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A Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community
About Me :
I'm a grownup nerd living in the Boston burbs. I write computer programs for a living and plays for fun.
I'm married to a wonderful woman, and we share a nice little house with our daughter and our cats.
I'm a humanist, a technologist, an artist, and an idealist. I believe in reason, freedom, love, equality,
and democracy. (Did I mention that I'm
an idealist? I did, OK.)
I'm also a pragmatist and an empiricist. I reject ideology and dogma, especially when they conflict with
practical facts (i.e., pretty much always). I particularly hate willful ignorance, which tends to go hand-in-hand
with ideology and dogma.
Like the alignment of the planets, this blog gets updated as I have the time, inspiration, and inclination to do so.
Like the alignment of the planets, this blog gets updated as I have the time, inspiration, and inclination to do so.
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
More Car Than You Know How to Drive
I've always had a problem with SUVs. They're too big, they're too expensive, and they get lousy gas mileage. Although there are lots of legitimate reasons to own a truck, most people who buy SUVs don't need them, and only buy them for their status value. "Look, I can afford this!" (Yeah, well probably you're overextended.) Plus, people don't seem to modify their driving habits when they buy SUVs, so behavior which is just dumb in a car becomes positively dangerous. People drive their SUVs too fast in all kinds of weather, they follow other cars way too closely, and they don't know how to maneuver their trucks in tight corners.
Of course, it's none of my business what anyone else drives. You know? I'm drive-and-let-drive. If you want to spend more money than you can really afford to buy more car than you know how to drive, hey, that's what you want to do. It's dumb, but it's none of my business.
But then you had to go and rear-end my pregnant wife's car with your giant gas-sucking monstrosity! I think that's when it becomes my business.
My wife was flung forward in the collision, crushing our unborn child between her and her steering wheel. She was rushed to an emergency room, where I met her, and we spent an anxious day in the hospital, getting tests done and monitoring the baby to ensure that she wasn't hurt ... though of course we won't know for sure until she's born. In the meantime, my wife began having serious contractions, and the doctors had to give her body a pharmacological reminder that baby's not ready yet. It was a difficult and stressful day for both of us. Needless to say, neither one of us made it into the office that day.
I feel very confident that right after you nearly killed my wife and my daughter, you got to your office only a little late. You probably resented the imposition of having to talk to the police.
You claimed that there was ice on the road. This was on the second clear and sunny morning after a light snowfall. I don't think there was any ice on the road; there wasn't any when I visited the site later that evening. So what does that say about you? Well, what does an SUV say about almost anyone? You just hit a pregnant woman, and what are you worried about? You're worried about whether someone's going to actually demand any accountability from you.
Look, I think you just weren't paying attention. That's not an evil thing in of itself, but for God's sake, how can you not be paying attention when you're driving a 3,000 pound Deathmobile? It's irresponsible, is what it is. You have more car than you know how to drive.
You could kill somebody with that thing! And you don't seem to care about that. Idiot!
PS: Here's a timely link about the false economics of owning an SUV. It's not (usually) a rational choice, but I'm not pretending people buy SUVs for rational reasons.
1 comments
I've always had a problem with SUVs. They're too big, they're too expensive, and they get lousy gas mileage. Although there are lots of legitimate reasons to own a truck, most people who buy SUVs don't need them, and only buy them for their status value. "Look, I can afford this!" (Yeah, well probably you're overextended.) Plus, people don't seem to modify their driving habits when they buy SUVs, so behavior which is just dumb in a car becomes positively dangerous. People drive their SUVs too fast in all kinds of weather, they follow other cars way too closely, and they don't know how to maneuver their trucks in tight corners.
Of course, it's none of my business what anyone else drives. You know? I'm drive-and-let-drive. If you want to spend more money than you can really afford to buy more car than you know how to drive, hey, that's what you want to do. It's dumb, but it's none of my business.
But then you had to go and rear-end my pregnant wife's car with your giant gas-sucking monstrosity! I think that's when it becomes my business.
My wife was flung forward in the collision, crushing our unborn child between her and her steering wheel. She was rushed to an emergency room, where I met her, and we spent an anxious day in the hospital, getting tests done and monitoring the baby to ensure that she wasn't hurt ... though of course we won't know for sure until she's born. In the meantime, my wife began having serious contractions, and the doctors had to give her body a pharmacological reminder that baby's not ready yet. It was a difficult and stressful day for both of us. Needless to say, neither one of us made it into the office that day.
I feel very confident that right after you nearly killed my wife and my daughter, you got to your office only a little late. You probably resented the imposition of having to talk to the police.
You claimed that there was ice on the road. This was on the second clear and sunny morning after a light snowfall. I don't think there was any ice on the road; there wasn't any when I visited the site later that evening. So what does that say about you? Well, what does an SUV say about almost anyone? You just hit a pregnant woman, and what are you worried about? You're worried about whether someone's going to actually demand any accountability from you.
Look, I think you just weren't paying attention. That's not an evil thing in of itself, but for God's sake, how can you not be paying attention when you're driving a 3,000 pound Deathmobile? It's irresponsible, is what it is. You have more car than you know how to drive.
You could kill somebody with that thing! And you don't seem to care about that. Idiot!
PS: Here's a timely link about the false economics of owning an SUV. It's not (usually) a rational choice, but I'm not pretending people buy SUVs for rational reasons.
