howsteepisit

Might be beneficial if joeyBike were to stop using all products that contribute to global warming, such as commercially produced food, any home grown food using commercial fertilizer, all factory produced goods, such as video cameras, computers, bicycles, bicycle consumables etc. Of course any customers of whatever the heck business he's involved in who use any public transportation or private internal combustion power source should be turned away. Best switch off that computer too, as the internet and associated infrastructure is a huge power user, even though Google does try to reduce their carbon footprint they cannot do that totally. Hope he's got the AC off down there in NOLA, as there is a big power user too.

How's life out there in the swamp Joey?

spare_wheel

the perfect is the enemy of the good.

howsteepisit

Perfectly true, but only an arrogant p***k would denigrate the lifestyle choices of those that make their own lifestyle possible. Last comment by me on this one as it will spin totally out of control soon enough.

italktocats

/thread

achoo

With this interminable winter? NO!!!!

Generate that CO2! To excess!

JoeyBike

One man's excuse is another man's rationale apparently.

keyven

I guess the driver of the car Paul Walker was in thought the exact same thing - "Man, I'm the greatest driver in the wor-".

No one is going to talk the "I'm too good" drivers and cyclists out of their lifestyle choice. It simply takes a split second of 'everything that can go wrong, does' to act as a wake-up call. And it's going to happen with more serious consequences.

If every other fool decides his skill is better than it really is, there's going to be chaos on the streets.

JoeyBike

Just look at NASCAR. The best drivers in the world, no intersections, no pedestrians, only have to turn in one direction, everybody driving about the same speed....BLAMO!...a car part yard sale in a split second.

Six jours

You're welcome. And congratulations for being the first one to discover that I am personally responsible for it.

Meanwhile, I note you are still dodging the basic point that people with jobs are the reason you have a bike and a place to ride it. Also a computer, an internet, and electricity, all of which you are using to make fun of people with jobs.

But like I said, there are enough folks with jobs in this country that we can tolerate the occasional parasite. At least we get the entertainment value of those parasites occasionally making absolute asses of themselves in public.

JoeyBike

I'm making the best of a bad situation.

Parasite: An organism that lives in or on another organism (its host) and benefits by deriving nutrients at the host's expense. (Google)

I do not get anything from you. I do not cost you one penny. I work, pay taxes, save, live frugally, then retire for up to two years at a time. Maybe even go "homeless" on a long bike tour. Then lather, rinse, repeat. Not sure how that makes me a parasite. I don't even qualify for Socialist Security benefits yet and there probably won't be any when I do qualify. Can't get Medicare either. I get absolutely nada for free other than air to breathe and tap water at a local park.

I-Like-To-Bike

How does someone who "works and pays taxes" (even taking every other year off for fun and games) get to his mid 50's in age and NOT accumulate 40 quarters credit and qualify for Social Security/Medicare benefits at retirement age?

keyven

Personally I prefer to keep the carnage there, not out in the roads where children and babies are

An unfortunate side-effect of declaring "I'm really good enough to speed through stuff" is that many mediocre cyclists are now going to think the exact same thing. At least until they end up going 30mph to 0 in a hurry on the wrong side of a windscreen.

It would have been better for all if you just kept it to yourself and ride.

kickstart

Ones rationale is a measure of ones rationality.

When someone claims to run 43 red lights a day, shooting gaps at speeds up to 30 mph - to avoid being hit by a ball bat - because the laws don't apply to them - because the lowest common denominator is their standard of acceptable behavior, their rationalizations, rationality, and veracity are suspect.

JoeyBike

I am only 56. I do not qualify to receive benefits today nor anytime in the past. This was my point. I have only contributed up to this point in time, never TOOK anything for myself as I was previously accused of parasitism on the 9-5 working folk.

JoeyBike

I am an adaptable product of the society in which I have to function on a daily basis. Speed, awareness of my surroundings, and constant vigilance are tools that prevent me from becoming a victim. Sitting ducks are more at risk than flying ones generally speaking.

I-Like-To-Bike

Of course you can't draw Medicare and SS benefits at age 56 unless you are disabled. Did you really expect anything different for slackers and bums who choose not to work?

That doesn't explain why you think you "don't even qualify for Socialist Security benefits yet and there probably won't be any when I do qualify. Can't get Medicare either." Do you even know what it takes to qualify for SS and Medicare benefits when (and if) you meet the age requirements? Know anything about working enough to get 40 quarters credit? Of course working sporadically, for peanuts, will not qualify you for much in SS benefits but you can expect to reap what you sow.

