John McCain hates bears

McCain Sees Pork Where Scientists See Success – washingtonpost.com

“Approach a bear: ‘That bear cub over there claims you are his father, and we need to take your DNA.’ Approach another bear: ‘Two hikers had their food stolen by a bear, and we think it is you. We have to get the DNA.’ The DNA doesn’t fit, you got to acquit, if I might.”

The title of the article on the Post RSS feed is better – “McCain Criticizes Bear Study”. Of course he does! None of the bears even had degrees! Anyway, I think he’s upset that we spent the equivalent of the budget for 48 seconds of the Iraq war on something that didn’t involve shooting at or otherwise endangering Muslims. Was that a cheap shot? Oops. Honestly, I do not understand the planet that John McCain lives on. I don’t know how rational human beings can listen to him and think, “Yeah, okay, President McCain, that would be cool”.

Give Maryland its wine in the mail already

Maryland HB-1260 Killed

The opposition is in the form of big, big money from the liquor distributors. Make no mistake about it, they spend millions to keep consenting adults from getting wine shipped to them.

So, Maryland is one of those crazy states that feels that having wine delivered in the mail is going to somehow be a terrible thing. The primary opposition to the shipping of wine to Maryland is not Maryland wineries, worried about what it might do to their business. The primary opposition is liquor distributors who do not understand the business they are in. If you all would allow me a Techdirt moment here: The business of shipping alcohol in the mail is not a zero sum game. Every case of wine shipped to a customer in Maryland does NOT mean one fewer case of liquor shipped to a customer in Maryland. In fact, I would be willing to bet that people who get wine shipped to their house are much more likely to get liquor shipped to their house, as well. We’re not talking about the market for wine vs. the market for liquor. We’re talking about the market for alcoholic beverages in the mail. If the liquor distributors would stop being jerks, maybe they could get together with the wine distributors and grow the entire market space. But no, they’d rather keep stupid laws on the books and fight with each other. Nice job, guys.

Well done, Toyota

ESPN – Kyle Busch needed more than his immense talent to nab Toyota’s first win – Nascar

Toyota general manager Lee White stood just inside the iron fence that surrounds Victory Lane at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday and watched Kyle Busch celebrate the first Sprint Cup win for the foreign manufacturer.

Frankly, most of this article is about whining and accusing others of cheating (Which seems to be an all too familiar refrain in all of sports these days), but what caught my eye is that Toyota has its first NASCAR Sprint cup win. I was a NASCAR fan for a couple of years – Dale Earnhardt’s first win at Daytona was the first race I ever watched, and the second race I saw was live at Daytona, the Pepsi 400 in 1998. By the way, I find it amusing that the Pepsi 400 is now known as the Coke Zero 400. Nice job, Coke. It’s interesting to see Toyota coming in. Never mind that Toyota doesn’t have a single car with a V-8 engine. NASCAR doesn’t seem to care that the cars on the track bear basically no resemblance to the production cars they’re named for. And it’s weird to see the 18 car not be Bobby Labonte’s green Interstate Batteries car. Anyway, I haven’t really paid any attention to NASCAR since 2004 or so, but I would have liked to have been there for Toyota’s first win. I wonder if the 300 pound guy in overalls and no shirt with a #3 shaved in his back that I saw at Daytona one year was watching. I’ll bet he was, and I’ll bet he said something disparaging about Toyota at some point in the race.

