To All Readers of Bring It On
June 27th, 2006 | by steve |This started off as a response to my last post in the comment section which at this time has grown to 33 comments. However this was getting long and some things I felt need to be said in a whole new post rather than a comment. I wrote this a few times this evening before I pushed “Enter” but bare with me, I am only human:
America is a free country and one of the values we should all cherish in this is the freedom of expression which is our right as American’s guaranteed by the First Amendment. It’s what we do on this blog, or in the t-shirt or bumper sticker we buy, or even where we live, the color of our house, our choice of furniture and yes, what we drive. Sure there may be reasons, good and bad, regarding our choices. But ultimately that is left is up to perception and never to a perception not fact based. It is however not our right as Americans to police other citizens as they make “freedom based” decisions. It’s foolish and we’ve got no right!
America is changing, for better or for worse, and that is really debateable to the news you listen to or what your belief system is. This is also making America more diverse. Ten or Fifteen years ago, we didn’t have blogging. We didn’t really have news channels like CNN. We didn’t have this vast network they were calling at the time the “Information Super-Highway”. We didn’t have a political system that was this diverse, although 15 years ago, at the time, we had a real third party candidate. We are overloaded now! Each and everone of us is a pundit and has a venue to share those thoughts. Blogging, the news and streaming video have proven to be great improvements to our political and social progress. But what we’ve really got here, to quote the man from “Cool Hand Luke” is a failure to communicate.
See a solitary man on Main Street with an Anti-Abortion sign and you shout vulgarities out the window as you pass by. Or you may at least think them. There may be some serious back story on why that man is standing there, expressing himself with a simple sign. Much like the girl, dancing away in the aisle at a Dave Matthews Concert to “Tripping Billies” which has ended 5 minutes ago because the band has broke for the encore. You may think the girl is crazy and on drugs, but she is only expressing herself. Think I am crazy comparing a man with an Anti Abortion sign with a free spirited girl at a Dave Matthews concert? Maybe… But I see them as equals. I may disagree with one’s political views or how they live their life but I choose to let them. Why? It is a free country and it would technically be illegal for me to physically stop them. And really, why do I care? Though I may challenge or praise either one of them if they express themselves on Bring It On, it’s their American Right. It is truly the American way. But are we all forgetting this because of fear?
Steve O from time to time will describe this blog community he has created here, as a place to discuss America’s social and political issues much like people in pub having a few pints. Trust me, I know full well it’s a liberal slanted blog but I believe, and correct me if I am wrong, the door is ALWAYS open to entertaining other thoughts. And I feel I bring that to the table. I am a simple person, I expect nothing and most importantly I shut the laptop or go to “sleep mode” on the Mac and leave my pieces here. When my participation is over for the hour or the minute of the day I actually read and respond to Bring It On, I shut it off. I tune out… It’s over! There is a better world out there. A house to clean, a career to support, a growing family to provide for and a mortgage to pay. My family I helped create, hat never ending home improvement project, my guitars or on sunny days, my old Porsche in the garage are what I do for me. And of course, if there is time, I love watching cars go through a car wash! It’s true! I go to car washes and watch for fun… Next time you wash your car at a full service car wash where they wash and vacuum your car while you wait, ask other patrons why they are there. Ultimately they’ll tell you because their car was dirty but dig deeper and you’ll get to the same answer or the many synonomous derivatives of: A sense of accomplishment. This includes the answers: I couldn’t stand it anymore, I clean car is a clean image or after this I am off to do “enter a chore here”. And this reasoning may equally be used to describe visits to Bring It On for all of us. (Yes, most of us come her for image development)
It’s all true.
What I describe is hopefully your life in some weird but equal way. I hope you have a chance to push back. I hope your modus operandi in life isn’t malice. Life is way too short to hate so much if at all. And if it is, “Wake up, dude… the elections are coming soon!” It’s not wrong to be educated and open to ideas, every idea. But it is wrong if that education or idea you think you have expresses hate. The guy driving the Hummer down the street most likely loves America as much as you, who has chosen to take public transit, to do your part. Maybe that Hummer driver has solar panels on his house or maybe he is a fire fighter saving people in forest fires or maybe he simply wanted a big car. His choice to buy that car is not based on the corporations, the war or even the consumption of gas for day to day travels. His choice is derived from what he sees and likes and not to fuel some “made up” fire. I agree with Emmet when he says, if the government says it’s ok for me to have it, I should be able to have it if I can afford it. And remember always, “Freedom of Expression” is protected by the First Amendment, with or without troops on the ground.
It was my choice to buy the vehicle no matter how you slice it and fuck the woman on the bicycle and her audacity to run up to stranger and harass me with her politcal, nonsensical, beligerent bullshit. Disagree with this post you may, but dammit it is what’s true to me. And most importantly think about it before you respond or we truly do have a failure to communicate.
39 Responses to “To All Readers of Bring It On”
By Steve O on Jun 27, 2006 | Reply
Steve, go drive an 18-wheeler for all I care. Your the one that has to pay higher gas prices and you’re right, that’s your choice.
