Drunk drivers should burn in hell

[leander]

@SmashTheState

What’s most astounding to me is that the people calling me stupid are the ones flapping their arms and yammering about saving the children and how we all know it’s just wrong because it’s wrong. They appear to be proud of their own ignorance and unwillingness to justify their beliefs with anything except more arm-flapping and insults.

To make this perfectly clear: punishing people for things they haven’t done is wrong. Driving drunk harms no one. Hitting someone while driving drunk harms people, and I do not approve of this. However, I also don’t approve of driving, period. I have never owned a car, and in my 40 years on this planet I’ve seen no need to learn how to drive. Driving is an ignorant, antisocial activity which harms other people. However, if driving is permitted, then we must also accept drunk driving, as the same rationale which permits driving (your convenience is more important than my life) also permits drunk driving.

This is either extreme stupidity or trolling.

Your basic argument is: Drunk driving is fine, unless someone gets hurt. That’s like saying “Russian Roulette can be FUN! so long as no one gets shot”. It’s naive and stupid and without any understanding of the risks involved.

[Alessan]

It’s like saying that shooting at someone is OK, if you miss. “Attempted Murder” is apparently not a crime in this person’s book.

[emcee2k]

@SmashTheState

What’s most astounding to me is that the people calling me stupid are the ones flapping their arms and yammering about saving the children and how we all know it’s just wrong because it’s wrong. They appear to be proud of their own ignorance and unwillingness to justify their beliefs with anything except more arm-flapping and insults.

To make this perfectly clear: punishing people for things they haven’t done is wrong. Driving drunk harms no one. Hitting someone while driving drunk harms people, and I do not approve of this. However, I also don’t approve of driving, period. I have never owned a car, and in my 40 years on this planet I’ve seen no need to learn how to drive. Driving is an ignorant, antisocial activity which harms other people. However, if driving is permitted, then we must also accept drunk driving, as the same rationale which permits driving (your convenience is more important than my life) also permits drunk driving.

See, now that’s a bold stance.

[Amber_in_Treasury]

@Squink

Can we add people who talk on their cell phones while driving to that august body? Despite lacking the excuse of being stupefied by drugs, they too are incredibly dangerous to others.

Quoted for truth.

[Una_Persson]

@Rumor_Watkins

They’re too drunk to tense up under the fear of an imminent collision. Less tense and rigid bones and muscle = better dissipation of force.

It’s more complicated than that. And as it happens, Cecil is running a column on this effect in about a week or so, FYI.

[MissIntent]

@Alessan

It’s like saying that shooting at someone is OK, if you miss. “Attempted Murder” is apparently not a crime in this person’s book.

Quoted for truth, I love this example.

[Eonwe]

For those of you who say the parents of the kids and/or the kids are partially at fault based solely on the fact that the kids were on the road at all . . . seriously WTF!?!?

Whether or not you feel that midnight on a Sunday morning is an appropriate time for teens to be on the road, that has fuck all to do with the fact that an idiot came driving at them on the wrong side of the road!

People die on the streets all the time due to all sorts of reasons; where the fuck do you get off throwing blame at the parents just because you think that your perspective on teens and driving makes you a better parent?

[RickJay]

@Squink

Can we add people who talk on their cell phones while driving to that august body? Despite lacking the excuse of being stupefied by drugs, they too are incredibly dangerous to others.

How many traffic fatalities every year are caused by people talking on cell phones?

[villa]

@SmashTheState

To make this perfectly clear: punishing people for things they haven’t done is wrong. Driving drunk harms no one. Hitting someone while driving drunk harms people, and I do not approve of this. However, I also don’t approve of driving, period. I have never owned a car, and in my 40 years on this planet I’ve seen no need to learn how to drive. Driving is an ignorant, antisocial activity which harms other people. However, if driving is permitted, then we must also accept drunk driving, as the same rationale which permits driving (your convenience is more important than my life) also permits drunk driving.

