Saw this headline over at ABC news earlier:
The elderly man who plowed his car through an outdoor market and killed 10 people made his first public comment Sunday, saying, “My heart is broken over the extent of the tragedy.”
I am very sure that he feels great sorrow, and is grieving, but that does nothing to ease the pain and suffering of the people who died, and their families. Take the damn bus next time dude. Anyone that takes three blocks to figure out where the brake is needs to be off the road.
Personally I think that the entire drivers license system need to be changed. Not sure if it really needs to be regulated by the federal government, but it needs to be tougher. Perhaps eye (AND hearing) tests every couple of years, and a full drivers test every 4-7 years. That should weed out a couple of milion drivers. Something else that would help would be to drive up the cost, at least for the initial test (whether it be at 16 or 36, or whatever). Something along the lines of $250-300 for the initial test, and then $5-10 renewal per year. That would certainly get some of the idiots off the road. Especially the ones that can’t afford insurance. I spent the last 4 years commuting 150 miles per day, and uninsured motorists were always on my mind. If they cannot afford insurance they damn well do not need to be on the road at all.
Taking a few million drivers off the road would certainly do more for traffic control than all of the road building that is going on, as well as making people more responsible for their own actions.
July 20, 2003
We're off to see the wizard
Stephanie and the kids arrived home safely this afternoon. It was pretty nice to see them. Christopher worked very hard over the last two week and took us all to Applebees for dinner tonight. That was kind of cool.
What was really cool (and saddening at the same time), was seeing his downfallen look as he picked up the check and I made sure to tell him not to forget a 15% tip. All total probably about 10% of what he made the last two week. Not to mention the 10% off the top that I make him save. It’s pretty hard to learn those lessons, but learn them we all must, hopefully in small doses at first. I think that tommorow Stephanie will sign the kids up at the upromise web site. I will be sure to post the link for anyone interested in financing my kids education.
I was supposed to have heard from a trainee today who might have been riding with me to those stupid classes tommorow, but noone has heard from him or seen him since Friday. Guess I will be riding by myself. It would have been nice to room-mate with him over the next few days since he smokes as well. Make the week go a little easier. Should be an interesting week.
I am kind of looking forward to seeing a couple of people anyhow. Supposed to go out with my old co-workers in the IT dept at some point this week. Probably the last day.
New look
Found a template that I really like, kind of fits with my mood.
There are some ares that I still need to work on and fix, but otherwise it looks alright.