Now when your done cleaning your house come on over, I got windows that need some scrubbing
And if you want to cool off, I got a pond out back right behind the pool. Who loves ya buddy?
By Dusty on Jun 27, 2006 | Reply
Why of course its your right to be a selfish, uncaring, gas-guzzling moron steve..and I will protect your right to be that. Your are right in pointing out that hate is a negative energy, but many of us believe that “vanity vehicles” are speeding up the death of our planet and it doesn’t matter if you can afford to buy it and pay for the gas to feed it..its wrong to be that self-centered for vanitys sake alone. Your short-sighted attitude on this is standard for all neocons..and I am not one bit surprised by it. You can call your Hummer whatever the fuck you like and make excuses for why you bought it..in reality its a status symbol and it says alot about you as a person, none of it good.
The government says its ok to buy alcohol, cigarettes and many other things that are detrimental to your health as well as others that have to deal with your self-centered decisions. If you only wish to think of yourself, your personal needs and most of all your wants and desires, you have every right to do that, to the detrement of everyone else living on this planet..because..by god, its legal according to the government!
In the end, that is the only arguement you can hide behind..that its legal to own it.. and it shows a lack in your character as well.
Its also legal to yell at you and tell you what a fucking asshole you are for driving it. Just like its legal to call woman walking into an abortion clinic a “baby-killing bitch”. The goverment no longer protects woman from this barrage of insults..thank our republican-elected representatives and court justices for that. So even though you dont like being called on your selfish excess..she is fully within her rights to scream at the top of her lungs what an asshole you are..as long as she didn’t touch you or your social statement you call a vehicle.
So, just like the woman that has to walk through a gaunlet of pro-lifers screaming at her to get inside the abortion clinic and get what is a perfectly legal procedure, you will have to suck it up and deal when you want to drive that perfectly legal vehicle and people voice very loudly their displeasure of you and what you have chosen to drive…
Enjoy driving it steve..I know you will..you are willing to put up with alot to drive it evidently.
By Paul Merda on Jun 27, 2006 | Reply
Hear Hear Steve. I may not a gree with you on many things but it is your life and your money, live it and spend it as you wish…
You have to have civility to have civilization and I think that the woman on the bike was being obnoxious… Although, I suppose she is allowed to say what she wishes, no matter how bad the tact.
By Steve O on Jun 27, 2006 | Reply
Don’t hold back Dusty, really, tell him how you really feel
By ken grandlund on Jun 27, 2006 | Reply
Steve- I read this last night but didn’t immediately comment because you asled us to think before commenting. Well, I’ve been thinking and I feel that you are both right and wrong. I’ll try to briefly explain…
I agree that you have the right to buy any legal product, act in any legal manner, or hold any personal belief you choose. That is freedom in it’s common sense. It is something we all defend. So whether or not I agree with your choices or actions, I’m not going to try to prevent you personally from exercising your freedom.
However, I may take any efforts I believe reasonable to change the things that I feel are harmful to society or our world, just as you do. And if that means taking steps to reduce greenhouse emissions by ranting against oversize vehicles like Hummers, I’ll do just that. I may not get in your face like bike girl did, but as Dusty points out, her actions are just as legal as yours. And not all that different from the abortion protests he references. Or the ‘God Hates Fags’ idiots.
Bottom line dude…we all do things that others don’t like. If you take an unpopular path and get called on it, by all means defend your choice if you can. But don’t be surprised when visceral reactions come your way. You are right…it’s a new day of sorts. And people on this side of the aisle are getting pretty fed up with the ‘all me all the time’ mentality of those on your side of the aisle.
By Emmet on Jun 27, 2006 | Reply
Dusty, I drive a 2000 Chevrolet Suburban 1500 LT 12/15mpg. I LOVE IT! I could care less if gas went to $5.00 a gallon. I don’t give a damn about Global Warming. Why? The fucking planet/sun have been doing it since the beginning of time! Guess what? Fuck you and you’re treehugging friends. You’re the fucking moron shit face. While you’re at it why don’t you take the butt plug out of your ass and stick it in your mouth so we don’t have to listen to anymore of your shit.
Dusty, smile! God loves you and so do I. Happy Tuesday.
By Paul Merda on Jun 27, 2006 | Reply
Emmet,
Why the hostility?? Are hostile because the evidence in favor of Global Warming being caused in part by humanity is overwhelming? Are you angry because your grandchildren may be living in an entirely different world than we do? Like it not Emmet, the evidence is pretty clear on Global Warming, we ARE having an effect.
1) We know CO2 levels increase temperature.
2) We burn hydrocarbons that have been sequestered underground to the tune of billions of gallons a year.
3) The hydrocarbons are transformed into CO2, water and energy during combustion while at the same time we are slashing and burning forests basically raising levels of CO2 without plants being capable of taking the excess up.
4) How is it that we are NOT having an effect? Billions of gallons of fuel turned into CO2?!?!?!
