Arguments Are a Lot Like Poker
I dislike bad drivers a lot. Okay, I'll be honest....I think bad drivers embody what's wrong with our society. Driving is a privilege. Most people treat it like a right. Last time I checked the Constitution driving cars, wagons, or anything else wasn't protected. You have the right to pay income tax, even to own a car, but driving it is a privilege.
So my wife tells me this story which epitomizes those who: refuse to use their turn signal, drive at excessive speeds, tail gate, make unsafe lane changes, and generally don't pay attention to what they're doing. As she was about to enter a turn lane for a left hand turn the car behind her moved into the median before the turn lane started and began accelerating. As my wife began move into the turn lane she realized this car was about to rear-end her. The accident was averted but it didn't end there. Both of them pulled into the parking lot of the Post Office where, unlike her, my wife exits her car, approaches the other driver (a woman), and asks her, "Did you know you almost hit me?"
It was at this point that the woman of the other vehicle panicked, "You're crazy. Did you get out of your car to tell em that? You're crazy." My wife, in a calm manner began explaining to the woman why she was in the wrong. The woman continued to scream "crazy" never once thinking that a simple I'm sorry could defuse the situation. It's my right to drive, and it's my right to drive anyway I see fit.
But this is where it gets really good. After my wife gets the last word (or so she thinks) and begins to walk away the woman yells after her, "Who do you think you are? I was just diagnosed with MS and I only have two years to live." This is what I call the Big Raise. Because she didn't have anything to stand on she pushed more chips into the pot in hopes of stealing it (the argument). My wife is always really good at coming up with come backs, but usually it's about 5 minutes after they would have been useful. My wife simply walked away.
I don't know crap about MS but I do know that I've never heard of anyone dying from it. That's tell #1. Tell #2, and I didn't even have to see the exchange to know this, was the frantic "your crazy" bluff. I would have simply re-raised (or gone "all in"). I wouldn't give the woman the satisfaction of stealing anything. My all-in move would have been something like this:
- "Wow, and I just diagnosed you with a case of SD, Shitty Driving. Bad day huh."
- "Good luck with the MS symptoms, FOR THE NEXT 30 YEARS."
- "Keep driving like that and you might not make it two years."
- "Here's my address, have someone let me know when your no longer able to drive."
- "My advice, reduce the load on the medical system. Kill yourself now."
Dying from MS my ass. More like, I need people to feel sorry for me even when I'm a dumb-ass with no "right" being on the road. And why is it that we've become a society that is deathly afraid of conflict. I'll leave that topic for another time.
My Haiku to Bad Drivers:
Lack of attention
no signal; a person hurt
My foot in your ass
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2 comments:
What would Best Grip Mike have to say about this...?
The downfall of the system is the fact that there are not more federally funded programs for people with MS, and that they should not be singled out as bad drivers. Doing so makes you a heartless right wing fanatic. We should be able to drive our cars anyway we see fit. We pay the taxes that allow roads to be built, and if some get run off the road due to others careless driving, they can be enrolled in yet another federally funded program for those that have been victimized by the overbearing federal government. In any case it's just another indication that the federal government doesn't care and they are not doing enough to solve the problem and we need more federally funded programs to correct the situation. BTW it's all Dubya's fault!
Bad drivers abound...bad cooks abound...bad sex partners abound...
Those who are bad certainly deserve ridicule and perhaps even the occasional beating.
However, just because something is not explicitly defined in the US Constitution does it become a privalege. That is just dumb and Moorish to think otherwise.
I have a right to scratch my butt...or is this not the case as it does not explicitly allow this in the Bill of Rights. Rubbish. Now, me scratching the butt of Tyra Banks would be a privalege. However, the US Constitution has nothing to do with it.
So, I say, Jimbo, you ignorant slutt. The issue is a bit more complicated than you ultra right-wing reactionary toaster brain can comprehend. Driving, riding a bike, walking, "self-discovery", adjusting my package, ...all my right.
Now, this is this thing called a "social contract". Necessary due to the fact that humans are generally idiots and abuse both rights and priveleges. So, we ALLOW the governement to regulate aspects of our rights so we do not infringe on the rights of others in so employing our own.
That is why we ALLOW public officials (aka, police officers) to correct problematic behavior via the use of citation and, in the case of cops of Los Angeles, through the indiscriminate use of "Billy-clubs"...both ok by me.
Your wife should have stayed away from the freak who almost ran into her...it could have been more that your average ignorant person and could have been someone stupid AND dangerous.
The Colonel has spoken.
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