessly killed, that using his media platform in an attempt to exorcise his own personal demons, by mooning over an idiotic president as he strutted about playing at flyboy back in 2003, and helping give cover to war supporters over and over again actually made him complicit, in his nano-metrical way, in the deaths of thousands of people, he will be left curled up on the brightly colored pillows, shuddering, having run out of tears.

She will sit next to him and ask him very gently and respectfully if he needs a hug.

"HA Ha..." he will laugh and then wiping the wet from his face "That would be very nice"

Refreshed and renewed he will retire from television and return to the Peace Corps confident that it is the right thing to do.

Digby will be made the new host of Hardball and some small ripple of justice will work its way through the land.

I have had the worst time trying to give up the internet. I need it to do so many basic functions. Shopping for Christmas and reading the professional list-serves being just two examples.

Once I am on I cannot stop myself.

It is like being an AA member with one faucet that pours vodka instead of tap water.

A person who grows up getting too frequent rewards will not have persistence, because they'll quit when the rewards disappear.

This article reminded of my high school where the valedictorian copied other people's homework. Where everyone in class was so sure of how smart they were but were mostly concerned with covering their asses and keeping their grades up. Where everybody wanted something for nothing because they felt like they deserved it.

It also reminded me of myself. Everything is very easy for me for about a month. I can figure it out, do it, express it, explain it to others and easily garner compliments that I generally deem meaningless.

Then I get bored and give up.

I have been reading a few articles and posts about atheism lately. It just keeps popping up. You know the new atheism, just like the old atheism, only this time crankier.

I have not been a Christian for some time now although it took me a while to realize it. I am not even sure I believe in God anymore but I am not looking to believe in Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins or Sam Harris either so I think I will take a pass.

Despite being a frequently obnoxious and opinionated person myself, I am sometimes shocked by the fact that there are people wandering around loose in the world who are in fact ruder than me.

People who touch art work hanging in museums even though there are signs hanging about that say DO NOT TOUCH THE ART. People who stand up and dance in a theater made for sitting even though they have been told repeatedly that they are blocking the view of a number of others seated behind them. Maybe it is the thoughtlessness of it all or the exceptionalism that astounds me but what ever it is I find it mysterious and frustrating ever time I encounter it.

In some regards I expect people to dislike me because I am obnoxious and opinionated. What really blows my mind about this weekend is that the people who were told to not touch the art and the woman who was told she was blocking the view of the other concert goers got offended at being told that they were the ones in the wrong. They were offended at other people being offended by them.

They wanted to do whatever they liked and they wanted to be well-regarded at the same time. That seems like an impossibility to me.

Edit: The Kids In the Hall portrayed my social problems most astutely.

subways that arrive every few minutes
pierogies
cannolis
Nummi
heterogenity
25 cent pay phones
people watching
diners
people who dress for the occasion instead of always dressing as if they are going to hike a mountain on a moment's notice
people who walk with purpose to their chosen destination
family
friends for whom distance and time are irrelevant to closeness
the ability to jaywalk
a shared pool of memories

1. The word blog...followed quickly by all its variants including blogosphere. Worst. Words. Ever.

2. The inability/unwillingness to actually call George W. Bush by his name. Stop giving the man stupid nicknames it's childish and silly

3. The inability/unwillingness to get through any criticism of Ann Coulter/Michelle Malkin/Laura Ingraham etc without reverting to the most egregious sexist, racist and homophobic insults possible.

4. The inability/unwillingness to understand that claiming that you were making a joke does not actually help you when you are caught out being a jackass. It actually makes you look like more of a jackass.

5. The inability/unwillingness to understand that what we consider important and vital is not what everyone else considers important and vital. You actually have to convince them to care.

6. The inability/unwillingness to understand that at this point in history there is nothing radical about swearing. At least not when you do it as a matter of course. Lenny Bruce and George Carlin ya'll are not.

7. The self-congratulation. Oh the self-congratulation

Man 1: I told my sons if they got good grades this year I would take them to Disney World
Man 2: Ya, How are they doing?
Man 1: They are working hard. They are doing it.
Man 2: Good grades. What like A's?
Man 1: No nothing like that. You know, like, high C's

Then, I am not kidding you, the second man asked where Disney World was located and I almost lost my mind.

Michael Pollan's article in in the New York Times Magazine is terrific. Read it.

Once again CSPAN Book TV makes me hit rock bottom with their 48 hours of non-fiction on the weekends. I watched an entire question and answer session with Ann Coulter. Why? Because apparently on lovely Sunday afternoons I want nothing more than to be irritated.

Some comments for Ann (which were mostly shouted at the TV already):

Fitness for the natural environment and your personal notions of efficiency are not equivalent.
Pure X-men style mutation is not as important to evolution as the level of genetic variation produced by sexual reproduction.
Biologists are scientists and they might actually know more about their chosen field of study than Ann Coulter does.(I know one, she kicks Ann's ass up and down the street)
Some things really just don't fossilize. (I know a geologist too, sucker)
In science you don't know the answer to every problem but you have a method for figuring it out eventually. Throwing up your hands and saying "God did it" will never answer any questions except possibly "How can we further guarantee the degradation of the American economy in the face of globalization?".
Just because the science says you are an animal, one that developed the use of tools and language, does not mean it dictates your behavior. So, Ann Coulter, you are free to stop acting like an ornery junkyard dog every time you are on MSNBC.
There is a response to your critique of science here so don't lie to your minions and say our positions are indefensible when there is a defense on a well known "leftwing nut" site.
"Darwiniacs" is really lame especially when Rush set the bar so high with "Feminazis"

This was not the worst CSPAN Book TV related moment in my life but it was certainly in the top five. The only thing more pathetic than watching CSPAN Book TV at 1am is recognizing the voice of one of your relatives calling into CSPAN Book TV.

