Funny Stuff

The last several years have been very challenging. I've actually never had so many hurdles presented to me in my entire life. Challenges that I never thought could have been thrown at me, and I'd already had plenty of them. Life's funny that way I guess.

During my entire life I believe that I've had  all of the ingredients for a great life recipe. Let's say for instance that there are three. A good partner, a good job, and also good health. Me? I always seem to have two out of the three ingredients. It's been pretty frustrating to say the least. At 49 years of age I'm pretty well resigned to just give up on the idea of having all three.

Having been beat up lately I've been digging really deep. What's been enlightening to me is how certain people that are around you, treat you once that they know that you're down. It reminded me of the fight scene in the movie Cool Hand Luke. Paul Newman was getting pummeled by George Kennedy, and some of the inmates just cheered on the beating, and then there were the few guys that turned their heads. "Just stay down Luke. Let him bloody your nose..." Stuart Rosenberg really caught a bit of our culture that's pretty true, unfortunately. People seem to like seeing others fall down, and then once that they are down they often want to kick them, instead of picking them up, and dusting them off,. In the blogosphere people call a lot of these people trolls, or haters, etc., but it's oddly endemic to our society.


That said, if you look closely around you, you just might find those that are like-minded. I've found some lately, and it's been great. I wish that I could find more of them, but it's hard and too infrequent.

Back to my main point, and yes, it took me a lot of time to get here. I'm surprised by just how many people
have kicked me in the gut since I finally hit the tarmac. Once people know that you're down, they tend to jump right in and make it worse for you. I guess that the word to the wise is to never reach the tarmac. I'm there, and I keep trying to get up.

I will get up... Believe me, I will get up.

Very Bad Statistics

I received this interesting report from one of mountain biking's founder, and it's disturbing. Here it is:

The Center for Investigative Journalism confirms something many of us already suspect. The Berkeley based non-profit news agency analyzed five years worth of data from 434 pedestrian fatalities in Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, San Mateo and San Francisco counties.

Sixty percent of the 238 motorists found to be at fault or suspected of a crime faced no criminal charges.

When drivers did face criminal charges, punishment often was light. Licenses rarely were taken away. Of those charged, less than 60 percent had their driving privileges suspended or revoked for even one day. Forty percent of those convicted faced no more than a day in jail; 13 drivers were jailed for more than a year. By contrast, those charged in accidental shootings often serve lengthy jail terms.

District attorneys fail to charge the drivers, saying juries sympathize with the motorists. Police occupied with other crimes don’t track down hit-and-run drivers. The state Department of Motor Vehicles doesn’t always pull licenses, at times hindered by the morass of paperwork required to get information from courts and police departments.

Echoing a common sentiment among prosecutors, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said jurors see the cases as tragic accidents with no guilty party: “They’re all thinking, ‘There but for the grace of God go I.’ ”

Read more at CIR: Bay Area drivers who kill pedestrians rarely face punishment, analysis finds. H/T Mike S in Belmont, CA.

In other news, it appears a killer in Los Angeles received the memo that’s best to kill with your vehicle if you want to get away with the crime. The theme of murder by car is even occasionally used in TV crime shows.

 Here's the link if you care to share it: http://www.cyclelicio.us/2013/pedestrians-killed-drivers-not-prosecuted/