A Little Commute to the Target Range

Middle school teacher Jim Litz suffered some bruising and a big scratch on his back after he struck a bear while riding his bicycle to school, according to an article published by the Missoulian and in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, One of America's Great Newspapers.

Litz said he was traveling about 25 mph Monday morning when he came upon a rise and spotted a black bear about 10 feet in front of him. He didn't have time to stop and T-boned the bruin.

He tumbled over the handlebars, his helmet hit the bear's back and the two went cartwheeling down the road.

“I didn't have time to respond. I never even hit my brakes,” Litz said.

He tumbled over his handlebars, planting his helmeted head on the bruin's back, and man and beast went cartwheeling down the road.

The bear rolled over Litz's head, and its mass cracked his helmet. As the duo toppled over one another, the bear clawed at Litz's cycling jacket, scratching his flesh from shoulder to buttocks before scampering up a hill above the road, where it stopped and whined.

Litz's wife drove by shortly after the crash and took her husband to the hospital. He hoped to be able to return to teaching science at Target Range Middle School on Friday.

Target Range Middle School? Wonder how much the National Rifle Association paid for naming rights to that place?

Sarah Palin is reportedly planning an NRA sponsored trip this weekend to hunt down and field dress the bear. "It'll be one more step to declaring victory in the war on terror," Palin explained.