If there are pedestrians on the sidewalk, the cyclist should get off the bicycle and walk it. Or ride on the street. That is standard etiquette.

What's happening in Ukraine right now is one of the most important stories in years and the results will effect the balance of power in East-West relations. It will also affect minority groups, such as gays and lesbians, who are far better off in a country moving towards the EU than to Putin's Russia.

I'm been following the story closely since I was there this summer, and seeing huge fires in the midst of the places I enjoyed is very troubling.

If you are interested in what's happening, the Guardian has a great live blog:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/blog/20…

and live stream from Independence Square:

http://espreso.tv/stream

an explanation of what's happening in English from a demonstrator:

http://maidantranslations.wordpress.com/…

twitter live feed: (#EuroMaidan)

https://twitter.com/search?q=%23EuroMaid…

how to destroy an armored vehicle with a petrol bomb:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK6Ngbna…

meat in mexico! meat in mexico! now thats a classic.

Holy fucking hell cyclists on the sidewalk are a menace and deserve to be punched in the face. Fuck them and fuck you for defending the asshole riding a vehicle on the sidewalk.

Funny, Republicans complained that ACA was not sustainable, only to have the CBO report that it would, in fact eliminating the ACA would add to the deficit. Democrats championed that report, while Republicans dismissed it.

Fast forward to this week, where CBO says raising the minimum wage will kill 500,000 jobs, which the Republicans championed the report as a job killer, while Democrats dismissed it.

Also, in better news:

3 state legislatures' efforts at legalizing anti-gay discrimination appear dead:

http://purpleunions.com/blog/2014/02/usa…

and here's how you fight the Westboro Baptist Church; form a wall of people around their targeted area and don't let them enter:

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2014/02/18/tho…

@5: Your violent disregard for the law is...disturbing. Are you Fnarf, who has also threatened pre-emptive violence on law-abiding cyclists?

Not sure I'd go as far as @2 or @5, but there's no mention in you report Dom of how the cyclist was behaving. I've seen plenty of cyclists on Capitol Hill sidewalks deserving of a punch in the face.

I didn't see this addressed in the CBO report, but couldn't the estimated loss of 500,000 jobs be due, at least in part, to the fact that many low-wage earners work multiple jobs to make ends meet? Raising the minumum wage would mean some of these people would no longer have to work 2 or even 3 jobs, so would that potentially account for some of the net loss?

RE: Woman buying all the "indecent" t-shirts.

Let me guess, this is another case of a radical militant atheist trying to impose her will on christians who just want to be left alone... right?

On Diane Rehm this morning is a rebroadcast of her interview with Shirley Temple Black—from 1988.

Listen here.

I have been run off the sidewalk by too many cyclists. They're a menace on the sidewalk. I happily refuse to move for them and will swing if they threaten to touch me with their fucking vehicle on the sidewalk.

Raising the minimum wage comes from somewhere, but not out of the pockets of the 1 percent, and not out of the corporate profits.

Depending on an equitable shift at the point of consumption is probably easier to enact, but it only takes so much from people that don't care if the price of a yoga mat sandwich goes up 50¢

What would make the shift in equity less destructive to the people that the rise in minimum gage is supposed to help to jobs are changes in tax policy.

@9

No, not after Yanukovich tried to criminalize all protests and definitely not after last night, when the secret police drove armored vehicles over protesters' barricades. And not after his opponents are being thrown in jail as political prisoners, such as Yulia Tymoshenko.

At this point he needs to step down or be thrown out. He is a dictator. There is no "political process" in Ukraine, at least none that we would recognize as democratic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yulia_Tymos…

It is the natural pecking order. Slog doesn't care when cyclists kick cars for being assholes and endangering them. But now that a pedestrian does it to a cyclist you care? Let's use the same argument that cyclists use against cars: they have a lot more energy and can cause a lot more damage in a collision, so it is the duty of the cyclist to be careful around the pedestrian. The fuckers who buzz by on the sidewalk at 15 mph are a fucking menace. It doesn't help that by the time they ring their bells (if they even do so) they are already on top of you. And then they tell you to fuck off after they nearly hit you.

Hmm, I wonder if someone who broke into a planned parenthood to destroy property, scrawl bilbe verses on the walls, and throw human blood everywhere would be called a "protester" by The Stranger.

Somehow I doubt it. But do the same to a power plant...

I understand that media will always have bias, but you guys should at least try to refrain from such blatant misreporting, even if it is just Slog.

@17 you really just compared punching someone in the face with kicking a car????

@17 If somebody pulls that shit, knock them on their ass and scream "share the sidewalk" at them.

@17: Yes, but in the linked story, the cyclist was not endangering anyone. The pedestrian was just annoyed. It wasn't "That's what you get for recklessly riding a bike on the sidewalk", it was a punch just for riding (legally) on the sidewalk.

@21: The "linked story" is just a summary the police report, which was filed by the pedestrian and thus has only his side of the story. We don't know more than that.

My bet is this was some random crazy (or drunk or stoned) person, but we don't know that either.

Of course, lack of information never prevents another fun-filled car-bicycle-pedestrian flame war.

@12: God bless that woman.

It's about decency and propriety and not wanting our youth not be dressed as sluttly young ladies of ill repute - foisted upon them by a depraved fashion industry.

He reported riding slowly east up the Denny Way hill near Summit Avenue when he passed a man walking on the sidewalk.

I'll concede that there's no way the cyclist was riding more than 3 mph, but anyone who tries to ride a bike up that part of the hill is an idiot.

Back when I lived on Capitol Hill, I'd occasionally walk by cyclists riding on the sidewalk on the steepest part of that hill, and, as a pedestrian, it was never fun for me. They look like they could topple over at any second.

It's totally legal to ride a bicycle on the sidewalk in Seattle (assuming one cedes the right-of-way to pedestrians) and, in some places, it's safer. Denny Hill is one of those places. I can't imagine how someone cycling uphill on Denny could be a menace to anyone except themselves (considering how slow they'd be going). The pedestrian-puncher is an asshole. Try that when I'm on my bicycle and we'll see how far I can throw my bike frame when I'm triggered.

@24, you've had a penis in your mouth or up your butt, right? Or at least dreamed about it?

Because I want as complete a picture as possible when I imagine you clutching your pearls.

@8 boo! Scared you!

Riding a bicycle on the sidewalk is a public menace and should be illegal in Seattle as it is in almost all civilized parts of the world. The fact that it's not is a hangover from the days when Seattle was made up of nothing but gentle suburban parkways and little girls riding their bikes around the driveway.

My "threats of violence" were and are purely theoretical threats of self-defense, when cyclists come bombing down the sidewalk at 15-20 MPH, as they do all too often. If you're going to run me over, I'm going to kick you into the street before you're upon me, or wish that I had. Bicycles are vehicles and belong in the street.

I almost got creamed today by some asshole riding on the sidewalk with a coffee in his hand, who was coming to a stop near the entrance of my building, after racing up at top speed, which apparently required him to swing wildly in four directions while hopping frantically and swinging his coffee arm in my face. Fuck you, sir, and fuck all of you sidewalk riders. You're bad citizens.

I'm fine with cyclists riding on the sidewalk so long as they slow to ~5 mph when pedestrians are present. That's what I do.