You knew it was a lie....

...now you'll know why. Watch the Trailer.

Nine Innings from Ground Zero

A clip from the recently aired HBO documentary Nine Innings from Ground Zero that tells the story of the 2001 World Series in New York. Watch.

Sunday Stuff

Last Sunday I cleaned up the garage, and put everything in it's place. Trish pulled a 4x8 piece of pegboard out of one of the sheds, and I mounted it in the garage and hung all my tools on it. We set up our new drill press and compound miter saw.

Today I finished putting everything away. I also installed 4 shop lights. Now I'm running 8 40-watt T12 bulbs. It's really nice.

Voting Republican and eating on Yom Kippur

I used to think that voting Republican was as bad as eating on Yom Kippur. But at least with eating on Yom Kippur, it would be between me and God, but voting Republican would harm all of society.

Voting Democrat has always been something a Jew just does. But not anymore.

Read the Article.

Iraq and Ms. Genovese

This from David Gelernter:

*****

The Iraq war started as a fight to knock out a regime that invaded its neighbors, murdered its domestic enemies with poison gas, subsidized terrorism, and flouted the international community. Obviously such a regime was dangerous to American interests. But as the war continued and we confronted Saddam's gruesome tyranny face to face, the moral issue grew more important, as emancipation did in the Civil War. For years the Iraqi people had been screaming, in effect: "Oh, my God. Please help me! Please help me! I'm dying!" How could America have answered, "We don't want to get involved"? We are the biggest kid on the playground. If we won't help, who will?

I have just quoted the death-cries of Kitty Genovese, who died on the streets of New York 40 years ago. And I have quoted the response of an onlooker who didn't feel like helping. Her case still resonates in America's conscience, and tells us more than we want to know about the president's enemies.

The New York Times ran the story in March 1964.

For more than half an hour 38 respectable, law-abiding citizens in Queens watched a killer stalk and stab a woman in three separate attacks in Kew Gardens.

Twice the sound of their voices and the sudden glow of their bedroom lights interrupted him and frightened him off. Each time he returned, sought her out and stabbed her again. Not one person telephoned the police during the assault; one witness called after the woman was dead.

The left wanted America to watch Saddam stab Iraq to death and do nothing. That is the left's concept of moral responsibility in the post-Cold War world.

Miss Genovese screamed: "Oh, my God, he stabbed me! Please help me! Please help me!"

The Iraqi people were dying. The left had no pity. The Bush-haters were opposed to American "arrogance." The New York Times shrugged.

It was 3:50 by the time the police received their first call, from a man who was a neighbor of Miss Genovese. In two minutes they were at the scene. . . .

The man explained that he had called the police after much deliberation. He had phoned a friend in Nassau County for advice. . . .

"I didn't want to get involved," he sheepishly told the police.

Let's not get involved, said the Bush-haters. It's none of our business. Let the U.N. do it.

One couple, now willing to talk about that night, said they heard the first screams. The husband looked thoughtfully at the bookstore where the killer first grabbed Miss Genovese.

"We went to the window to see what was happening," he said, "but the light from our bedroom made it difficult to see the street." The wife, still apprehensive, added: "I put out the light and we were able to see better."

Asked why they hadn't called the police, she shrugged and replied, "I don't know."

We have paid a steep price in Iraq, a thousand dead; but if you choose duty, you must choose to pay. Speaking for America, the president has said: We choose duty. What do we get in return? Nothing. Except the privilege of looking at ourselves in the mirror, and facing history and our children.

*****

Read the Article.

Today's Ride

The ride in today was nice. Great weather, but no so great roads - repaving was in process, so the roads had the combed grooves in them, which slowed me down. 17.8MPH average in the end.

For the ride home, Doug showed me a route to Nyack. There were several major hills. By the time I got home, I was pretty sore. Looking at the route, its not surprising: even though the ride home was only 8.9 miles longer, the number of vertical climbing feet was more than twice that of the usual ride (2200 feet vs. 1100 feet), as much climbing as the 40 mile ride I did a few weeks ago.

Here's today's map and terrain:

In the end, 12.47 MPH Average, 39.8 MPH Max, 23.6 Miles.

The traveling Zalesman

In March, I mentioned Senator Zell Miller's (D-Georgia) comments at the Democrats for Bush campaign. He had quite a bit to say at the Republican National Convention today.

Strange, I didn't see any Republican Senators speaking at the Democratic National Convention.....

Update: Here's the video. Wow.