for the last two years or so, i’ve been paying half-attention to the bicycle-vs-car debate that’s been going on in the DC area. with several friends who bike around the metro area, i would like it if cyclists didn’t have to take their life into their hands every time they got on their bikes. as a driver, i would like it if the cyclists out there obeyed the traffic laws when they’re on the streets.

today, i think they should all go to hell.

this morning, a little before nine, i was driving up arizona ave from canal road towards macarthur boulevard. for about a half-block, the road is one lane uphill, two lanes downhill. as the line of cars made its way uphill, an impatient cyclist split the lanes, trying to pass the cars on the right (no shoulder, mind you). stymied by the large SUV in front of me, he proceeded to yell at and pound on it, as though the driver of the SUV were at fault. then he swings out into the left turn lane that diverges, and pulls the same shit with the cars in that lane.

if that asshole ever gets hit by a car, i won’t be crying.

however. not a half-block later, as i’m driving across macarthur, i see the following: in the downhill lane, there’s a cyclist waiting for a break in the traffic to make a left turn. he’s got his arm out, signaling. he’s at a full stop, while cars move around him. then, an impatient driver who was behind him waiting to make the same left turn swings out around him, and makes the left turn inches from his front wheel.

if that asshole ever wraps his car around a tree, i’m going to be crying for the tree.

so. right now, i have no sympathy for anyone in the bicycles-vs-cars debate. we’re all assholes, and we all deserve what’s coming to us.

it seems something happened out there wherever my laloca database is stored, and content back to early ‘08 got zapped. luckily i last backed up in late june ‘09, and posting for a variety of reasons has been light since then.

google’s cache to the rescue, which has some of the missing posts between mid-feb and last june. stuff will slowly be coming back, but alas, some things may be permanently lost in the ether.

james (a.k.a. “host”) has a touch more info on how it all went *poof* – but in the end, he’s as clueless as i am.

the straight porn industry has managed to fool itself into believing that regular HIV testing by an industry-funded clinic – rather than mandatory condom use – is good enough to keep its performers protected from disease.

as they recently found out, it might be better than no testing at all, but it doesn’t hold a candle to condoms. the companies are blaming the condom-optional policy on the performers.

a much better rundown of the situation – and the stupidity that led to it – is over at sugarbank.

in related news, i see that lifestyles is now marketing a polyisoprene condom. there’s a review (6 months old) over at the condomunity.

while i’m all for articles that showcase the failings and accelerating decay of the GOP from free market fiscal conservatism to loony religious right whackjobs, i’m getting tired of statements like this:

You hear a lot on the news about the GOP’s base. Consider demented comments like “I heard he was an Arab.” As if Obama were a Muslim. As if that should matter, in a country which has stood for religious freedom since the first Puritans landed in the 1600s.

as if the puritans were into religious freedom for anyone but themselves. or were tolerant, which they weren’t. (that link goes to a pbs kids’ program, but it’s pretty nifty.)

religious freedom and tolerance are good, noble things (especially if they actively embrace freedom from religion and tolerance of non-religion, as well), but they didn’t land on our shores with the puritans. and the puritan ministers who did espouse tolerance were banished from their communities – like roger williams.

hah. i love it when an irritated blog post connects back to providence.

as a condition of recovering custody of their kids – taken from their homes without regard for due process or less-hostile alternatives, judge barbara walther is requiring that the yearning for zion flds parents

… be photographed, take parenting classes, submit to in-home inspections and remain in Texas during a continuing investigation by state child welfare authorities.

excuse me? i’m confused as to what gives walther the authority to require the parents submit to any of those things – as far as i know, they haven’t been charged with any crimes; does the investigatory power of the texas department of family & protective services extend that far?

i’d read the actual order, but walther’s court doesn’t seem to have an online presence.

(other information in the article disturbs me as well: the department and the judge seem to want to make it as difficult as possible for families to reunite, requiring that parents travel to where their children are, rather than returning the children to them. according to the article, the children are scattered around the state – and texas isn’t small. a comment by the spokeswoman for the department, marleigh meisner, also raises red flags: she mentions “where the children are being held.” held? does the department think they, too, have committed some crime?)

apparently, in texas you can only take kids away from their parents without a court hearing if they’re in immediate danger (however that’s defined).

those 400 FLDS kids? not shown to be in immediate danger, according to the third court of appeals in austin. the grounds for removing the kids were “legally and factually insufficient,” they decided.

the texas department of family and protective services kept insisting that the entire ranch was essentially one household, which gave them grounds to search the whole damn place on the basis of a few unsubstantiated phone calls alleging abuse by a single person against the mystery caller. barbara walther, the trial judge who was presiding over the whole farce, accepted that argument. FAIL, said the third court of appeals, in footnote 10:

10. The notion that the entire ranch community constitutes a “household” as contemplated by section 262.201 and justifies removing all children from the ranch community if there even is one incident of suspected child sexual abuse is contrary to the evidence. The Department’s witnesses acknowledged that the ranch community was divided into separate family groups and separate households. While there was evidence that the living arrangements on the ranch are more communal than most typical neighborhoods, the evidence was not legally or factually sufficient to support a theory that the entire ranch community was a “household” under section 262.201.

hah. not only is 51st district judge barbara walther woefully out of touch (don’t get me started on her “they don’t need to breastfeed” rationale), but she’s also wrong. “The district court is directed to vacate its temporary orders granting sole managing conservatorship of the children of the Relators to the Department.” according to npr, walther has 10 days to comply with the ruling.

the next question: will the FLDS members try to sue the government of texas, the department of family and protective services, or its agents? and could they succeed?

this article discusses the misogynistic cultural response to the clinton campaign.

most of the comments completely miss the point.

a pilot program to bypass customs! what could possibly go wrong?

it really makes a lovely juxtaposition with those haldol-happy ICE officers. anyone else think we were a more humane nation when we had the immigration and naturalization service, rather than immigration and customs enforcement?

i tell ya, i really should stop reading the morning paper.

yet another reason to be ashamed of our government. the medical “care” provided to detained immigrants documented by the series is appalling; it looks like priest is gunning for another pulitzer.

after about a month of wordpress’ incessant reminders that i was running an outdated, unsecure version of their blogging software, i finally caved and took the time to upgrade. and while there should be no visible changes to this blog, the back-end interface has changed enough to make me grumpy.

tabs were moved. color schemes changed. the GUI refigured. and despite the changes, i still can’t scroll through my category list on my iphone. this is frustrating because i do most of my blogging on the ‘phone these days.

while i’m sure i’ll get used to it fairly quickly, my reaction upon writing this, my wordpress 2.5 inaugural post (using my ‘phone), is this: yuck.

in other news, i’m toying with the idea of making an iphone-optimized version of baggage carousel 4. we’ll see how that pans out.