Selfish, Stupid Dog People (Again)

Of course it was only a matter of time before some legislation was aimed at these Morons...

Unfortunately it's only one State, the fine is ridiculously low ($25), and the cops need another cause to pull you over for a dog citation.

Rules and the enforcement thereof are always two separate issues.  For example, the hands-free cell phone rule in New York...

Well they don't seem to ticket anybody (besides me, once).  Half the drivers on the road are still brazenly texting, dialing, and reading.

Maybe the cops don't want to do it because they think it will stoke the ire of the populace?  Maybe the cops are afraid that doing so would endanger political support for their lavish pensions?

I don't know.  But it seems that all the police need is a $100 digital camera and to stand at any traffic light and they could write $160 tickets all day long, get some money for our *lean* government, and who knows, perhaps even make the roads safer...

YOU Should Get Off The Phone

From the AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- For all the criticism and new legal bans, texting by drivers just keeps increasing, especially among younger motorists.

Most said they would answer a cellphone call while driving and continue to drive after answering. And nearly two of 10 acknowledged sending texts or emails from behind the wheel. That spiked up to half of drivers 21 to 24 years old.

More than half of drivers said making a cellphone call made no difference to their driving performance, and a quarter said texting or emailing made no difference. But 90 percent said that when they are passengers they feel very unsafe if the driver is texting or emailing.

I love it. They all think it's dangerous only when SOMEONE ELSE is texting/calling!

It's like how everyone hates Congress but continues to re-elect their representatives.

I'm a big advocate of heavy fines for roadway cordless cellphone usage.

BUT, these cops need to have a digital pic/video of you in order to issue a citation.

It's ridiculous that you can grab a candy bar or bend over and touch your shoes and some quota-bent cop can write you a $180 ticket for what they think is in-car phone use. You have ZERO recourse - at least here in New York - unless you want to miss an entire day of work and try to argue your defense with a judge.

Digital camera's would/should cost the police almost nothing. (Though I'm sure they'd find a way to spend $5,000 on each one!)

And it is my opinion that these dumb kids are texting, not simply because they are self-absorbed Morons....but probably more so because they are freakin' addicted to the devices.

Hijacking Minds...

What a terrific headline by Drudge!

I found the 9/11 memorial hype this year to be absolutely nauseating.

Realize that in the ten years since 3,000 people died in the attacks...

...that over 400,000 people have died UNNECESSARILY on the roadways - a silent holocaust in and of itself.

To the fools that claim they are *accidents* I call bull$hit. There are people texting, tailgating, weaving, and driving 80 mph in the right hand land everywhere. And there are absolutely no efforts made to get shady uninsured drivers off the road, get illegal immigrants and blind 'old coots' off the road, or to investigate the extent of cordless cellphone usage in crashes. No, the people, the media, and the government just accept this as an immutable reality.

And they do so because it doesn't present a mass marketable, self-aggrandizing opportunity for themselves.

So when every blowhard on the radio and television wants me to reflect on what THEY deem important I punch the off-button with indignation. Realize again that they NEED everybody talking about, worrying about, angry/happy about the same things each day or they simply don't have a market for their *product*; they'll have no one to manipulate.

I suggest that whenever someone else tries to hijack and terrorize your mind that you take appropriate self-defensive measures.

Was 9/11 a big deal?

Yeah, of course it was. You don't have to tell me. I was on the phone with my (future first) wife when the first Tower fell and the line cut off. She was only 4/5 blocks away.

In fact at around 9pm last night when we got back from Maine there was still a massive vigil going on in our hometown of Manhasset, NY. Our *Wall Street* town lost 40 people or so on 9/11.

But still, why were we attacked in the first place?

It was because the powers-at-be let important $hit slide (lax illegal immigration enforcement, threatening rhetoric from overseas caves, etc.) in the first place while they focused on self-serving crap like global warming, gay marriage, and defeating their political opponents opponent.

Most Ride Bikes Anyway

Hah!

From the article:

Women and gay men are likely to be the worst drivers, a new study has shown.


Psychologists at Queen Mary, University of London, who conducted the study, believe the findings mean driving in a strange environment would be more difficult for gay men and women than for straight male motorists.
Both tend to rely on local landmarks to get around, and are also slower to take in spatial information.


The computer-based tests were carried out on 140 volunteers, and demonstrated that gay men, straight women and lesbians navigated in a similar way, sharing the same weaknesses.

You know one of my older stock jokes touches on the idea that in the driving world, there is no racism, classism, or chauvinism. Poll a group of humans on who they think are the absolute worst drivers and the answers will span: men, women, teenagers, 'old coots', 'old bags', Asians, blacks, Hispanics, contractors, minivan moms, rich BMW weavers, or ghetto people with the seat bent back 150 degrees.

And I do agree with all of those answers!

Yesterday, and I don't know why - perhaps because I was just cut off by a Suburu Forester? - but I was wondering about the reputation of invert drivers...

All I had to do was Google and I found out right fast.

When I come to think about it....my urban-dwelling, perpetually-single male cousin has built up a bit of a *bad driving* reputation for himself. In fact he almost lost his license for repeated moving violations. YES he drives a hybrid. YES he's a bicycler too. Just saying...

No Comment...

Except uproarious laughter.

Roadside Marginalizing

We've been fortunate here in Boston to have gone 7 full weeks - January 1st to Feb 16th - without any snow.

