A Break from the Positive: Dumbass of the Week Edition

Found this article by D. Dowd Muska called "Four Wheels Good, Two Wheels Bad." The name itself, in its suspiciously explicit literalness, should imply satire. He starts by saying this: There is something profoundly wrong with a nation where more adults ride bicycles than children. Then he writes: Two odious ideologies fuel the popularity of bicycling: anti-obesity extremism and eco-lunacy.

This no-name blogger realized his opportunity for quick fame: denouncing cyclists. There are few other groups that are quick to spread such an article like wildfire. Re-posting and re-posting. The new shock-journalist need only stereotype cyclists as smug, de-legitimize bikes as toys rather than true vehicles, and trivialize this right by over-generalizing the fact that some cyclists violate road laws (while ignoring the numbers of automobile drivers that do the same).

Who knows why Muska is mad at cyclists? Is it because, as he points out, some funding for bike projects is coming from the federal gas tax? He whines, [S]tate and local pols... gleefully commit drivers’ forced contributions to dubious bike schemes... “Bicycle planning” is providing lucrative jobs for bureaucrats eager to wield the coercive power of government to change commuting habits. He has even attempted to coin the term "Big Bicycle." Wow. I bet it hurts to stretch that much. He mentions that 4 out of every 10 dollars of that tax goes to non-highway expenses, but fails to describe where those 4 dollars are spent. Probably not all on cyclists and pedestrians. I'm splitting hairs here. This tirade has no point. It's just mud slinging to gain popularity by riling the poles of a political spectrum over a subject that really has no political affiliation. Like many of his other posts (esp. the one I just read about climate change), he drops what he probably believes are devastating bombs--these little factoids--but leaves them more or less unsubstantiated, leaving me irritated only long enough to write a cathartic blog post to cleanse my palette and forget about it.
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Funny aside: In his "bio" he claims he enjoys searching the woods of Connecticut for the mountain lions wildlife bureaucrats say aren’t there. Yea, fuck Big Wildlife. Paranoia is a beeotch.