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27 July 2008

Pleae start seeing bikes.

If there is one thing I have noticed since this latest gas price crunch, and you should have too, it is that there are many, many more bicyclist and motorcyclist on the roads these days. This requires extra care in looking out for them as well as for the others sharing the road. In some parts of the country where the weather is fine year round, you have probably just noticed an increase in volume, but then there are other parts of the country that have a winter and will notice that the volume of riders is affected by the seasons. There are a lot of fine weather riders who only come out on the good days, I know as I tend to be one of those kind.

Speaking of seasonality, bicyclists tend to have a strong upsurge in volume around this time of year, in part thanks to the popularity of the Tour de France bicycle race. Many a biker has been inspired by this yearly event, which can easily be seen thanks to the marvel of television, and that inspiration leads to an increase in biking activity as we try to bring out the Lance Armstrong in all of us.

The fact of the matter is there are as many different kinds of riders as there are people in this world. Everyone is represented in some form or rather from the youngest of children to the oldest of uprights. There are the ultra serious road racers training for the next big race, there the mountain bikers always hungry for that next great section of single track. There are casual cruisers that are less concerned with how long it takes than just making sure they take a ‘stroll’ around the neighborhood. There are adventures that have loaded up the packs and headed out for a major cross country tour that most would never even dream of. There are basket bikers that are looking for thrown out pop cans to put into the baskets attached to their handlebars. There are buddy riders that have the weekend jaunt out with the gang and there are the solo riders that put the miles down as they seek the quiet solitude of meditation and reflection that only a solo ride can bring. There is also the common commuter that has replaced at least some of his transportation requirements with his beloved bicycle.

That makes for a whole lot of different riding styles just as there are different driving styles you’ll see on the road around you and you need to be looking out for those differences. Good or bad, right or wrong they are all out there.

My personal preference is that a bicyclist should ride the rules of the street just as any other vehicle. This means using the road as any other would along with proper hand signals, lane choice, right of ways at intersections, and obeying stop signs. Sometimes traffic and speed differences do not allow for this to happen and adjustments must be made. Some creative riding is necessary to insure safety for all those involved. Sometimes it is easier to cross the intersection with the flow of traffic then back track and join up with traffic flowing 90 degrees the other direction than to try and cross two lanes of heavy traffic in order to use the left hand turning lane, but this is only sometimes as use of the left hand turn lane is what should happen.

You see if the biker and the motorist are using the same rules of the road they will know what to expect of each other and they can more easily play together. If one or the other does something that is unexpected, then adjustments need to be made (and sometimes quickly) or problems happen. This is true of all things that happen on the road and in all cases with our interaction with other vehicles we share the road with.

That is why it is important to teach good habits from an early age and unteach bad habits (if that is possible) in order to make things run more smoothly. One of the biggies is that bikes should ride with the flow of traffic, not against it. There is a lot of misinformed children out there who were taught to walk against the flow of traffic (so they could see and identify the car that hit them I guess although I would just as soon not know what hit me. Now that I think about it though we used to joke about what we didn’t want to get hit by or rather what we would prefer to get hit by such as a Mercedes versus a VW or a Rolls Royce versus an old Chevy pickup) and so by default they were taught to ride against the flow of traffic. Be aware that this is especially true in neighborhoods were kids have not learned or not permitted to ride great distances from home yet. In fact, in neighborhoods many kids will ride all over the streets and sidewalks and yards, they just aren’t as predictable.

Also most importantly, you do not need to sound your horn to signal a pass when approaching a bicyclist. This rule went out sometime around the turn of the 19th century and should not be reinstituted. Of course some riders bring it on themselves by riding three abreast at 15 mph on a road that cars are expecting to be doing 60.

Many of our roads out there just do not lend themselves well to bikes. Some roads have a good shoulder many have no shoulder as all. Be aware fellow motorist that just because there is a shoulder on the street you are driving, it does not mean that it is in any kind of condition to be ridden on. All that road debris and unused gravel gets pushed and blown to the side of the road and is seldom if ever swept up. Stuff that is a pain to walk on as a pedestrian is very difficult to navigate when riding a bicycle. The tires on some of your fancier road bikes as well as average everyday bikes are thin and susceptible to flats so most riders will try very hard to avoid running over things that will cause time consuming tube repairs. Also, just because the rider is on a mountain bike does not mean they wish to be riding of the pavement and in the weeds just so you can have the whole lane to yourself. Many bikers that are looking for efficiency will try to ride on the smoothest part of the road for the lowest rolling resistance. Many like to ride on the painted white stripe that defines the shoulder because the paint fills in the little valleys of rock in asphalt and provides just a little bit less friction. It is noticeable and I do it myself when I can, (especially if I am trying to keep up with someone).

