1. Yes, it's a whole new look! Have questions or need help? Please post your question in the New Forum Questions thread Click the X to the right to dismiss this notice
    Dismiss Notice
  2. Seeing tons of unread posts after the upgrade? See this thread for help. Click the X to the right to dismiss this notice
    Dismiss Notice

Politics and Beliefs!

Discussion in 'Broadlands Community Issues' started by brim, Dec 16, 2003.

  1. luvmyredslk320

    luvmyredslk320 New Member

    Joined:
    Nov 8, 2003
    Messages:
    48
    Likes Received:
    0
    Not like it's any secret, but I love my red Mercedes SLK 320. Just let a Bimmer Z3 or Z4 try to catch me.
     
  2. T8erman

    T8erman Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Sep 26, 2003
    Messages:
    5,236
    Likes Received:
    249
    For me, it is the minivan drivers. I am often stunned seeing a minivan with children occupants cruising down the road 15-20 miles over the limit. Must be all the previous BMW owners.

    BTW, I miss my Z3! :) Traded up(?) to a Volvo S80 so I could fit a car seat!
     
  3. chris

    chris New Member

    Joined:
    Oct 1, 2003
    Messages:
    385
    Likes Received:
    0
    At our holiday party, one of our guests said that the worst drivers are Volvo drivers and anyone from NJ (tie). I asked what about someone from NJ who also drives a Volvo, and she said "Run!"
     
  4. brim

    brim Member

    Joined:
    Nov 18, 2003
    Messages:
    1,339
    Likes Received:
    11
    Ugh, minivan drivers...same with SUV (drivers 'too hip' for a minivan). Hands down, the most inconsiderate class of vehicle. They're unnecessary road hogs...and god fobid you park between two of them in a parking lot, there's a good chance you'll be backing out to leave and someone you were unable to see almost hits you.

    For every punk teenager I see doing something stupid on the roads, I see five minivans speeding/swerving/cutting off folks. I ask you this, what's more dangerous: A teenager in a rice rocket speeding or a mommy in a monivan with one hand on the wheel twisted around looking in the back seats while swatting at kids back there with the other one while swerving around and rear ending people. Surely there has to be some NTSB accident data out there withe the statistics "Of all accidents involving minivans/suvs, how many were front end damage to the minivan/suv." I'd like to see that number.
     
  5. brim

    brim Member

    Joined:
    Nov 18, 2003
    Messages:
    1,339
    Likes Received:
    11
    IMHO, some Volvo/Saab drivers drive pretty crazily due to the sense of security they have because their cars are built so well and with safety in mind throughout the whole design.
     
  6. MD_boy

    MD_boy New Member

    Joined:
    Oct 10, 2003
    Messages:
    314
    Likes Received:
    0
    Brim,
    I remember a couple of years ago hearing about a study from the NTSB about aggressive drivers. The study noted that "Soccer Moms" were among the most aggressive. They are always in a hurry to get the kids to practice etc. They don't think about the consequences of driving 20 mph above the posted speed or racing through yellow lights. All they care about is getting little Johnny to practice.
    I say better to get there late than not at all.
     
  7. brim

    brim Member

    Joined:
    Nov 18, 2003
    Messages:
    1,339
    Likes Received:
    11
    I believe it. What's just as bad as that are the rears of minivans acting as billboards for anything/everything kid related. Cheerleading this, soccer that, honor roll something else...so you're proud of your kids and thier accomplishments, most parents are! Keep it on your refrigerator witha magnet, not the back of your car.

    Kids don't even need to be that busy all the time. In fact, I'd say that most people sign their kids up for ECA's so they won't have to put up with them for a couple hours at a time. :)
     
  8. T8erman

    T8erman Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Sep 26, 2003
    Messages:
    5,236
    Likes Received:
    249
    hmmmm, Volvo drivers agressive???!!!! You guys must have seen me! :)
     
  9. afgm

    afgm Ashburn Farm Resident

    Joined:
    Aug 14, 2002
    Messages:
    2,396
    Likes Received:
    5
    Brim,

    You have an interesting way of endearing yourself to the masses. :D

     
  10. brim

    brim Member

    Joined:
    Nov 18, 2003
    Messages:
    1,339
    Likes Received:
    11
    I call them like I see them. I'm not a big fan of stupidity, so I speak my mind. :)
     
  11. boomertsfx

    boomertsfx Booyakasha!

    Joined:
    Feb 14, 2002
    Messages:
    2,260
    Likes Received:
    34
    I agree with brim, nobody cares that your kid is an honor roll student and is on a soccer team =)

    On the aggressive driving/road rage note, I had my window punched out by a crazy redneck on rt28 and old ox.... pretty crazy stuff.

