When you look at Rush Limbaugh, you probably think, as I do, "here's a fitness nut." The kind of guy who'll crank out 120 mile ride on a Saturday. And knowing where he stands politically, you'd think he'd be all for smart growth and active transportation. Turns out that may not be true (I know, I'm shocked too). As Adam Voiland points out, Limbaugh recently said about a Madison law against unsafe door opening:
I guess I'm misunderstanding him. We need to be "over there" in the door zone - out of your way - but then you won't be careful opening your door, because you don't care about us. Wow, that is funny.
When a listener complained that he'd been doored
"Why
are you so damn close to the car? You're on a bike. You've got all
the lane room in the world, unless you're in a pack of bikers and you
can't move."
Because you just told him to be "over there." I must be stupid because I can't understand what he wants us to do
When the caller then points out it’s illegal to ride on the sidewalk, Rush responded:
"I know, and kind of tees me off. The sidewalks are for pedestrians, the streets are for pedestrians when they happen to wander in one, and now the streets are for bike riders -- and we automobile drivers, what do we do, we have to give way we have to yield to everybody who streets are not designed for."
Poor drivers, it's high time we did something about your oppression.
This is more of that bad circular logic, "Look we took the time to poorly design roads for bikes and pedestrians, the least you could do is have the common decency to stay off of them."
Thank God he lives in Florida.
Like I needed another reason to despise Limbaugh...
Posted by: freewheel | March 14, 2009 at 11:44 AM
Limbaugh's efforts notwithstanding, some of Florida can be really nice for cycling. The flatness helps.
Posted by: Scott | March 14, 2009 at 12:12 PM
Poor Rush, he can't ride a bike. The saddle aggravates the pimple on his ass. You know, the one that kept him out of the Army.
Posted by: kenf | March 14, 2009 at 12:46 PM
You know, I don't pay any attention to RL. But every now and then I see one of his arguments in print. And they are always incoherent. I sort of wonder if it's because it's incoherence that makes it to print or whether he's always incoherent. But I don't care enough to listen and find out.
Posted by: old guy | March 15, 2009 at 08:20 AM
You expect intellectual consistency from him? Really?
Posted by: Brendan | March 15, 2009 at 11:07 AM
I live in Tampa. I wonder how many of his SUV-driving clones there are around here trying to run me over every day... >_<
Posted by: Donald | March 15, 2009 at 05:37 PM
Better Rush's intellectual confusion than Chris Core's "get off the road" mantra. (Did I actually say Limbaugh is better than somebody else?). And at least listeners might come away knowing the law, if only because of the caller.
Posted by: Jack Cochrane | March 15, 2009 at 06:47 PM
I heard Limbaugh the first time at the end of 1994. I thought that Americans could not be that stupid to really listen to a guy that was so incendiary. Apparently, I was wrong.
He pretty much is the incarnation of everything that is wrong with the US.
Posted by: Eric_W. | March 15, 2009 at 10:24 PM
Rush is why I don't have a radio on my bike.
Posted by: Jack | March 17, 2009 at 01:18 AM