From: laurie@halfdome.sf.ca.us (Laurie Abbott)
Newsgroups: rec.motorcycles
Subject: Re: rec.moto.harley
Date: 22 Jul 92 22:05:01 PDT
Organization: DFWM, Inc

In article <1992Jul21.015809.8545@morrow.stanford.edu>, karish@pangea.Stanford.EDU (Chuck Karish) writes:
> In article <1992Jul20.161912.18595@ncsu.edu>, steve@bucolix.ncsu.edu
> (Steve Garnier) writes [as quoted by Seth Zirin]:
> 
> > The only thing my post *proves* is how I feel about your libeling me,
> > Chuck Rogers, and other people who have been diligently working at 
> > mitigating biker-bigotry.
> 
> Translation: Steve and Chuck are doing their best to
> enforce political correctness in the motorcycle
> newsgroups, regardless of the effects on the usefulness
> of the groups.  It's inaccurate to call them "anti-Harley
> bigots",  but some of their sensitivities are misplaced.

A Short History of the Bigots.

Long ago there were two clans of people: the Bigots and Those Who Rode
the Other Kind of Bike.  They were simple people who lived in a fair
land, Rec.Motorcycles, but through discontent they fell into flame
wars (see, History of Ancient Rec.Motorcycles, vol. 1-2 ), notably the
"100-Articles' War," which itself spawned many lesser wars, greatest
among them the First Helmet War, the War of the Aftermarket Pipes,
Sportster-Sportbike War, and the fierce 40-day Battle of Fatboys and
Poseurs.  Bigots and Those Who Rode the Other Kind of Bike dissolved
into warring factions, ruled by petty tyrants, among them the heinous
Two-Stroke, the madman Rubber-Band Head, and the vicious V-Twin, who
was eventually murdered by his own children, Jap-Cruiser and Softtail.

These bloody wars ended for a time in the Early Assaultian Era, after 
the spawning of the DoD, when the Bigots and Those Who Rode the Other
Kind of Bike saw the stupidity of their all-caps posts and otherwise
foolish threads, and met to call a truce.  This is now known as the
"Rollins Pass Accord," and was due in no small measure to the efforts
of Crown Prince Brucer, his Ambassador Chuck Rogers, and the Exchequer
and first KotL John Sloan, as well as Royal Archivist Ilana Stern, the
Chief of the Feed Mark Bradley, and, of course, the Court Jester
Lxyzaszlo. Even allowed into court was the lowly Dickweed, who
attempted to revive animosities even upon the doorstep of the pizza
place on Assault Eve, and yet was justly chastised by the great Rock
of Rollins, though he was yet received afterwards by his fellow bikers
with mercy. 

During those halcyon days many former Bigots and Those Who Rode the
Other Kind of Bike learned to look upon bikes of opposite origins with
genuine fondness, and bikes gathered upon all the vast stretches of
the land in great glorious arrays, without notice of brandname or
ancestor.  Leathers of every color and sex rode in perfect harmony.
Both Bigots and the Those Who Rode the Other Kind of Bike set forth on
noble crusades to find the best twisties in the world; sporting games
were held, and there were great demonstrations of hanging off butts
and sticky tyres, and the net saw a (neon) flouresence of skill and
great learning.  Great legends rose up of the feats of the notorious
Dorsey, the mysterious Barber, the entrepreneur Arnie, the Snortin'
Norton, and the Knights of the West Coast IronHorse Joust.  All bikes
came from near and far to the great Biker Heavens, and riding was good
and the posting was merry.

But in the next generation peace was forgotten, and the wars began
anew, to such a fierce degree that brother separated from brother, and
euro.bike separated from dirt.donks, and at that time many were lost
in the mail lists.  The dreaded weapon, the Alt, wreaked havoc among
an entire clan, and the wise mourned their passing. 

It was during this era that the lowly breed Net.Police grew powerful,
and rose up as false prophets and pacifiers.  And yet they had been
born, too, into the ancient clans Bigot and Those Who Ride the Other
Kind of Bike, and were all rigid and did not bring peace, but fanned
the flames of war to an ever higher bandwidth. During those dark days,
postings of Newbies trying to be noticed, Wannabees posing online, and
Net.Riffraff quoting the entire article were multitudinous and the
noise was great. Those of the clans Oldtimers and Twenty-One-Year-Old-
Squids and Those-Raised-in-a-Barn fought fiercely with each other, and
nowhere was there to be found peace or succour or even a decent
thread. 

This was the time of the Fourth and Fifth Helmet Wars.  There was
anarchy in all the land, and sometimes three hundred articles a day.
And yet some remembered fondly the Old Ways. 

-- laurie
____________________________________________________________________
"Never underestimate the ability of a man to underestimate the abil-
ity of a woman."                                   --V.I. Warshawski

laurie@halfdome.sf.ca.us                                   DoD #0023
Newsgroups: rec.motorcycles