When the scales tip

"Being born in the elite in the U.S. gives you a constellation of privileges that very few people in the world have ever experienced. Being born poor in the U.S. gives you disadvantages unlike anything in Western Europe and Japan and Canada." DAVID I. LEVINE, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley.

Was it Marx that said that when the proletariat becomes large and oppressed enough, they will rise up and tip the scales in their favor? Or, perhaps more apropos, it says somewhere else that the meek shall inherit the earth. But that would subsume that the rich and powerful would tender their share for the good of the whole, by peaceful or any means necessary.

On the other hand, I suppose the poor are placated enough with 400 dollar tax breaks (that don't really cover a month's rent), they can still spend it on beer and be happy.

How's your Sunday Feeling?

And you thought you were having a tough day...Snagged this shot off the Explore Sweden web location. They are having some cold weather out there - and no doubt staying warm is an issue. Forgedabout "reality" TV and track these teams live via the web location.

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About 20 kilometers of the kayak section is now behind the leading teams Salomon, Nike, Montrail and Cross.

Salomon started out a whole hour before Montrail and Nike, who are really close to each other. Most likely Salomon has added to that lead by taking a smart shortcut. Paddling is not their strongest side, and since there are many rapids in this section, race director Mikael Nordström thinks that they have chosen to drag their kayaks on the road, cutting past large sections of the river. If that was a smart decision will show itself later.

At the large rapid in Volgsele, there's a mandatory scouting of the rapid. As team Nike saw the rapid, they chose to drag their kayaks around it through the forest. So did team Montrail, only a few minutes behind them. And when team Cross, approx. 20 minutes behind, heard that Montrail and Nike had portaged around, they didn't even bother to scout the rapids. Up and away in the forest, faster than both Montrail and Nike.

The wind is picking up a little, so it's quite chilly, but the sun is still out and the teams shouldn't be that cold.

America: The War Years and its Profiteers

Are you bold enough a capitalist to play rusian roulette with our troops in order to make more money? The Already Fat Capitalist win and have been winning big in our fight against Terrror.

Incidentially, when do we know we have won the war on terror?

This article could be ever so clever and funny if it weren't laced with so much truth. "When satire is true it ceases to be funny."

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ANNOUNCER: In the old days, war profiteering was a grueling round-the-clock job. You actually had to make something, like planes or guns, and then overcharge the government obscenely. Now, thanks to the Republicans, countless Americans are becoming "war profiteers" in their spare time - and you can, too. Riches once thought to be the exclusive preserve of a few unsavory arms merchants have been made available to thousands of successful Americans, many of whom pull in the cash literally as they sleep!

What's their secret? With "The Republican Guide to Wartime Tax Cuts," you can find out what's in the playbook of Republican professionals. You'll get the war you want without laying out a dime, even as you benefit from huge tax cuts to boot (note: certain income thresholds apply).

And here's the kicker: you can slip the bill for all of this - both the war and your tax cut - to unsuspecting children!

I know what you're thinking: "I don't have the self-confidence or social skills to reach for such dreams." But here's the truth: neither did Republicans a few years ago. Yet just this week they came through again. On Wednesday, George Bush signed into law an additional $82 billion for Iraq, which brings the amount America has spent to oust Saddam Hussein and occupy the country close to $300 billion.

Now, whatever you thought about Saddam, the best news is this: we got this war for no money down and zero payments for 10 years. That's right: every penny spent on this war has been added to the deficit. And this latest $82 billion sailed through without a hitch, with no pesky questions as to whether we should actually pay for our own wars today.

(Yes, there was one scare, when Joe Biden said we could do that by repealing a sliver of the tax cuts with which the G.O.P. has incentivized important Americans. Luckily this notion was swatted away as "nongermane.") Now the drive for more tax cuts continues, even as yearly deficits close in on half a trillion dollars!

If you're ready to bring into your own life the power that this total suppression of fiscal and moral reality can offer, "The Republican Guide" is for you. Our CD's and training manuals will teach you how to profit during wartime without ever leaving your home. In an age of everlasting war, we'll show you which congressmen to call to make sure your tax cuts are permanent to match.

But there's more. Beyond learning how to maximize your own wartime tax cuts, you'll master previously undisclosed behavioral secrets that let you act as if there's nothing wrong with getting yours while the getting's good - just as top Republicans do!

Don't take my word for it. Listen to how someone just like you changed his life in a few short hours of study....

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There's more, but I can't bear to share futher...

