In general, I tend to get annoyed when one person brings up X and asks if he should have done A, and then someone else says “Well what if Y and Z were involved? Then what?” But your post wasn’t that off topic so I might have over-reacted.
I lost all sympathy for the guy about the third time he went to the giant font.
Of course not. I’d probably share my view loudly with my child that the perp is not to be taken seriously because he is retarded. I believe in being in control of your situation and part of that is understanding the context and degree of the offence. I agree that any sense of victimization is to be avoided and that can be acheived by properly assessing your own attitude and feelings as well as the motivation of the perp.
Embellishing this incident that he wished to share for the appreciation of the rest of us?
What a blathering pussy? Fuck you! Better not come anywhere near me in person or I’ll shove my boot right up your ass into your mouth. And I’m pretty sure I can do it too 
Do you think you might be suffering from a Napoleonic Complex?
I’m a contractor too for boat restoration. Took over a failed business because my predecessor had a baseball bat handy to deal with difficult clients. I’ve had very few difficult clients and they’ve all been women, but I’ve been able to eventually reason with them. I’m no victim either, doing very well thankyou.
Because, based on prior posting history, he’s the evidently type of person to get all worked up over practically nothing and blow things all out of proportion to their actual effect on him, that’s why.
There’s a difference between an adult harassing a child and an adult harassing another adult. The adult can handle it, the child cannot.
Is this not what I am saying? Repeatedly?
Hmm, now that he knows I’m a little chick, he gets all pushy…*
No, I’m just compensating for my lack of penis. I drive a big truck, too. Vroom, vroom.
I was going to take exception to the women comment, but I’d have to agree. Almost all homeowners that are a pain in the ass are women. They can turn on you like that.
See, we are a microcosm of successful interaction. It ain’t that difficult.
*If I was a poster who used smilies, I would’ve inserted a smiley one here. As I am against them in principle, I won’t ever put them in, upon pain of death. Hence this indication of humor, because I know someone, somewhere will take this sentence the wrong way and think I am threatened and over reacting.
Fuck you!
Either way, it’s still wrong, and it sends the wrong message to the perpetrator.
Just because an adult can handle it, doesn’t mean he should.
If you can’t handle some loser on a bike being a jackass, then you obviously need help.
Dude, the guy isn’t even worth “sticking up for yourself”. Jesus, talk about a thin skin.
If you want to “stand up” to moronic verbal taunts, do it verbally. Physical assault is a pathetic response and tends to make you look like a child in an adult’s body.
Please note: if you decide to physically assault somebody, you should be mentally prepared to take a life. Sometimes people die from a simple blow to the head; if you catch your taunting cyclist, punch him, and he falls down and strokes out, you’ve committed homicide. Have fun explaining that, no, you weren’t actually defending yourself from a physical attack, but he did make fun of you.
Many times in my life I’ve been taunted, mocked, insulted by idiots. I’ve never been physically afraid of anybody, and would not have hesitated to defend myself physically if attacked physically. But I never struck any of these miscreants down with righteous wrath, even though I wanted to, because I’m not vain enough to think I had the right to do so. Even when I was literally seeing red, my moral sense held me back. That’s how strongly I believe in freedom of speech. Also, I can’t bring myself to strike first. Sometimes I’d be mentally praying for the idiot in question to take a swing at me.
You’ll have to forgive me; i misunderstood what your problem is.
I assumed, from your belligerent demeanor, that you were a big, macho moron who delights in any opportunity for physical assaults and violence.
Now i realize that you’re just an ignoramus who seems not to realize that different people often suffer different consequences for very similar actions.
Scenario A: 5’6", 130-pound woman tells asshole guy to go fuck himself.
Scenario B: 5’11", 180-pound guy tells asshole guy to go fuck himself.
It may surprise you to know this, but there are plenty of asshole guys in the world who wouldn’t dream of physically assaulting the woman in Scenario A, but who would be happy to beat the guy in Scenario B into unconsciousness.
I’ve seen women like you before. Pint sized, with big mouths, who have no hesitation telling big asshole guys to go fuck themselves at the slightest provocation. And that’s great. I’m all for you sticking up for yourself and not taking shit. But i’ve also seen, during my days as a bartender, women who do this, and then act all surprised when the guy they’re hanging out with gets his ass kicked as a result of their big fucking mouth.
What you have to realize is that the consequences might be different for someone else. You may never face a physical assault as a result of your willingness to give as good as you get, because most people in our society—even big asshole guys—still frown on men physically assaulting women. But there are plenty of men out there who would beat the crap out of a guy who said the same thing to them. Or worse. Some people carry weapons and aren’t afraid to use them. And unless you’re absolutely sure what type of person you’re dealing with, discretion is the better part of valor in many cases.
It’s easy to mouth off to some guy when you’re pretty sure that the worst he’s going to do is call you a bitch. But if you thought he were likely to knock your teeth out, or fracture your skull, or stab you, i suspect that you might be a little more reticent.
This whole business about “standing up for yourself” smacks of giving a shit what some punk kid thinks of you in the first place.
Where did I say I delight in physical assaults and violence? The closest I came was mentioning clotheslining, and that was after 6 other suggestions, and previous posts, none of them mentioning violence. I think where you are confused are the words “Sticking up for yourself”=brawl.
Thanks for pigeonholing a complete stranger-from what, 4 posts? I tend to be the mediator, the one people go to help iron out conflicts, the voice of reason. Nice guess out of your ass though, Kreskin.
Again, if you reread my posts, you’ll see that I have repeatedly advocated not getting to the point of confrontation in the first place.
Maybe the bike rider would think that, too.
Huh?
You said:
If you think that this advice constitutes “not getting to the point of confrontation,” i submit that you should probably look up “confrontation” in the dictionary.
For the sort of moron who would take the time to taunt a complete stranger on the street, “a few choice quips” might be the exact opposite of “diffusing the situation.” And “clotheslining the guy” would probably get you hit with an assault charge. I can see your courtroom testimony now: “but he was taunting me about a flat tire!” Good luck with that defense.
Ideally, yes.
But we’re not putting ourselves in the shoes of the asshole bike rider here—or at least i’m not. We’re putting ourselves in the shoes of the normal, rational person who is taunted by the asshole bike rider.
I agree with cricetus that responding to such people as if we care what they think gives them more consideration than they merit.
Sorry, bad post.
Point of *physical *confrontation.
If you notice, the quote had a certain curve as to level of response, starting at mild.
Again, it wasn’t just taunting. The biker was *following *him, all the way to his house.
Obviously, there are ideological differences here.
Small point–the person on the bike was male, adult (18+).
And again–the incident began within 75 feet of a parked Police car.
My point is, if I see an adult harassing a child, I will likely step in, depending on the situation. Similar if a man is harassing a woman.
Two grown males? I’ll let them handle it however they see fit.
I like the way you think. 
The number of women I’ve met who don’t know this absolutely astounds me. Some might say it’s pigeonholing or stereotyping or what not, but I’d bet a fair percentage of street fights start out because some smaller person who won’t be involved in the fight starts some crap.
Personally, I’d like to see the loud mouthed bar fight end like the opening of Way of the Gun.
I’m glad that you reminded us of that point. So then, why didn’t you swap a piece of pizza for a donut?