Skip to Content

Pat Berg

Twin Cities
Commenter for
1 year 22 weeks

Recent Comments

Posted on 02/22/13 at 01:28 pm in response to People carrying assault weapons pose a clear and present danger to others

In January, a man who wanted to make a point walked into a grocery store with his rifle slung over his shoulder:

http://www.nbc29.com/story/20719160/man-walks-in-to-hydraulic-road-kroge...

And apparently the "Open Carry" movement is encouraging more of this sort of thing....

Posted on 02/21/13 at 01:01 pm in response to Expanded access to voting: Is bipartisanship achievable?

Only someone like Mary Kiffmeyer would have difficulty with the concept that it IMPROVES the integrity an election result when you succeed in getting MORE voters to into the voting booth.

Posted on 02/21/13 at 05:58 pm in response to Ron Schara, other outdoors types rip federal gun proposals

The whole semantics thing started coming up early in these discussions, and the pickiness of it all was really puzzling to me until I figured out that the strategy was if you could get everyone quibbling over these inconsequential details, it would have the effect of sucking the air right out of the possibility of any discussion of substance.

I think people are starting to catch on to that strategy, but it did take a little while.

Posted on 02/20/13 at 04:16 pm in response to Controversial exam for Minnesota teachers faces new criticism

What? I thought the only test they had to pass was to hit the bullseye at 200m!

You mean they have to TEACH too? (Someone better tell the NRA . . . . . . . . . )

Posted on 02/20/13 at 06:50 pm in response to Controversial exam for Minnesota teachers faces new criticism

Remember a while back when there was much angst about the student test scores, and someone posted an available online test with the same kinds of questions? And a bunch of commenters took the test with varying degrees of success (or lack thereof)?

I wonder if there's also an online example of this "teacher's competency test" anywhere? It might help to get some insight into the possibility of cultural bias if we could see the actual questions being asked.

Posted on 02/20/13 at 04:03 pm in response to Republicans' factional duality on bright display at U of M panel

All style and no substance. Well, that would be consistent with their notion that all their problems could be solved just by slapping on a new coat of paint!

Posted on 02/20/13 at 11:20 am in response to Why motorists get so angry at cyclists — a psychologist's theory

And I'm sure it accounts for a lot of the anger out there.

For me, though - the anger comes from knowing that BECAUSE bicyclists are more vulnerable, that if one of them does something stupid and I'm not quick enough in my response (I'm only human, after all) - that then it will be ME who has to live with the emotional aftermath of having brought harm to another - no matter whether it was accidental or not.

It hasn't happened to me. Yet. But the possibility haunts me - every...

Posted on 02/20/13 at 02:39 pm in response to Why motorists get so angry at cyclists — a psychologist's theory

Setting aside the "armchair psychologist" aspects of your comment, the fact is that I don't encounter pedestrians doing the things you cite with nearly the same frequency as I encounter it in bicyclists. I would guess they (pedestrians) are more aware of their vulnerability, but that's my own "armchair psychologizing" at work, I suppose.

Please don't spend any time fretting about the possibility of me "realizing my fears". It's certainly not something I lay awake nights worrying...

Posted on 02/20/13 at 03:14 pm in response to Why motorists get so angry at cyclists — a psychologist's theory

The point of my comment above was not so much related to the simple act of running a stop sign. Rather, it's doing it in such a way that a motorist is forced to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting you.

I'm very happy to see that you state you are not one of the cyclists who does that. But there are others who do.

If cyclists are going to collectively decide to treat stop signs as yield signs, then they need to remember the "yield" part and not blow through them in front of...

Posted on 02/21/13 at 05:45 pm in response to Why motorists get so angry at cyclists — a psychologist's theory

I wouldn't be making therapist recommendations to other people if I were you.