Monday, September 15, 2008

It's getting crazy out there

Today is not like 1929! It's worse!

HuffPo: Joseph Romm: Obama Nails the Winning Message: "Honor begins with Honesty"

HuffPo: my brother Doug Bremner on Fox News and his supposed appearance: "Can you Please put some Sugar on the Crap?"

Larisa Alexandrovna visits the "Values Convention". Warning. This is appallingly offensive to my "values", and I hope yours too: White Power, The Republican Base

Round-up of Repug Chickenhawks for your bookmarks

HuffPo: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr: Palin's Reading List "Fascist writer Westbrook Pegler, an avowed racist who Sarah Palin approvingly quoted in her acceptance speech for the moral superiority of small town values, expressed his fervent hope about my father, Robert F. Kennedy, as he contemplated his own run for the presidency in 1965, that 'some white patriot of the Southern tier will spatter his spoonful of brains in public premises before the snow flies.'

It might be worth asking Governor Palin for a tally of the other favorites from her reading list."

VietnamVeteransAgainstJohnMcCain.com



Kaziah Hancock

Paints fallen soldiers. So sad.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Saturday, September 06, 2008

Imogene Pass Run

I talk pre-race (Ouray to Telluride, Co; 17 mi over Imogene Pass, ele 13,120') with friend Eddie Baxter. He won our age group today, I was second.
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Tuesday, September 02, 2008

William Shatner-Rocketman

Palin Watch

National Enquirer is on the beat "We did a pretty nice investigation for what we call Week One"

John Nail "nails it"

Drip, drip, drip. She canceled an appearance tonight with Phyllis Schlafly's Conservative group. She has not appeared on any talk shows. Why not on the Sunday talk shows? She is being sequestered. Why? I think she is about to be withdrawn as a candidate. Which will be a disaster. But they have no choice.

I saw on CNN they were saying "liberal bloggers in the past 72 hours" have raised this issue of Palin being a grandmother. NOT TRUE. The rumours have been going on in Alaska ever since April when she "had the baby." All you have to do is look at the pictures. The story that had me confused even before I heard this was that she traveled from Texas governors conference AFTER her water broke and all the rest of that story. I just couldn't understand why she would do that UNTIL I found out the rest of the story with the daughter. Then it all made sense. Cover up. Mono for the daughter. What was she thinking?? That kind of cover-up might work in Alaska, but now she has the full brunt of the American tabloid media bearing down on her. She is so self-righteous and cruel to her public employees (firing for personal reasons) that she probably deserves some come-uppance. Nothing like the firestorm about to be visited on her though.

Monday, September 01, 2008

Amy Goodman Arrested at RNC

Outrageous. This is the end of America.

Sunday, August 31, 2008

View of Pikes Peak from Mary's Mtn

I climbed this seldom climbed peak this morning. There was a register on the summit that had been placed in 1988 with only seven entries on it. Here is the Garmin GPS track I recorded. Notice the line of the Cog Railway.
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Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Monday, August 25, 2008

Noa - Beauitiful

Keep the laughter in your eyes!

In Focus: Contesting Oil's Legacy

Apalling. Yeah. Let's drill ANWR. We can trust the oil companies.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Leadville

Pre-race photo with John Genet and me.
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Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Monday, August 18, 2008

Mistakes were made, but not by Rebekka: A Leadville Story

Rebekka and I arrived in Leadville around 11 A.M. on Friday morning in time for me to weigh in and catch the mandatory briefing before the Leadville Trail 100-mile race. Part of the mandatory briefing came from the official doctor for the race, Dr. Tom. His briefing was both informative and humorous. To get your message across humor turns out to be a most effective way to make an imprint on the memory. What I remember from Dr. Tom's speech were 1) how to know if you were dehydrated is upon examining your urine flow if it is the color of Coors beer then you are okay, but if your urine is the color of Foster Lager then you had better hydrate ASAP and 2) the story he recounted of a woman at the Hopeless Aide Station just below the summit of Hope Pass who had become overcome with hypothermia, and how the only remedy turned out to be getting into a sleeping bag with two sweaty male runners. At the time of this briefing by Dr. Tom I had no inkling that both of these stories would have relevance to me the next day, nor did I realize that I would also get to know Dr. Tom on a more intimate basis.

