www.roanoke.com

Charles Alexander Diez / Asheville Citizen-Times

We last looked at the case of Charles Alexander Diez, the firefighter/gunslinger back in July, when he stopped his car to threaten a bicyclist.

When cyclist Alan Simons tried to walk away, Diez aimed his pistol at Simons' helmet and pulled the trigger -- in front of the Simons' 3-year-old son, who was riding with him.

Diez hit the helmet, but the bullet missed Simons' skull by an inch.

Thursday, with 30 supporters in an Asheville courtroom with him, Diez pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill. A judge sentenced him to 120 days in jail.

Diez lost his job in August.

The verdict/sentence has sparked bike-blogger outrage across the land.

Abusing The Privilege says Diez has been a concealed carry permit holder since 2007.

Big Jonny at DrunkCyclist fired up a fine froth of eloquence and anger:

This time, Diez chose to pull over, he chose to wrap his hand around the grip that firearm, he chose to point his gun at Simon, and he chose fire a round at Simon’s head.

Right in front of the man’s family.

You’d think at this point the motorist has really crossed a line. That he has clearly attempted to kill another man. You might also think that society cannot tolerate such behavior. That this man should be punished for his action, for the choices he made that day, the choices that very nearly left a young boy fatherless.

You might think that, but you’d be wrong.

Bull City Cycling weighed in with a tongue-twisting string of unkind (and hyphenated!) nicknames, and added this:

There's only one reason that Diez shot Simons: Simons was riding a bike, and Diez therefore saw him as less-than-human, so much so that Diez didn't think twice about discharging his deadly weapon at the man.

Sorry to bring you down folks, but it gets worse: by failing to punish him to the full extent of the law, the judge affirmed this belief, essentially saying: "yes, it was bad what Diez did, but can't we all understand?"

Meanwhile, xena at the DC Tri Club Forum jumped in with a succinctly headlined post: Cars don't kill cyclists. Guns kill cyclists.

Erik Ryberg at Tucson Bike Lawyer noted:

I often have to tell my clients that bicyclists are basically hated by a large segment of the public, and must not expect the same treatment by juries, judges, arbitrators, and insurance adjusters that a motorist would receive. If you get hit from behind while on a bike, for example, you are going to be declared to have swerved in front of the vehicle until proven otherwise. Not so if you are a motorist.

And it seems that if you are shot in the head by a firefighter, you shouldn’t expect sympathy either.

In Nashville, Green Fleet Messengers put it this way, under a post headlined: Motorist Shoots Cyclist for his own Good:

Here is another reason to wear a helmet … in case someone shoots at you!!!

Yesterday a motorist shot at a cyclist in Asheville, North Carolina.  Reason for shooting?  The shooter was “upset” because the cyclists was biking on a busy road with his child.  (the kid was in a kiddie seat).   What a humanitarian.

Last but not least, You are the Engine takes U.S. gun laws to task:

Now, I don’t want to say that gun laws in the US are totally f***ed (read: gun laws in the US are totally f***ed), but Diez was recently sentenced to just 120 days in prison.  You read that correctly.  He shot at a man’s head with a child right beside him, plead guilty to “assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill,” and he will go to jail for 4 months.

Like I said, insane. And f***ed.

Thursday morning I called Barnes and Noble at Tanglewood Mall with a simple question.

Do you have any copies of "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky? I asked.

The answer was no.

"I can order you a copy," the clerk said. "We're all sold out."

"Wallflower" was out of stock at the Valley View Barnes and Noble, too. And at Ram's Head Book Shop in Towers Shopping Center. A colleague managed to snag the last copy at Books-A-Million.

That's one of life's little ironies that must gall the book-banners.

Every now and then they grab a handful of passages from a volume, take them out of context, paint a frightening picture of innocence lost and tender lives ruined, and shrilly demand it be yanked off bookshelves.

And it always backfires.

Suddenly the book becomes something teens actually want to read. They run to the bookstores and libraries. Sales climb, authors gain influence and publishers make more money.

Read the rest of the column here.

Previous coverage by Courtney Cutright is here.

Here's what readers are saying on our books blog, The Back Cover.

Read WorldNetDaily's bizarro story here.

The father's original complaint to the principal is on Star City Harbinger, under the hilariously headlined: Wednesday Night Noir: The wacky email that started it all

Read some of the bizarre comments on on other right-wing blogs here and here.

