The soul has greater need of the ideal than the real for it is by the real that we exist, it is by the ideal that we live

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

How do they do it?

I've become convinced that the Kansas City Royals are engaged in a conspiracy to make me have blood pressure issues. 

How is it possible to start he inning with a 3 run lead and by the and of it be down by 2?  My jaw and the floor are becoming well acquainted this spring.

Ray Lahood is my new hero.  Yes, you read that right, Former Republican Congressman Ray LaHood is da man!

He wants to give bicycling a voice in American transportation. I was dumbfounded when I read that on ridemonkey.  Amazing, someone realizes that it's a form of transportation and not just a toy.

Truckers associations are not happy with the notion they might have to share some of their tax booty though, you can bet they'll fight LaHood tooth and nail.

My case is this.  I live exactly 4.5 miles from one of my jobs.  I live 8.2 miles from the other job.  I could and would happily bike to both.  Problem?  No way to do it in any expedient manner without riding on a busy street, which in rush hour is not gonna happen.  Not only by my own safety standards,but by the simple logic that I'd get killed by some idiot either driving with a cell phone in one hand and a Jeep Cherokee in the other, or be purposely run down.  Yes I've had people aim their cars at me while riding on the shoulder.

There ARE  bits and pieces of bike paths between one of the jobs and here, but they're circuitous and patchwork, and they add time and miles to the ride. Why can there not be a bike path alongside those busy thoroughfares for us bike riders?

No reason at all, except money.  The RNC spent $1946 last month on a visit to Voyeur, I have to wonder how much bike path that would buy.

So props to y and the DOT!  It's one of the few reasons I think this administration will need to be a two-term administration. (If Sarah Palin would just get the nomination that'd be possible)

These past few days I've seen lots of cyclists on the road, and they're no longer bashful about taking their share of the road. unfortunately that'll stop when motorists pick off a few of them, which happens every year. I agree that the only way to get our share of the road is to take it and refuse to give it up to cars, but it's a risky proposition.


I don't see the Catholics in the news today. Which makes me wonder what they're up to. Gotta keep an eye on those bastards.

I may have been hasty in my appraisal of the college in the west.  I found a form on my desk that I should have sent with the packet on the 25th, they let me email it to them. This means several things 1. they did get  my packet. 2. The search committee hasn't made any decisions yet. 3. My concern that they haven't taken the job off the website yet is unfounded because I realized that they keep them up and post the addendum (interviews scheduled) (interviewing) etc. after the job title during the process.

So it may not be over after all. And that's only the job I'm interested in at this point, there should be others soon. April is renewal month after all.

A new computer may be in my future soon.  this one has crashed twice in the last week.  I'm pretty sure it's because of software I installed though so when I get a chance tomorrow I'm going to take it back off and hope the problem goes away.  A new computer isn't in the IRS's budget this month.  

Update:

I spoke too soon:

By Philip Pullella
updated 30 minutes ago
VATICAN CITY - Gay groups and politicians condemned Pope Benedict's number two on Wednesday for calling homosexuality a "pathology" and linking it directly to sexual abuse of children.
The comments made by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone during a visit to Chile, and the controversy they caused, were splashed on mainstream Italian newspapers on Wednesday.
The French foreign ministry and some Catholic blogs that support the pope also condemned the cardinal's remarks.


As the scandal over sexual abuse of children by priests has spread, some in the Catholic Church have called for a review of the Church's rule that prohibits priests from marrying, saying marriage would allow priests to enjoy a healthy sex life.
Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, who is sometimes called the "deputy pope," told a news conference in Santiago on Monday:
"Many psychologists and psychiatrists have shown that there is no link between celibacy and pedophilia, but many others have shown, I have recently been told, that there is a relationship between homosexuality and pedophilia.
"This pathology is one that touches all categories of people, and priests to a lesser degree in percentage terms," he said. "The behavior of the priests in this case, the negative behavior, is very serious, is scandalous."
Gay rights activists reacted with derision and outrage.
"This is a scientific absurdity. The World Health Organization calls homosexuality a variation of human behavior. It is pedophilia that is a pathology, a crime, not homosexuality," said Franco Grillini, a former parliamentarian who was at the vanguard of Italy's gay rights movement.
"Because they have their own problems with the abuse crisis and don't know how to handle it, they are trying to pass their 'cross' from their shoulders on to ours," Grillini told Reuters.
The French foreign ministry called it an "unacceptable linkage that we condemn."
Criticism from Catholic blogSome pro-Vatican Catholic blogs said more controversy was the last thing the Vatican needed.
"Pedophilia and homosexuality: Bertone trips up — again — on gays," read a post in the Italian-language "Blog of the Friends of Pope Ratzinger."
It said the pope might now have to "clean up the mess made by his right-hand man."
A front-page editorial in Rome's left-leaning La Repubblica newspaper titled "The Confusion in the Church" said Bertone's comments would end up causing the Church more "harm to itself, not homosexuals."
Bertone was also criticized by Alessandra Mussolini, a right-wing parliamentarian whose grandfather, wartime Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, sent gays into internal exile.

"You can't link sexual orientation to pedophilia ... this link risks becoming dangerously misleading for the protection of children," Mussolini said.
ArciLesbica, Italy's main lesbian rights group, accused the Vatican of using "violent and deceptive statements" to divert attention from its abuse scandal and said Italian parents should consider removing their children from Church-run institutions.
The pope did not make any direct reference to the crisis facing the Church during his weekly general audience.
He may address the issue when he visits Malta this weekend. Ten Maltese men who are suing three priests for alleged child abuse have requested a private meeting with the pope.
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said he could not say if a meeting would take place. The pope has met victims of sexual abuse during trips to the United States and Australia.

And so it goes: