This fascinating discussion of the social class of the people who ride bicycles made me wonder.

I always instinctively associated bicycles with comfortably middle-class people. One reason was that everybody I know who rides a bicycle is what I call “rich” and you call middle-class.

Another reason is that having a bicycle implies a certain lifestyle that I don’t identify with poverty. First, you need money to buy the bicycle and the paraphernalia. Then, you need to be prepared to lose that investment because bicycles get stolen a lot.

You need to have the leisure of tending to it and of transporting yourself at its slow pace.

You need to have no dependents and be physically fit. This could describe a young person, but where does a young person get money to buy and the space to store? If this is not a very young person, then it’s got to be somebody who can invest in good food, medical care, a gym, and psychological supports that allow them not to smoke or use drugs.

You also need the kind of wardrobe that accommodates biking.

The author of the linked piece sees non-white people on bicycles and assumes they are poor because of their race. That’s a silly assumption, though.

What do you think? Is a bicycle a habitual means of transportation for poor people where you live?

Since the topic of ISIS proved so popular, here is my explanation of why it matters to people so much.

At this particular moment in time it is extremely inconvenient for everybody to remember that the compact between a citizen and a nation-state is conditional. Neither the nation-state nor the citizens want to be reminded of their obligations to each other. Yet each party is convinced that the other will absolutely keep up its end of the bargain.

The reason why people get so passionate about the need to preserve the citizenship of these ISIS runners doesn’t have much to do with ISIS. It has to do with their need to know that “their” nation-state will for certain take care of them, no matter what. Even though they are no longer interested in doing anything whatsoever for it.

But it won’t. “Our” nation-state has already revoked our symbolic citizenship right after we symbolically repudiated it.

Back in graduate school, the especially pompous among us would say things like “I travel with a British passport” instead of “I’m British.” Those same people were exceptionally angry about the disappearance of welfare programs in the countries which, during the moments of indignance, would magically transform into “my country.” But a nation-state is not a consumer product that can be discarded whenever it’s convenient. And no amount of invocations will bring it back now that we have all chosen to kick it aside.

People down the road have really fantastic decorations. One house has an enormous spider on the wall, and the spider has flashing eyes and moves. I almost had a heart attack the first time I saw it. The spider is so big that it occupies half the outer wall!

The best Halloween decoration, though, is a wire pumpkin that is filled with little lights. From a distance, it looks like a ball of fire. I’ll buy one the moment I find it but for now, my Halloween decorations can be seen above. The most beautiful decoration is obviously the nature.

The idiots who run away to join ISIS were a bone of contention in the recent Canadian election. Quite a few of these fools discovered that ISIS was not as entertaining as they thought and decided to return to Canada. The question arose as to what to do with them.

The Conservatives suggested stripping them of Canadian citizenship. This seems extremely reasonable because people get stripped of citizenship all the time, and for things far less serious than participating in a terrorist organization that engages in crimes against humanity. If I, for instance, was stripped of my Ukrainian citizenship for joining the Canadian state, it doesn’t seem out of place to remove the citizenship of those who join the Islamic State.

This idea, however, seemed unacceptable to the Liberals, and the voters ultimately supported them. Once again, nobody stopped to think how it would impact the rights of Canadian women to have running around a bunch of crazed criminals who have been members of an organization notorious for its record of raping and torturing women. It seems like this entire Canadian election was one big “Fuck you, women.”

What say you, readers? Should people who go to great lengths to join ISIS and who engage in God knows what kind of horrible acts on its behalf be allowed to come back and resume the citizenship of the countries they abandoned in favor of ISIS?

N and I went for a walk in the upper-class neighborhood across the road tonight. It was dark, and the streets were empty, so we were surprised to see a man carrying a child in his arms. The man looked unsure of where he was going but we didn’t think to interfere, which in hindsight turned out to be a mistake.

About half an hour later we came across a young man who told us his Dad had taken his little sister and disappeared with her. Now the brother, the mother and an elder sister were running around the neighborhood, looking for the child.

We pointed the young man in the direction where we’d last seen the father. It turned out that the man was a heavy drinker, which is why everybody was so worried about the little girl he’d taken away.

Now we feel guilty for failing to interfere when we first saw the man and the child.

This is Maria Ángeles,  one of 18 women who have been arrested so far in Spain on their way to joining ISIS. At the age of 22, Maria Ángeles lived with her mother and two siblings, worked at a hotel, listened to heavy metal, and was into the Goth style of clothing.

Then she met 3 guys from ISIS online, and they promised her that if she put on a niqab and joined them in ISIS, she’d gain complete freedom and the best life a woman could have, which is only offered by Sharia to good, moral wives and no other kind of woman. So Maria Ángeles found a niqab, hurried to the airport, and was apprehended waiting for an airplane with a Spanish-language Koran in her hand. Obviously, Maria Ángeles does not speak Arabic and knows nothing about the Koran or Islam but the fairy-tales she was told by her online ISIS buddies.

At this time, it has been confirmed that at least 50 European women have successfully reached ISIS and installed themselves there in a position of wives / sex slaves. One can only hope that they did find the “complete frredom” they were so desperate to encounter.

The Russian media are issuing triumphant reports that Obama’s veto of the military budget is a way to spite Ukraine (which was slated to get assistance in the budget) and signal support for Russia.

Ukrainians are baffled and are responding, “Hey, we are not nearly this important to Obama” but the exulting Russians are not listening.

As I said, all the poor buggers ever wanted is to get some love from Obama.

Forget New England Fall. Look what we’ve got.

Turns out that the man who murdered a teacher and a student with a sword at a school in Sweden was motivated by hatred of immigrants. The news of the attack was all over the media, yet I had to hunt down the revelation about the killer’s motive in a tiny little piece printed in a very small script deep inside the NYTIMES.

Ukrainian media are reporting that a human rights activist and her daughter were gang raped at a Syrian refugee camp. Apparently, this is not the same activist who was gang raped at a French camp back in September. It’s impossible to figure out whether it’s true.

I wonder if we are ever going to get any reporting on the events that deviate from the saccharine “Europeans and refugees joyfully embrace each other at the train station amidst gifts and flowers” which is all we are seeing in lieu of reporting today.

I will never stopped being amazed that, in the year of our lord Jesus Jones two thousand and fifteen, there are still adult human men who refuse to talk to me if my husband is present.

This is something that I do all the time, but I had no idea it might bug people. If I’m interacting with a married couple, I will address myself to the woman. Even if my business is with the man, I will do everything to include the woman. And I also expect any woman who wants to address my husband in my presence to do this through me.

Obviously, I’m not talking about a dynamic among close friends. This is what I do around strangers and distant acquaintances. I’d see it as very disrespectful if a woman talked to my husband like I wasn’t there. Does anybody else feel this way?