Driving Me Crazy
Let me ask you this... Why in the world do they market, advertise, develop, research, and sell cars that do 3 or 4 times the legal speed limit? I have a real problem with that. I mean really, how many people ever even get the chance to open their car all the way up and absolutely max the speed anyway? I'm sure there are a few people that have, and many more people who have gone over a 100 mph, but what purpose does that serve? Why are we building faster cars every day?
Even a better question - Why are we buying them? OK, I'm Joe Shopper looking for a new car. My criteria: I want so much speed its sick. I want horsepower and acceleration that would make Mario Andretti envious. I want all wheel cornering so I can hug turns at Mach 7 and not loose control. I want all the little bells and whistles that come with the car like satellite tracking, DVD and X-Box. A stereo that will go up so loud the cops will know where I'm at at all times when it's only on half volume. I want a fin on the back. I want low-profile racing wheels with rims that cost a paycheck each. I want tinted windows, leather seats, remote control, and everything else imaginable. I want to spend 600 bucks a month on a car payment, and another 300 on insurance. Better yet, lets lease the S.O.B. so when I'm done payin I can start all over again with something even faster, and maybe two fins on the back.
WHY, WHY, WHY? I have never understood it. What the hell does a fin do on a Honda anyway? Does anyone really know? Or do you just buy them because? Don't get me wrong... I like luxuries as much as the next guy. But it would seem to me they oughta have a point! Some of the things mentioned above have a point... a remote for instance. You can never have too many of those. But really, a car that accelerates from 0-60 in a few seconds, a top speed of 210 mph? Why? Only 1 out of every 1000 buyers will ever actually even get close to that speed in their car.
OK... in the defense of you fancy car buyers, I can see one good reason to have a car just as described above: CHICK MAGNET. Guys right now are making a thousand excuses about how it's not.. it's a thrill to have that much power, I liked the color, its good on gas, etc. Bull shit. You did it for 1 reason.. well, 2 but they go hand in hand. You wanna look cool and you wanna get laid. The sad part is, it works. Granted, the girls that get attracted to a guy simply cause he has a fin on the back of his car are probably not keepers, but if you're just lookin for a roll in the hay and a little bit of arm decoration, you're probably going about it the right way. Girls right now are all denying that they would ever think a guy was cool because of his car. After all, that would be quite shallow wouldn't it?
Let me get down to my real complaint here... the above is just a little bit of a head shaking wonderment. If I were to poll each and every one of you about whether drunk driving should be a crime, most of you would say it should be - I would assume anyway. Hell, lets take a poll and then we'll all know for sure. Leave your comments, say what you think. Personally, I think people get off way too easy. How many people do you know that have 3 or 4 DWI's, had their licenses revoked, and still have a car, buy booze and put that all together and try for 5? Anyway, back to my point. So, it's a crime to drink and drive. Why is it a crime? Because it's dangerous. People get killed that way. When you drink and drive you made a choice to put people at risk because of your stupidity. You're impaired, you have less control, less judgment, and your reaction time increases. You swear you're ok to drive, you know what you're doing, you're in control, you're a veteran at it, you know you're limits, you're just having some fun. Any arguments so far? It is an absolute tragedy when people die because some dumb ass with a few too many decided to get behind a wheel... no one will argue with that will they?
So, if its a crime because it's a huge risk to the public, and you hate people who drink and drive, why do you speed? That's what this post is all about. I think people who speed are no different than the people who drink and drive. Oh, now I've got about 90% of you hating my guts and calling me a dumb ass, but listen to my logic. Let's talk about sheer numbers first. Go ahead, look it up... but about 500 times more people die each year in auto accidents due to excessive speed than to DWI's, and about 2000 times more accidents occur. That should end the argument right there but I'll go on. If you're speeding, your reaction time increases. It's simple science, you can't argue with it. You have less control over your vehicle. Again, science.. something about momentum. You make a choice to speed in spite of this. But wait... You're a good driver! You know what you're doing. You're in control. You're a veteran. You know your limits. You're just having some fun! Hmmm, weren't some of those things on the list of why we hate drunk drivers? But drunk drivers kill people you say? Oh yeah... so do speeders.
We live in such an impatient world. We're on our way home, dodging in and out of lanes cause that stupid son of a bitch in the fast lane is only going 75. Forget the fact that the speed limit is 65, but you gotta tail gait him/her, wait for that little break and cut into the middle lane, dart around him, back to the fast lane, then really lay on the gas just so they know you were really pissed that they slowed you down. How dare they go in the fast lane while going a mere 75 anyway? So, you commute 15 miles to work... you average 80 all the way home.. If you do the math on that about the time it saved you, had you only gone the speed limit of 65, it saves you exactly 3 minutes and 45 seconds.
I work in a hospital, been an EMT on an ambulance crew. I've seen accidents and victims of accidents that will haunt my sleep forever. Do you wanna know what's even more haunting? Blood and gore is nothing anymore. Try the look of utter sorrow and despair on a mothers face when she finds out her child is dead. Or try a whole family, or kids being orphaned. Try looking at a guy who just lost his 3 kids and wife because someone wanted to save 3 damned minutes. Would I trade 3 minutes for your life? Nope. I would hope that you wouldn't want to trade 3 for mine either. But daily we do it. By the millions. 3:45 multiplied out by all the work days in the year that you commute adds up to pert near 1000 minutes! That's hours of saved time! Next time you see a couple of kids outside playing and being cute in only the way that kids can, stop and ask yourself if even 1000 minutes is worth one of their lives. Would you give up an entire day to save one kid? Do you got the balls to go knock on their mom's door and tell her that you wanna kill one of her kids to save a couple minutes? Every day, without exception, lots of people are killed because of simple impatience. Each and every one of those drivers did not wake up that morning and say "today is the day I'm gonna kill someone." Each of them were confident in their ability to drive. Each of them, the day before, would have told you that they weren't the idiot on the road that was going to kill someone. I wonder what they have to say the day after?
Slow your ass down, enjoy the ride, let someone else enjoy their life.
Even a better question - Why are we buying them? OK, I'm Joe Shopper looking for a new car. My criteria: I want so much speed its sick. I want horsepower and acceleration that would make Mario Andretti envious. I want all wheel cornering so I can hug turns at Mach 7 and not loose control. I want all the little bells and whistles that come with the car like satellite tracking, DVD and X-Box. A stereo that will go up so loud the cops will know where I'm at at all times when it's only on half volume. I want a fin on the back. I want low-profile racing wheels with rims that cost a paycheck each. I want tinted windows, leather seats, remote control, and everything else imaginable. I want to spend 600 bucks a month on a car payment, and another 300 on insurance. Better yet, lets lease the S.O.B. so when I'm done payin I can start all over again with something even faster, and maybe two fins on the back.
WHY, WHY, WHY? I have never understood it. What the hell does a fin do on a Honda anyway? Does anyone really know? Or do you just buy them because? Don't get me wrong... I like luxuries as much as the next guy. But it would seem to me they oughta have a point! Some of the things mentioned above have a point... a remote for instance. You can never have too many of those. But really, a car that accelerates from 0-60 in a few seconds, a top speed of 210 mph? Why? Only 1 out of every 1000 buyers will ever actually even get close to that speed in their car.
OK... in the defense of you fancy car buyers, I can see one good reason to have a car just as described above: CHICK MAGNET. Guys right now are making a thousand excuses about how it's not.. it's a thrill to have that much power, I liked the color, its good on gas, etc. Bull shit. You did it for 1 reason.. well, 2 but they go hand in hand. You wanna look cool and you wanna get laid. The sad part is, it works. Granted, the girls that get attracted to a guy simply cause he has a fin on the back of his car are probably not keepers, but if you're just lookin for a roll in the hay and a little bit of arm decoration, you're probably going about it the right way. Girls right now are all denying that they would ever think a guy was cool because of his car. After all, that would be quite shallow wouldn't it?
