Marcescent Soutane

Anselm Kiefer, “I want to fly my bicycle”, neo-expressionist lead, steel, and wire sculpture; artist is best known for exposing authoritarian atrocities for decades and never more timely.

Christian clerics wear cassocks to show they live to serve. These garments were inspired by padded riding tunics of nomadic Persian adventurers who performed good deeds at the bidding of those who deserved kind boons. Slowly soutanes withered to nothing more than ceremonial vestments bereft of importance, possibly because nobody anymore quite knows adornment type, button number, fringe material, sash selection, or such regalia and rules befitting a false sense of majesty and traditions to which they cling. Bicyclists’ bib tights more closely resemble original outfit, but churches frown upon congregants who don lycra or dress down.

Good deeds for community’s sake supposedly satisfy self and serve others, but none go unpunished. You can hardly help anyone without interference from their questions and resentments. No number of arguments or explanations overcome distrusts and misgivings. Letting down one’s guard when all goes well for a while can be such an extravagant luxury after signing over one’s rights unnecessarily at insistence of bankers, bill collectors, or insurers. People only accept assistance on their own terms, even when they don’t understand what’s going on, thus adding to chaos and blocking their prepotence. Blame assessing and finger pointing immediately ensue. To paraphrase Jean-Paul Satre, “Condemned to your freedom machine, Hell is other people interfering with your scene.”

Church times, city planning, and cycling politics haunt Dave Walker’s cartoons.

Another rainy day? Early New England Springs extend into interludes of misery and mud as ground heats, permafrost melts, and sequestered carbon emerges into atmosphere. No wonder climate tracers warn of eroding glaciers and skies are gray every day. Drizzle keeps many riders out of saddle, while black mold and tree pollen makes for allergic bike rides and potential asthma attacks. Consequently, new insights and reveals elude. Aged, belligerent, cantankerous, damaged dowagers, and indeed Labann, indiscriminately shower angry, burnt, cautionary factoids upon apathetic readers who don’t heed because they can. Why bother preaching?

Never roll through a shiny spot or standing water masking a pothole, which can trap entire wheel causing an endo. A helmet with a brim helps keep drips out of eyes. Goggles fog and obscure outlook. Gloves improve grip and protect hands in a fall. Beware of hypothermia; dress in warm, wicking clothes, windbreaker, and winter shoe covers. Cash, cell and keys belong in a zip-lock baggie to deter getting soaked by gutter juices. “Acqua e sapone,” they actually say. Clean and dry bacteria laden apparel, bike, and equipment; re-lube drivetrain to avoid chain wear and rust. Slow down. Take extra care; motorists with steamed windshields might not see you. Anything that interferes with tires gripping pavement - broken glass, cold wet, damp leaves, ice patches, loose gravel, sand shoals - can be dangerous and disconcerting. Broken pavement also causes flats.

Flats fit 3 categories: pinch, puncture, or sidewall. Pinches are caused by improperly installing tube twisted or under tire bead, hitting sharp edges of curbs or potholes, or running at too low pressure. Punctures come from rolling over glass, metal, sand, thorns, or wire. Sidewall blowouts can be avoided by never entering into linear cracks that scar sides and renewing setup at regular intervals: new rim tape, tires, and tubes. Inspect rim beads and entire rims for damage, too. Carry a "boot", which is a plastic self adhesive patch to bridge gap in sidewall allowing you to limp to home or safety. Don't try to patch tubes; abrasion thins, valves go; carry two or more because being prepared for failure means it occurs less often. Don't tighten the knurled nut on valve; it's only there to stabilize the pump head, not hold air in; some remove altogether because they can freeze and prevent repairs. Prevention is perfection, avoiding anything by parsing paving.

Ironic how flats with skinny racing slicks are so much easier to repair than with stiff beaded twice as wide gravel and mountain specifics. Using butyl tubes, Kevlar belted tires, and plastic liners, almost never get flats, so ultimately save time. Need two tire levers and a new tube, never patched used ones. Deflate old tire, dismount wheel (assume quick release skewers or you'll need a hub wrench), lay bike down with drivetrain side up, remove knurled nut from valve, and use levers to pry off tire entirely from rim bead. Importantly, inspect beads, rim tape, and sidewalls, remove punctured tube, and rub entire inside of tire with fingers and thumbs to find and pluck anything piercing through before reusing tire; use needlenose pliers to remove embedded bits of wire unless you want another instant flat. Remount tire halfway (note if one directional, some are), slightly inflate new tube, thread inside rim so valve sticks through evenly, then carefully install other bead of tire in rim careful to avoid pinching tube. Inflate a bit more, squeeze sidewalls all around to encourage proper seating. Pump (or CO2 inflate) to spec, reinstall wheel onto bike, and ride on. Some brake calipers have small ratchets that spread pads off rims for removal. People might forget to swivel ratchet back into position after reinstalling tire, which affects braking tension.

Global Cycling Network (est. 2013) is some sort of advocacy group apparently living off advertising clicks for last decade. Content impoverished, they recently concocted this list of “Bike Terrors: 6 things that cyclists are scared of” [random and unrated]: Animals/pets prowling roads, black Ice, being doored, destination cafés closed, slippery white lines, and wet drains. Lame and unimaginative? Or is it AI generated claptrap?

