A few years ago a guy I worked with bought his brand new Harley just a few days prior to Sturgis and then rode it up there. He had passed his MSF course and gotten his motorcycle license just a few weeks before. He spent over $20,000 on a new UltraWideGlideElectraFatBob and a few grand on leather clothes for himself and his wife. With a few hours experience on a Honda 250 they took off on a several hundred mile, two up, trip on an 800 pound motorcycle. They got through it alive, but with lots of those folks on the road it's surprising there aren't MORE deaths. Now, three years later, he understands how monumentally stupid that trip was.

We all like to think of ourselves as rugged individualists. But when push comes to shove most of us are sheep who do what we are told. Worst of all, a lot of us become unpaid agents of whoever is controlling the agenda by enforcing the current dogma on the few rugged individualists who actually exist.