Thursday

Still like the look/feel of that snow storm shown above.

Today was the first BIG day in the mountains for the TdF.  Of three big hills that they went over, one was the target of my bike fantasy trip next month.  The Col de Tourmalet.  As noted earlier, it's not as high as Mt. Rose, but it separated  the men from the boys today.  Luz Ardiden was the next bump that they finished on, and I might try that one too.

I checked out the schedule for next week in the Alps, and they spend a lot of time in the area that I cycled two years ago.  In fact, they go up the Galibier twice!  From both sides.  I don't think they miss too many climbs in them thar hills.  When the Tour gets to Paris on the 24th, anyone who finishes is a full-fledged biker.

I kind of got caught up with the Twittering during the All-Star Game.  I can see how people get hooked on real-time reporting while at events.  Of course, you also have the old, "Does a tree falling in a forest with no one around make any noise?", issue as to whether one person's commentary thrown out into the electronic black hole makes any impact.  With my long list of followers, I'm betting the Under on that one.

One of the unfortunate by-products of last week's NASCAR race in Sparta, Kentucky was a traffic jam/parking cluster of Goliathian proportions.  Some people never made it into the track.  Can you imagine buying tickets for a big show, months in advance, and then find yourself  in a 15-mile back-up on the Interstate?  This was the maiden Sprint car race at the track after years of efforts to get a date.  (The track owner had to swap a date from another track that he owns.)  To say that they un-engineered the process is a slight under-statement.  How many roads do you build for a once-a-year event?  Can you say, car-pool?  Mass transit?  Bureaucracy?  Let's have the brains in DC figure it out!

Speaking of parking problems, is there a more common fact of daily life than one having to park a car? (I mean, if you have a car.)  What did these car lots do before there were cars?  How did Iowa City survive before there were cars?  What part of the GNP is/are parking fees?  I'm thinking Seinfeld episode here.  (Actually, there were several Seinfeld episodes where parking was a non-plot element.  Since it was a show about nothing, how can you have a plot?)  Doesn't the cost of operating a car need to include parking? I mean, if you didn't have a car, you wouldn't have parking costs, would you?

I have a solution to the debt-ceiling/budget debate in DC.  Not Buffet's (don't allow reps to run for re-election if they don't pass a balanced budget), but equally simple.  Let's do a National sales tax.  No exemptions.   Everybody pays.  On everything.  Start at 1 or 2 percent.  Raise it over a period of years to 5%.  Reduce the income tax brackets to a maximum of 25%.  Eliminate most of the tax deductions.  Get rid of the Alternative Minimum Tax.  It broadens the base and gets everyone to put skin in the game. 

This business of 50% of our population not paying tax is not the American way.  You can confiscate all of the income from the "rich" people and the budget is still under water. Taxing the rich is just politics.  They already pay more than their fair share.  If some are paying and others not, how is having only those who pay, pay more, more fair? 

No big plans for Friday.  But it's early.  Make it a good TGIF.  Thanks for reading.

BCOT