If Labann were asked to list and rank: 6. Losing car keys or catalytic converter while parked for a ride; 5. Loose debris, gravel or sand while cornering; 4. Breakdowns/flats during extreme weather or when riding through bad neighborhoods, 3. Hitting a deep pothole or linear crack while descending at speed; 2. Attacked by apex predators on back roads; 1. Being overtaken by a motorist whose license to operate already has or should have been revoked years ago. All such arguments grossly impeach cycling as dangerous, ignore deadly scourges of motoring, and never examine root causes. How about calling out self serving conservatives who want to kill bicyclists to continue profiting off environmental ruin?

When asked to rank their anxieties, Gen Z respondents named fatal car crashes as number one. Young adults aren’t yet concerned about top general population killers: cardiovascular diseases, cancers, and existential threats, rather their main threat. Fascist candidate facing imprisonment offered Big Oil cuts in environmental controls if they donated a billion dollars to his campaign, from which he’s already demonstrated a felonious propensity to pay personal legal expenses and state levied fines. If reelected, he’ll avenge any opposition and suspend state support for bicycling, which he already stated he adamantly hates.

Skells, sluts, and studs are beyond your control, attacking fragile victims, extorting cowering minion, slapping kissers of crooked suckers, stealing coveted stuff, unworried they might murder some and spend rest of their lives in prison, because repeat felons running for office seem to have gotten away with worse offenses forever. Not even angels can fly away from vile examples. Sustainability derives from battling daily. 

MAGA RINOs stampede under a banner of better living through Christian Nationalism, neither of which previous administration and its führer espoused, merely self serving plays for domination bringing economic recession and human desperation. This power mad sociopath dreams of becoming America's and world's dictator;  menace of poverty makes public cower. What did you think? After years of being conditioned by advertising bullshit anyone couldn’t be convinced to vote against conscience for a cartoon villain crime lord? Some believe whatever they are told, can’t apply basic logic, have no tools for comparative analysis, lack common sense, and won’t ever change their minds. Are there enough normal voters who value what independence America still affords?

Unless district attorneys, DOJ, FBI, journalists, and police act in concert and do their unenviable jobs, “conduct becoming” hardly applies to military officers, never mind civilians and politicians. Censure and scandals currently surround Congress supposedly serving us, conservative SCOTUS, and previous POTUS. Accused stalling proceedings for literally years betrays guilt. Infamy only lasts for next few news cycles. To become an indelible household name means to own ubiquitous blame. Seems more time is spent on producing feature films and taping TV series about crime than actually collaring and prosecuting criminals. Why so encourage wrongdoers? Recognized experts are disregarded; mob obeys social media influencers whose messages were recorded drunk or stoned behind pickup truck wheels while wearing flannel and red felt ball caps.

Among automakers, bicycle builders, and gunsmiths, who do you think has been repeatedly and successfully prosecuted for deaths and injuries? Both cars and guns kill more Americans with complete impunity than infectious diseases, yet due to less than lethal design flaws bicycle factories have been closed and workers laid off. How has this happened? Mom and pop businesses get steamrolled by multinational corporations. But for altruistic activists, evil typically eclipses marcescent virtue hanging on by a hopeful thread.

“Language is my knife, my weapon.” Sir Salman Rushdie, 2023, Booker Prize recipient and hate crime stabbing victim

Accept No Succédané

“Comes a redeemer, and he slowly too fades away. There follows his wagon... loaded with clay... seeds that were silent all burst into bloom, and decay. Night comes so quiet, it's close on the heels of the day. Wake up to find out that you are the Eyes of the World... Discover that you are the song that the morning brings... Sometimes songs that we hear are just songs of our own.” Jerome Garcia and Robert Hunter, half a century ago

Labann may be old school, but wonders whether he’s a tribal elder or village fool. Age doesn't ensure wisdom. Truth sets you free, but won't save anyone. Have been both delighted and disappointed by fruit, bitter shriveled rather than juicy sweet. Doesn’t mean one should give up picking and trying, just make better choices, not be persuaded by outward appearance, rather use logic and weigh all evidence.

Pitiful and powerless people might be tempted to subrogate personal responsibilities to a popular demigogue. Accepting substitutes never turns out well. Governance demands care and understanding. Entertainers, rock stars, and sports champions garner praise and rationalize immunity for diverting masses from productive endeavors. Anonymous workers who provide comforts, necessities, nourishment, and shelter are mostly taken for granted when not prosecuted for unintentional mistakes. This is wrong on so many levels, society should be ashamed. Yet those forgotten only fancy acknowledgement and fulfillment, often lost to jealousy or redundancy.

An authentic beau idéal prophet needs a bevy of beloveds and bounty of believers. For any bike book author this list must consist of anciennes, athenas, clydesdales, domestiques, freds, gutter bunnies, half-wheelers, hammerheads, mamils, pedalists, puncheurs, randonneurs, rouleurs, sag wagoneers, salmon, shredders, scorchers, sprinters, sportifs, squids, tifosi, weenies, wombats, and wordsmith wheelemen. Americans reward theirs with martyrdom or scorn, while white supremacists want to rescind any holiday named for a preacher of justice. Bastards rather beat dissenters, exploit subordinates, or groom goons for indentured loyalty than share scraps of remembrance. Those with own agendas try to deny history to undermine any memes of great deeds that endanger their schemes. MAGA pretenders can never admit Civil War was fought over privilege and slavery. Same Civil War still smolders upon fake news and unfounded opinion with storm clouds ominously rolling over horizon. 

Some may ask, “Why bother reading anything not written by an expert?” then deal away precious hours perusing MetaX comments or viewing some trendy Teddy Tik Tac reel by avowed idiots who can’t capitalize correctly, choose vocabulary, diagram sentences, express cogently, match spellings, punctuate appropriately, or write understandably. Professional wordsmiths know all this but not necessarily about topics in which you’d be interested, plus they sell stories to highest bidders or work for secretive patrons who only provide to public if profitable to them. Official sources can be as puzzling as redacted palimpsests. Certain amateurs who experienced events firsthand have often been the best reporters, plus they tell you what they know gratis should you express slightest interest.

