Clearing house of crap...

I think I maybe got myself into a little trouble a week or so ago. In NC we have a great cyclocross series that is run mostly by this guy named Tim Hopkins, who does an outstanding job of it. He has been THE driving force behind cross in North Carolina since I moved down here, or basically as far back as I can remember in NC. Last year, he was able to wrangle a couple of UCI rated cross races, and he held them in his hometown of Hendersonville. This year, the same series is going on, and again, Mr. Hopkins was able to wrangle a couple of more UCI races out into Hendersonville. The day before the races were to go off I made some comments on the NC cyclocross listserve that we have operating, mostly to the effect of some ideas I had rolling around in my head about how they might be able to make the UCI races bigger. Looking at the results sheets from last year, and this year, I see that for the UCI races themselves (the elite men and elite women) there were a total of 38 men and 21 women racers who lined up for the main event on Saturday and 32 men and 19 women racers who lined up for race #2 on Sunday. As a comparison, at the national level grand prix race that was held the same weekend, they had 80 men line up and 41 women. The number of racers we had in NC is a mere pittance in the world that is cyclocross racing these days in the US. Looking at a race that they had in Portland Oregon at the start of this season, they had over 1000 entrants. 1000 people who turned out to slosh through the mud and the crap to race their bicycles. Why did they get 1000 people? Well, first of all cyclocross is immensely popular in Oregon. Second of all, they had it in a central location, in the middle of a large city in Oregon, where there were tons of people to draw from. Ditto for the races that are generally held in the mid-Atlantic region of the US where they have them in Philadelphia, Baltimore, DC, and other large cities in the region. Turnout is immense, and huge, and those are just for the regional races. You throw down a UCI race in those same regions, and the registration rates climb. Anyway, so that was the point I tried to make in my posting. Maybe they should look at having the UCI races in and or near Raleigh. Why? Major airport, closer to the mid-Atlantic region where there are a large amount of cyclocross racers, closer to I-40/I-95 (ie major corridor of travel on the East coast and all), and just all around easier to get to than say, Hendersonville, which is out in the far Western parts of the state, and takes an additional 3 hours to get to from the major population areas of NC, and the travel required from other areas where we might draw racers from is extensive as well. You could fly into Asheville, but if you have ever looked at flying into Asheville, you know that the cost is prohibitive that’s for sure. It’s probably about 2 times the amount it would cost to fly into Raleigh Durham airport. And on a bike racer’s budget, that dissuades some folks from coming for sure. And for a UCI race that was in the region, we should have drawn a lot more heavily from the mid-Atlantic and Virginia and South Carolina even. My point is, I made these points on our listserve, and as I thought, I got skewered from people who mistook the ideas I had for criticism of the UCI races going on in Hendersonville that weekend.

I of course got the usual slate of comments from folks talking about the whole, “Put your money where your mouth is.” And of course the usual, “Why don’t you promote a race if you think it’s so easy.” And so on and so forth. Well folks, I have promoted and run races. I have been there for set up, take down, registration, and everything in between. I’ve done the ground work in trying to get together an NRC race in NC, and have seen the good and bad end of things. I’ve done the hard work it takes to pull off a $10,000 race, and it’s hard, and I know this. People seem to think when you bring them ideas, and or suggestions, that you’re attacking them. Not true people, not true. I’d just like to see the sport grow large and proud in NC, and was offering up some suggestions as to how we might be able to do it. This was taken extremely the incorrect way, but oh well, what are you going to do? I have sent an e-mail over to Mr. Hopkins asking to be involved in the promoter’s meeting when planning the next cross season (2007 and 2008), and have asked that I be involved, as I’d like to get a race back in Greensboro. So far, I sent the e-mail 3 days ago, and haven’t heard boo from him. Am I getting shunned? Maybe, if so, then folks can’t say that I didn’t try to get involved, but if the promoter of the series as a whole doesn’t get back to me; what is my recourse then? Ah well, I can say that I tried to do something at least. So Tim, if you’re out there, write me back. I want to get involved so that the yells and screams from people saying, “You don’t do anything” can once again be silenced. People are so fickle sometimes.

