I took a step towards a greener future by biking to lab today. Here's the route I took. It's four miles, which took roughly 25 minutes. I think I like it.
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On another note, tomorrow is the NC primaries. After much deliberation with myself, I've decided to vote Obama! I want to make clear that I am not now a "believer." Earlier in the year, I had leaned towards Clinton. This was for several reasons.
1) I reasoned that given the history of the US, the gender barrier seemed a much harder hurdle than the racial (in this case, black vs. white) barrier. Consider for example, that black men could vote before white women. This speaks a lot of the psychology of the "majority"; their guilt over slavery moved them to grant blacks some rights, but they never for once considered the rights of women until the suffrage movement. I also just think that a less testosterone fueled White House would do America some good.
2) I still think Clinton has a better chance of beating McCain. Although black men were granted legal rights to vote after the Civil War, it took the Civil rights movement of the '60s for African Americans to truly gain footing socially in America. So again, this points to a peculiarity of the "majority," that in the end, they'd still rather take their wives to the country club than friends who are men of color.
But Clinton has too much baggage, and I think one political dynasty is already enough. The final chip that sealed the deal for me is the inevitability of Obama, considering the total number of delegates behind him. The Democratic party has got to stop infighting and move on.
But I want to come back to why I'm not a "believer." Let's put it this way, with his "Yes we can" slogan and calls to "change Washington," Obama's either setting himself up for a major let-down, or he's really going to get it done. Given the way politics works, just look at Taiwan over the last eight years, what's the probabilities for these possible outcomes? What I'm saying is Obama never sold me his story. But I'm willing to give him the chance to prove me wrong. It's better to aim high and hit a little lower, than not aim high at all.
So I'm supporting Obama, but with a real healthy dose of skepticism.
View Larger Map
On another note, tomorrow is the NC primaries. After much deliberation with myself, I've decided to vote Obama! I want to make clear that I am not now a "believer." Earlier in the year, I had leaned towards Clinton. This was for several reasons.
1) I reasoned that given the history of the US, the gender barrier seemed a much harder hurdle than the racial (in this case, black vs. white) barrier. Consider for example, that black men could vote before white women. This speaks a lot of the psychology of the "majority"; their guilt over slavery moved them to grant blacks some rights, but they never for once considered the rights of women until the suffrage movement. I also just think that a less testosterone fueled White House would do America some good.
2) I still think Clinton has a better chance of beating McCain. Although black men were granted legal rights to vote after the Civil War, it took the Civil rights movement of the '60s for African Americans to truly gain footing socially in America. So again, this points to a peculiarity of the "majority," that in the end, they'd still rather take their wives to the country club than friends who are men of color.
But Clinton has too much baggage, and I think one political dynasty is already enough. The final chip that sealed the deal for me is the inevitability of Obama, considering the total number of delegates behind him. The Democratic party has got to stop infighting and move on.
But I want to come back to why I'm not a "believer." Let's put it this way, with his "Yes we can" slogan and calls to "change Washington," Obama's either setting himself up for a major let-down, or he's really going to get it done. Given the way politics works, just look at Taiwan over the last eight years, what's the probabilities for these possible outcomes? What I'm saying is Obama never sold me his story. But I'm willing to give him the chance to prove me wrong. It's better to aim high and hit a little lower, than not aim high at all.
So I'm supporting Obama, but with a real healthy dose of skepticism.
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