At race start on Saturday at 4 A.M. it wasn't raining. Since the weather forecast for race day was at best 60% chance of thundershowers and up to a foot of snow this was a welcome start. We didn't get any precipitation until about 3 hours later with a smattering of hail on the approach to Sugarloaf Pass. At race start I tried to keep reminding myself that this was a 100 mile race. Still I found myself settling in with the front pack and wound up cruising down the "boulevard" with the two leaders. Joshua Mietz talked about running the Silver Rush 50-mile run, where he placed 5th in 8+ hours—this was a new addition to the festival of races associated with the Leadville 100. When he and the other leader ran hard up the steep cut leading to the trail round Turquoise Lake I let them go. Scott Jaime and Andrew Skurka passed me, but a little later Scott ducked into a bathroom. I was in fourth. Andrew made a wrong turn and I followed—mistake #1.

Soon we had popped out on the road. Confused we ran along the road for a few minutes before I said this is not right. Though the last time I ran this race was four years ago I knew that it never went on the road but followed the lake proper on a dirt path. Finally I said I was turning around. Andrew followed. When we came back to the trail we had mistakenly followed we came on about seven runners also going astray who we turned around. One complained that his race was over. I told him to stop complaining since though he had lost maybe 45 seconds, we had been running around off course for 10 minutes. Back on the course perhaps foolishly trying to make up ground I passed several runners before catching up to John Genet. I fell in behind John just to force myself to slow down. Unfortunately I did more than slow down--I fell down—mistake #2, in the process dislocating my little finger.

My finger was concealed in my glove but I knew from the pain that something was seriously wrong in there. Mayqueen, in and out and I was on the road again at 2:01. Pretty good running, good pace, I mostly passed runners up and over Sugarloaf Pass and down to Fish Hatcheries, mile 23 by 3:55. Mistake #3—Rebekka tried to get me to change shirts and put on a jacket—I told her I would wait until Treeline, another four miles.

The wind, rain, and lightning were wicked all along the open road leading to Treeline. By the time I reached her only half an hour later I was cold and disheartened. Taking off my gloves I saw my finger for the first time and it didn't look good. Ken Chlouber, the race director was there and asked me if I wanted to drop out. "No way!" was my response. He put a plastic bag on my hand and recommended not putting on a glove until I reached the aide station at Halfmoon. Halfmoon was no help—the medical tech there was not able to do anything to my finger though he did manage to help me put my glove on.

I left Halfmoon with only half a bottle of water in the confusion. They didn't seem to have water available--only Powerade and coke. Weird. Over the next miles I got dehydrated, though I did fill up my bottle twice in streams. As I approached Twin Lakes at mile 40 I was bonking badly.

At the Twin Lakes aide station a volunteer asked me "You're acting very spacey, are you always that way?" "No." I sat down and started eating and drinking trying to revive myself. Soon Rebekka was able to join me and then Dr. Tom came on the scene. He looked at my finger and asked if I wanted him to yank it back in socket. Yes. As soon as he yanked it into place I felt a surge of fresh pain and my hand began to swell. He put an ice pack over my hand held by a loose ace bandage. I had already been getting cold, but the cold pack only accelerated the process. They placed blankets over my shoulders but I kept shivering. Finally Dr. Tom told me to get in a sleeping bag. When that didn't do it, Rebekka climbed in with me. I still couldn't get warm. I suggested to Dr. Tom that maybe I should get in my car and turn up the heater. Unfortunately, since he now had me in his custody he couldn't let me leave the aide station without removing me from the race. By that time my legs had stiffened up and I could barely walk and couldn't imagine running another 60 miles so I let him snip off my band and dq'ed myself.

Serious crisis in Pakistan (crickets in DC)

So now that that the Bush administration has rallied all terrorists everywhere under a single banner, allowed Al Qaeda to grow stronger and better trained, and depleted US abilities (militarily, financially, and diplomatically) ... a civil war or any serious power structure threat in another country - especially Pakistan - is a threat of epic...

read more | digg story

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Some links

Lance Armstrong and Dave Wiens' 100-Mile Duel in Leadville

HuffPo: Frances Beinecke: Distraction, Misleading Energy Claims, and the Washington Post

The Nation: Robert Scheer: Georgia War: A Neocon Ploy?