Please let me in on what you know that most of the scientists don’t. Where can I find that research that debunks that we humans are affecting our planet. You don’t care because you want to ignore the problem, like all of your cohorts on the right…
By Dusty on Jun 27, 2006 | Reply
The only thing our brain-dead friend Emmett knows is to spew shit..being a major asshole, he is quite good at it..Thats all that comes out of anal people..shit.
Emmet is the kind of card-carrying whackjob that the Repubes just love. Ignorant, full of hate and not one braincell in their head to say anything intelligent. If Emmett ever said anything intelligent I would fear the rapture was in full force and happening live and in living color.
..in other words the sky would fall :p
By liberal vet on Jun 27, 2006 | Reply
Dam you guys are a contentious bunch. Steve has a right to spend his hard earned in any way he wants. I also despise gas guzzling vehicles which draw attention be it positive or negative. Those who fail to recognize the negative effects of global warming are ignorant at best. They obviosly don’t give a dam about future generations. LV
By Emmet on Jun 27, 2006 | Reply
Thank you Dusty for the kind comments. Don’t worry about me though I’m always hitting on all cylinders! You should try it some time. I couldn’t be happier. I love life and what life has to offer. I don’t dwell in the negative shit most of you here at BIO! do.
Paul,
‘Extreme Scenarios’
Singer accused IPCC of “assuming extreme scenarios of population growth and fossil fuel consumption” and called on the Bush administration to “assemble another team using the IPCC report, using the same facts” to “write a different summary.”
Dr. Ulrich Berner, a geologist with the Federal Institute for Geosciences in Germany, said global temperatures have varied greatly in the earth’s history and are unrelated to human activity.
“The climate of the past has varied under natural conditions without the influence of humans,” Berner said.
Berner declared that an extensive analysis of carbon dioxide (C02) concentrations in the ice core of Greenland showed that elevated C02 in the atmosphere does not necessarily lead to temperature increases.
“There are numerous temperature changes which are not mimicked by the CO2 concentration,” he explained.
“Carbon dioxide doesn’t police climatic changes. Climatic changes have always occurred and will for the future always occur,” Berner added.
Singer agreed. “The balance of evidence suggests that there has been no appreciable warming since 1940. This would indicate that the human effects on climate must be quite small.”
Blame It on the Sun
Singer pointed to the sun as a major culprit in climate change. “The sun is responsible for most, and perhaps all of the short-term climate changes we observe,” he said.
Environmental groups were quick to dismiss the scientific skepticism on global warming. Ariana Silverman, a spokeswoman for Sierra Club’s Global Warming & Energy program, disputed the panel’s claim that climate science did not support the Kyoto Protocol.
“It is very difficult to make that claim. There is a consensus in the scientific community,” Silverman said.
She admitted there was room for skepticism about global warming models because “nobody knows; we don’t have god-like abilities” to predict the future.
Sierra Club believes we need to “cut down on gasses right now and make cars go further on a gallon of gas.” She predicted that if no action is taken, there could be “major changes to our climate and changes to our ecosystems with species dying.”
“Climate is not a responsible thing for us to be changing,” Silverman added.
Copyright CNSNews.com
To read the whole story: http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/5/14/161152.shtml
Paul, there is plenty of crap out there to debunk the “Human Global Warming” effects. My kids will be just fine. Please don’t worry about them. But thanx for caring.
One thing Paul. How can you believe scientists that couldn’t even figure out windchill factors correctly until about 5yrs ago. Paul, same thing goes with the tempetures of the oceans. Up until about 6 years ago they were figuring out the tempetures in the oceans wrong also. Come on please wake up.
By Liberal Jarhead on Jun 27, 2006 | Reply
When someone acts or speaks from a place of rage, he/she is terrified. That’s the only source of rage. Often, the terror is of being wrong and then having to (a) admit it and (b) change one’s behavior. It’s often accompanied by willful refusal to face obvious facts, when facing those facts would then force the person to either admit being wrong and change his/her actions, or admit doing wrong and change his/her self-image.
Steve is right in that none of us have the right to assault others, verbally or physically, because we disagree with them. We have the right to defend ourselves but not to start the fight. He’s also right, as is the remark of Emmet’s that he cites, that we should be able to do things if they’re legal without anyone trying to forcibly stop us.
But I think Ken is also right in that when someone else’s actions threaten our own present or future well-being or that of people we love, stopping them becomes a matter of self-defense rather than aggression.
The law is supposed to be the system we use to keep all this within boundaries and prevent us all from becoming Unabomber types with impunity, deciding that anyone of whom we disapprove is a menace to society and we are thereby justified in violence against them. So the solution is to keep updating the law to reflect what is really necessary to protect all of us from one of us and one of us from all of us. In the case of the environment, we are at a point where it would really make sense to ban anything that increases global warming through being less efficient than it could be, for the same reason that we ban (sometimes) toxic pollution.
