Bicyclists Endanger Their Lives With Poor Driving Skills

As a motor scooterist who is required to obey all the motorized vehicle rules of the road, as well as being licensed and insured, I respect that these rules help to make driving orderly and safe. Driving motor scooters and motorcycles require many careful skills far beyond that required to drive a car. A motorcyclist must always pay attention. All of these advanced driving skills as well as the increased safety regulations are for the good and are life saving. But by comparison, bicycles which have compleltely unregulated drivers, have a huge share of poor drivers who endanger their lives through very poor driving skills and adherence to safety precautions.

Many choose to ride bicycles for health, enjoyment or for environmental reasons. But a very poor commitment to goo driving skills or basic safety precautions are daily endangering the lives of bicyclists. Yesterday, I nearly witnesed a serious accident near my home when yet another bicyclist ran a stop sign and was nearly hit by a oncoming car through the intersection. From my experience, far more than 95% of bicyclists fail to obey the basic rules of the road such as respecting stop signs or red lights. This failure to obey the basic rules of the road directly contributes to more than 500,000 injuries to bicyclists each year and more than 700 deaths. Whether bicyclists think that it is too much work to slow down and stop for a stop sign or to procede with caution through any intersection, regardless, this is a dangerous and potentially deadly poor driving practice. Police in some communities are beginning to crack down on this illegal and potentially deadly habit of most bicyclists who run stop signs or red lights with fines that can easily excede $200 or more. It is a potentially dealy practice for bicyclists not to abide by the same rules of the road as motorists do, and creates an unnecessary hazzard for motorists who begin to expect that most bicyclists will not obey the rules of road and grow to expect stupid behavior on their part on the road. This becomes a potentially deadly distraction in congested traffic.

Another big contribution to bicyclist injury or death is failure to wear a safety helmet. Although bicycle helmets are made up of lightweight materials such as foam and plastic, this is a vital thin line of protection that can mean the difference between life or death in a fall or accident. The human brain is very sensitive, and when it splashes against the skull like Jello in an accident, brain surgery to remove the resulting blood clot or to prevent brain swelling is vital to saving a life. Often simply bothering to wear a bicycle helmet can make all the difference and avoid this possible emergency brain surgery.

On Monday, I witnessed an adult female bicyclist who attempted to pass traffic in a congested dangerous intersection on the wrong side, and nearly lost her balance and fell off. She was of course not wearing helmet as well. A bicyclist with such poor driving skills is a real danger to herself, and it is only a matter of time before she causes herself a serious accident unless her driving skills soon improve.


Another big problem is bicyclists driving at night. Small battery-operated bicycle lights are hardly noticeable by many motorists. In addition, the poor general repair of many streets and roads, as well as the thin tires on bicycles make any pothole or road imperfection that could be easily seen during daylight a real danger at night. Many deadly accidents with bicyclists take place after dark. A bicycle should really only be operated during daylight hours for safety reasons. Small bicycle lights or reflectors are hardly a good line of safety at night compared to faster moving motorized vehicles, some of which may even be exceeding the legal speed limits by poorer motorists.

Many bicyclists either try to pass on the wrong side of traffic, ride the wrong way in traffic, or impede faster motorized traffic by riding too far out in traffic and endanger their lives with these dangerous and poor driving skills. Any of these poor driving skills could prove deadly if a bicyclist should run into a motorist not paying attention or who is not as highly skilled such as motorcyclists generally are.

Many bicyclists simply endanger their lives with their poor driving skills. If they cannot begin to show some improvement very soon and begin to reduce their high yearly death and injury rates, then lawmakers might have to consider some sort of licensing system which would not only improve rider safety through education, but will provide some tax revenue for the roads that bicyclists now use for free and do not contribute to the basic repair of.

Bicycling can be a fun form of transportation, or it can be dangerous and potentially deadly. If bicyclists would simply wear a helmet and follow the basic road rules, they can make a huge difference in their own safety and make their use of a bicycle less annoying to many motorists. Bicyclists need to start taking some real action to reduce their role as the worst hazzard on the road and the worst danger to themselves on the road.

Idaho's Larry Craig The Latest Chapter In Right Wing Hypocrisy

The latest situation involving Idaho's very conservative Republican Senator Larry Craig is another good example of right wing hypocrisy. For years, Craig was known as a sharp critic of Gay rights and other "family issue" morality issues in the U.S. Senate. But a damning police report as well as Craig pleading guilty to the equivalent of lewd acts in a public place seem to indicate that Craig is yet another of conservative moral shortcomings and hypocrisy.

Why any man would engage in weird conduct in a public men's room is outrageous and simply not the place to express homosexual conduct. Most Gay men express their sexuality in much more normal ways than Craig chose to use according to the damning police report which sounded downright "creepy" according to former GOP Congressman Joe Scarborough in a news interview.

Once again another member of Congress has disgraced the institution with awful personal conduct.

FOX's ANCHORWOMAN Joins The TV Hall Of Shame As Only Airing Once Before Cancellation

FOX made history this past week, when the simply awful new reality series, ANCHORWOMAN, about a blonde bikini model who became a news anchor at a Tyler, Texas TV station was cancelled after only one airing. Very few TV shows have ever been so bad as to face a one airing cancellation. The ratings were simply awful for this show compared to other FOX programs which have proven much wider popularity in recent years to establish FOX as a major contender.