Many people should take up biking, I strongly encourage it. It is good for your health, body, mind and spirit. If you are a thinking person it gives you time to think and ponder. If you are an adventurer it is a great way to explore. If you are a social person it is a great way to meet people and enjoy a common bond. If you are observant you will notice many things in your travels, things that would otherwise go unnoticed. There is a great deal of ways to enjoy things if you keep them from becoming a chore.

Now for motorcyclist I have a few things that need to be said. Some of what I say about bicyclist goes for motorcyclist as well but with some big differences. The biggest is that the power comes from the twist of a wrist rather than the twist of peddle. There is a weight difference as well as inertial mass so handling dynamics are different. The other major thing is speed. Motorcycles are not bicycles and bicycles are not motorcycles.

Because of the increase in gas prices there are a lot of new riders. If you watch closely you will notice that there are quite a few riders that are a little shaky starting off from a dead start, or don’t take the corner as smoothly as another rider might, or have a little trouble picking a line and staying on it. This is all part of the learning experience and they will get better with time.

Some riders might just be a little rusty after not having ridden for quite awhile. The price of gas is the motivator that brings their latent desires out of the storage shed and back to the street for a reawakened sense of freedom that a motorcycle can provide. It is important to remember that most motorcycles can accelerate faster and brake faster than most cars. The do not have the physical presence of a car and so they are sometimes harder to notice. Most riders with any experience are know this and are constantly on the lookout for the inattentive driver. Most accidents occur with the statement, “I just didn’t see them”. If you ever find yourself asking “Where did he come from?” then it is the first step to awareness. Take the extra time, take the second look.

A very common mistake that happens with all vehicles but especially with motorcycles and bicycles is that of someone pulling out if front of you. They may see you but that don’t take the time to truly judge just how fast you are traveling. So they decide to ‘go for it’ and this leads to frustrations because all too frequently they do not accelerate quickly enough and that means putting on the brakes and giving up momentum. That is just rude. If you discover that you have pulled in from of someone either by accident or on purpose accelerate quickly enough that they do not have to hit the brakes or even lift their foot off the throttle. Make sure that you speed up to the point that you are going at least as fast as they were or faster so that you do not become a hindrance. This is good motoring.

Every vehicle has blind spots; some have bigger blind spots than others. Be aware of what your blind spots are and what might be there. Be mindful of the blind spots in others. Try to spend as little time as possible in the blind spot of another no matter what kind of vehicle you or they are traveling in. Always be looking ahead, behind and to the sides to know what is around you and what others are doing. Some motorcycles and small sporty cars are very agile and that agility allows them to change positions very quickly and frequently which can be very convenient at times but also can catch other drivers off guard if they are not expecting you to be anywhere other than where you were when they last looked at you.

We all should be able to enjoy the road together and it really doesn’t have to be that hard. It is just a matter of being considerate of others as you would wish them to be considerate of you. It is because we are different that we come to different ways of answering our daily commuting needs. And it is exactly because we are different that the world is an interesting place to be.

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.

14 July 2008

Don't take free agency lightly

The world would be a better place if instead of trying to find new ways to place limits on us, we found new ways to remove the limits we have and expand the realm of possibilities.

No one that I know of wants to have limits placed on them, but many are quite willing to have those limits in place not for themselves but for others. You see there used to be a comic strip that wasn’t all that funny called “There out to be a law”. I think it started out as a way to point out stupid behaviors that could be observed occasionally by the common man. As it continued though you could notice that it grew into something much more.

Driven by a desire to eliminate these poor behaviors in others, legislation was created to outlaw its existence by mandate. Unfortunately that desire has gotten out of hand. Now every little thing that bothers someone else is potential fodder for legal action. More and more actions are now controlled by the mandate of government at the behest of some group that has decided that they know better than you what is best for you. By process of elimination through a little nibble here and a little nibble there, we have lost much of our ability to function as rational mature human beings capable of reasonable thought and self determination.

Case in point, I don’t need a law to tell me to wear a seat belt. I shouldn’t have to be forced through penalties and threats to have to wear a seat belt. It shouldn’t have to be enforced by someone that carries a gun and has been given the authority to do bad things to me and create oversized consequences for not following their rules.