Emmett, “The fucking planet/sun have been doing it since the beginning of time!” is just not true. The levels of CO2 in the air are the highest they have been as far back as it’s possible to measure and are still climbing fast. Something is happening in our atmosphere right now that has never happened before, and if it keeps going it will kill billions through violent weather, starvation due to drought and heat desertifying croplands, and the flourishing of disease vectors in places they didn’t live before. You can stick your fingers in your ears, close your eyes, and go “Lalalalalala!” all you want, but the truth doesn’t give a damn whether you believe it or not - it just sits there grinning at you and being true.
By Paul Watson The Cranky Brit on Jun 27, 2006 | Reply
Actually, Emmet, if Singer is right, then we have even more reason to worry. We can change to reduce our emissions of CO2. I don’t think we can do all that much about the sun’s effects on climate change. So if we are to believe your experts, then we’re even more screwed than we thought. and yet you think this means there is no global warming? Neither says that in that little snippet. Got any more?
By Liberal Jarhead on Jun 27, 2006 | Reply
Emmett,
We posted comments at the same time - to reply to the one you just put up, I’d point out that no article disagreeing with the theory of global warming has been published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal in recent years. There are some scientists willing to prostitute themselves to the oil industry, just as there are some who still take the tobacco industry’s money to say that tobacco doesn’t cause cancer. But they can’t get their work past peer review committees that check their science for soundness, because it’s full of holes. The unanimous consensus of all those who have done sound scientific research on this topic is that the climate is changing and that human activity is contributing. There is also unanimous agreement among those who are doing legitimate science, using methods that stand up to analysis, that when the level of CO2 goes up, the temperature goes up. The fact that someone here or there denies it doesn’t mean it’s not settled. If that were the case, it would still be in doubt whether the Earth is round, because there are still people who think it’s flat, and if there were an industry willing to pay them enough, you could find some people with scientific degrees who would dummy up some pseudoscience to prove it was flat.
As I said before, the truth doesn’t give a damn whether you believe it or not, it just sits there grinning at you and being true.
By Dusty on Jun 27, 2006 | Reply
No problem Emmet, I am always willing to reciprocate where you are concerned
As for the article you quote from,Newsmax, its sadly a rightwing site. Do you have anything from the Mainstream Media that supports your assertions?
By Dusty on Jun 27, 2006 | Reply
Verbal assault is legal LJ..it happens every day in America when women attempt to enter a medical clinic and get a perfectly legal procedure called an abortion. Has anyone here ever been an activist that protected these women from the rage of the right as they attempt to enter the building? Because I have..many many times. The hate and anger is so thick you can cut it with a knife. The voices are screaming at her, calling her vile names waving placards in her face as she tries to do something which is her right.
My point still remains..if steve wants to drive his status symbol..he has the right and the law is on his side. The law also protects the right of “that woman” to scream vile hateful things at steve as he enters or exits his vehicle. The left has the same rights as the right. I applaud her actions at jerking steve’s chain. Because I have had to endure the rights of others to scream at people doing something totally legal, I know exactly how steve felt..and I know why the woman did what she did.
By Emmet on Jun 27, 2006 | Reply
Dusty wrote: “As for the article you quote from,Newsmax, its sadly a rightwing site”
Dusty that’s the exact response I was looking for. That is why I don’t WASTE my time here at BIO! sourcing how I get my views. I just say it how I see it and how I’ve heard it. I did in the beginning (post my sources) but I got sick and tired of, “oh it’s a right wing site.” I’m sick and fricking tired of it. Just how the hell do you get your views? EXACTLY, left wing nut sites. But I don’t slam it down your throat! Get it? Got it? GOOD!
Just so you know Dusty I don’t think you’re a fucking moron. Just having some fun with ya. I respect your views just don’t agree with them. On the contrary I am a fucking moron and love it!
LJ and the rest I do believe in Global Warming but not anywhere close to the extent y’all think it’s happening and most of the Global Warming is natural not man made. And these scientist how many more times are they going to change there minds? Visit me in 10 years when the 95% of the shit they are spewing is wrong and there spewing some other shit. O.K. Thanx.
By Dusty on Jun 27, 2006 | Reply
Emmet, I do not mean to impeach your sources but they are biased. If you had some Mainstream Media links..it would go miles to prove your points. I have no problem debating you..I enjoy a raucous debate. I just can’t refute information that does very little but toot its own horn like NewsMax…sorry. If you had a LAT or NYT or any other reliable respected *cough* news outlet..thats a whole nother animal Emmet.
Sometimes I think you enjoy being the Rush Limbaugh of BIO..I just hope its a persona and not the real you. I married a rightwinger Emmet. He has admitted my activism has made him more aware of things that matter and he now loves to discuss politics on occasion.
By Emmet on Jun 27, 2006 | Reply
Dusty, hmmmm…. Kind of interesting if you ask me. I married my wife 15 yrs ago and her being from Minnesota she was quite the liberal. Not anymore. Her parents were very liberal. Guess what? Not anymore! They have a few liberal traits left in them but not very many. Did I have anything to do with it? Yeppperrrsss. Not all of it was of my making but quite a bit of there changing there minds was.
