SRAM Force CX1 Rear Derailleur: Is This The Single Ugliest Bike Compenent In Human History?

Jeebus frakking crist, this thing is a bloody abortion.  I kinda' can't believe it.  It looks like a parody photoshopped by SRAM haters with too much time on their hands.  And the graphics make it sooo much uglier, so it can't be random, or an oversight.  Some asswhipe at SRAM approved this shit show.  It's a Lego rear derailleur.  Or a rejected design for a Borg prop on Star Trek: The Next Generation.  It's fucking horrible, and the fact that it apparently really exists in 2014--and is not some frightening hallucination brought on by an undocumented interaction of select prescription drugs and Wild Turkey 101--says awful things about the state of modern bike components, and also about the entire human species. 

Planet Girl

Impeachment Is Obama's Greatest Bit

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Summer's Daze

McDonald's Labor Decision Funfetti

A nice start.  Putting the corporation on the hook for the illegal activities of the franchise owners is a good start to creating fairness in these places.  The franchise owners have plenty of reasons to steal wages and keep hours and wages low, so if the McDonald's people start to be held partially responsible, they are way likely to change the incentives.  $15 per hour is a good start, too, and this decision puts some pressure on the bad guys for once. 

Stand With Gaza And Hamas

Absolutely.  Hamas's fight against Israel is legitimate and noble, and it's way past time that all good, gods-fearing humans stand up to support the brave fighters.  Israel is the aggressor, and until we admit that as Americans, we will never be able to stop the murder in Palestine.  Stand with Palestine.  Stand with Gaza.  Stand with Hamas against the enemy of peace and freedom, Israel.

Real Actual Bad News For Everybody

Big waves in open water in the Arctic breaking up the sea ice is one of those 'Oh fuck' things that will only become apparent to most people long after it is too late to do anything.  Arctic ice is mostly floating, but the changes in ocean currents and greater absorption of heat because the nicely reflective ice is gone will impose really big changes on the climate.  Many of those changes are going to be damaging to the future profits and stock performance of various Koch brothers business interests. 

Jon Lester's Road Trip

Jon Lester will enjoy his time away from the Sox; they are imploding right now and will start to get real annoying real soon.  And if he's back next season, well, that's his fault.

Justified Alan Grayson Fluffing

This is the sort of fluffing all gods-fearing mens and womens can support!  Grayson is smart-ass ballbuster, but even better he is a really effective Congress person.  He gets the shit done with the Dems and Repubs, AND he makes the teabaggers shit their pants at the same time.  That's fucking genius; Grayson should be the norm, not the scary exception.

Well, That Didn't Take Long

I don't think this will be much fun for long; even when they bring it back it won't be worth the effort for the funfetti payoff.  Trolling these pathetic fucktards will quickly lose its charm, but a brief, shining moment, it was real.

Isn't It Possible That Major Bike Maker Geometry Simply Isn't Really That Great In Some Cases

Especially for the smallest and tallest riders.  Yeah, most of the riders in the pro peloton are riding stock plastic bikes, very similar or identical to the ones those big bike companies sell, and yeah, most riders don't NEED a custom, to-the-millimetre-and-the-tenth-of-a-degree frame, but the pros ride a shitload of hours every year--each europro rides more each season than a hundred serious 35 year old amateur racers put together--and if the Specialized or Cannondale or Trek designs are not that great to begin with--good enough for the most part but not maybe the best for you or me or some professionals--any and all shortcomings and quirks could turn out to be a fucking disasters for a professional racer.  Because those frames are going to be sold all over the world, a thousand compromises are made for the marketplace, but that marketplace is not the world where professionals race.  And some decisions about geometry made by the big bike companies are going to be wrong or bad because most people are fucking morons and large organizations can make fucking morons even worse, but now those bad choices and/or mistakes are locked into a design that has to last for years in order to pay for itself.  It's not a stretch--see what I did there?--to say that there are more compromises in fitting many professional riders to mass-marked racing bikes today--less than optimal frame sizes, top tube lengths, setback, stem length, steering geometry--than in the custom steel and aluminum frame era and that those compromises might make some pros less comfortable and safe on their bikes.  DeRosa, Masi, Merckx, Bianchi, Pinarello, Colnago, Della Santa, Ritchey, and Landshark all knew how to design and build customs bikes for top-tier professionals, and they all had the luxury of not needing to sell fuckloads of identical frames because of the costs of molds, plastic, and Chinese contract manufacturing.  Nobody's going back to custom frames for pros, but that doesn't mean that five or six frame sizes will fit everyone, including UCI professionals, as well as 15 sizes between 47 and 64 cm with the option of full custom.

Has Any Music In History Held Up Worse Than Bon Jovi And Def Leppard (Besides Led Zeppelin)?

I don't have to listen often, but occasionally in a random office or car there is a "classic rawk" station or some shit, and jesus charlie crist, Bon Jovi and Def Leppard were fucking horrid when their shitty music was new, but gods below, the stuff is even worse now!  The Bon Jovi stuff is just embarrassing, and the Def Leppard songs are all too fucking slow.  I know Def Leppard was a pre-autotune studio creation of Mutt Lange, the label, and some generic studio players, but they coulda' at least tried harder.  Assholes.

Is 'Guardians Of The Galaxy' Really Not Gonna Suck?

Will it be like The Avengers and Pacific Rim, surely going to be awful because it can't not be but then beyond hope not completely shitty?  Maybe, just maybe...

Is thesarahpalinchannel.com The Big Fuck You Colbert's Gonna Leave With?

He teased it on his show last night, and I wonder if this is the big "Fuck You" he's gonna use to retire the Colbert character?  If so, he's got a deserving target in that vile grifter whore Palin.

Move'd On ATMO

Looks nice though.  Wonder why it ain't wasn't a keeper?

Idiots Have Abysmal Taste

Just. Don't.  Some of the bigger asswhipes really are appalling. 

New York And Boston Are Older Than Los Angeles

And they're all falling apart.  There's your shovel-ready projects, assholes.  There's your jobs programs.  There's your economic stimulus.  The longer we wait to rebuild the water and sewer systems, and the roads and bridges, and all the other shit, the more money it will cost.  Since the Republicans are too stupid to get it, atmo, the Dems should be using this to 1 help their own electoral fortunes; 2 stimulate the economy and create jobs; 3 strengthen the infrastructure.  Not too fucking  hard to understand.

Not Exactly Burning But You Get The Idea

The CIA In Ukraine

Well...You probably shouldn't expect the establishment media to be getting out the bullhorns in order to remind Americans on a daily basis that the civil war in Ukraine is in large part the creation of the taxpayer-funded CIA--another fuckup by that august organization worthy of a notch on their fascist bedpost.  That would be actual reporting and work and shit, and our establishment media dickheads don't do that.

Virag's Movie Reviews: Slaying The Badger (2014)

I watched this originally with my daughter.  She enjoyed the story and the scenery and just how slimy Hinault was then and is now.  She also chattered through the whole thing, so I watched it again.  It was great to see such an unabashed pro-Greg artifact on the American cable sports tee vee.  The way they got the Badger to take part must have been to let him in on the secret that the film was not going to make the bad guy Bernard Hinault at all but instead make the clearly sociopathic and/or senile and/or high-right-now Paul Koechli the villain.  Koechli certainly obliged.  Besides being glowingly in love with the Lemonds, the bonus Andy Hampsten content in the film was a joy.  While giving the Badger enough rope, tormenting Koechli's pathology, and giving the world-weary Samuel Abt were all good, worthwhile fun, the collective pissing on Lance "Cheat-to-Win" Armstrong at the end was quite obviously more fulfilling after a good hour plus of enthusiastic Lemond propaganda. 

Meanwhile, this is one of the dumbest reviews of anything you will ever read.  This boob David Kallison clearly doesn't know shit about cycling or television or films or reviewing or writing.  Nice job, jerkoff!

Bob Fay Interview

From a while ago.  Like years.  But the internets is forever.  Bob Fay sounds like a pretty cool guy.  Firing the drummer has a long, ignoble history in "alternative" "independent" "college" type bands who want more than anything to make the money and get the pussy and be on the cover of the rolling stone.  The problems with Harmacy were not problems to lots of folks who liked Sebadoh and folk-punk-lo-fi-rock-and-roll.  Bob Fay was not the reason it didn't sell millions and millions of units like Lou Barlow and certain other people wanted.  Lou B. shoulda known better. 

Tee Vee Rawks

Oh, Baby, Maureen McDonnell Is A Huge Slut

McDonnell sounds like a great guy, and he certainly deserved this gold-digging whore as a wife.  What a sordid thing to be talking about in court.  I think I'm giddy.  McDonnell is a vile cocksucker, and anything he gets is well-deserved.

The People Showing Up At The Southern Border Of The US Are Refugees

This should be a hard Yes/No question for all elected offices in the USA, and if you answer "No, those people are not refugees", you should be barred by statute from holding any office.  Argue about the solutions or the budget to deal with it if you're a fucking asshole, but anyone who doesn't understand why these people are refugees should be thrown into a pit filled with rabid dogs.

And yes it is our fault.

Mind-Blowing Bill O'Reilly Self-Fisking

O'Reilly is one dumb motherfucker--and he's also a nasty, racist asshole--but he doesn't need anyone to take him down.  He does it all on his own, whips out his embarrassing ignorance and racist buffoonery and pisses all over himself.

(via)

Pop Goes The Power Plant

At some point, even the biggest fucking retards will understand what Israel is all about.  Now many of those poor stupid racist assholes will probably like it, but that doesn't mean that Israel is a genocidal terrorist state.

The Glory Of The Cheap TYR Waterbottle

Yeah, I know it's just a Specialized bike waterbottle, but after half the kids on the swim team started bringing stupid expensive bottles to practice and meets and leaving them random places sometimes never to return, the TYR waterbottle became the most popular accessory on deck, even though the team is a Speedo team.  It's possible that some of these kids will be bike racers in the near future, and won't they be shocked as fuck when the TYR waterbottle goes from swim bag to deck to bike without a hitch for like 2 bucks on sale.  TYR is pronounced "tier" by the way, not "tee-why-are".

73 Eisentraut

Nice.

Nirvana Time Machine

The Moon, September 1991.  Let's say you were born in 1978.  That means you would have been 13 at this show and probably not there since the venue was a bar approximately the size of place mat from Friendly's.

Skool Of Rock

That's how you do it, kids.

And...Fukushima!

Still there! Who knew?  They didn't fix that shit yet?  It's still an ongoing catastrophe?  How come nobody told me?  They're hella fucked?  I never would have guessed.  Our establishment "news" media is letting us down.

Our Friends In Tel Aviv

These pieces of human filth are committing war crimes in our names.  Without the U.S., Israel does not exist and could not even feed itself.  We're fools for putting up with their treason.

Israeli War Crimes

More of this please, Mr. Cockburn.  More of this please Mr. Establishment Media Motherfuckers.  Israel needs to held accountable for their atrocious crimes; the American people need to understand the reality of Israeli atrocities and crimes. 

David Ortiz Is A Piece Of Shit

Chris Archer is a great American.  And Ortiz sucks moose cock.  Big Poopy is also a terrible hitter; whenever he gets a hit, it is because the pitcher made a mistake or is a complete moron.  Ortiz's fundamentals are awful; if you don't groove it, he don't hit it.  The Globe blows huge chunks, too.  Fuck them.

It's good to see 'em getting crushed, CRUSHED, tonite by the Jays.  Buchholz and Doubront, hey indeedy.

Marianne Vos Needs More Competition

It's time for the UCI to give up the paternalistic bullshit and allow women to race long days and long stage races.  Right now, women's road racing is stuck in the last century, but if the women were allowed to race, then maybe the racing would get better and better, and Marianne Vos would have some real competition all year long.

2014 Intense Uzzi Orange

Pros: meh.  Cons: doesn't really exist; if Intense doesn't care about the frame, how good can these leftovers called 2014 be?; VPP; orange; stupid expensive, even as an orphan; geometry used to be good, but now is being quickly left behind by the recent 20-years-late discovery of long top tubes and shorter rear ends; meh.

2014 Intense Tracer 275

Pros: ?  Cons: 275 means 27.5" wheels; air shock; I already have an orange bike; nobody makes day-glo orange forks; Intense QC is still a nightmare; VPP still sucks with way too many little wiggly parts and linkages. 

Kinda looks cool.

Nibali's Tour

If he tests positive, the explosion of heads will be unprecedented.  It was an entertaining race, with all the crashes and other assorted nonsense, so lets hope the doctors and pharmacists are better than the tests this year, so we can all enjoy the racing.

Gaza Is An Open Air Concentration Camp

1000+ dead, with only 42 Israelis dead.  This is an atrocity. 

George Will Briefly Removes Head From Ass

But fuck him. This is not anything that a million other better people haven't been saying all along.  And Will is a wretched, nasty motherfucker.  Fuck him.

Ag2r Needs A New Tire Sponsor

It looks like Ag2r-La Mondiale has Schwalbe for their tire sponsor.  Well, I think it's back to the drawing board for Schwalbe, or Ag2r needs to get rethink their equipment choices.  On the off chance the team is on Schwalbe tubulars, the entire world has seen that those pieces of shit are the slipperiest, puncturiest tires in the peloton.  Oops.  And if Schwalbe bought some pro-quality tubulars from some Italian or Dutch joker to slap their name on for their pros, they need to find those people who sold them and kick them square in the nuts.

Are those Ag2r Focus bikes anything other than rebranded generic Chinese carbon garbage?  I don't know exactly why, but I kinda' dig 'em.  I guess they're not on the list of overpriced, generic plastic crap I would never ride in a million years, Specialized, Cannondale, Giant...

If they're anything other than a catalog frame a couple of Krauts buy to be painted with their name on it, I would consider picking one up if I was in the market for some Chinese carbon garbage.  (I'm not.)

Did Liggett Just Say "Chinaman"?

On live tee vee?  He did.  He really did.  Jesus charlie christ, I can't wait to see the NBC apology for that one.  Look for Liggett to join Bob Beckel on the "I'm not racist" goodwill tour of Chinamenland, 2014. 

Kona Process 167

Pros: Kona, so it comes to the shop in a box with all the parts and a warranty and shit; 26" wheels; decent geometry.  Cons: air shock and fork; 5 grand; absolutely no provision for front derailleur; too much silver on that fat air shock; some wicked crappy parts for a five thousand dollar bike; that would bug the shit out of me.

This spec for 2.5k would be maybe okay.  With a coil shock.

Nibali Wins

His doctors and his chemists should be proud.  The Shark was able to dominate this race, and his time trial today was a classy show of strength.

Israel Does Not Want Peace

Somebody's gotta say it.  Those fucks in Tel Aviv don't want peace with Palestine or with anyone else.  They need a state of perpetual war to prop up their Zionist terror state.  Israel has the luxury of a waging a genocidal war because the USA will protect them from any danger.  If we do the right thing and abandon Israel to reality, then the Palestinians will get their justice in the form of radioactive hole where Tel Aviv used to be. 

The Politics Of Middle-Class Decline

The reality is awful; the middle class of America is dissolving, and soon enough America will no longer be a functioning democracy.  The USA will be a two-tier society.  We'll be Brazil with nuclear weapons.  That's a problem.  But it should also be a godsend for the Democratic party, yet they refuse to acknowledge the problem OR exploit it for political gain.  It's almost as if the establishment Dems were kinda fine with the state of the nation.

Sarah Palin Drunk Is More Sensible Than Sarah Palin Not Drunk

I always kinda had her pegged for pill popper so I'm not sure she's ever technically sober.  Regardless, she's a dangerously stupid and ignorant bitch who was a major party nominee for Veep when the presidential candidate was a 200 year old, cancer-ridden psychopath. 

Olbermann Kaiju Tee Vee Rampage Funfetti

I didn't catch this live, but Olbermann sure seems cheesed off.  No wonder there was no place for him on MSNBC.

This Is Smarter Than Every Elected Republican Put Together

And they're cats.  Cats know more than anti feminist clowns.

Charlie Crist On A Crutch

Heh, indeedy.  Nicely played by Crist.  Rick Scott is a fucking scumbag, but Crist is not much of rousing campaigner.  Let's hope jeebus gets some leaded coffee on election day and decides to toss Scott into the sewer where he belongs and puts the Crist back in Florida.

Knolly Chilcotin: How Did This Happen?

No Delirium; no Intense Uzzi; no Canfield One; no Norco Truax.  No proper coil shocks.  650B/27.5 garbage as far as the eye can see.  Could it be that the best frame out there is the Knolly Chilcotin?  Not ideal, but the only choice left?  Jeez, that would suck, but I'm sure the Knolly is very nice.  And at least it uses 26" wheels.

Canfield Balance Just Might Not Be Doin' It For Me With 650B Wheels

Stupid 27.5 wheels just don't do it for me--especially on a wicked expensive suspension bike.  (650B bullshit might be allowable on a cheapo hardtail or some shit, but it pisses me off on a spendy bike like this one (!) One...ONE (get it?)--even more because they killed the One frame for this sled.)  The bike looks neat, though, like a shitload of thought went into it.  Just wish they'd finished the thought and decided not to jump on the brainless bandwagon of 650B/27.5.  Pretty sure if this thing was designed around the proper 26" wheel size, I'd get one.

The Incomparable Asshole Stephen A. Smith

Holy Fracking Shit! Well, at least this makes Skip Bayless seem less like the biggest piece of human flotsam on ESPN, so Skip Bayless's mom must be happy about that.  Other than that dubious benefit, Smith's psycho rant says at least as much about the people who pay him as it does about the man himself.  Look for Smith on Fox "News" eventually.

Vile Creep Of The Day: Dore Gold

This piece of shit, Dore Gold, is disgusting creep as well as dumb as a fucking rock.  He's a walking, talking antisemitic stereotype; if the Krauts had created him for a propaganda flick, they'd be seen as going completely beyond credulity. 

Meanwhile, The Slaughter Of Unarmed Civilians Continues

Israeli murder continues unabated, mostly because the U.S. supports it.  If the Israelis are supported by American propaganda, then the American people are being lied to while the Palestinians are slaughtered.  At some point, it's our fault and we need to take responsibility.

Time To Cut Off Aid To Israel

If the Israelis are this hurting for money and weapons, then we need to cut those motherfuckers off now in order to force them into a retreat.  Iron Dome is a comical failure; but if it bleeds Israel dry, then thank the fucking gods for Iron Dome.  Let's not give them any money to prop up their dismal failure, and instead break them by making them spend their own money on their useless weapons.

