On lance and other idiots

This is a snip of an exchange between me and an idiot on one of the discussion groups I belong to. It was in a thread discussing the tactics of the hard-right christian fundamentalists in this election cycle. The other participant - 'chris' - is one of those fundies.

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On Sep 15, 8:34 pm, zencycle wrote:

> On Sep 13, 4:10 pm, Chris wrote:
> Zen, w/all due respect you're a brain washed Boston liberal

followed with:

> And I'll complete the statement that I would never, EVER vote for a
> Muslim of any sort.

Right, and _i'm_ the brainwashed one.....

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The delusion is complete. Or is it? We were treated last week to another display of ego maniacal bravado, lance coming out of retirement.

Now, I have to say I'm a lance fan, and always have been.
I was quite disappointed when he retired. I thought, 'ok, so now take your shots at the giro and vuelta for a few years, or at least concentrate on the spring classics and maybe the world championships'. But, he decided it was time, and I accepted it. but now, he wants to come back and race the tour. Why? what is there to prove? I still think it would be in the better interest of cycling to concentrate on a more diverse palmares portfolio.

There's some sort of psychosis going on here. I don't understand it, it could be a simple case of egomania, though it seems more complicated than that. Maybe he just needs to get laid, though it's pretty obvious he doesn't handle intimate relationships too well.

The character 'chris' from the discussion group has made some pretty audacious comments. He has stated unapologeticly that if we allow gay marriage in this country, it will lead to our nation becoming a muslim caliphate - his exact words were 'will lead to sharia law'. He's convinced that his version of christianity is the only true version, and that makes him uniquely qualified to determine who else is a true christian, or not.

I'm not sure what lance is convinced of, but I know he's not convinced the world has had enough of him. I think we have, and I think, unless he comes back on the same form he went out on, it will be merely a side show to the already damaged image of cycling around the world. Contador has shown - between the giro and vuelta this year - that he's ready to be the new boss of the peloton. Lance coming back is merely an arrogant slap to his success.

It's a weird vague link in my twisted mind between the two, and it comes down to arrogance and ego. Unchecked, it's never a good thing. Lance, I feel, will not help the image and direction of cycling, and could even damage it. Chris, I _know_ will not help the image and direction of this country, and will end up damaging it. The only real difference is that there are alot of chris' out there, and only one lance. Lance may actually damage the sport (worst case), but he won't destroy it. Ten million christian zealots, convinced that this country should be ruled under the laws of the their bible, could certainly destroy us.

On a different note, I signed up for the Bob Beal Stage race a couple of weeks ago. since I was injured in february, I hadn't even bothered to buy my license to that point. so I bought my license specifically for that race. It was summarily canceled because the promoter was wary of the turn out and didn't want to incur a loss.

So instead of racing, I fucked around a bit, and drank more than I should have.

There are other races coming up, the protsmouth crit....jamestown...I'd love to try cyclocross but I'm just not confident of the achilles tear handling the dismounts and running.

I'll be running some...lightly....per doctors orders.

Long weekend MTB excursions seem to be in my future.

As the road racing season closes, and the election season goes super nova, here's what I hope:

I hope Lance realizes he cannot compete at the level he was hoping, and quietly goes away.

I hope America realizes that christian fundamentalism is just as bad as muslim fundamentalism and sends 'god-n-guns palin' packing.

I hope I can actually run a 5 mile race by the end of the year.

Hmmm....it _is_ all about me.......

My New Sig

While ignorance is nothing to be proud of, it's also nothing you should be ashamed to admit.

Lipstick On A Pitbull

This is the self-analogy Governer Palin made last week. The entire analogy went: "what's the difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull? Lipstick" Effectively, she compared herself to an animal that is bred to fight other animals of the same breed in a pit, sometimes to the death. In addition, if the animal does not perform the the owners satisfaction, the owner will kill the dog.

Pitbull owners will defend the animals as being quite pleasant natured, and lay the blame on the owners. Truth be told, however, a 'pleasant natured' pit bull will not be bred, and will usually be killed, unless it's lucky enough to be adopted. Make no mistake about it, however, Pitbulls are bred for their temperament. An aggressive and tenacious dog can defeat a less aggressive dog, even if the less aggressive dog is bigger and stronger.

This leads me to question why she would pick such an analogy. The image of a mother, devoid of compassion, singularly devoted to the goal of killing her opponent, is not one that I particularly feel is appropriate for the second in command to this great nation of ours.

Analogies aside, her behavior so far in this campaign has confirmed that temperament.

we know that, as mayor of Wasilla, she faced a recall only months after her election, in the wake of her dismissal of town employees who had backed her opponent. The dismissals were made without reason, and it was only after she offered them their jobs back that the recall was canceled.

We know that she demanded the firing of her ex-brother in-law from the state police force. Her supporters claim it was due to conduct issues, but doesn't it seem a bit odd that a governer would take such a heavy interest in the case of one lowly state trooper, never mind the appearance of conflict of interest?

Then we have the infamous 'I turned down the bridge to nowhere' claim, Which we now know to at the very least to be a gross distortion of the truth. At the very least, as someone who allegedly was taking an interest in waste full government spending, She had no qualms in keeping the money.

Mccain followed this up with blatantly stealing the democratic agenda of change.

Now we have the latest example of hypocrisy from the palin people, the accusation of a sexist remark from obama, for calling the mccain 'change' plan 'lipstick on a pig'.