My personal favorites:

"While I don't believe in censorship, there is no reason our kids should have to deal with adult issues at the urging of a teacher. This woman should've lost her job and been blacklisted."

And:

"Firing is not strong enough, for this teacher, she should be jailed………I don’t know on what charge, you think of something."

Roanoke Mayor David Bowers paid a personal visit to a certain house in the 2300 block of Jefferson Street Sunday afternoon.

It’s the place where Kyle Frazier, who is fast becoming known as “the grill guy,” rents an apartment.
Frazier wasn’t home, so Bowers left his card there with a scribbled note: “Welcome to Roanoke!” Frazier told me he found it on his mailbox when he returned home that evening.

The affable mayor, who lives in the 24014 zip code, was one of many struck by Sunday’s column about the haughty and anonymous letter Frazier received that chided him for grilling on his front porch. It was signed “Keep South Roanoke Beautiful, Inc.,” an organization that doesn’t exist.

“He didn’t get a real rosy welcome to Roanoke,” Bowers told me Monday. “I wanted him to know that he was welcome in Roanoke. I almost broke out my grill yesterday and started grilling burgers in my own front yard.”

Almost everyone who has called, e-mailed or posted comments on my blog felt bad for Frazier, who is 24 and is one of the young professionals this city has worked hard to attract.

But some correspondents took the column to task. They argued it cast a false impression upon an entire neighborhood by highlighting the actions of a single nincompoop.

Read the rest of the column here.

Read the previous column here.

From bikeforall.net

Here's the most unbelievable story of the day, folks.

Two kids from Saratoga Springs, N.Y. were hassled by a New York state trooper AND school officials when they showed up for the first day of middle school on their bikes:

From The Saratogan:

The Marino family had previously encountered trouble while cycling to school in May, when school officials informed them they were in violation of a school policy that forbids students from walking or riding to Maple Avenue Middle School. They rode anyway, noting that the family regularly rides for exercise and recreation.

. . .Upon arriving at school on Wednesday, Adam and Janette Kaddo Marino were met outside by school officials and a New York State Trooper, who were on hand for the first day of school. They were informed that they were “out of compliance,” and had a lengthy discussion over where Adam’s bike could be locked.

“I was extremely bothered,” Kaddo Marino said, “after reviewing the way we were met at the school. It was very intimidating to be met by these three men, one of whom was a trooper.”

Go to that Web site above and read the whole story. It's unreal.

The new bike parking area at Carilion Clinic's new outpatient clinic on Reserve Avenue at Jefferson Street. / Photos supplied by Carilion

This photograph is of the new bike parking area being built at Carilion Clinic. Though great efforts have been made around town to retrofit many existing locations (mostly by RideSolutions), this if the first planned-in-advance "bike parking garage" that I'm aware of.

It's at  the soon-to-open Riverside 3 building at the corner of Reserve Avenue and Jefferson Street SW. It'll be Carilion's new outpatient facility.

Carilion spokesman Eric Earnhart said that the building will also have showers. Not THAT'S some first-class bicycle commuter planning!

Below left is a picture of the exterior of the building.

The soon-to-open Carilion Clinic outpatient building

My pal Patrick Oberg sent this clip along. I had heard of synchronized swimming before, but synchronized cycling?

Backwards?

On one wheel?

The girls above were winners in the 2008 and 2009 European ndoor cycling championships, junior women's pair category.

This video is definitely worth watching.

Behold their grace, their confidence and their balancing skills. And how about that pirouette at the end!?

Charles Alexander Diez / Asheville Citizen-Times

Meet Charles Alexander Diez, 42. As a firefighter in Asheville, N.C. he's supposed to save lives and property. But Diez did the opposite of that on Sunday, July 26. He pulled his gun on a bicyclist, aimed at the cyclist's head, and pulled the trigger -- allegedly, that is.

As a result, he is charged with attempted first-degree murder.

From the Asheville Citizen-Times:

Diez was driving his car off Interstate 40 at Exit 55 at about 11:24 a.m. Sunday when he saw Alan Ray Simons and his wife riding bikes up the road with Simons' 3-year-old son behind him in a bike seat, he said.

