# 15 August 2011
So, 2012 could become a battle between secession and health care. And, the traditional media and pundits will consider that a legitimate debate.
Filed under [Democrats] [Republicans] [False Equivalence] [Old Media] [Extremism]
# 13 August 2011
By the way, why is it that the most anti-bike editors seem to know a whole lot about expensive bike models? Do you guys have a stash of Serottas tucked away in a broom closet?
Filed under [Cycling] [Old Media] [Walking] [Rules] [Nasty Old Coots] [NYDN]
# 28 July 2011
The American press establishment isn’t just dead weight in failing to expose the corporate takeover of the country’s politics and the sheer lunacy of its right-wing flank. As with the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq, it is playing an actively complicit, damaging role in our democracy. The entire industry might as well shrivel up and die for all the good it does in informing the public.
Filed under [Old Media] [Obama] [Centrism] [Lies]
# 27 July 2011

Car and Driver Magazine: “We Must Consider Alternative Transportation”

While I was prepared for a screed about how “bike paths” and other silly things (sarcasm intended) were depleting the highway fund and taking away the precious “playground” of automobiles, I instead found that the car magazine I read as a boy and that has catered to car lovers for 50 years — came to the conclusion that perhaps simply building more roads and maintaining all existing ones is futile.

Amazing. I too was a Car and Driver reader, bought my first (and second-to-last) car at their very rational recommendation. It was judged the best performance for the money—a quality that looks very different in hindsight. (Fortunately I got off that roller coaster before anyone died.)

They were supposed to be the thoughtful car mag, and I’m glad to see them finally recognizing that transit and road pricing (maybe?) are directly in their readership’s interest. If we do not wean people off of reflexively using 2-ton boxes for 2-mile trips to pick up 5 pounds of groceries, there will be nothing left for anyone to play with.

Filed under [Autos] [Resources] [Priorities] [Old Media] [Car and Driver] [Streetsblog]
# 18:45
The general mood is one of treating accidents in China as evidence of a defective culture, which does not care about safety. More abstractly, it’s evidence that Asians don’t care about the individual, only about nationality and prestige.
Filed under [Old Media] [Trains] [Race] [Framing] [China] [Crashes] [Alon Levy]
# 19 July 2011

The War on Terror, now starring Yemen and Somalia

Yet here we have the LA Times’ Bennett, serving his government directors, telling his readers that the drone attacks in May of this year “were the first known U.S. military attacks in Yemen since 2002.” What makes that so inexcusable — aside from how factually false it is, and how bizarre it is that a reporter writing about Yemen wouldn’t know that — is that those 2009 and 2010 attacks, which Bennett concealed from his readers, are playing a very significant role in why there is a Terrorism problem in Yemen in the first place.

Filed under [Terrists] [War] ['merca] [Old Media] [Lies] [LA Times] [Greenwald]
# 13:29
No harm will come to Tzvangirai because of the negligence of the Guardian. There is no longer any blame to shift to Wikileaks.
Filed under [Wikileaks] [Old Media] [Lies] [WL Central]
# 9 July 2011
What would happen if a man who is a terrorist, who is riding a bike on Second Avenue, and who has a broadsword strapped to his rear rack, were to unsheathe his weapon and extend it sideways at arm’s length as he pedals next to the sidewalk? How many Israeli diplomats would be disemboweled or beheaded? Many are wondering.
Filed under [Old Media] [Getting Old] [TV] [Cycling] [Terrists] ['merca] [Streetsblog]
# 1 July 2011

Streetsblog New York City » NBBL Attorney Jumps on New York Times Story to Press His Case in Court

This reminds me of Dick Cheney.

Like the time he leaked to the NYT all that Saddam BS (which were all lies). And then, he went on Meet the Press and cited the NYT story as evidence of Saddam being a threat (his own leaks).

The War on Prospect Park West’s beautiful and heavily used bicycle lane is a microcosm of everything that’s wrong with America. Hateful old white people with tentacles that reach into every institution from the media to the police force, shamelessly manipulating everything in sight to get what they want.

This one bicycle lane is small potatoes compared to the Eternal War that this same cabal has engineered in the far-off lands cursed with Oil, but we’ve got to start somewhere.

Filed under [Old Media] [Lies] [Getting Old] [War] [Energy] [Cycling] [Brooklyn] [Streetsblog] [Comments]
# 29 June 2011
Do editors at the Times really believe that European urban policy-makers are sitting around coming up with policies aimed at Irking Drivers? As if Irking Drivers is the more important goal than encouraging urban economic development, improving quality of life, building functional and efficient streets, reducing oil-dependence and enhancing long-term sustainability.
Filed under [Autos] [Parking] [Walking] [Cycling] [NYT] [Old Media] [Getting Old] [Streetsblog] [Comments]