I received this from an angry Clover; thought I’d share:
You write like you are on a coffee buzz! Why are you so angry. Don’t you
know that driving like a maniac only wears out your brakes and wastes
gas? And, you only get there 3-5 minutes sooner than the person doing
the speed limit, especially in traffic. You, You are the person that
causes traffic accidents because of your impatience and immaturity. The
best thing for you to do is to move away from whatever urban area you
currently inhabit and move to Texas, Idaho, Maine or some other
wide-open area where you can drive as fast and as recklessly as you want
and kill yourself because you are in such a big hurry to get somewhere.
If you would use sensible planning, leave for your destination at a
reasonable time, you could relax and take your time to ENJOY the driving
experience instead of treating it as some sort of Ben Hur chariot race!
Other drivers pay the same taxes that pay for the same roads that we all
use so just lay ott the caffeine drinks, take a deep breath and enjoy
the trip because if you don’t you will end up dead from an accident or
stress-related health problems. Maybe someone like me will take you out
when you go by me and flip me the bird for obeying the speed limit.
Better yet, try writing something constructive rather than just ranting.
Anger is a product of feeblemindedness and immaturity. You definitely
qualify.
Michael xxxxx@xxxxx.net email address removed by dom
Dear Clover,
Where to begin? My fingers hurt already…
What’s infuriating is not that you drive at the pace of a crippled Yugo; it’s that you demand that everyone else drive at your crippled Yugo pace, too. Speed limits are almost universally underposted; that is, set well below a reasonable/safe rate of travel for the road. This is why almost every car on any road is, at any given moment, “speeding” in a technical/legalistic sense. But they aren’t doing anything unsafe, let alone “wrong.” Still, to a Clover, they’re “breaking the law!” and “speeders!” – and you see it as your mission to slow them down, impede them, make them drive at your pace. You think, in your Clover-fevered swamp of a “mind,” that others should “leave early” and “allow plenty of time” … because of you! What’s their hurry? Let ‘em wait! It’s my road, too! The blued-and-tatooed Clover just can’t seem to grasp the concept of coexistence. Why not just ease over to the right and let faster-moving traffic pass? You’d get a friendly wave instead of the finger.
PS: I don’t flip the bird (or tailgate) Clovers. I just get past them as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Laughable as usual! What is he talking about? It is a Ben Hur chariot race! LOL
Clovers are so wrapped up in their own befuddled eco/safety/self righteous/law abiding little mindsets that they cannot see the wood for the trees. Point 1 – they are not being ecologically minded as the great stream of traffic behind them speeding up and slowing down in concert with them (I have never found a Clover that can drive at a constant speed) is generating more pollution than if driving at a faster but steady speed. Point 2 – Far from being ‘Safe’, by stressing other road users by their slow speeds, erratic driving and lane hogging they are causing accidents, not preventing them. Point 3 – ‘Self righteous’ hardly needs any explanation so I will merely give a simple exemplar – ‘I am the only perfect one and I am at the head of this queue of traffic, obeying the laawwww and causing no inconvenience except to speed maniacs.’ This mindset is usually carried out at well below the posted limit. Point 4 – Law abiding. This is the biggest laugh of all as it is generally an offence in law to impede the flow of traffic even if that traffic is driving at, or wishes to drive at, speeds well in excess of the posted limits. Over here Clovers are classed along with Shop Stewards, Health and Safety Officers, Civil Servants (Usually neither Civil nor Servile)and the mentally unstable.
Ken.
Amen! Anti-Clovers of the world, unite!
Drivers Ed instills cloverism. Most of us grow up and learn to ditch the indoctrination and use our common sense. Other people have a rules fetish combined with passive-aggressive antisocial tendencies and the inability to operate a vehicle.
Good point! My experience with the driver’s ed courses taught in high schools and by the DMV leaves me with the same opinion. Very little instruction about actual driving; lots of rigmarole about “obeying the law” and the magnificence of the system, which is there to keep us safe, etc.
It is important for people to learn the meaning of traffic signals and signs, as well as rules of etiquette and safety such as yield to faster moving traffic, don’t tailgate and stay right except to pass, etc.
But when it comes to on-the-road skills training (or evaluation of those skills prior to license issue) most of us get little or none.
Some of us are naturally good drivers; or we get real training (or both). Others, aren’t. Mixing the two is what causes the problems we’re ranting about here: Clovers who won’t move over, but think they’re “good drivers.” The ones stuck behind the Clover irritated and angry. Dumbed-down laws to accommodate the Clovers, etc.
Right! I was just remembering the “training” the other day when noticing that nearly all “drivers” will hit the brake when traffic slows, even when they could safely change lanes instead. The procedure for a lane-change they taught us in 1979 must take at least 45 seconds, and if you never pay attention to other traffic and have no idea what might be in the next lane you would have to use it. Therefore changing lanes would just be a big hassle, and not worth the extra effort. And by the time you complete all the steps (no doubt with your foot on the brake while doing it) the window that was there when you first thought about moving is gone. Now you must wait for the next one (with your foot still on the brake) and a traffic jam is born.
But that’s unsafe! Or so my less intelligent brother would say. You’re never supposed to exceed the speeeeeeeeed limit, even when passing. And the speed limit is always the right speed… because after all it is the speed limit!
Watched Rosanne Barr hosting the Joy Behar show with Michael Moore as the guest last night. I really like Moore, he is a smart dude. He always has something good to to say. His gist: The solution is obvious! We need to stand up for ourselves and join movements that support us. My opinion: This sounds simple, but the truth is we are all caught up in our lives and a lot of Americans are hurting so bad it’s hard to even face the day. Also, we need to can the bullshit electronic voting system. Take the shit back to paper. Moore mentioned that Canada does it all on paper and has NEVER had an issue and the count only takes three hours or so. I’m not even going to look up the population of Canada, but will just imagine it to be less. Even so, so what. The foundation of our system is at risk when we can’t even count on the tally mechanism! Just for starters..
The population of Canada is about 35 million.
Potential problems with electronic voting are the lack of a paper trail and potential for undetectable fraud.
Counting paper ballots is not that much longer than electronic ballots. I would be willing to wait some extra hours or even into the next day for election results.