Really? I think you should not drive if you can't see a human-sized object in broad daylight.

In reply to this comment by aimpoint:
All those cars in the beginning overpassed the biker.

One second the bus is in the right lane, the next its on the left. How quickly did that bus change lanes?

I would imagine the kid tried to pass the bus as he passed the car but didn't see the biker compared to the much larger profile (and shadow) of the bus.

I don't think he should have ran, but at the same time I don't think he even saw him.

All those cars in the beginning overpassed the biker.

One second the bus is in the right lane, the next its on the left. How quickly did that bus change lanes?

I would imagine the kid tried to pass the bus as he passed the car but didn't see the biker compared to the much larger profile (and shadow) of the bus.

I don't think he should have ran, but at the same time I don't think he even saw him.

So all they did was knock down a few pillars of an overpass?

Uh - no offense - but Frank Luntz is about as 'insider' as you can get. He is not a conservative. He is a GOP wonk. Putting it simply - he's one of those RINOs that real conservatives can't stand and who sells true conservatism down the river every chance he gets.

The GOP insiders want Romney. They want Romney because he is the person they have polled as being the most 'normal'. Above all else, the GOP insiders want someone bland, flavorless, and easy to swallow. They don't want the Sarah Palins, or the Herman Cains, or Ron Paul, or anyone else. They want vanilla, plain-jane, smart sounding, pretty for the camera, non-controversial candidates.

Romney would probably lose to Obama though. So why does the GOP want him? Quite simply, the GOP (as a political party) wants to keep the House, and win the Senate. And they think that Romney is the guy that would give them the best chance to do that. He is so inoffensive, that he would not really 'damage' the critical House/Senate races they want to win in 2012. And if the GOP keeps the House and wins the Senate then the GOP gets to head up all those committee chairmanships, get charge of all the appropriations, and basically run the show. They wouldn't care whether Obama was still President as long as they got to run the town. That is the perspective that Luntz is coming from. Any candidate that risks the GOP 'master plan' is seen as someone to beat down and toss off the overpass rolled up in a flaming carpet.

The normal voters don't give a flying handshake about OWS. OWS is a bunch of freaks, losers, and radicals who will have absolutely no impact on the presidential election whatsoever. But they have a remote chance of messing up a few House & Senate races... That's the only thing our dear Frank cares about.

Hmm... There are no freeways near LAX. Well, a mile or two away. Not close enough for a truck to hit a terminal from an overpass. I guess that's proof that Michael Bay was behind it.

I speak farsi. I shall translate what he says, roughly:

"This sign that you see here marks the exit to the Imamzadeh Hashem Shrine, which you can see is presently covered up. Precisely by this sign, in front of this exit, there's a warning sign which reads 'Risk of Death.' This exit is the freeway interchange between Qazvin and Rasht (two cities).

"Now allow us to show you the continuation of this exit so you can see why exactly they've posted a 'Risk of Death' warning. If you look along this path you can see, for example that car there, it enters and turns, and turns and then enters along this overpass we're standing upon. It continues on, and of course with these signs here it must follow this path, bending right, it continues, and then goes straight, straight, and then it goes down, and, it would appear, goes basically right along side oncoming traffic.

"Now, perhaps I've made a mistake in trying to figure this out, let's take a look at the reverse path. If the oncoming cars enter this interchange here, disregarding all the signs which must be wrong because they're pointing the opposite way, they come along, they go down, they pass right by that 'Risk of Death' sign, and then are again right along side the reverse oncoming traffic. I can't make heads or tails of it. I don't understand this whole setup, how this turns this way, this turns that way... Just, thank God I didn't study engineering because then of course people's lives would have been at risk (I detect sarcasm).

"Well you can see these cars here, and how much trouble they get into ahead. they're all stuck behind each other, thinking they'll easily get on the freeway and continue on their way to Rasht. But of course, they come across a 'Risk of Death' sign, and then have to merge, multiple cars, signalling to get on.

•••••

Interview of Iranian driver:

"Hello, sir. Where are you going?"

