Human Life is Precious

I've been toying with an idea of late, every time I see a car driving aggressively or erratically, just the needless risk taking that jeopardizes other motorists and pedestrians. The idea that some how when we get behind the wheel of our cars we dehumanize everything on the road, taking for granted that in those other cars, and walking down the road are sentient human beings, regardless of age, each one is precious and irreplaceable.  We only have a finite amount of time here, and I plan on making the most of it, and I really don't want some ones urgency to get to the drive thru for coffee to put that at risk.

We all have seen the ageist little signs that enshrine the specialness of having in your vehicle an infant, and I've considered, what one internet denizen has already published here, and I've copied for illustration putting a sign like this on my car:

cropped and presented with out permission, all rights belong to linked creator.

Where this once in a blue moon blog post has surged from, is not the callousness or crazed behaviour of drivers, but the reckless, and sociopathic disregard for human life shown by two idiots at a block party last night.  It was the lead story on the CBC this morning, and the splashed all over the Toronto Star.  The police cheif's made a statement, with shock and weariness in his voice that this was 'the worst incident of gun violence ever' I think he left it qualified 'in North America.'

I find myself, with some caveats agreeing.  The caveats, and I think he meant them as well, is that this isn't to lesson or take away from horrific crimes which have occurred with guns, the Montreal and Columbine shootings for example.  Those were horrible crimes, which involved fire arms, but were premeditated.  This was a crime that was the kind of spontaneous* violence that occurs when people stop considering each other (and likely themselves) to have any value. It is the reckless and thoughtless decision making without a care for consequence or society.  It takes an iota of self work and conscience to say "I'm in a crowded place lets take this some where else.  Never mind the more sophisticated processing that says "This just isn't worth fighting about" and walking away.. 

This isn't a cry for gun control** but a plea for some humanism, humanism in the street, in the car, and in life.  Recognize the people around you as people, recognize yourself as a person, and realize that the golden rule is as relevant a rule today as it ever has been.


* not with standing the premeditation that occurs when you strap a loaded hand gun on and go out in to the public, you obviously mean for it to be there for some purpose?

** I really don't see why people need the right to own a handgun, I'm sure they are fun to target shoot with, but the hand gun is really a single purpose item, it is design for compact people killing, and target shooting is just practice for the real thing.  Long guns are more general purpose, and difficult to conceal.  They have clear sporting value, and permit the enjoyment of marksmanship as well.  That all being said, I do realize that the majority of handgun crime is done with illegally owned handguns, and that out and out banning of handguns wouldn't necessarily solve the problem.  It is too bad ammunition can so easily be manufactured in the home, otherwise Chris Rock's approach to ammunition control might work.

Not my fight, and not my words,

but I wish it was, and I wish they were...

Molly Wood, co-host of CNET's Buzz Out Loud and of general internet fame wrote an amazing piece in her blog about Prop 8 in California. She made her point so eloquently, that if you found that nail with a how ever many angel's dancing upon it, that her hammer would have stuck the nail head true, and not the angel's. Which is a strange metaphor in light of the source of most of the hate that fueled the inception of Prop 8 in the first place. If you vote in California, please vote NO on prop 8, please!

People are assholes, especially to themselves

Incoming rant,

So Smoking, smoking is a pretty bad habit that will kill you. I don't fault anyone of a generation older then mine for starting, the information on smoking related illness wasn't really there, and there was a lot more advertisement. For those who are of that generation, I know several who have successfully quit, my grand-parents, Trevor's dad, Erin's Mom. It was a brutal process for all of them, and for those who can't seem to quit, I accept that it is tough for you. For people of my generation who smoke, your just a bunch of fucktards, who probably couldn't read the surgeon general's warning on a gun to not apply it to your forehead.

So I get to the train station yesterday, and what do I see, I see to yuppies, hard core, Starshmuck drinking, foppish, dinks limp handedly taking a drag on their ciggies.

All right what ever, we're on a train plateform, their in an enclosed area, it is clearly marked no smoking, but you know what, not my business.

Then I look beside them. Right f'ing beside them are two octogenarians taking a drag on something entirely uncigarette like... An oxygen tank...

So open flame and oxygen interactions aside, wtf... Can you pick two of the best candidates for why second hand smoke is a bad thing. So I saunter over, and politly interject... "Hey I don't know if you are aware of it, but this plateform is a no smoking zone. Oh and did you happen to see your smoking next to this folks breathing through oxygen masks?" I was polite by acrid near the end.

To their credit they seem contrite, be it the "getting caught" or maybe they did feel remorse they apologized, interestingly I don't recall if they actually put out their smokes of not. As I departed I gave some half hearted, remark about how it was for their own good so they don't get fined. Then just as I was almost gone, they got indignant,

"but they [the oxygen gang] were smoking first."

By the Noodles of the FSM!

You'd think that watching to guys huffing back a combo of oxygen and nicotine laced tar smoke would put you off your own for at least a few minutes, but no it inspired this prats to join in.

I threw up my hands and walked away in disgust sputtering incoherent indignation of my own.

People are stupid, stupid, stupid!