Manipulation of the color coded alerts

Here's some not too surprising news: in his new book Tom Ridge says that the color coded terrorist alerts are basically a farce.

He was ordered, or asked, to raise them prior to the 2004 election, which may have just scared enough people to vote for Bush a second time. We'll never know, but I think it is time we dropped the threat advisory level. It has always been yellow or orange, I doubt that it was ever planned for it to go lower.

In Defense of Mackey: Whole Foods and Healthcare

There are many calls on the left to boycott Whole Foods over this op-ed by CEO John Mackey.

The argument is that Whole Foods is a very liberal store with liberal customers, and the CEO himself needs to have a liberal viewpoint to cater to them. I disagree with this stance.

Whole Foods does a lot of good, whether it is by providing its non-union employees with better than union benefits or promoting the "buy local" movement. It should not matter what the owner of the store's views are, especially since the alternative shopping choices are so bleak.

In any case, while I support President Obama's healthcare initiatives, Mackey does offer some good points that we should keep in mind. He actually lists 8 points, but these are the ones that I feel should be part of any healthcare reform:

1. Remove obstacles to HSAs. I have one, you probably should too. It is simply the best plan available for most people.
2. Allow individuals to write off the cost of health insurance premiums.
3. Tort reform. Doctors are sued way too much, for way too much

New Bike

I bought a new bike last week.

After several long days of searching online, I narrowed my choice down to a two models that I wanted to test ride, the Trek 7.2 FX and the Specialized Crosstrail. Unfortunately, the base (cheap) Crosstrail was sold out everywhere, but the Trek was available in many stores.

I was going to buy it at Spokes, Etc. in Vienna, but they would not accept my American Express card, which is all I had with me. They also rubbed me the wrong way trying to negotiate the purchase, only offering me 5% off. The total price would have been around $475.

So I did some more searching online that night and found that The Bike Lane in Reston had the bike for a closeout price of $399. I called them up and it was ready the next day. Of course, like most bike shops they tried to charge me $25 for a kickstand, water bottle, and cage; had them delete all of those items. I installed a cage/bottle on my own, and have no need for a kickstand.

One nice thing they offer is lifetime adjustments, I'll probably be taking it in for its first in 1-2 weeks, since the cables are stretching out.

So far have rode the bike about 50 miles; am extremely happy with it.

I've ridden the bike