Week of April 30th

So after checking into a hotel the clerk stops you and informs you the fitness center is on the 4th floor. Does that mean they observed your build and decided: A. you obviously work out and would be interested in the gym or B. you need to work out because you are so out of shape?

Today it was pretty warm. That being said riders were out.  Passing through Delaware, I noticed 10% of the riders decided to wear a helmet. Is there a point of flirting with certain death? Is it more fun?  Or do you hate the poor state highway worker that will have to scoop up pieces of your cerebral cortex?  It makes me uncomfortable to even see them riding like that.  I did see a guy on a scooter wearing a leather riding jacket, but no brain bucket. This is one thing I am glad the government regulated, just so I don't have to be uncomfortable seeing here in MD.  

Stand your Ground Racist?

Ok so the outcry about the Trayvon Martin killing has gone a certain way I don't understand.  I have been hearing in the last few days that people outraged by the killing are protesting the stand your ground laws.  They have pressured corporate sponsors to stop funding a legislative action group that promoted these laws calling them racist.  Just because it is assumed that Zimmerman is benefiting from that defense doesn't invalidate this as a worthwhile law.  The known facts of the Martin killing don't reflect on stand your ground laws as I understand them. It seems to me this killing is polarizing the public into liberal versus conservative agendas and includes all aspects of these various political views however much on the periphery of the event it is.  Liberals will blame lax gun laws as the reason this person died.  I say its not lax gun laws, but racism pure and simple.  Its easy to fix gun laws.  Fixing hearts is next to impossible.  I have always said you can't legislate morality or outlaw hate.     

The pics from the Garage Project

So here are the pictures from the pulley mounting system project.  I actually put up another one on the other side of the garage and it is holding a Mercedes Flag right now.  You may ask why I put up another one I mean you would have had to rent another ladder and spend way more money than necessary on building it as opposed to buying a kit? Well the reason is safety.  What I realized was this system has single point failure modes. If the rope breaks or the cleat holding the rope comes off the wall or the pulley mounting rail comes out of the ceiling; crash! So a back up system is needed to prevent the suspended heavy item from falling on the expensive vehicles parked under them.  So I got the ladder and instead of a simple mount and ropes I installed a second pulley system and incorporated mounting points for safety backup ropes. These pictures are from the first system only. 

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week of March 25

      The killing of Trayvon Martin is a tragedy.   Racism, stereotyping, prejudice run all through this event and the aftermath. Wearing a hoodie can get you first stereotyped then killed.  This morning I put on my gym gear and thought that the green UA hoodie, I was about to put on, automatically says something about me to others.  I wore it proudly, because to me wearing it is my right and fuck those who would judge me by my clothes and color of my skin.  I put on my hoodie and thought about Trayvon Martin.  So after today I'm not calling them hoodies.  Their Trayvon Martins, TMs or Martins, so I will never forget what racism is capable of.  
      You can dismiss this as an aberration or a one-time incident or an at of a crazy person, but it's not.  Racism goes on everyday from subtle slights, harassment, and even to murder.  We can try and act like we're past it as a country, but believe me it is alive and well.  Those that deny it are like Holocaust deniers and the racism of those claims sickens me to hear.  It will never be defeated by denial, but rather only when confronted can it be beaten. Education and exposure to other races is the only way.  The education those that don't interact with other races comes from the media.  They are poisoned with the "funny" sitcoms that exploit racial differences for a laugh, but in reality those cheap laughs come at a high price. So I would expect some pressure to come from those being honest about racism to demand that the media self regulate.  People scoff at politically correctness.  I am guilty of it too, but if the public doesn't see anything but stereotypes portrayed in the media then where is the truth going to come from?  I hope some good comes out of this case. There is an opportunity here to talk honestly about racism and use this to weaken it's hold in America.  There is another problem with this case and the attention it has gotten but I will leave that for another day.