Rook's Rant

To the stats!

• Total Distance: 6.72 miles
• Elapsed riding time: 0.31.56
• Top Speed: 21.7 mph
• Average Speed: 12.6 mph
• iPod: None
  
• Wind: 5 mph NW
  
• Humidity  45%
• Temperature: 59° F

I just did not have it in me to go very far, or very hard. It happens.

I figured it was only a matter of time before the Republicans, in desperation, would find something to use as a clarion call for impeachment. Will they succeed? Probably not. However, it would take up time in the house, preventing any real work from being accomplished, and possibly hold up the economic recovery.

Sigh. What else do they have to throw at the President? It is not like he really destroyed the economy. Indeed, he managed to enact enough legislation to help it slowly improve. And Mitt is simply not going to be able to convince most voters that the economy is tanking due to the President's policies. Meanwhile, the Republican establishment, and it's more rabid extremists (otherwise known as conservatives these days) will certainly not back Mitt. So, that leaves them with only the hope of impeachment.

So, you know, yeah. Go ahead House Republicans. Impeach President Obama. Come on, you know you want to. Oh, sure, it is an election year, but you have moral outrage on your side. As well as God. Or so you have told us many times.

Since the rabid extremists of the Republican Party (did I mention they are otherwise known as conservatives these days?) are anti-intellectual, it means they have not bothered to take history classes. If they did, they would have learned that after the impeachment of the last Democratic President, his approval ratings shot into the mid to upper 80s.

Come on! It is a winning hand! There is no down side to this. So stop pussy footing around and one of you make a motion to start impeachment proceedings. Hell, I have plenty of popcorn.

Do it! I dare you. I double dare you.

To the stats!

• Total Distance: 10.63 miles
• Elapsed riding time: 0.47.25
• Top Speed: 22.9 mph
• Average Speed: 13.4 mph
• iPod: Rock Mix on shuffle
1. The Wallflowers - Bringing Down the Horse - Invisible City
2. The Alan Parsons Project - The Best of The Alan Parsons Project - Eye In The Sky
3. Santana - Greatest Hits - Everybody's Everything
4. Sarah McLachian - Surfacing - Black & White
5. The Beatles - The White Album - Lady Madonna
6. The Beatles - 1967/1970 - While My Guitar Gently Weeps 
7. Wallflowers - Bringing Down the Horse - God Don't Make Lonely Girls
8. The Beatles - 1967/1970 - Something
9. John Lennon - The John Lennon Collection - Mind Games
10. The Beatles - 1967/1970 - Let It Be
11. Melissa Etheridge - Brave & Crazy - Mo Souvenirs
12. The Beatles - White Album - Birthday
13. The Alan Parsons Project - The Best of the Alan Parsons Project - Psychobabble
• Wind: 6 mph SSE
  
• Humidity  29%
• Temperature: 57° F

Yeah, doing much better on the Tour this year.

Seriously, you need to go read the open letter posted by Bryan at "Why Now?" from The Easter Bunny. It is very informative.

To the stats!

• Total Distance: 8.44 miles
• Elapsed riding time: 0.37.18
• Top Speed: 21.6 mph
• Average Speed: 13.5 mph
• iPod: Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II & IV
  
• Wind: 7 mph ENE gusting to 20 mph
  
• Humidity  34%
• Temperature: 53° F

After Tuesday's disappointing speed, today's makes me feel better.

Yes. Two days in a row! To the stats:

• Total Distance: 8.43 miles
• Elapsed riding time: 0.39.58
• Top Speed: 22.7 mph
• Average Speed: 12.6 mph
• iPod: Elton John - Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy
  
• Wind: 12 mph NNE gusting to 20 mph
  
• Humidity  26%
• Temperature: 61 F

Yeah, yeah. I know. A dramatic drop in the average speed today. I did hit major hills today. Well, for Grantsburg they are major. See, the land around town is flat, but the Wood river flows through the heart of Grantsburg, with a wide, relatively tall valley. Compared to the Mississippi bluffs around Hastings and Prescott they are ant hills. Still, they are of sufficient grade to give me a challenge, and a work out.

That is right, ladies and gentlemen. It is time once again for the start of my fight against old age. However, I must confess, my plan to exercise at Anytime Fitness paid off. I will let the stats tell the rest of the story.

• Total Distance: 8.55 miles
• Elapsed riding time: 0.36.20
• Top Speed: 18.4 mph
• Average Speed: 14.2 mph
• iPod: Eric Clapton - Unplugged
  
• Wind: 9 mph E
  
• Humidity  58%
• Temperature: 55 F

It is the Average Speed that I am amazed at. 14.2 mph! When I would ride the flat road down in Hastings last year, which was flatter than the roads I took today - north and west of Grantsburg - I was lucky to hit 13 mph. Also, my feet and butt would be so sore I could barely walk after finishing most of my runs.

However, I took my bike to Eric's Bike Shop, got new tires, a new rear brake cable, and most importantly, a new seat. The old one was too wide, pinching the nerves and cutting off blood to my legs. Some days my toes in my left foot would be numb for an hour after my ride.

Today? Not so much. I rode strait through from start to end without even stopping to stretch. Other than my inner, upper thighs being sore, not a hint of numbness to my toes. Nor was there any threat of cramps to my arches. All in all a very satisfying and positive experience. I look forward to many more of my legs.

They obviously are driving on a road as they perform. Amazing.

The computer age is changing the music industry. I can see why the RIAA is freaking out. When musicians can produce a video like the one above with out any crew, it means cutting the old dinosaurs at RIAA out of the money. As John said: Win

But only because I was not drinking any at the time I saw this photo.

Okay, I like Kevin Drum, over at Mother Jones. I really do. However, sometimes he just gets fatalistic. His concern that the sponsor exodus happening right now to Rush Limbaugh is some sort of slippery slope leading to the downfall of political shows in general is just plain ridiculous. Seriously. You would think a Boggart came crawling into Kevin's home office just before he started writing his post.

And yet....there's an obvious slippery slope here. Lots of advertisers already shy away from political shows of every stripe, and this episode could begin to drive them all away. Why take the chance, even on a host who doesn't usually cause national outrage? "Usually" isn't never, after all, and in any case, you never know what a guest is going to say. Better to stick with local blowhards and self-help shows.

Limbaugh is getting what he finally deserves. I couldn't be happier about it. I just hope that down the road this doesn't turn into a preemptive boycott of every political gabber out there who has even the smallest chance of ever producing any national blowback. That runs the risk of turning every show into a bland marshmallow. It wouldn't make the world a better place.

What gets me is that Kevin is usually quite good at looking up research, or finding historical evidence to back up his claims. However, the above quoted post lacks both. So, all I can do is chalk this up to fear.

But why would he be scared? He blogs for a publication that exists financially by a totally different form of support. And what advertising there is is from companies with an explicit political agenda. They are not going to pull their ads because of some national outrage. Chances are they want that outrage to occur. So, it is not a fear of his losing his gig as blogger for Mother Jones.

I think Kevin is seeing this one tree as indicative of the entire forest. Or would somehow working in "one bad apple does not make the whole barrel bad" be the better metaphor?

Wait.... No.

Kevin is talking about Rush. I am talking about Kevin. I will stick with the tree/forest metaphor. If I was talking about Rush, then I could use the barrel metaphor.

You do? Really? Good, because I did not want to have to explain it to you.