Dusty, asking me to source from the NY Times/LA Times/Star Tribune (Mpls)? The only thing I use them for is wiping my ass. Actually I read the Star Tribune on a daily basis and I have for the 15 years I’ve lived here in Minnesota. Whether you know it or not the Star Tribune (Communist Tribune) is a mirror of the NY Times. You don’t get anymore tilted left then the Star Tribune unless you read the NY Times. Sorry but I won’t be sourcing them for you.
Dusty, I could never be the Rush Limbaugh of BIO! because I don’t need Viagra, YET!
I’m just me!
By Craig R. Harmon on Jun 27, 2006 | Reply
Steve has a right to buy and drive anything that’s street legal. Everyone has a right to think that gas guzzling, high emissions vehicles are bad for the environment and ultimately bad for the whole earth and to say so. We would all like everyone to mind their own business and leave us alone. That is, we want everyone else to leave US alone. Most of us reserve the right to object vocally, if not uncivilly, to things that OTHERS do. So we have people chaining themselves to trees to prevent logging and people carrying signs and chanting outside of Abortion clinics. We have a right to wish to not be harrassed but we don’t have a right not to have someone, a complete stranger, approach us and tell us what they think of our life choices.
I am all for civility and it sounds like this woman was less than civil. I commiserate with you on that count. However, increasingly, driving gas guzzling poluters is going to be like smoking. It may be legal but you are going to be increasingly the object of scorn and downright incivility. Your choice of vehicles is more than a personal thing that effects you alone. It effects and affects us all. You might as well get used to it.
By Dusty on Jun 27, 2006 | Reply
Emmet, just any reputable news organization. newsmax is not recognized as a reputable news organization…thats my only point dear man..You can quote any news group you wish that adheres to the rules regarding journalism…
By windspike on Jun 27, 2006 | Reply
Just a small thought Steve. You could have done what Neil Young did, buy a hummer and convert it to a biodesiel…that might have been a brighter thing to do.
By Paul Jordan on Jun 27, 2006 | Reply
steve,
you broached the subject….
“And remember always, “Freedom of Expression” is protected by the First Amendment, with or without troops on the ground.”
You cannot choose the form of expression allowed, other than to deny real viloence. Bike bitch may have been deplorable, but her voice counts, and is allowed. If this type of response bothers you, you can only control your own personal side of this cause and effect. So enjoy the Hummer and watch out, or get a different ride, none of us can control other people. Only ourselves.
By Paul Jordan on Jun 27, 2006 | Reply
Oh yes, and Elmer? (emmet)
Fuck off.
See how that works?
“And remember always, “Freedom of Expression” is protected by the First Amendment, with or without troops on the ground.”
By steve on Jun 27, 2006 | Reply
Look… I let this this go all day because I am taking my own advice and thinking before I react. I have been married since 2000. Our “family” cars have been the following:
A 2001 Subaru Forrester at 21mpg
A 2003 325i BMW, super unleaded, 19.8 mpg
Now the 2006 H3 Hummer at 19 mpg average.
My company vehicles during this time have been a 2000 Dodge Dakota, roughly 16.5 miles per gallon, 2002 Dodge Dakota, roughly 17 mpg that was crushed by a tree in the summer of 2002 during a freak windstorm. A 2003 Dakota at 17mpg and now a 2005 Dakota that is averaging 19 mpg. The 2005 is a new body style and engine.
Federal Law states that every automaker’s lineup for each model year should have an average fuel economy at 18 miles per gallon.
The EPA emissions rates a vehicle from 0-10 regarding emissions, 10 being a gross polluter and 0 being a fully electric vehicle. My H3’s manual rates the car between 2-3 and my Dakota’s manual has it at 3.
Now the toy car in the garage is a 1974 914 Porsche (see I do own a Volkswagen Paul) that is fully restored. I altered the engine with bigger pistons, I matched the intakes to the pistons, dropped the stock muffler and replaced it with a MagnaFlow, pulled the points, bored out the air cleaner box so I can get more air to the engine and converted the ignition to an MSD electric ignition. I kept the stock fuel injection but run an octane booster to keep the engine cooler by burning gas faster. The car has no catalytic converter and like all air cooled motors, it leaks oil. The Type IV motor used in this car is the same motor you find in a late 70’s early 80’s Vanagon, except instead of pushing 80 hp, I push 120 hp at 5000 rpm. I have also lightened the car, lowered the suspension with much stiffer springs and added a swaybar up front with sport shocks in the rear and fitted it with BMW 325 rotors and a 500SL Mercedes master cylinder for breaking. This car hauls ass and corners tight as hell. I drive it roughly 3000 miles a year. It smokes, back fires on real cold mornings, is probably as loud as Steve O’s motorcyle, and spits gas out of the tailpipe and the girl in the parking lot wouldn’t say a fucking word to me if I drove by her in this.
