Obumper Sticker

I'm really kind of tired of the bumper sticker soundbites that keep dribbling out of the mouth of Barack Obama. Today he offered more "change" for America as he called for excessive taxing of American oil companies and "windfall" profit taxes "while we're paying $4 a gallon and they're making record profits."

Um. Hello? It's not Exxon's fault they're making major profits. They don't set gas prices. They make the gas. The price of oil per barrel is set by excessive speculation in the petroleum futures markets. Obama is entirely clueless on this issue--but since America by-and-large is also clueless as to how markets work, he can say this sort of crap and get away with it. I mean, hey, who wants to stick it to the consumer when it's "big oil's fault" or "greedy corporations" that are fleecing us, right? He'll "close the loopholes" in taxation. Of course, he'll drive small business out of business in the process--but he's not interested in that. His party wants you to become enslaved to big government (the state) and rely on the state for all your needs because you're incapable of taking care of yourself.

(Um...hey...that's Fascism, if you're wondering.)

Do yourself a solid and do NOT vote for this cardboard cutout of a candidate. Hopichangitude is nothing more than socialism...and if you appreciated the depth and length of the Great Depression, then you'll understand that's what we're staring at in an Obama White House.

We've already declared independence from foreign powers. I wouldn't have thought we'd have to fight for independence from government intervention in how we buy goods, work, do business, etc.

I Am Awesome!

Okay, so that title is a bit presumptuous, but I accomplished something yesterday that was totally unexpected. Background: I had read in Bicycling Magazine about a year ago that the best way to teach a kid to ride without training wheels (and also the fastest) was to take them to a grassy hill with a slight incline and basically send them down it. That's the first video you'll see below.

After breakfast-for-dinner last night, I took Nate out on the "hill" in our common area behind the house and got him on his bike for some "lessons." Nate took about four trips down the grassy hill and wanted to hit the pavement (not literally). That's the second video you'll see.

The time difference between the two videos is fifteen minutes (Carrie said it was actually fourteen). The article in Bicycling promised fifteen minutes. They delivered. Nathan rode his bike to TCBY last night (about two miles) and wanted more this morning. He's doing so well! Plus he learned to ride a bike two years before Riley did and three years before his old man. (I've made up for my late start!)

GREAT WORK, NATE! Ride on, my brother!

Awareness

I just came across this awareness test that you might find enlightening. I know I did.

Maren Elise

It's no secret that the thing we do the worst as parents is come up with names for our newborns in a timely fashion. This latest attempt was no different. Carrie and I wrestled with the names (Carrie knows illegal ninja moves from the government, though, so the wrestling was hard for me) for quite some time. She even acquired a baby name book from the hospital (Clotilde? Really?) for inspiration. In the end, we decided on Maren Elise for our little one. I chose Maren, and I think Carrie likes Elise. She did come up with it.

Here's why I came up with Maren. The name is in our family from the Danish side through my mother. I had originally suggested Maren Marie, as I believe that is on both mine and Carrie's sides, but Marie was shot down...which is certainly fine with me. Pretty common (Mary), too. Anyway, Maren Marie Henriksen (Denmark) was by great-great grandmother, and Elise Pedersen (Sweden) married my great-great-grandfather Jens Christian Sorensen, who was widowed with three children (my great-grandmother among them) in 1880 and raised them plus the six other children born to her with Jens.

Additionally, in December of 1995, I had dinner with Andrea and Maren Gibb in Montclair, CA. A pretty average dinner at Olive Garden--I had known the Gibbs as I volunteered for the Upland Stake Creche Festival, and they were involved in the execution of the event somehow. Anyway, they must've noticed something in me and over dinner mentioned that they had a friend who was also a teacher (true), also spoke Spanish (true), and was also very funny (very true), so therefore we "should get together and go out." So Maren and her mother are the reason why I have such an incredible wife and an awesome life.

I can't think of a better tribute than that. We mix family and friends with one name. I really do have a great life!

A Baby, A Baby, We Have Got a Baby...!

The family count is now six. I'm good with that. Carrie says she's good too. We'll see who flinches first. Our latest little bundle o'joy arrived at 11:49 a.m. MDT today. She was six pounds, thirteen ounces at birth, and if I heard right, she's twenty-one inches long. I left to go get the siblings before they measured her. Carrie had a pretty quick delivery (according to her doctor it was a push and a half...beats twenty-four hours of hard labor!).

SHE'S TINY. A total peanut. Enjoy the pictures and video!

Latest on Landis

In the latest--and last--option for Floyd Landis, the Court of Arbitration for Sport has dismissed the appeal that Floyd Landis had entered to keep his 2006 Tour de France title. He was stripped of that title for elevated testosterone. I for one have always maintained that Floyd was innocent. This decision does little to change that opinion. I don't have any personal insights or insider info that makes me think this, just a gut feeling and a few questions:

1) Doping before the biggest race of the year, I can see happening. Doping DURING that race, knowing that if you win (even a stage win), that you'll be tested? No way.
2) Doping by taking testosterone--which doesn't even kick in immediately--and is the easiest performance-enhancer to catch, since it's been around longest? No way.
3) I just trust Floyd. I'm not sure why. He's not even my favorite cyclist. I just trust that he's been honest. Until he comes out and says "I was lying all along" (which I don't think is coming), I will believe Floyd.

I really believe he was a victim of either faulty testing or some sort of conspiracy against American cyclists--who, with Lance--had dominated the TdF for eight years straight.

Floyd Landis--MY Tour de France 2006 Champion.

Current Temperature in Hell: 34 degrees Fahrenheit and falling?

If you're familiar with the UK weekly "The Guardian" then you're aware that their M.O. is usually to bash the U.S., and over the last eight years, to ridicule, belittle and besmirch the Bush administration. That's what makes this column all the more unexpected.

It basically sums up--from a much larger pulpit--what I've felt all along: George W. Bush, although not perfect, has been right on the War on Terror in general and the pursuit of al-Qaeda elsewhere in the world. He understood clearly, post-9/11, the threat that islamists would pose to freedom and democracy worldwide, and took the fight to their yard. A few excerpts:

The theocratic barbarism responsible for the attack on the Twin Towers was driven not by what America and its allies had done, but by what we represented.

He continues:

The most fundamental decision in western security policy in the past seven years has not been the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. It has been the recognition that the most voluble adversaries of western society are not merely a criminal subculture, and still less an incipient liberation movement. Rather, they are a reactionary, millenarian and atavistic force with whom accommodation is impossible as well as intensely undesirable.

Read the entire article. It's not a pro-Bush honk, but a seemingly objective look at the overall Bush policy of pursuit in lieu of passivity.