Crucial Clinton Fisking

Bring it on!  The Clintons are terrible, terrible Democrats, terrible people, and everyone in the US should be disgusted by the chance that they could return to power.  Tubby fucked up the country as President, and Hillary was his willing accomplice.  Should she become President, it would be a bad time for the Dems and a bad time for America.

Ohio State's Band Camp Just Got Way Boring

Whatever you do, make sure the band dweebs have NO fun, no matter what.  Stupid?  Uh huh.  Kinda sad?  Yep.  A big deal?  Don't see why.  Silly nicknames and stuff?  Who cares?

Kvale Details

The fork crown. The bottle cages.  Neat.  Ready for your closeup.

Breaking News: Water's Wet, The Sky Is Blue, and Ivy League Universities Are Shitty Schools

Get this guy a fucking cookie.  Fun experiment: pick any Ivy League school and then get a map.  Within a 20 mile radius from any Ivy League institution there will be two schools, a state university of some sort along with some crappy, non-selective private college that admits 75%+ of the people who apply and charges more than Dartmouth--think classic welfare academia.  Go to each of the three schools and cut a random group of students from each in half and count the rings.  What you'll find is that the Ivy League students are no smarter than the state-school or shitty private school kids.  The difference is that the Ivy League kids WILL be a shitload more wealthy and stupendously well-connected as compared to the two other groups of students, but that's it.

Nobody Likes Ted Nugent

He should just go away permanently.

Megyn Kelly Is Getting Skull Fucked On Her Own Show By Anna Baltzer

Live on the tee vee.  Kelly just had some disgusting creep whore defending Israel, but Anna Baltzer just beat Kelly into a pulp.  You know Baltzer made real points because Kelly went back to the vile whore after Baltzer was done without giving Baltzer the same chance.  Kelly did this last nite as well, so there must be a memo to Kelly making sure that she doesn't allow even the slightest possibility of anything resembling truth or reality to go unchallenged on her Megyn Kelly Is A Right Wing Whore Hour show.

Majestic Obama Fisking

Kevin Alexander Gray does the deed.  Six years into the age of Obama, it's not much work to show what a complete waste he is, but when the fisking is done so well, it is a wonder to behold.

Stupid Cycling Post From 1986

A decade before many civilians had the intertube webs, this stupid article was written.  At least it sounds that way.  1986.  Or so.  Do many cyclists really argue this shit in the 21st century?  Jesus.

Phil Liggett Doing Football Promos Is Wicked Funny

He's been on tee vee for like a hundred and fifty years, yet he can make a simple promo seem like he's never read anything off a card before in his life.

The Absolute Dumbest Motherfucker On The Planet Is On The Serotta Forum

Iron Dome is a dismal, hilarious failure.  But according the single dumbest motherfucker on earth (tied with about a billion other people, but still) Iron Dome "blows rockets outa the sky".  It blows alright.  Blows AND sucks.  Asshole.

All Of Orphan Black Season 2 Pretty Much At Once

A few nights, actually, but I watched all of season 2, and I thought I saw a few signs that like Charlie Jade and Surface and Lost, the Orphan Black people were surprised they were a thing and realized that they had not so much of an idea where they were going, especially when they slipped into Kids in the Hall mode with Allison's husband and Vic the Dick.  The clone world is awful small on the show now, with everybody in Canada either a clone, a monitor, a clone scientist, or a pro- or anti-clone outlaw, so being a clone or associated with cloning is not nearly as scary or difficult as it probably should be.  I was hoping for a more dangerous, 70s-paranoid, film-noirish world where the clone makers and everyone else were almost as powerless and fearful as the clones themselves because of the shocking, illegal, seemingly alien nature of the entire clone program.  Peter Outerbridge was good as the fundie loon, if maybe a little too comfortable playing such a terrible asshole; Kevin Hanchard, the actor playing Art, had the best season, I think, and really took the opportunity to make his character vital to the story with his performance.  Not bad overall, if not all that I'd hoped, but there will be a third season, so we will have the potential for some great tee vee or an absolute train wreck.  The pool, the pond.

Deluded Fools Are Women Too

This garbage is comically pathetic, but such delusion and ignorance are a real problem for our society.  These poor dumb bunnies don't know what feminism is, and all the stuff they've ever heard from Fox "News" and Phyllis Schlafly and other random teabagging Koch-suckers, mostly men and lady uncle toms, is complete and utter misogynistic horseshit.  They've been manipulating into becoming hilariously ignorant self-hating bitches, but I guess it's to be expected since they're so fucking dim.  It's bad for us all that so many women and so many men are so easily kept in such risible stupidity. 

MH 17, The Vincennes, And China

Shooting down a passenger jet is a big deal; what happens in the aftermath is a bigger deal.  In the short term, we probably will have a hard time getting the truth, but the politics and international jostling won't stop regardless of which side fucked up.  Will Russia be pushed to China?  That sounds unlikely at this point given the Russian push to invest in and get closer to the wealthier countries in Western Europe.  I guess we'll see in the long term, but in the short term, the focus should be on a cease-fire in Ukraine and a negotiated end to the civil war.

Fish-In-A-Barrel Tony Dungy Fisking

Sure Dungy is a creepy, jesus-blowing fundamentalist asshole, and nobody should give a flying fuck what he thinks about anything, but it's still neat to see him getting demolished all over the place today.  Calling him Clarence Thomas is fucking lovely.  Dungy is just one of those dimwits we don't need to see or hear ever.

Goodbye Jack Kingston Hello Michelle Nunn

What a fucking disaster for Republican hopes this year.  Michelle Nunn must be doing backflips today.  Not that Nunn is anything other than a rock-ribbed conservative Democratic turd, but with McConnell set to lose this year too, the Democratic majority in the Senate will probably be getting bigger in 2015.

Chris Hayes Gets On His Knees For MSNBC

I didn't catch this because Badger reasons, but, while Hayes has been doing a better job than most on his channel or anywhere else on the tee vee, he completely whorishly gurgles the rancid jizz of his paymasters when he describes the vile Andrea "Mrs. Alan Greenspan, Ayn Rand Acolyte" as a journalist.  Whatever threadbare credibility Hayes has managed to keep, it's now gone because Hayes would rather be a tee vee millionaire than be a decent human being.  Hayes is pretty weak in general, and for every thing he does on his show that's a little bit better than average, he'll do something like this which exposes what a careerist lickspittle he is on the inside.

