Why Ride?

This is why....

the 'check on her first off-road excursion
@ Battle Creek


'roller on the bridge at sunset
minneapplenuts in the background


Rachel's spoke card


days like those more than make up for the shitty stuff....
bikes are freedom, get some ;)

z whore

i know, i know, "get another news source already", but i'm a creature of habit.

JUST READ IT ;)

-c

"...It is the elite that have caused the crisis..."

The Global Economic Crisis and the Fourth World War

April 16, 2009

By Shawn Hattingh

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For the last three decades a vicious war, the Fourth World War, has been waged on the people of the world by the global political and corporate elite[i]. They have unleashed a whole array of economic weapons, from trade liberalisation to privatisation to financial liberalisation, to enrich themselves at the expense of the vast majority of people. As part of this onslaught, welfare systems have been attacked, workers rights have been undermined, and environmental legislation has been savaged. The aim of all of these measures was to spread capitalism into every aspect of people's lives. Everything, including culture, social relations, the environment, water and even air were turned into commodities to be bought and sold. While the richest 400 people on Earth used this system to amass vast amounts of money (more money than the poorest 3 billion people combined), over 18 million people died every year for the last 20 years because of poverty[ii]. When people protested that all of this inequality and deprivation were unfair - and demanded that people should be provided with quality education, quality healthcare, food, and clean water; they were told by the elite not to be ridiculous. In fact, people were simply told that no-one had the money to provide such ‘luxuries' as food, quality healthcare and quality education. Yet, when some of the largest companies got into trouble in the last 20 years, states have rushed to bail them out. For instance, when the savings & loan debacle erupted during the Bush Snr years, the US government spent at least $ 200 billion in public money bailing out some of the corporations involved[iii]. At very the same time, Bush Snr and then Clinton were working hard to attack the poor through cutting welfare. Such is the world we have come to live in. It is a world where profits have been privatised for the rich, while losses and misery have been socialized for the poor - a world of the Fourth World War.

Rest HERE.

Nationalization

"The second type of nationalization is what the establishment equates with Armageddon: the state seizing control over key institutions and running them to the benefit of the majority of the population. Of course, such a nationalization would likely never occur under the kind of state structure that is currently in place. It could only happen as the result of a mass movement demanding its implementation.

Such an action would be the first step towards laying the foundation for a real and lasting social change. Society cannot produce for human needs if financial institutions and industry are owned by tiny groups only interested in accumulating wealth and chasing profit, which is exactly what precipitated the current devastating economic crisis. - Shamus Cooke "

the rest here

ZNet

photo dump

A few photos have been snapped lately with the intention of creating individual posts....but I never got around to it. so here's everything..... ;)

first off, Steph's new bike.....

(and she actually enjoys riding this one!)



another craigslist score. I swapped out the seat and pedals with those on her other bike, wrapped the bars in new tape, put on some fenders, new tubes, a set of used, but quite nice, Continental touring tires I got (along w/ the rest of the gear) from the fine people at Express Bike for $12, a new headlight and u-lock to boot. it came with the rack and "brifters"


next up is a quick lesson I learned today about cantilever brake adjustment.... here is how the F/R brakes on the cross check were setup from the shop....(this doesnt work that well) but according to a few peeps i've asked at various establishments, this is correct (note the ~90 degree bend angle of the cross-wire), and i'm told thats about all the braking performance you can expect from canti's. i thought that was a load of B/S.


I thought that the pull from the yoke should be more perpendicular in relation to wheel sidewall (braking surface) so i lowered the yoke, and shortend the link-wire. Also added Salsa's 50mm wide hanger. this setup brings this rig to a halt in short order.



next up is Jared's new Traveler's Check frameset, just outta the box from CRC w/ Chris King headset courtesy Hurldago.....


J, posing next to the xtra bringin' his baby home


My man Justin was in town saving the day again at the twinkies opener....


and semi-lastly, i'm all for more people commuting to work and all by bicycle, but when its not even april, and only 20 degrees outside, this is the last thing I expect to see. I might propose that those who commute via two-wheels year round get their own personal rack outside ;) (did i mention that this was at 7:20am to boot?)


wanted to make it climbing today, but didn't. last night went too late.