JoeyBike

A lot of people my age and younger are going to likely reap a small fraction of what the sowed if that. Only difference is they will feel cheated (as they should) and I won't. I will have enjoyed my life and they will have worked for some dream that will likely never come true and never pay off. Not that full SS benefits alone are going to do more than force them to live as I do already by free choice minus the "vacations".

Again, I was responding to someone calling me a parasite. My response, partly, was that I have never taken anything from the "system". I just don't need much to begin with and self-finance my existence. And I don't think that the terms"slacker" or "bum" apply to me any more than the term "parasite". Perhaps if I lived in a Communist society I would be a parasite of sorts.

A friend of mine refers to me as a dragonfly. I just hang out relaxing most of the time and fly out to snap up a bug every now and then when I need to. That is the more accurate portrait.

kickstart

“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.”

There's more to life than whats in it for me.

JoeyBike

"While my townsmen and women are devoted in so many ways to the good of their fellows, I trust that one at least may be spared to other and less humane pursuits. You must have a genius for charity as well as for anything else. As for Doing-good, that is one of the professions which are full. Moreover, I have tried it fairly, and, strange as it may seem, am satisfied that it does not agree with my constitution." - Henry D. Thoreau (Reference)

I spent over eight years heavily involved in charitable causes on a daily basis through my mid 20s. It really didn't take for me. But perhaps if one day I am judged for my retirement from work and charity that judge will look far enough back in my chart, and at the little things I have done here and there since, to be satisfied.

I salute you for your continued service in charitable causes. It ain't easy.

kickstart

"This is why I ride fast and stop for nothing..."

Its not how you live or what you do, its that you base your conduct on that one letter, using it as a platform to boast and judge.

JoeyBike

I dont like telling others what they should do. "I" try to lead by example. If something works for nearly half a century "I" feel it my duty to share (boast about) it with others. "This is how I do it. It works. Take it or leave it."

This is the lesson offered in my OP: You will lessen your chances of being targeted from curbside if you ride fast enough to hang with the flow of auto traffic and stay AWAY from the curbs. Also, If you offer a continual moving target it is more difficult for someone to punch you in the throat and take your bike or swing a baseball bat at your melon.

If you want to read between the lines and accuse me of something else that's ok by me, and you could even be right...but you really don't know my motives for starting THIS thread beyond speculation.

-----------------------------------

A note to the Mods: There is a faction here at BF that enjoy derailing threads and I believe that sometimes it is a purposeful attempt to get certain threads locked. I just want to remind you that I have a REALLY thick skin and do not require protection of any sort here beyond what the Forum Rules spell out specifically. When a thread I started goes off on a tangent, sometimes it can be quite entertaining and other times I do my best to get it back on track. Please have patience as best you can before locking up my threads and don't worry about me.

Thank you.

kickstart

On my ride last night, a red Subrau shot the gap between me and a jogger on the red at the trail crossing. Since he was successful and may have been getting away with it for a long time its ok,? Is it not possible that the main reason he has been successful is because few others do it? If his conduct became the norm, would it work as well for all?

I don't see how being successful with an extreme form of conduct makes it a good example. Can you not appreciate that?

FBinNY 

We see similar arguments raised on the helmet thread. I don't like it any more here than there.

Joeybike gets vilified for his riding and life style, which are very different from the mainstream. But it's not his job in life to be an example, and people are sophisticated enough not to emulate blindly.

IMO- the dumbest thing JB does is set himself up by starting these threads, but that's his choice. Otherwise, while how he lives and rides isn't out cup of tea, let's at least give him some corutesy and in the process let these threads die before they boil down to nothing but personal attacks.

SnowJob

There is a section of the Greenway (mup that cuts across South Mpls. in an old railway trench) that has had a few incidents of youths throwing things off of bridges at cyclists. The Molotov cocktail thing only happened once, and the rider who was targeted said he looked up and saw two kids who looked pretty shocked at what they'd done.

spare_wheel

I tend to respect signals more than Joey but when it comes to cycling in the lane I suspect I ride even more aggressively than him. As such, I think I understand why he starts these threads. It's to counter the idea that high-speed vehicular cycling is dangerous and rude.