Electric Light

Damn Fools Don't Know Shit About Kids Bikes

Idiots.  They don't know shit about shit.  I am an unwilling expert on the art of kid's bikes.  Sure, it helps that my kid is super tall, but decent kid's bikes are out there, and you don't have to mail-order some overpriced, no-name garbage sight-unseen in order to fit a kid on a decent bike.  All you gotta do is look around--the internets and Craigslist are your friends--and visit some shops, and you'll figger it out.

Ronald D. Moore's 'Manimal'

Will Ferrell's utter shit, but the world needs Ronald D. Moore and J.J. Abrams to remake Manimal just to be sure it sucks as completely as possible and obliterates the universe once and for all.

Lee Lee

Hard-Hitting Lee Papa On Police Murder In NYC

The Rude Pundit hits the brutal police killing of an unarmed man in NYC hard today.  The big questions are right in front of us.  Why do we put up with this sort of police action anywhere in America at any time?  Why were there so many police on the scene on Staten Island?  Why would Eric Garner to need to be arrested, handcuffed, or subdued at all?  Without the video evidence, would the NYPD have gotten away with murder?  To that we know the answer is yes.  The other questioned need to be answered every day in America.  Otherwise, we are completely worthless as a purportedly free people.

Rockets For Gaza, Won't You Please Help

If Gaza is running out of rockets, all decent gods-fearing people should join together to bring more rockets to Gaza.  And missiles.  And fighter-bombers.  And attack helicopters.  And tanks.  And nuclear weapons.  If we bring these things to Gaza to use against Israel, then peace in the middle east would be right around the corner since Israel is too cowardly to fight against anyone who can legitimately fight back.

Is It Possible The Honest Trailer For 'Divergent' Makes It Sound Dumber Than It Actually Is?

Christ, I hope so, otherwise, I'm fucked when this thing comes out on Blu-ray and some asshole gives this to my kid as a gift.

Kona Expolsif Max

Coupla Kona Columbus Max-tubed Explosif bikes from the rocking and rolling 90s.  This green one looks pretty normal except for the hydraulic rim brakes.  I dig it.

And this sled with Bomber fork would be my regular trail bike if I owned it.  I sure as hell wouldn't keep it in the shed; I would indeed ride it into the ground with that great-riding frame and fork. 

Putin Didn't Shoot Down Any Planes

Was it a set-up to weaken Putin with Europe?  That would make it mass murder committed by Obama's buddy Poroshenko.  Or was it a tragic accident, a mistake made by shoddily prepared militants on one side or the other?  Either way, we know that Putin didn't order it, and that no other Russian military commander order it either.  There's no benefit for the Russians to shoot down a passenger jet over Ukraine, and the Russians are not that fucking stupid.  It was most likely an error, but with all our abilities to investigate, there's no reason for the truth to be uncovered.  Whether our establishment media will broadcast the truth is another thing completely. 

NBC Can't Help It

Their instinct is the reactionary.  It's reflexive and requires no thought.  Our glorious establishment media is hopelessly deranged. 

26" Wheels On 13" Mountain Bikes In 2015: Kona Does The Right Thing

Kona's 2015 bikes are up on their interwebs site, and despite an industry trend toward the stupid and stupidly pointless 650B wheel size for mountain bikes, Kona manages to show a bit of wisdom and keep the proper 26" in the XS (13") size on three models, including the the women's specific Tika.  Fuck, yeah!  Unlike all the other companies out there giving up on the best wheel size ever for mountain bikes actually used off-road, at least Kona is not fucking the short folks and kids and shit.  That's something.  A little something, anyway.  See what I did there?

PZ (Party Zone) Meyers Withdraws Support For Israel

He's had enough of being right, and PZ Meyers comes out as a hateful anti-semite.  Or something.  When one hundred or one thousand unarmed, defenceless civilians die for every casualty or injury on your side, you are not fighting a war, you are committing genocide.  Israel is the world's premier genocidal state.  Makes those fucking loons in Africa with their machetes look like fucking pikers.

(via)

Capitalism Is Killing Music

Especially jazz and classical. (With Jean Cook content.)  There's no money in music--not for the artist, anyway.  Not if that artist is making actual art is not some corporate cartoon creation like Katy Perry.  There used to be a bit of cash to made in touring and selling stuff, the jam econo model, but shit's fucked up and stuff now, more every day.  The record companies can still squeeze out the profit, but the little guys and gals are hella fucked.

(via)

Straight 2 Gods' Frakkin' Ears

If the glorious teabagging shit show funfetti that is the Mississippi US Senate race can go national--for the entertainment value if nothing else--that would be a great day, perhaps the greatest day in living memory, for American Republican politics.  Please jeebus, please give us this beauty.  Please let us have this very nice thing. 

This Makes More Scientific Sense Than A Majority Of The Supreme Court And The Entire Republican Party Put Together

The Sharknado guy has a firmer grasp of reality and a deeper understanding of basic science than Alito, Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, and pretty much every nationally elected Republican.  I guess that means that we should replace the majority of the SCOTUS with Thunder Levin and his bowling team to make America a saner place.

Political Song for The New York Times To Sing

Dave Lindorff, Cecily McMillan, The New York Times

Dave Lindorff cock-punches the Paper of Record over their shoddy reporting of Cecily McMillan's ongoing court saga.  McMillan has already been abused by the police, the DA, and the court; it appears the Times is perfectly content with this situation and is doing whatever it can to support it.  That's your liberal media at work there, boyo. 

The Weirdest, Least Likely Bike Site On The Interwebs, 2014

BikePro!  What the actual fuck?  It's been like 20 years since the BikePro Buyer's Guide crash landed and almost 20 years since the BikePro/Pedal Pushers bike shop/mailorder thing imploded in semi-public, but the website is still there pretty much.  Now the site is indeed "sponsored" by BikePro Frank's latest business fixing iPhones and shit, but still, what a weird, unexpected relic of misspent youth and a dizzying variety of colorful bike garbage.

Huck Finn Redux

This review does the impossible, but dammit, it does it.  It makes the book sound good, sound worthwhile, sound vital.  Given the premise, that's a giant fucking accomplishment on its own.

NBC Caves

And puts the actual reporter back in the actual invasion.  Holy Shit!  If NBC keeps this up, we might reasonably mistake them for a legitimate news organization. 

