On Mar 5, 4:13 am, John B. wrote:
On Sun, 4 Mar 2012 19:01:35 -0800 (PST), Dan O
wrote:



On Mar 4, 4:46 pm, John B. wrote:
On Sun, 4 Mar 2012 09:57:35 -0800 (PST), Dan O
wrote:

On Mar 4, 3:02 am, John B. wrote:
On Sat, 3 Mar 2012 21:27:48 -0800 (PST), Dan O
wrote:

On Mar 3, 4:56 pm, John B. wrote:
On Sat, 3 Mar 2012 10:35:30 -0800 (PST), Dan O
wrote:

On Mar 3, 10:34 am, Frank Krygowski
wrote:
Dan O wrote:

I am totally into getting along. I'm just not into conformity simply
to please somebody else's sensibility.

Example: I'm riding into town on a country road. Past the high
school, a pickup truck passes me - exhibiting a little contempt (you
know what I mean). He stops at the stop sign, but knowing that I'm
coming up behind on th eroad edge, he pulls all the way to the right
edge of the road to block me, then waits at the stop sign. I go off
road, pass him on the right, have already scoped out the absence of
other traffic, pedestrians, critters, etc., and roll on past him
though the stop. You know what comes next, right?
"HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNKKK!!!" Then he pulls away and down the
road into town (not having a shot at me, because I am not about to
give him one after ****ing him off like that, and I've cut through the
church parking lot. But I follow him into a town and he stops at the
post office, where I ask him what's his problem. He says, "You don't
know?" - "No." - "You should have stopped at that stop sign." - "Why?"
- "You don't know?!" - "No, tell me." - (now utterly indreduous), "If
you don't know... " - (apparently he doesn't really know, either -
except that the sign says so).

Hmm. You really think that was productive?

I think it was illustrative.

Had someone done that in a pickup truck would it have been equally
illustrative?

... Oh, you mean had someone driven their pickup truck off the edge of
the road, passed other traffic sitting at the stop, and rolled their
pickup truck into the intersection without stopping?

I think the reasons that it's much more okay to blow stops on a
bicycle than in a pickup truck are many and well established.

And of course this doesn't give the pickup guy the impression that
bicycle riders are people that don't respect the same laws, that he,
in his pickup has to? Nor does it cause the guy to think, "just
another asshole cyclist"? And if that is what he thinks, I wonder
whether he may be tempted to treat bikes as "just another asshole"?

He may, and many will, but that is not at all reasonable, and not at
all my fault.

No, and I didn't intend to imply it was. I was merely suggesting that
acts by bicycle riders may not be without effect upon others.

Everyone scurries about saying "Oh! Riding to work is so enlightening"
and never seems to say, "but be sure to obey traffic regulations and
don't ride as though you are the only one on the road."

Kind of goes without saying, doesn't it?

True. But then again one should be intelligent enough to know whether
one is breaking the law, or not. While it is likely that one won't
advertise the fact to all and sundry, still the inability to
differentiate right and wrong is a valid defense in a criminal case -
innocent by reason of insanity.

Speaking of peace and love, Ringo Starr is bringing it to music shows
this summer. In a short Rolling Stone interview (OTTOMH, may be
paraphrased):

Rolling Stone: So [your recent recording] speaks of "breaking the
rules" as a kid. Were you actually breaking thw law?

Ringo: In which way?

Rolling Stone: In the law way.

Ringo: What the hell does that mean, "In the law way"?

(It don't come easy :-)