The Courts Have Ruled

I'm away from home but I see in yesterday's Spokesman Review that Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers finally set to rest that Barack Obama is in fact a citizen.

Spin Control: Do you have any doubts that Barack Obama is a citizen of the United States and constitutionally entitled to be president?

McMorris Rodgers: I have looked into it further. There’s a reality that it’s been in the courts, the courts have ruled that he is indeed a legal citizen, born in the country, and I think it’s a nonissue.

Interestingly enough, I haven't found where a court has ruled this. The Supreme Court denied an appeal for a case that was trying to stop the election in New Jersey and denied to hear a Pennsylvania case where an attorney claims Obama is not a citizen.

Regardless, this all happened months ago. It's nice to see McMorris Rodgers catch up with the times on this "I'd like to see the documents" nonissue.

Barefoot Running

I went for a run after we got home from the UW visit. I wore shoes for the first mile and a half until I got to Mead High School. Then I took my shoes off and ran barefoot around the huge grass fields for a distance of about two miles. For the first mile I just ran and let my feet go. Then I started focusing on how my feet were landing on the ground.

I tried to maintain that as I ran home on cement and asphalt. A week ago, Thinnmann said not to twist my feet or push off. Just lift the feet. And that was pretty much was I was doing. It was working well. Too well, in fact. It felt so good I started speeding up which was a bad thing to do. Then during the last quarter mile my brain started thinking, "I can improve upon this."

"No! Ouch! Don't think!"

So I just need to increase the distance that I run while thinking of something else.

While we were in Seattle, we stopped by the REI store so Kathy could get some bike shorts. The shoe section had the Vibrams on hand. It's mainly the price that's keeping me at bay because I can't say for sure I'd use them that much. But they sure did seem nice.

UW Visit

Josh is coming up on his senior year in high school. After many a "I dunno" and shrugging of shoulders, he's thinking Chemical Engineering is the most likely path for him. That pretty much limits the number of schools he can attend so we went to one of them yesterday.


We drove to the University of Washington and took a tour of the campus led by an animated young man (Drama and Communications major) named Tyler. Steph came along too. You can guess what she plans to wear when we visit the WSU campus.


Josh and I were very impressed with the bicycling situation there. Bikes and bike racks were all over the place. And they even have areas where bikes will be impounded if you lock them there, mainly to allow for pedestrian traffic.


Oh, and it seems like a good place to get made more intelligenced, too.

I Miss My Bike...

...so running will have to do for now. Yesterday I did five miles under a cloudy sky and it rained--one drop. No, really, I felt it. Anyway, I just finished reading Born To Run. (Thank you, Spokane Al, for referring the book to me.) It's a fun read and I recommend it to anyone who runs or is thinking about running. There are enough reviews about the book so I'm not doing another one.

The book can put a dangerous thought in your head: If they can do it, why can't I?

Probably because I'd rather ride a bike.

Someone In The Media Calls It

Steve Pearlstein of the Washington Post looks at the current state of the so-called health care debate and calls it for what it is.

The recent attacks by Republican leaders and their ideological fellow-travelers on the effort to reform the health-care system have been so misleading, so disingenuous, that they could only spring from a cynical effort to gain partisan political advantage. By poisoning the political well, they've given up any pretense of being the loyal opposition. They've become political terrorists, willing to say or do anything to prevent the country from reaching a consensus on one of its most serious domestic problems.

There are lots of valid criticisms that can be made against the health reform plans moving through Congress -- I've made a few myself. But there is no credible way to look at what has been proposed by the president or any congressional committee and conclude that these will result in a government takeover of the health-care system. That is a flat-out lie whose only purpose is to scare the public and stop political conversation.

Ya think?

Whoa! That's Hot!

Sorry for the lousy Blackberry photo
So I get to the hotel and unpack. I open the closet and see these. The robes are for complimentary use and available for purchase for $120. The tag on the robe says "Release Your Wild Side." I can think of no greater humiliation than prancing around wearing one of these. I'll pass.

The camisoles and boxers are for purchase only. Their tag says "Do You Know What's Going On In The Closet?"

I don't think I want to know.

After unpacking I went for a four mile run--with my shoes on. The guys up front told me about a canal nearby with a hardpack trail so I checked it out. It was frickin' HOT! Being the only one out there, anyone who saw me rightly figured me for a fool who's not from around here. I'm going to go again early in the morning when it's cooler.