The reality is none you people would say shit about the Porsche other than it is nice, and it is look, the Dodge Dakotas, my BMW or the Subaru but it pollutes more than all my other vehicles combined with it’s 30 plus year old technology. It all has to do with the Hummer which after what I just typed doesn’t sound so bad, does it. Oh by the way, the Porsche gets 26 mpg…
Oh and FYI, Dusty, shouting obscenities at someone face to face is a crime look:
In 1942, the Supreme Court sustained the conviction of a Jehovah’s witness who addressed a police officer as a “God dammed racketeer” and “a damned facist” (Chaplinksy v. New Hampshire). The Court’s opinion in the case stated that there was a category of face-to-face epithets, or “fighting words,” that was wholly outside of the protection of the First Amendment: those words “which by their very utterance inflict injury” and which “are no essential part of any exposition of ideas.”
So Dusty, is going into a parking lot and shouting obscenities at a Hummer driver a crime? Do you not see the simliarities in this case to what happened to me? I wasn’t walking into an abortion clinic, knowing full well there could be protesters shouting at me for what I am doing. I was getting a fucking mocha!
By Paul Jordan on Jun 27, 2006 | Reply
Quote from the decision….
“fighting words, i.e., words that “inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace.”
Quote from your original post…
“A girl on a bicycle, maybe early 20’s sneaks up right behind me. She starts screaming at me. “Fuck You, fucking idiot… You and you fucking European assholes are fucking destroying this planet with your God Damned need for oil. Fuck You!!! Asshole…” And she took off. Not wearing a helmet by the way. Still screaming unintelligible slurs about Global Politics.. She looked like an average everyday citizen. It’s almost like she saw my car and waited for me to out of the store. I swear… I got scared. I thought she was one of those Urban terrorists like ELF or something. I started shaking. I didn’t know what to do.”
Are you this desperate to get a rise? A girl!!! On a Bike!!!! Heading away from you!!!! Fighting words?
What was she going to do? Lead you over a cliff? Into a dark alley? Comeon steve, get real! We are all products of our decisions. You decided to drive a controversial truck! Get over it and move on, sheesh!
By Paul Jordan on Jun 27, 2006 | Reply
And what was with the absolutely moronic “stone throw” of “Not wearing a helmet by the way.” Erckel? Is that you????
By steve on Jun 27, 2006 | Reply
Yeah Paul so what is your point? Are you saying women are weaker than men? Remember she road up behind me and this is 2006 and not 1942. She could have had a gun, a can of acid or whatever. How could I know? This a diverse world we live in as stated in the post up top.
One on one… yeah I’d take her ass out in a heartbeat. However, as you and I have discussed before, I am in freaking serious pain daily. I am maybe 60 to 70% of what I normally am. I had no idea what to expect when I turned around. As I also stated in that post, this could have been my wife with our soon to be newborn son, what the fuck? It could have been a man or woman.
By ken grandlund on Jun 27, 2006 | Reply
Steve, as I mentioned when you initially posted about this, most likely you are up against a perceptual situation, that is, people perceive the Hummer to be conspicuous consumption, whether it gets 35mpg or 10mpg. It comes with the territory in this day and age when we have soldiers dying to secure oil fields for Bushco and friends.
Sure, the Porsche may be more pollutive, but it sure doesn’t look like it would be. (BTW- I’m a much bigger fan of the 911 series than the 914. Not that I have either, but I’ve driven both. Call me a Porsche snob if you will, but something about that little box never did sit right with me.)
If in fact you really were injured by this girl, and it’s sure starting to seem as such with a double post on the topic, perhaps your best course of action would have been to educate her to the efficiency of your vehicle in a calm and adult manner. It’s my experience that adults who act like children often just need another adult to act like an adult to calm them down.
Is life fair. Of course not. But you seem to do a good job of rationalizing your purchase here, so I assume you could do the same in real life too. In the end you may not have gotten through to bike girl, but you’d probably feel better about the whole thing.
Finally, it’s not just mpg that get’s people worked up. The other materials in your hummer are also dependent on oil for their production, and as there is more production pieces used to create a larger vehicle, more energy is also used build the thing. More steel, more plastic parts, more rubber parts, etc. So in a real sense, your hummer’s production process does use more energy and resources than a smaller vehicle.
Besides, be honest. You don’t really have a hummer just because you need to haul around a ton of stuff right? I’ve been packing cars for a long time and I can fit a 10 foot xmas tree into my Mazda 626. I fit a whole bedroom’s worth of belongings (sans furniture) into a Ford Escort. What is the real reason you have a Hummer? Because it’s cool or big or tough looking? Or because you want to be heads above the other traffic? What was it?
By Dusty on Jun 27, 2006 | Reply
Steve..the Supremes also backed the right of Pro-lifers to stand on public property and verbally harass everyone that enters a medical office for the express reason of getting a legal abortion..
Why can’t you equate your little problem with those that woman face everyday trying to get a medical procedure that is perfectly legal?
If your neighbors lined up on a public sidewalk every single morning and screamed obsenities at you for driving that big shitbox..how would you handle it? Your rights are no different than those of women seeking an abortion..the courts allowed the pro-lifers the right to protest on public property. Your failure to see my point in this issue merely drums home the fact that you don’t think people should give you a ration of shit for driving a huge status symbol..I don’t give a shit what the mileage is..its about more than mileage steve..you can put your facts about ALL your 7 cars up here and it doesnt change a thing..you get what you deserve for driving that status symbol..and its too damn bad if you don’t like it.
