July 18, 2004

Bikes against Bush [Oh no, not another anti-Bush link.] Josh Kinberg, the same guy who brought us the wireless access bike has built another cunning human powered device. During the Republican Convention he will officially roll out the new bike. For know he just loves New York. [2 MB QT] (also available in Real Video.) Can you imagine a whole slew of these bikes driving through NY? Followed by Republican cleaner squads? I hope he doesn't get arrested. Here is an interview with Josh Kinberg, "Profile of a wireless activist".
posted by mare 20 years ago
  • Yes, but will he be naked?
  • I was.
  • Looks as though some of your friends cheated. the white boxers were pretty funny.
  • The Republican Convention and possibly even the Democratic Convention are going to be ugly and violent this year I am afraid. After what happened in Miami, I have little hope for how the "authorities" are going to handle protests from now on. While all those links may be to very left wing sites, the videos that they contain make me very disappointed in the way that dissent is now dealt with.
  • Seriously. This is novel and cool but....incredibly lame and idiotic. Seriously. And I'm majoring in Industrial Design at RISD. This is why Bush is going to win. WE NEED CLASS WAR / A LABOR MOVEMENT NOT WORDS ON THE FUCKING GROUND YOU PUSSIES.
  • disclaimer: I am a pussy
  • I'm with ActuallySettle. Whilst the device is damn cool, going round writing "STOP BUSH" will do diddley-squat to actually stop him.
  • I can't believe I just said diddley-squat.
  • Bo Diddley squats.
  • I think I need one of these bikes.
  • It should be Lick Bush. Two birds and all that.
  • I just saw the interview on MSNBC with Ron Reagan, Jr. As he was being arrested, Ron explained to one of the officers that contrary to what he'd been told, Kinberg had not actually been seen using the device and was only there doing an interview. Nevertheless, they confiscated all of his equipment and Kinberg said he'd been complimented on his setup by the bomb squad, who'd been called to investigate.
  • Hang on, let me get this straight (off topic). Riding a bike in NYC will get you arrested? (from Homunculus's link, he spent his time with a bunch of cyclists who had been arrested the previous day.)
  • Anything can get you arrested. But don't worry, it's for your own security. Feel safer? You know...Americans love to talk about their freedoms, but if something like this happened in Canada (and, I suspect almost any other free country), it would be be on the front-page headlines for weeks, an inquest would be called, and senior government and police officials would lose their jobs over it. Americans just bend over and take it. Why?
  • Because it makes us safer Otherwise the terrorists will win Only traitors would question that To protect us from ourselves Criticism is not healthy Order and safety are more important than freedom Sacrificing freedom for security makes sense There are more important things to worry about You know, there's not a single good reason. For the record, I'd like to say that "Americans" as a whole don't go around bragging about how superior our freedoms are compared to the rest of the world. Spend enough time here, you'll realize the people who throw that word around the most casually are the ones who seem to be the most dedicated to crushing the freedoms of those with whom they disagree. Their idea of freedom doesn't seem to go much farther than not having to pay taxes. Homosexuals, minorities, dissenters, etc. don't qualify. For those of us who don't want to "take it," we're either underinformed by media that are so afraid of being accused of "liberal bias" that somehow they forget that it's their job to point out liars and thugs, or else we're faced with the uphill battle against the government and the forces of "America First" jingoism, which are frighteningly powerful here.
  • I didn't mean to insult all Americans, and I realize that most U.S. monkeys here don't just "bend over and take it", but your system is flawed. Your government has no opposition to question it and keep it accountable. Your media could fill that role but it doesn't. And the biggest problem is that the majority of citizens don't know (or care) that there *is* a problem.
  • Oh, I didn't take it as an insult. I agree with you, and it's a valid question. I just worry that that's the going perception of us abroad. Other countries bear the brunt of our foreign policy and tourists, which may not give you the most flattering image of us. Just wanted to underscore that there are a lot of us who understand that patriotism doesn't mean arrogance or flag-waving or screaming "Mine's bigger than yours."
  • Your media could fill that role but it doesn't. *ding!* Johnny, tell him what he's won! Wait until that "Turn off your TV week" rolls around again. Or dig up the thread. Knowing that the fourth estate is a failure is only 10% of the battle. Further on, after most of the other battles we hit a brick wall of "but I like [representative media example]".
  • I'd get all smug and self-righteous, but in the state where I grew up our cops have baton charged grannies (is true) and a coroner famously decided that the cause of death of someone shot once in each hand and twice in the head was (clearly) suicide. Gotta love Victoria, Australia.