Today's The Big Day

A little gym time, then off to get married.
aybe I'll actually get some work done next week....

Shout Out

Since I previously ragged on those who approach sponsorship as a right, let me now shout out to a guy who has been a true pleasure to support. Chad Nikolz joined the AxleyUSA.com family practically on day 1. I can't remember if I approached him or visa versa but I always liked his attitude.

Since handing over the first pair of shades I've been exceptionally pleased with the value we get. Forget results, the guy sells the eyewear. He tells people what he likes about them and is sincere. He treats people well, and as a result carries influence. And whenever he asks me for help he is almost apologetic. It sounds small but when people are demanding it makes me wonder how they come off to the people who will actually by the product,

So Chad.. here's my love to you!

And he does a cool cartoon series too.

It's not a game

As I was wandering down to buy eggs this morning I heard Susan Estrich, a USC law professor, explaining why she was the only consistent liberal in denouncing both the impeachment of Bill Clinton and the investigation of Karl Rove (I assume the interview was before teh indictments) for lying.

Her argument is that the court should never pursue someone for lying. While I understand her position, I don't think that's really what she is saying. After listening to her I think she dislays a world view that many (not all) lawyers share. It's all a game. Specifically, she described the outing of Valerie Plame as "hardball". I understand this view; to her perjury or giving false statement is akin to a technical foul in basketball and a player shouldn't be banned for life for it.

While I'll give her credit for being consistent since this was alos her logic during the impeachment trial, I don't see how she is any different from the Karl Rove republicans. The end justifies the means.

I do take issue with her claim that she's the only consistent one. I objected to the Clinton impeachment because, while he lied, he lied about a something that was irrelevent to his job as president and was asked in the context of a fishing expidition. In otherwords, he didn't lie about something that was against the law.

Karl Rove did. He lied to cover up an illegal act. In these cases people lie because the penalty for lying is still less severe than the penalty for the crime. In otehrwards, if Karl Rove had told the truth I would expect to see him in jail.

That to me is extremely consistent. It matters whether the lie was an attempt to conceal a crime vs. public humiliation.

It also bothers me that so many lawyers on either side of the aisle do look at it as a game. The outing of Valerie Plame isn't about winning and losing. Real people's live were put at risk, people's careers jeopordized, and our national security compromised so that an opponent of the Bush administration could be intimidated. These are real consequences and I wonder if Susan Estrich's family was murdered to intimidate her if she would take the same view that it was just "hard ball politics".

And before anyone says that's not a fair analogy it absolutely is. Which is the cognitive disonance so many people have abotu this: peoples lives were put at risk. That's an absolute fact. Rove, Libby, Cheney et al either didn't care about it or don't care enough to understand that.

Who stands for the classics

Hear Hear for Little Tommy Boonen.

CycloCross from my perspective

The following editorial is 100% my perspective. It is limited experience, but it is the experience of a business owner who does not race cross but supports cycling in general as well as racing himself.

Last year I had no problems with any actual road cyclists we sponsor. We had a couple issues with guys who ride their bikes and tried to get deals because the race, but I think it's hard to call the actual racers. That was just a hook to to justify a deal.

On the otherhand I have had bad experiences with over 50% of the cyclocross racers who approached me in the last year. These riders have basically all treated us like we owed them something and seem to be genetically incapable of being gracious. And they spend the entire conversation explaining why I would make more money if I invested more in them. But, they are unable to ever explain how.

Anyhow, if you are a cyclocross racer let me suggest a little bit of the following: be polite and don't be demanding. I'd rather sponsor a cyclist who comports themselves well but doesn't win than one who wins and spends their time bitching and moaning.

Getting older and bigger but not fatter.

One of the wierdest things for me in my 2nd time as an amateur cyclist is the changes in my body.

I have always had a propensity to gain weight. Part is build part is what I assume is genetic predisposition to eat non-stop. All of which is relative to a cyclists body-view because fat to me is 12% body fat which to your avg american is probably rail thin.

Anyway, I stopped racing when my son was born.. really I stopped riding at all. In my pre-break years I had an abundance of muscular endurance and could climb well above average. My race weight was approx 148lbs which was 9% body fat. I had absolutely no sprint to speak of and won only 1 road race in 1km solo attack. I regularly finished on the podium of time trials though.

During The Break I hit 200lbs (which was the catalyst for my return to racing). I've slowly lost weight and now am sitting at 170lbs. My body fat is still too high... 11-12% or so. But the wierd thing is if I got down to 150 my body fat would be 3%. Anyway, the same body fat as when I was younger puts me at over 12lbs heavier.. so I've gained 12lbs.

My strengths have changed too.. I have a much better (although not awesome) sprint. I can win more races, I won 5 last year. 2 in outright sprints. I still don't have the acceleration and need a fast lead in or the early jump but I can generate the power to drag race over 200 meters. I can climb nearly as well or time trial but I can go super hard, recover and go hard again. So I am harder to shake.

It's just something I find odd.. I expected to get more muscular endurance as I got older, not more power. And I certainly didn't expect to get bigger. I am sure a lot of the change is in my upper body. Carrying a kid and mountain bikeing have certainly added mass. And bones get denser. But12 lbs is a lot and that eman in theory I am stronger...

Perhaps I am not slower in the muscular endurance category.. everyone else just got stronger while I improved in the power area?

Is Raceclean.org the last bastion of integrity?

Or a manifestation of all that's evil in the press?