Friends and Gifts

In light of today's report on the POTUS and VPOTUS wealth situation, I figure I either need to get new friends of have my friends get me better gifts.

Now, don't get me wrong. I don't know what the heck I would do with a $ 14,000 dollar gun, but I sure could use a new $ 2,700 bicycle (no doubt the very one he was riding when his wife and pals were under threat when a plane flew into whitehouse protected airspace).

I suppose the reason why they are so dead set against the Social Security system is that such gifts are seen as bricabrac to line the shelves of one's ranch rather than things to list on Ebay to fund the next month's rent becuase they can't seem to scrape together enough money to feed the family even despite working three jobs for minimum wage or less.

Slice:

A $14,000 shotgun, a $2,700 mountain bike and five fishing rods were among $26,346 in gifts President Bush accepted last year, according to his financial disclosure form released Friday which also listed millions of dollars the president has invested in U.S. Treasury notes and certificates of deposit.

The annual disclosures required by law offered a glimpse into the president and Vice President Dick Cheney's wealth — and what they gave each other for Christmas last year.

As might be appropriate for a second-in-command, Cheney spent more — $170 more — than Bush did on him. Cheney gave Bush a $595 clock that the president keeps on his desk in the Oval Office. Bush gave Cheney a $425 globe on a wooden stand.

But because federal ethics law allows them to list the values of their assets in wide ranges, rather than precise numbers, it is difficult to discern whether the two are wealthier than they were a year ago.

The disclosure, for instance, said Bush's 1,583-acre ranch was worth between $1 million and $5 million. The president reported having at least $4.95 million in Treasury notes, $750,000 in certificates of deposits and $217,000 in checking and money market accounts. Bush owns the mineral rights valued at up to $15,000 on property in Reeves County, Te

The Hitler Youth and the New Pope

The Hitler Youth and The New Pope sounds like such a great name for a rock band, maybe I ought copyright it just for fun.

Just wondering: Can a person, group, or a whole Church be complicit in the execution of genocide even if they say they were not responsible in any way, shape or form?

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The delegates were following the instructions of the Vatican's commission on theology, which held that the policies of Pope Pius XII and the church under the Nazis could not be questioned, because the church and its leader are, as the First Vatican Council declared in 1870, free of error on matters of doctrine and morality. When Cardinal Ratzinger became the head of that Vatican commission, he issued the same advice to Pope John Paul II, who pronounced the murder of six million Jews by the Nazis an unspeakable crime, but a crime by some Catholics, not by the church.

This position obscures the fact that in 1930's and 1940's Europe, the Roman Catholic Church was the only institution that possessed the moral stature and strength to denounce and forbid the murder of the Jews. It did not do so. And in all the years since, rather than acknowledging this failure to provide moral leadership in the critical hour, the Vatican has repeatedly claimed that while individual Catholics behaved sinfully or misunderstood what the church taught, the sin of letting the Holocaust happen at its doorstep need not haunt the church as an institution.

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WOW - "the church under the Nazis could not be questioned, because the church and its leader are, as the First Vatican Council declared in 1870, free of error on matters of doctrine and morality."

How cool is that? These folks absovled their own sins and those for future sinners in advance...no doubt, with the authority of God on their side, it is easy to asuage one's own guilty conscience (if they have/had one).

TAPS

Out on my AM run, I got to thinking, here we are, just over two weeks away from the Memorial Day Weekend. In my high school days, I lived in a town that actually had a parade - still does I'm sure - to mark the occasion. I played taps as the flag was lowered to half staff (here's a link for those of you unfamiliar with the tune).

Then, I was a hard core trumpet player. I practiced every day and my chops were good enough to get me to the double "c" in the upper register. I played in the symphonic band, the jazz/big band, in the pit orchestra for the various yearly musicals, and the marching band.

It was the marching band that I hated the most, mainly because of the hot uniforms we would put on regardless the weather - wool, dickeys, funky hats with feathers, spats...you know the look. We did earn one fateful trip to march down the main street in Disneyworld one year, but beyond that, the practice and rigor of marching was not all together my cup of tea.

Where I took the most pride and where I felt the most important as a musician and a trumpet player was at the tail end of the parade. All the town's folks gathered on the town green and all bands were assembled around the Fallen Heroes monument and the requisite plugged howitzer (which it seems like every town in our area had), and after the benedictions, the prayers and the first selectwoman said a few words, we usually played a hymn or the National Anthem which was always followed by a 21 gun salute ("ready, aim, fire" - 7 guns, usually M-16s - three reports) followed immediately by the playing of Taps.