I am sure that the women that try to get a legal abortion would rather not have to walk the gaunlet of screaming rightwing nutjobs..you haven’t even had to deal with that ….yet..
Your time is coming..you will be held to task for your excess..whether you like it or not..your a target…just like the women I used to escort into the abortion clinics on a daily basis.The more people realize that global warming is killing the planet, the more they will single out people like you that drive big status symbols of excess.Ever heard of a six cylinder steve? saves lots of money and still has power to spare…but hell..their not a big status symbol are they? Keep rationalizing why you own that big thing..it makes no difference to people that abhor excess of any type. Its about more than gas mileage steve..lots more.
Btw..did you see the comic I put up for you today? Its another reason big SUVs suck ass.
By steve on Jun 27, 2006 | Reply
Ken:
“It comes with the territory in this day and age when we have soldiers dying to secure oil fields for Bushco and friends.”
With that reasoning then we are all guilty. Guilty for driving and consuming. You live in California. Do you flip on the AC during the summer time? Granted I bought the most fuel efficient one I could afford when mine blew 3 years ago but we can turn this all sideways and point fingers all we want, we are all guilty if that statement is fully true. The last checked the oil was there in the ground during other administrations.
Ken, I have kept this up for two posts and generated 60 comments. It is valid because it was a real life partisan debate and I am glad we are all participating in this discussion because it is healthy. I may be some twisted conservative but I feel better having done this.
FYI, at PCA autocross events, some stock 914’s routinely beat out 911’s of all years on the same track. The look on a brand new 911 owners face when this $5k “tin box” rolls up in the rear view of his $90K Porsche. The cars have more torque at 20 to 30mph than most cars ever made… next to the RX-7 with it’s rotary engines. Freaking cheaters in 1st gear at 12,000 rpms!!!
Dusty:
Where to begin. Tomorrow I am going down to my neighbor’s with a Prius on my bicycle. When they come out of their house, I am going ride up behind them shout obscenties for “Not buying American, sending our jobs over seas to the Japs and for being tree hugging pussies for buying such feeble cars with a battery that will take 1000’s of years to decompose, destroying any wet land near where that battery gets dumped in 10 years”. Are you cool with me doing this, or would I be an ignorant fool. And would they have a case against me so they could protect their lifestyle and their “snootyness” in driving a status symbol to the Environment, the Prius. There was a South Park episode that made fun of Prius drivers that I thought was absolutely hilarious, did you?
Oh and by the way, I am Pro-Life but I wouldn’t stand at the door of an abortion clinic harassing someone on the way to murder their unborn child. At three months, my unborn child had finger nails, 10 fingers and toes, eyes, a heart beat and a brain, how that is not killing a person, I don’t know what is. But hey, as I just stated, I wouldn’t stop you from doing that or yell at you for it. I think it is wrong and I might educate on why it is.
Oh and by the way also, I am anti-death penalty. Our legal system is severely fucked!!! It only takes one innocent life to die to prove that.
By Liberal Jarhead on Jun 27, 2006 | Reply
A minor point of law: despite the Supreme Court allowing picketing from public property, to verbally assault someone, i.e. to confront them and call them names or threaten them, is defined as assault under the law. If there is any physical violence, so much as a touch, it becomes battery, and if the battery produces any injury or a weapon is involved it’s aggravated battery. So what Bicycle Girl did was a crime.
The tactics of the picketers at abortion clinics are illegal, immoral, cowardly and evil, but the fact that they do something evil in the name of their cause doesn’t make it okay for someone else to do it for a cause with which we agree. Wrong is wrong is wrong is wrong.
By Dusty on Jun 27, 2006 | Reply
I dont give a rats ass if you don’t stand in front of a medical clinic and scream obsentities..are you trying to validate your position with that statement? Does that make you better than the people that do that sort of thing? The essence is they feel strong enough about their convictions to do something about them.
As for the verbal assaults that are leveled at the the woman entering the clinics..I tend to disagree with LJ..they are legal as long as they do not enter the woman’s “space” or prevent her from entering the clinic. I have seen them first hand, and I was always told, there is nothing we can do if they do not touch or infringe upon your right to enter the clinic.
So the same goes for you steve..do not play the martyr here..your not by any stretch of the imagination a victim. you are someone that felt the wrath of an individual that questions your morality of driving a big huge monstrocity, when people are dying for oil.
By steve on Jun 27, 2006 | Reply
You know what is funny Dusty, you really have turned this whole thing into a battle that you think you are winning with your smug comments and descriptive alliteration. A made up war, wag the dog…slow dance alone to the sound of four hands clapping. Congratulations… look what you have won.
The reality is, you are no better than the girl on the bike. A woman walking into an abortion clinic is in no way a comparison to a man getting a cafe mocha entering a vehicle to go home. So fucking get over it, LJ is more right about this than anyone who has posted here on this. And he is a liberal, so is Ken and so Steve O (at least he says he is). Emmet is just the color man. He is just the antagonist. It is out to get your goat and you fall for it hook line and sinker. It is comical because Emmet’s incite for his little bro’s blog is to “incite” those around him. The scary part, many people think that way. I know he doesn’t!!!