Democracy Now's Amy Goodman interviews Ron Suskind on his important new book, The Way of the World: How the Bush Admin Deliberately Faked an Iraq-al-Qaeda Connection and Undermined Diplomacy, Democracy in Pakistan and Iran

OneGoodMove: The Daily Show's Jon Stewart interviews Ron Suskind

Download Human Rights Org's Elect to End Torture '08 kit

Video: Olbermann on Dobson's asking followers to pray for rain on Obama's speech at Invesco Field, Denver

John Kerry emails video on the new SwiftBoater lies about Obama and what we need to do to counteract them

Utne Reader on Peak Population and its ramifications

Just a reminder that Russia isn't thru until Saahkashvili is gone...

"They shot their brother Russian peacekeepers, then they finished them off with bayonets, so we are not going to see them there any more," said Dmitri Rogozin, the Russian ambassador to Nato in Brussels.

Medvedev spoke by phone with the EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solanaand told him "there are a few things that need to be discussed to get a full ceasefire," said a European official.
"The Russians are saying that they will never again accept Georgians in any form in South Ossetia. They see them as a Trojan horse that started the attacks last week."

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/215810.html

COL. SAM GARDINER: Absolutely. Let me just say that if you were to rate how serious the strategic situations have been in the past few years, thiswould be above Iraq, this would be above Afghanistan, and this would be above Iran.

On little notice to Americans, the Russians learned at the end of the first Gulf War that they couldn’t—they didn’t think they could deal with the United States, given the value and the quality of American precision conventional weapons. The Russians put into their doctrine a statement, and have broadcast it very loudly, that if the United States were to use precision conventional weapons against Russian troops, the Russians would be forced to respond with tactical nuclear weapons. They continue to state this. They practice this in their exercises. They’ve even had exercises that very closely paralleled what went on in Ossetia, where there was an independence movement, they intervene conventionally to put down the independence movement, the United States and NATO responds with conventional air strikes, they then respond with tactical nuclear weapons.

It appears to me as if the Russians were preparing themselves to do that in this case. First of all, I think they believe the United States was going to intervene. At a news conference on Sunday, the deputy national security adviser said we have noted that the Russians have introduced two SS-21 medium-range ballistic missile launchers into South Ossetia. Now, let me say a little footnote about those. They’re both conventional and nuclear. They have a relatively small conventional warhead, however. So, the military significance, if they were to be conventional, was almost trivial compared to what the Russians could deliver with the aircraft that they were using to strike the Georgians.

I think this was a signal. I think this was an implementation on their part of their doctrine.

Full interview by Democracy Now's Amy Goodman: Transcript

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Tracy Arm

The sun finally came out after a week here in Juneau. We enjoyed a fabulous boat ride up the ice-filled fiord, Tracey Arm.
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Monday, August 04, 2008

Juneau Gallery

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Juneau days

Jose and Rebekka outside the wonderful Silverbow Bagel shop. We found that Silverbow Bagels supplies local grocery stores with wholesome multi-grain breads. Tomorrow we take a boat up Tracy Arm, a fiord that ends at Sawyer Glacier. This morning I went on a 10-mile run Douglas Island on a boardwalk trail through muskeg bogs and misty firs and ferns to a forest cabin high above the sea.
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Saturday, August 02, 2008

Juneau Marathon, Aug 2nd

I just finished the Juneau Marathon in my fastest time in three and a half years: 2 hours 57 minutes. I wore some new very light and fast shoes: The Nike Lunarlites weigh only 5.5 ounces. Unfortunately as you can see from the photo they pinched my little toes resulting in their becoming big red blood blisters. I was third overall and first masters finisher.
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Thursday, July 31, 2008

Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau, Alaska


Jose, Cynthia, Rebekka. We are here in Juneau, Alaska for a week of sightseeing and running. Jose and I are running the Juneau Marathon on Saturday, August 2nd. Rebekka is running the half marathon. Yesterday we took a city bus yesterday to the Mendenhall Glacier.
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Saturday, July 26, 2008

Sustainable Living Solar Homes Tour

Today we drove down to Westcliffe for the Solar Homes Tour. At left is Dave Tonsing (with dog), owner of the earthship behind him and Tyler Stein of Sustainable Ways. We joined the tour along with about 40 others at the courthouse in Westcliffe at 8:30 this morning. Dan Miller and Jennifer Younger made our aquaintance and joined us to car pool to the three featured homes. Later we had lunch with this delightful couple in Westcliffe and drove down to see their magnificent home in the Cuerno Verde development 10 miles south of Westcliffe where I also own 20 acres.