I started as the echo. A more senior player did the up front report of taps. I followed, playing about 100 meters away using the middle school wall to get the full accustical echo. When I was a senior, I graduated to playing the first report and another kid played the echo. I always got teary just after the last echo reverberated of the wall. Most everyone on the green walked back to their cars or to their home a little bit sad and who knows feeling what else.

For me, I was as proud as every to be an American and realized how grateful I was that people were willing to put their lives on their line for our freedom. As they say, freedom isn't nor ever is free. But as we head into this somber time of Memorial Day, perhaps some of us should hang our heads a bit lower as the burden of responsibility for some recent military deaths hangs heavy around the necks of our leadership.

Me, I choose to look skyward, reach back to the deeper depths, and be thankful for those that have gone before and for me - From the real Minutemen (not the incarnation on the Mexican border) that fought the Redcoats back in the 1700s to the families that lost sons on both sides of the argument in the civil war, to the veterans of WW I and WWII that fought obvious tyrants, for the Marines, Air Force, Army, Navy, and the Coast Guard men and women who have lost their lives in the pursuit and protection of our lives and liberty, I give thanks.

As we move into another of America's heavily comercialized holidays, let us resolve to toss out the trappings, remember our fallen heroes and give thanks. May all our heroes rest in peace.

A Great Question

This from the Whitehouse briefing on the whole airspace problem they had in D.C. they other day:

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Q: Might there be something wrong with protocols that render the president unnecessary when the alarm is going off at his house?

Here's the reply from the king of obfuscation:

McCLELLAN: That's not at all what occurred, Ken. And I would disagree strongly with the way you characterize it for the reasons I started earlier, and that I talked about. This was a situation where the president was in an off-site location. He was not in danger, a situation where protocols have been put in place to address the situation. The protocols were followed. ...

More good questions and obfuscation from the master McClellan:

Q: And those protocols are OK with the president despite the fact that his wife was in a situation where she might have been endangered?

McCLELLAN: She was taken to a secure location, as were some other officials.

Q: And wouldn't he want to know about that as it was happening?

McCLELLAN: He was briefed about the situation.

Q: After it happened.

McCLELLAN: He was briefed about the situation, Ken. And I think that he wants to make sure that the protocols that are in place are followed. The protocols that were in place were followed.

Q: Scott, to follow on the same line of questioning, if there is a possibility that a plane may have to be shot down over Washington, doesn't the President want to be involved in that type of decision?

McCLELLAN: Well, Keith, I think again, it depends on the circumstances in the situation. You have to look at each individual situation and the circumstances surrounding that situation. There are protocols --

Q: Doesn't the President want to be involved in what could be a decision to shoot down a plane over Washington?

You get the general idea. Read the text if you dare. It is quite fun and a bit disconcerting that the Prez was that disconnected to such a decision. Thanks Moxie Grrrl for the link.

Ah, you have got to love this "Jobs Creation" Administration

Correct me if I am wrong, but given the number of civilians employed by the US Military and working on domestic military bases, doesn't the closing of American bases mean lost jobs rather than jobs created?

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon proposed Friday shutting about 180 military installations from Maine to Hawaii including 33 major bases, triggering the first round of base closures in a decade and an intense struggle by communities to save their facilities.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld also recommended a list of scores of other domestic installations — including 29 major bases — that will remain open but with thousands fewer troops. Dozens of others will gain troops from other domestic or foreign bases.

Overall, he has said his plan would save $48.8 billion over 20 years while making the military more mobile and better suited for the global effort against terrorism.

Rumsfeld's proposal calls for a massive shift of U.S. forces that would result in a net loss of 29,005 military and civilian jobs at domestic installations. He proposes pulling a total of 218,570 military and civilian positions out of some U.S. bases while adding 189,565 positions to others, according to documents obtained by The AP.

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Thought for the Day on the Koran

Here's an interesting idea that I recieved in an email from a friend with this link and these comments:

Slice from the Email:

Literal-minded twitism at work. Like the values that the Koran represents are present in the physical Koran? The Koran is a metaphor. Like the flag, it stands for something but it isn't the thing it stands for.


Slice from the article:

KABUL, Afghanistan, May 11 - Four protesters were killed and more than 60 injured Wednesday in the eastern city of Jalalabad as the police and troops struggled to contain the worst anti-American demonstrations in Afghanistan in the more than three years since the fall of the Taliban.

