One of the neat things about living in a major west coast city that’s not LA is that you get to see new technology before most other folks (unless they’re in Europe or Asia, of course). We get light rail, new internet options and previews of crappy moves way before most other people.

The next big thing to hit Seattle will be electric car charging places. Apparently, the Seattle area is getting 2,000 electric car charging ports. They’ll be at fast food joints, movie theaters and shopping centers.

This is all because Nissan and GM (Chevy, actually) are introducing their take on electric cars. Both the Leaf and the Volt are four door sedans and are suspected to be priced around the normal sedan prices.

Most electric cars so far have been tiny and fairly ugly, but in a sort of cute way. Most didn’t go faster than 35 mph and had a range of 30 miles. Now, in a city like Seattle, that’s not a huge deal. Most traffic doesn’t move faster than 35 and it’s rare that you have to travel 30 miles for anything.

The Chevy Volt boasts a 100mph top speed and a 40 mile range with hundreds of miles extra when the small 4-cylinder gas generator kicks in and creates its own electricity to power the vehicle. That’s kind of neat. Nissan’s Leaf can go 85mph and has a range of 100ish miles per charge. Both options seem fairly realistic.

But as always, my big question is the smugness factor. From Segway Scooters to recumbent bikes to the Toyota Prius, the introduction of electric cars, smug levels in Seattle could reach an all-time high.

I do my shopping where a lot of smug white people do their shopping. I see this nastiness first hand. It truly is a perfect storm of self satisfaction. So with Seattle being an intro city for the new generation of mass market produced electric cars, will I be even more tempted to move to Portland?

Don’t get me wrong, hybrid and electric cars are probably the future of personal transportation. They’re a good thing. Zero emissions is good for the earth and good for our lungs. But we really do have to pay attention to our mental environment as well.

Why can’t people just recycle, bike, drive low/no emissions cars, eat organic, shop at the local co-op and generally be “green” without being complete asshats about it? Why not just do all of these things because they’re good ideas? And probably just as important, why can’t I just ignore these people? Why does the song “Love Me I’m a Liberal” float through my head every time I go food shopping? It’s not like I confront these people and it’s not like confronting them would do anything (positive or negative).

So maybe if we would all just mellow out a bit, do the right things for the right reasons and not think ourselves more enlightened because of it, our little world would be a better place.

We, as a people, do some pretty dumb stuff. Some of us do stuff that’s even dumber than most of us. Dumb is just something we’ll have to live with.

But then there are things like this…

Photos are from GettysburgDaily.com

This isn’t dumb, it’s pure greed. Dumb is innocent (mostly), this is your basic, run-of-the-mill evil. The folks that let it happen might be dumb, but the folks who purposely put it there are greedy bastards.

Each year, the website Gettysburg Daily picks one “dumb” thing that’s happened to the battlefield at Gettysburg. Many dumb things are nominated, but only one can win.

This year’s winner was announced yesterday, on the 146th anniversary of General Dan Sickles dumb move at Gettysburg.

This building is this soon-to-be-finished Comfort Suites Hotel. It is located a handful of yards away from a historic cemetery and, though not on park property, it is on the battlefield.

Here is a bit of explanation…

It was through some fairly shady deals that it even came about in the first place. The land is part of Cumberland Township, not the borough of Gettysburg. Gettysburg gets all the tax revenue from the businesses and hotels – Cumberland just wanted their fair share, no matter the cost.

Of course, this is simply a disgrace. Here is a fine example of how we fail as human beings. There are many such examples, of course, this is but one of them.

Now comes the real question. Why is this still standing? It’s not protected by armed guards. It’s not surrounded by barbed wire fences. It’s made of wood and would go up quickly.

There are some radical environmentalists known as the ELF (Earth Liberation Front). They engage in property destruction. Nobody has ever once been hurt or killed, but GMO laboratories, Condominium buildings, and the like are damaged and destroyed. You may not agree with such tactics, but it does seems to drive the point home.

The ELF and your average Civil War buff have a gulf of differences between them. But them both hate development. Why not join forces? Why aren’t battlefield preservationists starting the BLF (Battlefield Liberation Front)? With the Wal-Mart coming within an angry mule’s kick of the Wilderness Battlefield and this utter disgrace at Gettysburg, their work would be cut out for them, but just think of the rewards!

Imagine how good you would feel inside if a structure such as this, right on the battlefield, so close to the cemetery, were engulfed in flames (either accidentally or on purpose).

The Gettysburg Daily is creating another award for the good things that are happening ob the battlefield. If the Comfort Suites Hotel were to suddenly be reduced to rubble, I can almost guarantee you that it would take home that award as well!

Today is Flag Day. Lots of different countries have a Flag Day. Usually it commemorates the day when the official flag was officially recognized.

I’m not really a huge fan of flags. I mean, I wouldn’t burn one, because that’s just sort of lame and pointless. But I wouldn’t salute one, either.

That said, this is my favorite flag:

Anyone have a guess as to what it is? Hmmm?

And here is Eddie Izzard to explain why we really have flags…

ps- The Gadsden Flag is quite nice as well.

After doing a bit more work on my scooter (ok, I adjusted a clutch cable – not really work), my ride is shifting like (vegan) butter. This is great! And while I was out riding yesterday, it again occurred to me how thankful I am that I don’t have a car. I pretty much hate driving.