Going back into the arena politic again though, I have found something that utterly amazes me, or I should say I’ve been reading somethings that utterly amaze me. Seems as though, there are a bunch of what I would call nutbag conservative pundits, and or journalists who are so upset about the movie Happy Feet that they are essentially crawling out of their skins. What, might you say, is their problem with a movie about dancing animated penguins? Well, it appears as though there is some talk about global warming in the movie, and the conservatives amongst us cannot abide by that. Because for some reason, they think that we can keep raping the Earth of its resources, and nothing is going to happen. Or I should say, nothing has happened over the years. The impact of man on Earth is negligible in their opinion. And of course, if you happen to mention global warming, well, that’s just a liberal agenda, and it doesn’t really exist (contrary to a lot of scientific fact that says otherwise, and not to mention the large percentage of scientists who study this issue who agree that indeed global warming is real and is a danger to our life and existence). Oh, and also, there are some who think that this movie (you know, the one with the dancing penguins) has “homosexual overtones”, and that this movie is trying to recruit their children into the ranks of the homosexuals. Are these people for real? Unfortunately, they are. And the more they talk, the nuttier they sound. It’s almost getting to be really funny, sort of like a sad little parody of what they’re really supposed to be. Actually, thinking back on this little passage, it’s not even a political thing. It’s a blowhard conservative windbag thing. These are most likely the same folks who were praising The Passion of the Christ, and secretly cheered Mel Gibson for his anti-Semitic rant when he was arrested for driving drunk. And also the same people who no doubt took their children to see The Passion of the Christ with its violence and gore, and yet, here they are, upset about some dancing penguins. Seriously people, you cannot be serious, but alas, I think that they are.

Talking about pretentious overblown talking windbags, our good old friend Bill O’Reilly is back at it again, or I should say, still. The ruddy faced “culture warrior” himself just the other day was talking about how “secular progressives” (his new term that he overuses and it never seems to be very far away from his mouth when he’s talking) WANT the number of out of wedlock births to be as high as possible. Never mind that he backs this with no facts, or not statistics other than out of wedlock births are at an all time high (this stat is of course not broken down as to who is Christian, Jewish, or affiliated with some other religion, and who is secular progressive as he calls it, and actually, going by the percentage of folks in the US who consider themselves tied to some religion or another, chances are good most of the out of wedlock births happened to people who affiliate themselves with a religion). This of course totally flies in the face of his continuing arguments that the so called evil secular progressives want abortions on every street corner, and abortion on demand. Maybe it’s because less people are getting married, but still starting families. You know, it is possible for a couple of people to get together, have a very loving relationship, live together, have children and raise them together, and yet, never get married. It’s completely possible, and I’m sure happens a lot more than it did “back in the day”. I mean, when I get married my future wife isn’t even going to take my name. Shocker! OH NO! Anything but that! And actually, I know people I work with you have heard me talk about this (the fiancé not taking my name), and they are flabbergasted. How could she even think to NOT take my name? Jeez, give me a break. It’s just a name. And really, it’s so much easier to not have to change everything that she has in terms of documentation (social security card, driver’s license, and so on and so forth). I just don’t see the big deal in it myself. Anyway, back to Bill O. More and more, this guy is starting to sound like Michael Weiner (his real last name) Savage (NOT his real last name). Maybe they can start a hate mongering show together and really get their “base” fired up. I am happy to report though, that Bill O’Reilly’s ratings have been dipping lately, and this is a good thing. Maybe people are finally starting to figure out that this guy is a complete asshole? Or maybe they are just figuring out that what he’s saying actually is ALL SPIN, and really little or no fact behind it. Hey, I’m all for editorial types of shows, but let’s label them correctly, let’s not label them as “news” programs like Bill O’Lielly does his.

It’s a few weeks now since the democrats won the mid term elections in a dashing fashion, meaning that they took back Congress. Still, we have our alleged “liberal” news media stating again and again that the incoming freshman class is highly conservative. Funny, just a week or so before the election, the republicans fighting for their seats were saying that the democrats were so liberal that they wanted the terrorists to win, and that a win for the democrats was a win for the terrorists. Guess what Karl Rove? Well, it took 6 years for people to see through your bullshit, but they’ve got your strategery figured out now. You’re screwed. Fear tactics didn’t seem to work this time. And hey, guess what? It is 3 weeks after the dems swept back into control of Congress, and the terrorists have still not “gotten” us yet. I do find it funny though that even before they have been sworn into office, the new Congress is already getting chastised by the media and others for not doing a good job. Hey, asshats! Let’s do this first shall we? Let’s get the new Congress sworn in, let’s let them get their feet wet, and give them a month or so to start shaking things out. After say, a few months, they’re not getting some things done that they said that they would, then let’s start shaking a finger or 2, but at least let’s wait until they actually get INTO office before saying they’re doing a bad job. Then if they’re doing a bad job, let’s hear about it then. OK? Please? Give them a freakin’ chance to get started before dragging them through the mud.

OK, enough for now. I’m done. Over and out.