James Garner

Was a life-long Democrat and a way better actor than some people gave him credit for.  He had a good run, though, and was by all accounts a decent Hollywood guy.

Digby's Kid's Brother's Movie Review Of 'Snowpiercer'

Snowpiercer looks like absolutely bonkers garbage, but it may just be worth catching in a theatre instead of on your phone or some shit.

Political Song for Buzz Aldrin to Sing

Apollo 11: Some Kind Of Empty Gesture

Apollo 11 day.  And yet, the U.S., Russia, China, UK, Japan, India, couldn't get back to the moon and back before 20 July, 2015 if the world depended on it. 

Entry-Level Stock Women's Mountain Bike Time Machine Trip

This thing has it all: pinky, purpley color; round tubes; atrocious Chinese Marzocchi fork; hopeless, on-the-way-out Hayes disc brakes; middle-period Kona graphics; annoyingly cheap running gear.  It's only been eight years, but this sled is starting to look downright quaint.  If I could get that time machine working, I would grab a coupla' these and bring 'em back in the box for future frame harvesting.

The Second-Weirdest (Bike) Site On The Interwebs

Really?  It's been like 20 years since they made these things, right?  But there it is.  Now I will admit to having a dozen or so Avocet computers, but I only use them myself and don't insist anyone else use them.  They still work okay with the occasional fresh battery and I am uncomfortable with new things.  My daughter uses CatEye.

Tour De Shark

Was this it for the 2014 Tour?  I guess Nibali is the strongest rider in the race right now, and if his pharmacology holds up, he should be able to control the final week.

Slaughter Of The Defenceless In Gaza

Goes on and on.  We as a society are poorly served by our lapdog media and pro-Israel political establishment. 

Where Do They Launch The Interceptors?

If you are gonna build a moon base, you gotta have a spot for launching interceptors to stop the UFOs.

Nascent Crowd-Sourced TBogg Fisking

Never really got to the most-entertaining rolling boil, but it was nice to the proles take some bites outa' the biggest of the soft-snarky, entry-level establishment Obama fluffers out there.  Sometimes the little people decide they don't have to put up with the lamest shit.  Sometimes.  Keep it up, folks.

Saletan's A Little Dumber Every Day

I get it, atmo, that Saletan is village-idiot wannabe boot-scraping, but the willful ignorance and misunderstanding of the decades-long assault on the Palestinian people in the U.S. is pretty much not funny anymore, so fuck Saletan and every single one of the other rotten motherfuckers supporting Israel's atrocities.

Apparatchik Slap Fight

Gnome Chompsky's Manufacturing Inanity.  Look for it next year in your entry-level political coffee klatch.

Bibi IS An Idiot, But That's No Shock

Netanyahu's a blithering, right-wing clown, a simpering incompetent both created and trapped by his obeisance to American establishment media and politics.  The problem, of course, is that because Bibi is a useless walking fuckbag, the people of Palestine and Israel suffer--the people of Gaza suffer way more, but that's a feature, not a bug.

These Twits Run The World

Dopey dopes are dopey.  And it's easy to laugh at them as comically clueless upper-class twits, but their cohort have the power and the influence, and they're fucking reactionary morons.

Kona Women's Road Bikes

Are also no longer made.  Too bad, because this purple Kali looks pretty nice.  I especially appreciate the silvery post, stem and bars.  They went the extra mile for a more classic, not-black look in 2012; the Lisa Road was earlier.  Since the shop sold Konas for 20 years, I might actually be able to find one of these bikes locally sitting around in barely-used condition with a customer even though I can't think of anyone who bought one off the top of my head.  Maybe I'll get lucky; that'd be frakking lovely. 

Tour De France Crashomatic 2014

It's a melee out there this year.  Nibali is looking to run away with this thing now, though, if he can keep upright.  Porte blew up, the big names crashed out, and the shark is looking strong.  Entertaining racing, even if it is not what the experts were expecting this year.

Pathetic Attempted Supreme Court Fisking

Yeesh, that was dumb.  Apparently the author is a law student, so I would guess she's paying big money for a fourth-tier school.  I mean, the SCOTUS is chock full of risible fucktards, but this is the best she could do?  How bout not understanding the basic grammar in the US Constitution?  Or not understanding how birth control works?  Or not having even a 6th-grade level of familiarity with recent US history?  A basic understanding of economics?  Complete lack of reading comprehension?  Psychotic beliefs in the supernatural?  That's worth making fun of them for, but this shit she chose is pretty fucking lame. 

Bill Maher's Always Been A Jerk--And Never Was Especially Bright

He's got his schtick, and he's been a somewhat useful out atheist and out pothead, but beyond that, he's never been even 33% as smart or clever as he thinks he is.  It's like getting aggravated by Jon Stewart being a buffoon; there's just no point.  Maher's an asshole, and Stewart is soft-headed centrist.  We deserve better, but we ain't gonna get it.

I Remember 'Fantastic Four' Being Worse

Than this.  Pretty sure I saw it in the theatre and was criminally underwhelmed.  Cinema Sins musta' switched to decaf recently.

Ayman Mohyeldin Or Richard Engel

Which reporter is more likely to tell the truth? Which is more likely to be an establishment media careerist clown?  Well, Engel is risible kiss-ass to power, so clearly Mohyeldin had to go!  If the American establishment media ever told the truth about Israeli crimes, the universe would implode and then all the high-paying tee vee jobs for Brian Williams and Rachel Maddow would be gone forever!  Can't have that, can we?

Far Too Mild Krauthammer Fisking

Nicholas Sheppard takes it waayyy too easy on Chuckles Krauthammer in this essay.  Krauthammer is an execrable toad, not at all worthy of being called intelligent--or wise or thoughtful or anything.  Sheppard should have come right out and called him what he is: a fatuous conservative lickspittle.  Chuckles is a small-minded simpleton who has used his self-inflicted injury to deflect criticism his entire life.  How exactly did he graduate from med school from that bed, anyway?  Surely he had some special accommodation, help, special treatment, bending of the rules, handout...

Of Course, The Bike She Wants Is No Longer Available

My daughter knows how to use the interwebs machines--and knows how to be a major pain in the ass--so she was able to check out the small road bikes and shit, and found the one she likes the looks of more than any others, the 2013 Orbea Aqua Dama in black with pink.  This is the same fucking hassle the pink Ibanez bass was giving me last year, only this year it's road bikes.

