Critical Mass - Fundamentalist Plonkers?

Zebee Johnstone Wrote:

For just occasionally, I can go onto the road, not have the road
clogged by miserable selfish gits spewing out choking gasses, and

So, ride elsewhere. It isn't the only method is it!

ZebeeHmmm. Should you ever be hit by a truck because HE did something wrong,
we shall have enscribe upon your headstone...

"Here lieth Zebee, who should have ridden elsewhere..."

Scotty

Sometimes we think them fools then, they go ahead and confirm our
suspicions...


--
scotty72

"G-S" wrote in message ...
ritcho wrote:

The bottom line is that you are just another arselicker who isn't
prepared to stand up.

The bottom line is that I don't believe that '****ed off/chip on the
shoulder people' represent my views very well most of the time.

You see I happen to believe that the way to change behaviour and views
is by education and not intimidation.

In a gentle, low risk circumstance, fine, but life and death, situations, you need
stronger influence. More effective influence. There used to be zero cars on Oz
and quite a lot of bikes, then even more bikes and a few cars, and even in the
early 1960s, an awful lot of bikes and not many cars. Jump to the 1980s and
there were maybe 5M vehicles. In the late 90s, 9M. In 2007, 13M. That's
a bad circumstance which has been out of control for five decades. We are
talking about more than 1 vehicle per dwelling. We are talking about Sydney
with it's ****ed up public transport, disfunctional "cycleways" and gridlock
daily.

Does CM solve this?

No way. Does it influence this in the right direction?

Ie, does it get appropriate publicity and audience reach?

Well, yes. Jones rants work in its favour.

But it doesn't get near a solution.

$2.50 per litre probably will. And that's a lot closer than most people understand.

That's not why I (personally) walk, PT and cycle, but it's what will change a lot
of people.

CM's antics will bring it into the planning scenarios a lot quicker.

Therefore I support them.

Tomasso.

"Zebee Johnstone" wrote in message ...
...
The info I have from people who are working with the RTA on motorcycle
issues is that the confrontational attitudes from some of the bicycle
advocates (and I don't know what org they are from) has been really
helping the motorcyclists as the more aggro the cyclists get, the more
the RTA talks to the motorcyclists....

You need to get out more, and understand what the RTA really does. It's
a big, defective organisation which builds road and pretends that it makes
traffic flow...

The thru-traffic between construction firms and RTA flunkies is more impressive
than the cross-city tunnel. There are no brownie points in the RTA for doing
anything for cyclists, and (sorry to disillusion you Zeb) motorcycles are in
the same bucket!!!

Tomasso.

"Tomasso" wrote in message ...

"Zebee Johnstone" wrote in message ...
...
The info I have from people who are working with the RTA on motorcycle
issues is that the confrontational attitudes from some of the bicycle
advocates (and I don't know what org they are from) has been really
helping the motorcyclists as the more aggro the cyclists get, the more
the RTA talks to the motorcyclists....

You need to get out more, and understand what the RTA really does. It's
a big, defective organisation which builds road and pretends that it makes
traffic flow...

The thru-traffic between construction firms and RTA flunkies is more impressive
than the cross-city tunnel. There are no brownie points in the RTA for doing
anything for cyclists, and (sorry to disillusion you Zeb) motorcycles are in
the same bucket!!!

Tomasso.

If you want to understand the RTA, talk to State Rail, or State Transit (buses+), or
ANY local government. DO NOT TRUST anyone in the RTA to achieve anything
useful for cyclists. Those with the will to do this, find white ants as large as rhinos.

One day, someone will write a book about NSW ministers who have worked in
this kind of portfolio. The alternative title will be something like "moral abjection".
The postscript will be "where are they now".

Tomasso.

PeteSig wrote:

Many Critical Mass riders also own and use a car at certain times too!

What? Infidels! Stone them!

Theo

Tomasso wrote:

All I see is angry motorists too, but that has nothing to do with
Critical Mass.
It's because they are stuck in gridlock, while fantasising about a
solo, unimpeded jaunt through the wilderness - as it looks in 4wd ads
all the time.

