A different look at the helmet debate: was cycling links -

On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 19:04:13 -0600, "Edward Dolan"
wrote:

If you are so insecure about your views that you cannot justify them
without raising ludicrous straw men, it is surely your problem not
mine.

The straw man is quite real as I have known many cyclists who have told me
that they do not like to wear helmets because it musses up their hair.

Interviews in Australia found that the fear engendered by helmet
promotion propaganda was cited as a major reason for giving up
cycling. I don't recall how many people cited hair issues, although
as around 90% of teenaged girls in some areas stopped cycling it is
not impossible that some were so motivated. I am not one of them.

For what it's worth, helmets have no more effect than any other kind
of hat on a grade 3 buzz-cut.

We used to call those kind of haircuts here in the Middle West heinies or
butch haircuts. The problem with those kind of haircuts is that you have to
have a pretty good shaped head in order to get away with it.

Or not care. That would be me.

I have great legs, though, according to the local womenfolk.

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at CHS, Puget Sound

On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 19:06:23 -0600, "Edward Dolan"
wrote:

That is because you have reduced yourself to the status of slug,
creeping with glacial slowness over the face of Usenet and leaving a
nauseating trail of slime behind you.

You are tracking me, not I you.

Not really. Like any other slug trail, yours is so wide-ranging as to
be practically unavoidable around here.

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at CHS, Puget Sound

"Edward Dolan" wrote in message ...
"Just zis Guy, you know?" wrote in message
...

It is, however, a form of humour which is possible only in English and
(I am told) Chinese. I had a friend who was a language scholar and
was immensely proud of having constructed two puns in Russian.

Yes, I think you may be right about that. I have only a slight knowledge of
French but I cannot imagine any puns in that despicable language of knaves
and scoundrels.

Actually both French and Russian are rich in puns. Guy's friend was
probably pleased with himself because the ability to pun in a language
is evidence of fluency in it rather than because the language itself
is difficult for a native speaker to pun in.

Frederick the Great of Prussia once sent Voltaire the following
cryptogram.

P 6
à
Venez 100

Voltaire easily decoded it as a invitation to dine at the Sans Souci
palace: Venez sous P à cent sous six, or "Venez souper à Sans Souci".

Voltaire's reply was "G a": G grand A petit, or "J'ai grand appetit".

Why is it every time I write the words "French" or "France"
that I want to kill someone.

Because you are a bigot?

--
Dave...

"Edward Dolan" wrote in message ...
"DiscoDuck" wrote in message
om...
"Edward Dolan" wrote in message
...
Regards,

Ed Dolan - the impotent - Minnesota

No wonder he is a control freak. He can't get it up and takes it out
on those who value freedom of choice.
Ed, you're a rapist of freedoms

**** you too DiscoDuck!

Hit a nerve Edward? You would **** me if you could, I am sure. but
you can't because of your erectile difficulties.

"Edward Dolan" wrote in message ...

Two words: crack pot

One word: asshole

**** you too DiscoDuck!

Too? I never said that. Do you read things that aren't there? Do
you also hear voices? Do they say "Control theeeeeem. Control
themmmmm. Make them wear a helmet"
Can you feel your feeling of control slipping away, Edward? You seem
very frustrated. Perhaps impotence does that too?

"Edward Dolan" wrote in message ...

No, you just blathered on about names, but who the hell knows what any of us
are talking about at this point since you have not included enough of the
previous posts.

Yes I ahve. Up to you hunt them down.


I have been on this newsgroup for a couple of years now and everyone here
knows me to be a cantankerous son of a bitch, but not a criminal. You were
the one to make threats against me, not the reverse. All I do is call you a
jackass and an asshole which is exactly what you are.

Interesting. Where did I threatne you? I ahve never made a threat
against anyone on the internet anywhere.
You mistake feeling threatened, with making threats. I never did the
latter. You feel threatended because you are losing your control.


Do you have kids? If so, do you beat them when they do not "obey"
you?

But at the end of the day, we all know (AND YOU KNOW this too), that
the reason you behave this way is because you cannot admit you are
wrong-another symptom of control issues.

Me wrong? You have got to be kidding! I am NEVER wrong about anything. I am
Ed Dolan the Great and I sit at the right hand of God Almighty.

