Do you feel like biking makes you a loser?

On Jul 6, 5:41*pm, Tom Sherman
wrote:
KingOfTheApes aka Comandante Banana aka donquixote1954 wrote:

...I don't suppose the Leader of the Free World...

Who is that?

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
The weather is here, wish you were beautiful

I think is some sort of powerful monkey who holds the key to the
survival of all other monkeys (some 6.5 billion of them)...

http://www.ukuleleman.net/uploaded_i...an-718799..jpg

(someone who doesn't understand my metaphors, do you?)

Originally Posted by donnamb
"I'm a pretty common person and I still have no idea what you are
talking about."

Well, it goes this way.

In this jungle where we live there's a king of the jungle (the lion)
that runs the kingdom according to his tastes and appetites (leaving
no room for the monkeys to ride bikes), but there's a monkey that had
it, and challenged the Law of the Jungle (SUVs rule). He's got two
choices: use violence (become another lion) and risk being eaten,
or... share his banana with the hungry lion...

Thus the Banana Revolution becomes the way of the nonviolent, clever
monkeys figthting for survival in the jungle. "Never go in the jungle
without a banana!" That's another T-shirt slogan...

Originally Posted by Treespeed
"Can you say tangent? No one brought up the bible and your banishment
from the garden of eden metaphor has nothing to do with cycling
advocacy. This seems to be a logical fallacy that you engage in with
some regularity; it doesn’t follow that because one metaphor is bad,
that your metaphor is good. You haven’t established your main argument
that demonizing SUV drivers gets more people to ride bicycles, or
worse yet that confused animal metaphors convinces people to ride
bikes."

That I have convince you, dude, to ride bicycles would be stupid. This
is a Bicycle Forum which you seem to forget when defending SUVs so
much.

This is for the 99.6% who don't ride bikes to work and elsewhere,
possibly because they feel intimidated. Many of them are "survivors,"
in the economic sense of the word.

My metaphor is also perfect because the cars and particularly the SUVs
keep the lion's share of the road, and then often roar (honk, shout)
to intimidate you. It's not demonizing them, but showing they are
playing the game of the corporations, which is making you buy their
"wares," ie. Stupid Unnecessary Vehicles, Oil and Insurance, not Smart
Utility Bikes, which are truly utility vehicles --only that they don't
feed the system as much. Thus the name of Hungry Lion becomes
evident.

Then the selling point to the poor is obvious:

"The bike is the vehicle to financial freedom in a jungle where the
lion is after you..."

Hey, grab a banana and hit the road in an organized way!


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The monkey can live on peanuts and banana (a bicycle would do), but
the lion wants the monkey to be a big spender (big houses and SUVs) so
he gets fed.

Originally Posted by Bekologist
"i was controlling the lane yesterday morning on the way to work,
approaching a left turn in a left turn only lane, and a motorist,
peturbed I was slower and ahead of him, guns it, crosses the double
yellow approaching a blind corner, drove over a raised barrier and cut
ahead of me halfway thru the intersection, then did the paltry 'bumper
dive' threat to show me I wasn't supossed to be inhibiting his
speed...."

That's INTIMIDATION, but you are not the only one.

This one says, "You are not the only one being intimidated by the
predators!"

http://www.finksphotos.com/images/bi...elle%20web.jpg

KingOfTheApes aka Comandante Banana aka donquixote1954 wrote:
On Jul 6, 5:41 pm, Tom Sherman
wrote:
KingOfTheApes aka Comandante Banana aka donquixote1954 wrote:

...I don't suppose the Leader of the Free World...
Who is that?


I think is some sort of powerful monkey who holds the key to the
survival of all other monkeys (some 6.5 billion of them)...

http://www.ukuleleman.net/uploaded_i...man-718799.jpg

I do not believe that the citizens of other free countries consider the
occupant of the US White House to be their leader, especially the
current occupant.

Many residents of the US feel the same way due to the current occupant
winning election 5 to 4 along partisan lines in the US Supreme Court and
the irregularities of the 2004 election.

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
The weather is here, wish you were beautiful

KingOfTheApes aka Comandante Banana aka donquixote1954 wrote:
(someone who doesn't understand my metaphors, do you?)

