Answer to my Facebook Friends Regard Voting

OK, that's the second person who has posted that foolishness on my wall, so it's time for a more generic response.

Will I join you in committing to vote. No, I won't. Will you join me in poking yourself in the eye with a stick? No, of course you won't. Why? Because it's stupid, self-defeating, accomplishes nothing worthwhile, and doesn't make you feel good. It has all the dissipation of a night of drunkenness with none of the mis-perception that ugly women are beautiful.

Remember the bailout? I was one of about 4000 people who called one my state Senators to urge her to vote against it, whereas something like four to eight people asked her to vote for it.

Guess which way she voted.

Guess which way whatever fruit-loop running against her would vote.

Living in a plutocracy is not so bad because the food here is good. All you have to do is make it past the horrible mass hysteria of thinking it's a representative government that sweeps through the population every two years like a drug epidemic.

Fortunately by Wednesday many of you will have recovered. Meantime enjoy yourselves. Don't forget to get one of those nice stickers that says "I wasted part of a perfectly good Tuesday".

My Excellent Two Wheel Adventure

Yesterday at lunch I got two new tires my bike tires fixed at the Hub in Roseville (nice job guys). It turns out you need good tubes AND un-chewed-up tires to help in the flat prevention. Who knew?

So today before eight, before the Sacramento weather turned on me (103 degrees predicted today), I went for my first bike ride in ... 3 years? 4? 5? Hard to say.

My last bike ride was also the first bike ride in 3 years or so. Two bike rides ago (about 6-9 years), I had had my third flat in about two weeks and was pretty disgusted, so the bike sat in the garage for another three years. At that point I got it fixed, then went out and on my first ride had a flat. Back into the garage went the machine from hell.

So the first most excellent thing about today's adventure: my tires made it through intact. Hooray.

On the way out I remembered just how much I enjoyed this when I was in fifth grade and would ride out to visit my sister, Linda (who's daughter you can see chatting with me from time to time). Or stop and visit my friends or stop at the store. And just generally combine getting somewhere quicker than walking with having some nice air in the face.

So I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this was the best bike ride I've had since I was in fifth grade.

My odometer unfortunately seems to have been a casualty either of my recent move or my trip to the hub, so I don't have the details, but it was extremely modest by Jeffonian standards. Based on what I know about the rest of the route, I'd say it was between five and seven miles -- more on the five side. However I consider it good news as well that no more than maybe twenty feet or so were (inadvertently) spent on the little big gear, with the rest on the medium and quite a bit on the large.

The terrain around here is perfect for beginners, straight suburban / rural roads with lots of flats and only modest hills. The last mile to my apartment is a slight downgrade (hooray again), with a bourgeois race track very close to home (bourgeois race track, n., newly coined: a circle or D shape of recently built homes on level ground with almost no traffic).

My legs had benefited by my time on my bicycle's shut-in relatives at the gym and by the weight machines, so they were aware that something very different was afoot without being overly stressed by it.

Between the reduced load, the low-traffic roads, the thorn proof tubes, and the new tires, I'm hoping I can go a long way before my next flat. I only found out about the kevlar tape gizmoes after the tires were on, but next time I'll insist on them.

And now, an apple. Later a movie.

Visit my newest blog.

I haven't been blogging here much, but I thought I'd tell those of you who may have clicked through here how to reach me -- via Inklit.com.

Why The Democrats Should Nominate Barack Obama

Most people don't vote.

You can complain about that or lament it or what have you, but the truth is, the US suffers from abysmal voter turnout year after year.

Whatever the reasons behind that fact, it's something to be aware of when you nominate a candidate.   Whatever else you want in a nominee, on a practical level, you want someone who's going to do well given the fact that most people don't vote.  Since most people don't vote, the election will be decided in large measure by how many otherwise-non-voters you can get to turn out on your side, versus the opposing side.  In other words, you want to do all you can to energize your own voter base, while ensuring that your opponent's voter base stays home and watches television.

The Democratic base is opposed to the war in Iraq.  Enough Democrats and others were opposed to the war in 2006 to send a majority to both the House and the Senate, a clear mandate for an opposition party which the underachieving Dems promptly squandered.  Are the Democrats going to be more energized by a woman who has been a poster child for going along and getting along with the Republicans on Iraq?  No, I believe the answer is that they're going to get out of their homes and vote for the candidate who was consistently correct on this important issue, Barack Obama.

Now let's look at the Republican base.  The Democratic candidate that the Republican base loves to hate (perhaps more than any other living Democrat besides her husband) is Hillary Clinton.  Hillary Clinton is the Democratic candidate who is most likely to get a Republican to get up off their chair and vote, because for all the talk about conservative Republicans being lukewarm on John McCain, there's no ambivalence at all when it comes to Clinton.  They may not get out to vote for McCain, but you can bet your bottom dollar they'll get out to vote against Clinton.

From a Democratic perspective, the millions of conservative voters who might nap through election Tuesday in November being Lukewarm for McCain are a giant we should gratefully tip-toe past.

So you can say we should nominate Obama because he's right on the issues.  Or you can say we should nominate him because he's not as likely to wake the giant up.  Either way, he's the right choice.

Whatever John Lockwood Feels Like

I've been thinking about launching a personal blog for some time.

Actually I have a couple of them -- this one and one on Wordpress.com, since I'm curious as to which one will do better as far as getting promoted in blog search etc.

The idea of having a personal blog is of course to write about whatever I feel like, within the limits of impropriety, of course.

Propriety.

Damn.