By admin
When you arrive at a stop sign at the same time as another vehicle, you know how to handle it, right? Or are you one of those knuckleheads that are inspiring this post? It’s supposed to be real simple. At least that’s how they make it sound on the DMV written test. Whoever gets there first goes first and if you get there at the same time the person on the right goes first. That should solve everything, right?
Not quite. The DMV left out a lot of interesting situations that happen in real life. No doubt some of them appear during the DMV driving portion of the test, exposing the written test inadequacies. Lets look at a few of them.
Situation 1: Both Drivers Wanting to Do the Same Thing
There was a movie (it might have been L.A. Story with Steve Martin, then again maybe not) where four cars all got to a stop-sign intersection at the same time. They all waited for somebody else to go then finally they all decided to go at the same time, which caused them all to stop again and wait, and then finally all decide to be the one to go again. This process repeated until they all collided in the middle. It was hilarious and it makes you wonder why you have never seen this in real life. We have all certainly experienced the beginning of this with at least one other driver occasionally.
Why didn’t we get into an accident? Because at some point one driver insisted on stopping until the other went. However it’s possible for both drivers to get this resolve and frantically keep waving at the other until they both concede at the same time. I’m sure this scenario has resulted in at least some accidents, but the odds are way against it. Too many possible other variables which involve one person conceding first.
Situation 2: Three or More Cars Arrive at the Same Time
When three or more cars get to the intersection all at once, the rules of the road change slightly. Whichever car goes gives the green light to any car going the exact opposite way from the other side, regardless of when they arrived. This is because you are not impending anyone and everyone expects you to go. If you sit there like a dolt insisting on waiting your turn, you screw things up.
Situation 3: Pedestrians
Pedestrians really throw a kink in the works. It’s normal for at least one driver not to see them at first, and therefore not understand why another car is not acting in turn. This is another time when you can go out of turn - when the car whose real turn it is happens to be is stuck waiting for pedestrians. If the pedestrians do not affect your route, you can and should go. Not doing so makes you an idiot who messes things up.
It can be difficult being a pedestrian in these situations as well. I have this issue when jogging sometimes. I generally try and start getting across when nobody is at the stop signs. The problem I have with some idiots is that if they get the notion that I want across, they will stop and insist on waiting for me (when I just want them to go and get out of the way). This is really awkward when other drivers come up who do not want to wait for me and it puts me in a bad position. So my plan is usually to fake out all drivers and show no signs of my actual intentions - as it just works better for me.
As a matter of fact this is often something you have to do while driving as well, but that is a topic for another day. Suffice it for now to say that you often have to disguise your intended actions in traffic situations. This is because if the idiots get wind of it they will do things to make it difficult for you, whether they intend to or not. Driving is the ultimate game of avoiding and outsmarting idiots.
Papa Riah
Technorati Tags: Driving, Idiots, Society
By admin
The media is very fond of telling us about the bad economy every time we turn around. How does that make you feel? Like going out and buying new furniture and then going out to dinner? Or like withdrawing all your money from the bank and hiding it in a cracker box? For most people it’s the latter. And you know why, right? You got it - because most people are mindless drones who don’t think for themselves and allow everything they hear and see to program their behavior. In short, most people are idiots. (I know you aren’t one of them or you wouldn’t be here reading my blog.)
It just so happens that Mama Riah and I went out a couple weeks ago and bought a new couch before going out to dinner. The furniture store was packed. They were selling stuff left and right. The nightly news would have me think that these places are nailing boards over the entrance as all the employees get into a 27-mile long unemployment line. But that’s not what is happening if you get off your butt and go look around for yourself.
However that doesn’t mean that a bad economy isn’t right around the corner. A real bad economy. One where credit dries up completely and people actually do stop spending. What you have seen so far ain’t nothing folks. Things could get bad. Real bad. And you know how that could happen, right? The media keeps pounding and pounding the idea of how bad things are until it resonates inside everyone’s brains and then people become scared. In other words, we all get brainwashed into a bad economy.
For some people this has already happened. In our local news last week there was a story about an elderly lady who heard the news about possible bank failures so she promptly withdrew all her money in cash. She stashed an envelope containing $10,000 in a cracker box. For some inexplicable reason she then decided that she didn’t want the crackers and would rather have the $2.63 cents back that she spent for them, no doubt because of the scary bad economy news stories.
You can guess the rest. She glued to top back together and returned the cracker box to the market and got back her $2.63. After a couple days she realized her mistake and went to the store to ask for her crackers back, explaining the situation. They told her that returned food boxes go back to the manufacturer and that she likely had lost her money.
By some miracle the cracker box got put back on the shelf and purchased by an extremely honest family who returned the box to the store and reported the found money. So the crazy old cracker lady got her money back (and didn’t bother offering a reward), but that isn’t the point of this story.
It is this: If you hear that the economy is bad and that information alters your behavior, you will be responsible for helping to create a worse economy than the present situation (whatever that may be). In my opinion the present situation isn’t bad at all, based upon what I observe around me. Take it from an out-of-work sub-prime mortgage lender! However if we allow ourselves to be brainwashed into a bleak picture of things, it will become our reality. Just ask the crazy cracker lady.
Papa Riah
By admin
It is just about the year 2009 and amazingly, many Americans are still harboring an anti-French attitude which was spawned in the early days of the current Iraq war (or whatever that has become). This is absolutely the stupidest thing I have witnessed in our society over the past decade. There is no doubt in my mind that those who have acquired this attitude, and have somehow managed to hang unto it, have not visited France in their lifetime. Most likely they are mindless drones who spend every spare moment watching television. Either that or they are hardcore right-wing politics addicts that have lost their ability to think clearly.
I remember back about five or six years ago when the topic was hot. It was France and Germany that were the targets of our collective irrational hate. They were the countries that would not directly support us (to a degree of our liking) in the Iraq war by sending troops. Those countries live a little close to that battlefield and decided to sit this one out.
Americans responded by refusing to order French fries at McDonalds and by boycotting German beer. (Stupid Americans that is. Papa Riah wouldn’t abandon German beer even if Hitler rose back to power, as I have my priorities straight.) They soon forgave Germany however - that one didn’t last long at all. But Americans held unto their French hatred for some inexplicable reason, many even to this day. For some reason stupid Americans just want to hate the French and will take any excuse to do so.
It doesn’t make sense. The war in Iraq is unpopular. The President associated with that war is unpopular. But bashing the French for not sending troops to that unpopular war led by that unpopular President is, somehow, popular.
Even for hardcore right-wingers this position is nothing more than pure unwarranted hatred. It isn’t much different from the Nazis hating the Jews (or the modern day Arabs hating the Jews, for that matter). There were plenty of other European countries who weren’t bullied into sending troops to Iraq. For example: Switzerland, Holland, and Denmark. Why aren’t they hated? What is it that makes the French such an easy target for bashing?
Perhaps many Americans forget that the French were our allies in the American Revolutionary war. If it wasn’t for their timely help we would not have won our independence in that war. The statue of liberty, the one universally recognized symbol of American freedom and national pride, was constructed by the French and given to us as a gift after our victory. My how soon we forget these things.
If you start talking about how you disrepect the French for being smart enough not to get involved in Iraq, be careful who you are talking to. That co-worker friend might actually turn out to be French. Then you will feel pretty stupid, won’t you? As you should.
Papa Riah