They're not fantasising about 4WDing in the wilderness any more than the
average commuter cyclist is fantasising they are in the Tour de F. They just
want to get home and are angry that the infrastructure that would allow them
to do that, that they think their taxes should provide, doesn't exist.

Because of where I choose to live, 55 kms from the Perth CBD, the _daily_
bus is not an option and the nearest train station is 40 kms away. It would
let me off 1.5 kms from work.

Theo

Tomasso wrote:

There used to be zero cars on Oz and quite a lot of bikes, then even more
bikes and a few cars, and
even in the early 1960s, an awful lot of bikes and not many cars.

Umm, I take it you weren't there and you're just making this up. I was
riding to work in the early sixties mate, and I can assure you the
percentage of bicycles to cars is higher now. There were damn-all bikes on
the road.

Theo

On 2007-12-02, Theo Bekkers (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
Tomasso wrote:

All I see is angry motorists too, but that has nothing to do with
Critical Mass.
It's because they are stuck in gridlock, while fantasising about a
solo, unimpeded jaunt through the wilderness - as it looks in 4wd ads
all the time.

They're not fantasising about 4WDing in the wilderness any more than the
average commuter cyclist is fantasising they are in the Tour de F. They just
want to get home and are angry that the infrastructure that would allow them
to do that, that they think their taxes should provide, doesn't exist.

They were fantasising about it when they saw the ad that sold them the
vehicle.

Because of where I choose to live, 55 kms from the Perth CBD, the _daily_
bus is not an option and the nearest train station is 40 kms away. It would
let me off 1.5 kms from work.

If getting to work was of importance then, I would suggest that was
your own damn fault

A 1.5km walk, eh?

I live 30km from work, but I ensured that before taking the job, work
provided a bus. Makes me go home on time too (ace! Nothing at all
like being a student), although there are a few pool cars.

--
TimC
cat ~/.signature
Passing cosmic ray (core dumped)

scotty72 wrote:
Zebee Johnstone Wrote:

"Fundamentalism" was orginally ( I thought late 1800s but I saw
recently 1920s) a label applied to people who agreed with a set of
pamphlets/books/statements called "The Fundamentals of Christianity"
which sought to strip away accretions and bring the religion back to
a more pure state by getting together in one place the basics as they
understood it.

Over time it's come to mean anyone who has a literalist and rigid
interpretation of a book or creed and who refuses to see there's any
other way to think or do, and further considers people who do
interpret things differently as not just misguided but actively evil.

An astonishing level of 'eyes wide shut[edness]'.

1) You've never been to a CM ride
2) From your position of blindness you've managed to adopt a theory of
ignorance.

I've never been on a CM ride either. I've seen it on TV, heard reports from
news commentators, and read letters to the editors. My major experience of
CM has been in this group and from that I have formed pretty much the same
opinion as Zebee.

To say 'they' are a buch of fundamentalists truly displays you lack of
thought.

I stopped going for the exact opposite reason.

Another thing was the fact that there were too many in the group who
were relucant to block traffic for too long. Too many diversions from
what I thought were the principles.

God, that was funny Scotty. For a second there I thought you were being
serious, but now I see you were giving us an excellent example of what a
fundamentalist would say.

Theo

On 2007-12-02, Theo Bekkers (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
scotty72 wrote:
An astonishing level of 'eyes wide shut[edness]'.

1) You've never been to a CM ride
2) From your position of blindness you've managed to adopt a theory of
ignorance.

I've never been on a CM ride either. I've seen it on TV, heard reports from
news commentators, and read letters to the editors. My major experience of
CM has been in this group and from that I have formed pretty much the same
opinion as Zebee.

Oh come on Theo. I'm pretty sure Zebee is actually forming her
opinion on something a little more concrete than that.

Is this the channel 9 news, or their current affair program? Who's
the John Laws equivalent in WA who you listen to?

An letters to the editor? ****ed off people writing letters to the
editor -- ****ed off because of something they read from another
letter to the editor, what they saw on the TV news, or heard some
shock jock talk about?

--
TimC
"Legacy (adj): an uncomplimentary computer-industry epithet that
means 'it works'." -- Anthony DeBoer in ASR