At the top of the list of people I hate...

[Abstract]

That sucks. I personally think anyone who hits a car and takes off, if found, should get shot in the head.

C'mon, stop being so lenient.

This thread makes me happy that I drive a bicycle.

A hit and run with a bicycle would be much worse, especially when on it.


It hasn't happened to my car. Yet. I generally try and park beside people who are parked well (ie: between the lines perfectly). Even then, I try to park my tiny car deep into the parking space, but still give 2 feet of leeway so that the car that parks behind me doesn't accidentally hit my car.

 

[63dot]

I had a whole nice post typed up and Safari froze - History + google search + switching tabs freaked it out. I'll try to summarize.

This isn't my platform, which I am still refining, but this is what motivated me to want to run:

The General Assembly in MD is heavily dominated by one party. As a byproduct, it feels like they have been very complacent with their position. It doesn't help that the GA is heavily dominated by particular personalities. The resulting effect is that the needs of many local communities get drowned out. My district is one of those that needs a voice that will carry. Plus, the GA likes to spend a lot of money, but we are not so careful in bringing it in. It is good to have an assembly that brings in enough to cover spending, but better to have an assembly that spends only what they have.

Here in my district, there are pretty severe crime issues. Not as bad as some others, but still not the best. Rather than just throwing money at the police and to rehab facilities, it has got to be more effective to improve involvement and education. The more that police are involved in communities and the better we educate children, the better decisions they can make. But, the education needs to be not just the benefits of being good, but the consequences of being bad. Involvement needs to be encouraged not just for police, but for all that should be positive role models - parents, teachers, etc.

A disappointing aspect of small business is that there aren't enough opportunities. People who have been historically shortchanged with government support are being told that they can't change their lot in life and they must continue to rely on the state. More effective is to educate and provide opportunity to enter the free market. The essential underpinning of a true free market - equality of opportunity - necessitates a hand up, not a hand out.

Other topics like home ownership, improving education, and transportation are other concerns. Like I said, I still need to refine my platform.

As for my chances? District 21 is a Democratic stronghold, as evidenced by the registered candidates - 8 Dems, 1 GOP. While party history doesn't stand in my favor, I believe that people want someone who is different from all the other candidates that blur together.

I hope I haven't just moved this thread to the Politics Forum (I can repost this in a new thread there and delete this if you would like).

Even though I am one of those Democrats, I like some of your ideas and it's always good for any board or group of politicians to be diverse. Good luck in the elections!

 

[DJMastaWes]

I hate people like that. Once when I was 10, my mom went into a store to but a few things, but she parked in the no parking zone, but I was in the car and should would only be like a few minutes. Anyway so i'm stting there, and this lady with her cart is walking twards our car, then all of a suddon, she lose controll of the shopping cart, the cart falls off the sidewalks and hits our car, she looks at me takes her stuff out of the cart and walks away.

She did not move the cart, or appoligize or anything, she just walked away from it. I hate people who treat small kids as if there nothing.

 

[nbs2]

iGary had the best solution IMO for the next election cycle. No matter your Party affiliation, just vote out the bastard incumbent. Plain and simple. This would get new blood in to office. And I would hope that we would hold these new idiots better accountable.

BTW (I may push this to even further to the PF's here on MR. But what is your stance on the "Gay" issue?

I hope that I'm not one of those in the class of idiots. But, I do want to thank you, 63dot, and others for your support.

Before I answer the gay issuse question - what exactly are you referring to? Gay marriage, adoption, etc...One of my concerns with the gay marriage issue addresses the women couples more than men (but still applies there). To have a child, there obviously has to be insemination outside the relationship. When we face the first marital breakdown, does the other partner have visitation rights? If I understand right, in hetero relationships, once it is established that the husband is not the father and he is exempt from chld support, he has no visitation rights regarding the child. Here you have a non-biological again nlooking for visitation. Unfortunately the debate has become so emotional, people go with their personal feelings rather than wanting to study an issues benefits and burdens.

If I understand your question right, the "gay issue" is something that I would need to understand before voting - my job would not be to represent a subset of people (which I feel like much of the GA is doing), but everybody in my district - working to enact legislation that benefits as many as possible.

Man, even though I try to be honest and upfront, I feel like I sound like a politician...

 

[IJ Reilly]

Is it my imagination, or are people a LOT angrier on the Internet than in real life? (I hope!)

