When I made Master Chief I thought "Why work so damn hard if I don't have any fun?" and decided to get another bike. I learned to ride on a Honda 90 as a desert rat in Nevada in the 1970s but my favorite bike (besides the Suzuki T-500 Titan) was a 1972 Triumph Tiger. All that iron weight between your heels, ground a lot of pegs when I wasn't even riding hard around Lake Tahoe.
In 2002 I saw Triumph was back in business after being sold out of Meridian, and I faxed a request to all the Triumph dealers on the East Coast for bids. Not a single one came back. I thought "Well, if I can't even get them to respond to a purchase bid, what chance do I have of ever finding parts for it?" On a lark I stopped by my local Harley dealer, not expecting much.
I saw the 2003 100th Anniversary models on the floor and thought that would make a good investment. Also, the tank badges just looked right. My local didn't have any Sports on the showroom and was MSRP +15% for factory orders so I faxed a request to all the HARLEY dealers around. Chattahoochie Harley outside Fort Benning came back right at MSRP. (And I *like* saying "Chattahoochie")
Took me only a bit of thought to come around to a Harley. When I was young the perfect symmetry of the Triumph appealed to my sense of logic and order. Hogs always offended me ... all that stuff hanging off one side - pipes, air cleaner - and the big ol' banjo cover sticking out on the other. By the age of 47 in 2003 I had learned that the world rarely was logical or orderly and I also learned that some times there is great value in stuff that hangs out or sticks out. So I ordered a 1200S in vivid black. $9995
Funny, writing this I just remembered the long Greyhound bus ride to the dealer when they called and said it was in. Been ten years since I rode any, missed it every Spring, too. By the time I got the t-shirt and all the paperwork signed and the picture out front with the pretty blonde salesgal it was getting on 3PM. The sun was getting low, and I had over 300 miles to go to get back to Savannah. She asked me about getting a room but I wouldn't hear none of it. Hmmmm ... should have listened to her I guess.
I try to shorten this a bit: the ride nearly killed me. Many times. Keeping the bike to break-in speeds I about got flattened by every 18-wheeler on the interstate so I get off on the backroads and you know there ain't a motel in sight. I just keep on keepin' on and it gets later and later. I roll in just as the sun is rising, knees knocking against the tank and slapping my hands on my helmet to get the feeling back into them.
Sitting at last in my driveway I realize what day it is. April 1st, 2003. April Fool.
But today I love this bike every bit as I ever did. It wants to do a wheelstand at every shift, pulls like a tractor. Got black satin ceramic pipes off a 2002 Sport, black SE slash cuts, black ham can with black "1200" plate, a Wally Kerstetter rebuilt carb with 200/46 jets, mirrors slung under, smoked signals and black levers. Wish like hell I had bought those black covers on eBay when 2003 was late model, glad as hell I bought the Gold Key package on eBay when they went discontinued.
People in parking lots always ask "what kind of Harley is that?" and farmgirls out in the countryside all turn around at the sound of me riding by. Hell yeah, I got the last Sport, the last hard mount, the last 100 year anniversary. And it's got stuff all hanging out all over. What a ride.
“There's a kind of confessional impulse that not every literate, intelligent person has,” Mr. Updike said in his 1990 Globe interview. “A crazy belief that you have some exciting news about being alive, and I guess that, more than talent, is what separates those who do it from those who think they'd like to do it. That your witness to the universe can't be duplicated, that only you can provide it, and that it's worth providing.”
President Barack Obama signs executive order closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay.
“We expressed our concerns about some of the spending that’s being proposed in the House bill,” House Minority Leader John Boehner said after meeting with Obama.
“How can you spend hundreds of millions of dollars on contraceptives?” Boehner asked. “How does that stimulate the economy?”
Boehner said congressional Republicans are also concerned about the size of the package. O Jesus O please, please ... bwahahahahaaha ... yer killin' me here ...
Reid said a Congressional Budget Office report that says the stimulus funds won’t be pumped into the economy until 2010 doesn’t provide an accurate picture.
He also said Orszag guaranteed “that at least 75 percent of the bill would go directly into the economy within the first 18 months.”
Pelosi suggested that the package, currently at $825 billion, could become even larger.
“It has grown,” Pelosi said, “and we’re still in the process.”
