Why We Drive

There are millions of Americans with a less than intimate relationship to the automobile in their daily lives. They work, they eat, they have fun - all without driving every day. In this podcast (click Here), I simply digress on a kind of life that the majority of my fellow countrymen can barely imagine.

We spend too much time in and money on our cars. And it's good to live with them at arm's length.

A Good Day

This election day in Philadelphia was the most important and most joyous I have ever seen. The city streets buzzed with exitement, and everyone greeted everyone else and gave short nods of assent to complete strangers. After eight years of shame, we could walk proudly as citizens again. Click here to hear what happened that day, and to hear the sound of a city firing on all cylinders.
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Our Mob

The 2008 Phillies, and anyone who wasn't old enough or just wasn't here, have had their moment in the sun, their parade. On that gorgeous fall day, they were worshipped on the street with hunger that had been building for 28 years.

Philadelphians live in public space, and are old hands at street celebration. In this podcast recorded yesterday (click here), my thoughts turn toward all of us in the public space with which many Americans have little contact, and our collective mind.

The Philadelphia Phillies are the World Champions

There is much to say about this. Library shelves of things to say about this. I have lived in Philadelphia since 1982, and this is the first time The Fightin' Phils have climbed all the way to the top.

I will undoubtedly post something about what this means, but now isn't the time for palaver. The Philadelphia Phillies are the World Champions of Baseball. Click here to hear what it sounded like as the Phils brought it home to Dirty Franks at 13th and Pine last night.

John McCain's soul has left and gone away

Eight years ago, the Republican South Carolina primary was a mudfest of Karl Rove dirty tricks, with John McCain as the bitter victim. The lesson he took away was to embrace the dark side. In this podcast (click here), we see that Senator McCain has not yet hit bottom.

Push Back

As we near the end of this Presidential campaign, the Republicans have begun to stoop lower than many thought they could. Last week, the McCain campaign released a press release entitled "Barack Obama's Friend Tried To Kill My Family." They have been using rumors started by the worst and most repulsive of provacateurs as talking points. In the podcast today (click here), I detail the truth about some of these rumors, the kind of people behind these slurs, and why Obama can't respond in kind, even if the real questionable associations are those of John McCain and Sarah Palin.

In my podcast I discuss Andy Martin, and as loathe as I am to do it, below is a link to the sleazy Fox News report that last allowed this man with the soul of a cockroach on the air:

"Monty Python Could Have Written This"

We should all, of course, be amazed that a lot of Americans don't get this....

Eight Years

Eight years ago, our country had an uncertain but hopeful future. In the attached podcast recording (click here), I wonder on what these eight years or Republican rule have done to our country, and how the Right has done exactly what they said to each other they would do. The Republican Party in the United States, these soulless men, have pledged themselves to be enemies of the United States Government. They don't even bother to hide their agenda at all anymore.

Why should they bother? Half of the American people reliably respond to the fear and the hate and the lies. Every time.

The View From The Crosswalk

This has been kicking around with me for a while. One of the best things about living in Philadelphia is that it's pretty darn pedestrian friendly. Or at least the layout is. The Philadelphia drivers, as always, are another story (click here). I know it's difficult to pilot tons of speeding deathmetal safely, but some people don't even seem to be trying.

Yes, there are bad pedestrians. But just trying to safely navigate the sidewalks and crosswalks of Philadelphia is getting tougher. And, even if the film Repo Man is right and the more you drive the less intelligent you get, sometimes you've got to repeat the basics. Sarcastically, if need be.

A driver told me on my bike the other night that bicycles belonged on the sidewalks, which we all know is illegal. That exchange didn't go well, but that's a story for another time....

New South Philly and Old South Philly

Last Friday, the Obama campaign organized a debate watching party at the South Philly Bar & Grill, halfway between Pat's Steaks and Geno's Steaks. The Phillies were trying to clinch their playoff spot, and a bar full of earnest liberals taking the big screens away from the Phils wasn't universally loved. The fact that they took the screens away to support Barack Obama wasn't appreciated by everyone, either.

Here is the debate, just as it was that night at the cheesesteak nexus of the universe.

Late Night at Barnegat Light, September 20, 2008

Sometimes it is difficult when you're an adult to let all the scales drop away and just play. Ocean air and a round or two of sidecars don't hurt the process. A recording (click here) of myself and friends, late at night, playing in the surf. Put in on in the background, and near the end you can hear us well splashed by rogue surf.

The Non-Sporting Life

You're a little suspect as a man if you aren't passionate about sports. Me? I like myself some baseball, but I can take or leave other sports, mosly the latter. I'm comfortable with it, but (click here) I have some thoughts about not really giving a damn in a sports-obsessed culture.

"Woo-eee! Our city's sports mercenaries have bested your city's sports mercenaries!"

I should care about this?

Hawkish GOP Delegate Drugged, Robbed Of $120,000 After One-Night-Stand At Convention

I couldn't resist the following story (see the video link below).

It used to be that the Democratic Convention was the great playground of pols 'n' hookers, where the heavy action was, but the party of family values (and the representative profiled here) has muscled into the action, and this story indicates that the hookers realize what is in their enlightened self-interest, and are applying their rational selfishness by going after the conscienceless big money these days.

This enterprising lady read her Alexis de Tocqueville and Ayn Rand before she took this soulless putz upstairs. She doesn't advocate bombing a country before stealing their resources, though.

Hawkish GOP Delegate Drugged, Robbed Of $120,000 After One-Night-Stand At Convention
September 16, 2008 at 04:11 PM

The Pioneer Press reports on the self-described "poor judgement" of Gabriel Nathan Schwartz, 29, of Denver. Schwartz was in Minneapolis last month for the Republican National Convention when an innocent one-night-stand ended rather badly for the young delegate.

He met her in the bar of the swank hotel and invited her to his room. Once there, the woman fixed the drinks and told him to get undressed. And that, the delegate to the Republican National Convention told police, was the last thing he remembered.

When he awoke, the woman was gone, as was more than $120,000 in money, jewelry and other belongings.

The thief's take stunned cops.

"It's very, very, very rare," Minneapolis Police Sgt. William Palmer said. "I can think of a couple of burglaries where we had that much stolen, but it's the first time I've heard of this kind of deal."

The Pioneer Press also posts footage of Schwartz taken from the convention in which he lays out his hawkish plans for the Middle East. He says that the US should "bomb the hell out of" Iran. When asked how the US should pay for such a strike, he suggests, "We should plant a flag, take the oil, take the money. We deserve reimbursement."

Quizzo, on second thought

I ran my game last night, and tried some different sorts of questions. The short podcast recording above (click here) gives my impressions after last night.

The Quizzo Underground, Part I

In Philadelphia, a strange subculture exists around a bar pub quiz game called Quizzo. This is my first podcast post (click here) on having a front row seat to those who play for fun, and those who are driven to play. What is an entertaining evening of brain teasers becomes a compulsion for some, and not winning is not an option....