Do you deserve access to eyewitness testimony? Why should hands-on presence go the distance to inform you through persistence? Readers have no idea how much data must be gathered and skills attained just to write one accurate sentence, while volumes of hip hop vacuity and vicious agitprop corrode convention and erode education. Blameless innocents who warrant salvation get sacrificed.

While all bad grammar and misspellings rankle after producing 150,000 pages as a career writer, the worst of all is when "that" is used instead of “who" to describe people. Anyone "who" does that dehumanizes, because "that" is reserved for inanimate concepts, institutions, or things. Seems they see others as subhuman objects because of misogyny, racism, schadenfreude, xenophobia, or zombie horror, but such an attitude discloses zero empathy.

“I'm a substitute for another guy... The simple things you see are all complicated. Look pretty young, but I'm just back dated... Substitute your lies for fact... Now you dare to look me in the eye... It's a genuine problem, you won't try to work it out at all; you just pass it by...” Pete Townshend, The Who

Axe grinding anarchists, disgusting novelists, drug addled goofballs, sanctimonious clerics, shameless politicians, and vicious televangelists lie with a glint in their eye right to your face and reckon it a victory if they hoodwink you successfully into doing something self destructive or stupid in totality. Gullible youth buy ugly metaphors and whatever rings false. Though scripted spectacle, reality television is popular, particularly sports rigged for allegiance leverage.

Every video documentary picks soundbites from a small percentage of otherwise boring, normal, ordinary segments to create drama, discredit interviewee, relay some biased fiction, or work agendas. Acts of self preservation include assessing urgency and ignoring hype. Sure, every day you have to make decisions and take risks, but television will forever be a battleground for your soul.

Andrew Wyeth, "Young America (with a feather)", watercolor on board, 1950

Enlightened, literate 15% of society often categorize sports as a sector that broadens economy though a silly pastime to mollify fools, but do not speak for masses or underestimate their effects on productivity and waste. Imagine having jetliners carting athletes around like royalty and using valuable resources to produce an ephemeral competition that does nothing to feed or house people or provide durable goods? It's an environmental tragedy underscored by commercials encouraging more of the same in ads for ATVs, SUVs, trucks, and unnecessary choices of transportation.

Meanwhile, loathsome owners of media outlets increasingly use Artificial Intelligence (AI) for cold-blooded content instead of emotional poetry and experiential synthesis readers don’t know they desperately need since so long denied because of greed. AI will soon replace white collar workers and world’s wordsmiths. B&C tried to be comprehensive infotainment and ethics inquiry, but soulless outputs by Alexis, Jarvis, Robin and Siri dovetail with Labann’s dour prose because all avoid fanciful metaphors, hysterical laments, and radical passions that computers can’t comprehend.

On other hand, advertisers, journalists and politicians are masters at manipulating emotions giving them power over all who don’t just wisely ignore. Orange personality snagged a cult win to begin presidential election cycle on half of 15% of registered Iowa Republicans to show in snow, probably 2% of state’s voters. Meanwhile, self professed pollsters concoct phony estimates for whoever pays them. What did you expect when amoral, drug addled, hard partying boomers finally seized power in America? Leary’s dropouts and Nixon’s lackeys destined nation for death, debt, deceit, disease, disrespect, duplicity, and skullduggery. Democratic policies and social justice will surely slip away if all citizens don’t fight for rights wholeheartedly. But when superior minds point out lunacy of tolerating tyranny, it incenses idiots all the more and invites a deplorable dictator though nation's front door.

When you care nothing about what others are doing, and contentedly spectate from sideline, eventually you’ll fall prey to own apathy and their treachery. On other hand, unless behaviors of others break actual laws, their business isn’t yours. What makes you think you know better than they about what affects them? You have no control over chaos, only yourself. Felons claim society is to blame, excuse self, justify atrocity, and when caught scream they’re victims of a witch hunt, none of which is legitimate.

Exposing deceit, delusion, and hypocrisy becomes a snipe hunt. Compulsive liars, con men, and lax slackers never relinquish their long winded swindles. Words are their weapons; they evade blame, extort victims to commit crimes for them, so hide their involvement from law enforcement. If you too want to apply mind control over masses, merely compile an indelible book of itinerant peasants and declare its meandering metaphors divinely inspired. Wars based on ill begotten ideology and the vanity of sociopaths sacrifice millions and threaten all life on earth.

Gone are days when a cathedral or cross on a hill dominated city skylines; skyscraping pinnacles to pride long since dwarfed and shadowed religious influence. Churches used to anchor neighborhoods, now overrun with drug dealers and sex peddlers. Periodic police busts don’t slow illicit commerce in the least. Overfull prisons have revolving doors. No use bemaoning loss of what once was. Must be busy in present to bring forth a better future. Punishment ought to match level of harm and number of victims. Mass murderers, public enemies, and treasonous traitors, like previous American president, deserve severest penalties. You'd think bad actors might beware of a comtemporary Curia of Pompey where Romans ended Julius Caesar on Ides of March. But duty to humanity is no longer valued as much as service to self. Evil examples are praised and showered well with wealth, while demons develop a befitting place for them in hell where they're headed.

