this strip rocks!!!!!

Which is the greater mixed message:

1.) Oregon's "share the road" plate with a bike on it (I live in OR, the only state where I have ever been told to "get the f*** off the road" for the radical act of cycling lawfully). Face it, no matter what they say, car-critters are nearly all anti-bike.

2.) Any environmental sticker on a car. CARcinogens are truly appropriately named.

The only time I've seen a professed motorist give a pro-bike opinion is when s/he had a close friend who was a bicyclist... and only in their presence.

Guys like George Maynard (the one to sue New Hampshire for their state motto, and was a Jehovah's Witness to boot - check out the link on my name) are probably why it was so easy to scare the populace into giving up their civil liberties these past eight years.

Now, I'm not one to trample on someone's right to free speech, but if you didn't in some way believe in General John Stark's words, wouldn't Canada be a better place for you?

It's funny how many feel a need to protect their civil liberties at the expense of others...

And I'm NOT talking about Jehovah's Witnesses who have legitimate complaints at times; They should be as free as we reasonably can make them to pursue their chosen path... Atheists should NOT have to say "under God"... And Roman Catholic churches DON'T have to hire female or gay priests...

But those things are different than discrimination in the public, civil realm. Recognizing "Gay Marriages" for the very real marriages they are in that civil realm in absolutely no way impinges on the civil rights of the private realms of religion and belief. Sorting these different realms out and applying appropriate principles in each may be difficult, high-school age ethical thinking... But we have to do it, no?

Your "Civil Liberties" end where mine begin... Learn how to negotiate that and we're well on our way to a peaceful, civil society. Learning to "walk a mile in another's shoes" is a basic skill that we're supposed to learn in our public schools, churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, meeting houses, homes and neighborhoods.

As Carol puts it so well, "Can't we agree to disagree?" Get with the program, folks!

Stepping down off the soapbox now,

@human power,

In how many states have you cycled legally? I had orange soda (in a paper cup) thrown on me in Seattle, and a CD jewelbox in Boston. People only shout obscenities at you so you know they're there. Honking would be rude.

I've often felt the bumper sticker political sentiment to be a sad commentary on moder political discourse. Of course I do have two count em two Obama '08 bumper stickers on my car so none are without sin.

You know I get torn between the old school wacky symbology character Lay, and the new modern "true to life" Lay. I mean they're both good in differnt ways, and when you see too many of one you invariably long for the other.

Any way, great little commentary Carol.

How about Oklahoma is NOT okay?

Incidentally, I drive an automobile because I have to and ride my bike when I can. When I find myself behind a bicycle rider, I do not pass until I am absolutely certain it is safe to do so, and I swing wide when I do pass. After all, bicycles are much smaller and lighter than automobiles. How much of a threat could they possibly represent?

How much time does this behavior cost me? Very very seldom more than a minute. If my life were so rushed that a minute's delay would ruin it, I would consider myself to have a miserable life indeed.

Quite sure many others behave in the same manner. It is not only the law, but required by simple courtesy.

Driver does not necessarily mean bike-hater, and bike-rider very seldom means lawbreaker. Yes, I have had close calls on my bike when one or another idiot passes within inches, apparently unaware of the damage a tiny mistake could cause.

Have long felt no one should be allowed to pilot any ground vehicle with horsepower higher than his or her IQ.

...a guy got busted for obscuring the "atoes" in the boosterish license plate motto "Famous Potatoes" with tape. He fought the ticket on free speech grounds and won.

Ah, Idaho, where the plate motto should have been "Thank God for Mississippi."

As a bicyclist myself, I'm not so much concerned about the passing-within-inches part (I bike in NYC and they do that to pedestrians and each other, so to not do it to me would seem weird), but the "minute's delay" part simply is simply unconscionable for folks here.

I dunno about suburban drivers (for whom even going to the convenience store is a ten mile drive, and thus the entire concepts of "time" and "convenience" are totally out of whack) but to paraphrase Terry Pratchett - the smallest unit of time in the universe can be defined as the time it takes after the light has turned green for the NY cabbie behind you to honk.

That said, the irony of course is that I'm usually the fastest thing on the road south of 59th Street.

But to go back to license plates, forget political soapboxes: Why hasn't anyone sued the State of New Jersey for its "garden state" plate irony? Their license plates are the color of smog!

Now, I'm not one to trample on someone's right to free speech, but if you didn't in some way believe in General John Stark's words, wouldn't Canada be a better place for you?

You ignorant jerk, Canadians have not shown hesitancy to fight, die, and sacrifice for freedom and what they believe in.

I try to treat cyclists with respect on the road, because I know that they law says that they are "real vehicles" on the road. If there's no bike lane, I will stay behind them and give them space when they are using the normal lane. I won't just drive by them within the same lane, only inches away. I'll slow down and wait until I can safely pass by going in another lane, just like a would with a slow car.

But, what annoys me is that cyclists love to claim the privileges of being a real road vehicle, but then they'll take the benefits of being a pedestrian when it suits them. In particular, when they come to a red traffic light and there is a line up of cars waiting for it to change, they will just scooch by between the cars and the curb to get to the head of the line. That really, really bugs me. They want to be treated like one of the "big boys" when traffic is moving, but then slink by a line of cars - not in a traffic jam, but just cars waiting at a light.

When I've respectfully waited behind and then passed a bike, signalling and going out into the other lane like I would when passing a motor vehicle, and then I come up to a red light, I will get as close to the curb as possible so that they cannot just ride up in the narrow space between the cars and the curb to bypass their fellow legal road-vehicles.

Bicyclists will often go through a red light too, whereas cars almost always will wait at a red even if there is no traffic going through the other way.

I guess the common factor, and the thing that annoys me, is that cyclists want to be treated as real road vehicles (and that should be, and that is the law) but they also have a pedestrian mind-set that they needn't cooperate with other vehicles or obey traffic laws.