I love Massachusetts

And for once I'm not being facetious. Critical Mass tonight was followed by an unusual amount of cop cars. Near the end of the ride (does it ever really end?), we encountered a couple of officers, in a paddy wagon no less, who simply didn't want us to be in their district. When they finally succeeded at completely blocking the road and forced us to stop, I ended up getting into a very respectful debate with them for at least 20 minutes. The rest of the gang sort of fizzled off in various direction, but I stuck around because I was having a grand old time. They seemed less interested in arresting us for any real infringement of the law, and more interested in generally telling us that we were wrong. I love it when cops are just annoyed enough to start making laws up. What's ironic is that people usually are, in fact, doing something illegal, only the police are so unfamilliar with the laws that they don't know it. Their basic complaint was that we were holding up traffic, which they eventually decided was grounds for arrest as we were "disturbing the peace".

Some of the highlights of the argument included:

Grumpy Cop - "I don't care about the law. The law is irrelevant." (This one really cracked me up.)

Grumpy Cop - "There's a minimum speed!" (Completely untrue on Comm. Ave in Boston)

Grumpy Cop - "Half of you don't even have helmets on!" (And your point is what?)

Me - "If we were in cars, would you have pulled us over?"
Grumpy Cop - "Of course not."

Significantly Nicer Cop - "You obviously have a talent for arguing." (To me. A nice complement, coming from a guy with a badge and a gun!)

And, finally, as we were finishing up our little debate, a guy, also on a bike, came by to mock the couple of Critical Massers who were left. He seemed to be genuinely pissed off (though I have no clue why), and he told us that we were lucky we weren't arrested, riding in the middle of the road like that. He rode off in a huff, cruising right on down the sidewalk - an action that is, of course, illegal in Boston (a fact that neither he nor the police seemed to be interested in).

All in all is was a fine evening. I got to eat at Grasshopper finally, met a nice young gentleman who I had known about but never gotten a chance to meet, hung out with Jef and Rich, participated in some wonderful dinner conversation, and got some vegan cherry cheesecake that I plan to devour tomorrow. Yay!

He is a bit annoyed, to say the least.

Hear what the big guy in the sky himself has to say about his name being used in the Pledge at this Indymedia report

Don't praise the lord in my school!

50 years after president Eisenhower snuck a bit of lord praising into the Pledge of Allegiance, essentially turning it into a prayer, the supreme court's west coast district appeals court has declared it unconstitutional to say the Pledge in public schools. Thank goodness someone is finally paying attention to this blatent disregard for the founding fathers' idea of the seperation between church and state. Jefferson, Madison, and the gang were adamantly opposed to any sort of Federally-sponsored religion. They were wise enough to have looked at Europe's wartorn history and see that the cause of much bloodshed was (and still is!) the conflicting beliefs of various religions. So, it was no religion for the US of A, at least not officially. And, as old as our constitution is, it still provides the basis for an incredibly well run country. The US is first and formost based on freedom, and that means that citizens are completely free to believe whatever they wish, whether that is an omnipotent creature who wants you to eat fishies on a certain day of the week, a blue elephant with eight arms who likes to have sex, or something else entirely. Sad that our politicians see fit to ignore the wisdom of their predecessors in this matter.

Some of you may remember that, back when I was being sworn into office for the Bicycle Committee, I wrote about the problem that I was expected to swear "so help me god" before the city would allow me to serve on the committee. I was worried about the best way to deal with the problem. Should I politely decline, admitting that I am an atheist? Or should I lie? Lying while entering a public office obviously seems like a very bad idea. But declaring oneself an athiest means opening oneself up to government-sponsored religious prejudice. And, while I'm proud to be an athiest, I know that a lot of people who I need to work with in City Hall and the State House would be much less likely to want to work with me if they knew that I did not share their beliefs in an omnipotent big-guy-in-the-sky. I ended up choosing to lie, promising myself that I would try and do something about it all later (but, in the meantime, making me no better than any other two-faced politician).

Well, it seems like now is the time to get this issue off my chest (both here and in a more public view): It is not only unAmerican, but it is also completely unconstitutional to make someone pledge their allegiance to a religious figure as a part of any federal business:

The US Constitution, Article VI, Section III
"...no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."