As far as the performance of this model, she was friendly enough, but a fellow female newscaster felt that she was unqualified to anchor the news. As a whole, she wasn't completely awful, but the show certainly had no audience appeal.

During the 1950's, of all persons, Jackie Gleason who used to call himself "the great one", faced a one show cancellation after a game show of his failed. But his later shows all proved to be major hits by comparison.

Maybe the worst TV show of all time that was cancelled after just one showing was a terrible British comedy where Hitler and Eva Braun move in next door to a Jewish couple. This disgusting premise both angered the public as well as drew only a few viewers. It was perhaps the worst idea ever for a TV show.

ANCHORWOMAN is proof positive that not every TV show goes on to become a big hit or can even draw an audience. Some shows simply lack the magic required to click with viewers.

Senator Warner's Plan To Pressure Iraqi Government Probably Won't Work

After his latest visit to Iraq, veteran Republican Senator John Warner is proposing a token cutback of 5,000 U.S. tropps by December to pressure the Shitte dominated government which is on a month long vacation in August to make the needed political reforms and changes. But likely this will not work.

Iran likely has made enough political overatures towards Iraq that Tehran can provide any military or financial aid to the Sunni dominated Iraqi government that even if the U.S. was gone, would make little difference. Iran has proven the ability to reverse engineer a wide variety of arms, and may be able to provide the Shiites with arms far beyond what the U.S. provides to crush the Sunni minority if the U.S. was gone.

What is really needed in Iraq is a secular and inclusive government, much like what Iraq had under the past leadership of Dr. Ayad Allawi. A lobby and law fim headed by Haley Barbour, former GOP head, is hoping to bring Allawi back into power for example.

Senator John Warner, like most Americans is disgusted with Iraq. But there needs to be a wholesale change in the government there. Iran still waits in the wings to take advantage of the situation and pick up the pieces in the absence of any international forces there to police matters.

The American role in Iraq cannot be openended for sure. But on the other hand, Iran should not be allowed to exploit the nation's weaknesses and fuel more sectarian war between the Shiite and Sunni community either.

Camel Even Names Their New Cigarette For Women After A Murder Weapon: The Stiletto

Leave it up to a R.J. Reynolds, the producer of Camel cigarettes to choose to name their new slim cigarette for women after a weapon historically used to commit murders; the stiletto. Already, U.S. Rep. Lois Capps(D-CA) and 40 members of Congress have voiced their concerns to 11 magazines for women urging them to discontine running ads for Camel No.9 cigarettes and other new cigarettes that hope to hook women on the deadly drug addiction to nicotine. Some women believe that smoking keeps them slim, but especially so when their bodies are eaten alive by cancer and they are reduced down to just a few pound before dying a horrible and painful death that cigarettes create.

R.J. Reynolds and similiar death merchants have no desire to stop marketing deadly new products to create new drug addicts to buy their products. In cases where the settlement with tobacco bans advertising attached to a publication that many young readers read, some tobacco companies beat this settlement by enclosing colorful printed material on card stock thaty is not actually affixed to the publication. This is nothing but playing lawyer tricks with the intent of the tobacco settlement in limitations on advertising.

Some medical evidence suggests that women may even be more likely to develop certain cancers than men, which makes it especially insidous that this new demographic is being targeted by the tobacco death merchants. Despite all of the serious evidence of cigarette injury and damage to both users and nonusers alike, this industry has no intent to stop finding new markets to increase their sales. This industry often owns other products such as food, and should really concentrate on those more healthy markets instead of the promotion of death through nicotine drug addiction.

Bush Makes An Absurd Comparison With Iraq And Vietnam

Today Bush offered an absurd comparison with Iraq and Vietnam if the U.S. withdrawals too quickly. Besides no one from from the Bush family serving in either Iraq or Vietnam, the comparison is absurd based on the threat. Both are a form of civil war, except that the Shiite dominated government of Nouri al-Maliki that the U.S. supports is the problem.

If a bloodbath takes place after the U.S. withdrawals from Iraq, then it will be from this government that the U.S. is supporting that fails to stop the sectarian violence against the Sunni community and fails to prevent the ongoing Sunni violence as well is the problem. If the uncooperative government in Iraq is the roadblock to peace in Iraq, then maybe the U.S. should have prevented such a government from taking power in a nation not yet ready for democracy.

The "Surge" Continues To Fail For Those In Iraq

While American deaths have dropped somewhat since March in Iraq as a result of the "surge" and supporters of the "surge" cling on to this as some sign of the "surge" working, the honest fact is that the deaths of those in Iraq only continues to worsen. Last month, 1,641 Iraqi deaths were noted by the official count by the Iraqi Interior Ministry, which often understates the number of Sunni deaths.

If the role of the U.S. in Iraq is for the people of Iraq, then shouldn't any sign of progress be a reduction in the deaths of those living in Iraq. Any claims that the "surge" is working that don't include the increasing deaths of those living in Iraq is clearly not an honest evaluation.