“He decided he needed to tell them he thought it was unsafe that they would do that and have their child out there in an area where they had a lot of traffic,” Splain said.

Diez stopped his car and confronted Simons near 1360 Tunnel Road. When Simons began to walk away, Diez shot at him, Splain said.

The bullet blew a hole through the outer lining of Simons' helmet and went straight through both sides of it, but he was not hit.

Banned in Alabama!

There is no shortage of strip clubs in the state of Alabama. By one count, there are 29. Huntsville alone has nine T&A joints. Birmingham has five and Mobile has four. The rest are spread around smaller areas of the Deep South state.

But jeez, if you want to sell a bottle of wine with a classic label evoking vintage French posters of a bygone cycling era, you're out of luck. It's banned by the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, (which also regulates the strip clubs) thanks to a state law that forbids nudity on alcohol labels.

The wine, manufactured in California, is Cycles Gladiator. From the company's Web site:

"The famed artwork that once showcased the stylish Cycles Gladiator now graces the bottles of our classic wines from California's Central Coast. The mythological image of the nymph riding her winged bicycle captures the grace and uninhibited beauty of our hillside vineyards."

So far, those blue noses in Alabama haven't banned bikes. But those could be next. The Alabama sex toy ban is in full force.

Sign in Marin County, Calif. (From Rob MacLeod's Bike Page)

The (Lynchburg) News & Advance today had a nifty little story in which the good-gal cyclist won: The driver who messed with her was found guilty of assault and improper driving and fined $750. Now he is appealing the case to Circuit Court and demanding a jury trail.

This is a ploy for a future plea bargain, in my opinion.

From the News & Advance:

The case stemmed from an April 16 confrontation between cyclist Suzanne Rodemann and driver Douglas Sherwood.

Rodemann, of Evington, testified she was riding her bike on Town Forks Road in Campbell County near Leesville Road. After one car passed her, she said, another driver came up behind her, honking persistently.

She said the driver eventually passed, moving very quickly, and came so close that the wind pushed her bike toward the edge of the roadway.

She started to wave, she said, but then decided to give him the "one finger wave," as Sherwood's lawyer, Glenn Berger put it.

Rodemann told Yeatts that Sherwood stopped his pickup truck in the road, blocking her path, then got out and walked toward her.

"He said he had the right to kill me," she testified.

Sherwood denied making such a threat.

The Forest resident said he followed Rodemann for nearly three-quarters of a mile at 10 mph. Instead of moving over as she had told the judge, Sherwood told the court the bike rider stayed in the middle of the lane. He said he was afraid a distracted driver would end up rear-ending him because he was moving so slow.

When he finally was able to pass, she shook her fist at him and cursed him, he said.

That's when he pulled his truck off the road and got out, he said.

"I went back there to give her a piece of my mind," Sherwood testified. "I told her she had no right to put my life in danger."

In an email by Suzanne that someone sent me today, she disputes that she gave him the finger, or the driver pulled over. Actually, she said, he slammed on his brakes in the middle of the road, causing his truck to fish tail. And, she added, he threatened to "kill" her three separate times.

With rage like that, it sounds like this dude is setting himself up for a heart attack......

Lance Armstrong

"The testers could roll up here right this minute. They knocked on my door in Austin last week. In a way it's the ultimate in Big Brother, having to declare where you are 365 days a year so they can find you and test you. But those tests are my best defense."

Lance Armstrong (born 1971) is the only seven-time winner of bicycle racing's ultimate race, the Tour de France, and after a 3-year break, he's in the midst of shooting for an eighth title as part of the Astana team. If he wins this year, he'll be the oldest racer ever to win the race. That distinction is now held by Firmin Lambot, a Belgian who won the race in 1922 at the age of 36. Astana was banned from the race in 2008 amid a doping scandal. Use of performance enhancing drugs has plagued the Tour de France almost since it began in 1903. But it wasn't until recent years that the tests have been formalized and a part of this institution. Despite many allegations that he has doped, Armstrong always has tested negative, or, at the least, below the threshold for banned substances. The truth is, since the beginning of professional sports, bicycle racing has been light years ahead of other professional athletics in the use of performance-enhancing drugs. It would not surprise me to learn that some of the current racers are doping right now -- but with exotic substances that the dope testing agencies don't even know to look for. That is the key: you can only test positive some something they're looking for.