I’m assuming you realize the conclusion of this is to get rid of all inchoate offenses. No “attempt” crimes at all. If the police stop you as you are driving to the Capitol in a truck with a home made nuke in the back, having sent a video tape to NBC News announcing your intention to blow up DC, then they pat you on the head and send you home. Actually - under your system, stopping them is problemmatic too. It’s a state invasion of the person’s autonomy before they have done anything wrong. They haven’t hurt anyone. The fact that you are pretty damn certain they are going to is irrelevant.

Conspiracy laws also disappear. You can plot and plan and participate in a crime to any extent, as long as you aren’t the trigger man.

[Squink]

@Eonwe

where the fuck do you get off throwing blame at the parents just because you think that your perspective on teens and driving makes you a better parent?

I get off on throwing blame at the parents because they bear some responsibility for the risky behaviors of their offspring.

[Southern_Yankee]

@Eonwe

For those of you who say the parents of the kids and/or the kids are partially at fault based solely on the fact that the kids were on the road at all . . . seriously WTF!?!?

Whether or not you feel that midnight on a Sunday morning is an appropriate time for teens to be on the road, that has fuck all to do with the fact that an idiot came driving at them on the wrong side of the road!

People die on the streets all the time due to all sorts of reasons; where the fuck do you get off throwing blame at the parents just because you think that your perspective on teens and driving makes you a better parent?

Exactly what I came in to say. This accident happened early in the morning, but people drive drunk all hours of the day. Those poor kids could just as easily have been hit at 4:00 in the afternoon.

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

@Southern_Yankee

Exactly what I came in to say. This accident happened early in the morning, but people drive drunk all hours of the day. Those poor kids could just as easily have been hit at 4:00 in the afternoon.

A much higher percentage of other vehicles on the road after midnight are being operated by drunk drivers.

@NinjaChick

Does the guy driving on the wrong side of the road and then was caught trying to leave the scene before the police arrived perhaps bear slightly more blame? Well, I’m not an expert, but I’m going to go ahead and say yes.

In fairness, the kids might have tried to leave the scene too, but they were dead.

[Squink]

@Southern_Yankee

Those poor kids could just as easily have been hit at 4:00 in the afternoon.

Ever heard of bar rush?
You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to know that people party harder and later on weekends.

[Jack_Batty]

@Squink

Parents who let their kids motor around at all hours need to accept that doing so puts the kids at risk.

Letting kids outside the house at noon on Sunday puts them at risk.

You make it sound like we have 5 little scofflaws who were thumbing there noses at The Man, as they drove down the highway … doing the speed limit … with their seatbelts on. Why, those evil little Bonnie Parkers!

Why the hell would anybody shit on the parents of these kids who did nothing wrong and got killed for it?

[Squink]

@Jack_Batty

Letting kids outside the house at noon on Sunday puts them at risk.

Yup, and the amount of risk changes with time. Parents should know that.

You make it sound like we have 5 little scofflaws…

No I don’t. That’s all arising in your own head. All I’ve said is that the parents bear some responsibility here.

[Southern_Yankee]

@Squink

Ever heard of bar rush?
You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to know that people party harder and later on weekends.

You also don’t need to be a rocket scientist to know that there are drunk drivers on the road every hour of the day. Drunks don’t just come out of bars, and they don’t all wait until dark to start drinking.

[Jack_Batty]

@Squink

All I’ve said is that the parents bear some responsibility here.

For allowing their children (who are legal to drive) to drive? Fuck that. The drunk guy who was driving on the wrong side of the road and who piled into them head-on bears ALL of the responsibility.

[Rysto]

@Squink

I get off on throwing blame at the parents because they bear some responsibility for the risky behaviors of their offspring.

Yeah, those kids were asking for it. :rolleyes:

[Squink]

@Jack_Batty

guy who was driving on the wrong side of the road and who piled into them head-on bears ALL of the responsibility.

Nope, the parents let their kids out at a risky time. No matter how anyone tries to deny it, the parents get to live with that for the rest of their lives.

[Jack_Batty]

This is the most fucked up case of “blame the victim” I’ve ever heard.

Squink. It was a fucking drunk driver. On the wrong side of the road. He killed them. And you blame their parents for not wrapping them up in a bubble and tucking them into bed at 7:00, right after The Wonderful World of Disney is over.

You’re fucked up, man.