    If only I was bigger and had a baseball bat.... humm [}:)]
     
  12. afgm

    afgm Ashburn Farm Resident

    Joined:
    Aug 14, 2002
    Messages:
    2,396
    Likes Received:
    5
    Wow! If he had known your kid (via visual sticker) was a baseball player, it might have protected you. No one messes with kids with sticks!
    [^]
     
  13. jaeris

    jaeris New Member

    Joined:
    Oct 10, 2003
    Messages:
    84
    Likes Received:
    0
    Things are different in times of war, my friend. You think that if the Japanese could have penetrated inland as far as OK they wouldn't have done it? It's all about acceptable loss and collateral damage...sure some folks were killed but it prevented a lot more loss on both sides had the war persisted.

    I visited the Smithsonian for the first time today and saw a clean and gleaming plane, no mention of where it had been or what it did. That's okay, it's an aerospace museum not a history of the world. You have to draw the line somewhere.

    But on the world history side, i'm a bit puzzled about the oft repeated statement that the droppng of the A and H bombs finished the war, as a sort of punctuation mark. Where's the evidence for that, or is it just opinion? I have definitely heard the opposite opinion expressed; ie that WW2 was over before the bombs were dropped.

    Acceptable collateral damage is a valid concept in war as in peace, but you have to be completely dispassionate, honest and clinical about all this. If we make statements about how useful the use and threat of use of any WMD was in the past, then we should be able to back them up with the evidence.

    If mistakes were made then we should accept them honestly as mistakes, and then we can carry on. Civilians were killed in their thousands by mistake or deliberately. We all have to make up our own minds about this, but lets not pretend it never happened at all, please.

    jaeris
     
  14. GunnerJones

    GunnerJones New Member

    Joined:
    Dec 22, 2003
    Messages:
    4
    Likes Received:
    0
    The first paragraph of your post doesn't seem to make any sense Jaeris, but at least the rest of it is clear even if I don't agree with it.

    Since when has bombing, even collateral bombing, of innocent civilians been acceptable? I may not be too bright, but surely the line that needs to drawn somewhere is around the place where the Geneva Conventions put it? The use of indiscriminate weapons of mass destruction is illegal, (with a notable exception where the very existence of a state is threatened) and rightly so.

    Otherwise what was wrong on Sept 11th? If we say its ok to bury and maim a few hundred thousand foreign civilians because of OUR beliefs, why shouldn't Al Qauida or anyone else say the same about us?

    NO. Killing of civilians under any circumstances is murder, it's unacceptable and should be treated as such. We should be declaring war on any state that practices it. Killing of enemy soldiers is something else, and if such a thing has to happen in the pursuit of justice then sadly, that is the way of the world.
     
  15. chris

    chris New Member

    Joined:
    Oct 1, 2003
    Messages:
    385
    Likes Received:
    0
    This one is even too politically charged for me to touch. GunnerJones and Jaeris, I'll enjoy reading your discussions on this issue!
     
  16. Mearen

    Mearen New Member

    Joined:
    Aug 27, 2003
    Messages:
    155
    Likes Received:
    0
    When it was called carpet bombing and our side did it. Making it illegal after the fact does little to change it's effectiveness.
     
  17. T8erman

    T8erman Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Sep 26, 2003
    Messages:
    5,236
    Likes Received:
    249
    Gunner - then we should declare war on oursleves. We have killed civilians in every "war" we have ever participated in.
     
  18. GunnerJones

    GunnerJones New Member

    Joined:
    Dec 22, 2003
    Messages:
    4
    Likes Received:
    0
    Really true that Civilians were always involved, or only in more modern times? But we should indeed declare war on ourselves. We have to kill every last vestige of hypocracy from this, we have to carpet bomb our prejudices and rebuild, this time from a rational foundation and not some fundamentalist hype.

    Nobody has a right to murder indiscriminately. The Military in actual combat are a special case, but the rationale for war and conditions of engagement need to be controlled extremely tightly or there's trouble, not just moral but in terms of reputation and relationships.

    International Law is an institution worth building. The coalition has now destroyed a massive amount of legal capital for a very minor gain in influence in the Middle East. It will take a long time to recover.
     
  19. SK8R

    SK8R On the Clover Meadow

    Joined:
    Sep 3, 2002
    Messages:
    428
    Likes Received:
    20
    We saw the lights on Demott. Boy, they really like penquins!
    Might be a tech person that works for Linux...? hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

    Has anyone seen the lights on Jupiter in Sterling?
    creative and interesting
     
  20. JenCo

    JenCo New Member

    Joined:
    Mar 11, 2003
    Messages:
    749
    Likes Received:
    2
    I think it's Juniper not Jupiter:) They do that every year. It's fun to drive by
     

Share This Page