Surreality TV

I needed to change the bulb in the front left fog lamp on my car, since it burned out recently and my car's due for its annual safety inspection. Virginia's rules with respect to flog lamps are...weird. If you have them, and they are wired, they must function, or you fail. If they're there but not connected, the state doesn't care if they work. And if you don't have them, none of this is relevant, obviously.

I hit up Google for info on E46 M3 fog lights, and all it fed me were places to buy replacement housings and forums where people who obviously have zero business ever getting near a tool were complaining about how difficult it was to change them, but no one selling the actual bulbs. So off to BMW of Sterling I went. They sold me the right part, but pulled the wrong box off the shelf. I discovered this when I pulled the old bulb out. At home. If I hadn't have had to drive back to BMW of Sterling to get the right bulb, it would have been a three minute job that requires a single tool (an 8mm hex driver, if you care). I'm still trying to figure out how this is remotely difficult. Or complicated.

The bulb itself is fairly weird and yeah, that's gonna be something that I get from the dealer (in five years, this is the first time I've had to replace a fog light bulb, so it's not that bad).

I will take an aggressive, but predictable, asshole to share the road with over a panicky, and consequently random, driver any day of the week.

Dear People Who Are Afraid of All the Other Cars On the Road With You:

Don't leave your driveway. Ever.

I will take an aggressive, but predictable, asshole to share the road with over a panicky, and consequently random, driver any day of the week.

Dear People Who Are Afraid of All the Other Cars On the Road With You:

Don't leave your driveway. Ever.

So, one of my friends over on the Book of Faces has posted a link to a Tube of You clip, from Fox News of all places, espousing legalization of marijuana. Now, when Fox has given up on the War On some Drugs (even on a single front), you know the world has become an extremely surreal place.

Now, my personal feelings on Prohibition v2.0 are that it should have never gotten out of planning. The proof of concept and initial release was such an abject failure that one can only wonder WHAT the developers were smoking when they decided on a new release.

To be less snarky, we've thrown away billions of dollars and incarcerated a generation or two of people whose only crime was killing themselves slowly with substances that our heavily WASP influenced society found uncomfortable because they might lead to someone, somewhere, having fun.

Oh, and as a side effect, we've created a huge underground market that drives crime and violence on scales not seen since...well, Prohibition. Funny that.

Personally, I never got into recreational drug use beyond a few times. And yes, I DID inhale. The usual outcome was a headache. The high was short lived if it showed up at all, so I tended to drink instead. They don't throw you in jail for that unless you do it in a car, so that was another incentive to drink instead too.

Remake the DEA. It should be an IRS division instead. Not that it will ever happen. We've got way too much invested in the Drug War to give up on it, no matter how much it drains from our social, financial, legal, and political systems.

So, one of my friends over on the Book of Faces has posted a link to a Tube of You clip, from Fox News of all places, espousing legalization of marijuana. Now, when Fox has given up on the War On some Drugs (even on a single front), you know the world has become an extremely surreal place.

Now, my personal feelings on Prohibition v2.0 are that it should have never gotten out of planning. The proof of concept and initial release was such an abject failure that one can only wonder WHAT the developers were smoking when they decided on a new release.

To be less snarky, we've thrown away billions of dollars and incarcerated a generation or two of people whose only crime was killing themselves slowly with substances that our heavily WASP influenced society found uncomfortable because they might lead to someone, somewhere, having fun.

Oh, and as a side effect, we've created a huge underground market that drives crime and violence on scales not seen since...well, Prohibition. Funny that.

Personally, I never got into recreational drug use beyond a few times. And yes, I DID inhale. The usual outcome was a headache. The high was short lived if it showed up at all, so I tended to drink instead. They don't throw you in jail for that unless you do it in a car, so that was another incentive to drink instead too.

Remake the DEA. It should be an IRS division instead. Not that it will ever happen. We've got way too much invested in the Drug War to give up on it, no matter how much it drains from our social, financial, legal, and political systems.

Please stop saving us. That or grow a brain and lose the extremist attitude.

There's been a lot of press about the Harvard prof. who got arrested for effectively forgetting his keys. Now, I'm sure he was being a dick to the cop towards the end, but seriously, you would too if you had shown proof of residence and made it clear that you lived in the property in question and the officer hadn't told you to have a nice day and went on to do some real work.

Now, the question I have about this whole thing? Which one of his fucking neighbors called the cops on him in the first place? I may not know all my neighbors, but I see them enough to recognize them and wouldn't feel the need to call the cops if one had locked their self out of their house.

Yes, the police were stupid to arrest him, and yeah, he was stupid to get in a verbal confrontation with a police officer (you don't provoke them, even when you're right...especially when you're right, because they hate that...if they were normal and rational people, they wouldn't have become a cop), but I still can't fathom which of his neighbors felt the need to be so big a dick as to call the cops in the first place.

There's been a lot of press about the Harvard prof. who got arrested for effectively forgetting his keys. Now, I'm sure he was being a dick to the cop towards the end, but seriously, you would too if you had shown proof of residence and made it clear that you lived in the property in question and the officer hadn't told you to have a nice day and went on to do some real work.

Now, the question I have about this whole thing? Which one of his fucking neighbors called the cops on him in the first place? I may not know all my neighbors, but I see them enough to recognize them and wouldn't feel the need to call the cops if one had locked their self out of their house.

Yes, the police were stupid to arrest him, and yeah, he was stupid to get in a verbal confrontation with a police officer (you don't provoke them, even when you're right...especially when you're right, because they hate that...if they were normal and rational people, they wouldn't have become a cop), but I still can't fathom which of his neighbors felt the need to be so big a dick as to call the cops in the first place.

prince_eric is completely, utterly, and totally awesome.

Thanks for an awesome walking tour around the Common and for a great dinner.