I should be allowed to wear a seat belt because I choose to. I should be allowed to wear a seat belt because I have been educated in its use and understand the statistical evidence that reason the benefits of its use. I should be allowed to wear a seat belt because I have made a conscious decision to do so for my own benefit.

This is what free agency is all about. The freedom to choose. The freedom to make our own choices and to be responsible for those choices. To make mistakes and to learn from those mistakes. To excel through making correct choices that benefits us and those around us. That gives us the ability to learn and grow and define who we are. We become capable as we move from childhood and become adults in charge of our own destinies.

This is a basic principle for which we should fight to maintain. This is a battle that started long before the world was formed. The freedom to choose for ourselves in order to prove ourselves is at our core foundations. We chose on the side of free agency once and that is why we are here today. Be wary that it not be taken away easily.

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.

Congress has lost all control

I just noticed that Congress is in the process of passing a bill to help fight AIDS globally. This doesn’t sound too bad on the face of it but when you see the price tag, the shock is too much to handle. $50 Billion dollars over the next 5 years and that does not include the add-ons that always seem to make their way into any congressional action. This is on top of the current 5-year bill expiring in September that spent $15 Billion dollars. That is BILLION with a capital B.

This has gotten to the scale where the old phrase ‘Here a million, there a million, pretty soon you’re talking about real money’ seems like the good old days. If this isn’t a shining example of a government that has completely lost its senses I don’t know what is. Congress no longer has any ties to reality. And evidently neither do the American people as there is no public outcry against this waste of taxpayer monies. There is hardly any mention of this so it is probably not widely known. In fact there were more news articles listed for ‘cats vs. coyotes dispute at Cal State Long Beach’ than a mega mega budget item from Congress. 26 articles to 16.

I will be honest here and state that I would still be upset if we were talking about $50 million dollars over 5 years because we would still be talking about spending way too much money inappropriately. The US government should not be in this business and many others. That it has obligated the American people’s future for things that it has no business doing and for amounts that are obscene should be criminal. At the very least we should hold them accountable and get them out of office.

The biggest problem we face is not the taking down the working man through taxes, but the out of control spending by our government that plagues the common taxpayer. There is the fact that the current tax structure is inequitable but that can be solved. I will present the Nef Tax Plan later to show how. The spending problems of our legislature seem a much larger task to tackle, and at this point not even Dr. Phil could make a dent in changing their deviant behavior.

The Democrats have being calling for change and they control the House and Senate and this is representative of what we are seeing; more of the same irresponsible acts. This one is also supported by Republicans and Pres. Bush which continues to make me think that there really are no differences and we only see two sides of the same coin.

When there are so many other actions that Congress could take that would elevate this nation and strengthen its position as a leader of nations, bending to the pressures of special interest groups and political correctness to this extend is truly embarrassing. Perhaps Congress should be listening to another voice for a change. Perhaps we should be the ones to provide it. In an effort to save our nation and our futures, perhaps the time is now.

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.

The world of hypocrisy continues

Not 24 hours after the comments from Jesse Jackson were made somewhat public, the media was a spinning. Not only did we not get to hear the whole and complete version of what was said ‘supposedly off the air’, but the story had little time to develop before Graham’s words of silliness were splattered across the airwaves. The morning news today continued with the distractions by going into history and pulling out old footage of President Bush’s off the mic comments.

A couple of things occur to me as I ponder on the absurdity from this example of the flaky times we live in. First, political correctness has gotten completely out of hand. Remember ‘when sticks and stones can break your bones but words can never hurt me’ was valued advise given to children as they were growing up providing a way for them to deal with others that had a cruel way of using their new vocabularies. So why are we as adults so quick to talk offense from passing phrases of no importance? Why do we let ourselves be affected so easily by the words of another when our own values, judgments, and integrity teach us to ignore them? I have noticed that all too often those that do take offense are those that do so for a purpose. They have their own agendas they are trying to promote and by bringing attention to another’s words it is really only to bring attention to themselves. Recognize that fact and then you have two things to try to ignore rather than one.

The second thing that disturbs me is the fact that people have been frightened into a corner and are not willing to have an opinion anymore for fear of being attack for that opinion. I say that there is no opinion but what I really mean is that people are having more opinions than ever; they are just keeping them to themselves (or sharing them with a select few). Now this is nothing new as one of the basic family rules for getting along has always been never to discuss politics, religion, or money around the family, (though I think these can be the most interesting conversations to have).

