Found on Copenhagen Cycle Chic:

Wrenching on your own bike gives you a natural appreciation for a well built ride.  I was browsing through the Craigslist bicycle listings and found this beautifully restored 1986 Trek 400.  A couple interesting things to note which attest to this Trek’s hip factor: lugged steel frame with an understated, decal free paint job, toe clips, fixed gearing, and of course, no brakes:

Bloomberg covering the automotive bailout hearings today:

Lynn LoPucki, who teaches bankruptcy law at Harvard University and the University of California at Los Angeles, said Democrats’ goal of preserving a U.S. auto industry is not doable without a bankruptcy.

“A workout requires everybody’s agreement,” LoPucki said. “If I own bonds, GM can’t force me to take less than 100 cents on the dollar outside of bankruptcy court. Bankruptcy is the only thing that can work because GM and the government need the ability to force people to go along with the plan. Paying everyone in full is prohibitively expensive.” (my emphasis)

This little snipped struck me by its sheer straightforwardness.  It is so rare to see such a thing stated so directly in a political hearing!  You get so used to the double-talk and evasiveness, when the naked truth is laid out there you almost miss it out of pure shock.  This is what they’re really talking about after all: power, the power to force people to do what they want.  Not what is in their own best interest, but in the auto maker’s (and ultimately the government’s) interests.