12-12-12

It's not often a day assumes once-a-century significance on nothing more than its name, but then there's Wednesday, December 12, 2012, or 12-12-12.

The coincidence of having all digits the same has been a yearly experience since the second year of the new millennium (2001), but the run is over.  After tomorrow, we won't see the like again until 01-01-2101, some 89 years in the future.

I haven't got 89 years in the tank, do you?  If you are old enough tomorrow to understand what's up, probably not.

So this is it.

Make the most of it.

Engaged?  Move up the wedding.

Getting Divorced?  Why not add a little more significance.

If you have to sign checks this week, do them all tomorrow.

Save a newspaper (double-bonus: you can get one now, but in 2101?)

If Wednesday is your Birthday take lots of pictures with date stamps visible.

Planning to sign a contract for a new car or house soon? Do that tomorrow.

Whatever you do to mark this Wednesday, 12-12-12, as special, enjoy the precipitous vibe.  It'll prepare you for (1) the Fiscal Cliff, and (2) the Mayan Apocalypse (whichever gets us first).

Stay Safe

'Be Safe' is what parents tell their kids whenever they head out on their own to do God Knows What with their friends.

'Stay Safe' is the equivalent phrase motorcyclists use when our fellow riders are about to head out and place themselves into God Knows What sorts of dangers.

Actually, when it comes to motorcycles, we do know what dangers are out there, and they are myriad, but mostly manageable.

Most two-wheeled risks are known and accepted as part of the potential price of our enjoyment, but that doesn't lessen the worry (much) of our family and non-riding friends when they see us go out for a ride.  And the more in-the-know about your motorcycling habits these family and friends are, the more worried they'll be.

The same goes I guess for parents and their kids.  The more details you know about what they will be doing, the more you may be likely to worry.  It's sure that way for me. If you want me not to worry, I tell them, please don't relate that you'll be trying out bungee jumping on that school field trip.

My family is pretty good with me and my motorcycling obsession. After a rocky start in which a bike purchase gravely endangered my marriage, all has been well, even though I've increased the number of bikes I own to three, raising the resulting spend rate to Warp 9.

In general, my family recognizes the (mentally) therapeutic affect of a ride, and they don't question the cost-benefit equation. After all, I could be spending that time and money on psychological counseling and prozac.

But if they were to know the gritty details of where and how I ride, they might feel a bit differently.  It's hard for non-riders to understand that riding at the clip I do on weekends around mountain curves is actually pretty safe, because all they can reference is their four-wheel experience.

So it's better they not know the details.  The fact that I've come home unscathed from 11 consecutive years of weekly rides makes them believe what I do is safe enough.

And so it is, for the most part.

But I still say 'Stay Safe' to my riding friends, as they leave our mountain hangout for home, and trust I'll see them again.  We who ride may know the dangers, but we also know we are not invincible and there are idiots out there whose mistakes may end us.  And then there's just plain bad luck.

So, 'Stay Safe' and 'Be Safe' to Riders and Kids everywhere, and doubly so to those of you who are Both.  And remember, when it comes to friends and family - lose the details!

No Man's Land

If time flies by when you are having fun, will you live forever if you are miserable?

A Really Close Landslide - The actual tally in the recent election would indicate an electorate just about evenly split, with a slight majority opting to continue the status quo (with a little Hope on the side) versus a re-boot of pre-Obamian republicanism.  But to hear it from the pundits, both left and right, this squeaker was a 'landslide'.  Either to pump up a marginal mandate, or to emphasize the scope of loss to seize power within a squabbling party, this is ridiculous. For the demos to govern or repubs to regroup with any positive effect, both sides need to accept the divided nature of this country and seek to find common ground (that's not a battlefield).