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By the way, does anyone else see the irony in the following photos?

Don't Graduate

Remember the line from The Graduate: "I've got one word for you, Benjamin, plastics." Usually, commencement is laced with excitment and anticipation for the future - one chapter in life closes while another bursts open. Well, we should also remember the morose demeanor and morass good old Ben got himslef into feeding cocktails and cigarettes to Mrs. Robinson. I always love the pool scenes in this flick - they say so much about that generation.

Unfortunately, it looks like the youth of today have a similar future to which they can aspire. Our "jobs creation" prez seems to be falling down on his job, unless of course, you are talking about the wartime and energy biz cartels.

Slice:

The employment bar has been set so low for the Bush administration that even a modest gain is cause for celebration. But we shouldn't be blinded by the flash of last Saturday's headlines. American workers, especially younger workers, remain stuck in a gloomy employment landscape.

For example, a recent report from the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston tells us that the employment rate for the nation's teenagers in the first 11 months of 2004 - just 36.3 percent - was the lowest it has ever been since the federal government began tracking teenage employment in 1948.

Those 20 to 24 years old are also faring poorly. In 2000, 72.2 percent were employed during a typical month. By last year that percentage had dropped to 67.9 percent.

Even the recent modest surge in jobs has essentially bypassed young American workers. Gains among recently arrived immigrants seem to have accounted for the entire net increase in jobs from 2000 through 2004.

Over all, only workers 55 and up have done reasonably well over the past few years. "Younger workers," said Andrew Sum, the center's director, "have just been crushed."

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Politicians Strategically Apply Pillow to the Face of Public School Programs

I was reading our local rag and came across this article by Joan Ryan:

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Ronnie Scott kept quiet about the news.

"I don't want to put this out there and get a mob scene,'' she said.

Scott is assistant recreation director for San Francisco Recreation and Parks. She had just received word last week that funding for a summer sports program for kids at Visitacion Valley Elementary had come through from two local foundations. Scott knew that parents in this low-income neighborhood would lunge at the chance to secure one of the new camp's 50 available slots.

Especially this summer.

Vis Valley won't be open for summer school again this year. Only nine elementary schools in the city will be -- and two of those are open only to new immigrants and two are open only to students who attend those particular schools. In the remaining five schools, attendance will be limited to certain special ed students and to students who without summer school are likely to be left back.

Knowing the desperate situation, Scott quietly performed social triage, an increasingly familiar routine for public administrators: She offered spots first to the 25 students in her after-school "latch-key'' program. "These are kids who have nowhere to go after school, much less the whole summer,'' Scott said.

Everyone else at Vis Valley is pretty much out of luck.

The problem isn't with San Francisco Unified. Its hands are tied. This goes way beyond one neighborhood or one school district. Vis Valley is simply one more casualty of a state and national political environment that is, purposely or unwittingly, slowly smothering the public education system.

...At a time when education is supposed to be such a priority, when we test students exhaustively and punish schools for failing to reach achievement goals, how can we justify tossing students out the door for almost three months? How can we let all those precious weeks dribble away, wasted, without offering enrichment programs, and classes in the arts, and reading and math reviews for students who want -- and need -- a more solid foundation?

This isn't about San Francisco. It's about short-sighted and double- talking politicians on the state and national level who are willing to sacrifice a generation -- or two or three -- of students for the sake of what passes these days for being fiscally conservative. And it's about the rest of us letting them do it.

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Hands tied and schools smothered...that about sums it up for how the politicos value kids in the US today...at least the poor ones.

Forget Reality TV - Get a Dose of Real Adventure Racing

Those who are fans of "Reality" television might like to log into a bit of real adventure and real athletes slogging it through the wilds of Sweden.

I have a friend who is navigating for a professional team in this race. Starts this weekend and can be followed at this location.

Anyone who has followed the Primal Quest type races know that on line is the best way to watch these things - I don't know the web location all to well, but hopefully there will be live GPS tracking so you can follow your favorite team through all their dead ends, retreats and victories.

Here's a snip from the latest newsletter to whet the appetite:

Information to the teams.

Ice Claws
Because of many teams having problems finding Ice Claws, the organisation have decided to provide every participant with a pair of Ice Claw, that you can keep. This will be handed out to everyone during the registration.

You can check out the webpage www.exploresweden.se and Newsletter 4 - the PDF and there you will find a picture of the Ice Claws. You will also have a picture of the kayak that you will be using during the race.

