Read Clinton on Fox News.
Clinton strikes back
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Monthly Archives: September 2006
Massachusetts Primary 2006
Yesterday morning, I got up early to go vote, hoping I could still catch one of the early trains to work. There were a few people waiting at the doors to the school gymnasium. At seven, cellphone time, the nearby church bells tolled the hour, and before their peals ended we were inside.
The results are [here]( http://www.boston.com/news/special/politics/2006_elections/primary_results/#DemLtGovernor). It looks like it will be a Patrick-Murray ticket on the Democratic side.
Ahh, there’s nothing like exercising your right to vote to make you feel virtuous. (Unless your voice doesn’t count, in which case you must feel like a chump.)
The state of our democracy
Mother Jones has some interesting stuff this month:
- A list of the eleven worst places to vote
- A timeline of the lies that led to the war in Iraq
Downer
I’m normally a cheery guy, but I have to admit I’m pessimistic about the future of the planet. Just today I woke up to read about polar bears dying. We humans have just been exploiting the planet willy-nilly for our short-term gains without thinking about the global picture or our responsibility as stewards.
Maybe it’s just an accident of Western-led industrialization, but I’m more inclined to think it’s part and parcel of human nature. Perhaps in any context, a pocket of humans who exploit nature are at an advantage in terms of technology and material comforts, and their numbers grow by both reproduction and affiliation. Moreover, it’s the ultimate tragedy of the commons: we all share the planet, hence we all bear the negative externalities. Thus, a pocket of eco-friendly sustainable-living humans will not reap immediate rewards and its numbers will not grow in the same (almost viral!) fashion—and numbers are what it needs to make a dent by crowding out the polluters.
It’s too bad, because I expect that, within my lifetime, the environmental crisis will grow to proportions we cannot ignore. Not even our affluence will shield us.
Requiem for a bicycle
Today, my friend Arnav gave me a ride to to the Newton police station so we could pick up the remains of my bike. I thought it would be a tangled mess, but it doesn’t look too bad from afar. Get closer, though, and it’s obvious that it is completely totaled. The frame is bent and broken in several places. The spokes are bent. Even the rear rack does not line up with the (rear part of the) frame.
Sigh.
Here are the grim stats of that fateful ride:
| Distance/day: | 4.93 mi |
| Ride time: | 21:50 |
| Avg. speed: | 14.04 mi/hr |
| Max. speed: | 26.5 mi/hr |
My bike served me well. My bike computer reports 2980 miles on the saddle, and I’ve only had it a little over a year.
Eventually, I’ll get a new bike so I can start riding as soon as I’m healed. My more immediate task, however, is daunting: I need to remove the month-old protein shake that’s been sitting in my pannier and stinking up the police station and, now, my apartment.
Speaking of healing, I have the hand splint for two more weeks and then I start rehab—I couldn’t even make a fist yesterday at my follow-up appointment. I am getting a bit of exercise by walking every chance I get; that’s pretty comfortable, even if it does not feel completely normal yet. My left knee is very sensitive, so I am trying to be particularly good to it.
Interesting factoid: My doctor told me that bone is piezoelectric, and that property might help it regenerate. I didn’t know that.