Welcome to the new blog!

OK, It's not that new. I haven't changed anything already here but the look. I still don't like that, so it may change again. What I noticed, looking at some of my recent posts, is that except for some totally random posts, I blog mostly about transportation. So that's where I'm going for the future, and with that goal I'll try to tie things together a little bit better.

How so, you may ask. Well, the main issue here is riding a bicycle. For fun. For transportation. As an alternative to the transportation choices that get shoved down our throats every day. I realize that cars are not going away, they are a part of how we go from point A to point B. But we need to have other choices too. That includes walking, biking, buses, trains, airplanes and boats. Why do we allow our governments, local state and federal, to promote policies that encourage cars and discourage everything else? This is what I will talks about.

Why make this change? Well, I've been reading about Energy Secretary Steve Chu, Nobel Prize winner and bicycle commuter. He says he does not own a car (his wife does) and has always had a job that he could bike to. Unfortunately for him, his new job has a security team that requires him to ride to work in a Tahoe. I think many Americans would think that a job that includes an SUV picking you up and taking you home would be awesome. But Chu hates it, and I agree with him. He had has life built around a way of doing something, and now it has been disrupted. As Energy Secretary he will be making decisions that will affect us all, and that will likely require us to change the way we do some things. So because of his forced change, I believe he'll have some empathy for the rest of us. I wouldn't mind of course if he talks the President into creating benefits for bicycle commuters.

The other thing I read this week, that had internet bicyclists up in arms, is dick columnist George Will's article disparaging bicycle commuting while continuing to bring disrepute to bow tie-wearing pedantic fusspots. In addition to being a dick, Will is a serial liar who refuses to allow facts to get in his way. I'm not linking to his column because he is a dick, you can find it easily enough with a Google search. Will blasts Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood for suggesting that maybe Americans will ride their bikes to work, and claims that no more than 0.01% of Americans would ever ride a bike to work. But the census bureau tells us that 40 times that number are already biking to work!

My final point today is the President's announcement that fuel milage standards need to go up for cars sold in the US. Duh. We've needed to do this for 40 years. A sorry selection of members of Congress have been holding back standards since the 1970's. It's very clear that low fuel efficiency and an insatiable thirst for oil have driven the US to serious foreign policy and environmental blunders, and that getting a grip on fuel efficiency is a way for the US to better control its future. Predictably the same shrill voices that mocked Obama last summer when he suggested that proper tire inflation will save more gas than could be pumped out of off-shore oil wells have already begun attacking the new fuel standards. Incredibly, I saw idiot Senator Tom Coburn on TV last night defending our "right to drive a gas guzzler". Dude, no one is going to pry your SUV from your cold dead hands, but if you insist on driving a vehicle that unnecessarily harms the environment and sends our troops off to the middle east to defend US access to oil, then you are going to pay for it.

So there, I've combined all my favorite subjects into one post. Look for more of it coming soon. You will also see, from time to time, essays that I write as I practice for the bar exam. I have a really good one coming along about how to pick a US Supreme Court Justice that I'll post this weekend.