I find this quite fascinating even though I am not the hands on type of geek by a long shot.



From the Scientific American blog which if you should already be reading. Of course.

SIX PERFORMANCES ONLY
August 11th -- 26th
Horse Trade presents
in part of the 10th Annual New York International Fringe Festival:
THE PUMPKIN PIE SHOW: la petite mortes
stories written by Clay McLeod Chapman
music written by Joe Keady, performed by the Praise of Folly
performances by Clay McLeod Chapman, Abe Goldfarb*, Daryl Lathon*, and
Ronica Reddick* (* denotes AEA members)
lighting design by Sabrina Braswell

Love and death go hand-in-hand within this batch of southern fried
campfire tales, blurring the line separating one from the other. ‘Til
death do us part takes on a completely new meaning. Stories include
product placement, throwing golem, fillings, oldsmobile, and giving
head...

at the DR2 Theatre
103 East 15th Street (btn. 3rd/4th Ave)
http://www.dr2theatre.com/

FRI 8/11 @ 5:30 PM
SUN 8/13 @ 7 PM
TUE 8/15 @ 10:45 PM
WED 8/16 @ 4 PM
FRI 8/18 @ 9 PM
SAT 8/26 @ 2 PM

In part of the FringeNYC Alumni Production Project
In celebration of our Tenth Anniversary, we have invited back some
alumni productions. Catch them at FringeNYC 2006, see a favorite again,
or catch an outstanding production for the first time!
tickets: $15.00
Purchase by phone 9 AM to 7 PM every day
Inside NY: 212.279.4488 (Credit Card Only)
Outside NY: 1-888-FringeNYC (Credit Card Only)
http://www.fringenyc.org/

Indentured servitude contract



Some things this text should prompt you to be grateful for:

Eight hour work day (with time and a half for overtime if you are lucky)
Minimum Wage requirements
Work safety rules
The right to privacy
Working in America where most of these standards are operational instead of working in any number of other countries where employment is closer to indentured servitude than you might think.

Give a hearty thank you for all of your free time and "sufficient meat" that comes without so many strings attached, buy union.

I am obsessed with two very frivolous websites at the moment one featuring pictures of adorable animals and the other featuring pictures of poorly dressed celebrities.







I am trying to sort out precisely why I like both sites so much. I once explained to my sister that I like it when things are "As smart and as handsome as possible". This does not mean everything has to be pretty, cute or beautiful in exactly the same way just that everything should be as pleasing as it possibly can be. A large part of pleasing for me is of course simplicity and functionality so I tend to find fault in the forms and uses of a great many things. Cute Overload allows my critical side to take a break while Go Fug Yourself gives it raw hide to chew on.

I guess its because one site is devoted to unadulterated loveliness and the other is devoted to loveliness adulterated into ugliness for the sake of novelty.

edited, so as to relieve the impression that my eyes have teeth

This is one of the more interesting things I have read in my bloggy travels. There is a debate going around about feminism, fashion, sexualized culture and nature of "true" female power. To my mind the best quote because it sums up my position on the issue and induces a slight chuckle at the end, is this from Echidne:

"On one level the questions look trivial from a feminist angle. Who cares if the suffragettes wore those long cumbersome dresses? They got us the votes. From that angle I don't care if a feminist decides to walk around on stilts while wearing multiple neckrings. But that we seldom see feminists so attired suggests that there is a deeper significance in many of our seemingly-trivial (and not-so trivial) choices, and it's the deeper significance that's interesting: The messages we send about ourselves by these choices and the messages others receive and interpret; two processes which don't necessarily match. For example, a woman gyrating around the pole might feel sexually powerful, but a man watching her might see a lobster with parsley behind its ear."

I think we are at an interesting moment where women are allowed to express themselves sexually but are still pressured to do so exclusively for men's amusement. Their own satisfaction, interests and self-respect should not be brought into the equation lest they get accused of spoiling the fun. The anti-sex label gets throw around willy-nilly when really the it is a position against women wasting money, time and effort trying to please others instead of pleasing themselves and accomplishing what they need in order to be independent. I personally spent money of things, shoes and hats being the most frivolous, that I did not need. I have also danced atop a bar to the strains of "Pour Some Sugar on Me" so I am hardly ideologically pure in any real sense.

If something does please you, I do not think it is bad to ask yourself why it does so. Why does it make you feel powerful? Is this actually helping me do what I truly want or need? It is not insulting to ask women (or men) to take a hard look at why it is they want something, why they behave or dress a particular way or why they treat other people the way they do. Other women do not have to look at it the way I do but I would like it if they looked at it a little harder.

"The unexamined life is not worth living" - Socrates

An Inconvenient Truth was interesting but it definitely had some flaws.

2 unnecessary instances of manipulative animation involving computer-generated animals
1 disingenuous editing choice involving calving glaciers
1 outright mistake that I could see

The emergence of hemorraghic fevers in Africa and South America is caused principally by habitat destruction and globalization not the expansion of disease vectors into new areas (made possible by warmer temperatures). The expansion of the habitable zone for malaria mosquitos is problematic enough there is no need to pile on unrelated phenomenon.

Somebody needs to send Al Gore a copy of this.