Saint Patrick’s Day 8K

DSC_8371 I ran my third race this morning, the Saint Patrick’s Day 8K, right down Pennsylvania Avenue. Mayor Fenty gave us a brief pep talk before the race, and then ran with us. I didn’t actually see him, but he finished well ahead of me, I believe. I’ll let you know when they post the results later this afternoon. I’m pretty happy with my race. I don’t know my exact time, but the race clock was about 41 minutes. Since I didn’t start at the front, my actual time is probably 20 seconds or so less than that. Regardless, my average mile time was under nine minutes for the whole five mile race, which was my goal. Edit: 41:07 was my time. That’s 136/386 in my age group, 25-29. Average mile time of 8:17. And I was 738/4045 total, 565/1834 males. Mayor Fenty ran it in 32:20. The wife took some great pictures, one of which you can see here. The rest of the good ones are all up at Flickr. She is, as they say, a real trooper. Race time temperature was barely above freezing, and the wind chill made it feel like it was about 20 F. I have another race coming up in April, the Race to Stop the Silence. This will be my second time running it. It was my first race ever, last year, although they’ve changed the location. It was downtown on Ohio Drive by the water. Now it’s still on the water, but over in Anacostia. Big downgrade, as far as I can tell. But I think the Cherry Blossoms are the same weekend, so that’s probably why they moved it.

2 driving violations

On my way to work, I travel about 10 miles on a strech of highway.&nbsp_place_holder; From 5 am – 9 am and again from 3 pm – 7 pm, the outside lane is designated as a carpool lane.&nbsp_place_holder; Allowed vehicles:&nbsp_place_holder; hybrids, motorcycles, and cars with more than one occupant.&nbsp_place_holder; I’m fine with the first two and would only modify that the 3rd condition to allow for cars with 2 licensed drivers (sorry soccer moms).&nbsp_place_holder;

  1. &nbsp_place_holder; On my way to work (around 11 am), I was travelling along in the outer lane.&nbsp_place_holder; Outside of the commuter hours listed above, this lane should then be assumed to be the fast lane.&nbsp_place_holder; If you are driving slowly, move over to the middle lane or the far right lane.&nbsp_place_holder; You are driving slowly if someone is tailgating you and/or your speed is anywhere near 65 mph.&nbsp_place_holder; I come upon an OLD VW BEETLE putzing along at 60 mph in this outside lane.&nbsp_place_holder; Seriously, folks, buy a clue.

2.&nbsp_place_holder; On my way home (around 6:15 pm), a yellow Lotus passed me in that outer lane during the commuter time.&nbsp_place_holder; There was no way there was a passenger.&nbsp_place_holder; I say fine him $1000 / (fuel economy in mpg).&nbsp_place_holder; This makes violators with gas guzzlers pay more for flaunting the law.

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getting old

i swear i never got very sore after flag football games until this season.&nbsp_place_holder; there have always been bruises, abrasions, the occasional ruptured achilles tendon & what have you, but generally little (if any) muscle soreness.&nbsp_place_holder; i know i’m not going as hard as i used to when i block…that’s fine…that explains the decrease in bumps and bruises. but i essentially do the same general ‘staying fit’ workouts as i did during past seasons. i would think there shouldn’t be a marked increase in muscle-soreness.&nbsp_place_holder; the only explanation i can think of is i’m getting old.&nbsp_place_holder; and it sucks.&nbsp_place_holder; well worth testing the complaint submission form.&nbsp_place_holder;

Left turn on red

Here in Iowa, it is legal to make a left turn on red ONLY if you are in the left-most lane of a one-way street, turning into the left-most lane of another one-way street. Turning left on red is never legal when you are in the right-most lane of a two-way street. So you dumbasses at Sixth and High, and the MLK exit off 235 – Cut it out!

Smart traffic lights

There is a traffic light about 100 yards from my apartment complex.&nbsp_place_holder; Heading to work (east), the traffic light is “smart.” I define “smart” as follows:&nbsp_place_holder; if there are no cars intending to turn left coming from the opposite direction (i.e. west), then our light turns green.&nbsp_place_holder; However, on the way home (heading west), the light becomes “f*ing stupid.”&nbsp_place_holder; The light turns green for the left turn lane heading east (despite the fact that there are no cars intending to turn left).&nbsp_place_holder; I sit there idly wondering why both directions can’t be “smart.”&nbsp_place_holder; I guess that would defy the laws of traffic intelligence (which is a similar oxymoron as military intelligence).