Danke Schoen

Carol Mulvihill, Awesome Shadow (detail), acrylic on canvas, 16x24” 

Corn cob cassettes and pie plate gears summon more memories of cycling wheels than giving thanks over holiday meals. Then moody Black Friday rolls around from a gloom and greed background. Bicyclists better embrace joy and pain, light and shade, because opposites are probable when you propel by pedal again. Daily duality is inevitable. Irritations eclipse satisfactions, yet fear and entropy fight fitness and force flab. Everything once generously bestowed nature gradually repossesses. Generally thankful for Grateful Dead canon in which Jerry Garcia says grace by channeling universal wavelengths, and as a septuagenarian still being able to propel through own strengths.

Almost everything bad that can happen to bicyclists has already to Labann: Assaults by crews, beaten by bats, bee stings, blisters, brake fade, broken spokes, bug bites, cables snapped, chased into crashes, component failures, crumpled helmet, cut offs, dog attacks, doored, endo face plants, frame deformation, handlebar breaks, hits by motorists, hooked at intersections, intentionally pelted by beer cans and cantankerous detritus, intractable and multiple flats, saddle splits, sidewall explosions, sideswiped, soaked by downpours, stiffed by LBS, stolen bike, strafed by hail, taxi home, taco-ed wheels, and whatever else you can imagine short of dire or fatal nicely survived with no regrets. Can’t estimate incidents of being menaced during 20,000 hours of cycling over 6 decades, but they tend of recur more often during conservative administrations, which precipitate recessions and spark disrespect.

Cowardice and drugs steal souls of bangers and junkies. Bad examples? Gang initiations? Hopped up? Irrational jealousies? Poverty desperation? Self hate? Whatever the cause, assaults against the vulnerable will never be acceptable, why courts and police must enforce laws. Fear and inconvenience can be deterrents for both bicycling and motoring, and irrational excuses for impatience and recklessness. Cars only purport risk avoidance, as if drivers were turtles carrying protective shells; statistically, bicycles used responsibly are 20 times safer. All who knows facts agree that impaired (sleep deprived and substance altered) and impatient (selfish and stupid) motorists cause 90% of traffic mishaps. They’d rather pay fortunes unashamed for what they perceive as instant transportation gratification despite neither managing 25 mph in travel snarl, nor remaining unmaimed. Many who live in major cities abnegate such luxury, bike instead, perambulate, or take plentiful public transportation.

Mathematicians contrast bicycling with driving. Some say in same amount of time cars average 4 times as many miles as bicycles. Like cars, bicycles range from 0 to 250+ mph, but typically occupy bands centered on 9 (beginners), 12 (average of all riders collectively), 15 (intermediate), 18 (sportif), 21 (race contestants), and 25+ (world class peak performance). Infrastructure and statutes sort motorists into bands surrounding 25 (de facto limit unless signed otherwise), 35 (average of all traffic), 50 (intercity highways), 65 (interstates), and 100 (where unlimited by law but as fast as equipment allows and most want to go). With increasing urban road congestion, bicycling might actually be faster. Bicycling above 13 mph and driving over 39 mph cross safety thresholds, in practice a factor of 3, not the 5 times often argued. According to accident statistics and conditions stated, bicyclists could go a bit faster while motorists should reduce speed by 25%. Begs the question, if you can avoid it, why drive at all?

Loathe to repeat doubts, others, rumors, or self. Love to distill original ideas from comprehensive input, multiple sources, and personal experiences. Only anarchists and morons think absurdities are amusing, except when applied in clever Black Friday or Superbowl commercials. Don’t often quote notables, though prior content can be an explanatory key. Some warnings bear repetition. Some arguments must be hammered, though have always varied angles and deliveries. Many deem any rant on a single point a manifesto they can’t accept with gusto or afterward recant. Any statement without precise modifiers and qualifiers deceives. Facts from one’s life may be contradicted by details from another’s. Truths will always be brutal, few, simple, and universal. Insights and intuitions come instantly to some, slowly over years for others. One can speculate based on an anecdote, but authenticities extrapolate from having frequently taken risks and repeatedly lived through adversities. If you sense confusion, welcome to the human condition.

Every minute one spends gorging upon social media bolsters bias, deepens dementia, hurries hallucinations, increases incapacitation, and spreads mass hysteria. Daily mayhem reported on news “gossip-tainment” with transparent appeals to fears, nationalism, and self interest instill crippling anxieties. Phony narratives begin and end, not how life actually unfolds, as thousands of incidents intertwined from diapers to dirt nap. Threads unravel, thoughts demand closure, and torture consists of being tantalized by empty promises. Takes a true sadist to speak of happiness when all seems hopeless.

People may deny influence of a century of psychological tactics being used to exploit and manipulate them, but part of behavioral conditioning is to make recipients forget what’s logical or sensible. Except for appliances, beers, cars, computers, cell phones, and certain foods, have never purchased anything advertised in television commercials, and then only coincidently for lack of alternatives, not because bogus ads convinced. Do slogans simply life? Humans require incessant chatter to avoid crippling isolation and to figure out survival under technological upheavals and variable conditions. Every creature from bees to whales communicate. Words aren’t so terrible, but totally liable of being taken wrongly. Whatever you spew society will misconstrue. Those once in charge blamed loose lips for sinking ships. Misinformation surely motivates mistakes, but errors teach and silence kills.

Disgusted by neocon propagandists who cherrypick facts to swing focus away from what ought to be discussed and examined, for example, offshore windmills instead of political fraud mills. Infrasound does upset fisheries and rotors do kill 350,000 birds each year, though scientists know whales aren’t dying from them; in fact, whale populations have now expanded to highest levels in modern times; myriad causes such as fishery depletion, shipping collision, and toxic pollution are to blame. What they aren’t saying is that ONE MILLION vertebrates die EVERY DAY in automotive accidents. Eco-friendly options are under siege, while Petrine See blesses and presidential sedition sanctions rape of nature.