Let me get down to my real complaint here... the above is just a little bit of a head shaking wonderment. If I were to poll each and every one of you about whether drunk driving should be a crime, most of you would say it should be - I would assume anyway. Hell, lets take a poll and then we'll all know for sure. Leave your comments, say what you think. Personally, I think people get off way too easy. How many people do you know that have 3 or 4 DWI's, had their licenses revoked, and still have a car, buy booze and put that all together and try for 5? Anyway, back to my point. So, it's a crime to drink and drive. Why is it a crime? Because it's dangerous. People get killed that way. When you drink and drive you made a choice to put people at risk because of your stupidity. You're impaired, you have less control, less judgment, and your reaction time increases. You swear you're ok to drive, you know what you're doing, you're in control, you're a veteran at it, you know you're limits, you're just having some fun. Any arguments so far? It is an absolute tragedy when people die because some dumb ass with a few too many decided to get behind a wheel... no one will argue with that will they?
So, if its a crime because it's a huge risk to the public, and you hate people who drink and drive, why do you speed? That's what this post is all about. I think people who speed are no different than the people who drink and drive. Oh, now I've got about 90% of you hating my guts and calling me a dumb ass, but listen to my logic. Let's talk about sheer numbers first. Go ahead, look it up... but about 500 times more people die each year in auto accidents due to excessive speed than to DWI's, and about 2000 times more accidents occur. That should end the argument right there but I'll go on. If you're speeding, your reaction time increases. It's simple science, you can't argue with it. You have less control over your vehicle. Again, science.. something about momentum. You make a choice to speed in spite of this. But wait... You're a good driver! You know what you're doing. You're in control. You're a veteran. You know your limits. You're just having some fun! Hmmm, weren't some of those things on the list of why we hate drunk drivers? But drunk drivers kill people you say? Oh yeah... so do speeders.
We live in such an impatient world. We're on our way home, dodging in and out of lanes cause that stupid son of a bitch in the fast lane is only going 75. Forget the fact that the speed limit is 65, but you gotta tail gait him/her, wait for that little break and cut into the middle lane, dart around him, back to the fast lane, then really lay on the gas just so they know you were really pissed that they slowed you down. How dare they go in the fast lane while going a mere 75 anyway? So, you commute 15 miles to work... you average 80 all the way home.. If you do the math on that about the time it saved you, had you only gone the speed limit of 65, it saves you exactly 3 minutes and 45 seconds.
I work in a hospital, been an EMT on an ambulance crew. I've seen accidents and victims of accidents that will haunt my sleep forever. Do you wanna know what's even more haunting? Blood and gore is nothing anymore. Try the look of utter sorrow and despair on a mothers face when she finds out her child is dead. Or try a whole family, or kids being orphaned. Try looking at a guy who just lost his 3 kids and wife because someone wanted to save 3 damned minutes. Would I trade 3 minutes for your life? Nope. I would hope that you wouldn't want to trade 3 for mine either. But daily we do it. By the millions. 3:45 multiplied out by all the work days in the year that you commute adds up to pert near 1000 minutes! That's hours of saved time! Next time you see a couple of kids outside playing and being cute in only the way that kids can, stop and ask yourself if even 1000 minutes is worth one of their lives. Would you give up an entire day to save one kid? Do you got the balls to go knock on their mom's door and tell her that you wanna kill one of her kids to save a couple minutes? Every day, without exception, lots of people are killed because of simple impatience. Each and every one of those drivers did not wake up that morning and say "today is the day I'm gonna kill someone." Each of them were confident in their ability to drive. Each of them, the day before, would have told you that they weren't the idiot on the road that was going to kill someone. I wonder what they have to say the day after?
Slow your ass down, enjoy the ride, let someone else enjoy their life.
posted by Dogman at 3:02 PM
2 comments
