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MA and RI Have Worst Drivers
By Matt Margolis | May 27, 2005
It comes as no surprise to me that Rhode Island drivers are the “worst in the country in knowing the rules of the road.” Massachusetts ranked next to last.
As far as my state, Massachusetts is concerned… What can you expect from a state that repeatedly reelected Ted Kennedy?
Topics: General |
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May 29th, 2005 at 6:58 am
The reason why those statistics about RI and MA are correct is that they have some of the oldest and most badly maintained roads that are constantly being upgraded or improved. Also, inclimate weather is a major factor. All of this causes constant change in road signs, congestions, and with detours. It’s difficult to know if your daily commute will change by the day and icy conditions also cause many accidents.
But, I suppose you’re just going to hate these places because these people have the common sense not to believe in the crap that the Bush administration is constantly piling onto us. How can you criticize an entire state? Are you that blinded?
On top of that, Mass. and RI have some of the finest educational facilities in the world. Ted Kennedy, although as flawed as any politician, is constantly fighting to make retired people’s lives better and has had the cajones to stand up to neocon bullying. Why do you hate smart people so much? Why do you follow such a tyrant?
May 29th, 2005 at 9:02 am
I would say you’re partially right about the raods Jay, but the study I quoted discussed knowing of the rules of the road.
Second, this post was not meant to be political. I happen to live in Massachusetts, and over the years I’ve had plenty of friends from Rhode Island. This had nothing to do with politics Jay.
If you want to make this about politics, then I can just say back to you that as a lifelong resident of Mass, with accesss the the finest educational facilities in the world, why is it that I’m so much smarter than everyone else? I have an undergraduate degree in an engineering technology field, and I’m in the process of finishing my masters degree… in a Massachusetts educational institution. I had no intention to make this about politics… if you want to, bring it on… you’re not going to win that argument.
May 29th, 2005 at 9:32 am
You are in fact, not smarter than everyone else for several reasons. I am smarter than you, at least politically.
You voted for a tyrant. I did not. You support him with a silly blog that blindly follows everything that he says. I do not. You support an unjust, illegal war. I do not. You believe that opinions other than your own, valid or not, are incorrect. I do not.
Seems open and shut to me. By even creating this blog, you are doing a tremendous disservice to ideals such as truth, freedom, and justice. For shame.
May 29th, 2005 at 9:36 am
BTW- you made the argument political by including Ted Kennedy and his glorious reelection in your original entry. I did not.
May 29th, 2005 at 11:34 am
You are in fact, not smarter than everyone else for several reasons. I am smarter than you, at least politically.
Political views are not a measure of intelligence.
You voted for a tyrant.
GWB was democratically elected. You supported a tyrant by opposing the war in iraq.
You support him with a silly blog that blindly follows everything that he says.
I actually disagree with Bush a number of issues… immigration being the big one.
You support an unjust, illegal war.
Which Congress approved. Which freed millions of people. Which took a brutal dictator out of power.
You believe that opinions other than your own, valid or not, are incorrect. I do not.
You’re the one who accused me of being not as smart as you for being conservative… So I wouldn’t try to claim the high road here buddy.
By even creating this blog, you are doing a tremendous disservice to ideals such as truth, freedom, and justice.
Oh please… you are ridiculous. You are a sad blind liberal partisan… you call me a blind follower of Bush, but you seem to be a blind opposer of Bush… but i guess that’s okay right???
pathetic.
May 29th, 2005 at 11:35 am
BTW- you made the argument political by including Ted Kennedy and his glorious reelection in your original entry. I did not.
That was a reference to his driving record, not his politics.
May 29th, 2005 at 11:08 pm
JayW - I wonder if the incredibly corrupt Big Dig has anything to do with the lack of money for roads in Mass.? You would think that such smart people would have figured these things out. They seem to have a handle on it in sunny Maine and Tropical New Hampshire.
Do us all a favor and reread your posts while you scan for mindless liberal groupthink and hatred. You actually come across as pretty uneducated and ignorant. The points you make are usually pointless unsubstantiated labels preceded by derogatory adjectives. Oh wait, there’s MY degree showing. Let me rephrase that in terms you’ll understand – na na na woo woo, your parties a bunch of losers.
May 30th, 2005 at 12:14 am
Matt and Kahn-
If I weren’t so eager to be disposed of the current regime in America, I suppose that I wouldn’t waste my time arguing with you, but here I am anyway.
Matt, you told me to “bring it on” and claimed to be smart in your original entry. I responded.
Sure, political thought is one measure of intelligence because it forces one to make a decision based on the information that he/she has been given and then that decision has a direct affect on the future of politics. If one makes the wrong decision, as you so obviously have, then the future is, for lack of a better word, screwed.
You voted for a tyrant. Even tyrants can be democratically elected. The process doesn’t mean that the man won’t be evil. Bush is evil. Your hypocrisy seems to know no bounds when it comes to attacks on the “left” after everything the GOP is doing to limit our own freedom (Patriot Act), disregard our environment and natural resources (opposing the Kyoto Protocol, drilling for oil on an Alaskan natural Preserve) and pandering to the Christian groups that oppose abortion and commonly held scientific evidence on evolution(while at the same time promote capital punishment?). Oh yes, let’s not forget that Bush is still in bed with the Saudis, who he would normally ask us to hate because of their actions as a dispicable theocratical oligarchy that limits what? That’s right, freedoms. Especially for women and minorities.
The war in Iraq is unjust and illegal. Simply because a GOP dominated congress, still struggling with the horrors of 9/11, allowed the war in Iraq DOES NOT MAKE IT RIGHT. America does not hold the moral righteousness of the world in its hands. To love America is to understand this, lest we fall like Rome once did.
Thousands of Americans are dying. The world community is condemning us, and justly so, and new groups that hate us and now plotting against us. We invaded a SOVEREIGN based on a pack of lies. This was an evil agenda, through and through. Iraq did not declare war on us. Iraqi people are not free because we have brought civil war upon them. Ask the Iraqi soldiers who die every day if they are free. Ask the people of Baghdad if they are free, you fools.
Next, I am not a blind opposer of Bush. I have seen what is happening from the outside, seen the affect that Bush is having on the world. Yes, he is powerful, but many leaders have been in love with their powerlust before they fell from the wrath that they caused others to feel. Bush is acting selfishly and unilaterally, and therefore so are you for supporting such a tyrant.
I am an American, from North Carolina, and I have the right to say that things are going wrong and I’m disgusted with the lack of opposition to our President. 9/11 does not give us the right to carte blanche around the world.
I am far from pathetic. I am right. The burden is upon you to prove your candidate has become the right leader and he has already failed the world.
Disgusting. How do you sleep at ngiht?
May 30th, 2005 at 12:20 am
Kahn-
The last part of your most recent entry proved how immature you are. Nevermind that Liberalism is not a dirty word (from the same root as Liberty- remember what that was like?). It represents a move toward freedom and away from oppression and there is nothing wrong with that.
The typical neocon sheep, such as you, believes that winning proves righteousness. How foolish. Winning simply means, in this case, that a majority of scared people, who normally don’t even follow politics most of the time, listened to the garbage spin and fear tactics, and voted badly.
You were one of them. When the parties dissolve and centrism rules, you will not have the last laugh and you will sit and think, “Well, this used to be fun when it was red versus blue, just like a game, and my team was winning.” Your Bush doll crushing the Kerry doll suddenly won’t seem as important on the world stage.
Get over yourself and your bungling leadership.
May 30th, 2005 at 8:42 am
JayW, your rant only proves your ignorance.
You are entitled to you own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts. Based on your beliefs, one political ideology is smarter than the other. Of course, it’s only coincidence that “smarter” ideology is the one you align yourself with.
If Bush is a tyrant, leave the country. IF your freedoms are so trampled, you are only doing yourself a favor by leaving. President Bush has liberated millions of people, your labelling him a tyrant is because you disagree with him only.
You attack Bush for being Christian, and at the same time you accuse him, a God fearing man, of being evil. You may no sense.
Next, Kyoto… If Kyoto was so great, why did the Senate vote 95-0 opposing it? Why didn’t Clinton get our coutnry to ratify it? Why? I’ll tell you, because clearly you don’t know anything about the treaty. The treaty exempted some of the fastest developing countries, such as China and India. It would have devestated our economy while those exempt countries would have benefited substantially.
ANWR… the local people support drilling. the area of exploration is a tiny fraction of the entrie refuge, and it is barren tundra. Drilling in ABWR would also create thousands of jobs in every state.
Next, abortion. If you think you’re smarter because you believe killing unborn children is okay, then you have problems. The fact remains that the number of people who support unrestricted access to abortion is decreasing. Even the Democratic party is trying to moderate their public views on abortion…
the Iraq war.. both houses of Congress approved it… Democrats and Republicans… Five other countries and the U.N. agreed Saddam had WMD… the countries that opposed the war all had secret oils with Saddam (this is widely known, you should be aware of this) In a post-9/11 world if you want to take the word of an evil tyrant over the intelligence of 5 different countries then I have to wonder whose side you are really on.
