Representative McHenry denouncing cycling as a solution to our energy problems is silly.  I’m a conservative and I find arguments like his to be spurious and illogical.  He says promoting cycling is advocating 19th century technology to solve a 21st century problem.  He obviously doesn’t know that cars are 19th century technology.  The century we are in is irrelevant.  Good sense should prevail regardless.  A smart person, whether liberal or conservative shouldn’t live more than 4 miles from where they work beause to do so is a waste of time and money.  If living near your work was a social value like not sneezing on someone, folks could drive their car to work and we’d still cut our fuel needs substantially.  The interesting thing is that if people really lived 4 miles or less from work, car traffic would be far less and most people would then be inclined to bike it.  THAT would slash our oil usage like nothing else except nuclear power and electric cars.  Transportation alone isn’t our enemy, it’s our zipcode.

The Honorable Representative provided an excellent example of how blinders and the use of cherry picked statements are such valuable assets in a thriving democracy.  No one has suggested that bicycles are the only solution to our energy “problem”.  In fact, no one with any sense believes that any single tool is the answer to our energy “problem.”  By completely misrepresenting ideas of others and thru the facile use of hyperbole, the Honorable Representative achieved his real goal of further polarizing the political environment and moving incrementally further away from any viable solutions.

Well done.

Of course, the video shows another perfect example of what is wrong with politics today and how dysfunctional our government is.  Did the Honorable Representative offer any constructive comments that would help resolve our energy issues?  No.  Hell, he didn’t even display any signs that he is capable of critical thought.

Sadly, this video will be fodder for the partisans on both sides of the aisle and leave nothing tangible to work with for those wanting to make actual progress.

August 4, 2007 is the date of that upload to youtube.  I caught that by reading the comments and noticing they were all added 3 years ago.  The honourable Representative McHenry’s comments are regarding a budget and transportation package long since resolved and spent.  I’m sure it’s an interesting video and all but I didn’t bother.  

You could live and work in 85705 and travel well over 4 miles but I liked the slogan.