comments from a Berliner about touring in the U.S....

[mike_c]

I found this wonderful bike touring site maintained by a Berliner who has ridden over many of the northern California routes I'm planning tours on. Very nice if you're into bike touring. Here's the final paragraph of an Oregon Cascades to San Francisco tour description (more@link):

http://www.bitrot.de/bike_cascades.html

This was my sixth tour involving the US west coast, and likely my last one. In fact I don't see myself visiting the US at all anymore. Under George W. Bush it has turned from the leading western democracy to a predatory proto-police state, waging wars on other countries based on fabricated pretenses, and I am far less ready to excuse its failings. A flawed democracy, highlighted by a federal election in 2000 that would make any third-world banana republic blush; vanishing personal liberties and intelligence services spying into the privacy of its citizens in ways previously known only in communist regimes, even establishing offshore concentration camps where human rights are not recognized. And I can't stand the sight of piles of rags in doorways all over the cities, knowing there are people sleeping under them. I still have hope but not for the near future. I hope you enjoyed reading this report, but at this time I suggest you defer any travel plans there. Good bye, America, it's been nice while it lasted.

[spindrifter]

1. Oh my god!

I feel so ashamed! This is basically how I feel about visiting Brasil--but it is because of the way Brasil has chosen to deal with its street children: shooting them.

[cigsandcoffee]

2. When a German starts goading you...

...about concentration camps, you know things are bad.

[Selatius]

3. I don't know whether to feel anger at his scathing attack or feel despair.

I'm starting to slowly come around to the realization that perhaps the things we enjoy are going away forever, and like everything else in this world, this nation will come to an end too. Whether it ends with its dissolution or ends under the boot of some authoritarian dictatorship doesn't really alter the fact that it ended.

I wonder how Romans felt into the 400s as their nation was falling apart.

[Breeze54]

4. ...and he learned all this from a bicycle seat???

:rofl:


Don't let the door....
:evilgrin:

[Lost-in-FL]

5. Well...

:nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity:

[11cents]

6. Wow. Bike-riding is educational.

It never occurred to him that there was anything wrong with American foreign policy until he shifted into 10th gear.

What a drama queen. Reminds me of the German hostellers on The Simpsons -- "Who will put up with our nonsense now?"