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links for 2006-10-27

do you see what I see?

Photos by Harley Soltes
Aaron Goss of Seattle is riding high on a custom tower bike along the 33 mile Chilly Hilly bike course on Bainbridge Island.
The 34th Annual Chilly Hilly bicycle ride on Bainbridge Island is a 33 mile route with 2,675 feet of hilly climbing.

Hey, lookit, it’s a guy on a tallbike without a helmet. But that’s not all I see. I also see a guy on a Cascade ride without a bib number. That means he didn’t pay the fee for the ride[1], freeloading off those who did pay and the volunteers who set up the logistics (the ferry rides and various amenities)[2].

What is the point exactly? The freeloading aspect isn’t acknowledged here so I can’t tell. I have to assume from what I have seen and read that there is an effort to disrupt organized rides with a message of misguided individuality and “personal freedom.” When personal freedom extends to “pirating” or freeloading on the efforts of others, what message does that send?

The rest of the thread goes on about “hyper skilled” riding ability, whatever that means. I’m not sure how much we progress as cyclists from the day the training wheels come off, other than in endurance and strength. Either you stay up or you don’t: I realize some people can execute turns and maneuvers better than others, but so what? In a crowded field like a Chilly Hilly, there isn’t a lot of room for fancy maneuvers or demonstrations of skill. And that’s the very experience I think recommends wearing a helmet. Consider: I don’t wear my seatbelt because I think I’m going to hit someone. I wear it because I might be hit by someone else. Likewise the helmet: for all my experience, I have seen plenty of “skilled” riders do stupid things in crowded situations. I lost two teeth last year as a result of some riders being unable to maintain safe riding distance. Without a helmet, who knows what might have happened?

There’s way too much ego and outright self-centered attitude here for me to understand. There’s a whole of baggage about lifestyle and personal freedom that I can’t unpack. It seems to boil down to “I do what I want and if you don’t like it, you’re a Nazi!” As long as everyone who decides laws are for other people has a notarized document that assumes all risk and expenses, perhaps that would work. As I mentioned earlier, a friend came up with the idea of a license, not as a test of skill but as an acknowledgment of the responsibilities that come with riding. After all, if you wreck, the State will roll an ambulance for you. But perhaps for helmetless radicals we should just send a guy with a bucket and shovel.

There was also a conversation on the Cascade boards about this picture. There’s definitely an “us vs them” atmosphere, to the point where the word “Cascade” on one of the more freethinking community boards gets replaced by “Training Wheels.” Institutionalized insults . . . nice.

1. This is made clear here.

2. Apparently, the folks who jumped into the Chilly Hilly were on Bainbridge for one of their own events, so they paid their own way out there. Interesting that it would be the same day, though.

links for 2006-10-26

links for 2006-10-25

is America really a Christian nation? Richard Dawkins suggests it never was.

Worth readin: comments seems kinda dumb, skip ’em if you agree.

The Blog | Richard Dawkins: Why There Almost Certainly Is No God | The Huffington Post:

America, founded in secularism as a beacon of eighteenth century enlightenment, is becoming the victim of religious politics, a circumstance that would have horrified the Founding Fathers. The political ascendancy today values embryonic cells over adult people. It obsesses about gay marriage, ahead of genuinely important issues that actually make a difference to the world. It gains crucial electoral support from a religious constituency whose grip on reality is so tenuous that they expect to be ‘raptured’ up to heaven, leaving their clothes as empty as their minds. More extreme specimens actually long for a world war, which they identify as the ‘Armageddon’ that is to presage the Second Coming. Sam Harris, in his new short book, Letter to a Christian Nation, hits the bull’s-eye as usual:

It is, therefore, not an exaggeration to say that if the city of New York were suddenly replaced by a ball of fire, some significant percentage of the American population would see a silver-lining in the subsequent mushroom cloud, as it would suggest to them that the best thing that is ever going to happen was about to happen: the return of Christ . . . Imagine the consequences if any significant component of the U.S. government actually believed that the world was about to end and that its ending would be glorious. The fact that nearly half of the American population apparently believes this, purely on the basis of religious dogma, should be considered a moral and intellectual emergency.

Does Bush check the Rapture Index daily, as Reagan did his stars? We don’t know, but would anyone be surprised?

links for 2006-10-23

links for 2006-10-22

links for 2006-10-21

links for 2006-10-12