After the meeting at Örnsköldsviks Ariport, you will be transported to an outdoor shop and if you want to be sure that they have the gear that you want, you can e-mail to them at: store9@naturkompaniet.se (attention: Mats)

Kickspark
The Kickspark section is cancelled, because of pour ice. But Kickbike is still on.

Kayakwagon
We can hire kayak-wagons to you if you are having problems finding. But there are not so many just 6 and I need to know if you want to hire this before Monday morning, because they need to mail them to us!
The wagon is of the brand Inkasvagn with a wheel diameter of 25 cm. You can check out www.linder.se and there you will find a picture of the wagon.

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Sounds cold!

One Whopper of a Video Clip

Check out the winner of the Bush in 30 years clip contest sponsored by move on. Pretty much sums it up. The whole ploy to kill SS is really another one of W, Rove and Co.'s petty tricks to cheat the middle class and pat the rich on the back with another hand out.

P.S. Here's another (D.R.A.F.T.) I found via Moxie Girrrl

Sick and Twisted Priests

If ever there was an argument against the celebacy pact priests make to enter the clergy, it would be to relieve some of that sexual tension that drives some to pedophilia.

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In a 15-hour videotaped deposition in March, Oliver O'Grady described how his heart raced when one of the slim, playful boys he preferred toweled off after a swim. He also said he liked to lift little girls' skirts and peek at their underpants.

Asked to demonstrate how he would lure one of his estimated 25 victims into his arms, the 59-year-old Irish native softened his voice, flashed an avuncular smile and looked directly into the video camera.

"Hi, Sally," O'Grady improvised. "How are you doing? Come here. I want to give you a hug. You are a sweetheart. You know that. You are very special to me. I like you a lot."

If his hug met no resistance, O'Grady testified, he would take the child's compliance as "permission" to molest.

...Although O'Grady voiced remorse for his abuses, he often appeared to be enjoying his videotaped performance. At one point, he winked into the camera.

O'Grady testified that he was molested as a child by two priests in the sacristy of his church. The first occurred when he was 10 and an altar boy, he said.

The priest "began the conversation by asking how I was, what I was going to do for the day, and I remember he was — he called me over to him and he began to hug me, you know, in a kind of gentle way, first of all.

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And so, why is it that Catholics still trust their leaders?

The Magic Word

Why is it that when parents who field requests from young children typically reply, "what's the magic word?" when the child doesn't preface or close the whole statement with "please?"

I found myself doing that with my son and stumbled on it a bit. What makes it magic? Why does there need to be some kind of implausable explanation attached to that which aught to be a part of common courtesy?

My bet: It's a crutch that parents use to pound the use of the word please into a childs head without have to explain the why behind it.

I, for one, am stopping. Cold turkey. I am going to, instead, say things like, "how do big boys ask for things that they would like?"

Do any other folks out there have thoughts about replacements for this bit of culture we have been stuck with?

More Stories of Great Heterosexual Parents

By now, you all have heard great detail and hoopla surounding the findings that gay-ness is not taught, learned, nor caught, but is a part of a person's hard wiring.

Of course, there is a large contingent that still believes homosexuals have no place in this world, nor that they should have the same rights and privledges as those who fornicate exclusively with people of the opposite sex. Also, there are a great number of people who still think marriage needs some kind of protection - as to what that protection looks like, I am still mystified.

Incidentially, I am still awaiting a great explanation as to why homosexuality is wrong that doesn't cite some biblical justification or sling vitriol.

Well, along down the media pipeline comes another story of a father (heterosexual man) arrested for killing his child and her friend. (Ironically, in a place called Zion).

ZION, Ill. - A man was arrested on murder charges Tuesday in the Mother's Day stabbings of his 8-year-old daughter and the little girl's best friend, who were killed after they went biking in a park.

Jerry Hobbs, who was recently released from prison, had led police to the bodies just off a wooded bike path early Monday, claiming he spotted them while searching for his daughter, the girl's grandfather, Arthur Hollabaugh, told The Associated Press.

Hobbs, 34, was questioned through the day about the deaths of Laura Hobbs, 8, and Krystal Tobias, 9.

Both girls had been beaten and stabbed repeatedly in the woods and left to die, Lake County Coroner Richard Keller said. He said the girls were found side-by-side and did not appear to have been sexually assaulted.

Lake County State's Attorney Michael Waller said in announcing the charges Tuesday that he could not discuss possible motives for the killings, but prosecutors said more details would come out when Hobbs appears in bond court Wednesday morning.