The first home was a passive solar home using thermal mass blocks of 85% recycled styrofoam and 15% concrete mix. It also used radiant floor heating and was "on grid" though it was highly energy efficient. Next we visited Dave Tonsing's earthship which is 100% off-grid and fully uses sustainable energy--solar for electric and passive solar for heat. Dave has built 10 earthships in the valley and consulted on three more and was a wealth of information.

The final home of the Solar tour was an adobe home that is nearly completely passive solar, but they added a small wood stove to get them through times when indoor temperatures occasionally drop to the low 50's. I was pleased to make new friends in Custer County and particularly to make contact with professionals who can help me build an earthship on my property.
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Friday, July 25, 2008

ACLU obtains key memos authorizing CIA Torture Methods through FOIA

ACLU Obtains Key Memos Authorizing CIA Torture Methods

The American Civil Liberties Union today obtained three redacted documents related to the Bush administration's brutal interrogation policies, including a previously withheld Justice Department memo authorizing the CIA's use of torture. The government was ordered to turn over the documents in response to an ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit brought in 2004 by the ACLU and other organizations seeking records on the treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody overseas.

"These documents supply further evidence, if any were needed, that the Justice Department authorized the CIA to torture prisoners in its custody," said Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project. "The Justice Department twisted the law, and in some cases ignored it altogether, in order to permit interrogators to use barbaric methods that the U.S. once prosecuted as war crimes."




Thursday, July 24, 2008

A Social History of the Surge

Juan Cole set the record straight weighing in with "A Social History of the Surge"

Must Read: Evidence of the US Banking System Teetering on the Brink of Collapse There is roughly $6.84 Trillion in bank deposits. $2.60 Trillion of that is uninsured. There is only $53 billion in FDIC insurance to cover $6.84 Trillion in bank deposits. Indymac will eat up roughly $8 billion of that.

Of the $6.84 Trillion in bank deposits, the total cash on hand at banks is a mere $273.7 Billion. Where is the rest of the loot? The answer is in off balance sheet SIVs, imploding commercial real estate deals, Alt-A liar loans, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonds, toggle bonds where debt is amazingly paid back with more debt, and all sorts of other silly (and arguably fraudulent) financial wizardry schemes that have bank and brokerage firms leveraged at 30-1 or more. Those loans cannot be paid back.

What cannot be paid back will be defaulted on. If you did not know it before, you do now. The entire US banking system is insolvent.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

HuffPo: Congressional Interest in Bugliosi book on Prosecuting Bush for Murder
I am almost finished reading Vincent Bugliosi's book, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder. One cannot read this screed and emerge anything but enraged at the phony prep boy who avoided service in Viet Nam and sent our boys to a war of choice that is bankrupting our nation and destroying our moral foundation. Our boys have not died in Iraq for freedom. They have not died for America. They have died needless deaths of ignominy for Bush and Cheney. Send Bush to prison for life. While we are it include Cheney, Rice and Rumsfeld. Liars. Disgraceful deceivers.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Harper's: Six Questions for Jane Mayar

Harper's: Six Questions for Jane Mayar, author of The Dark Side: The Inside Story of how the War on Terror turned into a War on American Ideals

Here she is interviewed by Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air: Terror and the Unraveling of America's Moral Fabric

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Barack Obama in major speech on Iraq War Policy

John Lennon: We're all Hitler inside, we're all Christ Inside: I Met the Walrus

Mr Obama goes to Berlin

The Washington Note: Mr Obama goes to Berlin

HuffPo: Joseph Palermo: Does Anyone Remember the Oil Spill in Santa Barbara?

UK Telegraph: U.S. faces Global Funding Crisis, warns Merril Lynch It's bad. It is really bad.

NYT Archives (1916): Electric Trains over the Rockies

Proposal from The Oil Drum to electrify 36,000 miles of strategic rail across the U.S. It would cost $90B, require about 2% of the current electric grid and prevent the importing of millions of barrels of oil.

Gordon Brown, British PM with major speech on the post-peak oil economy and what Britain is going to do about it. Now this is leadership!!

