So much wrong with this

Headline: Conn. police: driver blames car crash on snakes.

HARTFORD, Conn. --Police say a 20-year-old man blamed a multi-car crash in Hartford on two pet baby snakes that he says escaped from his pants pockets while he was driving.

City police Sgt. Christene Mertes says Angel Rolon of New Britain claimed he lost control of his SUV Monday when the snakes slithered near the gas and brake pedals and he and a passenger tried to catch them. Mertes says animal control officers never found the snakes.

Police say Rolon's SUV veered into some parked cars and overturned.

Rolon was treated at a hospital for unknown injuries. Police say they gave him a summons for reckless driving and other charges.

There is no public telephone listing for Rolon. It could not immediately be determined if he has a lawyer.

Wow. First off, GREAT cover story. Second, if it's true, you don't try to catch your snakes while you are in the middle of driving. And finally, if it's true, you don't keep your pet snakes in your fucking pocket as a way to transport them in the car.

When Loki is in the car with me, I don't leave him flying around the car because, get this, he could get hurt/killed, I could get hurt/killed, and other people could get hurt/killed. My car could get hurt/killed. It's common fucking sense.

There needs to be a way to charge people with being totally stupid.

Headlines, headlines

Headlines make a difference.

Today, the tapes relating to the Gates arrest were released. Boston.com's headline is simply that the tapes were released. CNN.com says, "911 caller didn't mention 'black' suspects."

But there are two things missing here.

The 911 caller said she thought one of the men might have been Hispanic. So, if people want to be all, "Oh, she didn't mention anything about race!" that ain't true. She did make it clear, though, that it looked as if they were having trouble with the key, but that she just wasn't sure.

Secondly, one of the most important things about the released tapes is this: There is no evidence to suggest that Gates' behavior merited arrest. There is no yelling, no shouting.

To me, the tapes mean that the police had every reason to believe that this was not breaking and entering. They were supposed to go make sure it wasn't one. And when Crowley arrived, and Gates was inside and proved residence, that should have been the end of it. And since Gates clearly was not shouting or being disrupted ... I don't understand why there would have been an arrest.

Except that when it comes to discrimination, anger on the part of the subordinate is blown out of proportion and invalidated. In the case of Gates, he was arrested for being angry. His anger was invalidated through Crowley's refusal to recognize that there wasn't a dangerous, illegal situation. His anger was blown out of proportion by what appear to be extremely exaggerated reports of disorderly conduct.

I'm tiiired of hearing about the race card. There is no card. No one does that. This "card" system perpetuates the completely inaccurate and bullshit idea that victims enjoy victimhood and use it to their advantage. I'm sorry, but I don't like being a victim. I'd rather make the same amount of money as men. I'd rather not risk sexual assault every time I walk alone. I'd rather not deal with having to spend more time, money, and effort into making sure I appear acceptable. And I'm sure that many people of color would rather NOT be discriminated against. There is no race card. There is no reveling in discrimination when you're the ones being discriminated against.

Oh, PLEASE, people

I just saw this headline on the new Yahoo! homepage*:

"Black officer supports Gates arrest."

Oh, because I'm not sure if you knew this, but if one, JUST ONE person of color doesn't think an incident is racist, then it's not. I mean, it totally doesn't matter if an overwhelmingly higher number of people of color do think the incident is racist. All it takes is for that one person to say, "No, guys, chill; what happened was totally okay and not racist at all," and then (magically) the incident isn't racist.

And all the white people point at all the people of color and say, "SEE, WE TOLD YOU," before returning to privileged, blind lives.

The President of the US believes there was racial profiling involved. The Governer of Massachusetts agrees. Actor Jeffrey Wright agrees.

I agree, too. I don't think this would have happened to a white person. And all this backlash is further evidence suggesting quite strongly that are nowhere near "postracial."

(There are similar problems, of course, with sexism, either where a sexist woman might say, "I'm a woman, and I thought the joke was funny and not sexist; therefore you are overreacting," or where a sexist guy might say, "My female friend thinks it's okay for guys to rape women if the women are wearing skimpy clothing, so you must be overreacting.")

* Why does Yahoo! keep doing this? No one uses the homepage anyway.

