walkinginthenight

I just rode all the way home from work!

4.4 miles, and while I was definitely getting tired and winded by the end, I never got so exhausted that I had to hop off. I was largely enjoying myself. :) I want to try out different routes and take a closer look at my bike map before doing it again - I ended up coming out on San Pablo a block north of Ashby and had to navigate that mess of an intersection. (For this, I hopped off and acted as a pedestrian, then illegally rode on the sidewalk for two blocks until I could get the hell off of Ashby - Ashby is a former one lane road that got converted to a two lane, and there's absolutely no clearance on the side of the road.)

I decided to go for it today because I rode down from work to a party in Emeryville last night, and realized that it had only taken me 22 minutes and I was 2/3 of the way home.

I am now closer to my ultimate goal of removing BART from my commute - and I've cut my commuting costs in half. I think that, for now, I'll take BART and trike the mile downhill in the morning to wake me up, and then I'll do the full trike ride home in the evening. Once I get my new pedals, I'll see how much of a difference they make, and if they do make it much easier, I'll consider trying the morning ride then.

Yay!

I've been on LJ a long time (since 2000!) and still shudder and delight at writing a bio.

I am an outwardly reserved, inwardly passionate guy. I'm queer, geeky, and sensitive.
I maintain a separate blog about wine: Cheap Wine, Cheap Reviews.

If you want to know more about me, check out my interests. My journal is mostly friends only. Oh, and this is perfect:

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/dreams.png

My interests:

anthropology, arthur c. clarke, astoria, babylon 5, balance, baristas, bart, bdsm, bears, berkeley, board games, body art, bottoming, boys, bricks, bridgewalking, brooklyn, brownstones, cartography, cats, classical latin, classism, climate change, co-housing, coffee, communal living, community, cooking, cubs, cuddling, cuny, david tennant, debt, debt revolutions, doctor who, documentaries, dorks, drawing, driving, driving cross-country, early 90s, economic class, emotional energy, empathy, epics, exploration, f-zero, family guy, final fantasy, firefly, geography, globalization, google, graduate school, harry potter, hoodie weather, hoodies, human rights, hyperawareness, intentional community, interior design, international law, international politics, interstellar travel, ireland, irish history, katamari damacy, kundalini yoga, labor, labor rights, labrets, late 80's, leftists, living in my head, long island city, lynx, maps, mario kart, mosaics, mst3k, murray gold, neighborhoods, new york city, ngos, nintendo, northampton, nyc, oakland, older men, older women, parallel universes, passion, photography, piercings, political art, political science, polyamory, queens, queens college, queer vigilantes, queers, radiskull & devil doll, recovering catholics, red dwarf, regional planning, relationships, road trips, rpgs, rudy rucker, rvs, san francisco, science fiction, scissor sisters, sensation, six feet under, social class, stephen baxter, stewie, stubbornness, subways, sustainability, sustainable living, tattoos, teleportation, temescal, testosterone, time travel, topping, trains, transit, turbobricks, unions, urban, urban exploration, video games, volvos, walking in the night, wikipedia, woodhaven, workers' rights

Friends (66):
aberrant1, angelboyqz, anthrocubsf, bananasinorbit, beandelphiki, beatgoddess, beccawrites, bootgrease, branwyn32, cbrownsuperhero, crackkittie, danielray, dawgboi, deltagrl, derekja, dorfird, drownophelia, elzeekio, femmeboy, flutefly, forcemajeure, frankiejlh, furryfairy, geeksdoitbetter, genderwarrior, grokfairy, gypsyecks, i_am_lynx, immaculatepizza, jendaby, jmstine, johnnyboysriot, katycat, laughingsnow, lawlesslawyer, leftfield18, littlefilmboy, m16, marlarose, mascot, metabutch, mornhyland, mysteryfag, oh_behave, perkykoala, piginacage, queentushy, queer_boy, redrhodes, reesespieces86, rip_n_roll, saturninesprite, shutupandfish, somechicksings, songquake, speedy_421, suzily, theorybitch, thetruestself, ticket_to_zen, tinyrevolution, tranarchoi, waterchild, wearbear, wylddelirium, zenchump

Mutual Friends (60):
aberrant1, angelboyqz, anthrocubsf, bananasinorbit, beandelphiki, beatgoddess, beccawrites, bootgrease, cbrownsuperhero, danielray, dawgboi, deltagrl, derekja, dorfird, drownophelia, elzeekio, femmeboy, flutefly, forcemajeure, frankiejlh, furryfairy, geeksdoitbetter, genderwarrior, grokfairy, gypsyecks, immaculatepizza, jendaby, jmstine, johnnyboysriot, katycat, laughingsnow, lawlesslawyer, leftfield18, littlefilmboy, m16, marlarose, mascot, mornhyland, oh_behave, perkykoala, piginacage, queentushy, queer_boy, redrhodes, reesespieces86, rip_n_roll, saturninesprite, shutupandfish, somechicksings, songquake, speedy_421, suzily, thetruestself, ticket_to_zen, tinyrevolution, tranarchoi, waterchild, wearbear, wylddelirium, zenchump

From songquake!

As evidenced by Katie Couric, Sarah Palin is unable to name any Supreme Court Case other than Roe v. Wade.

The Rules: Post info about ONE Supreme Court decision, modern or historic to your lj. (Any decision, as long as it's not Roe v. Wade.) For those who see this on your f-list, take the meme to your OWN lj to spread the fun.