ALSO.... a word up for my man Ant. phucker kept the rubber side down despite some fascist-redneck-POS-pickup driving-ass hat clipped him w/ the sideview.

if you ever see a motorist do this to another human being, hold them in one spot till the cyclist catches up so she/he can promptly knock their fucking teeth out with their u-lock.

have a wonderful week.

Too Big to Save: the end of financial capitalism

April 07, 2009 By Saskia Sassen

Source: Open Democracy

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"If seen in this light, the financial "crisis" could serve as one of the bridges into a new type of social order. It could help all involved - citizens and activists, NGOs and researchers, local communities and networks, democratic governments - to refocus on the work that needs to be done to house all people, clean our water, green our buildings and cities, develop sustainable agriculture (including urban agriculture), and provide healthcare for all. This innovative order would employ all those interested in working. When all the work that needs to be done is listed, the notion of mass unemployment makes little sense. "

full article here

seedy establishments, cloudy suprise, art, slushy white stuff

And the day begins at Ted's.....


Everyone going the wrong direction....this is a frequent occurrence, and we've only been to one bar.


J's all-too-clean CRC patch, the 'sconie's kona, and the 'checks fw....


finally arriving at.....i'm not sure. but probably won the prize for seediest joint happened upon that day. a minute after we enter, some dude asks if we know what neighborhood we're in. then lets me know that our bikes will be stolen by the time we leave. i replied with a nod and a smile. one brew-ha later we were on the road again.....

i love you man...


Collin finished building the kaffenback in time to catch us on our way to Cuzzy's


DT Mpls


Rolling by the Guthrie (sp?)


Arrival and Bender!


Gettin' fresh


Ryan looks apprehensively towards the sky....


mr. nugent graciously provides nutrients and mystery alcohols.



end of photos. shortly after this we made our way to the OOOBS for a little art indulgence. picked up a few posters, enjoyed another brew-ha.
it was crazy packed so we wandered around the block to Luce for some more libations. by the time we left there the weather had fully gone to hell, so we bid our farewells while J and I rode as hard as we could considering the state of us and the weather, due east.

Obama's Domino Theory

Obama broke with his pledge of straight talk to the public and fell back on Bush-style boogeymen and implausible conspiracy theories.

April 05, 2009

By Juan Cole
Source: Information Clearing House

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March 31, 2009 "Salon" -- President Barack Obama may or may not be doing the right thing in Afghanistan, but the rationale he gave for it on Friday is almost certainly wrong. Obama has presented us with a 21st century version of the domino theory. The U.S. is not, contrary to what the president said, mainly fighting "al-Qaida" in Afghanistan. In blaming everything on al-Qaida, Obama broke with his pledge of straight talk to the public and fell back on Bush-style boogeymen and implausible conspiracy theories.

Obama realizes that after seven years, Afghanistan war fatigue has begun to set in with the American people. Some 51 percent of Americans now oppose the Afghanistan war, and 64 percent of Democrats do. The president is therefore escalating in the teeth of substantial domestic opposition, especially from his own party, as voters worry about spending billions more dollars abroad while the U.S. economy is in serious trouble.

He acknowledged that we deserve a "straightforward answer" as to why the U.S. and NATO are still fighting there. "So let me be clear," he said, "Al-Qaida and its allies -- the terrorists who planned and supported the 9/11 attacks -- are in Pakistan and Afghanistan." But his characterization of what is going on now in Afghanistan, almost eight years after 9/11, was simply not true, and was, indeed, positively misleading. "And if the Afghan government falls to the Taliban," he said, "or allows al-Qaida to go unchallenged -- that country will again be a base for terrorists who want to kill as many of our people as they possibly can."

Obama described the same sort of domino effect that Washington elites used to ascribe to international communism. In the updated, al-Qaida version, the Taliban might take Kunar Province, and then all of Afghanistan, and might again host al-Qaida, and might then threaten the shores of the United States. He even managed to add an analog to Cambodia to the scenario, saying, "The future of Afghanistan is inextricably linked to the future of its neighbor, Pakistan," and warned, "Make no mistake: Al-Qaida and its extremist allies are a cancer that risks killing Pakistan from within."

