Dr. Dorst

"Bend over and I'll say when ...."

Bicycles and Treadmills to Nowhere .....

We have a very nice work-out facility in the building where I work. Many of the machines I can't even understand but I don't use them anyway. I find it curious and a little disturbing that people seem to prefer riding a stationary bicycle or "running' on an endless rubber loop to nowhere. I just don't get it. It isn't the weather or the difficult terrain because here in Pacific Beach it is always sunny and the office is only a few hundred yards from Mission Bay. I think it must have something to do with people feeling safer (see my risk blog below) inside. The temperature is predictable... the terrain never varies .... you don't have to worry about actually looking at anyone else or interacting with the real environment and there are no forks in the road. You can go from your rubber road to your insulated car to your cookie-cutter clubs and listen to prescribed music and go home to your new condo and .................................

Risk

People have been scared into not taking risks. If you can't already tell, I ride my bike a lot. I commute every day that I can (which fortunately, is most days). This time of year I always ride home in the dark and when many people see me leave or I explain what I do each day they make some remark that they can't believe I would do such a thing and that it is right up there with drunken hang-gliding. I am careful. I ride with lights. I watch for morons (and find them all the time). I live my life.

It's Been 60 Years - His Time was Then and His Time is Now

FDR, I think was arguably our best president. Compare his "Second Bill of Rights" to what the Bush/Cheney idiots are doing now. Among the rights he articulated were: "The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation." "The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation." "The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living." "The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad." "The right of every family to a decent home." "The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health." "The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident and unemployment." "The right to a good education." Is this too much to ask of the most powerful nation on earth?

Democracy? Oil? It's bigger than that ....

Why we are in Iraq? There's damn good money in it. Dwight Eisenhower nailed it in his farewell to the nation in 1961: "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together". Eisenhower had originally called it the military-industrial-CONGRESSIONAL complex (really what it was and is) so as not to offend.