One of my general measuring sticks for Left Wing Liberal Assholes (LWLA) has been: what would have happened had this been perpetrated by _________ (insert GOP or “Conservative” here). Read this story and then posit: what would have happened had a horde of, say, bicycle-riding Conservatively-linked thugs assaulted a Democratic mother with child in a vehicle?

Scan on, dear BZ reader (from SFGate.com):

Then, after a few swear words, the alleged victim took off on his bike while the rest of the crowd continued to yell at both the cops and the van. Sgt. Ed Callejas — the lead cop on the scene and a veteran of Critical Mass rides since their inception — said he’d never seen anything like it before.

“I’ve seen the bikes swarm cars, and scratch them as they go by. I’ve seen guys get out of their cars and start fighting with the bikers, but if you had seen the faces on those little girls in tears,” Callejas said.

“All I could do was apologize for what they had been through.” The sergeant suggested that Ferrando write a letter to the mayor.

Estimated damage to the car: $5,300.

Philosophy of Critical Mass:

Those Critical Mass participants who break the law sometimes defend their actions based on their belief that the special circumstances surrounding Critical Mass means obeying the letter of the law would be more dangerous and inconvenient for all road users. In addition, some participants say that typical laws governing bicycle road users are unfair compared with those governing pedestrians and motorists, and that street design and traffic laws heavily favour motor vehicle users: breaking the law in the context of Critical Mass is therefore an act of civil disobedience against this unfair legal arrangement. Still others say that they are simply living life as they wish it to be for a few hours each month, making culture which favors motorists obsolete and irrelevant.

Okay, let me see if I have this right: a crowd of roughly 3,000 Critical Mass bicyclist thugs surround a mother in her car, do $5,300 damage, smash the rear window of their family van, cause the little girls inside to scream in terror — and rightly so — and the SFPD motor cops who are nearby (“the squad of motorcycle cops who were assigned to keep an eye on the ride”) do nothing. Nothing.

In summary from the SFPD Sergeant: This is San Francisco where cops have no balls and, even if we had them, we’d likely find then tinsnipped from our groin by our liberal Mayor and council because, after all, we much prefer our paychecks and our pensions to clashing with various “protected classes and species.” You write the letter, Ms. Victim — we can’t jeopardize our comfy jobs or our spot in the motor unit.

We sit there and they just go right through the red lights,” Sgt. Callejas said. “What else can we do? Arrest one rider while 500 keep going?

Why yes, Sgt. Callejas, that is PRECISELY what you do. How many SFPD motor officers are assigned to the ride each Friday? Two? Three? Make it four or more. Designate one of those officers to be the videographer. Designate one officer as the contact officer. Designate the other two or more officers as cover for the officer making the stop. Cite one at a time for as long as your shift lasts.

If, following the stop the swarm return, you continue with your citation and video everything. If it gets out of hand, call for backup. One way or the other, this band of Spandex Thugs needs to be provided a Reality Check.

And SFPD: you completely disgust me. You make me ashamed to be a cop. Here’s a unique concept: try doing your fucking jobs.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi toured Damascus on Tuesday, the highest- ranking American politician to visit Syria since relations began to deteriorate four years ago. President Bush criticized the trip, saying it sends mixed signals to President Bashar Assad.

The madness begins in earnest, courting our enemies. And as we all should recognize, she gets to set national foreign policy because, after all, she’s the Speaker.

Hey Nance — nice “scarf.” Familiar with the phrase “kowtow”?

I don’t know how you individually manage your blogs but, occasionally, when I have the time, I attempt to create a number of drafts ahead of the various days to which I will post. I like to have posts on tap from which to choose and, naturally, these can be shunted aside at the last moment for something time-sensitive. Sometimes this plan works well; sometimes I have nothing to post but at the last second. Sometimes I miss a day. I try to be consistent; this is difficult in the Real World.

Today finds me posting on Sunday, beginning at 7 PM PST. That means the sun is still out, but my cabin surrounding are beginning to dim and I can only see orange highlights on various pines above me, at their highest treetops. Through narrow openings I can see a blue background tinged with some pink-tinted clouds. Red sky at night — sailor’s delight.

