Well…it was an okay day yesterday and I got a few things done so that was cool…slept okay last night but I am a little sore today and I can’t figure that one out….haven’t done anything different over the past few days so that is weird….and the squeak came back in the bike yesterday so I had to take the seat post out and clean it since it was full of sand and dirt from riding in the rain the other day…used up all the grease so I’ll have to get more to do the caliper pins on the car next week…no close calls with cars on the bike yesterday and that was welcome…I really don’t like having to pay attention for everyone…my bike time is when I can zone out for the time and think and I get pretty irritated when that is interrupted….not much to do today…I do have to repair the top on the car since last years repair of the abrasion on the drivers side is looking pretty bad…and I want to wash it, too since I was out in the rain yesterday and it is looking kind of crappy….more later
All posts by James DeVol
A victory for the 4th amendment…
Well…going to stay away from politics for the day…unless there is a ruling in the Trump U. case….and there was a good ruling from a federal court that I wanted to talk about. As you know, the 4th amendment sets out that the government needs a warrant approved by a judge to search your “person, places, or things…” and you also know that police across this country have been violating the 4th amendment at will when it comes to modern day electronic devices such as cell phones since the law has not caught up with modernity…well, now it has. A federal judge has ruled that information gathered by the so-called “stingray” cell phone tracker that has been used for years now without warrants across this country is a violation of the 4th amendment. What this stingray does is “spoof” a cell phone tower…in reality creating a fake tower that all of the cell phones in the area will talk to and recognize as a real one…essentially allowing the police to track a persons movements or the movements of his phone to be accurate, with the judge saying “Absent a search warrant, the government may not turn a citizen’s cell phone into a tracking device.” This is good new for those of us that believe that the 4th amendment has been eroded over the years to allow the police to violate it at will….now, we need to have this ruling used as precedent across the country since there are over 200 organizations who have these tracking devices and are using them without warrants on a daily basis…..
July 13th
Well…getting to this one early again since I don’t know when the internet service is going to be out today….it was an okay day yesterday and I got a few things done so that was cool…slept okay last night and feel okay today but I do know that I need the ibuprofen before the bike ride…in much pain on the ride yesterday and don’t want to repeat that…cars had in in for me yesterday on the ride and I damn near hit two of them when they pulled out in front of me…will do one on that later today….there was a strong storm that came through here yesterday with 70 mph winds that just trashed the complex here….there is a 30 foot maple that was broken off at ground level lying in the street and the tops of a bunch of pine trees were sheared off…it looked like a tornado with the winds coming through….can’t wait to see what the trails look like…not much to do today….just the normal stuff and some cleaning…way too many spiders in the bathroom that need to go…more later….
The Republican platform…
Well…needed to get on this one early today with the cable going to be out later today….have been reading about that hoary old practice that happens before the political conventions of putting together the party platforms that consist of the promises of what the parties will do if elected in the fall….and when looking at the shape repub platform is taking, all I can say is we’ve seen all of this before…more tax cuts for the rich…more hate for LGBT people…more “clean coal” and the rest of the nonsense that has shown to never work whether it is economic or social…do they really think they can get a constitutional amendment to make LGBT citizens second class again? Do they want to turn the entire US into Kansas which is imploding from repub tax cut policies? Sadly to say, they really do believe this stuff and will continue to push it if elected….they just love to trash this country and anyone who is not rich…after all, in the greatest country in the world, if you are not rich, it’s your fault…that’s implicit in their platform, too….what a bunch of asses…geez…
July 12th
Well…it was an okay day yesterday but I still didn’t get anything done…other than spending 2 hours trying to get the squeak out of the bike….finally did it but the bike was covered in every lubricant I have so I had to clean it so I didn’t have the smell of gear lube in here…so, I’ll have to start from scratch today….hope it’s easier….need to get out early today since it is going to be 92 later…..was going to go to the beach today but the water temp is only about 60 and that is too cold for me so I guess I’ll wait til next week…slept okay last night and had some psychedelic dreams…as T calls them…that were all over the board….I do hurt this morning but I think it’s from working on the bike…but, I did have cramps in my calves last night that I can’t figure out….not much to do today…just the normal stuff and maybe some cleaning but I’m not sure about that…..more later….
