Bike to Work Week PSA: The quick release is not complicated technology folks

I had to stop some commuter last week and fix her front quick release for her. Nothing that scares the crap out of me more than seeing someone with the lever in the wrong position, poised for a nice little whoopsie. I’ve seen the aftermath of what happens when a front wheel drops off and it is not. at. all. pretty.

This should make the essential point:

If that still wasn’t clear, read this.

This is Bike-to-Work Week (and if you can only make one, Friday is Bike-to-Work Day) in the US. Let’s do it, folks!

Way to undercut the entire point of your commentary

Apparently the President and CEO of the Phoenix Suns NBA team, Rick Welts, is making his sexual orientation public (or public-er) more or less in response to an incident in which Kobe Bryant of the L.A. Lakers was caught on camera making a anti-gay slurs. A commentary from Trevor Paxton at SB*Nation (whatever that is) lauds the Suns organization:

While the NBA playoffs may rage on without the presence of the Phoenix Suns, the effect of the team is still being felt league-wide. It takes courage for a franchise and its players to make such bold stances on controversial issues. With the reception of these actions being held in high esteem, the Phoenix Suns may just be setting the example to how a successful sports franchise can integrate itself into the issues other franchises are afraid to touch.

Great, right? Glad to see more dismantling of bigotry in the ranks of professional sports. Good stuff all around.

But….

The commentary has a poll attached to it. And the options are
-Good for Rick and the Suns
-Keep the “homosexual agenda” out of sports
-Really don’t care either way

WTF? The “homosexual agenda”? Way to tip your hand there, folks. Cripes.

Maybe the other option should have been
-Get the “ignorant dumbfuck bigot agenda” out of sports

Look, the idea of a “homosexual agenda” is faked up bullshit, invented by those who have a bigot agenda. The “agenda” in support of homosexuals enjoying all the rights and responsibilities of any other citizen of their respective countries is simple. It is a human rights agenda. It is a fairness agenda. It is a civil liberties agenda.

If you are not behind the idea that gay folk deserve the same rights and protections as anyone else, then you are not really on board with human rights, fairness or civil liberties.