And furthermore, the First Amendment says: "Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

Seems pretty clear to me that there is no place for gods in government. So, why are politicians so adamant in their persecution of anyone who wants "God" left out of public affairs?

modern primatives

The average American, when confronted with a proponent for peace (like myself), generally reacts with one of two emotions: violence or inquisitiveness. The violent ones react that way because they are lost and confused about life. But these people are not the ones I want to talk to right now. I want to talk to the ones who, when discovering that I'm anti-war, say "well then, what SHOULD we do?" I applaud anyone who is willing to ask this question. My answer probably isn't what most people want to hear, but it's the truth: I don't know, but I'm sure if we put our heads together we could come up with plenty of good ideas.

Think about it, the human species has been evolving for millions of years, and we've been civilized for several thousand. You mean to tell me that in all of this time we haven't been able to come up with an effective way of dealing with our problems other than resorting to violence? Seriously?

Sure, I know that violence is a holdover from our fight-or-flight days when our species was constantly in danger. And violence served us well when we encountered bigger, faster, or more clever species who wanted to eat us. But hey, we've pretty much taken care of that little inconvenience by wiping out most of these species' habitats, and running them over with our automobiles. Violence simply isn't necessary anymore for the majority of us humans who live in modern society. Its, literally, overkill. With all of the billions of dollars we humans pour into the fields of psychology, sociology, political science, anthropology, theology, epistomology (the study of learning), and other human behavior-based sciences, you'd think that we could develop a vast array of potential non-violent solutions to our problems of getting along with eachother.

The fact is that we do actually know of many solutions already. There are multiple tomes out there that offer ideas. And there are scientific studies to back up these solutions with concrete evidence. These non-violent solutions may not all work in all situations, and many may take a long time. But I'm absolutely convinced that there is always a non-violent solution to a given problem that will work as well or better than violence. If only the people in power would listen to the possibilities, instead of reaating the way humans have been reacting for millions of years. And, the only way to get the politicians, and those pulling their strings, to change their kneejerk responses is to change the way society itself responds. And that means opening people's eyes. In other words: education.

Education doesn't have to mean boring lectures in stuffy classrooms (that's not real education, anyway). Education means talking to one another. It means writing letters to the editor of your local newspaper or tv station. It means participating in your community in whatever form you feel comfortable with. School committees, hobby clubs, neighborhood picnics, coffeehouses, even bars, are all great places to talk to people and engage them in meaningful dialogue about the world. As cliche as it sounds, the pen (or spoken word) really is mightier than the sword.

As a place to start when talking about solutions to world problems and the violence caused because of them, think about why people act the way they do. As you already know, acts of violence stem from the basic premise of fight-or-flight. When people feel scared the have the choice of either running away or of lashing out at the perceived danger. (Those who choose to run away are generally less of a problem to the world.) Those who choose to lash out are the ones who we are worried about. Anger and hatred are just extensions of fear (as the wise Yoda reminded us all), and would not exist without the basic fear emotion. So, terrorists, suicide bombers, and other violent, angry, and hateful persons do what they do because they are all deathly afraid of something. Whether that threat is real or just perceived is secondary to the fact that they are quite simply afraid, and are not at all "evil". When we start thinking this way, we're able to understand these dangerous people, and only them are we able to address the root of the problem by helping them alleviate their fears. If the fears are real - like starvation, political oppression, or the threat of violence - then we can easily do something about it. We can offer sanctuary, food, education, healthcare, and other humanitarian aid. If the threat is perceived, then we can educate them or work to un-brainwash them if they've been subjected to a violent cult/religion (obviously a bit more difficult and time consuming, but perfectly doable). I guarantee that such humanitarian actions are infinitely more productive than reinforcing their fears by exploding these people's homes, families, and friends would be.

Its funny, we like to elevate the human species to be better than the rest of the animal family tree. But we really are no better than any other species when it comes to getting along with one another. If we truly want to be "eveolved" then we have to come up with a better way to live together.

bags under my eyes

Man am I busy for the next several days. I've got events up the wazoo. So much so that I've run out of room on my calendar for Friday through Tuesday. (Does this mean I have a life?) Yesterday I went to a Rail-to-Trail conference out in the town I term "the suburb in the middle of nowhere" (Waltham is a very rich suburb which is mostly surrounded by quaint rural towns). The conference was ok, though I didn't really get to participate much as I ended up getting monopolized by one fellow there. He had some unique viewpoints on folk music and it's lack of republican (or libertarian for that matter) songs. After that it was on to Boston for the Fort Point Channel art party. It's funny, last year, under the aegeis of Random Turtle Productions, I held a bike ride on the Solstice (in celebration of the Rolling Blackout energy policy protest event). It was very successful, and I had hoped to keep doing it as a yearly event. But I was just too busy this year,a nd I felt kinda bad about it. The funny thing is that the Fort Point Channel artists ended up having a bike ride on the Solstice. It was even cooler than my ride, because most of the riders had gone all out decorating their bikes. (I'll get some pictures up soon.) Very cool.

