Summer in April Cannot Last

But while it lasts, I have been enjoying it on the bike. Today is probably the high point, given the forecast, and the ride to work was really all you could ask for: almost 70, little wind, sunny. It was the first time this year that I had done the early morning part of the commute in shorts. As if that wasn't enough, it was also the first morning in short sleeves. The only un-summery part of my clothing was my vest, which I wore just in case but which turned out to be unnecessary. I felt particularly overdressed in it when, riding near IJburg, I ran into this old guy happily riding around shirtlessly. In all honesty, that was a bit of an exaggeration too. The old Trek is still in the shop, so I've been using the lighter, stiffer, better running Klein, and winter commuting is but a faint, hazy memory. We'll go back down to the 50s with a chance for rain (we need the rain) this weekend, so I'm sure I'll get a few reminders before summer really begins (and even then ...). But today, it's so nice, you could light a cigarette on the bike, or have it done for you. Why would a life-long non-smoker come up with an idea like this? Well, I just learned that some old cycling friends in Milwaukee, united these days in the Badger Velo Club, have recreated the famous "smoking cyclists" photo, taken probably in the 1930s or 1940s. They are not the first to think of this, but I think they've done the better job of it. Click the three links to judge for yourself.
Update: Riding home early tonight, I ran into the same old guy again, still without his shirt, and he didn't look any worse for wear. It was that kind of day, in April.

It's America--It's About the Government

I just sent in an op-ed on the Arizona immigration law, the "birther" bill passed by the Arizona House at the same time, and the nature of the popular resistance against the Obama administration (Tea Party movement and such). It's complicated (the links aren't always direct, if they exist at all), but the president's problem is deeper than a failure to explain his policies to the American people, as witness not just the administration's modest poll numbers, but also the poll showing Americans' faith in government near an all-time low. Instead, Obama's opponents believe there to be rather fundamental political differences between themselves and the administration, mostly about the proper role of government. They want a smaller, more frugal government; Obama rather emphasizes everything the government ought to do. A better public relations strategy will only get you so far in a situation like this. More important are results that prove your critics wrong, like an economic recovery with jobs. That may bring some of the moderate critics around enough for Democratic losses in November to remain limited. I will link to the piece once I see it on-line somwhere.

Changing Gears

I should perhaps write about the alleged Gates memo about the lack of a U.S. Iran policy, because that would give me an opportunity to report on my own op-ed late last month on U.S.-Israeli relations which I conclude by wondering if the Obama administration actually has a policy for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (the "peace process" not being a very credible phenomenon lately). And maybe I will soon, although I also have things to say about this piece in the St. Petersburg Times by Dmitri Trenin. If you let things slide for a while, they tend to pile up (if that's a metaphor that makes sense). For example, I discovered the blog of a colleague, the Holland Bureau, which is well worth reading. The author has put me on his blog roll, underlining that it is high time for me to figure out how to add one of those rolls to this blog. And I haven't said anything yet about my lecture on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, last week at an Amsterdam bookstore, even though that assignment shares a large part of the responsibility for my recent silence. So many issues, so little time (today again also). So I'll quickly tell the story of how my derailler fell off my commuter, last night on the way home. This had never happend to me before, on any bike. It led to another first, namely a phone call to arrange a pick-up and a ride home. Perhaps it was time. Actually, having seen the thread, or lack thereof, in the derailler hanger, I know for a fact it was time for that thing to fall out. I've had the greenish-yellowish Trek 2300 since 1994, and for the first seven years it was my main bike, the one I raced and trained on. Then it became my winter bike, and in recent years it has served as a commuter. In Milwaukee I rode it to the Pettit National Ice Center (and once or twice to waterpolo practice at the Schroeder YMCA in Brown Deer), in Holland I've used it to get back and forth a couple of times a week year-round between Nederhorst den Berg and Amsterdam. Thirteen miles into the ride home yesterday, on the Keverdijk, I was suddenly pushing through air, and I suppose I was lucky that the device did not get caught in my spokes before I could stop. I think there's a way to fix it. Otherwise, my brother has saved the Koga Myata Roadwinner I bought in 1986 or '87. It still runs. If that turned out not to be practical, the dream scenario kicks in: the Klein becomes the year-round commuter, the Colnago becomes the general back-up bike, and at the top of the food chain, we'll put something new, something fast, something light (something expensive).

NATO Will Likely Be Fine

That was my overall impression last week, at the end of my day at the alliance's Brussels headquarters. The Public Diplomacy Division treated our little delegation of scholars very well (my own tax Euros at work), most of all by introducing us to a series of significant and approachable NATO officials, from the Netherlands and elsewhere. But let's not forget the 1GB NATO flash drive that was waiting for each of us at the conference table, or the NATO ballpoint that doubles as a flasher--in NATO-blue light. I'm not quite sure what I was really expecting from the visit, even though we received the agenda ahead of time. The chance for boilerplate presentations and stock answers is always there, after all. However, in the course of the visit I was increasingly pleased with the level of discussion, even though on no issue (be they the future orientation of the alliance, relations with Russia, or the new strategic concept) did anyone have clear, unambiguous answers. But that, of course, was why it all worked, why the whole thing was encouraging: today's world, and this growing alliance of currently 28 different members, does not allow for many clear, unambiguous answers. You do need an overall idea of what's going on and where you'd like to go--a strategy; a process by which you can reach workable approaches to problems; and you have to have intelligent people--honest about the inevitable problems, conflicts, and failure--committed to make things work. If our visit is any guidance, the alliance does not lack the latter (perhaps the most important element); NATO's identity seems to embody a cumbersome but inevitable and generally productive consensus-seeking process; and by the end of the year there may well be a new strategic concept that does justice to both the way the alliance has been changing recently and an international environment that has changed significantly, not just since the end of the Cold War, but since the late 1990s. Downsides to the visit? Well, Powerpoint presentations (inevitable, we were told, when soldiers talk) take the life out of meetings, and it would have been nice also to meet an American, the U.S. being in a league of its own in NATO. Oh, and nobody remembered my contribution from the early 1980s to our victory in the Cold War. That sucked.