Benghazi Mon Amour - The republicans incessant attempts to make a national referendum on Obama's reelection out of the question of whether the government erred in calling the embassy attack an act of terrorism or an act of protest, is getting freakishly weird.  As if it wasn't strange enough to focus on what the event was called, instead of why there wasn't effective preparation or an effective response, now the republicans have added the sex-and-threats scandal of former General (and now former CIA chief) David Petraeus to the mix.  Was the General's sexual peccadillo outed to prevent (or impune) his testimony on Benghazi? Small minds everywhere want to know.

To Ghaza, Again - Once more those of us - sitting comfortably in our homes and offices everywhere in the World except the Middle East, must watch the Hamas-led Ghazan Palestinians clash in deadly combat with the Likud-led Israelis. We will never understand it, not even when advised by our Jewish friends - sometimes not even when we are Jewish ourselves. Not even if we are descended from former middle-easterners,  or practice Islam. It is beyond understanding in this modern age of instant communication how two populations can be so intent on each other's destruction. Oh, wait, I forgot politics (see above).

It's said that Misery Loves Company.  We might all live forever...

On The Eve of Dysfunction

I don't want to be negative, really I don't.

When the sun sets on tomorrow's election, I'd like to believe that all hands will come on deck, hoist sail, and set this Nation on a true course towards a benevolent future.

That's silly and unrealistic, I know, but I'd like to believe it rather than succumb to the gnawing certainty that this country's political and governmental dysfunction will continue.

Does anyone out there believe that John Boehner and Harry Reid can ever agree on anything? (Except that they both love their government-paid full coverage health insurance and other perks)

Does anyone believe that Mitt Romney actually cares about that 47%, even remotely as much as he does the fabled 1%?

Does anyone believe that Barack Obama can make the change happen, that he just couldn't before?

Does anyone believe that Fox News (or on the other side MSNBC) will ever stop being a propaganda mouthpiece and stray closer to the facts?

I don't want to be negative, really I don't.  But it's been hard not to.

Let's hope what unfolds on the 6th of November, 2012, will be to our mutual benefit, and not just one more offering on the altar of futility.  (That shit is getting old.)

I wish us all the very best of Luck.

Obama V Romney: We Are In Such Trouble

Having sat through two of the three planned Presidential Debates, I'm not sure I have the strength to watch the third, which airs (I'm told) tomorrow night (Monday, 22 October).

It's not just that they are boring (they are), that they don't cover any topics we really need to know about (they don't).  No, what really disappoints is they showcase how little we have to look forward to in the next four years.

If Romney wins, we'll have a President who's better qualified to be Lobbyist-in-Chief than Commander-in-Chief; and he will come to office beholden to the most conservative factions in the Republican party, no matter what he might try to sell us in the debates. And he'll have Karl Rove and his Bushnik Brigade right behind him; in the shadows behind the curtain maybe, but right there nonetheless, whispering in his ear.

If Obama wins, we'll have a President who won't have any more success breaking the Congressional deadlock than he's already had; less perhaps, since he'll be a Lame Duck (can you have less than none?). Those Republican Congressional Leaders who said they would work to make him a one-term President, won't have a change of heart just because they missed that goal.

Most distressing perhaps, is that neither man has told us any more during the debates than what's in their campaign materials, and neither has inspired much hope for a better future.  Just words that sound like promises but are nothing more than crafted soundbites.

I've no doubt the correct choice is to stick with Obama; but it's no longer a passionate choice for change, rather it's a concession that staying the course with the current somewhat navigationally-challenged Captain is better than handing the wheel over to a seasick landlubber being remote-controlled from shore.

Electric La-La Land

I know it's inevitable the price of a gallon of regular gasoline will rise above $5 and stay there.

Especially true here in Lovely LA, Home of the Automobile as Life Partner, where if they could wire us physically into our beloved vehicles we'd be ecstatic.  

We are an audience made captive by our State's isolationist fuel and emissions policies, but we wouldn't want it any other way.  Hey, we need to breathe! 

