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#641
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I guess the scooter ain't very safe either
On Aug 7, 12:11 pm, donquijote1954
wrote: On Aug 6, 8:32 pm, Pat wrote: Zigzagging: Most Dangerous Driving Don't ask me for a study that backs up such a statement, it's just obvious. Every time you get on the road you see these wild vehicles (usually SUVs and larger vehicles) zigzagging all around playing a game of Russian Roulette --a game they always win since they are bigger... You guys always lose me with these SUVs are evil threads. I never have any problems with them when I'm on my motorcycle. You just have to drive your motorcycle like a car, following the same rules, keep your high beam on in the daytime, and make eye contact. You'll be lucky if you can make eye contact. Most of them have tinted windows. If you are experiencing problems, I would guess it is one of three things: you are not keeping up to road speed, you are not accelerating as quickly as everyone else, or your bike just too small to be seen/noticed. If they can miss a scooter, what comfort there's for a bicycle? Or could it be that they simply miss it because they are engaged on the phone, changing pampers, etc? You might want to consider something a bit bigger. I've ridden the Honda Silver Wing and that's a sweet ride. Other than that, the best you can do is get a really loud horn, such a boat horn or something.- How about requiring these TRUCKS to require a TRUCK DRIVER'S LICENSE (a step above driving a regular car but not a fully semi driver's license) and banning cell phones, etc? I guess that would be too much for the big business involved in SUVs... I am curious as to where you live. In NYS, you can't tint front windows or windshields, so that problem goes away. It is also illegal to talk on a cell phone (except with hands-free or a headset). |
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#642
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you think the monkeys will ever learn to drive?
On Aug 8, 8:46 am, "J. Clarke" wrote:
How about requiring these TRUCKS to require a TRUCK DRIVER'S LICENSE (a step above driving a regular car but not a fully semi driver's license) and banning cell phones, etc? I guess that would be too much for the big business involved in SUVs... Write a legal definition of "truck" so that it can be determined who has to have such a license (can't be "everybody knows what a truck is", it has to be one that a lawyer can't argue away in court) and figure out what training should be required and come up with a convincing argument why that particular training would improve safety then suggest it to your Congresscritter and you may be surprised at what happens. SUVs are basically a way of working around the CAFE tax and if that could be closed wihout seeming to be an SUV ban until after it was in place the Congresscritters might be all over it. As for banning cell phones, that's not going to happen. That genii is well and truly out of the bottle and any Congress than successfully enacted legislation prohibiting their sale and possession would be out of office at the next election. As for bans on using them while driving, such bans are essentially unenforceable--yeah, a cop can bust somebody if he catches them in the act, but cops can't be everywhere all the time and most people who use them while driving don't use them all the time, so the likelihood of actually getting caught is too low to serve as a deterrent. Personally though I've never noticed SUVs "zigzagging around all over the place playing a game of Russian Roulette". The big problem I have with them is that SUV drivers seem to be unwilling to just PASS THE EFFING TRUCK. They'll pull up behind an 18-wheeler, take ten minutes to slowly creep by it, and having passed it then take off at 90 mph. And meanwhile I'm sitting there in the buffet zone waiting for this circus to end so I can get by the blasted thing. "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." - Upton Sinclair I think the paper on which I'd write to my Congressman (woman) could be put to better use. It's all about money, you know... 