Countdown: War Crimes Prosecutions Possible

Monday, July 14, 2008

The Onion: Recession-Plagued Nation demands new Bubble to Invest in

Earth's Endgame etc.

Derrick Jensen: Endgame

The Specter of Mass Extinction in the Anthropocene Age

The Only Diet for a Peacemaker is a Vegetarian Diet

Vincent Bugliosi's book "The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder" has been ignored by the MSM and he has not been given any interviews. Despite this his book is on the best seller lists. What a sad commentary on our media. We have no MSM.

Mayer: Cheney ‘Repeatedly’ Held ‘Highly Unusual’ Meetings With CIA IG Before Torture Probe Stopped

TomDispatch: The Wedding Crashers: A Short Till-Death-Do-Us-Part History of Bush's Wars

Barack Obama New Yorker Cover

HuffPo on the Barack Obama as Muslim New Yorker Cover

NYT Opinionator on the New Yorker Cover flap

Interview with David Remnick, editor of the New Yorker on the Obama cover

What do I think? At first I thought it was over the top, but on reflection I think it is funny... and totally in character for New Yorker covers. Ask the Bush administration.

Dear Senator Barack Obama: A Truthout open letter on FISA

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Some links

Manitou Springs (my town) Mayor, Eric Drummond leads by example, bringing environmentalism home

Kyle Skaggs Smashes Hardrock 100 record!! (by 2hrs 45min!!)

I can deal with and understand this New Yorker cover depicting Obama as a Muslim and his wife as a terrorist. I'm not sure the subleties are going to play very well though.

Fannie and Freddie are surely doomed. This will bankrupt the nation. To guarantee Fannie and Freddie will mean doubling the deficit. The dollar will go down the tubes, interest rates will skyrocket and the downward spiral will be relentless. Collapse is imminent. Just like the former Soviet Union in the 90's. We are going down. Stock up on food stores.

Green Light on Torture

VanityFair.com: The Green Light on Torture: Philippe Sands follows the torture trail, and holds out the possibility of war crimes charges. See his new book: Torture Team: Rumsfeld's Memo and the Betrayal of American Values

Frank Rich: The Real-Life ‘24’ of Summer 2008 see the new book by New Yorker writer Jane Mayer: The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals

I think there now the possibility of war crimes trials. That is the only way for America to return to her former greatness. There must be accountability from the top. Clearly torture as policy was directed from the White House. We all should be ashamed if we don't act as a nation to rectify this deplorable situation.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Guernica Mag: Darfur Crisis, A conversation with Mia Farrow and Bernard-Henri Lévy

The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability

Scaling Buildings to Alert on Global Warming (Did you know that beef-eaters cause 4X the global warming effects as plant eaters? About the same as a Prius driver compared to an SUV-Driver)

Why is Conyers stalling on IMPEACHMENT?

LA Times: The Old Man who Farms with the Sea Feature from Vanity Fair on Hodges and another interview of the gentleman expounding on the possibilities of saltwater loving plants with the potential to help out with global warming

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Change going to come

Thx Yf Lau...

The New Yorker: Elizabeth Kolbert: The Island in the Wind A Danish Community's Victory over Carbon Emmissions

Senate Passes Unconstitutional Spying Bill: ACLU will Sue (Yay!!)

The Fruit Hunters

Tonight's Democracy Now! program was highly entertaining! Amy Goodman interviewed the author of "The Fruit Hunters": Adam Leith Gollner. He talks about some of the thousands of exotic fruits he has sought out all over the world in this video. The miracle fruit changes your taste buds from sour to sweet.

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

HuffPO: Naomi Wolf calls out Condi Rice on Sex Crimes in the White House and Torture

NPR Music: Rogue's Gallery: Songs of the Sea and In Baghdad

FEED: Tomato Scare highlights broken food system

Al Franken on David Letterman makes a lot of sense when he calls for Congresspeoples to be banned for life from becoming lobbyists.

