Really tragic. I honestly don't care if people kill themselves, but when they take someone with them, that is heart breaking.



I believe Darwinism might be the solution here:

Between Midnight and 3 am, drink driving is legal, and no emergency services will respond to accidents. It's kind of like concept of the Purge movies.

People who are dumb enough to drink and drive will wipe themselves out, and everyone else will avoid traveling during these times.

(I'm sure it's a horribly flawed concept, but I like to fantasize about idiots being wiped from the gene pool to help me deal with the grief from these tragic events).

If men of GOD trip and fall, they're usually landing penis first in other men or children.
I loathe gay clergy not for staying in their closet of self-hatred, I loathe them for actively speaking out against their own nature and therefore making it harder for those who chose not to be liars.
I chose to discard the bible because of the immoral, unethical, cruel and simply made up stuff that's written in it. That should be reason enough.
I detest christian churches for supporting pedophilia and actively covering up pedophile's crimes while having the gall to tell me what I should or should not do sexually. I detest them for claiming the authority to make up rules of morality when they refuse to obey the rule of law and human decency. The Duggars are just a recent example of that.
The reason society won't allow sexual relationships with children is simply because we recognise that children aren't able to make informed choices regarding sexual consent. That's why the world frowned on Courtney Stodden and Doug Hutchinson, because everyone knew it was a shitty idea made by weird, creepy people.
Consent is something grown ups can give. And millions of gay men do it all the time, without your approval or not. All they want is equal treatment.
If pedophiles wanted that (and they did try in the past), we tell them to go fuck themselves because the people they want to, are simply too young to make that choice. There's a legal limit for drinking, driving and fucking and it's there for a reason.
If they claim "I was born this way!", which they often are, we tell them we have therapies for that. They don't go there because their sexuality is weird, out of the norm or gross, it's because it always hurts the other people involved. Always.

You are the one ranting "But what if you take away the rule book?! Goats will rape our children!" You seem to be the one worried that all goes Mad Max if we're not threatened with eternal damnation anymore.
I for one are not worried any place turns into Sodom and Gomorrah. You want to know why? Because I have all those gay, lesbian and transgender people to remind me that everybody deserves respect. They can walk up to me and start a conversation and don't have to worry I will yell "Abomination!" and start throwing my own poop.
Maybe I can learn something from their expirience. Maybe even somebody like you could. I hope somebody you truly love turns out to be gay, it would be quite educational for you to know what they know.
And you're right, I don't know anybody called Jack. I can only offer a Johannes but he was an idiot.

Drink driving in Britain is social suicide too, for all but scumbags.

Excellent PSA on the consequences of drink driving.

Having seen that the officers he was dealing with weren't bothered by doing illegal things taking a test, which could be doctored by them, would be a stupid thing to do.

Besides that, he wasn't driving, and simply being over the drink drive limit walking down the street isn't illegal. So even if he was drunk he was doing nothing wrong.

There's no way to bend this where the police are acting correctly. You can't get yourself out of a drink driving ban by simply refusing all the tests.

I have a simple test for this one. If you can no longer judge what is an appropriate amount of time to maintain eye contact with people, your too high to drive! (anyone who smokes should know what I mean)

Up until that point however I honestly believe it can slightly enhance ones standard of (safe) driving, especially if one is prone to a quick temper or impatience/ "a need for speed". Frankly some people are more of a liability when completely sober! (I know I used to be till I made myself calm down)

Unlike alcohol Pot tends to make one objective about how impaired ones senses have become. If your too high the little voice in your head tends to think "I'm really high, maybe I shouldn't drive yet?" rather than "I'm not pissed, I'm amazing. We can totally pull this off!".

Pot can also be surprisingly self regulating too, your most comfortable road speed is pretty much inversely proportional to how high you are, unlike certain other fermented vegetable products which are known to have the opposite effect....

IMHO existing laws for driving without due care and attention etc. are perfectly adequate to deal with potential abuse. I'm not saying it can't be a problem but equating it with drink driving is foolish and necessary to me.
This advert seems to have hit on a nice way of approaching the subject by simply suggesting you think twice about driving when baked our of your tree, rather than some unrealistic draconian shock tactics (Like the us advert at the drive through).

Good work NZ! (Wish I could afford to live there, seems like an awesome place)

You lot are so precious about the strangest things. Punishment for killing or injuring someone whilst drunk means NOTHING to the killed person and almost as little to the injured person. The increase in distracted driver syndrome is due to the increase in distractions not a decrease in drink driving. Safety issues like this are prime examples of where heavy handedness and public display of such is most effective. Fuck these a-holes. Rights such as freedom etc are not inalienable. In Australia if you refuse you are charged as if you were over the legal limit. No ifs, ands or buts. Driving 2 tonnes of metal around at 60-100 kph is not an inherent right of man but a responsibility to be taken seriously.

Frankly, this is a medium term problem. And drink driving too. In 15-20 years, we'll have self-driving cars (google, don't make me a liar) at which point, I will be able to go to the pub, get wasted and get driven home by my trusty auto-car.

And I will never again have to have another god awful conversation with a taxi driver. Bring it on...

I guess it's necessary to remind the participants in this debate that I am not defending obesity as normal or non-problematic; what I am doing is criticising the letter-writer's behaviour and commending the way it was called out as an example (and not as a personal attack on the writer; anonymity, remember?)

