Sky brought this particular headline into the warehouse on Tuesday, and just so you can drink in every last drop of idiocy that this image has to offer, all you have to do is click here.
As a second opinion on this matter, Marian sent this little jewel in;

I'm sure Jim probably has some astute observations on the matter, as he typically does concerning subjects of a political (or quasi-political) nature, but from my little corner of ignorance, I just hope to holy hell that people see the glaring and insulting contradiction of this particular brand of wool that's currently being pulled over the public's eyes.
Am I the only one that remembers the auto industry suing states who were challenging their claim that it would be absolutely impossible to make fuel efficient automobiles before 2012, yet lo and behold, GM has something like 18 out of 19 new models for 2009 of a hybrid or flex fuel design.
I was barely out of diapers during the domestic peak oil production (I was a late bloomer) of the 1970s, and the trend to move away from the guzzlers to more efficient cars, but still I understood the reasoning behind it, and it made sense to my young and undercooked mind.
The only difference between then and now is that we're currently at peak production word wide, and I'm much hairier, but I still saw the writing on the wall several years ago.
How is it that the grossly overpaid CEOs and shareholders did not?

As usual, I'm probably talking out of my ass and I expect Jim to set me straight, but at this stage of the game, that's the way it looks to me, and from this prospective, it totally sucks.

And so does praying to God to fix it.

But seeing as about 90% of you are now saddled with some kind of Canyonero or Eskillaide or another, you're probably thinking to yourself "I can't afford to drive the bad boy any more. What ever am I going to do with it?"
Well Matt sent in the answer to all of your prayers;

When you're done with that bit of business, and if you happen to find yourself in Portland, you can get back to real (reel) life and take in this weekend's Bicycle Film Festival.

It promises to be a ho down of biblical proportions.

Josh, who is the mastermind behind the annual Urban Assault Ride series sent us an email regarding his own particular brand of bummer life avoidance;

"Hey Stevil,

I wanted to let you know about this ride we did yesterday: the Pennock Pedaling Pow-Wow. It was a 92 mile cold Colorado dirt/pavement adventure.

I was sporting a Swobo jersey and both Lawyer Eric and I wore the wool winter cap – which was awesome the whole ride.

*Photo by Rick price*

Check out the story here.

Hope all is well!
-Josh"

That looks good, but I woulda probably cracked and made you carry me home at about the 50 mile mark.

I don't rightly know why this bit of information was sparked in my brain as I imagined Josh carrying my weary carcass home, but our own Joe Parkin of A Dog in a Hat fame is going to have a mid-coast book signing this Friday at The Bicycle Trip in Santa Cruz from 5:00 to 7:00.
As an added bonus, I may be there sign a few of his books as well, because without me, Joe would be nothing.

Would you like to know about my latest crush? Now generally, I don't expound on my affinity for any particular lady here, because aside from the fact that I'm all hugged up and what not, I generally just don't think that this is an appropriate forum for such things, but last night I came across this young lady who's just so bad ass in so many ways, that I can't help myself and I have to share my love for her with the world.
Her name is Natalia Partyka, and she's a wicked tough ping pong player for the Polish National table tennis team;

Plus, I just love this photo so much.
Yeah, and the fact that she was born with one arm makes her totally awesome too.

So if you happen to be reading this Natalia, you've stolen my heart like almost no one before you.

Now I'm going to finish this post off with a couple of new additions to 'the art that doesn't suck' segment.
If you've paid close attention to this segment in the past, you may have noticed that I have never once included anyone who does bicycle related art work.
This is simply because I personally tend to draw a line between art and bicycles.
And no, there's no pun intended. It's just two different interests to me that I like to keep separated.
But I've got a couple of folks on deck whose work has begun to realign my thinking.

This first cat I met in Las Vegas this year at the trade show, and after looking through his website, realized that I was previously familiar with his work from some rather absurd Vice Magazine supplements about fixed gears that were released a few years ago, but the fact of the matter was, the only thing not totally ridiculous about those supplements were the illustrations, which I fell head over heels with in love as soon as I saw them.
All hail the sublime work of Chris McNally.

This next fella I found wile trolling Myspace, and his work is reminiscent of Mel Bend's Wrench Pilot, as well as Geof Darrow from Frank Miller's 'Hard Boiled' series.

He goes by the name of Adam Haynes, and is truly a doodler extraordinaire.

So there is a boat load of garbage for you to sink your teeth into until next time.
As usual I'd say, 'it's Wednesday, you know what to do', but seeing as the days are short and the nights are cold, this might imply anything from riding through the frigid darkness with your buddies to curling up under an electric blanket with a good book, both of which sound pretty good to me.
If I had any buddies, or an electric blanket, or a good book.

Which reminds me of something that my second cousin, Bill used to be fond of saying...

"If we had some bacon, we could have some bacon and eggs, if we had some eggs."

...You get the picture.

And with that, I offer you the word of the day from TinaB;

Omelette....

Example: "I shuda slapped da fuck outta yo ass but omelette that shit slide."

You can't fake the kind of brilliance that finds its way here.