Mulsim Obama hates Charlie Brown...

Turns out, the mayor of Arlington, TN thinks that he really and truly knows the reason for Obama's speech the other night on Afghanistan. It was to pre-empt the Charlie Brown special, because, you know, Obama is a dirty Muslim, and doesn't believe in the Lord our Savior, Jesus H. Christ (does anyone know what the H stands for anyway??). Check out the link here on the story itself. Oh, of course, it was all much to do with nothing. Have people lost their ever loving minds though? Seriously? Obama is an evil Muslim who doesn't want people to see the Christmas Charlie Brown special? And this guy, is a mayor of a town, sure, it's probably a small town, but still. He's supposed to be a leader, and he's a fucking moron. Turning towards Afghanistan though. Obama pledged more troops. I don't know how I feel about this really. On the one hand, it's probably overdue, and on the other hand, I'd rather have all of our men and women back instead of in harm's way. So what do we do here? In speaking with some of the guys I work with, they're behind this troop escalation (it's not a surge, since the word surge indicates that there is some sort of plan for "winning" whatever that means). They have thought for a long time that we needed more guys on the ground in Afghanistan, and they are also proponents of letting them get out there, do their jobs. The Big A Army is good at blowing shit up, and killing bad guys. This much is true. Maybe, they're one of the most proficient groups we have at doing this, although, the Marines are right there with them. Our Army and Marines were never meant to be out and about within the people, building societies back, and doing counterinsurgency efforts. Our Green Berets, and SF soldiers though, are very good at this. It is a key component of their training. I believe what we need to do though is to kill as many of the bad guys as we can, and make it a price that they're not willing to pay any longer, again, remember, we're good at destroying things, and killing bad guys. We need to bring in specialists, being SF soldiers, or civilians that can show folks in Afghanistan how to create a society, and we also have to learn that, what functions as a government, or what functions as a society in Afghanistan is not even remotely going to be like what we have here in the United States. They're not going to have a Starbucks, and a Target on every corner in their country, and there is going to be a certain level of chaos almost always, but they are also a tribal nation. Run by local leaders, more so than a central government. We have a hard time wrapping our heads around that paradigm. Anyway, like I said, I just wish we could get all of our troops home. Garrisoned, and safe stateside. That might put me out of a job, but then again, that's a hit I think I'd be willing to take, if it meant, no more fighting for us. I also have come to believe that eventually, some guy in Pakistan is going to rat out Bin Laden, yeah, more than likely, he is somewhere in Pakistan. They're going to get sick of Predators dropping bombs on houses and people around them, and they're going to finally give him up, sick of his shit, and the trouble that he brings along with him. We'll probably snatch him up then, or kill him, but what will that really solve? Nothing really. At this point in time al Qaeda has been basically wiped out, and or spread out around the globe. We're looking at an organization that doesn't have a "central command" any longer so to speak, but what we have to be vigilant about is smaller cells, of 1-10 guys plotting smaller scale attacks against soft targets. Which means, that yes, battling terrorism is probably going to become more of a police action, than a military action. Why am I writing about this? Not sure really. It's that time of the year when cycling is in its down cycle, except for 'cross, and well, there are only 2 words I've got say about cyclocross. Katie. Compton. That woman is fucking hardcore no doubt. If she doesn't win the world championship this year, she's cursed, or something like that. Because really, she's on a tear, and she would be only the 2nd American to be a world champ in 'cross, the first being Matt Kelly. Whatever happened to that guy anyway? Didn't he just burn out, and disappear? I seem to remember him making a "comeback" so to speak at some point in time, but haven't heard from him since then. He was a world champ, and then, gone. Why do our young racers all seem to end up in that situation anyway? Going back to Compton, she'll be on the top step of the podium this year at the world championships, I can only hope. She's been killing it so far this year, and I'm pretty sure she'll keep on that path. If she doesn't, I'd be surprised, since she is head and shoulders above the rest of the women in the US at least. None seem able to keep up with her at all. She's a few gears higher than the rest. We'll see, we shall see. Good luck to her.

American victory...

Here is something that kicks ass. Why? American Katie Compton won a world cup cross race this weekend in of all places, Belgium. Why is this a big deal? I'm not aware of any other American ever winning a World Cup Cyclocross race in the history of the sport. I do remember a bunch of years ago, maybe 8 or so, being at a mountain bike race somewhere in Pennsylvania, probably in Philadelphia, and watching the women's race. I was wondering who the really fast woman was racing for Trek-JBL at the time, turns out, it was Miss Compton. She was fast then, and I think she is faster now. She does have a pretty good little back story to her racing success.

Not too long ago, Compton was racing bikes, but as the sighted captain of a blind tandem team. She competed at the highest levels of that sport on the track with her partner, and I believe, if I remember correctly, that her and blind stoker won several gold medals at the paralympics over the years. During that time, Compton was living in Colorado, and riding cross races with the cat 2/3 men, and either winning those races, or being in podium positions most of the time. Take it from a guy who has been "girled" in several races in his career, those guys did not like that happening, but I'm sure, just like me, she earned a grudging respect from those guys during those races, and they also probably realized, that indeed, that woman was fast. She was bound to do some damage. See, thing is, she wouldn't race UCI women's cross races, because then she wouldn't be able to pilot the tandem as the sighted captain for her blind stoker. So for a number of years, she would just race the local cross races, beat the boys, and also beat the women (she would double down on races on a given weekend).

One year, she showed up for the US Cyclocross national race, looking to take the national championship jersey. She showed up, and the women who didn't know her, were wondering, "Who is this woman? She's going to get smoked.." See, women's bike racing, at least in my experience, can be very "catty". In other words, when you have core group of women who are racing against one another, week in, and week out, they are nice to one another, but if an "outsider" shows up to spoil their fun, and arranged pecking order, they seem to take offense at this. I'm sure Compton showing up to nationals looking for a big win was really no different. They started her in the back, since she had no points from the year's racing, and the race started.

Compton surged to the front in the first or second lap, took a look behind her, and then dropped the best women cyclocross riders in the US, and took her first national championship. Again though, she didn't bother competing the following year in the UCI races, for the same reason that she didn't want to lose her eligibility for the paralympics. And again, she showed up at the start line of nationals the following year, and again, starting in the back row, and yes, again, surging through the mass of women, and winning another national championship jersey. I think since that time, she's pretty much won the national championship every year since then.

She has now moved on to Europe. She took that win yesterday, took 2nd last year at World Championships, and I believe we may see her in the rainbow jersey before too long, or actually, possibly, at the end of this year's season in Europe. She's been close before, and I can foresee her winning the "big one" in the coming months, and if she does, we'll have another World Champion in cyclocross, I believe Matt Kelly was the first for the US, having taken the U23 title a number of years ago at Poprad, and hence the naming of the LeMond cross bike after his win there. Kelly though faded into the "where are they now" file after his win, and I believe Compton, will be winning for a few years yet to come, and I'll be happy to see that happen.