whew. this one is outright awsome:
The Pentagon (what conservative doesn’t care about national defense?) has released a report that the poor fitness of our nation’s youth is negatively affecting our ability to recruit suitable candidates into the military. One solution? Make it easy for kids to ride bikes and walk to school.
well, you have to have enough people you are able to motivate to fight in the army; new york bicycle couriers might have a good health & fitness, but most of them won't choose the army ;-)
so, make cycling a common sense, to get the less educated ones fit enough to serve your country..
So Dez 19 2010 19:29:20 EST von IGnatius T Foobar @ UncensoredHow does one even begin to start with the assumption that conservatives are anti-cycling? That's about as completely lacking in a plausible starting point as that "study" they've been passing around that claims FOX News makes you stupid.
I guess thats not "if you meet a conservative guy on a bike, what do you say" Its rather if you meet a conservative at some tea party, and you want to start some talk about bikes, what could you say, and what shouldn't.
The assumption is that you're talking to a guy that didn't even sit on a bike in the last 20 years.
As one of the commenters mentions, these might also be the right arguments to mention when talking to a democrat.
In general its a list of arguments for talking to somebody who doesn't even like _you_ to bike.
the political thing about it is:
- where are you allowed to cycle (road? in .de for example you "have to" use cycle lanes if theres a sign, even if they don't suit your needs)?
- what about bike facilities like parking lots?
- way hints (you might not want to take the highway... or step hills...)?
- Like there are special ways for cars, should there be special ones for bikes?
- If bridges are build, should you be able to cycle them? (i.e. a train bridge or a highway bridge..., while stairs might be ok for pedestrians, its not as cool for cyclists)
- what kind of requirements are there for lightning etc.
- even, in some forrests its strictly regulated where you are allowed to cycle or not.
so you see, theres lots of politics involved in cycling.
Governor of Hawaii says, in essence, "Give it up already."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/25/us/25hawaii.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
This is one of those cases where the skeptic position persists specifically *because* the documentation provided so far has been somewhat lacking in obvious authenticity. Does it even matter at this point? He's already halfway through his term; any legal proceedings which begin at this point would take more than two years anyway.
Now if you want to get into REAL conspiracy theories, we could start talking about how the real secret is that BHO is actually the son of some other shady figure. There are some very entertaining ones out there.
We've reached the point where everyone's going to believe what they want to, and no one is going to be convinced or swayed to switch positions this late in the game.
Heh... two newspaper reports from about the same day on 1961 corroborating the documents that Hawaii can release to the public is somehow not quite enough.
So it makes more sense to violate another state's privacy laws to quell the rumors.
It might make more sense to attack his fiscal policies, which are worse than voodoo.
We expect transparency from the POTUS. Failing to provide it is something that the other side is going to scream and yell about.
but the economic policies are worse than voodoo. Voodoo is somewhat random. Obama's economic policies are pretty much the opposite of what economists recommend.
I don't expect transparency from the military. In fact, I expect duplicity, and outright lies. And, honestly, for the most part, I do not have a problem with that, except where it impacts taxpayers.
The military cannot possibly function well if it cannot be duplicitous.
IG: agreed. I expect people to be honest and forthcoming, especially if they're political leaders, except in matters of security. There, they have to censor and sometimes even lie to make sure that the country stays secure.
(ie. I totally agree with fleeb)
Dec 29 2010 4:55pm from fleeb @uncnsrd
I don't expect transparency from the military. In fact, I expect
duplicity, and outright lies. And, honestly, for the most part, I
do not have a problem with that, except where it impacts taxpayers.
The military cannot possibly function well if it cannot be
duplicitous.
And often not even then...
So, no pardon for Billy the Kid:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/01/us/01billy.html
Sometimes, I wonder if governors do things like this to drum up business for their state.
Zombie the Kid! Oooh, unleash that on Congress!