Today, I'm going to try to make it to the Solar festival around the corner from me. Then I hope to get to the first ever Boston tatoo fair. Tats were banned for several decades in Massachusetts. But the state supreme court ruled the ban unconstitutional last year. Yay! Then, finally, if I haven't collapsed yet, its yet another funky SCUL ride. Hopefully, I'll be alive enough to get up early and do the Bike to the Sea benefit ride a few hours later on Sunday morning. Ugggh. What's bad is that I've already got bags under my eyes!

So anyway, happy solstice everyone!

one eye is looking through rose colored glasses

The other seems to be looking through cyanish-green golored glasses. I've had this weird color difference in my eyes since I was a kid. I only really notice it on bright sunny days, and it's not really obnoxious. It does occasionally freak me out a bit though, making me think I've got a cateract or something. But then I remember that I've had this since at least age 12, so even if it is something wrong, it ain't getting worse any time soon.

So we've finally got a new roommate. He promises to be a pretty interesting guy to live with, and he definitely fits in as far as personality goes. For one thing, he's married, but his wife is going out west to forage for a house and a job while he hangs around here and toils away at a tech job. I'm sure I'll have some interesting stories about him soon enough. (He's mentioned that he's got a really good one that he only tells when he's really drunk. I'm just waiting for he and the "alchohol connoisseur" to get together for a bit of liquor...)

70 pound paper

If you ever have something printed on paper, like a book, magazine, or brochure, you've encountered the weirdness that is the paper thickness/density measurement system. It starts out fairly understandable, the paper's "weight" is defined by how much a specified number of sheets weighs. I can live with that. But then, for some reason the whole weight system shifts when you have a cover stock of paper. You can have a 70 lb. text paper, and a 70 lb cover paper, and they are a completely different thickness. Maybe it's because they use different kinds of fibers and screens, but it's really confusing. And then I just discovered some sort of cardstock measurement system expressed in points (a 7 pt. cardstock is about the weight of one of those annoying business reply cards that always fall out of magazines). The only sure way to know what you want is to get a sample of the exact paper you think you'd like. Having said that, I just ordered some brochures for MassBike and I have no idea what the actual paper is going to be like. But at least it has an impressively high recycled content, and that cool matte coated surface that became so popular on Generation X fiction books by the likes of Bret Easton Ellis.

SCUL last night. A quiet ride, but enjoyable. I spent the afternoon and evening working in the SCUL fort. I'm really finally putting together my own chopper. Skunk is helping me out, and will be doing the welds on the fork extentions, when I get the chopped up kid's bike forks ready to go. It won't be a fantasticc machine, but it will be mine, and it'll be my size. Before working on the fork yesterday, I had no idea that you could cut the steel so easily with normal tools like a hacksaw. I'm not sure why I didn't know this, since I spent many a day in college happily hacking away at metal in a jewelry class. I just had that picture of steel being neigh invulnerable like the Tick (Spooon!). Now that I have this information readily available in my brain, I'm having all kinds of weird ideas about chopping up trashed bikes and reassembling them into sculpture. If I can figure out a way to stick the various pieces together without involving massive amounts of flame, I'll be all set.

watertowers are hard to find

Mmmmmm, lemonade. I normally don't like lemonade, but on hot days, cold fresh lemonade with a bunch of sugar is nice. Ice tea is better, but the caffeine makes me ill.

The roommate search isn't going so well. We've only had one person actually show up to look at the place, and he called immediately to say he wasn't interested. I'm always amazed at how picky people are, even in this cutthroat housing market. I guess its good, since it screens out the people who wouldn't be very fun as roommates.

The pride parade and rally was on Saturday. It was fun, as usual. Though I didn't stay much after the parade finished. The place was so overrun with people waiting in huge lines to get crappy meat products (real "food", not man meat), that you couldn't move. Funny, because the rally was right in the middle of Boston, where you could find all manner of restaurants and delis just a block away. The parade was also interesting, because it 75% of the people marching were representing churches or politicians. You know an issue has gone mainstream when there are more politicians than activists participating.

