Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Rantopia

I was all set to write a nice polite update about all the hard work I've done the last few days, then I went and read the KW discussion board...

Thorny was kind enough to share a story of what was said over the airwaves on KFAN radio last week. As you can imagine, most people I know wouldn't have anything to do with KFAN, we have brains. However lots of redneck idiots in this town do listen to the Clear-Channel spew, I know, I work with a bunch of them.

Apparently Chris Hawkey (the morning idiot) last week told a tale about how he intentionally tried to run a cyclist off the road on his commute in simply because he though it was stupid that anyone would ride a bike in the winter. How can someone still be legally allowed to drive after doing something like that, then bragging about it on the radio? How can Clear Channel still be employing this idiot? (well, that's rhetorical, I think being an idiot is a prereq. to working at KFAN).

In MN it is illegal to drive a motor vehicle within 3' of a cyclist on a public roadway (even if there's no shoulder), so no matter what, he deliberately broke the law. He admitted on the radio that he did it to teach the cyclist a lesson, that seems more like assault to me, or attempted vehicular manslaughter, but I'm certainly no lawyer, and I'm sure I'm just dreaming here, but if I were that particular cyclist, I'd be down at the police pressing charges against this asshole, any charge I could.

This is Minneapolis, the city with the highest percentage of bicycle commuters in the US. There also happens to be a real winter here, with snow and everything (if we're lucky). If you put those two things together, that means there will be many people riding bikes in the snow, on your roadways. Mr. Hawkey, get used to it or leave. We've got just as much right to be there as you do.

Then, as if having these local idiots around wasn't bad enough, I was emailed a story about a cyclist in Colorado who was hit and killed by a teenager who was attempting to send a text message while driving. That's so sad you'd think I was making it up, but unfortunately I'm not. The kid is a minor, so they won't release his identity, and get this, he's being charged with Careless Driving Causing Death, which carries a maximum one year sentence. So this 17 year old was so stupid that he took the life of another person, yet he'll get off with only serving one year. Way to teach him a lesson. I sincerely hope he's riddled with guilt the rest of his life for what he did.

There is simply no accountability for driving these days. Period. Watch out.

Well, after that I don't even feel like writing about the weekend. I spent too much time working on flooring and it's not done. enough said.

We got some fresh snow though, which is exciting (not just because it means it's open season to run cyclists off the road either!) for skiing. I hear there was some decent skiing at Wirth this weekend, I wouldn't know I was inside all weekend. Maybe next weekend I can get out for a ski. More than likely this will be the first winter with real snow in years simply because I have too much work to do on my house to go out and ski...

bbbb

4 comments:

Baba said...

Jeez BBBB, take it easy!!!! Didn't you see the apology that KFAN jerk #1 sent!!!

Bob said...

I saw that heartfelt appology. Bill, I love your work too, it's right up there with Hannity and Colmes!

good thing it's ski season, it's harder to hit the skier's, all those pesky trees out in the woods make it hard to drive your pickup truck over them...

Anonymous said...

Jeez Louise Baba, BBBB should not take it easy on this issue! Getting rednecked while biking is a serious issue! I live in the extended Metro area, west of the cities, in Maple Lake, and getting rednecked by bike hating big truck driving jackasses is quite the norm. Usually it's just verbal yelling at me to get off the road, but sometimes, on the rare instance, someone will take it to a very unpredictable level that threatens my life. This August I was riding a quiet country gravel road with no traffic, and I was forced off the road, on purpose, into the ditch by a big truck. Then I was told to stay in the ditch, and he spun his tires, like rednecks do, and sped off. I'm a big guy, and I refuse to be intimidated by anyone, but I'll say, that day, I was scared.

Anonymous said...

Has anyone ever thought of making up some spoofy NRA jerseys with a big ass NRA emblem on the back? Maybe along with some stupid line like "have gun, will use"? If you want to communicate with these jackasses, you have to speak their lanuage, and they all seem to have NRA stickers, so...