@SDGundamX You're right, we do disagree once again. Comparing sn being pressured into being unhealthily skinny and sn drink-driving or sexually harassing others is absurd, no need to belabour that point. The target of criticism in the model's case should be the fashion industry (and that of women's magazines, etc) which idolises such unhealthiness, not a cog in the system (who probably has enough trouble with it already). It's different if you are a personal friend to that person, as @Thumper thoughtfully pointed out above. Otherwise, it's a bit like criticising an Afghanistan vet for fighting an unjust war (once again, possible if you are that person's friend/family). As for it being a "private" email, I already argued amply as to why that doesn't fly.

@scannex Perhaps there was a misunderstanding between us, I don't know. What seems clear to me is that one must consider the difference between having a behavioural problem and exhibiting the behaviour of that problem. Example: alcoholism is a behavioural problem, the behaviour being excessive drinking. The difference of course is that some behavioural problems result in a constant visual marker (e.g. being fat), and that that marker does not always point back to a behavioural problem (e.g. genetics, mental health problems, etc), therefore assumptions should not be made. Moreover, That marker does not induce nor even condone the behavioural problem. Hope that clears things up.

@ReverendTed Hello there late comer! See the above for my response to your comment.

You also didnt have a megaphone blasting at you requesting you leave that area. Safe to say there was no need to immediately disperse, and had they all been hanging around watching someone get stabbed then you should have left and called the cops.

>> ^L0cky:

I went into town one evening a few weeks ago and saw a big crowd of people. I decided to walk up and see what was going on. Turned out the Olympic torch was passing through and they were putting on a show of it; and man it was pretty slick.
But now that I've read you're post I realise how stupid I was. I could have been associating myself with all kinds of horrible crimes; maybe even murder or drink driving! And as I wasn't ACTIVELY disassociating myself from the activities before me I was justifiably laying myself down to the mercy of any reckless police officer that may be in the vicinity. If one of them shot me, I would have felt foolish and would have only myself to blame. Thanks for the info!
Or rather, without the smart ass stuff, you're post has a major flaw. You failed to specify any crime that this naive, biased, hothead youth of America was supposed to be disassociating himself from.
>> ^legacy0100:
Know your civic duties before claiming you are being violated of your rights. Naive, biased, hotheaded youth of America.

I went into town one evening a few weeks ago and saw a big crowd of people. I decided to walk up and see what was going on. Turned out the Olympic torch was passing through and they were putting on a show of it; and man it was pretty slick.

But now that I've read you're post I realise how stupid I was. I could have been associating myself with all kinds of horrible crimes; maybe even murder or drink driving! And as I wasn't ACTIVELY disassociating myself from the activities before me I was justifiably laying myself down to the mercy of any reckless police officer that may be in the vicinity. If one of them shot me, I would have felt foolish and would have only myself to blame. Thanks for the info!

Or rather, without the smart ass stuff, you're post has a major flaw. You failed to specify any crime that this naive, biased, hothead youth of America was supposed to be disassociating himself from.

>> ^legacy0100:
Know your civic duties before claiming you are being violated of your rights. Naive, biased, hotheaded youth of America.

^Upvoted^
*Wheels
This Anti-drink driving commercial from here in the UK raised a lot of eyebrows about 8-10 years ago.

I've seen some gruesome speeding ads in Aus in my time (speeding, as well as various other subjects like seat belts, drink driving etc).

I know some other countries do this, but for anyone who might feel this is an over the top approach, the situation is that the various campaign agencies have had to go to such 'shocking' level's of advertising just to have an impact and get some people's attention.

The ads aren't pleasant to watch, and that's the point.
I understand some of the public disinterest government agencies have to contend with, and subsequently support these kinds of ads.
Additionally aside form the stats that police and road authorities will report, I've personally known a number of Aussies who've changed their driving behaviors positively as a direct cause of these ads.

A few more examples of the various types of ads that get aired in Australia for anyone that's interested.

Note: when these ads were first aired/seen, the public/viewer didn't know they were watching a speeding/drinking ad.. which really increased the 'wtf just happened' feeling.

WARNING - the below links contain unpleasant images
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWwbAgmE3N4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLvkIFREZU8&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5hxzdwQ7HA&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4X2lbxc5O4&feature=player_embedded#!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdZi-iJm3g8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HT666XwJR2s&feature=player_embedded#!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z23CzSONiU&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjCdVMeRhwY&feature=player_embedded

TAC YouTube channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/TACVictoria?feature=relchannel

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has an answer to that, in the publication 4102.0 - Australian Social Trends, Dec 2009. For a population of 21.9 million, we have 129 per 100,000 in prison, the 12th highest prison rate out of 30 OECD countries, which I calculate to be about 28,000 people in prison in 2008. The article actually mentions the U.S., and compares the two countries.

Speaking of impounded cars, in general if you are over the limit for drink driving here your car is left parked at the check point and you have to arrange a sober driver to pick it up, or in minor cases you pick it up yourself the next day once you're sober. Having never done this, I'm not sure about the exact details...
>> ^longde:

Some people just won't get it until it's their child under a police baton.
How many people in Australia are in jail or prison? [...] And then the impounded vehicles provide a profit. After fines are paid to the city along, with 30 days in storage fees, a vehicle typically produces $2,000 in revenue, sometimes more if it is not claimed and then auctioned.

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