Freelance stringer Sam Weiler describes risk of lithium batteries carelessly disposed, no doubt stating a fact as a typical setup, then goes on to slam EV’s (Electric Vehicles) for potential explosions. Who buys this propaganda tactic? Sure, a few may have, but during collisions gasoline vehicles have caught fire and killed a thousand times more occupants. Purists object to e-bike use on bike paths, since faster than pedaled bikes and somewhat a threat to walkers, though only Class 3 rival motor vehicle speeds. Fossil fuels can never be renewed only sacrificed, whereas lithium can be recovered by direct and hydrometallurgical recycling. Lithium mining threatens environment exponentially less than what oil drilling and processing does with cancerous and toxic aftermath, not to mention warfare over this dwindling resource. Bicycling and walking are twentyfold safer, but leaving home dives into chaos and embraces uncertainties, yet sitting on your couch can be just as fatal.

“Many youth choose conservatism,” boasts Republican campaign ads, not because it’s wishful truth but because no statistics compare it to other qualifiers, such as anarchist, centrist, communist, democratic, liberal, nationalist, radical, or socialist positions. Conservatives seem to max out at about 20% of voters, 1 in 5, forming a desperate, relentless, small minority willing to segregate themselves as public enemies to invite criminals, domestic terrorists, and worst society has to offer into their ranks. Patriot John Adams said, “If a person is not a liberal when he is twenty, he has no heart; if he is not a conservative when he is forty, he has no head.” Individuals of any age who resort to radical terrorism have no soul.

Why did GOP rabidly promote job-offshoring for decades since Reagan? 1) Break leverage of US unions. 2) Deter immigration with no housing or jobs available, especially for nonwhites. 3) Dodge employee benefits, honest wages, local/federal/state taxes, wage copays to Social Security, and workman's compensation. 4) Exploit cheap/slave labor in countries where all they have to do to maximize profits was bribe officials. 5) Render public more compliant, and 6) Weaken voter resolve. Trump awarded blatant huckster and Trickle Down architect Art Laffer a Presidential Medal of Freedom, ironically; his Laffer Curve tragically impoverished millions of families through tax cuts that resulted in hundreds of billionaires. Their blatant lack of concern for outcomes, and cold compulsion to amass wealth by sacrificing lives, can only be called despicably heinous, on par with treason and war crimes.

Capitalists, conservatives, dictators, and fascists alike favor slave labor. Hitler defeated then forced hostages to stoke his death engine; if you didn’t comply you’d die; you should never have to fry as a consequence for reticence. Notions such as, “Trickle down creates jobs,” only justify greed. Not being able to share prosperity equitably equals slavery.

Henry David Thoreau begins Civil Disobedience by saying that he agrees with Thomas Jefferson’s redundancy, "That government is best which governs least,” and men will someday be able to have a government that does not govern at all [though likely will still occupy offices and stuff faces and pockets]. What Americans now have can’t be called representative governance, rather corruption, oppression, tax enslavement, and tyranny. If conservatives had their way, it would be a racist oligarchy run by a white dictator. Marx wouldn’t have had to write the Communist Manifesto if kings, oligarchs, scumbags, and warlords weren’t vile sociopaths. If Nazis didn’t commit genocide, Anne Frank wouldn’t have had to chronicle her family’s hiding in mortal fear. If not for society’s repeated cruelty, Nobel Laureate Bob Dylan wouldn’t have had to write a thousand songs of betrayal, protest, regret, and shame. Anti-woke conservatives wouldn’t denigrate press, denounce institutions, and deny history if they didn’t want to dominate and subjugate. For every evil there will be acute blowback with collateral damage.

If not wary, you waste your vote. Never vote for fascists, only worthy public servants. Party whose only agenda is to funnel treasury into hands of oligarchs, who promise to oppress opponents by stripping liberties, whose policies serve the few over the masses, who unanimously voted against every relief bill, doesn't merit any allegiance, not even from those who think they'll benefit. "All boats rise on the tide," they'll tell you, but they've punched holes in everyone else’s, and risk own ruin consequently. Humanity only succeeds when everyone gets by. 

Citizens who are eligible don’t vote for many reasons: apathy, inconvenience, long lines, too busy working multiple shifts. Some are led to believe opposing candidates are corrupt, something neocons lie about daily, even get bad ones elected on purpose to prove their point. Why support such corruption? Every year you spend 30 hours urinating and 3000 hours sleeping. Voting takes less than one hour every couple of years; you ought to add vetting candidate on merits and promises to your routine, and recalling public servants who prove false. Unless you want to organize majority to overthrow existing government and military, you have to make what little power you do have, vocally dispelling lies, voting for the best representatives, and working toward social justice. 