"I have no idea. I'm trying to make a u-turn."

"Do you realize what happens if you go this way?"

"No."

"If you continue this path here, you'll go straight and keep going and then return coming in the opposing direction of traffic coming from Qazvin headed for Rasht. You'll get crushed! And if you go back this way, you'll come off the interchange going directly opposed to traffic coming from Rasht headed for Qazvin. How did you get on this interchange?"

"They made this thing, how is it supposed to work?"

"I don't know how it's supposed to work, how do you think it was supposed to work?"

"I have no idea. <Unintelligible>"

"What do you have to say to the engineer of this overpass, regarding all this metal and cement and labor and resources that were used on this, what do you want to ask them?"

"Why did they make this overpass? what were they thinking?"

•••••

End:

"And now, our question of the engineers is this: at the time they were building this overpass, with thought to how much this cost to make in money and resources, why/how this overpass ended up like this? While they were building this thing, didn't any engineer, any construction worker, anyone who was working on it oversee this and ask 'what's the deal with this thing? where does the entrance go? where does the exit?' Really, that's what we ask our viewers. How?"

>> ^budzos:

I have to admit that passage was not well thought-out. "Dregs" was not a good choice of words at all as it has a very negative connotation attached, which was not intended. I should have used "disadvantaged" or something else that implies a low socioeconomic status and a lack of options (or the perception thereof). My bad, I should not have used that word. It certainly clouded my point.
Try reading what I said with your thumb over the word "dregs". My point was I get annoyed at the thought of a young person joining the military for a leg up in life, who ends up getting killed in some pointless conflict that is absolutely not about freedom (I didn't mis-speak about that, those "wars" are horse-shit), and then their corpse is part of some bullshit glee-club feel-good bonding. "Highway of Heroes"... wow real dignified... print it on a T-shirt why don't you (as if they haven't).
>> ^calvados:
Such hubris. Dregs of society, eh? Many of the best people I've ever met are from my 12+ years in the army reserves. I've met a great number of men and women who are selfless, intelligent, and thoughtful, and it's this abundance of quality people that has kept me onboard. These good ones have absolutely outnumbered the ones you'd call dregs.
Of course there are less desirable types in the military and I have met my share of them. And I agree that there is hyperbole in broadly referring to all our war dead as heroes (--I am sure that all or almost all of them would insist that they were not). But your rant is way off.



OK, I take a lot less issue with your revision, here. You do however seem to be suggesting that those who join up are going into it blindly, and I daresay that the average recruit's eyes are more opened to the horrible possibilities of war, and their own injury or death, than you evidently believe they are (especially those who join up after hostilities have already begun, as is the case now and as has been the case since early 2002 for Canada).

I do take issue with "glee-club feel-good bonding" and perhaps you will agree, again, that you are misspeaking here. What I see in the nation's response to a soldier's death in these times, exemplified on the overpasses of the 401, is a manifestation of sorrow and respect for sacrifice. Glee and good feeling are conspicuously absent.

That said, I agree that the specific name "Highway of Heroes" is reductive and borderline jingoistic. There is a stretch of Quebec's Autoroute 20 (from the ON/QC border to just west of downtown Montreal) which has been designated "l'Autoroute du Souvenir" (Remembrance Highway), marked with the familiar green/white highway signage and emblazoned with a poppy. I would actually have favoured that name for the stretch of the 401 in question. But as I indicated on another such submission about the HOH (http://videosift.com/video/The-Trews-Highway-of-Heroes), I am moved by and appreciative of the gesture, itself, of the renaming.

One more thing: remember that citizens were gathering on the overpasses to greet the fallen long before it was decided -- in 2007 -- to change the name of that stretch of road. It was, and is, a grassroots movement, not something cooked up by politicos.

You (and anybody, regardless of political stripe or opinion on the war) may well appreciate this CBC documentary, "We Will Remember Them" (Nov 2010), full streaming: http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/doczone/wewillrememberthem/video.html

>> ^budzos:

Nobody calls it that or thinks of it that way except for the media and the gov't. It will always be "the 401" to non pod-people.


