Scruit

I've had guns in the house all the time my son has been alive. They are locked up or on my hip. Problem solved.

Didn't see where it said the bike was turning into the same driveway...

Does the marine know any of this yet, or is he being kept in the dark?

Great. Now I want a radar in my car so I can see planes.

We headed up 71 to Cleveland on Sunday. As soon as I got in the freeway a pickup started riding my butt. I figured with it being Memorial weekend I didn't want to be the fastest on the road. I pulled over and let him past, then keep a pace with him with a 3-second following distance. Told my wife; "He's the Rabbit". 30 minutes of making good time later we crested a hill and saw a local cop in a grey Charger running laser. Both myself and the pickup in front of me saw the cop at the same time, but it was too late for him. 81mph is what his ticket should read.

10tv is reporting that this was a fatal accident: http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/2012/05/29/columbus-man-killed-motorcycle-crash.html

Aren't these different accidents?

Hey now... I used to live next door to Don Scott, and work next door to Bolton Field. Back when the north outerbelt was 2 lanes. I used to joke i shoudl fly to work instead of drive.

Let's recap the police aresenal, in decereasing order of speed of incapacitation. Taser: Less-lethal. People have died subsequent to its use from falls, pre-existing heart conditions, excited delerium, or potentially a direct cause that has not yet been scientifically established. When it works it is the quickest incapacitation. AR-15, Shotgun: Almsot certainly lethal. Considered deadly-force. People have survived being shot but your odds and crappy. MP5/, sidearm: Very likely to be lethal. Considered deadly-force. More likely to survive than a rifle/shotgun, but your odds are still crappy. Rubber bullets/baton rounds: Less-lethal, but can kill, especially if struck in the head. Pepperball gun: Less lethal. Possibly lethal if struck in the eye? Poentially lethal to asthmatics? Pepper spray (Oleoresin Capsicum): Less lethal, but has been linked to deaths and at least one miscarriage I can find - but haven't seen any solid proof of. Asp/baton/truncheon/Large Maglite when used as a club: Less-lethal, but can cause death. Beanbag shotgun round: Less lethal - but has been citied as responsible for about one death per year since their introduction. Adoption is much less than taser so deaths may rise with adoption. Fist fight/grappling/groundfighting: Less lethal, but people have dies from falling/hitting head, being punched or kicked too hard, or after being choked out. Can cause long-term injuries. So, the only weapon an officer has that WILL NOT kill you is his voice. The fastest incapacitation typically comes with the greatest risk of death. Except for the taser - fastest incapacitation, extremely low risk of death. Considering both speed of effectivenes and risk of death,the taser is the best, if it works. I'd love to know what the death ratio is of the taser (number of shots first versus number of people who subsequently died) versus a gun.

Sure, and fighting skills might have worked. Staying in his car might have worked. "Good evening Sir, I'm with the neighborhood watch. Do you live around here or are you visiting someone?" might have worked. By carrying a gun, having no other less-lethal weapon and having no fighting skills Zimmerman contends was left in a situation where the only way to end the attack by Martin was to shoot him. There is a huge difference (in the reasonableness of the method of defensive) between fighting back unarmed against your attacker versus shooting your attacker. That's like having only two hammers in your toolbox - a tiny one for driving tacks and a huge sledgehammer. When it comes time to drive in a roofing nail the small one won't work and the sledgehammer will leave a hole in your roof. I think that if a neighborhood watch member is going to "patrol" their neighborhood (which is OK by me) they they need to be be able to use different levels of force, not be forced to choose between hand-to-hand or hand-grenade. They certainly also need training in conflict resolution, de-escalation and how to effectively communicate.

Can you image how different this all would have turned out if Zimmerman had used taser instead of a gun? Not saying we should sell our guns for tasers... Just thinking out loud. The moment they invent a weapon that instantly immobilizes like a taser (when it works) without doing any injuries (except for those resulting fall and pre-existing medical conditions) but can be fired multiple times in rapid succession... I will stop carrying my handgun.

A grab is violence. Physical assault. If I walk up to you and ask what you are doing in the area then you cannot respond by attacking me. How does this relate to the Martin/Zimmerman case? Do you have evidence that suggests Zimmerman grabbed Martin?

Don't care who initiated contact. I care who started the violence.

Not opinion - police report. Also: http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/autopsy-results-show-trayvon-martin-had-injuries-h/nN6gs/

Zimmerman had no offensive injuries, and his face was beaten / broken nose / black eyes. Martin had offensive injures (knuckles from punching) and no injuries other than being shot.