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, in tandem for 77 years, volunteers for human dignity

Liberals aren’t so legit, make deals with corporate lobbyists, suck up to seated senators for endorsements. Who would even seek nomination for public office other than grifters, morons, narcissists and scoundrels? At least Democrats have a candidate with a half century of public service, though attacked as feeble and old after a stellar term of bicycling fitness and policy successes. Republicans support a failed self server who’s an anti-American, anti-semite, casino boss, cash offshorer, coke head, commie collaborator, convicted fraud, democracy threat, division exploiter, drug money launderer, election loser (lost every state where he once resided), history quasher, hypocrite, malignant narcissist, misogynist (hates women), mass murderer, multiple divorcee, panderer (to addicts of gambling and sex), pathological liar (30,450 documented lies while in office alone), planet’s #1 tax cheat (3,500 mentions in Panama Papers), racist, rapist, science denier, sex trafficker, sociopath, slum lord, spy, traitor, twice impeached by peers, wall builder, wannabe dictator, white supremacist, xenophobe (loathes Blacks, foreigners, Gold Star families, Jews, Latinos, people with disabilities except himself, and whoever won't commit crimes on his behalf). He has quite a resume to be devoid of any positive traits, pure poison to everything he touches. He is not being prosecuted by Democratic elected officials, but the 75% of Americans who realize he’s victimized them.

Curious how this century has seen so many POTUS firsts: Black man elected, repeatedly impeached and indicted sociopath attempting a coup after losing, woman nominated as candidate and winning popular vote, and world's oldest seated, though people do live longer through medical advances.

America might be the most cosmopolitan nation on planet definitely allowing more room for heredity variations and personal preferences than any other. Why do some minorities scream racism? Caucasians make up 65% of population; Aryans, Birchers, Klansmen and 600 race bias organizations among them make up only 1%. Homeland Security testified, “White supremacists were responsible for more than three-quarters of all domestic extremist murders in 2018.” The remaining 99% of every race interact nicely, except when presumption and stupidity enters. All hate is evil, potentially criminal, and punishing felons deters crime. Bad behaviors aren’t limited to maiming and murder, but also exclusion, exploitation, extortion, intimidation, menace, and theft. All exploitation amounts to slavery, from domestic servants compensated by food and lodging, to indentured farm and sex laborers, to stay-at-home moms taken for granted, to unpaid corporate interns.

By shifting focus, costly resources pursue wrong approaches to minor issues, while those who pay millions for false flags and phony messages continue to profit so much that millions for misinformation becomes a minor expense. Conservatives condemn PED realm of cheating peloton because it exposes their own temptation to steal trillions from treasury secretly.

Administrations that care about middle class jobs also care about social justice. Dreaded quartet of horse’s asses Nixon, two Bushes and Trump denied job creation as government's role, did nothing to encourage private sector, engendered recessions as a way to browbeat voters. What!? Federal government is nation's biggest employer, almost 3 million, more than Walmart’s 2.3 million. Combined workforce of top ten corporations (below 8 million) doesn't even come close to state governments (over 18 million). GOP groan about government being too big, but have almost no idea how it works (quietly without much redundancy), or what it does (programs essential to life). Just to curry a few extra votes and thereby legitimize elections they cheated in to win, they’d cut Social Security, throw 20% of population who earned this benefit to the wolves, and use such scare tactics to cause panic, spread suffering, and weaponize supporters.

Local gas prices are lower than they were a year ago, driven down by reduced global demand and regulatory threats, not anything current president did. Immediate predecessor has called Russians and Saudis to jack prices up to create discontent that might help his campaign. Bicyclists are bemused by asphalt black jack, chewed goo, crude splooge, hard pack, and tarmac ooze that they peruse and use, not spinning in a gym. Zero carbon footprint can become an excuse used to justify cheapness, easy ways, and efforts procrastinated.

Factory renewal of durable products definitely saves raw materials, but fails to deliver good value in some cases. It has never worked well with private passenger vehicles, though classic and vintage demands of nostalgic collectors keeps aftermarket restorers busy charging outlandish prices. You’d think that seasoned engine blocks could be rebored and rebuilt for cheaper than newly forged steel, which they have to expose to weather to age anyway. However, rest of vehicle only yields brittle aluminum, sunbaked plastic, and tired iron. Should designers choose stainless steel for body shell, that would increase incentive to recycle vehicles, but obsolescence is intentional. Automakers barely make enough spare parts to keep vehicles going for 7 years.

How anything is handled and managed matters. Durable goods benefit from quality control, but metals sourced might be brittle or impure, so fail prematurely, while precise sizes require careful measurements that take time so impede production. In reality, parts can’t be made better than approximate, so get culled during assembly. Hope yours isn’t a lemon made up of rejects. Refrigeration retards spoilage, but food might be frozen or overheated during shipping or storage. Food born bacteria is one of the main causes for infectious diseases and toxin poisoning.

So, appreciate being heard, because families and friends one invites for traditional spreads never want to hear a crazy uncle’s opinions dismantling those they hold dear despite no logical sense or supporting evidence. Ridiculous GOP grandpa running for POTUS constantly confabulates, outright lies, and randomly rambles, yet gets more support. Is critical thinking a blessing or a curse?

Next Dunblane

"Age and treachery will overcome youth and skill." Fausto Coppi, Bicycling Quotes

Americans mindlessly fail to heed message of Dunblane Massacre. In 1996 pedophile scoutmaster Thomas Hamilton shot up a Stirling Scotland kindergarten class resulting in eighteen dead and fifteen injured, the worst mass pedicide in UK history. Following citizen outrage, Snowdrop Initiative snowballed into a nationwide handgun ownership ban. Thereafter, few mass killings and none using handguns have occurred, evidence of a quarter century of somewhat effective gun control.

In USA handgun availability for everyone including those with evil intentions and personality disorders begot 429 mass shootings since 1976, with increasing frequency annually, fifteen hundred dead, and four thousand injured. Perps are mostly deranged young men; sites are split between schoolhouses and workplaces. Among 25% of population who own firearms, estimates show there are more weapons than total residents. So, damaged individuals who grip too tightly own on average 4 apiece, and taunt normal majority with putdowns including “snowflakes”, though over 80% of Americans want background checks and bans on assault rifles. There’s no end in sight as long as Republicans and Speaker of House newly appointed stonewall every attempt to limit sales of automatic and large capacity weapons. Lewiston, Maine is the latest episode with similarly eighteen dead and thirteen injured. Subsequent massacres will likely claim thousands more innocents over next decade.

