2010-09-11

9 years later...

A great piece by Fareek Zakaria on the true costs of 9/11.

2010-09-10

30 in 30

Just watched an interesting video on cnn.com about 2 guys who visited 30 mosques in 30 days during Ramadan.  Quite glad to hear that they found rural America to be very accepting.  They even stopped at a Confederate souvenir shop without any problems.

Here is their main website and blog.

Book Burning: Churches vs. Government

A tale of two books and of two circumstances.  Both due to fear of books.

A nutjob pastor in Florida wants to burn the Koran.  While I'm not a fan of any religion, I would equate this to burning a flag.  Protected speech?  Definitely.  Stupid?  Absolutely.  This action is not going to make people like us.  Supposedly the pasta doesn't want the Muslim version of a YMCA to be built in NYC.

That's a separate issue, but something I need to discuss there.  This is not a "ground zero Mosque".  It is literally like a YMMA.  It even has Jewish and Christian people on its management board.

One book burning deserves another right?  Enter the Pentagon.  One of our soldiers who fought in Afghanistan has published a book, which supposedly has attracted the ire of the CIA and others.  They are now trying to buy the 10,000 copies of the book already printed and destroy them.  Too bad for them, copies of the book were already distributed for advance reviews, and some of them are even on eBay.  I would also argue that his book is protected speech.

At the end of the day, what we can learn from this lesson is that people who want to burn or destroy books are probably not good people.  I would go so far as to call a book burner an asshole.  And as we can see, there are assholes both in the church and in the government.  Thankfully we have separation of church and state.

Half Marathon Training: Week 3 days 2 and 3

Wednesday was an interesting day.  I went for a 5 miler at 5:30AM.  It was quite dark near the courthouse/jail and I somehow managed to trip on an uneven sidewalk.  No injuries other than a small bruise, but got me thinking that I better get a light.  I was able to complete the run, despite falling.   After much searching and going to REI in person, I settled on the Petzl Tikka Plus 2 (green one).  Buying from REI is always a no brainer, since they allow returns forever, for any reason.

I tried out my new headlamp on Thursday, for a 3 mile run.  It works well, no problems.

Today was an off day, but there will be 2 runs this weekend.

2010-09-08

Private Roads vs GOP

Frank Wolf is a republican . He is blasting a road that was privately built, is privately owned, and privately managed:
http://www.fairfaxtimes.com/cms/story.php?id=2130

This is ridiculous.  William Redpath definitely has the clear head in this article.  He points out the fact that drivers have a choice.  If they want the convenience of a fast path to and from home, pay.  If the tolls were lowered, more people would use it, and it wouldn't benefit anyone.  

2010-09-07

Half Marathon Training Week 3 Day 1

Today's workout involved hill repeats.  I ran about 1 mile to a hill near me, and then proceeded to run up and down the hill a total of 5 times (5 up and 5 down).  Each direction was about .1 miles, or 200 yards.  In summary, I ran a mile up and down the hill.  This was also done at my current 5k pace, which is about 7:45 so it was pretty tough.  I then ran at a slower speed back to my house to end the workout for a total of 3 miles.

Taking photographs of airplanes is terrorist activity?

I often go to a public park in Arlington, VA called Gravelly Point.  It is just across the river from DC, and it is about 500 feet from the National Airport (DCA) runway.  I've taken many visitors there, since it is a great place to watch planes land; they are only a few hundred feet above your head and you can even feel their jet engines.  Most people I know like to take photos of the planes behind when they pass.  Apparently, this is terrorist activity.

Thus begins the governments war on photographers...  What the fuck does taking a photo of an airplane have to do with aviation security?

2010-09-06

Half Marathon Training Week 2 wrap up

Today was the long run for week 2, a total of 7 miles.  This distance is not too challenging for me, especially considering the weather.  It was about 72 with a light breeze.  The only thing that would have made it better would be clouds.  I finished the run in just under 70 minutes, so I was a bit faster than a 10 minute per mile pace.  On Saturday I had run 3 miles, so a total of 10 over the past two days, and a total of 21 for the week.

On Tuesday I will be starting week 3, which begins with hills.