Bad photography and thoughts on today's bike ride

I took a bike ride today on my old cruiser from Bethesda to Georgetown on the Capital Crescent Trail.  I then meandered through downtown intending to go Mayor Fenty's new conference and bike ride on pedestrian safety but ended up not finding it and being late.  I tried to find the address on my iPhone, but it wouldn't show me the attachments that had the info.  I then saw some idiots on a tour via Segways and thought "what a bunch of idiots."  I took some pictures but they are over exposed since I'm a crap photographer. 

I then took some photos, which also turned out over exposed, of the magnificent American Bar Association building to demonstrate what riches are produced by a cartel.  It is almost impossible to become a lawyer without forking over close to six figures to a ABA accredited law school.  I looked a bit yesterday, and it seems two non-ABA accredited California law school graduates have successfully gained admission to the Massachusetts and Connecticut bars.  In the Connecticut case the plaintiff dropped the ABA from the suit after their excess disclosure requests. 

While pedaling up the long hill that is Massachusetts Avenue near the Naval Observatory, I saw some protesters outside the Iraqi embassy.  Here is the one photo that is only a little bit over exposed of Iranian President Ahmadinejad meeting with Iraqi National Security Advisor Mouwafak al-Rubaie.  The protesters were campaigning against the Iraqi government's increasingly close relations with Iran thus warning that Iraq is becoming a puppet state of Iran.  They were particularly concerned with the recent planned take over of Camp Ashraf by Iraqi forces.  They are concerned that a Iraqi government aligned with Iran will not be good for the People's Mujahedin of Iran personnel in Camp Ashraf.  They stated clearly their goals for the entire Middle East to be peaceful and democratic, neither of which seems to be the direction that Iran and Iraq are going.  Nevertheless, I hope that Emmanuel Todd is right, in which case both countries will end up relatively normal within a few generations.

Bad spot on Capital Crescent Trail

Here are some pictures I took today of where the Capital Crescent Trail crosses the intersection of Bethesda Avenue and Woodmont Avenue.  The situation is unsatisfactory for pedestrians and cyclists using the Capital Crescent Trail.  There is no clear way to get from one side to the other.  Would it be that difficult to set up another light system so that for some moments trail users have a green light while all motorists have red lights?  There only lacks a will.

NNMC BRAC Bicycle Considerations

I think that I would love being a retired person who just sites around, hangs out, and writes about trying to set the world straight on my blog.  Being on spring break and I'm on my third blog post of the day.  And I don't even know if more than a few friends have read my blog.

I have looked at both the Montgomery County BRAC site and the Navy NNMC BRAC site
and can find almost nothing to suggest that anyone has even seriously
considered the benefits of increased bicycle facilities. 

I contacted the BRAC email to inquire about what planning or lack there of have been done for bicycles with regards to the increase of 2500 workers and potentially 500,000 patients.  Being the simpleton I am, I tend to think that some people taking bicycles could help improve the traffic situation for everybody while also lower health care costs through increased fitness.  I got a response from Mr. Jeff Miller, to whom then responded.  Ms. Juvonnie Kinchen-Schneider, the BRAC PAO, then contacted me. 

You can see the email chain here , but not the reponse from Ms. Kinchen-Schneider since she labeled it For Official Use Only and possible protected from disclosure under the FOIA.  I have an email drafted to ask her permission to release it, but am waiting a day to send it in case I am being too hasty and imprudent. 

There is a meeting of the State Highway Administration on 2 April at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School from 1730-1930 regarding the proposed changes to intersections.

More on poor navy recruiting.

More on poor navy recruiting although this happened a while ago.  I became a fan of US Navy health care on facebook.  I was quickly contacted by the Admin [sic] Ms. Srbinovich.  I inquired about how the Navy came to be on facebook.  After two back and forths I quickly realized that this was the advertising agencies decision and had little to do with actual naval officers or sailors.  She told me that I would be contacted by Navy Recruiting Command, which has not happened in the last four months.  The entire conversation can be viewed here.

In general I am interested in the military's attempts to be more networked and less top-down controlling and thought the facebook thing a good idea.  As part of my philosophy I also think that the Navy should do its own recruiting vice hiring some marketing hack.  There is no shortage of us in the Navy who would gladly be better representatives. 

For example, when transferring to my last command I had wanted to do Navy Recruiting District New York, but was told it wasn't available for me.  As it turned out it was available, but understandably the detailer (that's the guy who assigned you your jobs.) would rather put me in a submarine officer specific billet that he had to fill.  A former Direct Input Limited Duty Officer single white female with no sea-time who was from Georgia was assigned the job.  She choose to live in Navy housing in Hempstead when she had an officer a block from Ground Zero.  Without having any ill feelings towards the woman, she is not the type of person who can actually motivate people to join the Navy. 

As it turns out we spent almost $400,000 of taxpayer money on this garbage and it doesn't even offer a representative who has actually been in the Navy.  Why not instead of throwing away millions of dollars in tax payer dollars so that ass-hat marketing people can sell the Navy, just let those of us who believe in it to sell it?

Is this guy actually a JO?

I saw this advertisement on the back of The Bent, which is the magazine of Tau Beta Pi, the national engineering honor society of which I am member.  Is this guy actually a junior officer in the submarine force?  I'm inclined to think yes since I know Lieutenant Chris Carter who appears in a video about how great the submarine force is.  (Please note that although I'm very satisfied to no longer be in the submarine force, I intend no sarcasm when mentioned how great it is.) 

I am a strong supporter of the submarine force recruiting more minorities to help make it better reflect the actual diversity of the United States.  I often thought about the subject while teaching Navy ROTC in New York City when I lived in Harlem and then Fort Greene, Brooklyn.  It does bring up the point of how nearly every submarine or nuclear specific advertisement, almost always shows a minority submarine officer to show how diverse we are.  I then am curious what percentage of minority submarine officers have ended up in an advertisement. 

Unsafe actions by the Montgomery County Police Department

My wife and I went for lovely walk along the Capital Crescent Trail this afternoon to enjoy the sunshine and check out Kensington.  We were rudely disturbed in our serenity by a police officer on a motorcycle.  I enjoy my own Harley, and I support police officers in their work to keep us all safe.  Further, I'm even glad to see the Montgomery Country Police Department patrolling the trail.  However, is it truly necessary to do it on a Harley, a vehicle intended for the streets.  According the the Capital Crescent Trail website, it is designated 'car-free, park-like setting."  In general Maryland traffic laws consider motorcycles to be similar to cars in that they may not pass in a lane already having a car in it.  I understand that if there is an emergency, the police might need to ride their Harleys on the Capital Crescent Trail, but in this case, with no sirens running, I doubt that to be the case.  I also expect that any response by Montgomery County Police Department to be defensive in nature because that's generally how police operate when we the citizens questions them.  I would be happy to be proved wrong.
I must contrast this with my experiences on Worth Way in West Sussex over Christmas break when I saw two police officers jogging, having left their car at the road, to look for a possible abducted child. 

Joint Forces Quarterly hasn't even made it to Web 1.0

Joint Forces Quarterly needs to create a website that reflects the modern use of the internet as something more than a medium of distribution of pdf files.  Not only is a website of pdf files not user friendly and cumbersome to the potential reader, but it also fails to take advantage of any user interaction. Now of course some senior officers might respond by saying we don't want just anyone to be able to post on the JFQ website.  If the Navy Exchange website can verify my identity to allow online ordering of uniforms, then I would hope that JFQ could as well. 

I'm using firefox on OS X, not an unusual browser/operating system combination, and I see text placed atop images such that I have difficulty reading it.