boo

I'd just like to say that traffic tickets for speeding are lame as all hell. I know the cops doing it are just doing their job, but it's just annoying that they have to go out there, watch 50-100 people drive by exceeding the speed limit by 8-14 mph and then jump up and ruin the day of the lucky driver who is going 16mph over. All so that the municipality can make some revenue. Don't kid me about safety. I was in a line of folks on the highway, with a guy in front of me and behind me, and trucks next to me, everyone's doing 55, and there's no room to pass. It's almost impossible to be going faster than the guy in front of me for more than a split-second as there's no room to pass and I've been following him for the past mile... but allegedly, I was going 61 for a second. 'You were overtaking him slightly' mr helpful officer says. Thanks....are you kidding me??? Do you really comprehend that everyone within 20 cars of the person you're ticketing was exceeding the speed limit, including at least 3 or 4 18-wheelers? Oh, but Hazelwood needs money, sure... and they'll get slightly more because of the twisted justice system in this country. Say it with me now kids... points on license bad, lawyers good. I knew you could.

Damn expensive night when I was just 10 minutes earlier feeling good about digging out of a $16 hole in poker and only ending up down $3 (lost on the last hand). Then Mr. $250 inconvenience fee throws on his lights and decides to ruin my evening. And I'm cheap by nature, so that's a lot of cash and it hurts. I held off on buying some dragon books for my son last night because I wasn't really thrilled at paying $17 for shipping for the 5 books...even if I was getting them all at half price or better. Sigh...try to save $17 and then life comes along and kicks you in the ---- for a few hundred.

Yes, I'm in a bad mood now. I think Ice-T said it best. Nod your head if you get that reference.

And for the record, yes I exceed the speed limit sometimes, while driving both safely and attentively, but it's really annoying to get a ticket when I'm actually behaving. Sigh. I guess it's the first installment of what my Mini dealer called the 'extra tax that I just write off to owning the car...' (He said he gets 5-6 tix a year... sadly I guess I'm used to getting one every 2 years or so.) Btw, another tip for you kids... if you bother to _get_ a radar detector and then only use it say 70% of the time you're out driving, well, you're just asking for it.

Drive safely. And by all means stay 10 miles over since they don't care about it. Hypocritical @$#*s.