And when that 5 buck a pop fuel becomes an everyday reality, the door will begin to close on the standard combustion engine, at least when employed as the motive force for basic transportation.  Driving (or riding a motorcycle) for Entertainment will continue introducing combustable Dino-Goo to Oxygen in the presence of Fire for some time to come, but for commuting and just gettin' around drudgery, electric will be our future.  And I mean pure electric, not hybrids like the Prius, or even the Volt.  In our 5 dollar per G future, any burning of fossil fuel for anything other than Fun will be a non-starter.  We won't want anything that uses even a drop of oil.

Good Thing Then, that Los Angeles, almost like no other city, makes sense for electrics.  We have plenty of year-round sun to feed solar panels, which in turn can charge up our eCars and eBikes.  We also have lots of bumper-to-bumper traffic, and all that idling of gas engines is nastily bad for our collective lungs.  Electric fumes are by contrast a non-item, a figment of imagination, and totally nonexistent.

There are only three things keeping electric transportation as the norm from happening:

Range - It takes a lot of miles to get where you want to go in LA, so 60 miles or so on a charge won't cut it.  We might settle for a reliable 100 (I said, Might).

Utility - Have you seen current electric vehicles?  Space is compromised to make room for batteries.  You can't carry many people or much stuff.  In LA we drive solo most of the time, but we feel the need to pack in our friends from time to time, and we don't want to leave anyone out to walk.  We also must have room to bring those garage sale gems home from the Weekend rounds - can you fit a nice Chair find (or two) in a Leaf?

Cost - We want range and we want utility, but we don't want to pay much more than we would for a gas-powered ride.  La-La Landers will pay for the privilege to wean ourselves from oil, but we are a city of all economic strata, and there are limits to how much cost we can handle.  Make a compact non-Farkled eCar cost no more than a Fiat 500, and we will pay attention (as long as range and utility have been assured).

A Future Wherein Most Vehicles whistle about electrically across the Land is only a matter of Years Away.  No more than a decade, I'd wager.

Maybe Sooner here in La-La Land ...

Mitt's a Hit!

Oh, what low expectations can do for you.

The pundit-spew following tonight's First Presidential Debate of 2012 gave Romney the victory; he didn't get anything close to a 'knockout', but most agreed he won more rounds and took the decision.

Of course, it is easier to do well if - in addition to having those low, low, expectations in your favor - you don't have any kind of identfiable (and recent) track record your opponent can criticize. Especially when your opponent does have a public record of four years on the job you (or rather your handlers) have had literally years to peruse for any useable weakness.

All you have to do is jab and keep moving around the ring.  Mitt Romney did exactly that.

He did something else too.  He morphed into an entirely different variety of Republican, right before our eyes. That Romney who disavowed the Massachusetts universal health care law he enacted as Governor (aka RomneyCare), because to own it would cost him Tea Party support? Gone!  Replaced by a moderate kind of guy who actually thinks that law was just great.

Romney still thinks that 'ObamaCare' needs to be scrapped, of course, even if it is closely modeled on RomneyCare, and was crafted by some of the same advisors. That contrast might have cost him some points, even brought him to his knees, but Barack Obama seemed caught off-balance by this tactic switch and let him escape to the corner.

Of course, even if Obama had landed a punch on this topic, Mitt's been toughened by all those (20?) GOP debates - there's lots of calloused scar tissue there.

The takeaway fom this first debate is just this:  Romney's handlers have proven that he CAN be trained to speak well in public, even absent a script, if given enough preparation and with knowing the topics in advance.  Obama has been shown lacking in his preparation (not much spare time when you are Commander-In-Chief), and lacking too in his enthusiasm and political killer instinct.

I imagine it must irk the President to debate someone like Mitt, given what Obama's gone through, and what he's accomplished since January 2009; and given that Romney's done nothing but campaign  during that time.  It must sometimes seem to him as if the American people are reality show junkies ironically unable to distinguish the Real from the insubstantial.

But irksome or not, the President has two more of these things to get through, and he'd be wise to shake  off his ennui and come out of the corner swinging.