This post happens to be freeform because that is how it us unreeling. I’ve visited all my Usual Suspects via comments and, having done so, I feel better. I don’t think I have a point at all. I’m actually sure of it: no point at all for this post hence its title: Conglomerate.

It is now officially 11 days into Spring; where I live, at the 4,000-foot level in the Sierra Nevada mountains, my high temperature today was 51-degrees. The final vestige of snow, which had fallen from my metal roof, completely melted today. Up until yesterday, I’d actually had a snowpile on the deck.

For those who have followed my blog, I must admit: my gracious cat, Mose, is gone. I had acquired him from Placer County’s The Cat House in November of 2005 whilst a kitten. He became the proverbial “bicoastal” cat when he traveled between my then-fiance’s house and to my house in the mountains on the weekend. He customarily positioned himself under my rolltop’s warming desk light adjacent the laptop on which I am now typing, with cat-paws sprawled across the keyboard.

Whilst in the valley below, one day he exited via a dog door and never returned. The neighborhood in which my wife resides is not ideal nor pretty; I can only hope that Mose somehow managed to be captured by a family that loves him at least as much as I loved him. I checked the area to see if he had been struck by a vehicle. I saw no such evidence. I believe he has been “captured” by another somewhat-local family because of his loving nature. I would very much like to believe this.

He was one upon which my now-wife said: “He was the only cat I ever encountered who liked me, enjoyed people, purred at the drop of a hat.”

Only so true. I miss my stupid cat.

In the meantime, perhaps because the Lord has various plans for us, I seem to have since been adopted by a number of local feral cats in my neighborhood. They are clearly undomesticated and I would not presume to force civilization upon them. I have won them over with food — imagine that. They now are sufficiently comfortable with me that I can pet them, beat them on their butts, scrapple their heads, pat them flat, and make them talk to me. One of them consistently refers to a former Chinese Leader: Mao.

Mayhaps with each departure, if we are clear to recognize same, comes a form of arrival?

I have been blessed by the Good Lord.

Such it is with my scattered thoughts for this post.

And oh, the photo? That is of a bear that my wife actually sewed for me on our Honeymoon. It leaves me incredulous. Someone actually created something for me. I am astounded and flabbergasted. How amazing is that?

I love her with all my heart.

On the Sunday, March 11th episode of Meet The Press, hosted by the lovely Tim Russert, one of the guests that day was retired Nightline host Ted Koppel.

Ted said to Russert, in part:

I made a little note here of something that (US Ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay) Khalilzad said to you a moment ago. He said the region will not be stable until Iraq is stabilized. It’s the one thing nobody talks about. Everyone is concerned about the United States being in the middle of a civil war inside Iraq, but they forget about the fact that, if US troops were to pull out of Iraq, that civil war could become a regional war between the Sunnis and Shia.

And the region, in case anyone has forgotten, is the Persian Gulf, where we get most of our oil and, you and I have talked about this before, natural gas. So the idea of pulling out of there and letting the region — I mean, letting the national civil war expand into a regional civil war, is something the United States cannot allow to happen. . .

If you look back at the elements of the war against terrorism, that war was going on and has been going on for the past 24 years. We just didn’t connect the dots.

Twenty-four years ago, the pre-cursors of Hezbollah blew up the US Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. That was 1983, 241 Americans killed. In the interim, between then and now, you had two attacks on the World Trade Center, you had the blowing up of Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, you had the attempt to blow up the USS Cole, you had the bombing of the two US embassies in East Africa.

This war’s already been going on for 24 years. We were just a little bit slow to recognize it.”

Touche, Ted Koppel. Not quite so squirrely now, eh?

This is about the third time I’ve made reference to the film (see this post), but the words still ring true to me now. From the 1975 movie “Three Days of the Condor“:

We’re in Iraq. Plain and simple. The time for arguing how we got there is over. We have to deal with what is and not what should have been.

When we leave at the behest of the Democrats (and I’m beginning to believe this may in fact occur), what happens to the region? And what happens when we do the Logical Extension? And what happens if the entire region is destabilized? You willing to change your lifestyle? Completely?

Oh. Really?