This is bravery…
Well…just had to do a short one on an article I just read out on Kos…over the weekend, an Iraqi man recognized that a suicide bomber was trying to get into a shrine to detonate a suicide vest….this brave man, Najih Shaker Al- Baldawi hugged the suicide bomber and detained him while he set the vest off…killing Mr. Al-Baldawi and the murderer….but saving hundreds of lives….this is bravery….RIP….
Listen to this NRA….
Well…with the tragedy in Dallas last week, the usual suspects started spouting off that if more of the people in the protest were armed, they could have taken out the shooter and saved the lives of the 5 officers that were killed….the standard response from the 2nd amendment crazies who think it is a good idea to have guns, guns, and more guns everywhere. But, in response to that, I want them to listen to a quote from the Dallas police chief that came out today talking about “open carry”…”we don’t know who the good guy is vs who the bad guy is if everyone starts shooting…” Yep…the police think it’s nuts for everyone to be carrying guns all the time but does that matter to the NRA who is pushing for more and more open carry? And we all know why they want it…so the gun manufacturers that bankroll the NRA will make more money…not giving a damn that it puts more people in danger, that it puts the police in the unenviable position of having to make spit second decisions that can and will kill the idiots that are strutting around playing soldier….and, if you read history, the 2nd amendment was never meant to say that anyone could carry any gun anywhere…it was to protect the country since, at the time, there was no standing army and state militias were necessary for the people’s protection…they always forget the first part of the 2nd..”a well regulated militia…” not any yahoo with more money than brains…geez…
Random stuff….
Well…sitting here waiting for the rain to stop so I can get on the bike and thought I’d just get a few random thoughts out while I wait…I found it funny the other day that over 2,000 alumni, teachers and administrators at the Wharton school of business signed a letter asking the Donald to stop talking about going to Wharton…a nice long letter objecting to basically everything that Donald has said during the campaign…good on them….just read about some damn Pokemon game that people are playing on their phones that bad guys are using to rob people…first, who plays these games? And second, has humanity sunk this low? I mean, come on people….the Baton Rouge police department didn’t learn anything from the bad publicity that beating on protesters usually brings…they did it again over the weekend, arresting a bunch of people using their constitutional right to protest…but the big laugh was a post commenting on the pictures that came out of it…by a combat veteran who was amazed how armored these idiots were…saying that he never wore that much body armor in the war he was in….I can’t wait to see the loser that gets selected to be ole Donald’s vp….should be a great laugh with the “deep bench” the repubs have….okay, that’s it for now…will try to get to another one later today….
July 11th
Well…it was an okay day yesterday but I didn’t get much done with all of the sports that were on…from F1 to soccer to indy car…it gave me a good excuse to just veg out the day….oh, well….slept okay last night and feel okay this morning but it is raining and I won’t be able to get on the bike for a while…so I guess I’ll run a couple of errands after I work out…..still not sore again today and I can’t figure it out…last year I had the moving pain in every joint that really did hurt….but, nothing this year….weird…..it is nice that it is raining and the car is getting cleaned from all the bird crap….maybe I’ll have to take the day off the bike with the rain…but, I think I’m going to the beach tomorrow and will take the day off the bike if I do….and I can’t have two days in a row off…not much to do today…errands this morning and then maybe clean the bathroom but that is about it….and I will come back with a political one later today…have been a little burned out on the whole process but I know I need to get back to it…more later…
152 bikes…yikes…
Well…as you know, when something unusual happens on the trail I like to count just to quantify what happened…like the 42 tiny bunnies from last year or the snake counts I have done earlier…and today started out normal…the shifter was working great and I even got rid of the squeak in the bike but I noticed that there was a lot of traffic on the trails…bikers especially so I thought I’d count them…and yikes…in the 15 miles on the ride today, I counted 152 bikes…almost 10 a mile and it is something I’ve never seen before…at the start of the 9 years I have been riding this bike, I could go the entire ride without seeing another biker but today was a little ridiculous…and there were a lot of the spandex boys out, too…wonder if that has to do that the Tour de France is on tv…it seems that every year when it is on, there are a lot more people out on bikes…at least I hope they go away after the tour is over…it was a pain moving through the traffic…maybe I’ll just have to go out earlier….who knows?