Evidently, the citizens who gather on the overpasses to pay respects to our war dead do think of it that way.

A bit more info, from Wikipedia:

The newest single, "Highway Of Heroes", was inspired by the 2006 death of Capt. Nichola Goddard, the first Canadian female soldier killed in Afghanistan and a friend of the members of Trews. It refers to the stretch of Highway 401 in Ontario, between CFB Trenton and downtown Toronto, where hundreds gather on bridges and overpasses to mourn soldiers killed in Afghanistan while the bodies of the fallen soldiers are transported from Trenton to downtown for autopsy. The song was made available on iTunes in Canada only, with proceeds from the song are going to Canadian Hero Fund, a charity that provides academic scholarships to the spouses and children of soldiers killed in combat.

With the reactions to cops in most communities - I mean look at the comments in the other video for instance - I can understand if he felt threatened when a crowd gathered around.

For once, this was a good cop in a bad situation, not a bad cop making a bad situation.

*quality

>> ^longde:

The officer wasn't alone.
The area was crowded with law-abiding citizens.
>> ^volumptuous:
btw: You can see the pedestrian overpass just in front of the cop car, that people are supposed to use to get to the other side of this street.
From what I've read, a lot of assholes in the area just jaywalk, and taunt cars as they do, so the local precinct decided to try to crack down on it, which leads us to this story.
Also in this video, you can clearly hear someone in the background saying "there's gonna be a riot right here". Real, real nice. I'll bet the officer was very happy to hear that, especially being alone.

The officer wasn't alone.

The area was crowded with law-abiding citizens.
>> ^volumptuous:
btw: You can see the pedestrian overpass just in front of the cop car, that people are supposed to use to get to the other side of this street.
From what I've read, a lot of assholes in the area just jaywalk, and taunt cars as they do, so the local precinct decided to try to crack down on it, which leads us to this story.
Also in this video, you can clearly hear someone in the background saying "there's gonna be a riot right here". Real, real nice. I'll bet the officer was very happy to hear that, especially being alone.

btw: You can see the pedestrian overpass just in front of the cop car, that people are supposed to use to get to the other side of this street.

From what I've read, a lot of assholes in the area just jaywalk, and taunt cars as they do, so the local precinct decided to try to crack down on it, which leads us to this story.

Also in this video, you can clearly hear someone in the background saying "there's gonna be a riot right here". Real, real nice. I'll bet the officer was very happy to hear that, especially being alone.

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/96353934.html

According to Seattle police, the incident began when an officer spotted a man jaywalking in the 3100 block of Martin Luther King, Jr. Way S. at approximately 3:10 p.m. The man was some 15 feet away from a pedestrian overpass, police said.

The officer was talking to the man when he saw four young women jaywalk across the same street at the same spot. The officer asked the women to step over to his patrol car, but the women were being "verbally antagonistic toward the officer," according to officials.

One of the women, later identified as a 19 year old, began to walk away from the scene despite the officer's instructions, prompting the officer to walk over to her and escort her back to his patrol car.

The girl then "began to tense up her arm, and pull away from the officer while yelling at him," investigators said. The officer told the girl to place her hands on his patrol car, but she refused. When the officer tried to grab hold of her, "she pulled away and twisted, breaking free of the officer's grip several times," the blotter report said.

When the officer tried to handcuff the girl, another girl, this one 17 years old, intervened and placed her hands on the officer's arm, "causing the officer to believe she was attempting to physically affect the first subject's escape," police said.

The officer pushed back the second girl, but the girl came back at him. The officer then punched her, police said.

The officer then handcuffed the 19-year-old woman. Other officers arrived and helped handcuff the second girl.

Both teens were cited for jaywalking. The older suspect was booked into the King County Jail for investigation of obstructing an officer. The 17-year-old girl was booked into the Youth Service Center for investigation of assault of an officer.

Nobody was injured during the incident, police said.