I think it looks really cool, actually, and it is pretty much like all the other 9-speed Sora bikes for women, but there is no chance in hell I'm going to find one in her size anywhere at this point.  The black with pink has set an unfortunate aesthetic benchmark that the 2014 candidates are not able to match.  Even worse, the 2014 aluminium Orbeas look like shit, with a weird, low attachment point for the chainstays and a goofy longer headtube.  Fuckers.

Salmony Pink Nagasawa

Small, pink, 1980s.  Don't tell my daughter--she'll have that time machine working ASAPy-like, and then we're all in trouble.

Short Nagasawa Article From Japan

In English, from late last year.  Apparently, Mr. Nagasawa is still building frames.  Would be cool if we could get them here in the States.

Shooting Down Airliners

Bad for business.  I'm kinda surprised this shit doesn't happen more often.  This was apparently some serious surface-to-air-missile action, but just some asshole with shoulder-fired missile or RPGs outside the fence at a major first-world airport could end the modern world if he or she were willing to die for it.  Or if the bad guys wanted to stage a world-wide campaign of attacking commercial air transport at airports with hand-held ordnance, well, that's game over, dude.

Hah, Hah, NBC Sucks

NBC is a shithole--and always was--but this is pretty fucking bush league, even for them.  The establishment is pro-Israel and adamantly anti-Palestine, so if someone tells the truth about the Zionist war criminals, they will be censored.  And these are the people who are responsible for reporting news.  America, Fuck Yeah!

Republicans And Teabaggers Hate Kids

They only love kids when they are raping them in some third-world country Limbaugh-style.  Otherwise, Republicans and teabaggers and other Koch-suckers hate children.  It might seem crass, but the Dems and their supporters should be making this disaster a political issue, and beating the Republican candidates over the head with a "you hate any kid you can't fuck" type of campaign.  Winners win.

Bah Bah Boo Eee

Don't they have producers to screen this shit?  On the other hand, who cares?  The on-air "talent" should be able to tell the prank callers to fuck off and then just move on.

Gaza Massacre Groundhog Day

It keeps happening because Gaza is defenceless.  They have no guns and no navy and no planes and no nukes.  If the people in Gaza were able to defend themselves against Israel, Israel would leave them alone.  Israel is the world's foremost cowardly bully.  If they didn't have the U.S. to protect them, the Israelis would be a fuck of a lot more polite and peaceful.

And Talansky's Out

Didn't start, but that's not such a surprise.  I guess he rode it out yesterday to show he's an animal, and that was that.

Spin 2 Live

New Old Bikes: Galmozzi

Well, that looks like a neat project.  Those olde-timey racing bikes are wonderful for all the ways they are at once so familiar and so foreign.  Sr. Berg must be a hell of rider if he is out riding this thing; if you've never ridden a Cambio Corsa, watching someone else ride it first will probably convince most sane people to just skip it--often best to go in completely naive.  Kinda' like a unicycle in that way, but if I had this project in my shed, the proper time, and a coupla' fingers of Turkey 101, I believe I'd give it go, so we should all wish Sr. Berg the best on this adventure.

Talansky's Back

That musta' sucked.  Severe back pain makes every second of a normal existence a guided tour of hell, so if Talansky decided he was going to gut it out and get back on his bike and race in the frikkin' Tour, he's a pretty tough son of a bitch.  He rode it out by himself too, so I would guess part of the conversation with his directeur sportif was the info that the team would not be working bring him back.

Rigteous Brownback And Santorum Fisking, With Bonus Ronald Reagan Fisking

Lee Papa kicks 'em when they're down, just for fun.  Kansas, Kansas, Kansas, it's time to help yourself for once, and step one is to flush Brownback resolutely into the cesspool of history.  When you can smear Santorum with the santorum and piss on the memory of Reagan's atrocious acting, well, that's just sweet.

How The Hell Did Contador Break His Leg Doping?

I kid.  He was eating doped beef.  But a cracked tibia is an actual reason to abandon, especially as it wasn't the second to last day or anything.

One And Only State Solution In Palestine

The single-state solution in Palestine is the only solution, but for once it is nice to see some of the plebes talkin' about it.  A secular one-state solution would be fucking paradise.  Anything the U.S. and the rest of the assholes around the world can do to make this happen would be wonderful.  One man, one woman, one vote in Palestine.  Muslim, Jew, the Professor, Mary-Ann, everyone is equal.  That's bound to happen any second now...

But Diane Ravitch Is Right: Campbell Brown Is A Vacuous Koch-Sucking Bimbo

Brown IS there because she's a maybe, somewhat, kinda' attractive trained media whore AND because she's married to vile Zionist cocksucker Dan Senor.  She's not there because she's intelligent or hard-working or talented; Jonathan Chait often proves he is a risible simpleton, and he certainly does it again.  The anti-union, anti-teacher, anti-child people are are well-compensated fronts for the same Koch-suckers and 1%ers who fuck up everything they touch.  If Ravitch wants to slag Brown for being a shithead, we should all applaud it.  Let's stand up for the good guys for once.  Jeez.

Marinoni 40th Anniversary Frames

I'd be all over this if I could get SP/SPX in a basic 59 c-c square frame with shitloads of chrome.  That'd be pretty freekin' sweet.  Looks good.  Is good.  Real good.

Eric Holder Is Not Often Right, But

There is a vile racial component to all the Obama hate from the teabaggers, Koch-suckers, and other Republicans.  You saw it in the way some of those southern congressman acted.  You see it on Fox "News" with O'Reilly and Hannity and their catamites.  You saw it at the teabagger "protests" with the racist images and banners, the bones through the nose and slurs.  As much as the Republicans and their white trash foot soldiers hated Clinton, nothing ever came close to what we've seen with Obama.  This is vital American original sin right here, the racist hatred in the marrow of American society's bones.  Obama probably should have called this shit out on election night in 2008, but anybody with half a brain in 2014 sees how frighteningly dangerous that would have been back then.  We can imagine how some of those Bundy ranch, oath keeper, guntard, conservative southern ass wipes would have reacted if Obama had got in their faces over their racism and ignorance.

Concise Insight Into Iron Dome

And the best part is Boeing gets paid! Every fucking time!  Boeing, and if it's not Boeing, it's some American war contractor who is profiteering off the slaughter on essentially unarmed poor people in Gaza.  That's brilliant!  Fuck, Yeah!

