Our friend, Disarm, has recently popped up again.  I had put in my two cents worth at a blog post extolling the virtues of  adopting a "stop as yield" policy for the state of Montana in January of 2009.  Disarm apparently 'Googled' my actual name and figured he had to say something clever and charming to put me in my place, just like someone named Hexen had earlier this year.  When this happens at the blog, I get an E-Mail, and I checked it out to find some grief from Disarm delivered 8-20-10 (below), with my prior posts already there. 

 

There seemed to be a little bitterness in his post, after all, he dropped out of The Torch and from Talks because everyone else was being idiots and not agreeing with him.  I clarified some of his hasty assertions and got a plug in for our site that same day, but found out he was not done with his 'higher ground'.  Nine days later, he resumed his pleasantries, and I dutifully agreed with him.  That's probably the easiest way to defuse the situation when your dealing with someone who is a couple of Pokemon cards short of a deck. 

 

He does seem to proclaim himself as speaking for the community, yet he definitely has a problem with 'my forum buddies'.  Feel free to say "Hi" to Disarm over at his new forum.  Here's the link:  http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/bill_would_allow_bicyclists_to_legally_roll_through_stop_signs/C146/L41/#comments

By Tom Rotta, 1-26-09

I have recently become interested in the topic of bicycles having to stop at stop signs (other than yielding which most bicyclists do) after being ticketed for rolling through an empty intersection. As the cop ticketed me dozens of vehicles behind us rolled through the busy crosswalk at the same sign in clear violation of state laws. My state, like over 30 others, does not have a definition for 'stop', but like all states has a definition for 'parking', which is what every bicycle that ceases movement does at a stop sign. As it is illegal to park in the street at, or close to, an intersection, a bicycle that stops is in clear violation of the law. When motorists have to, by law, shut off their engine and come to a dead stop at a stop sign, I will gladly follow suit. Until then, I will continue to roll through them, for it is much safer, improves traffic flow, and totally within the law of my state

 

By Tom Rotta, 1-27-09

Vikkenpox, looked up the law and you are absolutely right about the pedestrian stuff. The local cops would still ticket me even if I dragged my feet, because they would invoke the 'pedestrian in the wrong part of the roadway' law.
How about this for another law you may break by 'parking' at a stop sign: since you need to reclip into pedals, sometimes slip between, or off, gears, and slowly accelerate from your dead stop, you can easily be claimed to be impeding traffic from all sides of the intersection.
When the "vehicular cyclist's" chain falls off at the stop sign when they put the stress of a start-up on it, and they become a sitting duck for fast and massive traffic in the middle of the intersection, maybe the last thought of their life might be that they should have rolled through that empty intersection when they safely could have.

 

By Hexen, 1-21-10

Well Mr Rotta - just what leg do you have to stand on - I recall reading about you on some site where you complained about getting a ticket - but keep in mind YOU DID BREAK THE LAW - he kept telling everyone he was a ex firefighter - wouldn't you think someone of the public office would know the laws and instead he keeps breaking them.

 

By Disarm, 8-20-10

I believe that everyone who is found guilty of breaking the law should quit complaining about the law and go out and do something about it. We had one idiot here in Michigan who received a citation for blowing a stop sign on his bicycle directly in front of a police cruiser. To complicate matters, the idiot was a member of the local Fire Department and started acting like he was immune to the law in this regard. Ultimately he quit serving on the fire department because he took offense when others tried to help him accept his legal obligation. THAT was 2 years ago, and he is still plastering local forums with his situation as if he were a poor victim of the worst abuse this side of the ground.

People here are sick and tired of his pitiful crying and wish he'd get a real life. He makes all bicyclists here in our area look bad but he seems not to care about anybody except his poor pitiful self.
Look folks, if you have a legitimate complaint .. then let the people know and then move on and do something constructive about it. If you keep crying and carrying on about bad bicycle laws and fail to follow through and make things better, then it makes all bicyclists look like whining idiots.

 

By Tom Rotta, 8-20-10

And that idiot is me! Thanks for the introduction Hexen and Disarm. They won't tell you the stop sign I was cited for was twenty-five feet beyond where it was supposed to legally be (before the crosswalk) by Michigan Law and so legally unenforceable or that the local politicos decided to violate a wide range of laws to cover themselves when I decided to deny responsibility for the ticket as someone served with a citation is legally allowed to do. The City of Ludington, Michigan has since moved a dozen stop and yield signs to their proper places after the state DOT forced them to. If you wish to read more of the graft and corruption that is part of Disarm's Ludington and Mason Co. Government and how it negatively affects the citizens of that fair city visit: http://ludingtoncitizen.ning.com/
There you can view the facts and the laws, and make your own informed decision, instead of listening to petty name calling by a public official or two here.