President Barack Obama's Inaugural Address January 20, 2009
My fellow citizens:
I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.
Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.
So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.
That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.
These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land - a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.
Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America - they will be met.
On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.
On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.
We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.
In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted - for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things - some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.
For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.
For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.
For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.
Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.
This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions - that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.
For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act - not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.
Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions - who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.
What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them - that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works - whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account - to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day - because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.
Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control - and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart - not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.
As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.
Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.
We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort - even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.
For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.
To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West - know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.
To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.
As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment - a moment that will define a generation - it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.
For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.
Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends - hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism - these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility - a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.
This is the price and the promise of citizenship.
This is the source of our confidence - the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.
This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed - why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.
So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:
"Let it be told to the future world...that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it]."
America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.
Thank you.
God bless you. And God bless the United States of America.
I was only too proud to carry her to her final resting place beside my mother and grandpa.
As poor as this family is with strong men who live long enough to serve their responsibilities, it was gratifying that at least six men could be found on this day of Gram's final journey. One son-in-law, one grandson-in-law, three grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. All of us crying.
She was light as a feather.
Ninety-five years of glorious life ... she buried two husbands and half of her children, crimes against nature which nonetheless never daunted her spirit. If not for Gram's insistence that her first-born deserved to lie next to her adoring daddy, my mother would have been lost forever in the wind and sands of the godforsaken Nevada desert. Mom preceded and waited patiently beside her father for twenty-three years to rejoin her own mother. Now I have at least one anchor point in my life where I know I shall always find the core of those I loved: Woodvale Cemetery, 7535 Engle Road, Cleveland, Ohio
Last year on a visit I asked Gram why she was so fond of life on a farm. She sparked up and exclaimed "I was a city girl! I never wanted to live on a farm ... it was your grandpa who wanted to live in the country!"
At her memorial service I said my last goodbye to Gram, and asked her quietly to come with my mom to Virginia to see the homestead and farmhouse I am restoring with Patti in homage to the life they both had lived.
The Iraqi journalist, Muntader al-Zaidi, 28, a correspondent for Al Baghdadia, an independent Iraqi television station, stood up about 12 feet from Mr. Bush and shouted in Arabic: “This is a gift from the Iraqis; this is the farewell kiss, you dog!” He then threw a shoe at Mr. Bush, who ducked and narrowly avoided it.
As stunned security agents and guards, officials and journalists watched, Mr. Zaidi then threw his other shoe, shouting in Arabic, “This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq!” That shoe also narrowly missed Mr. Bush as Prime Minister Maliki stuck a hand in front of the president’s face to help shield him. - The New York Times From Wikipedia:
In the Arab world: a gesture of contempt
In the Arab world, shoe flinging is a gesture of extreme disrespect. A notable occurrence of this gesture happened in Baghdad, Iraq in 2003. When U.S. forces pulled down a giant statue of Saddam Hussein during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, many Iraqi detractors of Hussein threw their shoes at the fallen statue. This may be an ancient gesture from the Middle East; Psalms 60:10, speaking of some of the traditional enemies of Judah, says that "Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe...." (KJV) The shoe represents the lowest part of the body (the foot) and displaying or throwing a shoe at someone or something in Arab cultures denotes that the person or thing is "beneath them." Showing the bottom of one's feet or shoes (for example, putting one's feet up on a table or desk) in Arab cultures is considered an extreme insult. Examples include Iraqi citizens smacking torn-down posters of Saddam Hussein with their shoes, and the depiction of President of the United States George H. W. Bush on a tile mosaic of the floor of the Al-Rashid Hotel's lobby, forcing all visitors entering the hotel to walk on Bush's face to enter the hotel. During President George W. Bush's surprise visit to Iraq in December 2008, an Iraqi reporter threw shoes at him during a press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Kamel al-Maliki.
"I find your approach to this economic crisis dismaying and ill-focused. I keep hearing we have a credit crisis that will cripple us economically. I don't believe this is really at the center a credit crisis, I think it is a wealth crisis. The middle class has been squeezed so hard, there is no longer any wealth in the middle to fuel our economy. The American economy and the middle class have been robbed blind by crazy laws and tax policies that have transferred wealth away from those who work, and toward those who bet we can't keep it up. I am fighting -- hopping -- yelling -- mad about it. And I am sick of hearing that the bail-out is helping me! It is not. It is still protecting the panty-waist financiers from the mess they have made."