Okay, Now We Know It's An Act

Wait, what? Rehab?  Bullshit.  This was the guy who supposedly let his beloved cat get killed by a dog in his own yard.  This was a guy who was supposedly a conservative blogger who became the most enthusiastic Obama fluffer in the galaxy.  Was in the military.  Was going to adopt an older child as a single man.  Has some sort of well-paid, stay-at-home job at a school where his parents taught which doesn't require him to do much or show up anywhere but still pays him enough to live a privileged middle-class lifestyle even though he's a junkie or a lush.  Lives with a dude he knew in the service but is not at all gay or some sort of deluded closet case.  Now has to go to rehab?  Bullshit.  It's an act.  A character.  This dude is no dude at all, but a classic internets troll, probably a middle-aged soccer mom and attorney from Oregon who is often bored at work in the family law firm, and uses this character as an outlet so she doesn't pick on her husband so much that he won't go down on her anymore, cuz, damn, he's good at it now, and she really, really likes it, and he still enthusiastically bones her all the time after all these years and three kids.  Mystery solved.

U.S. & Israel: Too Much Alike

Ron Jacobs on the unfortunate parallels between how the USA and Israel were started and the horrible traditions they share.  The US is to blame for Israel; without American support, Israel would never be able to sustain the genocidal war against Palestine. 

Nukes For Palestine

Let's get the Palestinians some nukes, say three times as many nukes as Israel has.  Let's get the Palestinians some fighters and bombers and attack helicopters and drones, say four times as many as we've given to Israel.  Let's make this a real fucking war and watch Israel burn the way Palestine has been burning for 70 years.  Bring the pain to Israel; they're fucking cowards and won't be able to survive the way Palestine has.  Vox actually does something useful, signal boosting this chart showing the genocide taking place in Palestine at the hands of Israel and her American backers.

Oh, Gods, Please, No; My Daughter Wants A Road Bike

This past weekend and this next weekend are swimming championship weekends, but the previous weekend was the first mountain bike race, and she wants to do more.  She also wants to get a road bike.  I'm not sure I can handle that.  The sub-$1000 women's-specific road bikes are scary, and improbably way worse than the 24" wheeled mountain bikes.  And none of them are pink anymore, which is probably actually a good thing.  She's gonna outgrow anything quickly enough, but there 's no way I'm buying some piece of shit toy.  The big question is whether I have forgiven Scott bikes for their XS mountain bike with 27.5" wheels atrocity, because the little Scott women's road bikes look pretty neat, considering.

I also like this Trek.  I know.  I'm more surprised than anyone in the world.  Really cheap, but seems decent, and Trek is a huge bike shop brand, just not in any shops I go to.  Maybe the price online is a typo.

Bianchi also makes a small women's road bike which I'm sure is very nice but doesn't do much for me, especially since I'll probably never find one in the smallest size in any shops around here in order to get a good look at it.  The wheels are fucking stupid.

Maybe I'll get frakking lucky on Craigslist, or maybe I'll just hang myself.

Rick Santelli Gets Curb Stomped On Live TV

This is all over the interwebs today.  Santelli is just brutalized by Steve Liesman, right there in front of everybody, and gets his huge load of horseshit jammed right back down his throat.  Fucking brilliant.

Wait + C

Political Song for Mansplainers to Sing

Michelle Rhee Sucks Too

Good to see some pushback from the Dems.  FINALLY!  With proper exposure, Rhee's bullshit monster will wither and die, so let's get on that shit.

Glenn Beck Sucks Cock On Horseback

Fuck him.

Basso Max

Fully lugged and fork crown would be spiffy on this thing; the paint and the dropouts are really great.

Tahmooressi Bullshit On Fox "News"

Fox "News" has been ginning up this risible story for months, but since it's on Fox, you know it's 100% bullshit.  I don't know what the real story is, but it smells, and Fox is lying.  It's fucking bullshit.

Rebecca Odes Checks In

Love Child. That's what I think of.  The band.  Rebecca Odes gets in on the fun kicking around the idiots in 2014.  You're never really gone on the internets.

Browne, Messi

Very entertaining Harry Browne on Messi and the World Cup.  The German win is huge letdown for the species, but the true eurotrash football fans take it all in stride like a Cubs fan or Mets fan and get ready for the next show.  Messi is a hell of a player, but the fucking Krauts, man.

Contador Out, Nibali Back In

Contador must have taken something that disagreed with him!  Anyway, more rain, more crashes, and the Shark is back in yellow.  Yellow Shark. 

Teaching An Older Child To Ride A Bike -- Hint, It Sucks

I had the opportunity--I was press ganged because of a familial relationship--to teach an older child to ride a bike.  The kid is 11 and not very athletic.  His mother was unwilling and/or unable to teach the little bastard, so I was the likely victim because of that accursed family connection to which I would never admit in public.  The biggest problem I found was that the kid was kind of a pussy and not very good at following directions.  He was also riding a BMX bike, but that was probably a help at first.  He had trouble with the glide-down-the-grassy-slope-with-seat-low-and-no-pedals.  It took way too long to graduate to pedals on and then actual pedaling.  I split the suffering over two days, and what should have taken between one and two hours finally finished with the guy being able to pedal and wobble his way around a grassy field as well as an empty parking lot.  If his mother gives him the opportunity to ride for practice and manages to scare up a proper bike--since the kid is around 5'4", he's already in the solid middle of the mountain bike size range as well as too tubby for a road bike--he will probably do all right, but it sucks to learn when you are that old.  It sucks to teach it too, especially when the kid is not motivated and focused on learning and riding.  I had much better luck with the younger girls who were happy to be learning and had some athletic experience making them more coachable and focused.  Or just get every kid a scooter bike for their second birthday and let them putz around for 2-3 years before they hop right on a 20" wheeled mountain bike and ride away.  More balance bikes for toddlers, and I will be golden.

Racist Asshole Of The Day: Dennis Michael Lynch

This skeevy racist fuckwad is a favorite of Fox "News" and similar cocksuckers, especially in recent days.  These are the nasty little shitbirds who can only feel good by puking up hate and spewing it on everyone and everything.  Unfortunately, some idiots believe this garbage that Lynch and his syphilitic clown show promulgate.