Originally Posted by donnamb
"I'm a pretty common person and I still have no idea what you are
talking about."

Well, it goes this way.

In this jungle where we live there's a king of the jungle (the lion)...

butbutbut, the elephant is the real king of the jungle. Lions live in
open savanna country.

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
The weather is here, wish you were beautiful

On Jul 7, 5:05 pm, DennisTheBald wrote:
On Jul 3, 3:23 pm, KingOfTheApes wrote:

Well, society doesn't hold cyclists in high esteem...

I would think that it would be motoring about that would make one feel
like a loser (with a capital L)... the sort of weak and infirm git
that couldn't haul their own ass across the surface of the planet to
save their soul. The sort of incorrigible lout that actually buys
into Madison avenue's drivel about how owning a particular brand of
auto will make them feel good about themselves and earn them the envy
if not respect of the other people that witness them driving. The
sort of murderous ******* that kills 44,000 USofAliens every freaking
year.

Yeah, going about on a bike causes me to think less of myself than if
I drove a car, you bet... keep talking like that and you'll never
evolve into a sentient being you stupid monkey.

It's NOT by hiding that feeling that we can fix the problem. Obviously
SUVs selling point is that they make you feel powerful and important.
"You are the King of the Jungle." Then you have the bike at the other
of the spectrum. "You are a survivor in the jungle."

So in order we can change that we must make the lion (the King of the
Jungle) look stupid and ridiculous... How? Make him eat banana.

The monkey comes out a winner, not a loser.

While we can't get our act together, the Dutch are going around by
bikes without much controversy about the need for bike lanes, paths
and other bike facilities. Why can't we hire some of their bike
planners to see if they can make America bike friendly?

New Paths

DOT must make sure its' bike planners have an important say in how new
bridge paths and their approaches are built. The opening of the
Manhattan Bridge path demonstrated that it takes time and energy to
make proper traffic improvements like those now in place on the
Manhattan side. DOT Bicycle planners should be involved at every stage
of Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridge bike paths construction to ensure
that cyclists can easily get to and from them when the paths open.

http://www.transalt.org/files/newsro...bikelanes.html

But I do propose another alternative: Open all right hand lanes to
bikes and reduce the speed limit on them to 20MPH. That would be the
"American way."

Originally Posted by st0ut
"you over-estimate the role of planners. Our cities are fine for bike
use as is.
Your fundamental lack of understanding of why Holland is a bike
friedly area is astounding. Also it is farily mythical as well. As you
have never been on the A-5 in a traffic jam on the way to Utrect. What
works in Amsterdam does not work in Vienen. what you are going to ride
from Vienen to Utrect every day to goto a store? No neither do the
dutch so they take a car."


In Holland you've got choices... Are you scared of the word?

If we get one lane, cars keep two (assuming three lanes minimum), plus
the slow lane on the right. If the lanes are put to good use, passing
only on the left, they don't lose any speed, but possibly gain from
slower cars keeping to the right and middle lane.

I voted for the American way, but I still think we need some traffic
planners from Europe, not just about bikes, but to fix the whole
traffic chaos we've got here.

I wonder what they think about us, uncivilized?

poll...

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...=1#post7020948

On Jul 7, 7:04*pm, Tom Sherman
wrote:
KingOfTheApes aka Comandante Banana aka donquixote1954 wrote:

(someone who doesn't understand my metaphors, do you?)

Originally Posted by donnamb
"I'm a pretty common person and I still have no idea what you are
talking about."

Well, it goes this way.

In this jungle where we live there's a king of the jungle (the lion)...

butbutbut, the elephant is the real king of the jungle. Lions live in
open savanna country.

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
The weather is here, wish you were beautiful

In a way, you are right. The elephant is now the king of the jungle...

"If the Republicans are represented by an elephant and the Democrats
by a donkey, why can't we be represented by a smart monkey?"

(These metaphors are a pretty accurate picture of certain things
happening in "the jungle," but don't tell you if the king of the
jungle lives in the jungle or not. We are not monkeys either, but are
close enough)