It's true, I think. People tend to internalize their anger and frustrations until they get into a place where they feel anonymous. There they loose their inhibitions, and cut loose. This also goes a long way towards explaining "road rage" and other forms of lashing out.

 

[dpaanlka]

This reminds me of a crazy even that occured last november, me and my friends were at a White Castle's drive through and it was really late, and the young guy in front of us driving a big Lexus ES350 or soemthing put it in reverse and slammed into the front of my Saab... then we got out and he was clearly drunk falling on himself and asking the four of us pretty bizzare questions, like if we had five year old nephews in our backseat, to which I responded (no?)... anyway we said he could go if he gave us 50 bucks because there were just some scratches, but instead he stumbled back into his car and drove off as fast as possible. We got his plates though and called the cops.

So the cops came and as they were taking the story the cop got a call on the radio or whatever, and then rushed off and said he'd call us. So we were driving home and he called and he said to come to the police station because they "had" the driver.

After giving our testaments on paper, they then proceeded to tell us this crazy story about how, after fleeing the scene of our accident, he totaled his Lexus a few blocks away by slamming it into a tree. They also said it was his third DUI, and on the 12th of this month we're appearing in court to testify against him - all to avoid giving us 50 bucks!

Very exciting!!!

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

I hope that I'm not one of those in the class of idiots. But, I do want to thank you, 63dot, and others for your support.

Maybe I was a bit hasty in labeling the new batch as idiots. But something strange happens to those that run and win office. I would bet that Mr. Smith would have had his hand in the money bags after 6 to 12 years in Washington.

Before I answer the gay issuse question - what exactly are you referring to? Gay marriage, adoption, etc...One of my concerns with the gay marriage issue addresses the women couples more than men (but still applies there). To have a child, there obviously has to be insemination outside the relationship. When we face the first marital breakdown, does the other partner have visitation rights? If I understand right, in hetero relationships, once it is established that the husband is not the father and he is exempt from chld support, he has no visitation rights regarding the child. Here you have a non-biological again nlooking for visitation. Unfortunately the debate has become so emotional, people go with their personal feelings rather than wanting to study an issues benefits and burdens.

If I understand your question right, the "gay issue" is something that I would need to understand before voting - my job would not be to represent a subset of people (which I feel like much of the GA is doing), but everybody in my district - working to enact legislation that benefits as many as possible.

Man, even though I try to be honest and upfront, I feel like I sound like a politician...

LOL. But it seems a well reasoned one.

As a Gay male, without children, never thought of the ramifications that you mentioned about divorce with unrelated parents.

Just proimise me if you do win that you will never utter this pharse when approached about a constituents concerns about an issue: "Well, that is not the way I feel about the issue".

 

[Queso]

nbs2, that really sucks. I had my motorbike knocked over and made unrideable twice in 2005 by car drivers that then just disappeared. They justify themselves by saying things like "well, he has insurance", but conveniently forget the amount of time it takes to sort these things out.

Although Oni's solution is a little extreme, I would change the law so that anyone who does this and drives off but gets caught on CCTV has their vehicle confiscated and sold with all proceeds used to recompense the person they hit, even if they hit a cheap Toyota with their $100k Mercedes. With the number of deployed cameras increasing, you'd only need a few publicised cases and it would make most drivers stop and do the right thing.

 

[whooleytoo]

Although Oni's solution is a little extreme, I would change the law so that anyone who does this and drives off but gets caught on CCTV has their vehicle confiscated and sold to recompense the person they hit. With the number of deployed cameras increasing, you'd only need a few publicised cases and it would make most drivers stop and do the right thing.

Sounds pretty reasonable to me. The victim is compensated, and the perpetrator is not only caught but possibly taken off the road.

 

[63dot]

nbs2 gets caught on CCTV

he he, now that CCTV is the biggest thing in semi-porn/porn/adult late night TV next to "girls gone wild", it's hard to see CCTV referred to as close circuit TV anymore

my mom's employer, AT&T, still dishes out and transmits more adult content than anyone on the planet but you never seem to hear the GOP make a stink out of that...hmm, i wonder why?

when i was growing up close circuit tv (CCTV) were surveillance cameras, girls gone wild were bad catholic school girls who took up smoking and ditching their last period (oops, that sounded erroneous), and apple was a record label that hosted four lads from liverpool