You are so fucking hung up on labels it is pathetic. It’s a Hummer. Big freaking deal… it doesn’t matter if it got 50 mpg, it’s a Hummer. An American made car right down in Lousiana. A car that GMC, a big Bush loving American Corporation, was happy to donate dozens of to the relief effort during the aftermath of Katrina. It also is pathetic that you had to run out and find some cartoon that only you found humorous to post. Last I checked 99.99% of the cars on the road take gas and oil to run. They are made from precious natural resources, shipped by train or boat that use oil and made from oil by products. Oil is most likely powering your computer, your house, and if you live in the southwest, your AC, keeping you cool while our boys fight 112 degree heat in Baghdad. Oil in your car is a mere fraction of what you use to power your life, the stores you visit and the street lights that help you see your way at night. A little bit of oil is just as much as a lot. Get over your status symbol bullshit. I make good money and I want to spend it. It is the American Freaking Way!!! You want change, win it at the ballot box. Suck it up and vote for people like Ken who really want to make a difference!
By ken grandlund on Jun 28, 2006 | Reply
LJ- Interesting legal point, but it’s kind of a strange commentary on our litigous society that we have to classify a good ‘in your face telling off’ as an assault. Childish? Yes. Tactless? Most definitely. Criminal? I’m not so sure….but thanks for the info. Now, with that information, it would seem that there is a lot of assault taking place in blog comments all over the world. Should we begin to hold all who confront others or call others name or issue threats via the written word to the letter of the law? Or does an adult frame of reference help dictate what is actually harmful to an individual? What exactly is the standard for prosecution? Or is this just an ‘on the books’ law that any prosecutor would laugh out to the curb?
Steve- You are absolutely right. We are all guilty. But it would not be a stretch to say that some are less guilty than others, if only because of an effort and an attitude towards conservation, lower consumption, and finding alternatives to fossil fuels. We live in an oil-based world. Even the most staunch rejecter of energy will be touched by the oil industry. In our plastics, in our fertilizers, in our everything, including as you say the transport for our goods and the light in our dark nights. But those who make a conscious effort to reduce dependence on oil versus those who say ” a little bit of oil is just as much as a lot” are in two completely frames of mind and reality. To me, that equals a reduced level of guilt.
BTW, I have no A/C in my house. Just new, double paned, gas filled windows that keep energy costs low and temperatures even. And on the hot days, they open up to let the breeze flow through. Also use a lot of flourescent lighting…recycle stuff…that kind of crap.
If you took the comments about hoping these posts relieved how this situation made you feel as condescending, that was not my intention. Simply that I was glad you didn’t have to keep this bottled up. That’s what friends, er, friendly adversaries are for.
911-914…hell I’d take either if someone offered them, but my opinion on the porsche is totally subjective and not based on performance issues. I like sleek instead of boxy.
Oh…and thanks for the plug!
By ken grandlund on Jun 28, 2006 | Reply
Damn…I wanted to be a little snarky in there so I had a recommendation for you…seriously…move to Florida. Since they passed the “Stand Your Ground” law last year you could legally just have blown bike girl away with no legal consequences…self-defense my man.
(from the Christian Science Monitor no less!)
The “Stand Your Ground” laws would allow people to defend themselves with deadly force even in public places when they perceive a life-threatening situation for themselves or others, and they would not be held accountable in criminal or civil court even if bystanders are injured.
It seems the perfect solution for people who inflame others with their big cars and don’t really give a damn why.
By Paul Watson The Cranky Brit on Jun 28, 2006 | Reply
steve,
Yes, the wopman going into the abortion clinic is VERY comparable. Is what she’s doing legal? Yes. Is what she’s doing opposed by others? Yes. Is what she’s doing considered by some to be selfish, immoral and plain wrong? Yes. Does you driving your Hummer fit into all the above categories? Yup.
So the girl has as much right to scream abuse at you as you do to scream at the Prius driver or the anti-abortion demonstrators do. It hurts their cause, makes them look like nutcases and entrenches positions as no one likes being shouted at, but it is perfectly legal and is as acceptable. Personally, I find both to be rather rude and pointless, but that’s me.
By Dusty on Jun 28, 2006 | Reply
Paul, Steve will never admit that my analogy fits his gripe to a T..which is sad..but he will still put himself out there as the victim.
Enjoy your status symbol steve..and yes, I hope you get hassled each time you go retrieve your “latte” or go to the store. Your not a victim, your a conspicuous consumer with an ego the size of your vehicle.
By Dusty on Jun 28, 2006 | Reply
BTW steve..the temps here hit over a 100 daily..and no I do NOT use A/C. I use evaporative coolers which aren’t as effective at cooling us, but they are better for the environment and use 75% less electricity than conventional Air Conditioners. I do what I can to save energy and keep down greenhouse gas emissions.