Larisa Alexandrovna: At-Largely: McCain Wrong about Petraeus' "Central Front" also More Info coming out on Siegleman case

Philippe Sands' Torture Team is on my list of must reads
HuffPo: Joe Lauria talks about his and Senator Mike Gravel's new book: "A Political Odyssey: The Rise of American Militarism and One Man's Fight to stop it" Why Bush has won in Iraq and the rest of us have lost

Monday, July 07, 2008

Bekka and Bear, Downtown Durango.
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Durango Weekend and walking the high country in the Weminuche Wilderness: Mountain View Crest. Pigeon Peak, Turret Peak, Mount Eolus....
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Chronicaling the destruction of species to make room for more peoples

Orangutans on fast track to extinction

Polar Bear extinct within 100 years

The Anthropocene Age: Extinction of species caused by man On track to be the greatest extinction of species since the Permian Extinction of 250 million years ago (this was massively greater than the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago)
The Oil Drum: Why are we Addicted to Oil? (Hint: it has to do with evolution)

TPM Cafe this week with David Sirota on his new book (which I just finished!) The Uprising

Sunday, July 06, 2008

I'm just about finished reading a free version on my Kindle of Cory Doctorow's harrowing account of a near future of our impending total surveillance society: Little Brother. Here he is on Boing Boing TV with a reading.
HuffPo: Lloyd Alter: A Field Guide to the New Environmentalists

Wall-E: A World Without Us and Frank Rich: Wall-E for President

Google Video (2+ hours) (must watch) Alex Jones: Endgame: Blueprint for Global Enslavement

Related: The Money Masters

My Letter to the Colorado Springs Gazette Editor regarding drilling ANWR.... Some lame responses a few days later

PUPPETS of WAR Mccain Obama Hillary

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Monday, June 30, 2008

Greil Marcus on his book "The Shape of Things to Come"

Best interview ever by Mark Molero. And that is saying a lot!! Watch this!

McDonalds in China: "McDonalds was a more formal place than for Americans"

This Brave Nation Video: Anthony Romero and Ava Lowery

Mark Molero's Alcove Interview with Greil Marcus on his new book "The Shape of Things to Come" How does prophecy affect us? How does it affect the way we live our lives?
Foreign Policy Mag: The World's Top Twenty Intellectuals: How many do you know of?

Arianna Huffington interview on The Alcove with Mark Molaro

Tom Hayden and Naomi Klein in This Brave Nation

Pharyngula: Evolutionary Biologist and the scourge of Young Earthers, PZ Myers has Carnival of the Liberals: Take 67 and other links in Catching up on Old News

At Largely: Seymour Hersh on Covert Action in Iran

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Leadville 100 Training weekend


Today John Courtney and I ran from Twin Lakes to Winfield and back over Hope Pass, about 20 miles. The "official" Leadville Training Weekend ran from Winfield to Hope Pass and returned to Winfield because there was "too much snow" on the north slopes of Hope Pass. We say it wasn't so bad....


John Courtney and last year's winner of the Leadville Trail 100, Anton Krupicka. Anton was returning from the Twin Lakes side for his second ascent of Hope Pass as we came down Hope Pass for the second time....
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Friday, June 27, 2008

Ran to the summit of Pikes Peak this morning before work. Saw five bighorn sheep. 18 miles running starting at 3 A.M.
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14 June, Hatfield-McCoy Marathon


Getting from Colorado to the race start in Williamson, WV was at least as tiring as the actual running of the race. With plane tickets into Charleston, WV @ $650 I finally settled on spending 50,000 of my Skymiles to get there. When I arrived at the COS airport Friday morning at 0700 I learned the first leg to Chicago (ORD) was delayed four hours and had to change to a flight to DED then ORD. In ORD the next flight kept getting delayed until finally it loaded up five hours after my arrival, after which we sat on the tarmac for a couple more hours due to thunderstorms all up and down the east coast. I finally arrived at Charleston at 7:30 PM, picked up a rental car (which I had mistakenly reserved for the day before--which cost me $65 for the extra day -- I'll never use Hotwire again), and drove frantically to Williamson to make the 9 PM deadline for packet pickup. Made it with five minutes to spare and they still gave me a wonderful pasta dinner that was included with the entry fee.

Next morning the forecast was for thunderstorms, but they didn't materialize and I only got rained on for the last two miles and by that time it was a welcome relief from the humidity.

