At Least Someone In Congress Knows Whats Going On

I wanted to write something to articulate how I felt about the handing over of seven gazillion billion trillion dollars by the banksters at the US Federal reserve to a slush fund to bail out their Wall Street friends.

I wanted to say it was plain criminal and how any bail outs should actually be given to the people who pay taxes and are and will be getting turfed out of their homes due to mortgage debt.

But why bother when congress woman Marcy Kaptur says it much better:

Bicycle Commuting With My Motorist Friends

In the last couple of months I just switched from doing a daily 22 kilometer round trip bicycle commute to work to living a stone’s throw from my job and cycling to work in under five minutes. However, after a year and a quarter of long distance urban bike commuting in Ireland, I have some opinions on the subject that I feel the need to share.

The first thing I have to say is that it’s not an activity I can easily recommend. I had no other option really and while I love cycling and wish I lived in a world where urban bicycle commuting was a safe option I have to conclude that by and large it isn’t. I say this not because of the volume of the traffic on Irish roads (that actually makes it safer due to the slowdown it causes) but because of the mindset and general aggression of motorists towards cyclists.

Whats Wrong With Ron Paul-itics

Ron Paul is the best thing since sliced bread, the great new hope, the beacon of freedom for a new America. At least thats what you’d be led to believe if confined your political education to YouTube. Thankfully I haven’t.

For those who don’t know, Ron Paul is a Republican candidate running for the 2008 presidential elections. However he’s not the usual “I want to murder innocent foreigners to line my pockets and I hate fags” type of Republican. In fact he’s actually a “Libertarian” (using the grossly inaccurate American capitalist application of the word rather than the more accurate left wing application commonly used in Europe) who seems only to be in the Republican party because he believes there’s no way to achieve anything significant in American politics if you’re outside the two main parties.

He also different to most politicians at that level because I reckon he is actually principled and is not in it just for the power. He believes in something and wants to get people’s support so he can achieve it and he won’t dilute his beliefs just to win votes.

In line with “Libertarian” thinking he’s against America’s continual belligerent interfering with the rest of the world and isn’t afraid to say so and spell out what America has been doing to other countries.

All sounds good right? So what are my issues with him then?

$100 A Barrel: Why I don’t drive, and why no one else will soon

Occasionally people ask me why I don’t drive, especially here in Galway where I think most people are given cars instead of legs at birth.

Growing up not far from inner city of Dublin and living there most of my life I never really needed a car. My father never drove and my mother tried for a while but gave up after two cars in a row were stolen. Most of my friends families didn’t have cars either and all my friends and I walked, cycled and used buses without thought, practically no one in my school was dropped off in a car. Effectively I grew up in a culture that was not car dependent, all the facilities we needed to live were easily accessible without a car. Thats not to say Dublin is car free utopia, it’s not, especially so in recent years with American style suburban sprawl and population growth with little or no matching investment in public transport. Dublin has become a car culture but due to its density and the legacy of having some sort of bus system its still possible to live there without a car if you live somewhere within the city proper rather than the sprawl into Meath and Kildare. More importantly in a way car culture hasn’t fully infected the minds of a lot of people there, there are still lots of younger people who don’t have cars and don’t consider it to be a extra limb.