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From: mikep@ism780c.UUCP
Newsgroups: alt.flame
Subject: Re: Quiz 2
Message-ID: <7552@ism780c.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 18-Oct-87 11:01:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: ism780c.7552
Posted: Sun Oct 18 11:01:11 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 19-Oct-87 04:41:41 EDT
References: <342@cc5.bbn.com.BBN.COM> <1332@cartan.Berkeley.EDU>
Reply-To: mikep@ism780c.UUCP (Michael A. Petonic)
Organization: Interactive Systems Corp., Santa Monica CA
Lines: 39

In article <1332@cartan.Berkeley.EDU> carrier@maypo.UUCP (Stephen Carrier) writes:
>Sounds like Telegraph Avenue here. I rarely even drive, and it pisses
>me off to see it. Safety in numbers (the Parisian method of crossing
>the street, since the cars wouldn't stop anyways) but many of these IQ
>50 peds will walk in front of a speeding car. And it disapoints me that
>they're never hit, it seems a violation of the laws of probability that
>someone doesn't get killed this way every week. I mean, the gene-pool
>is polluted with this dunderhead gene. Is this gene is being protected
>by some mysterious force? Or is it all that acid they took in the
>sixties? I don't know.
>
>But once-a-week fatality would put a quick stop to this practice.


No shit!  I perfectly agree with you.  

The other night, I was driving up La Cienega (in Los Angeles) about
1am.  I turn my blinker on and get into the rightmost lane (where cars
are parked during rush hour, but it's free to use if its open).  Then,
I see this idiot standing in that lane about 100 feet away, waiting
to cross (naturally, no crosswalk).  Well, since I'm in the
right (and he wouldn't hurt my car as much as it would hurt him), I
kept on going hoping that sanity and knowledge of right of way
would cross his mind.  No, he just stayed there.  

Here's da cappa... I quickly swerve away as I pass him because
I couldn't afford the lawyer fees even if I did win (plus, scraping
human body parts off of my windshield doesn't appeal to me) and
the mofo throws a dixie cup at me.  I had a mind to beat his ass (or
at least throw the car in reverse and hope I get him dead in sight).

Anyway, it just goes to show.  Pedestrians seem to think they have the
absolute right of way.  I'm sorry, but when *I'm* a pedestrian, I
obey the laws of the jungle:  The biggest and baddest go first!
Some fool may jump right out on a crosswalk in front of my car
and guess what I'll put on his tombstone???  "I was in the right."

-MikeP
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