I apologize in advance. I said I'd stay away from political posts, but I can't on this one.
Since 1776, I would wager a guess that no more than 5,000 American's have lost their lives on American soil to terrorist attacks. 3,000 of those happened on September 11th. (I'm not trying to take anything away from 9/11 here. If you don't know how I feel about 9/11 I suggest you
read my post from 9/11/05.) After September 11th, the government decided that they needed to protect us from the terrible threat the terrorist posed - even though they only managed to launch two successful attacks on the United States in 10 years.
The government started throwing money at DHS which in turn started throwing money to the states. Million bucks here for chemical suits for Fargo, ND. Million there for an armored personal carried for Cowhide, MT. Billions upon billions to free ungrateful Iraqi's who now use their freedoms to blow up our Marines.
But are our priorities really in the right place?
5,000 or so people killed by terrorists in 229 years.
17,000 people killed due to drunk driving in 2003.
Hundreds of thousands more injured. Millions upon millions of dollars in lost wages, revenue and tax income lost because of irresponsible, lazy assholes who'd rather risk someone's life than pay $20 for a cab.
Not to mention the few thousand killed on the roads by non-drunks.
This morning, from midnight to 9 AM I covered THREE fatal traffic crashes. THREE in one night in a city of 900,000. There have been SIX since 2AM Friday morning. That's unheard of!
There is one common string in all of them.
Most of them being caused by drunk driving - like the first one that almost made me start to cry. An elderly lady is going home, drunk blows the stop sign WAY over the speed limit, kills the old lady on impact. The whole thing made me so upset that when the police told us that the drunk was critical, I actually heard myself say 'I hope he dies too.' That's not like me, and I was surprised I said it. But I guess I just felt so much sadness for this innocent person who was murdered by this man's recklessness it morphed into anger.
(I could never do this job as a reporter because I couldn't keep my biases in check.)
And there are other causes - like my third one. Joe Sixpack riding his motorcycle. Other guy makes left turn in front of him. Joe has no chance to stop. Puts a foot deep dent in the side of the other guys car and is killed on impact. All because either other dude wasn't paying attention, or didn't feel like waiting the 15 seconds to let Joe pass and tried to beat him through the intersection.
I know what you are thinking. What the hell does any of this have to do with terrorism? Simply put I think that a lot of the money we are wasting on anti-terrorism stuff we do not need. Seriously, cities with populations of 50,000 and less are getting hundreds of thousands of dollars in DHS grants, and please no terrorist, except for maybe the differently abled ones, are going to launch an attack in Everytown, KS. If you believe that they would, you're a schmuck.
Yeah, yeah. We've stopped 10 attacks since 9/11. Whoopty-freakin'-do. How many did we stop between the first WTC bombing and 9/11? How many did we stop before that? I wouldn't doubt if it was more, since our adventure in Iraq has increased the number of people looking to kill anyone who even looks American.
I don't care for government spending, but if you are going to spend it, how about grants to local law enforcement to hire and train traffic officers. Get more people on the streets grabbing these dickheads who drive with a BAC of .15 and above. Get some cops at high risk intersections nabbing (or better yet preventing) red light runners. Get more highway patrolmen out there stopping the stupid bitch (man or woman, I use bitch as an asexual term) yapping on their cell phone and doing 92 in a 60.
President Bush, the real threat to our way of life is not the terrorists. It's assholes on the roads who don't give a good god damn about anyone but themselves. If terrorists blew up 17,000 people this year I am certain that you would make glass out of everything within 1,000 miles of Mecca. But 17,000 people are killed by drunk drivers and you, and no one else in charge, seems to care.
The common thread in all these crashes is that there is not enough enforcement and education on our roads. All I learned in drivers ed was that I'm not allowed to pass where there is a double solid yellow line. And I have driven from the Wisconsin border of Illinois to Springfield, almost 200 miles away, without seeing one single police car. That's not right.
We need more drivers’ education and we need more cops enforcing the traffic laws. Send some of that never ending supply of DHS and Iraqi War money this way, won't ya? Because what the fuck is the point in protecting the homeland when the homeland has all been killed on the highway?
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Another day, another cool shoot. 
President Clinton, like most public speaks was late, so I spent 8:00 - 8:30 giving live hits of an empty room. Exciting. And I almost went nuts on people because while I was pulling cable up a balcony for both myself and channel 13, other photog bastards stole all the good spots, so I was stuck on the crappy end with a terrible view and still photogs dancing around in front of me.
In the history of the world there have been many great philosphers. Plato, Socrates, Nicolai Berdyaev, the list goes on and on.
(Marge) It takes two to lie. One to lie, one to listen.
Lisa, if the Bible has taught us nothing else - and it hasn't - it's that girls should stick to girls' sports such as hot oil wrestling and foxy boxing and such and such.
Sometimes a song says it all...
ewink's FUNKDAFIED Ranma 1/2 Site
