danger!?

Today in class, the Homeland Security Advisory System came up, and it got me to thinking. How dumb can we be that we need an "official" government issue colour-coded chart to inform us on the state of our personal safety? the whole thing seems to be kind of a joke to me; because for one, our "risk" is always somewhere close to the red. Two, if we actually knew when there was a "severe risk of terrorists," 9/11 would just be a date in early to mid September with no significance. The whole idea of terrorist attacks is to catch their targets off their guard. I wondered if this chart was created so that would-be terrorists would look at it and think, "oh crap! they must know what i am planning, or else why would there is a high risk of terrorists!?!??" I kind of think if the chart ever told us we were in the blue or green, the terrorists would see it too, and we would be most susceptable at that time rather than a red or orange time. I honestly see no purpose to any of it, because if terrorists threats are always likely, the meter would stay the same all the level (it does) and for the public impact, it doesnt comfort people, because it basically says their lives are always in danger. In addition, if people were wondering if there were a large threats of terrorists, they could pick up a newspaper, or tune in to the five o clock news, because the chart it self says nothing.

I am a communist, and i hate america.

The idea of being patriotic and unpatriotic has been thrown around a lot lately in class, and i now have my own theory to throw out there. Both terms, in my opinion, are widely overused, and are beginning to lose true meaning. I feel that "unpatriotic," is being used they way people say teenagers use the word "love." For example, yesterday in advisory, when the pledge started, and i wasnt paying attention and missed the first line, The guy sitting next to me said, " You communist.. stop being so unpatriotic you america hater," to which i replied with laughter and stood up. In this country im not sure there even is a clear definition of the word, like just because you have a Flag in your yard, does it mean you love the country? When the same person would say that someone who wants the war in Iraq to end to be unpatriotic. The whole idea i believe is too big to be defined only one way.

USCF takeover

Many of you may not know, but USCF is the United States Cycling Federation and they are not the only cycling faction in this country. I recently looked into trying to upgrade my cycling license with them, to enable me to race in higher caliber races, but they have instituted rules that force you to only race in races sanctioned by them rather than ABR (American Bicycle Racing) or any other group. So any races i participated in, or triumphed in, not sanctioned by USCF, are regarded as meaningless, and void. This is basically trying to get any event sanctioned by another group to be starved of paticipants, and utimatly close down, or be forced to beg USCF to let them pay inflated prices to get their seal of approval on flyer. This is pretty sad because instead of doing whats good for cyclists and fans, they and trying to monopolize the cycling world in america. It reminds me of a much more extreme example: what the CIA and the FBI did with regards to 9/11, hurting the people to continue to fuel old rivalries. Why doesnt someone try to stop them?

PALIN mccain 08

I haven't been completely tuned in to everything that's been going on with this upcoming election, but from the skant bits of news ive seen, and from discussions we've had in class, it seems that a lot of people have really grown close to Sarah Palin. When she first hit the spotlight there were media attacks and whatnot, but now people seem to want to defend her despite knowing what the truth is about her(even i don't really know.) Even when i saw some video that was a parody bashing McCain, the caption was "leave Sarah Palin alone." People are saying that she will be the first woman in the white house and how great it will be, but people are, in my opinion, losing perspective. For example, i asked someone i know who they'd be voting for, they said
"not really sure, but im thinking i'll vote for Palin"
I kind of brushed it all off and tryed to forget about it, untill last night i was very pleasantly surprised by the opening of saturday night live. Tina fey was dressed up as Palin saying thing like she will be the first female president, and things of the sort.
On another note, besides the fact that many people are losing their grips, they also are just plain too nice to her.
In a way, people are being sexist. Be more critical of her, sure she seems nicer than hillary, but she deserves to be bashed and slandered and criticized as much as any other candidate, doesnt matter if you are white or black, old or young, male or female, you deserve to have the same struggles.
Make it so that it's "unfair," for everyone.

റിയല്‍ മ്ച്ചൈന്‍ ഓഫ് ജനി‌സ്

Help is on the way?

Last Thursday there was an awful crash at the Northbrook Velodrome where, at over 30 mph, Kristen Meshberg went down along with several other riders, who, unlike her were lucky and got up and limped away with nothing more than torn skinsuits, bruises and large amounts of road rash. Kristen went down hardest, her face smashed against the track, then dragged to the bottem of the banking and into grass. The track was cleared and the rest of the nights racing was canceled. After calling an ambulance and doing anything they could, everyone stood around her waiting for the paramedics with baited breath as the medical staff at the track took a look at her. The ambulance came relativly quick, but when the first paramedic came out onto the track , he strolled pleasantly towards her dragging a spine board. I was at a loss for words. The 2nd paramedic looked more promising as he jogged hurridly onto the track-- only to head the oposite way towards the garbage can, throw something out, then change directions and meander back towards Kristen. The other 2 paramedics followed a similiar routine as the first, and after examining her for a little while, they put her onto a stretcher and exited the same way they entered, walking back to the ambulance.

The paramedics were nothing like ones portrayed on TV shows or in Movies, but all the onlookers were. The faces of all the other riders, officials, and spectators were all stark white; silently waiting for reasurrance, could have been taken straight from some dramatic Hollywood movie. Possibly the paramedics got and call and thought, "pssh, some girl fell of her bike," and figured it was no big deal, but the eyes of the people who saw her go down showed different. I just wish i knew why the paramedics moved so slow, and if somhow that was the right thing to do afterall.

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my name is Dimitri Karamazov and the world is my father







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