The course was on lush green back country roads with minimal traffic. The crux of the race was an 850' hill that climbed from mile 7.5 to mile 8.5 after which we promptly lost all the elevation we had gained in about a mile and a half. At the half-way point we crossed the river and ran into a small village and turned around and came back over the river and continued the course along the Kentucky side of the river. Here I was able to see everyone from the race leader to those as far as four minutes behind me. I was in fifth at this point. I ran alone all the way to about mile 24 when I heard what I thought was a wild boar snorting in the woods. When I looked back it turned out to be a middle-aged runner. I talked myself into thinking he was in his mid-40's as he trotted past me. Later I found out he was 55! I won my age group (50-54) though. 6th overall.
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Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Economist.com: Its Mine I Tell You: Mankind’s inner chimpanzee refuses to let go. This matters to everything from economics to law

Spencer Ackerman: Nixonland: Oh My, He's so Gangster

WaPost: Bill McKibben: End of the Open Road: The Land of the Perpetual Frontier Meets $4-a-Gallon Gas

Alternet: Eat Shit and Die: Contaminated Veggies Are the Meat Industry’s Fault

Google Video: The Fourth World War

My brother Doug blogs on HuffPo: Gardasil or Guard your Girls

New World Order - BLACKWATER : military industrial complex

The Cost of War

Monday, June 23, 2008

Some Links from your browsing pleasure...

Chris Floyd says: Torturegate: Truth, but no Consequences

Raw Story: Bush "War Crimes Conference" to convene in Mass., plan prosecution of administration officials

Sanity from Time Mag: Will more Oil Drilling Mean Cheaper Gas? short answer, no

DailyKos: Sacrificing ANWR for 3.5 cents a gallon, and Too Little, Too Late


UK's The Herald: Are we Ready for this Financial Storm?
Is Peak Oil already affecting the Market?

Robert Hirsch, author of 2005 Pentagon Report on Peak Oil, says: Energy Future: A Period of Significant Discomfort

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Tonight I watched a bit of C-Span testimony on the ignominious torture hearings by the House Judicial Committee. The honorable Lawrence Wilkerson, a true patriot, testified. One statement he gave resonated to the highest mountaintop by the name of Pikes behind my humble dwelling and thence assuredly reverberated across the plains from eastern Colorado all the way to the den of iniquity in D.C. That is, America is only an idea. If we as a nation countenance torture and strip away our rights in the name of "fighting terrorism" then the terrorist have won. America as an idea. It is assuredly not the buildings and the concrete and wheat fields. America is an ideal. The "terrorists" achieve victory when they extinguish the idea that was America. I fear they have already succeeded....

The Impossible Dream -- Man of La Mancha

Democracy Now!: Citing Iraq War, Renowned Attorney Vincent Bugliosi Seeks “The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder”

General Taguba, who probed Abu Ghraib says Bush officials committed war crimes... And then there is this 148-page report from Physicians for Human Rights: Broken Laws, Broken Lives: Medical Evidence of Torture by US Personnel and Its Impact. Shame, shame Amerika. Shame, shame Bush enablers and Bush sycophants. The lowest rung of Hell is what you deserve.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Faux Christians
Institute for Critical Animal Studies Be sure and check out the on-line Journal for elegant essays like this one: Prairie Wolf

The Atlantic: Is Google making us Stupid?

Mark Lynas writes for the Guardian: Climate Chaos is Inevitable: We can only avert Oblivion. Mark Lynas wrote "6 Degrees Warmer" which was made into a compelling National Geographic documentary. Mark blogs here.

Tom Paine's Corner: Evolve or Die: Can we shed our Moral Primitivism before it's too late?

The Big Picture (on Capital Markets and market meltdowns)
The Independent: Nature Laid Waste: The Destruction of Africa The massive scale of environmental devastation across the continent has been fully revealed for the first time in an atlas compiled by UN geographers.

EXPLOSIVE: CIA Insider: CIA Blackmailed Officials So "Bush Family" Could Profit From War

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Orion Mag: From the Faraway Nearby: Revolutions per Minute: Radical transformation is all around us

by Rebecca Solnit

Youtube: Mark Molero interviews Byron Hurt on his film, "Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes"

Very refreshing interview of a complex film maker by the always sensitive Mark Molero

Nassim Nicholas Taleb: the prophet of boom and doom

Larisa Alexandrovna on HuffPo speaks out on the 35 articles of Impeachment read last night on the House floor by one of the only patriots left standing in this sorry excuse for a nation: The Truth Gagged and Hidden