South Carolina Motorcycle Rights Association

August Recess

It’s August in Washington D.C., which basically means the city comes to a grinding halt. It’s so boring that most people decide to spend the day chasing a little white ball around with a stick on manicured lawns—FYI, I am not one of those people.

August recess exists because August in D.C. can see weather that is 99% humidity and 106 degrees, which isn’t a lot of fun even on a motorcycle. Congress sat through a handful of August work sessions and quickly realized they would rather be at home. It’s the one thing that every Republican and every Democrat agrees on; August in D.C. sucks! It can get so bad that asphalt on K Street, home to most lobbyists, becomes soft and sticky from the heat. Some people think the road melts because K Street is just a little closer to Lucifer's hangout than the rest of the country.

So with Congress in recess and all the agency folk on summer vacation, it is unclear at this point what will happen with the highway bill when the Congress gets back to work in a couple of weeks. They will have just about six weeks to draft a House bill, conference it with the Senate bill, reach an agreement, and then send it to the President for approval—a lot for the Congress to tackle in one sitting.

News of the Weird

Sometimes the truth really is stranger than fiction. In all my various searches for motorcycle related news and information, I occasionally come across something that is too bizarre to not pass a long. I found a story in a Nigerian newspaper with the headline of, “Vigilante group shoots police officer for riding motorcycles.” The story, not surprisingly, brought up way more questions than answers. Why was there a ban on motorcycles? Who feels so strongly against motorcycles that they feel compelled to shoot at the rider? Is there really a Nigerian vigilante group that is actually standing up for government rules? Aren't vigilante groups supposed to go against the law, not help enforce it? It is a mad world out there, and here’s the story for your reading pleasure:

A member of a vigilance group on Thursday shot dead a policeman for allegedly violating the ban on use of motorcycles in Ganye Local Government Area of Adamawa. The Police Public Relations Officer in Adamawa, DSP Othman Abubakar, confirmed the incident to newsmen on Saturday in Yola.

Abubakar said the Police Corporal, who was returning from his farm in Mufti, was shot by the vigilance group member ostensibly in the bid to enforce the ban on the use of motorcycles.

He said the suspect had been arrested and was now with the Criminal Investigation Department investigating the matter.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the 23rd Amoured Brigade, Yola, had last week declared a ban on the use of motorcycles in the entire state for security reasons.