For half a century of network programming, the most popular broadcasts were crime, war and western dramas that showed murders from wanton weapon use. For example, Rifleman Chuck Connors wielding his carbine gunned down at least one adversary every week. Dick Wolf’s Law & Order franchise and spinoffs constituting 1,000 hours of programming, excluding Criminal Intent and Trial by Jury but including FBI, LA, Organized Crime, Special Victims Unit, and True Crime, have someone brandishing a handgun in every episode, which heightens tension as a storytelling device. Similarly, Criminal Minds shows brutal killers and lurid felons pursued with gats in hand during every action sequence.

Video and virtual gaming that focus on killing also desensitize youth and inspire mayhem. National Institute of Health states, “Anything that promotes aggressive behavior in young children statistically is a risk factor for violent behavior in adults as well,” though direct causes can be complicated and multifaceted. Gun manufacturer’s deny scientific conclusions, while advertisers exploit childhood curiosity and teenage fears. Latest statistics show ~21,000 murders each year were gun-related, while 26,000 suicides were allegedly accomplished using guns, if you can believe investigators seemingly too busy to dive deep enough to collect valid evidence.

Anarchist author Alfred Jarry raced his 1896 Clément Luxe track bike, bought new on credit and never quite paid for, while carrying a carbine and two six-shooters, firing them as a warning to anyone in his way, as if radical bicycle bells, while scorching Parisian cobblestones and surrounding countryside. Contemporaries deemed him unstable headed to an early grave, but his plays César-Antéchrist and Ubu Roi were prescient about today’s abuses of power and corruption in government, while Le Surmâle was specifically about superheroes racing bicycles under the influence of absinthe. While several bicycle brands began as gunsmiths, some made handguns for use while bicycling.

As ugly as these situations are, they pale compared to millions who’ve died over same time in vehicular collisions, more than American COVID pandemic victims, overdoses with synthetic opioids, or soldiers in wars. Only cancers and cardiovascular diseases, both indirectly related to motoring, exceed collision carnage of this automotive anathema resulting in ~50,000 fatalities every year. Bicycling related deaths remain low, averaging 600 annually since mid-1970’s, though people constantly caution self propellers to, “Be evvver so careful,” while failing to warn to victims of over 5 million car collisions to drive safer, because trillions get transacted in support of automotive folly.

All this is naught compared to coming viral pandemics with waves of biological weapons. People worldwide are still dying from contracting COVID, HIV, and influenza despite official relaxation of prophylactic measures. Anyone with a suspicious mind might think they are being engineered to target enemies and undesirables who’ve lowered their guard based on official advice.

You can conclude that enemies full of hate surround you. Don’t be fooled into believing they are furious minions of some foreign nation far away. Villains seek to lead, and seem decent on surface until they steer state straight into tragedies. When Putin began drafting soldiers to invade Ukraine, millions of youth fled motherland. Lard and odor deplorables who abhor and ignore law and order do no one any favors.

Obscene Sexteyn

Pedaling increases testosterone, which tempts scorchers into trysts for which they might need to atone. Among obese cyclists exploring trails, comely athenas might draw gaze of lonely clydesdales. For clergy, an acolyte or medieval sexteyn could sacrilegiously serve allegedly celibate pastors in sacristies. Bodies are driven by electrical synapses, endocrine hormones, and natural processes to procreate, produce, and seek releases regardless of moralities. Orgasms are a potent analgesic. Only a refined sense of consequence keeps reasonable people from drowning in regrettable pornographies, or endorsing sex trafficking criminalities. Though cracks in affection and fulfillment get filled with anger and resentment, nothing excuses interpersonal malfeasance. Expect to stew excessively in silence.

Johns, junkies, tweakers, and winos vainly volunteer their vulnerabilities to gangsters, murderers, pimps, and politicians, who wrap themselves in national flags and religious vestments. Half of illicit opioids are laced with China white, deadly fentanyl. Being impaired in public certainly doesn’t exonerate felonies but definitely encumbers legal docilities. In-car-cerated doesn’t mean stuck inside your comfy ride, rather you don’t get to pedal a conveyance where you’d like and must hide inside an imaginary shell among depraved predators in a prison hell. Convicts inside are given jobs, so, along with busy monsters hunting outside, get to celebrate Labor Day, which ought to exclude freeloaders and parasites, who make up an increasing portion of US populace. They don’t appreciate that sweat of exertion improves and purifies like nothing else.

However gross, messy, scary or smelly these realities sound, obscene instead describes arresting climate clarion Greta Thunberg and threatening her with a 6 month sentence for protesting Big Oil. So, it’s come down again to condemning youth for speaking truth, who were likewise honest and persecuted in the 1960’s, as history has proven. Conservatives since Nixon fatten upon fossil goo, gun sales, and tax breaks for wealthiest few at the expense of altruism, education, infrastructure improvements, job creation, social programs, and whatever else liberates those whom neocons crave to enslave. With elections looming, they’re condemning nonfiction blogs and books and hiking gasoline prices, economic terrorism they’ve relied upon time and time again.