Go forth, and edumacate!

lavenderfrost has snagged Marbury v. Madison, which establishes that the courts can indeed declare a law unconstitutional.
wordweaverlynn chose United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683 (1974). This case, which she watched avidly, determined that the President of the United States is not above the law.
eestiplika went with Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306 (2003) "because it is applicable to my job. It allows some 'use of race' in student admission decisions under the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause, as a diverse student body is beneficial for all students."
missionista jumped in with Miranda v. the State of Arizona. That's where we get the term Miranda Rights, as in "you have the right to remain silent, you have the right to an attorney," etc.
giniliz added Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967)
From the source of all knowledge (a.k.a. wikipedia):
Loving v. Virginia was a landmark civil rights case in which the United States Supreme Court declared Virginia's anti-miscegenation statute, the "Racial Integrity Act of 1924", unconstitutional, thereby overturning Pace v. Alabama (1883) and ending all race-based legal restrictions on marriage in the United States.
songquake - "mine? have to go with another "gimme" (especially since Marbury is taken): Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka, KS, establishing that separate is definitionally NOT equal. no more segregated schools, buses, water fountains, rest rooms (at least by race), railroad cars."

And I, walkinthenight am going to add McCullough v Maryland, 17 U.S. 316 (1819), which says 1. that the Constitution grants to Congress implied powers for implementing the Constitution's express powers, in order to create a functional national government, and 2. that state action may not impede valid constitutional exercises of power by the Federal government.
Hate/love federal bureaucracies? In many cases, you have this decision to thank!

So what's your favorite Supreme Court decision? Share!

Recently, T. Boone Pickens, Texas oilman and former supporter of President Bush, has been running ads criticizing Bush and McCain's support for offshore oil drilling. You see, he's an oil man but he's seen the light, and we need to switch to renewable sources of energy. So he's thrown some of his significant fortune behind efforts to convince the American people to oppose more drilling. Isn't that sweet?

In today's NY Times article about this phenomenon, Timothy Egan wryly notes that Pickens just invested 10 billion dollars in building a giant wind farm in Texas, so he has something to gain from running these ads. He advances the possibility that Picken's heart might be growing just a bit:

Would it enrich him further? Yes. But perhaps it’s not about money. In “Chinatown,” the old man played by Huston was asked by Detective Jake Gittes what more he could possibly buy at his age.
“The future, Mr. Gittes. The future.”

To his credit, Egan then goes on to talk about how Pickens was behind the Swiftboat ads and is generally an unsavory character, so the Sierra Club's embrace of him might be a bit premature.

Here's the problem - Egan missed mentioning an entire major component of Pickens' support of the wind farms. Pickens recently switched from oil to water. He started up by buying a bunch of land in Texas and setting up pumps. Under Texas water law, the water rights go to whoever pumps the water first. Because water tables stretch across property boundaries, this means that two small landowners over the same aquifier will be pumping from the same supply, so whoever pumps more gets more and has the right to profit off of its sale.

Pickens has set up pumps on a massive scale, outstripping anything that a smaller ranch owner could do. He essentially has control of the water supply of an entire county, and is now looking for a buyer. They're refusing his offer. So he's put out feelers to major cities such as Dallas.
Dallas hasn't taken him up on the offer yet, but as their population continues to grow and water becomes more scarce, chances are that someone is going to accept his offer. So he's been working on more land acquisition to build a pipeline.

What did he start putting on that land? The wind farms. That made the land a utility supply corridor, meaning he could take it under eminent domain:
Pickens knew he'd have to build a pipeline, and to do so at anything resembling a reasonable cost, he'd need the power of eminent domain—the right of a government entity to force the sale of private property for the public good. Water utilities have that right. If Dallas agreed to buy Pickens' water, it could extend such authority to him. But Dallas deemed Pickens' price too high and declined to do a deal. So Pickens and his executives tried to create a Fresh Water Supply District—a government entity that would have that power. But they couldn't get it through.

Over the next several years, Pickens continued accumulating water rights and began to lease other land, this time with the idea of creating the world's biggest wind farm. "One of the great wind areas is right up where we are," says Robert L. Stillwell, Pickens' general counsel. "You can set it right on top of where the water is." And since, one day anyway, Dallas may well buy both, Mesa could use a single right-of-way for the water pipeline and the electric lines.

Pickens attacked his eminent domain problem from a number of different angles, and eventually managed to get legislation passed through dubious means that allowed him to create his water corridor without the help of the utility corridor. But now that he's invested so much in wind power to get to the water, he might as well profit off of it!

In Roberts County there would be real economic benefits from the wind farm. "The wind is meant to sweeten the deal," says Representative Chisum. "The big money for Pickens is in the water."

You can read the entire story here: There Will Be Water - Businessweek.com

Will the wind farms create clean energy? Yes. Does it set a good precedent for a major oil barron to be throwing his support behind clean energy, thereby panicking other energy barrons to do the same before Pickens has a monopoly? Sure. But his motives are nothing but profit, and I'm disappointed that Egan completely missed this. Furthermore, I hate the precedent he's setting with water acquisition, and I can only hope that better laws are passed to protect the resource for public use.

Messages on John Kerry's answering machine after he endorsed Obama (and before Edwards dropped out). It made me giggle.

The language is definitely NOT SAFE FOR WORK!