Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for July 17, 2015

You rock, Rat!:If Jef tries anything, hit him in the face with a Mallet!

Yeah, Jeff, a heart, not the form of that part of Rat’s body which he wants you to kiss

But the talking rat and pig are believable.

Beat him over the head with it Rat. I used to ride bicycles in junior and senior high both as a mode of transport and for fun. Hated guys like Jef then, loathe them now.

Fight! Fight! Fight! There’s going to be acetylene of the score between Rat and Jef!

All hail Pastis for his nerve to stick it in the face of cycle activists! Now you know how much you’re loved!

And Jef… STOP AT RED LIGHTS AND STOP SIGNS!!!!!!

Wish I had a blowtorch some Fridays. I’d barbecue some cycleass.

Who say’s they’re good?

Today’s? I am shocked that a comic strip might dwell in the realm of the fantastic.

Every once in a while, Rat hits the bull’s eye. This is one of those times. Saying your event is about “peace and love”, or any other soft and fuzzy concept, doesn’t make it so.

I was once in Soho in London when a vast herd of cyclists were blocking the street, I think as a protest. The were also causing the pavements [sidewalks] to be blocked with gawkers because it was a naked protest. I never found out what they were protesting, but I suspect it was uncomfortable bicycle seats.

Yay, Rat! Jef the Cyclist is sooo repulsive!

WELL DONE RAT!!!! WELL DONE!!!

I’m no cyclist but we have them all over here. I really don’t get the hate. I mean, the cars are all over the place, loud and dangerous, but there’s no hate for them. Cyclists might think they’re better than others, but then, based on today’s comments, so does everyone else. Maybe if we put more money into real bike lanes all over the place (like in Europe), the bikes wouldn’t be so inconvenient for all the cars.

Rat could turn that into a bumper sticker for his car:" I (heart) bicycles"

At least Jef isn’t compelled to tell you the distance he rides each trip – like every other cycleass I’ve ever met.

Awwww you guys are all just jealous of the bulging calf muscles and tight azzez is black spandex biker shorts!(Is Jef a grown up Jeffy from Family Circus?)

In the last panel, Jeff does not exactly exude any peace or love.

“Share the road” has to go both ways.

When those inconsiderate biking twits are blocking vehicular traffic, it should be legal to gently nudge them out of the way. Into a ditch. Or a utility pole.

Jeff forgot about the peace and love part.

People protesting the police in Ferguson, Baltimore, etc. generally have a similar disconnect with reality and the way their actions will be interpreted.

I’m a cyclist/triathlete but that doesnt change that this is funny. I try to not be “that guy” when im sharing the road with cars. stay off to the side and dont do any of that insane bike-courier nonsense tripping up stressed out car drivers.

Activist cyclists, judges, tree huggers, roller skaters, democrats, republicans, independents. Activist anything.They need a good old dose of firehose set to stun.

All they do is foment hostility.

I live in a liberal (state capitol) town, went to a liberal college there, and consider myself a liberal. However, when a huge protest was staged at the busiest intersection in the city instead of the Capitol grounds, I wrote a letter to the paper criticizing the location because, as I sat in traffic for hours worrying about my old truck boiling over, all I could think of were the single mothers distraught because they were going to be too late to pick up their kids before daycare closed, about elderly and other sick folks trying to get to their doctor appointments, people whose bladders were about to explode, blocked ambulances and fire trucks, etc.

Many people I knew were shocked to see the position I took in that letter and I was ostracized for some time. Moral and political views are one thing, but knowing when and how to express them with consideration for others is another.

Well said. This is one of my major pet peeves.

But Pig: It’s Rat.

I have to say, I’m impressed with how Rat did that.

xxx

wouldn’t shaping the bicycle into a flower make more of a point? more difficult of course. or possibly a kitten.

I ride, but I ride for transportation only. And it is my sole means of transportation. I do not wear spandex. I do everything I can to avoid impeding traffic, but I have a right to the road, and I use it when I need to. I’ll even take the long way around town if it means I can climb the big hill (has to be done on either route) on the road with more shoulder. As for the snobbish bullies who blow their horns and/or scream “get on the sidewalk”, go ____ yourselves.

One man’s passion is another man’s poison!

Jeff, the Arrogant, resides in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Jeff is the charter member of the Highway 4 Cloggers, bicycle club.

And don’t anybody suggest that cyclists should use the sidewalk. It is illegal pretty well everywhere, I am sure, and extremely dangerous when a rider chooses to come up on your blind side when you are trying to turn right to enter traffic from a driveway or side street.

So it promotes the environment by causing cars to idle in traffic, it promotes peace by causing hundreds of drivers and cyclists to swear at each other (and usually it’s the cyclist doing the swearing), and it promotes love by making people who are just trying to travel to work or get kids or run errands hate cyclists. Makes perfect sense.

In California, we have a law that cars must be three feet from a cyclist. So on a narrow street that is not wide enough for two cars to pass when vehicles are parked on both sides, we have to move all the way into the oncoming lane or wait until the cyclist is far enough away that we can get yards and yards bhind.

Everyday car drivers get together for a massive drive where we take over the streets and stop traffic. It promotes road rage. Pollution. Stress and a waist of time.

What Stephan Pastis describes is real in San Francisco… http://www.sfcriticalmass.org/

Every month, last friday of the month, cyclists clog the streets to raise awareness of bike safety. It’s been going on for 20 years. Frankly, as much as I sympathize with cyclists (I’m a former cyclist), I feel like they’ve long since communicated whatever message they are trying to communicate, and it’s no longer effective (if it ever was), and at this point it’s just snarling traffic without actually accomplishing anything (which is a pity on both sides).

Every taxpayer funds the roads – but cyclists should not be on them?

What a load.