h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I didn't want to limit the scope of this thread to just this one case, but it's a nice place to start.


Last night there were two televised police chases in Houston. The first was fairly calm and ended without the suspect even getting thrown to the ground, very polite.

The second though was a bit more dramatic. 40+ minutes all around downtown Houston, on freeways and through down town streets. Running every red light, jumping curves, three collisions with innocent drivers, blown tires and sparks flying. When the vehicle finally stops the suspect flees on foot. He doesn't get far as by now he has at least two dozen police cars either directly in pursuit or in the surrounding area along with the helicopter and the K-9 unit.

This morning I read, "He claimed that his parking brake was stuck and he couldn't stop," Sgt. Vincent Jones said.

...


BWAA HAA HAAA!

Brilliant!

Did he mean that he couldn't stop because he couldn't put his handbrake on, or because it was *stuck* on? Either way, it's an interesting view on how a car works

Just a thought...are most cars in the US automatic? I suppose it's plausible that he might have had an issue with the gearbox, but even so!

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/12/kamikaze_prius/ - it's a conspiracy, I tells ya!

He had no problem... It was a stolen vehicle. And no mechanical failure can be blamed for a foot chase. He just proved he was a moron when he opened his mouth.

Gotta love the idiots of this world; they make me feel so much better about myself

Three men in Augusta, GA were arrested after one tried to return a laser printer/copier to a Target store. Inside the printer were counterfeit copies of $20 bills... AND the original $20 bill.

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml08/08260.html

Now where am I going to store children?

Children should be eaten and not stored

OK, last night I was down at my parents, borrowing my mother's sewing machine to mend some patches. They were in the other room watching typical crap "reality" television, some talent contest with Sharon Osbourne, David Hasselhoff and some other guy judging it.

I'm not paying any attention at all but I hear this from "The Hoff". He's raving about some random act and says, "...you're as American as the Olympics."

Holyshit, that's funny! What an idiot.

I'm not the only one that thinks so.

http://justyouwatch.blogspot.com/2008/08/david-hasselhoff-is-dumb.html

Not as bad as Mariah Carey's comment about skinny African kids, but close. What a muppet.

I missed that one.

After some investigation it seems that it never happened
http://www.snopes.com/quotes/carey.asp

Obama is being attacked for using the old phrase "you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig." The McCain camp is saying that he should apologize because it's "obvious" he's calling Palin a pig...


WHAT?


If anything he's calling her lipstick.

In situations like this, where someone makes a remark that gets twisted, misconstrued and spun out of all recognition purely for the sake of making a the speaker look bad, it astonishes and saddens me that the person who made the remark so often goes on the defensive and then often apologises and/or resigns, instead of treating it like the tosh it really is.

Here's one from the news this very day:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7607895.stm

And it doesn't help when the media keep using loaded words like 'deny/denied' in such stories. 'Deny' is often taken to mean that someone has first been accused. It's unnecessary. There are other, more neutral words that would do the job just as well.

I really must listen to that World at One interview.

On reflection, now that I recall Palin's comment at the party conference about the only difference between a pitbull and a hockey mum being lipstick, I can understand how the Republicans would draw the inference. I think Obama's use of the old saying was... unfortunate and ill-advised. If he had replaced the word 'pig' with 'pitbull' it would have worked much better, since pitbulls are such unpleasant animals. Or maybe it wouldn't. A lot of working class people love their pitbulls, although I think more of them might be Republican than Democrat so it might not make that much difference.

OK... first off he was not talking about Palin at all... he was just reiterating his position that a McCain presidency would just be the same policies as Bush.


Secondly and more importantly, pit bulls are wonderful pets and absolutely adorable and loving. The assholes who raise them to be aggressive are the unpleasant animals.

He may well have been talking about a potential McCain administration being the same as the past eight years of Bush but the inference will be drawn by those looking to score points. I hope to see Obama coming out of his corner fighting on this one instead of meekly crumbling and offering feeble excuses the way that so many politicians and other public figures do in similar situations.

We'll have to agree to disagree about the dogs though. There are tens of thousands of pitbulls who are wonderful pets, who never have and and never will attack or bite anyone. I just don't like dogs in general and certain breeds in particular.

Oh, and we're definitely in agreement about the owners.

What infuriates me more even than the owners, is what they have caused. Because of their irresponsible care many horrific attacks have occurred. And because of the press coverage of these attacks many, many people believe these dogs to be nothing but vicious and would like to see the entire breed euthanized. It's just not true. Even those dogs rescued from Micheal Vick, dogs who knew nothing but fear and violence and torture, even those dogs can be loving sweet pets. Animal Planet recently aired a show about the rescue ranch in Utah that took in and rehabilitated 60 of the Vick dogs. I believe they successfully adopted out 54 to caring homes. Some of those remaining in their care were there by court order prohibiting them ever being adopted out even if they were rehabilitated.

There's nothing wrong with this breed. The same prejudices that make some want to fight them makes others want to kill them. That makes me very sad and angry.

Hey, you don't like dogs, that's fine. But don't contribute to the singling out of one breed as being ferocious and innately dangerous. I read once that more people are bitten by cocker-spaniels than any other breed. Again, it's how these dogs are treated by their owners that make them likely to bite. Spaniels are spoiled. That makes them unstable.

Now if we could eradicate the type of people who use pit bulls to compensate for their machismo AND the people who use cocker-spaniels as accessories I think we'd have a better world.


Of course, the cats will continue to act superior to everything else anyway.

1) Pitbulls have a reputation - deserved or otherwise - for being aggressive and dangerous (I'd bring up the matter of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 which bans them from the UK to all intents and purposes but I think that was a bit of knee-jerk legislation brought on by tabloid stories). Agreed - any dog can be that way, even darling little lapdogs (Pomeranians have a ferocious reputation), but certain breeds - pitbulls included - are feared more than others. There must be a reason for that, and for why certain breeds more than others are used as guard dogs (called attack dogs in the US).

2) There must have been a reason why Palin chose the pitbull to liken to hockey mums, and herself. If she wanted to put herself across as loving and tender it probably would have been something like a labrador. I think she chose pitbull for other reasons. When people do that they like to present themselves as hard, mean, don't--with-me-or-you'll-regret-it.

3) Cats rool