>> ^volumptuous:

http://www.kxl.com/pages/7471948.php
"Police said Monday's incident began about 3:10 p.m. when the officer was driving north along Martin Luther King Jr. Way. The officer saw an 18-year-old man jaywalk across the busy street about 15 feet from a pedestrian overpass. After the officer stopped the man, he saw four women jaywalk at the same location and ordered them to come over to his patrol car, police reports say. At that point, the women became verbally antagonistic, and one turned and began walking away, police said.
When the officer approached her and began escorting her back to his car, the report says, she tensed and pulled away, ignoring his order to put her hands on the patrol car. By then, a crowd had gathered. Police said the officer then began trying to handcuff her."

Apparently breaking a law, then refusing police orders, and then pushing a police officer is somehow OK and according to Nordlich, the officer should've been beaten to shit by an angry mob.
Just, wow.

edit/update: Both of these "poor girls", Angel L. Rosenthal, and her friend, Marilyn Ellen Levias, have criminal records. Angel's is pretty hefty.
http://dw.courts.wa.gov


I figured that's how it went. I drive up MLK every once in a while. There's a great butcher in Columbia City.

There is a lot of jaywalking in Seattle. I do it all the time. I look both ways and take responsibility for myself. I've even seen police pull over to talk with jaywalkers. Every time I've seen it, the police officer scolds them and sometimes forces them to walk another whole minute to an actual cross walk.

So let's be honest about this situation. It seems that the police officer stopped the women for jaywalking and they blew up. Ever seen a cop try to give a warning and have antagonist people turn the situation into way more than it had to be. I think at that point, most cops internally say fuck it and arrest the offenders. Then they physically resisted.

The cop needs to take some training with emphasis on some effective holds to quickly subdue the person he is trying to arrest.

As for hitting a woman... I'm a gentleman, but if a woman is attacking me, I'll punch her. It is utter b.s. to dismiss the consequences of someone's action just because of their sex. Maybe I read too many Louis L'Amour books as a kid.

Browsing through the records....

Angel Rosenthal has Theft and Robbery charges.
Marilyn Levias has Assault charges.

Anyway, jaywalking is a really bad problem at one intersection I have to go through all the time since it's near work. So, I'd like to see cops bust people more for it personally. It causes major traffic problems and has led to accidents due to vehicles trying to avoid running over the jaywalkers as they dart into traffic at random locations and cross when the crosswalk tells them not to. It's especially bad on the green arrow turn lanes, they constantly cross at that point and you got cars in the intersection held up because people are crossing. I know one guy got mowed down in the middle of winter for being out in the street in the dark with dark clothes on, it wasn't the first guy to jaywalk in the pitch black and won't be the last. Bus jaywalking is the worst of them all, they get off the public transport bus and run across 4 lanes of traffic where at least one direction can't see them at all until they've already entered traffic and it tends to be 5+ people..

It's dangerous as hell for everyone on or next to the road, and that's why there are laws preventing it. I could see warning people if they do it in light traffic, but if it's a heavy traffic area I think it warrants a ticketing and perhaps so did the police officer.


>> ^volumptuous:

http://www.kxl.com/pages/7471948.php
"Police said Monday's incident began about 3:10 p.m. when the officer was driving north along Martin Luther King Jr. Way. The officer saw an 18-year-old man jaywalk across the busy street about 15 feet from a pedestrian overpass. After the officer stopped the man, he saw four women jaywalk at the same location and ordered them to come over to his patrol car, police reports say. At that point, the women became verbally antagonistic, and one turned and began walking away, police said.
When the officer approached her and began escorting her back to his car, the report says, she tensed and pulled away, ignoring his order to put her hands on the patrol car. By then, a crowd had gathered. Police said the officer then began trying to handcuff her."

Apparently breaking a law, then refusing police orders, and then pushing a police officer is somehow OK and according to Nordlich, the officer should've been beaten to shit by an angry mob.
Just, wow.

edit/update: Both of these "poor girls", Angel L. Rosenthal, and her friend, Marilyn Ellen Levias, have criminal records. Angel's is pretty hefty.
http://dw.courts.wa.gov