She already compared herself to a fighting dog with lipstick, as well as making public statements denigrating women in politics who hide behind sexism as defense against political attacks.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/156288?tid=relatedcl

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5idXGJ--46zUaCW46nTZqmUhj0SVQ

Yet, Now, she pulls the sexist card herself, even in the wake of mccain himself using EXACTLY the same rhetoric in referring to hillary clintons health care plan.

What we see is a man who claims to be independent and yet has become just another cog in the GOP attack machine, complete with the abject hypocrisy and lies they used on him in the 2000 primary season.

I think this response from the obama campaign says it well:

"The McCain campaign's attack tonight is a pathetic attempt to play the gender card about the use of a common analogy - the same analogy that Senator McCain himself used about Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's health care plan just last year," she continued. "This phony lecture on gender sensitivity is the height of cynicism and lays bare the increasingly dishonorable campaign John McCain has chosen to run."


I'm an optimist. I see the wheels flying off the 'straight talk express' as the bus heads down a north slope oil field into a heard of caribou, then blaming the democrats for not allowing them to pave the route and exercise mass aerial culling of the caribou heard. (yes, I know the aerial hunting program is supposed to cull predators and not caribou, but the way these motherfuckers lie, I'm sure they twist it around somehow). Then I see the american public seeing the mccain/palin ticket for what it is: A former independent and respected conservative brainwashed by the neoconservative military industrial complex and his pet pitbull, bred by the neocons for only one purpose.

The question is, if she fails, will they politically euthanize her?

Pleasant surprises

I'd like to say 'I really need to take up track cycling', but the closest track to me is in londonderry, New Hampshire, and I find it highly doubtful I'd ever walk into the 'drome and be able catch a glimpse of anyone remotely resembling Victoria Pendleton:



In fact, I'm thinking I could walk into 99% of the 'dromes in the US, and not see anyone remotely resembling Victoria Pendleton.



I followed the link from Burt Friggin Hoovis' blog:
http://olympicgirls.net/victoria-pendleton/

She _does_ have her own web site (google it) but I can't to to it from work.

Enjoy!

No Rest for The Wicked

Since I've decided to take a late season plunge and participate in the Bob Beal Stage Race, I'm putting some heavy mileage in this week.

Starting on sunday, I went on a 4 hour tour of the bucolic vistas of southeastern new hampshire.


The group ride was actually closer to 3:30, but I rode to and from the event for another 6 or so miles. I wasn't quite sure what to expect for the ride, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to pre-eat and drink heartily, which turned out to be a wise decision. The ride was somewhat tame for the first 50-ish miles. I was content for that part just to stay with the lead group, even thought the plan was for the group to stay together. We ended up coming through Exeter and linking up on the return leg of the Tuesday night BOB ride, aka The Tuesday Night Fights. One of the more prolific members of BOB started to laydown these 27 MPH pulls on the flats, to which there were no complaints. The group quickly broke in half, with about 7 of us turning it into a more spirited training ride, while the other ten or so took the 'Sunday Ride' moniker to heart. I complimented Big Johns 27 mph pulls with 26 mph pulls of my own, making sure that no more than two riders went away from the group at a time. Coming into what is usually the big finish on tuesdays, our own Solobreak made a hard effort that easily gaped the group, but as soon as I saw Big John making the bridge I hopped on his wheel. I assumed that Solo didn't know here the sprint line was, but I also assumed that Big John did. as we hit the finishing stretch, I went for the sprint expecting several people to come around me - no one did. It turns out that no one went after the three of us, so I was sprinting against two guys that didn't know where the finish was - sorry, but claiming a win when you're the only one playing doesn't count regardless of what the bush administration tells us. For the day, I got 75 miles in just under 4 hours, not bad considering the social nature of the first 2/3rds of the ride.

Yesterday, I went to the Tuesday Night Fights. This ride is essentially from plaistow to exeter and back. I typically take the first half easy, then start working on the way back. Last night we had a smaller turnout, so I did way more work in the first half than I'm used to including a solo effort over a hill with a townline sprint at the top and well past it. I didn't get caught until the bottom of the next downhill. On the way back BOBs own Indomitable Dr. "downtown" Shea kept pushing the pace as usual. Since the group was smaller, I didn't have the recovery between pulls I usually do, and the relentless chasing of The Good Doctor started to wear on me. At one point, I said "I'm done" and went to the back of the group. Dr. Shea and Duano put a small gap on the group, but others took up the chase. On the last stiff climb on the ride, I took my own pace, not intense, not even riding at AT. I assumed I had the group on my wheel since I took the climb much easier than usual and had two riders next to me at the top. At the bottom of the subsequent downhill, it leads into a longish rise. I set a comfortable pace, again thinking I had the group with me. At the top of the rise I pulled off and the only person with me was the Incubus, Aka The Bad Doctor Blondin. He took the pull through the downhill, and I simply maintained the pace up over the next rise. There was no one in sight but him at the top. I really didn't want to ride with him (no one does) and I knew he hasn't been training or racing this year, so on the next rise I pushed the pace again. I dropped him like a hot rock. Not that it's anything to brag about, but it felt good. The group caught me on the next series of downhills, and at the end I did my usual Tuesday night effort at the end of pulling hard through the last couple corners and letting the guys behind sprint. Last Night stats - including the ride from work to the ride, then home - 58 miles in just under 3 hours.

Tonight, I'm planning a recovery ride of ~ 30 miles
Thursday, some hill intervals, again ~ 30 miles.
Friday, a simple commute.

With any luck I'll have hit 250 miles by the time I get home friday.

Since I have to bee a fucking landlord at my money pit in manch-vegas for the better part of this weekend, I'm not sure I'll get too much riding in, but next week will be an easy low-mileage week to rest up for Bob Beal.