A friend posted on Facebook (I hear it's all the rage these days) about an article in the Times Online where Father Gabriele Amorth, the Chief Exorcist [Is that a wicked cool title or what?!] for the Catholic Church revealed that the "Devil is in the Vatican". Apparently this is why the church has committed so many transgressions, why priests molest young boys and why investigations into suspicious matters on the part of the church (conducted by the church of course) have been conveniently expedited or flat out covered up.

Really? That's nice.

First of all it's extremely cool how you can 1) claim that there is a devil and then 2) claim that he is responsible for all the wrong that you do. That conveniently absolves you from any blame – except perhaps for not calling Father Amorth to exorcise that shit. If you cry foul to this argument then you are 3) a godless heretic and 4) probably have the devil in YOU. Old fashioned exorcism anyone?

ASIDE – I wonder just how busy Father Amorth is these days… is possession running rampant and I just don't hear about it or is he perpetually warming the bench and buying heaps of Preparation H stock?

Circular or self-justifying arguments are pretty sweet when you can pull them off and who better to do this than the biggest formal organization on the planet – the Catholic Church. Clubs (and yes, I am using the term loosely) achieve a sort of critical mass at some point and the Catholic Church reached that point loooong ago. There are now so many members and it's teachings are so socialized that if you speak out in opposition people look at you like you are insane.

ANOTHER ASIDE – It has always mystified me when people get al up in arms if you hold them to the standard of accepting ALL the teachings of the Catholic Church and not just the ones that they find convenient to adhere to. Have you ever heard someone say, "Well, I'm really just 60 percent Catholic, the other 40 are pretty hedonistic to tell you the truth. I mean I'm down with heaven and hell and all that, but a bodies' got to shoplift every once in a while in this tight economy just to get by." Didn't think so. And don't even get me started about all the closeted Republican politicians…

Fortunately there are a few 'insane' people out there that are more articulate than I and can throw some cold water on this charade; very eloquently of course.

One of these people is Stephen Fry, the well known British actor, writer, comedian, television presenter, film director, etc., etc. Although not a direct rebuttal to Father Amorth, this speech is awesome and pretty much sums up how I feel.

If you want, you can watch the complete, unedited version of the speech here.

Thank God for people like Stephen Fry. Irony intended.

Back in the day I got my first bike shop job at the University of WA ASUW Bike Shop. It was a super gig – low stress, I learned a lot and kept in touch with many of my co-workers for several years after leaving.

One thing that was rampant at the shop was working on your own bike. Off the clock, on the clock, whatever. Employees were always using shop rags, chain oil and tools to pimp out their own ride(s). And really, when you make that little, it's hard to focus much blame. As long as the customers get helped (which they did) then the manager would usually turn a blind eye. Heck, he did it more than all of us combined…

So today when I got my weekly copy of University Week in my Inbox I had to laugh out loud when saw this picture and caption:

"Student Tomio Tran works on his own bike on a recent morning at the ASUW Bike Shop. The shop will move to the first floor of Condon Hall when the HUB begins its remodel in June. To learn more about the Bike Shop, visit its Web site, here."

Some things never change. And you know what? That makes me feel good.

It was probably only a matter of time…

There are all kinds of cyclists, each one more of a niche market than the next. One particularly small segment of cyclists call themselves randonneurs and there happens to be a local club; appropriately named Seattle International Randonneurs.

I have a few friends that belong to SIR and I have on a couple of occasions attended an official brevet with them. There are always one or two rides hosted by SIR that I would like to do each year and so this year I figured what the heck and signed up. Not that it's required, they just seem like good people to support.

Just like bike racing it turns out you can't just sign up with a local club, you also need to join RUSA which is the national governing body of randonneurs. So I did that too.

What ride am I thinking of doing this year? a 300K up in Bellingham when there are no races. Specifically on April 3.