Tuesday’s Tennessean has an article and video about Tommy McAuley, a father who pushes and pulls his 6-year-old, cerebral palsy-stricken daughter while competing in mini-marathons.
McAuley says he was motivated to do this when he watched a documentary on Dick and Rick Hoyt, whose accomplishments are even more remarkable.

Josh Marshall alerts us that this week is “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week.” I’m glad he did because somehow it escaped my calendar.
What is “Islamo-fascism Awareness Week”? Apparently, a series of gatherings on a number of American college campuses:

The purpose of this protest is as simple as it is crucial: to confront the two Big Lies of the political left: that George Bush created the war on terror and that Global Warming is a greater danger to Americans than the terrorist threat.

I’m not sure why terrorism is being compared to global warming, but OK–we don’t want to be afraid of the wrong thing. And institutions of higher learning are the best venues to properly orient fear, because that’s where the “war on error terror” is being lost:

In the face of the greatest danger Americans have ever confronted, the academic left has mobilized to create sympathy for the enemy and to fight anyone who rallies Americans to defend themselves.

Yes, that monolithic, liberal academia–it must be stopped! I assume the Department of Homeland Security routinely monitors and breaks up university faculty meetings, because there’s some real anti-American scheming going on there.
What is this week going to accomplish?

Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week is a national effort to oppose these lies and to rally American students to defend their country.

That’s a laudable objective. How are students being encouraged to help defend America? Through military enlistment drives? By purchasing war bonds? Participating in patriotic community service?
Not exactly. The agenda consists of the following elements:

Ø A keynote speaker on Islamo-Fascism
Ø A panel on the Oppression of Women in Islam or any facet of the Islamo-Fascist threat
Ø A showing of Suicide Killers, Obsession, or Islam: What the West Needs to Know or the ABC mini-series The Path to 9/11
Ø A “sit-in” outside the offices of the Women’s Studies Department protesting the silence of feminists over the oppression of women in Islam
Ø A petition denouncing Islamo-Fascism and its violence against women, gays, Christians, Jews and religious people
Ø A memorial service for the victims of Islamo-Fascist violence around the world.

That’s a good defense plan. It’s reassuring to know that when the next big attack hits, our women’s studies departments will be properly secured with ample copies of The Path to 9/11.
Anyway, I’m glad I’m doing my part in spreading awareness, as terrorism is an issue that’s been completely ignored by the liberal media.
We’re all going to be killed! Vote Republican.

• According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, in the United States the tax burden is 25.6% of G.D.P. This ranks 17th among developed countries. The global average for the group is 36%.

• Competing outlooks on the price of oil:
  • In one corner:
    

    “We don’t think industry fundamentals support oil prices near $60 (a barrel), let alone $90, but with excessive speculation and lack of government scrutiny, prices could go even higher, before they crash, eventually, in our view,” said Fadel Gheit, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co., in a research note.

  • In the other:
    

  I’m betting we see a lot more $100+ oil than $60 oil. But what do I know; I’m not a high-paid “analyst.”
  UPDATE: I just heard a guest on CNBC say that gasoline prices are about to catch up with oil prices. He said the price per gallon could jump $0.20 in the next week or so and soon climb as much as $1. If you think the political mood is pretty bad out there now, wait till this happens.

• Senator Sam Brownback is expected to drop out of the presidential race today. I never figured out why Brownback didn’t get more traction among the religious right, since he’s clearly played to that constituency in his senate career. I guess he wasn’t “sexy” enough (in the political sense).
• Speaking of political oddities, I’ve repeatedly heard leading GOP talking pointers (Rove, Limbaugh, et al.) assert that Iraq was not the central issue in the 2006 election, and that it won’t be in 2008. I find this very hard to reconcile with all the rhetoric we’ve heard from the same people about how this same fight is “World War III,” “World War IV,” the fight for our survival, and so on. If this war is the most important challenge our nation is facing, why isn’t it the most important political issue?

Interesting comment:

Ken Deffeyes, geologist and a professor of geosciences, emeritus at Princeton University, discussed the rapid depletion of crude oil. The global discovery of conventional crude oil peaked in 1964 and production peaked in 2005, according to Deffeyes.
. . .
The rapid loss of Arctic ice has led nations to lay claims to possible energy reserves under the thinning polar ice cap. Deffeyes said more than 100 deep-sea holes have been drilled elsewhere and no oil has been found. A set of special conditions are all required to produce oil and natural gas reserves and most of the planet never had all of them. There may be no significant reserves beneath the Arctic ocean.

With all the news reports of countries making competing claims in the Arctic, I just assumed that there are known oil fields beneath the ice. Apparently that’s not the case.

UPDATE: The N.Y. Times has an article on the U.S. Coast Guard is ramping up its operations in the Arctic Ocean due to the increased shipping in the region.

I was bumping around the Internet and came across stuff on bicycle lanes. Apparently, in some parts of the world they have a strip of the road designated specifically for cyclists to use. [I had to look it up because such a modern marvel doesn’t exist around here.]
StreetFilms has a video which advocates taking this concept one step further by constructing physically-separated bike lanes:

Many cyclists are opposed to bike lanes because: (1) they can be dangerous at intersections, and (2) they condition motorists to think bicycles should be kept off the main road. (Tom Revay offers several arguments against physically-separated bicycle lanes here).
I don’t have much first-hand experience with bike lanes. My sense is that they have their place along certain types of roads–e.g., where traffic doesn’t tend to make abrupt turns. A physically-separated bike lane is a more inviting version for casual riders who have a low tolerance for riding with traffic. That’s a good thing; the more people cycling, the better.
Unfortunately, in some cities, such as Knoxville, the road designs are such that it seems impractical to set aside even standard bike lanes–much less separated ones. Perhaps over time cycle-friendly accommodations will be incorporated in the road system, but it’s not something that will happen overnight. And it’s going take awareness efforts like this video to get the ball (or wheel) rolling.