Crackpot

You stated you accept the "experts" and that you do not need to make
up your own mind. That confession in of itself shows the level of
intelligence you hold.

You are an uneducated slob.

Mmmm. I have 2 degrees, and working on a Masters. Yeah, real
uneducated.
You, on the other hand need education. That way you would value the
democracy you claim to cherish.

"DiscoDuck" wrote in message
om...
"Edward Dolan" wrote in message
...

Two words: crack pot

One word: asshole

**** you too DiscoDuck!

Too? I never said that. Do you read things that aren't there? Do
you also hear voices? Do they say "Control theeeeeem. Control
themmmmm. Make them wear a helmet"
Can you feel your feeling of control slipping away, Edward? You seem
very frustrated. Perhaps impotence does that too?

I pick up on the sentiment and attitude being expressed. In your case, it is
really quite simple. When you do not provide content and are just whining,
then it is always going to be ... **** you too DiscoDuck!

--
****ing Regards,

Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota

"Just zis Guy, you know?" wrote in message
news
On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 18:45:18 -0600, "Edward Dolan"
wrote:

Absolutely nobody is immune from risk compensation, because risk is
entirely subjective.

I was once hiking in the Rocky Mountains when I was a young man. It was
early spring and there was still a fair amount of snow on the mountain
sides. Many others were sliding down the snow banks on their rumps
inviting
me to do the same. I declined because I could see the risk involved. I was
a
very smart person even when I was quite young. I have always been able to
see the risk involved and I have always declined.

Like I said, absolutely nobody is immune from risk compensation,
because risk is entirely subjective. Different people have different
acceptable levels of risk, just look at the Spaite study which shows
that the helmeted and unhelmeted cyclist communities have entirely
different accident (as opposed to injury) profiles. Your personal
acceptable risk threshold may be lower than other people's, but risk
compensation is not about your perceived risk versus other peoples.

On the off-chance that anybody reading is interested I recommend
"Target Risk" by Wilde and "Risk" by Adams. The latter is a personal
favourite of mine.

Those writers were most likely fools of the first magnitude.

Of course, that's what it takes to completely change international
thinking on a topic: to be a fool of the first magnitude. Oh, wait...

You can never be too careful.
Hence you travel only by aeroplane or train, right?

I NEVER travel by airplane. I don't much like the damn trains either.

Mad! Completely mad! Statistically those are *the* safest ways to
travel!

There is something extremely scary about being 30,000 feet up in the sky. If
you don't think so, then you are even crazier than I am.

The problem that Guy Chapman has is that he has been bamboozled by studies
which his mind is not capable of putting in their proper perspective.

Quite the opposite. Unlike the Liddites I have not been bamboozled by
the studies into losing my sense of perspective.

Guy

A good post by Guy Chapman. He has definitely scored a few points here. He
has convinced me that I perceive risk where others don't and that it is not
100% rational on my part. But I have never yet broken any bones in my body
and I have never yet had any serious accidents in my life, either on the
bike or off the bike - so I guess I will continue on my mad way.

--
Regards,

Ed Dolan the Mad - Minnesota

"Just zis Guy, you know?" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 18:52:10 -0600, "Edward Dolan"
wrote:

Why is it every time I write the words "French" or "France"
that I want to kill someone.

I have no idea, but I think you have a convenient person to hand: I
suggest you try killing yourself and see if the feeling goes away.

But I do not have one drop of French blood in me (Thank God!). No, it must
be a Frenchman who must die for the sins of France. Is it just my
imagination, but are not the French more swinish than most other races. We
Americans are all saints compared to the swinish French who would sell their
own mothers for a little lucre. Lest we forget, the French were in bed with
Sadaam Hussein. What else is there that we need to know about them?

--
Regards,

Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota

Just zis Guy, you know? wrote:

...
Interviews in Australia found that the fear engendered by helmet
promotion propaganda was cited as a major reason for giving up
cycling. I don't recall how many people cited hair issues, although
as around 90% of teenaged girls in some areas stopped cycling it is
not impossible that some were so motivated. I am not one of them....

I am glad that we are now disabused of the notion that Guy Chapman is a
teenaged Australian girl.

--
Tom Sherman - Rock Island County Illinois
Tetrahedral carbon lattices are not forever.