Then it was onto SCUL. They were trying a new thing for the evening's event - a scavenger hunt. It was pretty much wildly successful. We worked as a team, against time, not another group. We wandered around a few cities, specifically looking for some of the items with higher points, and generally finding the littler items on the way. We found almost all of the things on the list, too. Some of the things we were unable to track down were roadkill, a Playgirl centerfold, a tube top, orange pants, an acorn, New Hampshire, and a preist. The fact that we were doing this between 11pm and 1:30am didn't help matters. Boston is such a puritan city that even the gay clubs were closed by the time we got there. We were able to locate, and photograph, a drag queen at the last minute, which was worth a healthy 30 points. And PigPen was kind enough to puke on command, which garnered us a respectable 20 points. We also scored in finding a revolving door to rival any revolving door I've ever encountered before. It was in some fancy Cambridge hotel near Technology Square, and it had a whole revolving platform about 15 feet in diameter. The pie-like sections between doors were big enough to let a couple people bring their bikes in with them. (Clearly, the people who stay in that hotel have way more money than they know what to do with. Just think of how many blinky lights you could buy with the money it cost to build that door!) The final outcome of the game/ride was that we all got a fuckton of points and were all promoted to extreme levels. I went from being an Ensign to being a Lieutenant Commander in one night. Weeeeeee.

Looking up the word "lieutenant" (literally, a placeholder) in the dictionary, it occured to me: Have you ever really thought about how many words there are? In the English language alone, there have got to be a million or so. (Maybe not, since on a rough estimate of my dictionary I figure that it's got about 93,000 words in it. But that's still an immensely giganticly enormous amount of words.) Even the most literate smartypants in the world probably knows less than half of 'em. Weird.

"open source vehicle"

I got my bike stickers (which have the above quote on them) about a week ago. Yay. I love stickers. Anyone want some? The other day, I tucked one into the handlebars of the recumbant parked next to my bike. It's owned by a computer geek who works in the offic next to MassBike. The place is some non-profit open source code organization that's supposedly quite famous, but I can never remember the name. I've always felt an affinity for Linux people, even though I don't use it. (Macs are so much better for artists.)

You know that there's something amiss when I can be caught watching televised sports. This is how much I love (in a mostly platonic sense) my roommates. They've been watching the recent big finally basketball games and I've been hanging around them. I now know all sorts of completely useless facts about the game and the players. (Kobe Bryant is cute, for instance, and Shaq sweats about a gallon a quarter.) I've even gone so far as to go out with my roommates to the basketball court and play a pickup game! Gasp. What's next? Beer drinking? :)

home is where your dirty dishes are

I just got into a big spat with the one roommate who doesn't quite fit in here. I have two rules for the house: don't throw any of my stuff away, and no complaining about the dishes (nitpicky arguing about the specific location and duration of dirty dishes always seems to be the downfall of otherwise wellmannered roommates). Within weeks of moving in, this guy breaks both rules! He's generally a nice guy, so I usually just humor him, but I'm suffering from severe sleep deprivation and a sore body from riding 57 miles yesterday (including 21 on a chopper), and I came home to see that he had messed up part of my garden that I'd just planted, and he'd thrown out some of my dishes that were in the sink because he didn't like the looks of them. Grr arrgh. It's not like it's a big deal really, but the thing is he's not the least apologetic. Luckily, I still think that three out of the four roommates are completely awesome.

On to the more interesting stuff. As I previously eluded to, I spent almost all of yesterday (from 10am until the birds woke up chirping there happy little 4:30 am songs) riding around. I started out riding out to Drumlin Farm, a few towns away, to visit Jef at his wildlife care job. Alas, he wasn't working. I would have checked with him earlier, but I figured that I'd never get out on a big ride if I didn't have somewhere specific to go (I loathe "recreational" riding for no really good reason). I had an enjoyable time at the farm (a working farm/museum kind of place, run by the Audobon Society), and then I moved on for a little visit to Walden Pond. Poor Thoreau must have been rolling in his grave yesterday because the local military installation was showing off their jet fighters right next door at the air force base. So, as I lay down on the beach, next to the forest, for a relaxing afternoon, sonic booms could be heard with occasional sightings of zippy airplanes doing loop-de-loops and divebombing the locals. Watching the planes competing with the birds and dragonflies for my attention I had to vote for the biological flyers. When humans can zip around without an engine like sparrows do, I'll be officially impressed. (Though I've gotta admit, I absolutely love flying!)

When I finally got home, I had about an hour to cool off and get ready for the SCUL ride. It was a great ride, and included a pirate disco party, nude men riding around on choppers, a fantastic view of Boston at 3am, and a broken axle on a six foot tall bike (no, I wasn't the one riding it!). Good stuff.