I’m not smug enough to think that I’m saving the earth by riding a scooter. Hell, I mainly ride a two stroke. Sure, I get 65mpg, so it cuts down on some of that “carbon footprint” thing, but I’m burning oil (that’s what two-strokes do), and even though it’s a very clean burning synth oil, it’s still not great.¹

So what should I do? Buy a new scooter? Well, that’s what I did a year or so ago, remember? I bought a 2007 Vespa GTS250. It’s super clean and gets like 75mpg or something. Much better than a hybrid.

But that brings into question the idea of buying a new anything in order to be green. I didn’t buy the GTS250 to be green. Hell no. I bought it to ride across the country. And I did that. Twice. If you want to be “green” and need personal transportation, buy a used scooter, car, whatever. Buying new anything is not “green.”

I’m not a big fan of the “green” movement. Mostly it’s for very well off NPR-listening pretentious liberals. I’m very much not one of those things. Take, for example, this douchebag at Huffington Post. This is everything I hate about the whole “green” thing. He thinks that buying TWO brand new $7000 & $10,000 Vespas gives him green bragging rights (it’s about half-way down his rambling, self-serving article).

What he and most others don’t take into consideration is the “carbon footprint” of buying a new anything. And percentage-wise, the “carbon footprint” of buying a new scooter is pretty high.

If the douchebag wanted bragging rights, he could brag about buying *one* used scooter instead of two new ones for at $17,000 a pop. But when you’re fairly well off (and surrounded by others like you), I guess things like this don’t matter so much.

He even tells us how he goes shopping. Instead of buying less and packing it into saddlebags and a backpack or two, he hires a taxi to take the groceries home. What. A. Douche. Why not just take a cab the whole way? Wouldn’t that be more practical? Yes, but no bragging rights.

And as far as throwing some solar panels on his beach house… well, it becomes painfully obvious how oblivious he is to the real world. If you check out his energy consumption and his 300 gallon fish tank, he clearly doesn’t get that less is more.

I (and this douchebag) are lucky. We live in a place where we can ride year-round. He gives zero thought to anyone not living in California (big surprise on that one). Most folks need a car. People have families, live in places where it snows, etc. They can’t rush out and buy two brand new scooters for themselves.

And seriously, why two? He claims a 250cc is for around town and the 500cc is for longer travels. But I traveled 13,000 miles on a 250cc last year. Hell, the gal who did the Peace Scooter run did twice that in two years on a 125cc! Why not just buy one small scooter? They get way better gas mileage, have way less emissions and if you buy used, no “carbon footprint” from buying new.

I do wish I would have thought more about buying used when I bought the GTS250. I should have done that. But now that I have it, I’ll keep it and enjoy the ride.

From here on out, however, I’ll buy used. It just makes more sense. There are so many used bikes out there, why get a company to make you a new one? Oh, and I promise, no obnoxious blog posts about how I’m so awesomely green for buying used. I seriously freaking promise. If I do that, stab me in the face, ok?

1. Two-stroke engines, like diesel engines, emit more particulate. They look dirty, but actually, due to the efficiency and small size of the engines they emit LESS CO and CO2 than a regular car or SUV. [↩]

By now, most of you have probably seen the video of Bush getting a couple of shoes chucked at him after saying that the Iraq war isn’t over.

I have to credit Bush for having some pretty good reflexes. Maybe he’s had a lot of practice dodging stuff (heh heh).

But have you seen the follow up picture?

This isn’t photoshopped or doctored. It’s just the truth. George W. Bush is being stalked by zombies. Do you see him?

Not really sure what conclusion that I can come to with this one. I guess zombies exist and they’re after Bush. Does this disprove the theory that zombies are only hungry for brains?

Yesterday, we had a great Thanksgiving dinner at our place. Ryan and Jaime and the kids showed up. There was much food and fun and general hanging out. We had a great time spending time with each other, sharing each others company and conversation. I truly am thankful to have them.

Also yesterday, I received the obligatory anti-Thanksgiving MySpace bulletins. Being a vegan anarchist and having friends who are mostly vegan anarchists, I find myself running into some pretty angry folks.

My favorite was:

who calls Thanksgiving a holiday:

FUCK YOU.

Read a fucking book.

Seriously? Someone seeing Thanksgiving as a holiday deserves a “fuck you”? And what would reading a fucking book do to help this situation? I guess it depends on the book. I just finished one on the Oregon Trial. Really good book, but I don’t think it would have changed my opinion of Thanksgiving one way or the other. Please, angry people, be specific!

The person who sent it claims to be an anarchist and a vegetarian (I don’t think she’s vegan, but maybe she is now – goes back and forth a lot). And really, even at the most uber-annoying height of my in-yo-face style of pissing people off to the very thought and idea of anything I believed in I don’t think I was this angry/ridiculous.

Sure, Thanksgiving is a silly holiday. It’s one based upon killing birds for no real reason and a historical inaccuracy. Thanksgiving wasn’t even first celebrated at Plymouth Rock in some wacky festival thanking the natives for all the help. It was celebrated in Florida by Spaniards. What good can come from Florida (except the first couple Against Me 7″s)?

You know, being all pissed off and yelling “FUCK YOU” to people isn’t going to make them be all like “gee, you’re right, let me re-examine my entire lifestyle.” It’s going to make them say “pass me a turkey leg and fuck you too.”

But even above all of this, why not just celebrate it? You know traditional Thanksgiving is a crock. And I bet all of your friends know it too. So why not just get together, cook up some amazing vegan dishes and have fun? You can even dumpster dive the food if that makes you somehow feel better!

What’s the harm in co-opting Thanksgiving for our own means? What’s wrong with making Thanksgiving our own holiday? Sounds fairly revolutionary to me. Certainly more revolutionary than a MySpace bulletin. Just sayin’.