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Now, of course, this person is innocent until proven otherwise, but why do people insist such a father deserves more rights than a gay parent?

Which group are the Activists?

Well, the Sierra Club is at least up front about their ambitions. Are these judges activists as well? Letting the big Dick off the hook....this man is very slippery, but not as slippery as Rove, I'm sure:

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday threw out a lawsuit that sought details about Vice President Dick Cheney's 2001 energy policy task force that critics say secretly formed policy favorable to the industry.

The unanimous ruling ordered a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit by the Sierra Club environmental group and the watchdog group Judicial Watch that sought to learn about contacts between task force members and industry executives.

"We hold that plaintiffs have failed to establish any duty, let alone a clear and indisputable duty, owed to them by the federal government" under the law in question, the Federal Advisory Committee Act, Judge A. Raymond Randolph wrote in the 13-page ruling.All eight judges on the appeals court sided with the Bush administration and agreed the lawsuit must be dismissed.

Counting Dead Bodies

We haven't seen a total of enemy bodies slain in a long while. Are we headed down the slippery slope of history to repeat our Vietnam daily body count comparisions a la VC v. US troops killed?

If one is larger than the other, does it make the investment worth it?

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News of the U.S. offensive against insurgents and foreign fighters in a desert in western Anbar province came after a weekend of heavy losses for the Americans and with the Iraqi cabinet still incomplete three months after Jan. 30 elections.

Marines, soldiers and sailors backed by aircraft launched the operation, a U.S. military statement said. It did not say when the offensive started, but said 75 insurgents were killed in the first 24 hours.

On Sunday, three soldiers were killed in two roadside bomb attacks and one was killed by small-arms fire. Three Marines were killed in a suicide car bombing and a sailor died in small arms fire on Saturday, the military said.

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Craig is Onto Somthing

With over 10 billion page views a month on his first idea - craigslist - perhaps Craig is onto something that will be bigger and better: Journalism that supports and reports real investigation rather than simply talking points provided by windbag politicians.

Slice:

...But he believes the reason why newspapers are losing circulation is that too many traditional journalists are willing to quote politicians and business executives even if they're blatantly lying -- merely for the sake of perceived objectivity. He'd prefer an "open source" model of journalism where legions of volunteers act as writers, assignment editors and fact checkers to challenge mainstream journalists.

"People are looking for attitude and guts in reporting -- not full-on gonzo journalism, but hey, tell us what you think," said Newmark, who described himself as having Whig values -- strong on defense, fiscally conservative but socially liberal.

"Maybe Hunter Thompson had it right," Newmark said, referring to the late cultural icon whose rollicking, first-person narratives of drug addiction, the Hells Angels and the 1972 presidential election shook up the media decades ago...

...Newmark hopes the ideas take shape in time to supply voters with a "trustworthy" daily political report before the 2006 midterm elections. Young people, he said, particularly need credible online news, since the Internet is the top source of news for 18- to 34-year-olds, besting second-ranked local television by a 41-to-15 percent margin, according to a recent Carnegie Corp. study.

Teenager Smokes 'Em

Galen Rupp smashed an almost thirty year old track and field benchmark running 28:15:52 for the 10k.

No doubt, comparisons to Prefontaine will be forthecoming. Pre was/is a hero - although his death is still shrouded in mystery. This generation is in dire need of a hero, but for Rupp, only time and his times will tell. Remember Alan Webb? What's up with him? Well, my PR for a 10K is 32:32 - nice and symetric, but I doubt I'll ever blaze up the track like this kid.

Found the article posted on Space Tramp's location:

Slice:
The magic is back at Hayward Field.

On the eve of his 19th birthday, Oregon freshman Galen Rupp charged into the history books on Saturday night by winning the 10,000 meters in a U.S. junior national record time of 28 minutes, 15.52 seconds.

Rupp's performance thrilled a crowd of 3,410 at the Oregon Twilight Meet which, in turn, spurred him on by chanting his name on the backstretch and rising to their feet for loud ovations each time he clicked off another lap.

"It was awesome. To win a race here in an Oregon uniform, there's nothing like it," Rupp said. "People can say that it's not what it once was, but I've thought about running at Hayward Field ever since I was in high school. Everybody goes nuts and you can't ask for a better environment."

Rupp's time is significant on several levels.

It shatters the 29-year-old national junior mark of 28:32.7 established by former Oregon great Rudy Chapa as an Indiana schoolboy at the Drake Relays back in 1976.