'And what does Detroit think about all this? They love it. Why? Because when they sell an SUV, they're selling their lowest-tech vehicle that has the least R&D expense and costs the least to produce, since its basically the same product they've been selling -- as a truck -- for the last 50 years. Come on, people! Challenge Detroit! Ask for a product they have to break a sweat to design and build! "No thank you," says Mr. and Mrs. America, "even though we spent the 1980s and 1990s putting down American cars as being technologically inferior to European and Japanese products, we've changed our minds now and want to buy cars that American manufacturers were good at making -- in 1950." So much for the idiotic decision to buy an SUV that America has been making in showrooms for the last ten years. What about SUVs on the road? Let's face it: Most people aren't very good drivers and even the best drivers have bad moments. This is one reason SUVs are popular. When I rant about SUVs to my friends (many of whom drive SUVs), they often respond that they feel "safer" in an SUV. They're right, in one sense: Surrounded by a ton of unnecessary extra steel, they're likely to come out of an accident with a normal-sized car better off than the people in the car. But they don't ask themselves whether being in the SUV may have contributed to the accident in the first place: With a higher center of gravity, poor handling and terrible stopping power due to the extra mass of the vehicle, I think this is a real factor in a lot of accidents. But, please, let's not think about what we're doing, OK? Let's just wrap an extra ton of steel around the kids.' http://www.gregburch.net/cars/suvs.html My effort go toward THE REVOLUTION. Hey, it may never happen, but I'm having fun... By the way, you think the monkeys will ever learn to drive? What do you think of the monkeys? Well, put your headphones on --and grab a banana-- before you can enjoy/cry over what these stupid monkeys are doing... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a15KgyXBX24 Oh, we should add that some of them want to believe themselves to be lions... *** Hey, I don't want to leave you depressed with those stupid monkeys. Some monkeys really know how to have fun... Do you imagine life as a monkey would be like? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_EyXPs2_Jk A lot of fun, for sure. I sure like to play with those lady monkeys. Hey, if you are really proud of who you are, you may consider this T- shirt: "Have you felt like monkeying around without any apparent reason and with a sense of guilt? Well, now you know what to do..." http://www.zazzle.com/product/235602224199217660 WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE http://webspawner.com/users/donquijote THE BANANA REVOLUTION http://webspawner.com/users/donquijote40 __________________ "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" -M.L. King |
#643
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The Revolution Will Not be Motorized
"A Muzi" wrote in message ... donquijote1954 who? wrote: On Aug 4, 2:15 pm, "Tom \"Johnny Sunset\" Sherman" wrote: donquijote1954 who? wrote: OK, with such a motivation (warning the novices against you), I ask you (I hope there are many witnesses out there), WHAT THE HELL IS THE SOLUTION, so we can go from 1% to, say, 30% ridership?... Google "Hubbert's Peak. Oil production peak... It's gonna be fun to be alive and watch the couch potatos finally pedalling when things finally start going down hill (it'll be up hill for them though). I don't see much prevention in practice, particularly when bicycles are mostly banned from the dangerous roads --banned by fear, that is. "Tom "Johnny Sunset" Sherman" wrote How about stopping all the fear-mongering about how dangerous cycling is and the related promotion of h*lm*ts and segregated facilities? Chicken Little was wrong about the sky falling, and you are wrong about the true danger of cycling. Edward Dolan wrote: Cycling on highways with lots of traffic and no shoulders is extremely dangerous. Even an idiot knows that much. Ed, it hasn't killed me yet- even though most of my cohort is long gone from other causes. Want an aderenalin buzz? Follow me between buses in the morning, brushing elbows on both sides. Danger? Bah! Sitting home bitching will kill you sooner. It is just a matter of time and you will die like a dog on the road that you are. Regards, Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota aka Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota |
#644
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TAMING THE BEAST
"Tom "Johnny Sunset" Sherman" wrote in message .. . Andrew Muzi wrote: [...] Tom "Johnny Sunset" Sherman wrote: All of that ignores the real problem that no one wants to deal with because of the difficulties in implementing the solution. The could be a decent life for everyone if the world's population was 2 to 2.5 Billion. At 6.5+ Billion or more, forget about it, and that includes low enough traffic to make cycling reasonable almost everywhere. A highly elitist analysis. (you volunteering to disappear??) I have no children and no plans to have any. Good enough? Let's go back to the real world and attainable solutions. The world will implement population control, and there will be nothing the foolish hominids can do about it. I most emphatically agree with Mr. Sherman's point of view on population. Unfortunately, the human species is programmed to reproduce like crazy lemmings. The future is full of horror as yet undreamed of because of this - and there is nothing that can be done about it unless you get into the human gene ("Brave New World") and change the way we are biologically. Regards, Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota aka Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota |
#645
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The Revolution Will Not be Motorized
wrote in message oups.com... On Aug 5, 11:18 am, donquijote1954 wrote: On Aug 5, 7:12 am, "Edward Dolan" wrote: "Tom "Johnny Sunset" Sherman" wrote in s.com... Andrew Muzi wrote: However, I stand by my statement that the free-market has failed, since there is no real free-market health care system in the US. "Johnny Sunset aka Tom Sherman" wrote Seeing as it's never really been tried, except perhaps many moons ago when health care was nowhere near as complex and expensive as it is now, Joe the Aroma WHO? wrote: I think it's hasty to make that conclusion. "Tom "Johnny Sunset" Sherman" wrote My point exactly. The FREE MARKET is failing to provide free market health care in the U.S. Edward Dolan wrote: Mr. Sherman is quite corred on this matter of health care in the US. The present system is broken and cannot be fixed except by a single payer system (the government). Such a health care system will be like the public school system. It is not socialism, but simply good common sense. It ought to be financed via higher progressive income taxes on the rich and/or a value added tax on those who like to spend money on luxuries. A total no-brainer! You have obviously not thought that through to its logical conclusion My logical conclusion was that I could not afford to get treatment for a chronic health problem, since my portion of the expenses was more than my discretionary income - and yes, I am "covered" under a[n] employer provided "health plan". I really need to start trying to get a job in Canada. More than 50% of recent personal bankruptcies in the US are from people who got sick, lost their jobs and/or health coverage or exceeded the coverage limits, and exhausted their financial assets on medical bills. Great system, eh? Mr. Sherman is a professional civil engineer with a very good job and yet he finds himself in trouble. That says it all. No nation that has gone to government paid health care has ever voted to give it up. Most of us do not want transplants or other heroic medical procedures, but we do want garden variety health care. Heath care needs to be made a right and not something you can only get if you can afford to pay for it. Where the Hell did such a crazy idea ever come from in the first place? The sooner the present system goes kaput, the better. If I did not have the VA, I would have to think about emigrating to Canada myself. I suggested this to you elsewhe Relocate the capital to Ottawa. How would we go about it? (Within the Constitution, that is?) Hey, that's where I live! We've got some very nice bike paths (sorry, "multi-user recreational pathwways" that started out as just bike paths) , about 180 kilometres worth. I use them on occasion, but there is enough of a cycling presence here that most motorists are pretty considerate. There are of course a few suburban arterial roads that I'd rather not be on if I can help it, but then again I try to avoid the suburbs in general. That said, we have a severe shortage of family doctors here. In Ottawa I think the number without a family physician is 40%. Of course there are lots of walk-in clinics, but a regular family doctor is much preferred as one gets old and starts needing those regular tests... "No nation that has gone to government paid health care has ever voted to give it up." - Ed Dolan Regards, Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota aka Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota |
#646
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TAMING THE BEAST
Edward Dolan wrote:
I most emphatically agree with Mr. Sherman's point of view on population. Unfortunately, the human species is programmed to reproduce like crazy lemmings. Evolution has a way of doing that - programming surviving species to "reproduce". Dana |
#647
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TAMING THE BEAST
"Dana Myers" wrote in message . .. Edward Dolan wrote: I most emphatically agree with Mr. Sherman's point of view on population. Unfortunately, the human species is programmed to reproduce like crazy lemmings. Evolution has a way of doing that - programming surviving species to "reproduce". Yes, but unfortunately the human species is no longer bound by natural checks and balances. We shall end up on a planet populated only by ourselves and various pests, like rats and cockroaches. Regards, Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota aka Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota |
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