Hyper Gumbo

I’m watching the end of Fox News’ election coverage, waiting for the local news to start up, and they are interviewing Ralph Nader.  The fox anchor brings up a statement Ralph made to someone else earlier, that it remained to be seen if Obama would turn out to be all americans have hoped for, or “just an Uncle Tom for big business”.  It seemed pretty obvious that the fox guy thought Ralph had just mis-spoken, and tried to give him a chance to reword his worries in a little less offensive manner, but Ralph was having none of it, and really making a total ass of himself.  I can understand once again, how my friend who used to work with Ralph back in the ’70s, could have such a low opinion of the man.  It was pretty obvious that his pride was more important than the message he’d intended to send.  It DOES remain to be seen how well Obama will turn out in practice.  George W said a lot of stuff about uniting the country in his acceptance speech too.

But everyone knows, you won’t get anyone to listen that far into your statement, if you start it off with racist shit like that.

I feel like starting a new tradition today, the Obama Tree.

(The die is cast, latin)

My vote is in the mail.  If only tv-advertising could be aware of that fact, and not keep annoying me with commecials for/against different parties, policies, and whatnots.

At least the rain stopped long enough that the roads had dried out enough, I was willing to scooter over to the post office.  First trip attempt since purchasing a scarf.  I will need to try some different ways of putting that on.  Today’s choice was less than fully effective, and made me paranoid that it was going to fly off me, and onto the windshield of the car behind me, in some cartoon-capers-esque prelude to a disaster.  Thankfully, this trip went without incident.

In anticipation of the electric scooter (vespa-style, not hoverround-style) I ordered, I’ve been investigating vehicle and driver registration and insurance type stuff.  The call to State Farm was kind of funny,

SF: “How many cc’s is the bike?”

me: “none, it’s electric”

SF: “How many cc’s is the bike?”

me: “um, they said it’s classed as a 49cc moped, er scooter, no cycle endorsement required class”

But in the end, without a VIN, it was really just a guessing game for her.  But it does sound like they’ll cover it.

The plates seem straightforward.  It’s when I get to the cycle-driver’s endorsement, that things get strange again.  Seems in washington you have two choices.  You can go to the DMV, take a written and driven test, and get your license AND an instructor’s permit.  Or you can go to a driving school, take their course, and get a waiver for both written and driven tests, but you get no instructor’s permit.  Given that the Novice Course nearest my house (but almost certainly out of range for the electric given I’m basing it at work, where they’ve agreed to pay to charge it up) is booked solid through October, seems like it would be a piece of cake to take the test at the DMV, get my instructor’s permit alongside my endorsement, and then recoup the cost by giving a couple of classes myself.

I suspect in practicallity, the insurance and location requirements prevent people from actualy doing that too often.  I dunno.  I’ll have to stop in a motorcycle store and ask around.

I recognize that athletes are in a tough spot, thru no fault of their own.  When some now-16-year-old gymnast first started their long road to being an olympic level athlete, who could have guessed China would be sponsoring the games this year.  But they are, and they are doing what they do worst, in Tibet, in Darfur, in their own homeland.  As I see it, your duty to humanity is far greater than your selfish desire for fame.  If you decide to participate in the China olympics, you choose to give up your humanity, you have deliberately made a choice to stand on the side of repression and murder and genocide.  

Now if you’re an american athlete, you don’t have a whole lot of moral standing to make the case, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t.  If you’re from a country that has avoided the war on terror morass, you should know better.

Shame on you for competing.

Shame on you for watching.

Shame on you for donating.

As I’m driving to work, some dinkleberry riding my tail literally 75% of the trip, even when there were plenty of opportunities to pass on the highway, it occurred to me how useful a police state would be sometimes.  Then I think about the new speeding-camera system.