Rude Cyclists.

My home town is Boise, Idaho and I wanted to represent a bit of the "City of Trees" to my blog. Boise is an amazing place to grow up. If you are an outdoors enthusiast, Boise is the place to live. All four seasons come and go as snowboarders, wake boarders, hikers, bikers, fisherman, kayakers, rock climbers, and hunters roam the terrain. One of Boise's main features is the greenbelt that runs along side the Boise River for 16 miles. Many walkers, runners, and cyclists use this trail on a daily basis. As I was reading through the online newspaper in Boise, this letter to the editor caught my attention.

Laws can't replace common courtesy

Three feet away from a bicycle - is this 3 feet from the pedal, the tire, the foot? Whoever said a bicycle goes in a straight line? So are we supposed to crash into oncoming traffic? How does anybody know if the car was too close or if the cyclist just happened to move over? Are we going to send somebody to prison because he was 2.9 feet away? Most people use common sense and are careful and considerate.

Let me remind our cyclists that they have already taken away the Greenbelt from pedestrians. They are the stronger ones in this case; try walking slowly with your dog enjoying the river. Here they are in full gear and high speed, knocking you down and they are gone. Nobody talks about this, no evidence - in this city usually a young rider and an older pedestrian. Who cares? Laws cannot replace common courtesy.

KATHARINA MEIENHOFER, Boise

IDAHO REPUBLICANS

On a local note, this "courtesy" should be taught to the pedestrians here in Provo, UT. Just because you're walking to the crosswalk, does not give you the right to enter the street without making sure the cars are stopping for you to cross. Especially, on these ice-winter-days where vehicles don't stop instantaneously. Remember what your parents taught you when you were 5, look both ways.

The Christmas Bomber

Being a college student, a parent,a husband, and an employee probably were the reasons why I didn't hear a single word mentioned about the "Christmas bomber." I just didn't turn on the news or the radio. I found out about this story while I was skimming through my local paper, The Daily Herald, here in Provo, Utah I came across this editorial two weeks ago:

TSA assaults air travel
To fully understand the current uproar about full-body scans at airports, we should understand the chronology of the reactiveness of the Transportation Security Administration. Consider:
» First there were X-rays and magnetometers, the latter of which only detected metal.
» Then, after 9/11, came the restriction on box cutters, nail files, etc.
» Next, after the "shoe bomber," came the restriction to 3 ounces of liquids and gels and, of course, the scanning of shoes.
» Now, the "Christmas bomber" has caused another reaction -- full body scans.
Once TSA determines that carrying explosives in body cavities is feasible, I suspect we will have the next reaction, and everyone will simply stop flying rather than be subjected to that search! Then TSA will really stand for what some people are already accusing it of: Thousands Standing Around.
Kermit Heid
Salt Lake City

No I don’t think that people will stop flying if these searches were to be implemented. In fact I think more people will fly because they feel safe. This simple editorial intrigued me to research the ‘Christmas bomber’ and learn more about him. Searching on CNN.com Fawaz A. Gerges wrote that President Obama had said that the Christmas Day airline bomber acted under an al Qaeda branch.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the suspect is 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. The Nigerian man had a package of explosives hidden in his underwear that he was planning to ignite on a Detroit-bound plane which would have killed nearly 300 people. Fox News reported that Northwest Airlines flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit had a badly burned restrained passenger that lit an explosive device that failed to explode.
The latest news on the incident broke on Fox News that Osama Bin Laden is taking credit for the Christmas Day bomber plot.

After reading Kermit Heid’s editorial and reading sources and doing research about the Christmas day bomber, I actually have an opinion on the matter. I do hope that TSA will initiate full-body scans into their already extreme passenger screenings. The Nigerian man said that just because his attempt failed; it won’t stop the others that are planning on attacking the United States from doing so.