- Email sent to Diane Rehm Show, NPR November 26, 2008
This why I keep my shotguns oiled and fresh shells lying out in the garage. When the common people take up arms and march on the arrogant elite I want to be right up front.
* * * * * Many's the time I've been mistaken, and many times confused Yes, and I've often felt forsaken, and certainly misused Oh, but I'm all right, I'm all right, I'm just weary to my bones Still, you don't expect to be bright and bon vivant So far away from home, so far away from home
And I don't know a soul who's not been battered, I don't have a friend who feels at ease I don't know a dream that's not been shattered or driven to its knees but it's all right, it's all right, for we lived so well so long Still, when I think of the road we're traveling on I wonder what's gone wrong I can't help it, I wonder what's gone wrong
And I dreamed I was dying ... I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly And looking back down at me, smiled reassuringly And I dreamed I was flying. And high up above my eyes could clearly see The Statue of Liberty sailing away to sea And I dreamed I was flying.
We come on the ship they call the Mayflower We come on the ship that sailed the moon We come in the age's most uncertain hours and sing an American tune Oh, and it's alright, it's all right, it's all right, You can't be forever blessed Still, tomorrow's going to be another working day, And I'm trying to get some rest That's all I'm trying to get some rest
-An American Tune Words & music by Paul Simon
* * * * *
Bush's Last Days: The Lamest Duck
In the end, though, it will not be the creative paralysis that defines Bush. It will be his intellectual laziness, at home and abroad. Bush never understood, or cared about, the delicate balance between freedom and regulation that was necessary to make markets work. He never understood, or cared about, the delicate balance between freedom and equity that was necessary to maintain the strong middle class required for both prosperity and democracy. He never considered the complexities of the cultures he was invading. He never understood that faith, unaccompanied by rigorous skepticism, is a recipe for myopia and foolishness. He is less than President now, and that is appropriate. He was never very much of one.
- Joe Klein, Time Magazine
* * * * *
Obama adds advisors, says "Help is on the way."
By SARA KUGLER, Associated Press Writer
CHICAGO – President-electBarack Obama pledged on Wednesday to have an economic plan ready for action on the nation's financial crisis on his first day in office. "Help is on the way," he declared.
He also said his Cabinet would "combine experience with fresh thinking" and pushed back against criticism that he was recycling former Clinton administration officials as he builds his new economic team.
In his third news conference on the economy in as many days, Obama announced he had chosen former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to head a new White House panel to help create jobs and bring stability to the ailing financial system.
Volcker, 81, will head the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board. The board's top staff official will be Austan Goolsbee, a University of Chicago economist.
Volcker is a legendary central banker who raised interest rates and restricted the money supply to tame raging inflation in the 1980s. It was a painful prescription that helped send the economy into one of the nation's worst recessions.
"He pulls no punches," Obama said of Volcker. "He seems to be fairly opinionated."
Fifty-five days before his inauguration, Obama defended his selection of former Clinton officials to help run his administration.
"The American people would be troubled if I selected a treasury secretary or a chairman of the National Economic Council at one of the most critical economic times in our history who had no experience in government whatsoever," Obama said.
"What we are going to do is combine experience with fresh thinking," he said. "But understand where the vision for change comes from. First and foremost, it comes from me. That's my job, is to provide a vision in terms of where we are going and to make sure then that my team is implementing."
Obama said he wants the new economic panel to provide outside voices for his administration.
"The walls of the echo chamber can sometimes keep out fresh voices and new ways of thinking," Obama said. "You start engaging in group-think."
* * * * *
"Whether you voted for Obama or not, it's hard to watch this crisply orchestrated transition and doubt that the president-elect both understands and relishes the great possibility of this moment. That doesn't mean he'll succeed, and it certainly doesn't mean he won't make mistakes. It means he has big ideas and big plans -- right or wrong -- and I think most people know intuitively that this is no time for small. "
- Eugene Robinson, Washington Post
* * * * *
Jesus! We might actually have elected a President who fucking "gets it" ... about fucking time.
Been around and seen alot pleasure to know you are out there. Keep the faith and try not to let any cages take you out we need you to help bring along the next generation.
