Is this where I insert my famous line from college "Nothing is illegal until you get caught doing it!"?
To be honest, lets just sum this up by saying the following. There are TONS of laws out there, more than you know about unless you actually study your state publication annually, and we are ALL breaking some of them daily. Period, its a fact of life. So why is it that Firefly and I are "bad people" because we speed, we take the violation when we get it, then we use CURRENT ACCEPTED routes to not have to have either points taken OR have our insurance jacked out the freaking roof?
I mean lets just be honest for a minute, insurance can be a pretty dicey situation, (THIS IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING POINTED AT BOB), I pay out more than 800 bucks a month for Car, Bike, Home, Medical, Life, and Dental.
Of that, with my medical (total of 3700 a year) they pay NOTHING to me until I have cleared a 3000 dollar deductable, and then they pay 80% after that. (so I have to pay 6700 to make them pay anything).
Dental - Same as above but I think the deductible is 1500. and its less so it is more like 1800 a year before they pay.
Car - I had a fender bender in a parking lot at 15 cause someone else was going faster but we didnt get a police report so I ended up being at fault cause he got a lawyer and screwed me. My car didnt get fixed (because its 1500 bucks deductible and the damage is 985), his did because it was "my" fault. My insurance goes up. ( I have been a driver for 18 years, I currently have had 4 speeding tickets [none sent to insurance], and 4 wrecks only 1 of which was my fault)
Bike - No issues, however, is with the same company I have car insurance with, my insurance goes up.
Home - NEVER FILED A CLAIM EVER, OWNED 2 HOMES, over 10 years, same company with Bike / Car, insurance goes up.
So yea, even though I break some laws because I have vice's like everyone, and I can openly admit them, I am being chastized for being a liar and a not good person? Both times I have been in court I was 100% honest about the ticket, the speed and the last time I had a ticket.
I have also always been honest when I have been pulled over anywhere. And I have NEVER lied to a cop or made up some :cus: to get out of a violation. Given all that I always take the ventues they have to get what I need that is best to my situation. It results in the ABSOLUTE verification of the ORIGINAL topic of this tread. What happened there, and what we are talking about now is the simple fact that tickets and LEOs in many many towns are working to meet quotas for money for the city. I have a mother who has been a city secretary for a small town for over 20 years. The ENTIRE TOWN runs off the tickets they write. They dont write ANY tickets for anything until 15 mph over the speed limit, but a ticket in this town costs more than 240 bucks, regardless. Court or not, if you go around with the way you can to keep points off, it totals out at about 320 bucks, which you would save in less than a YEAR of increased other costs, not to mention points + lose of a license often result in job loss.
Regardless of where you sit, and how you view it, tickets are money for the municipality(I have no clue how to spell) they are written for. If you think all those tickets ever have a chance of actually improving roads, then you might live in a town where things are done better than they are in the south, because here, that is more than laughable. Tickets here, actually directly effect any paid officers ability to actually get paid. Think about that one for a while.
It doesnt matter than in this state it is ILLEGAL to use tickets as a pure source of revenue for a city, they do it anyway. So there you go, the cops are breaking laws in the same manner that we are (AT TIMES), and at times violating the rights of the people they stop.
Basically we are a society that is built on rules that have a good plan in place, but actually the issue is the people that enforce them. Things are always fantastic on paper and then immediately flawed in their attempt to be implemented. Insurance is the same way, its a great idea, but its application is shady and unfun at best. The same with the chemical industry I work in, we make SUPER FREAKING deadly stuff, that if we didnt have, you couldnt drink the freaking water.
Welcome to catch 22 we made for ourselves, and then we started busting out some loop holes like crazy to get it to fit the applications we actually have. All systems created by man are inherently flawed. Because man is inherently flawed, and basically nothing is unbiased. Its just how it is. I would like to think that we could reach an agreement in the middle somewhere, but we wont. Some people are dedicated to the fact that the system works, and that we should all adhere to it, yet somewhere in another venue they usually circumvent another system that I might not. That is just life, and the way it works.
I respect everyone that has weighed in here, and I appreciate the different views that you have. All that being said, I am still gonna be speeding at times, and I will still have a drink and be below the legal limit and drive. That is me, and that is how I roll.
I am sure in this thread I have alienated people that might have thought up to this point I was an ok guy, and I am sorry if that is how you feel and I think you deserve to have your opinion, however, I am insulted and enraged if you believe that I am not intitled to my own. Much like the infringement of rights, I see all too often these days the internet become a place where people cannot civily disagree, and for some reason a country that was founded based on everyone having rights to an opinion has lead to place where people think that if you disagree with them that you are wrong and that it is UNACCEPTABLE and they will try to brow beat you into their perspective.
I know you might not like me now world of spyderlovers, but I still love all of you. So raise a glass (of whatever), kick some @$$ and lets ryde 'em like we stole 'em even though I would never do that... Cause its illegal...:joke:
