Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Pulling and pontificating

My 20 min test went well. I shaved a few tenths of a second off my split from my previous best this season, which had been my goal. 1:47.6 average, which is okay, but still far from where I'd like to be. Still, it's a good thing. I paced it well, nearly perfect negative splits, and my heart rate was right where I'd hope for it to be.

I think I'm taking on the 10K next. I think I can break 37 minutes soon, if not right now. That wouldn't be a record for me, but it would be my best this season.

On the news: It's become clear to me how impossible the Iraq situation is. In the same article, we had Iraqis both blaming the US for not providing enough protection, and then also being irked that the US is there at all. We can't both do more and do less. I'm just fearful that things will continue to suck, and that the new Democratic congress will get hit with the blame. It's brilliant strategy from Bush: Make like you'll do what congress asks, then, when things continue to be a disaster, blame congress. It's just stupid that the borderline ethnic civil war that's unfolding hadn't been anticipated. I've been against this invasion from the outset.

Yet pulling out is the wrong thing to do. I think we need to do more before we do less. So I disagree with the Democrats' plans for a "change in direction" which translates to "leaving ASAP".

On the NYC shooting: 50 shots sure does seem excessive, especially if one of the officers did, as news accounts suggest, reload to keep firing. Yet I'm disturbed by the tone that folks like Sharpton are taking. It's hard to say the shooting was racially motivated when 2 of the 5 cops were black, and 1 was Hispanic. It's also hard to say the guys who got shot were totally blameless. Those who hang out at a strip club being investigated for drugs and prostitution at 4am and get into it with other folks may just get their asses shot. That exact same night could have ended with them getting shot by someone other than the cops, but then it would be an entirely different story about senseless inner city violence, not how cops hate black people. So yeah, the cops were probably out of line. But the guys who got shot weren't blameless.