Those of you who know me, know that I have a love of bicycling. Not a severe love, not the kind that makes me get an extra job to afford a $1,200 frame, but enough to ride to work and take care of the bicycle I do have. So, I was just visiting the blog Pedal Pusher, when I came across Kevin Cyr’s design for this:

Make no mistake, I want this more than I want you to like me. Enjoy.

I’m a visionary, bitches. see the FUTURE that I’ve been stroking for ever.

Been feeling the need to post shorter, and link to greater content. As we get closer to the 150th anniversary of the publication of ‘Origin of Species’, I’d like to post links to such wonderful things as, say ALLIGATOR GOATS.

Also just wanted to remind you that Kirk Cameron will be putting out his own version of the book, which will be untouched except for a forward by ass-buddy extraordinaire Ray Comfort. Said forward will connect Darwin with Adolf Hitler, and prove that he was a misogynist, psychopath, and rapist of children large and small. I will be following up with my own version of the Bible (did you know it was in the public domain!?!), which has an introduction about cultural context of the New Testament, the bad news about translating anything several times BEFORE it ends up in English, and why proving God to be factual is a really, really bad thing…

…for God.

View all that has come before! Betsy Hoffman and mine’s lil’ sketch show is now up with Episode II! Check out the TRAILER…

A post I wrote right before bed on Tuesday…

It’d be evening, and there would be a ring of corrupt law officials surrounding the town. I and my ragtag team of outlaw do-gooders, intent upon stemming the loss of life yet unwilling to let the oppression of our friends and family continue, sneak carefully by. If we can get to the capital, we might still get through. We might still find the Evil Mastermind/Corrupt Official/Dark Shaman who has taken control of this land through lies and near effortless corruption. There might still be a dawn.

But this ain’t the movies, so I guess I better just cast my vote. Unfortunately, it’s kind of useless. Mike Bloomberg is going to win the election.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Mike Bloomberg has done some pretty darn good things for this city. Education, for starters. I’m a personal fan of the bike lanes (which I have yet to see properly enforced, but I won’t press that issue (until he wins)). Budget, environment, support of gay rights… all good, good votes. Here’s the rub, and it’s a bit of a big one.

Forest City Ratner (the people who bought you the New York Times Building (who is, funny enough, the worst place to get information about this little topic) is trying to build a Basketball Stadium, as well as residential buildings, in the Atlantic Yards section of Brooklyn. The problem? There are people living there, homeowners with their families, who do not wish to leave. FCR’s reaction? Kick them out with Eminent Domain.

Apparently, with a little case of Kelo Vs. City of New London, a precedent was set that the construction jobs, taxes, and other development costs created the grounds of “public use.” Now, Eminent Domain is designed just for that, but only when a community directly benefits from it (a new road, a canal, railway, etc. etc.) Now? The taking of a private citizen’s land for a corporation’s benefit is allowed.

Now, if that strikes you as ass-backwards, congratulations. You’re not an idiot. If you still entertain the idea that this is okay, I won’t hold it against you. Just give me the keys to your place, I swear I’ll put two people making the same income as you in there, and the taxes thereof will constitute a greater community benefit then your life right now…

… except, of course, the little loophole in this scenario (hell, it isn’t even a loophole. To suggest a loophole is to contend that there is something in the law against this. Read on…). If you clicked on the link for Kelo upstairs, then you might have read to the problem which is this:

In the fight against her own city, Suzette Kelo (who wanted to keep her home, instead of sell it to Pfizer) lost  after months of legal battles. After millions of taxpayer dollars, the City of New London won the right to move Suzette Kelo out, and allow Pfizer to build their plant. Except THEY NEVER DID. The land that once held Suzette Kelo’s home stands empty, and none of the benefits that Pfizer promised materialized.

So, Brooklyn now has it’s own fight. And Mayor Bloomberg, who is almost assured to win this election, is behind Forest City Ratner 100%.

So, here I am. Your average citizen in what (once was) one of the greatest cities in America (hell, in the WORLD), thinking that there are lines you don’t cross. Lines that go beyond what the corrupt call ‘hard decisions’. Lines that really and truly tell the world that we have no excuses left. We are good people, fighting the good fight, or we play for the other team.

And one of the big ones? A big, glaring, line in the sand? Don’t rip people’s homes away to give to a company. That is evil, no two ways about it.

This is not simplistic. This is not naivete. You do not, under any circumstance, kick people out of their homes to make way for a privately-held stadium. Or a Pfizer plant. Once you do, it doesn’t MATTER what other good you have done. Because what defines good people in both literature and life are the ways that we cope with those rules, the ways that we come up with to get things done, and get them done RIGHT. In the long run, people don’t remember that you got things done efficiently or effectively, but rather they remember whether or not you played by these rules when you did it. This is the root of the saying ‘The road to Hell is paved with Good Intentions.’

Instead, here I write. Entertaining a hope that maybe, one day, someone will pay for these awful crimes. That the citizens of New York City will become New Yorkers again, tough and resilient and not letting a businessman pull wool over their eyes.

But in a city that, day by day, is having its culture stripped away and re-done into a shopping mall, there’s only so much one can expect. Only so much time before some “Urban Developer” looks twice at my home, and thinks it could be a very attractive Walmart.