And we didn't get much on this past Tuesday (the 16th) either but the roads got pretty dicey out there in the afternoon. Between picking one kid up at LEGO camp and dropping another off at Annie Camp, my car must have skidded badly five times. Everyone was driving 15 mph on a major road here where the limit is 45 mph - it was that bad.

So after I pick-up my daughter, I am driving slowly down the road described above. But some knucklehead decided to tailgate me for the 1.5 mile stretch. The fact that the road was a skating rink apparently didn't scare him - not as much as it scared me seeing him on my bumper.

I reach the traffic light, get into the left hand turning lane, and this clown pulls up alongside. I roll down my window and motion for him to do the same.

CaptiousNut - So, the roads are covered in ice,....nobody has any brakes,....and you have to tailgate me?

He was clearly taken aback by my question - because he probably thought I was going to ask him for directions or something.

Dude - [gruffly] WHAT is your point?

CaptiousNut - My point? [serenely]....My point is that you are a total *%&$-ing idiot.

Now he was really taken aback! He grunted unintelligibly while fumes filled his reddening skull.

Dude - That's real nice! I have my 13 year-old daughter here with me!

CaptiousNut - So you're tailgating on an icy road with your daughter in the front seat....Like I said, you're a total *%&$-ing idiot.

And that really set him off, into a face redder than anything I've seen since my lunatic high school basketball coach.

Dude - [mustering all his powers of articulation] GO F*CK YOURSELF!!!

CaptiousNut - [still serene] That's real nice....I have my two small children in the car here.

Then he sped off.

Note that he didn't even deny tailgating me or accuse me of driving too slowly, when first confronted.

Is this a potentially risky game I'm playing - antagonizing randoms on our raging roads?

Will some [crazier] guy one day pull out a gun on me?

Maybe.

But I submit that Roadside Marginalizing is 1/500th as risky as tailgating.

This type of altercating takes nothing away from my energy or my chi; not only is it effortless on my part, but it's often hilarious!

The way I figure it, that guy deserves to go home all hot and bothered. He deserved to be chastised and embarrassed in front of his daughter.



It's funny, you know I once saw my father harshly scolded - by the rude-a$$ pastrami guy at Katz's Delicatessen - and I'll never, ever forget watching him, my ultimate authority figure, get smacked down like he did.

This morning, my 5.25 year old son said to me, "Dad, what's tailgating?"

I was beside myself laughing. He waited three full days before asking!

The all-ears, precocious little bugger has also been know to say *the bank owns our house*. I wonder where he got such a notion?

Morons On Wheels

This week outside of Boston some bicyclist got run over and became entangled *underneath* a car. He was dragged for 800 feet before the chick driver stopped; she was unaware. Can we just assume she was on her cell phone?

Anyways, every time I see a biker on these Massachusetts streets I think:

MORON

With the curvy narrow roads, all the traffic, inclement weather, and all the self-centered college students, blind 'old coots', flaky minivan *moms*, meathead speeding contractors, and texting teeny-boppers....I'm not comfortable even walking along the streets of Greater Boston, never mind biking on them.

The crash at 1:10 is unbelievable:



One thing I can't stand about bikers around here, aside from their glaring recklessness, is how they want all the rights of car traffic...

Yet when they hit stop signs and traffic signals they fly through like they're exempt.

Plus there's that whole Commi aspect of the endeavor:



Shoot! It's been three years since I - Marginalized Sharing.

Morons On Wheels

One of the surest signs of a Moron is....

Seeing somebody on the roadways who thinks they can still drive *normal* speeds when it is dark, pouring, and there are huge puddles everywhere.

I had a few such idiots fly by me in the wee hours this morning, on my way to a 7am MRI exam for my knee. One of them was a tiny Volkswagen going 75 mph in a 60 zone.

IMO, there should be severe penalities against people who speed or otherwise drive recklessly in the rain. How about $5,000 tickets? These are the stupid jerks that are going to kill somebody one day.

I mean, it's abundantly clear who the really dangerous drivers are, isn't it? Must we just sit back and wait until they cripple or kill one of our loved ones?

See also - Marginalizing Bad Drivers.

Massachusetts - The Dumbest State, QED

From US Highway Deaths At Lowest Levels Since 1961:

Seat belt use in 2008 climbed to 83 percent, a record. Fourteen states and the nation's capital had rates of 90 percent or better. Michigan had the highest seat belt use rate with 97.2 percent, followed by Hawaii with 97 percent and Washington state at 96.5 percent. Massachusetts had the lowest rate, 66.8 percent, while it was under 70 percent in New Hampshire and Wyoming.

I'm telling you - from being the only state to opt for McGovern in 1972:



To an astounding super-majority voting TO TAX THEMSELVES:



And now to this list we'll add being the least seat-belted state in the country!

The biggest threat to our lives and our family's lives remains on the roadways. You just have to be an absolute Moron not to buckle up.

I could be wrong, but I suspect it's mostly 'old coots' and 'old bags' that refuse to utilize seat-belts (and we have a boatload of them!). They complain that belts are *too uncomfortable*. I don't know about the rest of y'all, but when I'm not fastened in I feel pretty darn uncomfortable.

See Massachusetts - More Morons Than Your State and also my old yet oft-visited post Marginalizing Bad Drivers.