I don't know. But I have been getting a lot of people lately giving me their 2 cents. The allegations against Todd Wells specifically seems to have stirred up some strong emotions against Raceclean.org. And some people have asked me to ask Raceclean.org to retract or rethink their position. I can't do that. Here's why.

I wouldn't have accused Todd Wells of doping. Because I've never met Todd Wells or have any knowledge that he has doped. But I don't run the raceclean.org site. Nor do I advertise on it or otherwise have any more significant influence over the site than anyone else. If it appears I have influence on the site, it is probably because I do support the general mission of the site (raceclean) and they seem to like me personally. But I am willing to bet if I tried to dictate content I'd get a hardy "F*** off".

Furthermore, even if I was an advertiser, I would not get involved in specific.. editorial discussions. I don't know what evidence they do/don't have regarding Todd Wells. From my Point of View, that's for Todd Wells to find out. If he is in fact clean, he should take it up with Raceclean.org himself. The onus is then on raceclean.org to prove Todd's guilt.

In otherwords, it seems to me there is a process in place to resolve the issue that has nothing to do with me. My involvement wouldn't represent any positive or negative judgement. It'd just be a popularity contest between various people/institutions I know.

Is anyone really surprised?

TPM has a good point, but why should anyone be surprised? I wonder at this point how many people who still support Bush are just the hardcore supporters who will believe anything?

AxleyUS.com Party

Huge party tonight. Messy house. I am never going to be ready in time!

RaceClean.org ride Sunday

RaceClean.org is hosting a ride Sunday at 9am UV Zoka.

The Quote Economy is good

Let it never be said the Bush administration never gave you anything. Merry Christmas.

Lovsted-Worthington Bothell Event Insurance Fiasco

Why they suck:
#1 They delayed signing the policy until 2 days before our event (we requested it 2 mos. in advance)
#2 The policy price quadroupled the day before it was needed, giving us no time to find new insurance. I believe this is called Bait-and-Switch
#3 We prepaid 1/4 of the policy, but cancelled it right after our 1st event and replaced it with USACycling's insurance. So we cancelled it before using what we had alread paid. Apparently, Lovsted-Worthington did not process the cancelation.
#4 We got notices from the underwriter and had to contact them directly (the assured us that the policy was then cancelled and settled up).
#5 Now, 3 mos. later we are getting invoices from L-W for unpaid premiums on a a policy we cancelled with them 2 mos. before the date we had technically prepaid through.
#6 I called them after sending a registered letter, no one returned my call and finally I got a live person who said they'd research it. Nothing yet...

Hasbro's Creative Control on Sigma 6?

Is this true? I'd like to see the source evidence for this statement.

I was a huge BeastWars fan, and my understanding (derived from interviews with the creative folks like Marv Wolfman, Bob Skit, etc) was that Hasbro maintained a pretty handsoff approach. They would approve overall story concepts, and veto or request certain elements. But they stayed out of the day to day. Those same sources indicated that the move toward "anime" style was to reduce overhead for Hasbro, which would argue against them exerting more energy to showrun Sigma 6. So Hasbro, might have a directive against overt sexual character designs, but would not be dictating specific character wardrobe. So I don't think that the post's implication is correct.

Rather, Ash's seems more probable.

It's certainly possible this changed, but I'd like to see the source. I find that kind of stuff fascinating.

Strategy

Say you were a construction company. And your name was Empire Remodeling. Now, say you did a job and botched it. If you are committed to fairness you allow the other party to find out what industry standards are.

If you are looking out for #1 only, you plead, beg and then intimidate.

Guess which one Empire is doing (number 2 just for the dense).

20th verse, same as the first 19...

The impressive thing is that neocons are willing to keep saying this and believe they actually have credibility. Maybe Dean, et al are wrong, but since he's been right for the last 4 years I'll stick with him until he starts being wrong.

Dopers Suck, but you gotta pay 'em anyway

From cycling news:

Cofidis ordered to pay Lelli
The Cofidis team has been ordered by a court in Tourcoing, France, to pay Massimiliano Lelli €50,000 after it dismissed him prematurely in 2004. Lelli was one of those charged in the Cofidis doping affair last year, on the basis of evidence given by Philippe Gaumont and David Millar, and was sacked from the team in August. But the court found that he had been dismissed unfairly, and it will have to pay his for lost wages, damages for harming his character, and legal costs.

Hopefully there is more to the story, but given the strong legal evidence that Lelli doped (as opposed to bogus tests designed to create evidence against someone the UCI or WADA is convinced is doping but can't prove) what does this tell teams?

If I wear a potential sponsor, I'd just walk away. You can't enforce no-doping rules or you end up paying back wages but if you don't enforce them you get punished by the UCI.

This Sucks: Anil Ramaya

I found out yesterday that Anil Ramaya died recently. I wouldn't say we were friends, but I knew him and he was friends with several of my friends. Either way it sucks. Anil was probably the smartest person I've personally known, and in some small way I think contributed to my own humility. Yah, right, I'm humble. Well, I don't hold much false modesty. There are some things I know a lot about and am not afraid to call B.S. in those specific areas. But, and this I think is real humility, I also know that there are a lot of things I don't know much about.

I think a lot of that is because I knew there were smarter kids at Charles Wright than I who would call B.S. on me if I just made crap up. As I grew older, i realized many of those kids weren't really smarter. But Anil was.

So, thanks Anil. Whether you knew it or not you did impact my life for the better.