"Where will it end?"

Quick recap of the weekend: Lay in the sun, ride the bike, went to Seattle with Lee for shopping and dinner, smoked cigars and drank beer. I got to drive the BMW. It is warm today. First class is tonight and the first day of the new route is tomorrow. This week we are also starting our 10-hour, 4-day week. The best to you all.

Richard Clarke's "Game, set, and match."

William Saletan: "It's funny, in retrospect, that Bush ran for president as a uniter. To unite a country, you have to acknowledge and reconcile differences. Bush doesn't work toward unity; he assumes it. He doesn't reconcile differences; he denies them."

Tom Tomorrow: "They're either incompetent or liars--actually, they're probably both. And the only reason we're still having this discussion is due to the fact that a lot of people just can't bring themselves to admit they were hoodwinked."

This may sound naive, especially from a political science student, but I wish that all of the people everywhere would just stop shooting each other and blowing each other up. Maybe if everyones' memories were not so long. This current state is so wrong. It doesn't have to be this way. Ditto for subjugation, theft by systemic inequalities and by outright war.

You all have probably heard of Richard Clarke recently. He has been the White House terrorism advisor for four administrations. I thought that what he had to say here in this CBS piece and in his book was very pertinent: "So what did we do after 9/11? We invade an oil-rich and occupy an oil-rich Arab country which was doing nothing to threaten us. In other words, we stepped right into bin Laden's propaganda. And the result of that is that al Qaeda and organizations like it, offshoots of it, second-generation al Qaeda have been greatly strengthened." This is from the New York Times.

Bad news. I lost my hat today. It was a Cheney Brothers cap I got from a purchasing agent at the hotel. I had to pester him for weeks for that cap. This really bites. I went for a ride today, starting at Tully's, through Woodinville and up Route 9 to 92 and over to Granite Falls. From Granite Falls I was trying to take the back way to Monroe. It didn't work, so I went via Route 2. I lost my stinkin' hat. Shit shit shit. Maybe Amy can get me another one. She works at Tommy Bahama's in West Palm Beach. I'm almost gone long enough to want to visit. Almost. There is the tour of me losing my cap. Shit.

At any other race you get apples, oranges, bananas and water in what they call the recovery area. For the St Patrick's Day race here you get twinkies, cookies and beer. Woo hoo. For the meateaters they had some bratwurst. The race was a pisser. For a 10K you can't just run all out, but for 3 1/2 miles I did (pretty much). I was surprised that even this short race could be so demanding. I was glad to see the finish line. So I had some beer, chatted with some people and then went home for a nap. I was told that I had to join the Eastside Runners Club. The little sleep helped, and since I was still in the Irish spirit and it wasn't raining, I took the bike for a ride and picked up some Guinness. Woo hoo. It's on sale at Fred Meyer. All this and St. Patrick's Day isn't even here yet. My pace was about 6 1/2 minute miles.

One more day. It is hard on my attitude when I consider my pay. I understand RDG's excitement. I was told today that I might be working a single-man route next month. It will have to come with a raise. In more important news, I registered for the biology class at BCC. After all these years I'll be going to class again. In less important news, I'll be running the short St. Patrick's Day road race from the Space Needle area to Safeco Field via the Alaska Way Viaduct. I hope we don't have an earthquake. Y'all have a great day.

Here is E.J. Dionne's ode to John Edwards, "Edwards talked everywhere about "two Americas," one for the privileged, and one for the rest of us. Most political types said it was one of the best stump speeches they had ever heard."

I don't know whether you are back yet Lee, but I made donuts yesterday.

I took the bike to the arboretum today. The rhododendrons are for the most part not in bloom, but the fruit trees are. Here are some pictures.

I'm registered for the St. Patrick's Day race in Seattle. It is a short one and looks to be more fun than anything else. I read that "The St Patrick's Day Dash donates a portion of your race entry to the City of Hope Cancer Research Center." I think most of the races I have run out here benefit the cancer fight. This one is the most expensive per mile, but there is beer at the other end. And now for a training run....

Tom Tomorrow: "It's the damndest thing, how people who think I am a traitor for expressing insufficient enthusiasm for George Bush's various little wars have absolutely no problem watching their neighbors slide into poverty and despair because someone somewhere is willing to do their job for one-tenth the cost. Patriotism really is in the eye of the beholder, isn't it?"

Greenspan, John Edwards, Karl Marx and Social Security. Any idiot knows that there are the haves and the have-nots.

Ha, ha, ha.

I did this search and found the strip I was looking for. I love that strip.

The Dean campaign.

While working at Group Health on Capital Hill today, I was amazed by the amount of people smoking around the buildings. Addiction I guess. Even though addicted why the hell can't they refrain from throwing down their cigarette butts?