In fact, most all interesting dialogues revolve around opinions. What is the best car, engine, tire, transmission? What did you think of that movie? Did you hear the new album by …? Did you see the TV show last night? Do you ski, hike, bike, sew, bake, cook, row, etc., then you have had at least one conversation that involved an opinion. So what is wrong with having an opinion? Absolutely nothing. We should have opinions as well as ideas and we should be able to share them freely. It is that free exchange that makes us a better people. Does that mean we accept all opinions and ideas, mercifully no. That does not mean we readily reject all opinions and ideas either. If we are to grow we need to expose ourselves to new things and thoughts, and incorporate the best elements into our lives. A healthy debate also helps define and validate our own sense of right and wrong and who we are.

That is what this web site is trying to be. Expressions of opinions and ideas that should be unencumbered by worry that I might attract petty criticisms. In fact I welcome them as long as they are done in a civil manner. Anyone that has spent much time on the web soon is able to recognize the difference between an intelligent post and an emotionally driven ignorant response.

We should not fear opinions and ideas but we should recognize that many of them have strong emotional ties to them. In fact it is that very fact that gives the two political parties the power they seek. If they can define a topic in an emotionally charged way they can drive people to take action, whether it be to form a rally, tell a neighbor, write letters, make phone calls, or finally vote for their candidate, they know that it is emotion that will get a nation off its couch.

It is also that emotion that can create hurt feelings in someone and that may be the only time we need worry about sharing our opinions (How do I look dear?).

The third thing I have noticed from all this silliness is that once an opinion has been expressed there is a plethora of people waiting to share their opinion of what the first one said. The fact that the news cast spend more time and effort getting reactions from as many people as possible that have absolutely nothing to do directly with the matter, and spend ten times as much actual air time on the surrounding issue than what was used to report the original matter is frankly a painful experience for this viewer. I am one that wants to view the original act, in its entirety, unedited, and then decide for myself the relevance of the act. I don’t need so many others telling me how I am supposed to think and feel about these issues. If the new issue needs clarification or some background information to increase my understanding of its relevance to current events that is one thing, but to tell me how I should respond to those events is irrelevant and unnecessary. As one station claims (and I wish they would take their own advice) “We report, you decide”.

In order to do that though, we need more complete reporting; something with enough details to present a complete picture not just the typical sound bite laden snippets that pass for formal news these days. When the teaser before the break gives you the same amount of information as the formal presentation of the story you tend to realize that you might be missing something.

The final item is an item that I have noticed on more than one occasion in the past but was brought to the forefront strong and clear again with these stories and that is whenever we get a story second hand we get an interpretation of the real story, and when it comes to our political candidates this is not always o.k. Of course the candidates cannot be in all places at all times and therefore must rely on the assistance of others if they are to get things done and get their message out. Too often the message then takes on the image of the one delivering it. Bias enters in. The messenger projects their personal views of what they feel the candidate is about and tend to project their desires into the selling of the party platform.

Occasionally things go wrong. What typically happens is that we don’t really get what we are signing up for. There has been more than one messenger who has been deceived by their desires for qualities in a candidate only to find that reality is very different. Many a candidate has also found that their quickly formed political relationships truly do make for strange bedfellows.

So where is the hypocrisy in all this? There are many examples to choose from. What would the reaction have been if someone other than Jesse Jackson had made those remarks? Wouldn’t Jesse be one of the first to cast a stone? What if the remarks were made about someone other than Obama, would the press have suppressed the story with the same amount of zeal? Of course the other thing of note is that Jesse Jackson quickly withdrew his opinion with a boiler plate apology while Graham stood by his opinions with some minor comments to try and clarify to those that weren’t just trying to spin a sound bite. Maybe there is a lesson in this after all.

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.

09 July 2008

just a brief note

Okay so I know it has been a while since my last entry but I must confess that I have been very busy and I have been slightly depressed from the actions of the world. I have been watching too much news and listening to too many talking heads and it was just getting to me.

The more that goes on in this election and the more jabber that comes out of the mouths of the candidates, their supporters and the media the more worried I get with the true state of the nation. This is not the same place our forefathers envisioned.

I will add more later, but I just wanted to put in a blurb know to break the cycle and get writing again. Hold your heads up and work towards a brighter tomorrow. It won’t be easy but it will be worth it.

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.