Posted on 10/09/2010 6:41:08 PM PDT by shove_it
Poor Barack Obama. He can't take a simple bicycle ride without attracting criticism.
During the 2008 campaign, Obama was photographed wearing a bike helmet while cycling in Chicago. Critics said he looked like a dork. Then last year, when he rode handsomely bare-headed down the paths of Martha's Vineyard, the safety lobby lambasted him for setting a dangerous example. So on last month's return to the island, the carefully helmeted president appeased those critics—only to reawaken charges that he looked like an unmanly wimp. Maybe next year he'll give up and leave the bike rides to the First Daughters.
This no-win situation reflects more than the president's political troubles. Bicycle helmets excite all-or-nothing passions. To advocates, riding without a helmet is little better than chain-smoking while driving 80 miles an hour without a seat belt. To opponents, including many European bicycle fanatics, helmets unfairly stigmatize cycling, making it look dangerous, difficult and decidedly uncool. Walking is more hazardous, they note, but we don't demand that pedestrians sport protective headgear
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(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
I was a bike ridin’ fool when I was a kid. Never owned a helmet for bike ridin’. Don’t know how I survived.
Maytbe he needs to ride as horse like President Reagan ???
Well at least a donkey..
Maybe if he wore an Army helmet and rode a tank...
Exactly...bicycle helmets, seat belts, leisure suits...the clues were all there, we just failed to heed them. Yuri Bezmanov told us back in the ‘80’s where our future lay.
He could start by putting some air in his tires. Remember when he told us to check OUR car tires?
And what pray tell is wrong with that?
LOLOLOLOL. How could I not remember that one?
Would never be able to find the handle bars!!!!
If he wore a doo-rag and drove a Harley it would end all strife.
Too each his own, but I’ve busted 5 helmets in the last year and half. That’s enough for me to know that I need a helmet.
I absolutely refuse to wear a helmet on a bicycle. I guess it’s one thing if you are riding a bicycle competitively and approaching speeds of 50-60mph, but for the average bicyclist, helmets look utterly ridiculous. Might as well turn in your man card wearing one of those.
Well, he does look dorky. W needs to take 0bama mountain biking down in Crawford.
If you care about what’s in your head you’ll put a helmet on it when you ride. Bike, motorcycle, whatever. People need to wise up - a fractured skull is too high a price to pay for a patch of gravel or getting cut off in traffic.
Therein lies the problem. We are no longer permitted to have a choice. You want to wear one? Fine - who cares.
But stop trying to tell me I MUST do the same.
“Maybe if he wore an Army helmet and rode a tank...”
LOLOLOLOL. How could I not remember that one?
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