It said everything the legal-thinking folks here have said since day 1. - Murder 2 is such a high charge it will never stick - Seating a jury will be almost impossible - death threats have been received by Zimmerman, his family and attorneys. Nobody wants to eb an the jury that acquitted Zimmerman - That the analyst believes that the Z will be found not guilty, or even the charges will be dismissed. - The prosecutor's decision to charge at all is in direct conflict with the information available to her - potentially creating ethical/political questions about the decision to file. - The prosecutor's affidavit to the court contained key information that the prosecutor's office either had no proof of and no way to back up (That Trayvon was "profiled") and was missing key exculpatory evidence (That the physical evidence all lines up with Zimmerman's story) - The omission of exculpatory evidence in the court filings is, in the opinion of the analyst in the video, was intentional and illegal. - That the prosecutor is taking sides - openly. She stated in the charging press release that she was seeking justice for Trayvon. Her officer is supposed to seek justice for all. She allegedly ignored and withheld evidence that showed that the charges against Zimmerman were an injustice on Zimmerman. - That people complaining that Zimmerman was not arrested were misinformed - Zimmerman WAS arrested (we all saw the cctv from the police station and debated the apparent lack of head wounds). He was released soon after. Once state investigators got involved and charged Zimmerman he was arrested again, but released soon after. - That Zimmerman was originally recommended for a manslaughter charge for not avoiding the situation (poor basis for a charge, but whatever). The analyst in the video noted that the police originally stated Manslaughter, then upon more evidence they released him without charge (they already knew the extent of Z's injuries and how they were consistent with his story - evidence the prosecutor had but did not disclose to the court). After the prosecutor got involved suddenly it became a murder 2 - a charge that could only be supported by the very worst version of events that the Martin camp could imagine - a version that they are backing off (they now accept martin was attacking Zimmerman, but they said he had a right to because he was being followed by a man with a gun, but evidence does not support that Martin was aware of the gun, consistent with Zimmerman's statement that the gun only came into play once Z was pinned) - The prosecutor has raised everyone's expectations so high that when he's acquitted that there are likely to be riots that dawrf LA/Rodney King. This is becuase the media and prosecutors waged such an anti-Zimmerman war at first that they whipped the country into a frenzy - and now all that anger has to go somewhere once the judge cashes the prosecutor's reality check. Likely it will go into anti-zimmerman, anti-white, anti-hispanic riots. - MY OPINION: That the witness changing their stories after national attention is a case of nobody wanting to be the witness that got Zimmerman aquitted. Too many death threats circulating. Basically, this story is saying that the prosecutor should never have charged Zimmerman.

The ideal merge is zipper-style - one car from each lane. How would we design signage that would achieve this?

You are right - I mean opinion-based... subjective.

Objectively. Cop, judge, jury.

The slowdown is a red light beyond the choke point. The choke is not the bottleneck in this case. Beyond the choke point cars slow down even more.

If you sit there with your turn signal on and it';s safe for you to change lanes but your don't change lanes, then I'd make the argument case that you were stopped or moving unreasonably slowly. The law doesn't make any distinction between movement within a lane or movement between lanes. Any time you fail to proceed even though it is safe, you are impeding traffic.

Because Bush never promised to fund a near-zero emissions coal-fired power plant to product hydrogen an electricity and capture carbon emissions... and then withdraw the funding in December 2008. no, never.

I have a fire extinguisher in every room and my son learned to use one at age 6 (with instructions that he only use one on a fire that was stopping him getting out the house) I knew a guy who's house set on fire becuase a crack opened up in the chimney liner and embers made is through to the back of the wood siding. My older brother and I nearly died as babies because of a grease fire in the kitchen - the house partially collapsed and we were rescued by the fire department. I once used a flame weeder which apparently kicked up an ember into one of the railroad ties that border my driveway. 6 hours later, after two hours of rain, that ember (fueled by the creosote in the wood) set fire to the bush. I noteiced it within two minutes and used up 4 fire extinguishers keeping the flames low enough that we could get a water house out to it. They're always a good idea to have around because you never know when you need them. Nothing may happen for years and then eventually something may happen. You're either going to be ready or potentially injured or killed. Better to have and nod need, then need and not have. Did you notice when I switched over and started talking about guns again?

By merging too early the single lane backup is twice and long as it needs to be. This creates additional disruption for people who want to join the backup form a sidestreet (if the backup is in the closest lane then you can't even get out onto the main road - if the backup is in the furthest lane then you get "stranded" in the open lane and anyone ahead of you sees you as impatient and won't let you in). The backup also impedes and creates danger for other drivers who aren't part of the backup - i.e cars going the other direction and want to turn left through the tailback into a sidestreet. There's many reasons not to merge a mile in advance. Not many arguments in favor of leaving a mile of unused lane.