 

By Disarm, 8-29-10

Tom Rotta,

Sir .. with all due respect .. it was a highly visible Stop sign and bicyclist's in the State of Michigan have a legal duty to stop. Our community has spoken loud and clear that bicyclists who complain about the laws .. but then disregard the laws themselves .. are not very well appreciated here. Moreover, the individual of whom I speak has reduntantly harped (ad-nauseum) over the course of 2 years about the actual 'placement' of the highly visible Stop sign, and fully deserves the "idiot" nametag for not discerning how selfish, narcissistic, and hypocritical he appears.

I wonder what the other readers of this forum think about a bicyclist totally disregarding a Stop sign and blowing through it directly in front of a Police cruiser?

Moreover, ..What would be your opinion, sir .. if somebody had been driving a car and had blown that same stop sign and killed a bicyclist?

That's the point here .. the actual intent of the Stop sign. It was clearly visible and bicyclists in Michigan have a duty to stop.

BTW: You and your forum buddies, sir, have repeatedly accused of being a public official .. but I most definitely am NOT! Those repeated accusations, along with numerous personal attacks and name-calling against me by your forum buddies .. is why I quit posting there.


Finally, sir .. I see absolutely no good reason for you to be bad-mouthing the community of Ludington or bad-mouthing Ludington's duly elected public officials. It serves no useful purpose in these posts here .. and further reflects upon your poor judgement.

 

By Tom Rotta, 9-02-10

Okay, I stand corrected. I am not only an idiot, but I apparently am also selfish, narcissistic, hypocritical, and someone who complains about and disregards laws, as well as redundantly harps.

 

In Michigan, we have a saying: "If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look around you". If you seek 'repeated accusations, numerous personal attacks and name-calling', Disarm, look around your posts. Self-awareness is a virtue few involved in government possess.

If the casual reader seeks the truth, or at least a debatable point one can discuss civilly, look around the website http://ludingtoncitizen.ning.com/

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okay, can't think of another name, maybe change it later. or never. idk.
Well, I think the whole thing smells fishy. I wish the Torch had not been dragged into this.
Can anyone give the link to this? Or is it completely closed now? Btw, I posted to the Koolaid Jammers over yonder, that I cannot locate Disarm on LT membership anymore, he seems to have vanished there too now recently. Sounds more and more like a tortured soul that is out of it nowadays, as was he beforehand too imho.
Ok, I found and read that link in Montana, quite abrasive. Oh, and guess what, your good old Aquaman from here was over there posting on 9/7/10, before I even went there to read the posts of all the others today, 9/11/10. Someone is impostering me, wonder who? Oh well, Disarm is definitely committable now as far as I'm concerned, as do the majority over there as well agree. Instead of changing the bicycle laws first, maybe, just maybe, we ought to be concentrating on the mentally insane/psychologically imbalanced laws first. JMO
I wondered whether those two posts by Sheila and Aquaman were from the originals or not. I did notice a couple of posts that were deleted tried to paint us in a bad light. Whoever went wild was likely not Disarm, though that's not out of the question.

For the record, I did send an E-mail to the Montana commission reviewing this proposed law early last year expressing my support for it and how it may affect my future travel plans. Alas, it never got out of commission; for some reason it became a partisan issue on the committee with Democrats for it and Republicans against.

That seems to happen whenever it comes up across the country, which is weird because it is a matter of personal responsibility and freedom first voted into law by conservatives in Idaho.
me? shoot how often do I say anything that comes out in less than a couple of paragraphs.lol well tonight, but not usually :)
Something has been gnawing at me for a long time now. Before the Torch began, Disarm a.k.a. Disambiguation was somewhat of a champion for the underdog on LT. Remember when he adopted the No Kool Aid avatar? I even e-mailed him there a couple of times to "high-five" him on his posts. My impression of him then was that he would never have engaged in any of the behavior that we have seen on this site or on the Montana site. I am just throwing out the following possibilities:
1. He was just posing as a nice guy on LT and I had him pegged wrong (I would hope this isn't true).
2. He has now undergone a personality change.
3. He was enlisted by someone from the now extinct liberal site to rile those on this site with his shenanigans.
4. Someone from that aforementioned other site is posing as Disarm and creating havoc.

Anyway, it's food for thought. I like to think that there is a reason for all this. It has me completely baffled.
On the Montana site, you would only have to type in someone else's name to steal someone else's identity, so I think someone other than Disarm did all that. Hexen, the person who responded seven months before Disarm, was likely our friend(s) Behr/Casey, who was pestering us around that time. They also chose to be alerted whenever someone posted there, and so juvenilely spouted off against me, us, and Disarm, once I responded.

Disarm is an independent thinker with his own notions, so I doubt anyone will totally agree with him all the time(one of my 'faults' too), but I think he had been getting more edgier and rightly decided to take a break. As for the Soup folks, I wouldn't be surprised if they cajoled him for a while, and then when they were through with him, they divulged his name, or what they thought his name to be. After all, Disarm and Behr have several 'antagonists' in common between them.

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