austin skate notes

Having been inspired by friends with knuckle tattoos, I’ve lately toyed with the notion of getting my own finger ink. As with anything permanent, it’s been hard for me to make up my mind as to what I want to run with forever. Nathan Black has put together a cool website that hosts an archive of knuckle art, which has likewise been inspiring for my decision making process. After browsing his gallery, I figured I’d take it to the next step by making a tool to dynamically preview knuckle tattoos. Nathan said he’d host the tool on his site and eventually it’ll get over there. For now, though, I’m debuting it on Austin Skate Notes.

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While cycling about friday afternoon with my camera, I caught the unmistakeable odor of rotting flesh near the Congress Avenue bridge. So pungent was this smell, that it overwhelmed the pervasive bat turd stench that usually greets pedestrians crossing Town Lake. I’ve read the Zombie Survival Guide cover-to-cover three times, so I’m clued into the tell-tale signs of a zombie uprising. When I saw the shuffling mob coming across Congress Avenue bridge, I was ahead of the game. Already on my bicycle, I had Lesson #7 taken care of from the Top Ten Lessons for Surviving a Zombie Attack: "Get out of the car, get onto the bike."

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Cary Jackson, Kevin Mouton, and I spent the last six hours down at the City Council chambers listening to bicyclists present opinions regarding the mandatory bicycle helmet law proposed by ex-mayor Bruce Todd. The opening volley was tremendous. The proponents of the law had lined their top speakers up on the roster and Mayor Will Wynn shuffled things up so that after 18 pro-helmet law speakers, then 18 anti-law speakers would be able to speak.

The proponents of the helmet law basically described a littany of horrors associated with bicycle accidents and drew the conclusion that if everyone were required to wear helmets, then the health care burden would be reduced for the city supporting brain-injured citizens. Truly, the picture they

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Austin’s congressman, Lloyd Doggett, voted in support of increasing FCC fines for broadcasters. The Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act raised fines from $35,000 per incident to $325,000 when Doggett and his peers voted the act into law earlier this month.

Last year I asked Lloyd why he supported this morality-in-the-media witch hunt. I asked him if it made sense that a broadcaster should be financially crippled for transmitting words that are legally found by the multitudes in public libraries and on elementary school playgrounds. He told me that "there must be some control over what is piped into people’s homes".

fuck lloyd doggett. Passing laws like this is pure busy-work designed to create the illusion of doing something while dodging the much more challenging issues at hand. Drop the violin and take a look at the newspaper, bitch. Rome is burning.

Contact Congressman Lloyd Doggett via web form.