Let me first state that I'm against drinking and driving. My issue is with the recent severities in the past 5-10 years. It's these laws that I don't think are doing anything other than lining the gov'ts. pockets. FWIW andy, in response to your assessment that I may be the exception: A possibility, but in my 16 years of driving and having peers who drove, I know of only one death in 1990 when an 18 yr old friend of a friend got in a horrific accident. In that same 16 yrs, 80% of people I know (around 100) have at least one DWI. Those numbers don't add up to me. Again, if anyone knows where to find stats on DWI related deaths 1980-present, I'd love to see for myself. My guess is that the lions-share of the deterrence came during the 80's.
Per the following link, 1997 was a "historic low" for drunk driving fatalities and the statistics were still dropping slightly. http://www.luhs.org/depts/injprev/Transprt/tran1-06.htm Honestly, the only reason I would find the new laws unpalatable is if they do not produce any results. That (along with the damage created) is the biggest argument I have against the WoD, the near total lack of results. I was not able to immediately find a chart of drunk driving trends over the years, but in fairness to you, I found the following link that claims that drunk driving deaths declined from 1980 to 1993, flattened through '93-'99, and has begun rising some since then. Personally, I suspect that since MADD has mostly faded as far as visibility, drunk driving simply hasn't been a part of the national consciousness in a few years. We will begin to see over the next couple of years if the various campaigns (Drink. Drive. Go to Jail. etc.) are effective in reducing drunk driving fatalities. http://www.newcolonist.com/em30.html I think that the penalties, if anything, are too light for drunk driving. Everyone here knows that I am not exactly on the side of the government as far as most substance use and abuse issues, but on this one I agree that people should face VERY harsh penalties for DWI.
If it saves one life by deterring one person from driving drunk, isn't that enough? How freaking hard is it to call a cab after a night of drinking? Or get a sober buddy to drive you home?
I'm sure I'll get railroaded for this, but no, it doesn't. A fair analogy to that is people die in football and boxing. By that assessment, we shouldn't do those either to save lives. And in Houston, taking a cab to and from places when you go out on the weekends is a nice thought, but totally unrealistic. I've seen the statistics postedon Drinking related deaths. I just would assume I'd see it in real-life as well in these past 16 years, and I haven't. And I'm not encouraging driving drunk! (I should prob. put this at the end of every respone)
Your opinion probably has to do with the fact that basically everyone you knows drinks and drives.. 80%???? As a whole.. no where near 80% of americans have a DWI.. and as a whole I'd assume that there are a lot more americans who think the penalites should be harsher.. not less harsh
Some of you don't know how good you have it. I was pulled over repeatedly during the late '60's and early '70's for no reason except that I had long hair, a couple of political bumper stickers, and a KFMK bumper sticker. KFMK was the first underground radio station in Houston. Here's a great link that tells a little bit about it, the Catacombs, the early Houston music scene, and a lot more. http://www.scarletdukes.com/st/tmhou_hammondint.html Anyway, one time I was with a girlfriend, minding my own business, driving the '62 Vomit Comet in the area around Montrose, when these 2 Pigs (they deserve the moniker) pulled me over. They said, "You almost ran that red light 7 or 8 blocks back there." I was always polite to the police, so I said, "Really officer? I'm sorry. I'll try to be more careful in the future." While one was talking to me, the other was going through my car with a fine tooth comb, and eyeballing my lady. Not finding anything, he looked at the other guy and shook his head. The dude I was talking to took his flashlight and popped one of my brake lights. Smiling at me, he said, "I'm giving you a ticket for a busted tail light, son, and your damned lucky it's all I'm doing!" I said, "Thank you, officer," smiled back, took the ticket, and drove away. I won't get into the time I was riding in a friend's VW bus, on the way to the grocery store, and got taken to jail for nothing. Not even a tiny roach. Not a funny odor. Nothing. I got out of being charged with nothing with the help of a pro bono attorney provided by the University. Come to think of it, I was probably lucky to live back then. I had a hell of a lot of fun, and survived it. Not everyone did. Keep D&D Civil!!
well, in my case, it happened the night before I was going out of town anyway...so there wasnt a problem there. and also....when referring to me, make that an ex-stoner.......but only cause of random testing, if there wasnt that little inconvienance, I would probably still be having a toke or two after work(once I got home of course). re: toking at concerts not as common as it used to be, the cops do keep an eye out for that...but I guarantee that you can go to any random show, and more than likely you will smell the smoke drift by at least once during the show.
yea, me too...... not surprising tho.....considering we were like 3 feet away from each other.. heh....man, remind me to get you a copy of the bootleg from the first show in that tour. think it must have been a soundboard recording, it is too good to be a audience recording. Deck, I know what you mean about the dangers of driving while hippy...I was running the streets in Pasadena in the 80's with long hair......it wasnt as bad as you describe, but I lost count of the amount of times I was pulled over for the crime of having long hair.... pull me over, search my car, be disappointed when they didnt find anything, make veiled threats about how I should be glad they were gonna let me slide(for what??) one of the prices of looking different in redneck Pasadena.
In 1996, there were 41,907 traffic fatalities nationally. Of those, 17,126 were alcohol related. That comes out to 40.9%!!! Source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, FARS Data, 1997 I gave numbers for 1 year, but the 40% mark is pretty accurate for the last 15 years in every single state, and nationally. The idea that DUI doesn't result in HUGE increases in fatality risk is completely unfounded and is not supported by any collision or traffic data in the US in the past 25 years. (I'm working on a study of risk homeostasis in auto accidents right now, so I'm quite familiar with the data). If we do a strict cost-benefit analysis with a value of life figure similar to the one used by insurance companies, we'll find that the optimal fine for driving drunk is WAAAAAY higher than what it is right now. The increase in fatality risk multiplied by the cost of life and property in the fatality well exceeds the probability of enforcement multiplied by the fine. Ideally, if we had optimal DUI policy, the fines for DUI would be a lot higher.
My uncle was killed by police here int he early 70's. F*cking bastards threatened my mom's family if they persued a charge for wrongful death. Nothing like redneck cops in the south, they literally get away with murder.
Please do!!! I remember getting pulled over for driving my Harley 31 in a 30 and he searched everything I had (luckily it was just my saddlebags and person). The really humorous part was that I had been completely sober (no drugs, no alcohol, no nothing) for over 4 years at the time.
Sorry for being a smarta$$, but we have had the discussion about intellectual property before and IIRC, you and I just couldn't see eye to eye. In this specific instance, I own every album Rush has produced and I have attended their last four shows in Houston, as has my wife. Since there is no other way to get this concert (which was the second best I have ever been to), I don't have any problem getting a bootleg from a friend and fellow Rush fan. If Rush puts this concert on a disc for sale, I may very well buy it, but until then I will be more than happy to enjoy what I can get.
Sorry, but bootlegging, illegal music/movie downloads, software piracy, and the ilk (not saying you do all of those things), cost ME money as I end up paying more for things due to these currently illegal activities. Regardless of what type of spin or justification anyone puts on these activities, at this time, they are illegal.
