I found a few pics on the StartleGram article I'll post:
THE JUDGE
James R. Wilson
THE PROSECUTORS
Richard Alpert, Christy Jack, Miles Brissette
Posted on 06/22/2003 8:43:39 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP
The first block of the article glossed over the reputed comment that she had a "dead white guy in her (my) windshield". This was supposedly the reason that she gave to her friends about needing a ride.
Still, I thank goodness whenever I park my car that nothing bad happened. (I mentally kiss the ground.)
Opportunities for hitting a pedestrian even while a driver is sober and fully alert, are scarily numerous, especially when driving in heavily populated towns and cities (though dark highways in the middle of nowhere can be especially dangerous in this regard, as we wouldn't expect anyone to wander on to an unlit roadway in the middle of nowhere--but it happens).
I don't know how many times I have asked myself how I might stop in time were some fool to suddenly step in the path of my vehicle from between parked cars, only feet from my approaching bumper on some dark night.
Driving a car safely is nearly impossible--I've often been in situations where by the time you've made sure an intersection is clear of pedestrians and traffic from one direction, enough time has elapsed that it might not be safe from the other direction you checked a moment ago.
To go about in a car with true care, you would need to proceed so slowly that you'd be rear-ended (no coincidence that has been almost exclusively the only kind of accident I've had--now I always check my rearview before slowing, time permitting. I digress).
Oh, if the big network TV cameras are there, you can just about guarantee that Jesse will show up.
But Jesse's ability to have any real impact on these events has been greatly diminished over the years...thank goodness.
I'll use this awhile (I'm also using Google's NEWS search).
Read my post again--as I replied to someone about horses, you are not free from accident by any means of transport--even your own two feet (which, by the way, are the ideal way to get about).
Being a ludite in Texas would mean that cities like Houston and the Dallas-Forth Worth Metroplex wouldn't even exist. Things are far to spread out to be accessible by such means of travel.
One must wonder why the place in which we live is so lacking, that we must need to travel far to obtain things we lack at home.
But no matter--I am not a luddite if being one means being against machines no matter what.
I recognize that thanks to overpopulation, we must rely on machines.
But I am against loving those machines.
And the more one can do without them, the better.
(I once used an electric drill for all holes, dragging many yards of extension cord with me outside to my boat merely to drill one hole.
Then I discovered the virtues of a hand drill, and I realized that especially for making only a few holes in soft material like wood or fiberglass, a hand drill is superior to an electric drill, even faster when one considers finding an unused, working plug and handling 50ft of extension cord.)
That happened--in Brooklyn a few years back, when a Jewish driver ran over a black child. Very bad rioting and at least one famous murder happened,
There is definitely a car culture in America (cruising, roadtrips, etc.). We are a nation of open lands and freedom of travel.
Nothing comes without risk. I would say that the two largest causes of car accidents are "failure to control speed" and "failure to yield right of way". Driver distraction will also factor in but many accidents are so avoidable. I've had my car hit by a bicyclist who wasn't paying attention to what he was doing (or he was drunk, or both); he came from 2 lanes over (at the right) and sideswiped my car (which was ahead of him in traffic).
We have to share the road regardless of whether we are in a car, a bicycle, or on foot. If a road has a posted speed limit of 30MPH but you are aware that it is a residential area (and don't have good vision of crosstraffic) then you should be driving slower.
Some teenage pedestrians play chicken with the cars, running out into traffic to cross (to see if their friends will follow) and to show that they can make the cars stop.
If they get hit, it's their own fool fault.
Airplanes seldom crash but they pose an immense threat if they fall out of the sky over a populated area. They haven't been banned. The slim risk is outweighed by the benefits.
Trains wreck too.
"Guns, like automobiles, are evils--but necessary evils."
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My argument is that guns/cars aren't evil...by themselves. Evil things can be done with them, of course.
IMO, an argument could be made of the position that in the threat or use of weapons/guns..more lives have actually been saved than taken.
I think I understand your intended useage of the phrase "necessary evils"...and I will take it in that context.
FRegards,
I'm American, and I don't love my car or any car for that matter. So some Americans may love their cars, but this one doesn't. I never owned anything that was such a bother as a car.
But hey, the Bishop is probably more guilty. Forget about the other driver.
True.
But the trouble with cars is they haven't been around long enough for Humans to have adapted themselves to living with them.
And like most technology, transportation technology will probably continue to evolve faster than human evolution can keep up.
I found a few pics on the StartleGram article I'll post:
THE JUDGE
James R. Wilson
THE PROSECUTORS
Richard Alpert, Christy Jack, Miles Brissette
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