tRoPpMaNn-On A wIrE

So, when I used to edit a newspaper I had one rule, well, that isn’t true, I had MANY rules but one thing that really bugged the shit out of me was “journalists” who insisted on writing interviews in a question/answer format. I would send writers back to their keyboards all pissed off that the huge piece they “wrote” had to be made into an actual story.

It’s like an editor or publisher asking someone to transfer something from a tape recorder and expecting them to get paid for it. I find it lazy. I find it insulting to the reader.

I get a lot of biking magazines for the bathroom. It only seems fitting that some of the trash in these rags be brought to my attention there.

In the May issue of Bicycling Magazine on page 34 Pete Williams “interviews” Joe Maddon. Does he paint a picture about why Mr. Maddon rides a bike? Nope. Does he create some mood or a sense of feeling while writing his piece? Nope. It goes like this:

Why did you start riding?
In 2001 or ’02…..blah blah blah

There is no way I would pay his column inch fee for such laziness. If I cared why Mr. Maddon got on a bike in the first place I would want a picture painted by the writer to express the real reason why he was newsworthy.

Bicycling Magazine’s advertisers should be offended that they have paid huge fees to see this kind of laziness placed between their ads.

It’s everywhere; from Rapha’s Rouleur to Bicycle Times. The people who do this call themselves writers. I call them professional transcribers or even clerks. I wouldn’t call them journalists.

I will put my money where my mouth is.

We sit down with world renowned professional messenger bag maker Isaac Grigsby of Chicago Wig. He drinks a cold Sierra Nevada while he puts his feet up on his sewing machine.

He has just completed his 706th messenger bag. He wears the drab smile of someone who loves his work but doesn’t like giving up the creative control of being an artist.

“The main reason I make them is because I see each one as a work of art,” he says while taking a long sip. “I love making them. That’s why I will not go out and ‘enjoy life’. I’m enjoying it in my own way.”

He admires his handy work laying on the blue cutting table, “I have to also add that there is an amazing feeling I get when I see one going down the street. They’re not just things. They are a part of me.”

He chuckles to himself at this self realization and watches Sasha (his rabbit) hop across the floor.

“I did not pay someone to make something and slap my name on it. I hunted down the raw goods and then with a set of ingrained skills formed and manipulated the materials into a useful thing. That’s something you don’t get much of in this world.”

It’s just that simple.

because this shit is going on….

DeMint, speaking Jan. 27 at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., explained the Obama administration will “create crisis and widespread panic” just like its predecessor in order to get Congress to act expeditiously.

“I’ve been around long enough to know whenever someone tells me I have to make a decision right now, my response is no,” DeMint said. “That clears it up right away and I think more and more the Bush administration and now this administration knows that they’re not going to get a quick reaction out of Congress unless they create crisis and widespread panic. And that’s going to be their M.O. to get Congress to act.”

Another senator, James Inhofe, R-Okla., explained the Bush administration used a similar tactic, under the direction of former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, to get the $700-billion TARP bailout bill passed by Congress back on Oct. 4, 2008.

DeMint said some Republicans now regret they voted for the TARP package, even though there is no way to gauge what might have happened had it not been passed.

i am sorry i refuse to jump on this bandwagon. everyone has forgotten that WE are leaders of this country, not one man…this is a democracy and you have to fight for it and keep people focused on what is really important…

obama voted for the patriot act…he has help curb my freedoms…and everyone is jumping up and down?

his speech today:

“We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.”

apparently, he doesn’t understand the meaning of separation of church and state. bush didn’t push the god button this hard.

no, i don’t share everyone’s hope. I know better. i am not naive. the rest of you? well, you are acting like brain dead kids who just got a bike for xmas and aren’t thinking about the realistic issues at stake here.

he is just a man. he has just become a politician. he has to EARN our trust, you don’t just give it to him blindly and expect everything to be all peachey. you all all did that with bush (yes, you did, while he was signing your rights away most of you didnt do shit) and he has pushed this country to fascism. until he has earned that trust…us, and many others will be watching, because if it is too good to be true, then it probably is.

if this changes i am out of here….

