New Orleans Traffic Laws
There's no way around it. New Orleans drivers are horrible. By contrast, Rochester Drivers are generally skilled and knowledgeable; Pennsylvania drivers are slow; San Francisco drivers are cautious; and Boston drivers, while usually fast and borderline reckless, are at the same time very skilled. I love living in New Orleans, but it's drivers are ridiculous. I speculate this is why my insurance rates were jacked once I moved here (and apparently it is mostly Orleans Parish [counties for the other 49 states], because Jefferson Parish apparently has much lower rates). So I thought for years perhaps this was a result of some bizarre traffic laws here in Louisiana, as if the Napoleonic Code had somehow influenced driving, like horse carriage traffic law was more bizarre in France than in England.
Not so. In researching traffic laws in preparation of defending my girlfriend in court, I realized New Orleans has pretty much the same rules as anywhere. Use a turn signal within 100 feet of an upcoming turn. When turning left, stay close to the median line; when turning right stay close to the right lane line. These are the big ones. No one here uses a turning signal and people routinely swing the opposite direction before making their turns, as if they were about to cut down on an inclined Indy track or were trying to clear the rig of an eighteen-wheeler. Right
New Orleans, I love you. New Orleans drivers, you have no clue what the traffic rules are and you suck. Maybe they don't have a written test here to get a license. Maybe they just put you in a car with an instructor and tell you not to hit anything. And based on my insurance rates and the amount of times they keep replacing traffic light poles and control boxes, I'd say many can't even do that.
Not so. In researching traffic laws in preparation of defending my girlfriend in court, I realized New Orleans has pretty much the same rules as anywhere. Use a turn signal within 100 feet of an upcoming turn. When turning left, stay close to the median line; when turning right stay close to the right lane line. These are the big ones. No one here uses a turning signal and people routinely swing the opposite direction before making their turns, as if they were about to cut down on an inclined Indy track or were trying to clear the rig of an eighteen-wheeler. Right
New Orleans, I love you. New Orleans drivers, you have no clue what the traffic rules are and you suck. Maybe they don't have a written test here to get a license. Maybe they just put you in a car with an instructor and tell you not to hit anything. And based on my insurance rates and the amount of times they keep replacing traffic light poles and control boxes, I'd say many can't even do that.
Labels: drivers, laws, New Orleans, traffic
|| posted by mW @ 11:16 AM
Why Some Laws Are Wrong
Personal lives of people should be just that. Personal. The state has no business regulating sex in any way other than to prevent forced encounters and to protect children from adults who know better. The reason why this country will eventually fester and explode, like Rome before it, is because America refuses to evolve. Its people stagnate with an apalling apathy. No one is innocent. Politicians and public alike don't care.
We want to win wars, as long as our lives aren't impacted and all our sons and daughters return. We want everyone to be "normal," and we vigorously fight to keep America this way, pretending no one gets hurt in the process. And we never stop to question why people are in jail, instead content to put them away for years at a time, simply because then we don't have to deal with that person, all the while ignoring that the same causes that put that person in that situation will put another person in that same situation, leading to the same result.
And so it is, because our courts refuse to strike down laws that are not actively enforced, that we still have laws governing who can do what with their personal lives. What, in particular, has raised my ire, is the fact that the state of Georgia feels justified in mercilessly prosecuting a promising young man, aged 17, for having oral sex with a 15-year-old, in a situation where everyone agrees she was the instigator. Read the full story here.
This young man, who was a 3.2 gpa student, an athletic success, and homecoming king, was put away for 10 years without a possibility of parole. We say today that girl was too young to consent. Bullshit. Girls were married before then in those "good ole days" that laws like these are meant to preserve. It's an illusion of morality wrapped in righteousness that is grating on this country.
But that' s right. We have a war going on. We have gays getting married y'all. And, gasp, illegal immigrants. As if we don't have enough people to get concerned about anything else. It's all smoke and mirrors and people make deals out of a lot of things, because at the end of the day people just want to feel okay about themselves and they don't care at what expense it costs others. It's depressing.
We want to win wars, as long as our lives aren't impacted and all our sons and daughters return. We want everyone to be "normal," and we vigorously fight to keep America this way, pretending no one gets hurt in the process. And we never stop to question why people are in jail, instead content to put them away for years at a time, simply because then we don't have to deal with that person, all the while ignoring that the same causes that put that person in that situation will put another person in that same situation, leading to the same result.
And so it is, because our courts refuse to strike down laws that are not actively enforced, that we still have laws governing who can do what with their personal lives. What, in particular, has raised my ire, is the fact that the state of Georgia feels justified in mercilessly prosecuting a promising young man, aged 17, for having oral sex with a 15-year-old, in a situation where everyone agrees she was the instigator. Read the full story here.
This young man, who was a 3.2 gpa student, an athletic success, and homecoming king, was put away for 10 years without a possibility of parole. We say today that girl was too young to consent. Bullshit. Girls were married before then in those "good ole days" that laws like these are meant to preserve. It's an illusion of morality wrapped in righteousness that is grating on this country.
But that' s right. We have a war going on. We have gays getting married y'all. And, gasp, illegal immigrants. As if we don't have enough people to get concerned about anything else. It's all smoke and mirrors and people make deals out of a lot of things, because at the end of the day people just want to feel okay about themselves and they don't care at what expense it costs others. It's depressing.
Labels: laws, morals, prison, sex
|| posted by mW @ 10:34 AM[top]
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