This latter-day domino theory of al-Qaida takeovers in South Asia is just as implausible as its earlier iteration in Southeast Asia (ask Thailand or the Philippines). Most of the allegations are not true or are vastly exaggerated. There are very few al-Qaida fighters based in Afghanistan proper. What is being called the "Taliban" is mostly not Taliban at all (in the sense of seminary graduates loyal to Mullah Omar). The groups being branded "Taliban" only have substantial influence in 8 to 10 percent of Afghanistan, and only 4 percent of Afghans say they support them. Some 58 percent of Afghans say that a return of the Taliban is the biggest threat to their country, but almost no one expects it to happen. Moreover, with regard to Pakistan, there is no danger of militants based in the remote Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) taking over that country or "killing" it.

The Kabul government is not on the verge of falling to the Taliban. The Afghan government has 80,000 troops, who benefit from close U.S. air support, and the total number of Taliban fighters in the Pashtun provinces is estimated at 10,000 to 15,000. Kabul is in danger of losing control of some villages in the provinces to dissident Pashtun warlords styled "Taliban," though it is not clear why the new Afghan army could not expel them if they did so. A smaller, poorly equipped Northern Alliance army defeated 60,000 Taliban with U.S. air support in 2001. And there is no prospect of "al-Qaida" reestablishing bases in Afghanistan from which it could attack the United States. If al-Qaida did come back to Afghanistan, it could simply be bombed and would be attacked by the new Afghan army.

While the emergence of "Pakistani Taliban" in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas is a blow to Pakistan's security, they have just been defeated in one of the seven major tribal agencies, Bajaur, by a concerted and months-long campaign of the highly professional and well-equipped Pakistani army. United States Secretary of Defense Robert Gates replied last summer to the idea that al-Qaida is regrouping in Pakistan and forms a new and vital threat to the West: "Actually, I don't agree with that assessment, because when al-Qaida was in Afghanistan, they had the partnership of a government. They had ready access to international communications, ready access to travel, and so on. Their circumstances in the FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) and on the Pakistani side of the border are much more primitive. And it's much more difficult for them to move around, much more difficult for them to communicate."

As for a threat to Pakistan, the FATA areas are smaller than Connecticut, with a total population of a little over 3 million, while Pakistan itself is bigger than Texas, with a population more than half that of the entire United States. A few thousand Pashtun tribesmen cannot take over Pakistan, nor can they "kill" it. The Pakistani public just forced a military dictator out of office and forced the reinstatement of the Supreme Court, which oversees secular law. Over three-quarters of Pakistanis said in a poll last summer that they had an unfavorable view of the Taliban, and a recent poll found that 90 percent of them worried about terrorism. To be sure, Pakistanis are on the whole highly opposed to the U.S. military presence in the region, and most outside the tribal areas object to U.S. Predator drone strikes on Pakistani territory. The danger is that the U.S. strikes may make the radicals seem victims of Western imperialism and so sympathetic to the Pakistani public.

Obama's dark vision of the overthrow of the Afghanistan government by al-Qaida-linked Taliban or the "killing" of Pakistan by small tribal groups differs little from the equally apocalyptic and implausible warnings issued by John McCain and Dick Cheney about an "al-Qaida" victory in Iraq. Ominously, the president's views are contradicted by those of his own secretary of defense. Pashtun tribes in northwestern Pakistan and southern Afghanistan have a long history of dissidence, feuding and rebellion, which is now being branded Talibanism and configured as a dire menace to the Western way of life. Obama has added yet another domino theory to the history of Washington's justifications for massive military interventions in Asia. When a policymaker gets the rationale for action wrong, he is at particular risk of falling into mission creep and stubborn commitment to a doomed and unnecessary enterprise.


Juan Cole teaches Middle Eastern and South Asian history at the University of Michigan. His weblog on the contemporary Middle East is Informed Comment.
From: Z Net - The Spirit Of Resistance Lives
URL: http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/21085

from Z

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