HJ 5 IH

111th CONGRESS

1st Session

H. J. RES. 5

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the twenty-second article of amendment, thereby removing the limitation on the number of terms an individual may serve as President.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

January 6, 2009

Mr. SERRANO introduced the following joint resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

JOINT RESOLUTION

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the twenty-second article of amendment, thereby removing the limitation on the number of terms an individual may serve as President.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years after the date of its submission for ratification:

`Article–

`The twenty-second article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.’.

END

i was just walking past the federal building in Chicago. it is surrounded by homeland security (secret police) and a huge fence.

Free country huh? looks like a police state to me….I want my constition back. If Obama doesn’t deliver i am leaving the country and my passport while i am at it.

what is even more fucked up is that people are walking past this and they think this ok, that this is normal. it is not.  this is not the way a gevrenment is supposed to behave toward its citizens.

the founding farthers of this country, like myself, are very upset about this, it must change. homeland security needs to be abolished and the patriot act.

apparently they dont know what freedom means….banning gay marraige? wow. i wont be visiting your state in a long time…and i will no longer visit arkansa, arizona or florida…

man you all suck….doesnt the supreme court have a job to do?

can we stop this already?

Why did daylight saving time (DST) start, and why does it still continue? When asking a random sample of people we heard two answers again and again: “To help the farmers” or “Because of World War I … or was it World War II?”In fact, farmers generally oppose daylight saving time. In Indiana, where part of the state observes DST and part does not, farmers have opposed a move to DST. Farmers, who must wake with the sun no matter what time their clock says, are greatly inconvenienced by having to change their schedule in order to sell their crops to people who observe daylight saving time.

it’s freaking retarded….and needs to go away…

Dear Mr. Waguespack, Alderman Ward 32, Chicago:

I am just going to cut to the chase here.

Comcast has had a monopoly on the Chicago internet/cable market for far too long. I do not have access to any competitors and have no choice when it comes to my internet/cable provider. RCN, AT&T, Qwest, Verizon? Not one of these companies can provide me better, less expensive service (which they provide elsewhere) to the Chicago area, only Comcast has this area in a choke hold.

I have been trying to get away from them for five years now. I can’t find ONE ISP/Cable provider who can wire my residence without having to go THROUGH Comcast. I am turning to my local government to please help open this market to fair competition.

A high school economics student can even see that Comcast is monopoly which “…exists when a specific individual or enterprise has sufficient control over a particular product or service to determine significantly the terms on which other individuals shall have access to it.”

In this country that is illegal, especially the second point:
“Competition law, known in the United States as antitrust law, has three main elements:
* prohibiting agreements or practices that restrict free trading and competition between business entities. This includes in particular the repression of cartels.
* banning abusive behavior by a firm dominating a market, or anti-competitive practices that tend to lead to such a dominant position. Practices controlled in this way may include predatory pricing, tying, price gouging, refusal to deal, and many others.
* supervising the mergers and acquisitions of large corporations, including some joint ventures. Transactions that are considered to threaten the competitive process can be prohibited altogether, or approved subject to “remedies” such as an obligation to divest part of the merged business or to offer licenses or access to facilities to enable other businesses to continue competing.”

I am not alone on my feelings about this and I would like you to put this issue on your agenda. If not, I would, please, like to know why.

Thank you for your time and have a great day.

instruments of war flying around chicago.

on a side note…metra shitty has a shitty bike policy….

“Additionally, bicycles are not allowed on trains this weekend.”

See my previous opinion…idiots…

according to this, i would be even more scared than i am right now:

There’s going to be an i-9/11 event. Which doesn’t necessarily mean an Al Qaeda attack, it means an event where the instability or the insecurity of the internet becomes manifest during a malicious event which then inspires the government into a response. You’ve got to remember that after 9/11 the government drew up the Patriot Act within 20 days and it was passed.

The Patriot Act is huge and I remember someone asking a Justice Department official how did they write such a large statute so quickly, and of course the answer was that it has been sitting in the drawers of the Justice Department for the last 20 years waiting for the event where they would pull it out.

Of course, the Patriot Act is filled with all sorts of insanity about changing the way civil rights are protected, or not protected in this instance. So I was having dinner with Richard Clarke and I asked him if there is an equivalent, is there an i-Patriot Act just sitting waiting for some substantial event as an excuse to radically change the way the internet works. He said “of course there is”.

i thought you were our hope for change:

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
-Benjamin Franklin

yet the skating continues…