If you know me, you know I don't read fiction. I haven't read fiction in a LONG time. I read periodicals and business books - that's about it. I got my new Sports Illustrated today and read it cover-to-cover as usual and there is a great article in it (depending on how you look at it) about how the Chinese government basically white-washed everything about the Olympics and are trying their best to make sure they are viewed in a positive light. I followed that story up by reading online (my favorite preference) about how the performers in the opening ceremonies were treated. The people in the boxes had to wear adult diapers....nuff said. One girl is paralyzed from the waist down from a fall during practice with adverse weather..... the flying / singing girl was replaced by a lipsync artist because the real singer wasn't cute enough.... bragging by the director that they could do more in a week than American performers could learn in 2 months.... it's very enlightening. I also read this week in another magazine that illegal drivers in America (no valid license) kill on average 25 people per day. Think about that for a second. I know I've made comparisons like this before, but this one is crazy. We've lost a little over 4,000 men in Iraq since Feb 2003. That's roughly 2 deaths per day. People go ape shit over that statistic. We all agree, one death is tragic and nobody is making light of any death.....but when you realize that 116 people die on American highways every day....and about 25 of them are caused by drivers without a valid driver's license....it's enough to make your head want to explode. The story goes into details about how people from other countries who probably can't read just plow through intersections and kill families. You read about people with 8-10 traffic convictions having their license taken away on a Monday and then they end up killing someone within a week. It's a tough article to read. The guys in Iraq signed up for the military. I'm talking about families dying who are in a car, wiped out by someone who shouldn't be behind the wheel - and nobody seems to be doing anything about it. We're a country of very bright resourceful people when we need to be: to make a better video game, to allow us to have 1,000,000 different ringtones on our phones, we have robots to vacuum our carpets and my car remembers where I had my seat and steering wheel when my wife is done driving it. You can buy a toaster that will darken one slice more than the other. Our dogs don't need a fence anymore. My daughter can play checkers with her grand pap who lives 250 miles away. Everyone has Crackberry thumbs. Why can't we devise a simple product or two that can do the following:
1. Attach to the steering column and kill cell phone signals within 5 feet of the steering column if the car is running.
2. Have some type of breathalyzer on dash to detect if the person is past .08 and not start the car if so. Or, have an 8 digit password to start the car which would be difficult to remember or punch in if totally loaded. Any idiot can turn a key.
3. A system to ensure people without a valid license won't drive. How about, if you get caught, you go to jail for 5 years with no questions asked. People will say, we need space for hardened criminals. Well, I submit that if an illegal alien smashes an SUV into a mother and her baby killing them....a fine and never being able to get their license is no big deal.
I hate to say it, but some countries in the Middle East do a much better job of preventing crimes and idiotic behavior with their barbaric system of deterrents. Maybe if you rape someone and get castrated, it will deter people. Maybe if you get caught breaking and entering and lose your legs, it will deter people. Maybe if you kill someone and get shot between the eyes within a week....the murder rate would go down. It sounds drastic, but when 25 people per day die for no good reason, it just doesn't make sense to me. If all the energy that political foes of the war went to address this one issue, do you think the problem could be alleviated by half? If it was alleviated from 25 to 22, they could save more lives than bringing home the boys from Iraq. Makes you think, doesn't it?
1 comment:
I didn't read the SI article so perhaps they mentioned this.
I saw an interview of a newsman covering the Bejing Olympics. And he was asked why there weren't more signs of any protests being shown. And he said, "There aren't any protests."
Then he explained why. In order to stage a peaceful public demonstration in Bejing during the Olympics you had to apply for a permit to do so.
77 such permits were received.
None of the permits were approved.
Using information from the permits the Chinese police rounded up all the subversive "organizers" and threw them all into jail.
These folks have not been charged with any crime. And the police say they will be released after the Olympics.
When police were questioned about these tactics they replied, "We have our own justice system here in China."
But I think it would have been funny as shit if Michael Phelps would have wrapped himself in a sheet that said "Free Tibet" instead of the American Flag for just one of his eight medal presentation ceremonies.
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