Rude things people do

Disclaimer: I am in no way suggesting that I'm always polite. In fact, the opposite is probably true.

I ride the train to and from work every morning. The train cars have two benches in each row, on either side of the aisle; one side of the car has benches with two seats, and the other has benches with three (although only on the more crowded trains will you actually see three people sit on a three-person bench. Interesting). People do some rude stuff with these benches.

1. Sleeping

I'm really tired, too. I promise. But if you're absolutely incapable of taking a nap in an upright position, you might want to wait till you get to work, or until you get home (if, you know, you can't get away with the former) in order to sleep. Lying across three seats is rude. Really.

2. Not accomodating

As I mentioned in my not-apologizing-for-my-fat post, I'm not going to scrunch myself into my seat if there's already room for you. But it's rude, when someone is trying to sit next to you, when you are taking up half of their seat. One guy once refused to move when I sit down, meaning I had to squeeze my oversized ass into half a seat. Not cool.

3. Sitting at the aisle

Yeah, it's rude to sit in the aisle seat, not the window seat, when there is no one else on the bench. Move over; I'm trying to find a seat and I can't seem to magically teleport over you!

4. Letting your bag sit next to you

It can sit on your lap, or it could sit on the nifty overhead rack, built for such things as bags. Interesting, I know!

I know that we all just want to get from point A to point B as comfortably as possible. But there's a difference between making it as comfortable as possible for everyone, or just for you. I pick the former.

Things I've learned

Today, I learned that I dislike going to the gym in the morning as much as I dislike going to the gym in the evening. Even though going early means I don't have to go after a long day of work (during an evening better spent in front of the TV with a birdeh), it does mean getting up earlier. Much earlier. And now that I had to wake up at 6, I'm quite sleepy at work!

And so, my love-hate relationship with the gym will have to remain love-hate. But that's okay.

Oy, people, it's normal.

Today, Boston.com has this article: "Did stress cause Palin's thinning hair?"

I am not a fan of Sarah Palin. I disagree with her policies and her opinions. I think she's pretty anti-feminist. I considered her unqualified for the Vice Presidency, not because of her sex, but because of her utter and complete lack of experience and knowledge relating to, say, helping to run a country.

But this headline is extremely sexist and inappropriate. The article itself mentions Palin only as an example of a woman whose hair is thinning slightly; the bulk of it discusses the myth that stress thins hair, and the science behind hair thinning. The article isn't actually about Sarah Palin.

So, why the title? And why the obnoxious, "I feel bad for her" quotation? Because we're making fun of her. We're criticizing her for her position and the decisions she's made. We're saying, "You have failed as a woman because you do things that make you look less feminine."

I don't like Sarah Palin, but that doesn't mean that criticism based on her sex is at all appropriate.

What is it with my luck sometimes?

In 2005, in bumper-to-bumper traffic, an SUV rear-ended my stopped 1998 Audi A4 at about 20 mph. There was a ridiculous amount of damage to the rear and the passenger's side rear body (the SUV driver had tried to turn off into the breakdown lane to avoid hitting me). It was deemed a total by the insurance company. But we got a lot of money from it. A week later, we found a 1994 Honda Accord on Craig's List, with 65,000 miles on it, for only $5000, and we took it.

Thursday, I noticed a strange noise, like a tapping, coming from the rear of the Accord. When I remembered to check the car on Sunday, I found that the rear bumper had broken off near the tires. I was aware that my car had pretty nasty rust, but I hadn't had any issues with it before. But then I saw that someone had bumped into my car; there were scratches all along the bumper. Great.

Today, I learned that it would cost $500-$1000 to fix the hit-and-run damage, but that it would just break again in less than a year. The best choice was to get another car. And it just so happened that the Autobody in Carlisle had two.

So, next week, I will probably be purchasing, for $4000, a 2002 silver Honda Civic (4 doors, "loaded" model) with approximately 101,000 miles. There is also, for the same price, a 2002 Toyota Camry with 123,000 miles that's also a steal.

So, the moral of the story is that I have awful luck with having to very, very suddenly get a new car, but that I have fantastic luck in finding great used cars at even better prices.