biking, air quality, and huge taxes

Today I learned that El Tour de Tucson, at the right place at the right time, looks like a never-ending stream of brightly colored jerseys. I was pleased that I didn't need to cross the street for anything.

I had meant to cross the street and go for a ride myself, but the air didn't feel quite right, so then I learned that we're going to have an air quality issue around here probably until Wednesday.

In other news, I learned that we Arizonans passed Proposition 203, where we institute an 80 cent per pack cigarette tax and use the money for early childhood development programs. I have to admit that my first inclination when I heard about that was to vote in favor of it because cigarette smoke makes me so sick, but fortunately the newspaper had a very sensible article about how that was a really stupid way to fund something important, so I came to my senses and voted no. Assuming it makes it past the probably-impending court challenge, it will be interesting to see if it actually does decrease smoking.