Take over Critical Mass?

"Fran Stine" wrote in message
...
Take over Critical Mass? by Michael Bluejay
Jul 07, 2004 10:22 PST

Sounds good to me. We have to show people in cars that they are wrong, so
by
causing traffic trouble in the streets, it gets their attention. Gandhi
and
ML King showed us that Civil Disobedience always works. If we can cause
enough traffic tie-ups, perhaps we can get to GRIDLOCK! If someone goes
the
wrong way down a one-way street, just follow them. And let's just apply
subtle peer pressure if people start going crazy. We could all start
chanting, "Don't be a jerk! Don't be a jerk!" Okay, that's not subtle, but
it's festive, and intimidates people in cars.

Since I work at UT, it would be convenient for me to participate, and I
can
recruit other like-minded simpletons (as I did on the one CM ride I
participated in 18 months or so ago). However, I'm only interested if
other
riders carry some protection, a stick, mace a loud airhorn, etc.

A) Follow common sense traffic laws our way

This means detours down one way streets going the wrong way, mass blocking
of traffic signals, taking up both lanes of Lamar between 24th and 12th
"just for the fun of it". But be careful, remember that lady that panicked
in the truck, and ran over Mary? Too bad.

B) Try not to be complete assholes all the time, and only to cars

If I'm going to be an asshole, I prefer to do it in a crowd, I start to
feel
like some kind of Republican itching to bomb A-rab children and having a
big
frat boy party to celebrate the fact.

Friends report that recent Critical Mass rides have had as few as 3
people.
That's a far cry from the 100-200 from years past. When CM took a turn for
the hostile, I didn't try to reform it, because I felt that if that's the
sort of ride the participants wanted to have, that was their right -- I
just
suggested what to do.

But with the numbers dwindling so much, CM is now ripe for being
reinvented.
With a large enough presence we can re-establish CM as it was originally
practiced and envisioned: as a confrontational demonstration with cars.
Hell, not just a demonstration causing traffic problems, but a cute
CELEBRATION, with costumes, instruments, signs, banners, and dozens of
cyclists.

Who's with me?

-MBJ-

P.S. I think that if we have 12+ riders it's reasonable to take two or
three
lanes on Lamar, that would be cool.

Critical Mass gives cycling a bad name. For that reason, I think that they
are all freaks and social misfits.
"s Stine" wrote in message
...

"Fran Stine" wrote in message
...
Take over Critical Mass? by Michael Bluejay
Jul 07, 2004 10:22 PST

Sounds good to me. We have to show people in cars that they are wrong,
so
by
causing traffic trouble in the streets, it gets their attention. Gandhi
and
ML King showed us that Civil Disobedience always works. If we can cause
enough traffic tie-ups, perhaps we can get to GRIDLOCK! If someone goes
the
wrong way down a one-way street, just follow them. And let's just apply
subtle peer pressure if people start going crazy. We could all start
chanting, "Don't be a jerk! Don't be a jerk!" Okay, that's not subtle,
but
it's festive, and intimidates people in cars.

Since I work at UT, it would be convenient for me to participate, and I
can
recruit other like-minded simpletons (as I did on the one CM ride I
participated in 18 months or so ago). However, I'm only interested if
other
riders carry some protection, a stick, mace a loud airhorn, etc.

A) Follow common sense traffic laws our way

This means detours down one way streets going the wrong way, mass
blocking
of traffic signals, taking up both lanes of Lamar between 24th and 12th
"just for the fun of it". But be careful, remember that lady that
panicked
in the truck, and ran over Mary? Too bad.

B) Try not to be complete assholes all the time, and only to cars

If I'm going to be an asshole, I prefer to do it in a crowd, I start to
feel
like some kind of Republican itching to bomb A-rab children and having a
big
frat boy party to celebrate the fact.

Friends report that recent Critical Mass rides have had as few as 3
people.
That's a far cry from the 100-200 from years past. When CM took a turn
for
the hostile, I didn't try to reform it, because I felt that if that's
the
sort of ride the participants wanted to have, that was their right -- I
just
suggested what to do.

But with the numbers dwindling so much, CM is now ripe for being
reinvented.
With a large enough presence we can re-establish CM as it was originally
practiced and envisioned: as a confrontational demonstration with cars.
Hell, not just a demonstration causing traffic problems, but a cute
CELEBRATION, with costumes, instruments, signs, banners, and dozens of
cyclists.

Who's with me?

-MBJ-

P.S. I think that if we have 12+ riders it's reasonable to take two or
three
lanes on Lamar, that would be cool.

"Holden Caufield" writes:

Critical Mass gives cycling a bad name. For that reason, I think that they
are all freaks and social misfits.

Davey (Critical Mass Rider) Crockett stands up and takes a Bow

writes:

"Holden Caufield" writes:

Critical Mass gives cycling a bad name. For that reason, I think that they
are all freaks and social misfits.

Davey (Critical Mass Rider) Crockett stands up and takes a Bow

Do you mean a bow (as in bending at the waist) or a bow (as in "bow
and arrows") that could be to scare Holden off? :-)

--
My real name backwards: nemuaZ lliB

Holden Caufield wrote:
Critical Mass gives cycling a bad name. For that reason, I think that they
are all freaks and social misfits.

Davey_Crockett wrote:
Davey (Critical Mass Rider) Crockett stands up and takes a Bow

Well you do post to rbr so you fit the 'freak and social misfit' profile
admirably.

Take over Critical Mass? by Michael Bluejay
Jul 07, 2004 10:22 PST

=v= Well, this is interesting. A followup "repost" that spreads
to other lists. Makes one wonder whether this is a troll.

=v= Again, where is this from? It doesn't sound like his usual
line of argument, and I don't see it on his website:

http://michaelbluejay.com/

=v= What's more, a Google search doesn't turn it up, and if it
was truly written on July 7th, I think it'd be in Google by now.
_Jym_

Jym Dyer writes:

Take over Critical Mass? by Michael Bluejay
Jul 07, 2004 10:22 PST

=v= Well, this is interesting. A followup "repost" that spreads
to other lists. Makes one wonder whether this is a troll.

=v= Again, where is this from? It doesn't sound like his usual
line of argument, and I don't see it on his website:

http://michaelbluejay.com/

=v= What's more, a Google search doesn't turn it up, and if it
was truly written on July 7th, I think it'd be in Google by now.
_Jym_

My mailer (emacs/gnus) sensed an abnormal situation and warned when I tried to
reply.

Without wasting time looking, I have a notion the original poster has a
misconfigured news/mailer client, uses a lamer news-server, or it might be a
fsck'd up Google Bomb.