![\"\"](\"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/teabagger-sign.jpg\" "\\"teabagger")
No, I haven’t turned into a teabagger.\u00a0 This is one of my periodic “bag” posts, a collection of links and short observations that by themselves wouldn’t get a post of their own.<\/p>\nNo, I haven’t turned into a teabagger.\u00a0 This is one of my periodic “bag” posts, a collection of links and short observations that by themselves wouldn’t get a post of their own.<\/p>\n
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As a motorcycle rider, I’ve always thought there’s something wrong with law enforcement and the courts when it comes to cagers who kill or maim bikers. Reckless and negligent drivers aren’t always investigated or arrested; even when they are, judges often dismiss the charges.\u00a0 Well.\u00a0 I obviously didn’t know the half of it.\u00a0 This article, Here’s Why Drivers Get Away with Murder in NYC<\/a>, almost took my breath away.\u00a0 It’s far worse than I thought!<\/p>\n The article convincingly demonstrates that the NYPD isn’t interested in investigating vehicular homicide or manslaughter, even in egregious cases. No, that’s not exactly right … I’m being too harsh. According to the article NYPD will get off its ass and investigate cases where drivers have killed pedestrians and bicyclists, but when drivers merely leave pedestrians and bicyclists crippled for life, NYPD couldn’t care less.<\/p>\n Hey, it just occurred to me that I’m not only a motorcyclist, but a pedestrian and bicyclist too!\u00a0 And an experience I had with an enraged motorist<\/a> while I was riding my bicycle recently suggests the Tucson police aren’t much better.<\/p>\n Note to self: if hit by a car while walking, running, or biking, don’t bother to call police unless dead.<\/p>\n ——————–<\/p>\n A friend sent me a link to this Daily Kos entry: “The Right protests naming of USS Gabrielle Giffords…I guess we shouldn’t be surprised, should we?<\/a>”\u00a0 The writer is reacting to a Daily Caller article<\/a> about a retired admiral who objects to naming a new US Navy littoral combat ship after the former congresswoman.<\/p>\n I first thought the writer used an awfully broad brush, painting that poor admiral as “the right.”\u00a0 His objections didn’t strike me as political, one way or the other.\u00a0 My own heart, which is a nice shade of commie pink, beats in sync with the admiral’s.\u00a0 I think any serviceman or woman who died for our country should be ahead of Gabby in that particular line … but rereading the entry I see the writer was actually talking about reader responses to the Daily Caller article.\u00a0 Here’s a representative comment:<\/p>\n These people despise the military and make a mockery of it by trashing its traditions and honoring people who are not worthy.\u00a0 If she had run in front of a bunch of children to catch a bullet to save them, she still wouldn’t have been worthy of a Navy ship naming.\u00a0 They just don’t get it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And another:<\/p>\n Gabby Giffords would never have had a ship named for her if she wasn’t Jewish.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Okay, now I see what the dKos writer was talking about. Jesus.\u00a0 Good thing Gabby’s not black, too, or the Daily Caller comments section would be as toxic as the one under Fox News’ report on the death of Whitney Houston<\/a>!<\/p>\n Uh, don’t click that last link if you still believe in the inherent goodness of humanity.<\/p>\n Did you click anyway?\u00a0 Well, now you know why I will never, ever, under any circumstances, even with a gun to my head and my family held hostage, vote Republican.\u00a0 Republicans aren’t just in bed with these mouth-breathing assholes … they are<\/em> these mouth-breathing assholes.<\/p>\n ——————–<\/p>\n Here’s one of the worst articles I’ve ever seen in a newspaper: Poseur doubted self, hurt others<\/a>.\u00a0 It’s about yet another guy who posed as a military hero and didn’t get away with it.\u00a0 What makes me so mad about the article is the wall-to-wall moralizing.\u00a0 The reporter gives us the who, but then goes off the rails speculating about the why, completely losing sight of the what, the where, and the when.\u00a0 Most readers probably want to know how the impersonator got caught.\u00a0 I certainly did.\u00a0 You can read that article from one end to the other, but you’ll never find out.<\/p>\n I don’t really have much to say about these “stolen valor<\/a>” types.\u00a0 A few years ago, when I was driving buses, we hired a guy who claimed to be a former Navy Seal and later turned out to be nothing of the sort.\u00a0 I particularly remember a close friend from high school … talented, smart, tons of potential … who went down that path, making up lies about himself in order to impress a girl.\u00a0 After high school I didn’t see him for six months or so; when we met again he was with the girl, who believed he had lived an entirely different and more exciting life than the one I knew about.\u00a0 It was a thoroughly awkward meeting.\u00a0 It was obvious he’d been avoiding me because of all the lies he’d told that girl; he was terrified I’d say something and bring the house of cards down.\u00a0 I kept my mouth shut, much to his relief, but I never wanted to see him again after that.\u00a0 What he did totally creeped me out.\u00a0 It was like finding out my best friend was a child molester.<\/p>\n ——————–<\/p>\n