While alternatives can be half-assed and standardization begets efficiencies, choices matter and deceits boomerang. Much more could be done to promote self propulsion, such as donating unused bicycles to charities, lobbying congress members and state legislators for code enforcement, setting good examples by riding responsibly, and welcoming newcomers of all ages. It’s no hardship dropping off hardware at local bike recyclers or forwarding tax deductible donations to such organizations as:

Bikes for the World - Rockville, MD, USA (99% rating)
Ships used bikes to economically challenged regions worldwide.

Bikes Not Bombs - Boston, MA, USA (82% rating)
Ships used bikes to economically challenged nations in Latin America.

International Bicycle Fund - Seattle, WA, USA
Promotes advocacy and awareness around the world.

Recycle-a-Bike - Providence, RI, USA
Teaches underprivileged teens to rebuild bicycles so they learn marketable skills and wind up with own transportation to work.

Salvation Army - Alexandria, VA (100% rating), plus 15,000 locations in 130 countries
Not only do they welcome drop offs, General Brian Peddle (not Pedal, but close enough), chief executive since 2018, wishes to sell used equipment at rock bottom prices with proceeds going to job therapy for addicts and indigents. What they don’t sell gets passed along periodically to other charities.

Two Wheeler Dealer - Wilmington, NC, USA
If you drop off a unit, they’ll refurbish and donate it for you.

World Bicycle Relief, Chicago, IL (84% rating)
Has donated half a million bicycles to developing countries in Africa and India, as well as taught mechanics how to maintain them. They’ve partnered with Trek and World Vision to support local government efforts.

 A slew of NGOs do nothing but extol bicycling, rather than take a proactive role, such as attend group rides and be seen riding bicycles themselves. Some suddenly close for lack of patronage or scandals over embezzlement. You can gain confidence that those you pick still do worthwhile work by visiting Charity Navigator, which provides contacts, ratings, and specifics.

To be clear, not all people can successfully propel a bicycle, no more than operate a motor vehicle. Less than half of Americans have driver licenses. Both require minimal coordination, intelligence, reflexes, and stamina. To coax those who are deficient is to force failures irresponsibly, though you can’t forever shelter them since they are free to behave responsibly and exercise choices that positively impact self and society. Risks from bad habits, cumulative stress, poor diet, and substance abuse are all more deadly, while bicycling has proven to be a cure and deterrent for all of them. Builders make adaptive handcycles, recumbents, and tricycles for paraplegics and those otherwise challenged, while road users are 20 times safer going by bikes than cars.

E-bikes and pedelecs, essentially light motor vehicles, might not belong on bike paths where speed increase isn’t expected by dog walkers, pedestrians, and unwary users. Want to go faster? Be a faster; abstaining and dieting are world’s cheapest hobbies, whereas international food tourism is the most pricey. Bicycle touring fits budgets; bicycle commuting can cut costs of car ownership tenfold. Sadly ironic, bicycling facilitates motoring by freeing space on streets and postponing oil depletion by using no fuel other than meals.

Surely someone is rushing to set up a defense fund for Greta, as any woke cause is worth exploiting. Private fortunes and public appeals supposedly fund animal rescues, earthquake and hurricane relief, green space rallies, nature conservancies, and several dozen related nonprofits when what really happens is directors enlist volunteers to do dirty work and pocket every donation, while results so far are deforestation, devastation, mass extinction, no improvement or reversal of any condition, the opposite of what they purport. A gift of $1,000/year will save no polar bears or whales without policy changes among the worst national offenders, particularly China and USA. They immorally use your angst, guilt and rage as weapons against you, while you to seek zero carbon footprint on your own.

If majority avoids waste, identifies threats, opposes tyranny, recycles avidly, teaches progeny to do same, and uses only what’s necessary to thrive, nature heals and threats lessen. Don’t wait for God, who’s no fan of ecological suicide, to intervene. You can’t be absolved until you acknowledge trespasses, confess sins, forget debts, and forgive others. Yet you can’t ignore or tolerate audacious actors as they rise to mass murder.

When “Captain Obvious” speaks plainly it invites cancelation, censorship, character assassination, innuendo, rumors, and slander. Enlightenment author Denis Diderot observed, “Those who fear the facts will forever try to discredit the fact-finders,” or as folks escalate nowadays, “Kill the messenger.” Have you ever been subtly shushed by having a topic abruptly changed? Ever accused of “being lost in the weeds” when exploring a fuller picture? Maybe you intended all along to alienate, challenge, frustrate, and separate self from uncaring acquaintances. Even worse, have friends and loved ones had their minds poisoned against you when all you sought was cooperative friendships? You will be ostracized for introducing information beyond scope of current conversation even though everything is part of an interconnected fabric from which universe is made, so always holds relevance to some degree.

Though little good comes from sitting in group meetings, and many dismiss scientific tools as utter mendacity, pareto analysis focuses attention on which influences are the most potent, and what to ignore as butterfly flutter or white noise. One can savor privileges within a web of total delusion; in fact, those who do insulate themselves against public tumult, but someone always pays the price of ignorance. Halfwitted bloggers can make a decent living spouting misinformation and opinion that serve someone’s agenda through advertising, grants, or stipends. QAnon numerologist Michael Protzman attracted nearly one hundred thousand followers by claiming Donald Trump, Elvis Presley, and JFK Jr. were cousins descended from Jesus Christ, until killed this summer in a motorcycle accident.

While Bike&Chain appears articulate and informed, observing behaviors and effects accurately, Labann was never smart enough to rake in a blogger’s average of $38,000/year in revenues, rather incurred net losses and wasted 15 years. No individual can solve life’s issues, only act kindly, be useful, follow laws, pursue nonviolence, and serve needs lest be labeled ludicrous and lose liberties.