Rant, riding fixed, happy f%$@#n New Year!

Hola amigos. What's shakin'? I know it's been a long time since I rapped at ya, but I got a lot on my plate these days. Personal drama, kitty drama, no exciting race reports.
__I'm so livid at political events these days that I could hardly make any commentary appropriate for a family oriented blog. I mean come on, in a speech about an upcoming change in course in Iraq, Bush said "The war on terror is a long struggle and we will be fighting violent jihadists to secure peace for many years to come and the call of this generation is to take the fight to the terrorists to prevent an attack on our nation greater than the scale of 9/11." Not only is he trying the worn-out ruse of alluding to a nonexistent link between the 9/11 tragedy and the invasion of Iraq, he did it as American deaths in Iraq surpassed the death toll of 9/11. Then the White House spokesman had the nerve to say "The president believes every life is precious and grieves for each one that is lost" while Bush spends the holidays at his ranch when servicemen and women spend it dying or getting PTSD in Iraq. I can't think of anything more hypocritical than to send thousands of Americans to their death fighting a war that has nothing to do with 9/11, and relentlessly pursuing a failing strategy that sends more to their deaths every day, while the real architect of 9/11 is still at large and Afghanistan is starting to slip away as the Taliban becomes emboldened by the failure in Iraq. I hope Bush doesn't announce that the Taliban is in their 'death throes' or we're in even more trouble!
__Whew. I get so livid thinking about it. I just need to practice some non-attachment. Breathe. That or stop reading the paper and listening to the news. I need to live in my own special world, where everything is as it should be. Wouldn't that be nice?
__The only cycling news I have is a practice ride into work on the fixie. Top five things I learned:
* Amazingly, it takes just as long to bike to work on the fixie as with gears. And that's over 18.5 miles. Minneapolis is flat.
* Slowing and especially stopping is a pain.
* Riding into a headwind or a on slope can be like spinning: periodic 'jumps' to keep the cadence up can be a great workout!
* Keeping a smooth pedal stroke at high cadence is hard. Okay, I didn't just learn that...
* Riding fixed has an appeal that really can't be described; it has to be experienced.
__Anyway, happy new year to all, and may this year be better than last! If not, I'm going to start taking up drinking. Lots.