JayW, you are sad, pathetic, and you suffer from delusions of grandeur. You attempt to convince yourself that your views are correct by suggesting that your political views make you smarter. As I said before, you are entitlted to your own opinion, not your own facts, and the facts do not support your conclusions. You are a blind Bush opposer because you’ve clearly ignored facts in order to come to conclusions that fit your ideology.
I imagine we disagree on most things, but ideology and intelligence are not related.
That being said, your illogical rant does tell me you are neither smart, nor are you tolerant of people with whom you disagree.
May 30th, 2005 at 4:16 pm
JayW - They don’t have humor on your planet do they? You are truly a sad and angry person.
Your continued reference to the President as a tyrant is ignorant and you misreading of the legality of the war is equally so. There is no such thing as political party in the actual vote in Congress. A majority is a majority. But - using your standards of votes controlled by the G.O.P. being illegal for starting wars - I’ll let Jefferson Davis know you now support the Confederacy.
May 30th, 2005 at 11:31 pm
Matt-
You started the smart thing by claiming that you had some. I was playing along, but I will say that I have the intelligence to remove myself from the ideology that will destroy our country- the dangerous ideology of the right. George Santiago said that those who do not learn from the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. I fear that you fit in here.
I align myself with rights-based beliefs. This is necessarily good because we all believe in the dignity and sovereignty of human life and culture (but Bush and his cronies do not, I’ll get to that in a second). If I have this belief system, then I can simply act as the antithesis to those who work to take it away. I have the moral high ground, because even you wouldn’t say that liberty is wrong (I hope). This is not pomposity, just assuredness.
As a matter of fact, I did leave the country. I’ve been gone since May 2000, but publish a magazine aimed at getting the word out about GOP misdoings. I know your facts and your statistics, but find you misled. And if I had stayed, I could act to change things for the good. The beauty of America is that we have free speech, so you can stay if you disgree- but you should do something to affect change.
Bush is Christian, and also eveil. Simple hypocrisy. Yes, my arguments make sense. Not all Christians are good. A tyrant is defined as a ruler unrestrained by law. Wow, isn’t that perfect? W broke international law (Congress is not the only legislative body in the world, brother), pissed off our allies (who are not anti-American necessarily, example: if I had friends who saw that I was about to do something cataclysmically awful, I would want them to say, “Hey Jay, don’t do that!” Lesson: good friends tell you when you are about to f$%k up.) and then enacted the Patriot Act (unrestrained because of 9/11!) that allowed illegal searches into people’s privacy without much reason. I thought that the GOP was anti-big government! More like pro-Big Brother. Such a tyrant, Bush is. Orwell would certainly agree.
We used to be the biggest supporters of the UN, until it came time to break the rules that we helped write because Bush wanted to create a bigger empire under the banner of FREEDOM. What a whitewash.
This is the simple and unquestionable fact: Bush and his team created a foreign policy called pre-emptive warfare. This means that a country can strike without being militarily provoked. They said they had good reasons: WMD.
My argument is twofold: A nation should never invade another sovereign nation based on the notion that pre-emptive attacks are justified. They are not. The US has Nukes, but no one invades us for it! And we are the only ones who have ever used them in combat! Also,secondly, THE ONLY REASON GIVEN FOR INVADING IRAQ WAS WMD AND THERE WEREN’T ANY IN IRAQ. There’s no way to get past that fact, Matt.
Call me sad and pathetic, but I’m actually quite happy, thanks. You may be projecting, but I don’t know you well enough to say so.
America is a great and wonderful place with plenty of promise. We deserve better than this administration and the silly people and their silly blogs that support it.
May 30th, 2005 at 11:35 pm
Kahn-
Here it is. You’re angry at your father. Most feel this way at your age. You’ll get over it, in time.
See, I have a sense of humor!
Umm, I don’t care what Congress voted for. I disagree with their vote. They aided the President, at a dangerous time, to break international law and ruin our good name in the international community.
Why do you persist in thinking that the US is the center of the universe?
May 31st, 2005 at 4:43 pm
JayW - Calm down, take one of your Prozac’s, and get a life. Most of your post is mindless rant. Are you Al Gore?
June 1st, 2005 at 12:55 am
Kahn-
Great response. Very intelligent discourse. Hey, don’t bother to read what I wrote, just call it a mindless rant because you refuse to listen to reason.
June 1st, 2005 at 7:14 am
But I did read it - did you? This is a blog about the poor driving skills in R.I. and MA. Rememeber that? These are the same ultra-liberal people who vote the only senator to have killed a passenger while driving over and over again. Matt drew a connection. You go on rants.
You are typical of your vile hate filled party. What did you say in this blog (or was it the other)? Was it along the lines of “I don’t care about you facts and figures.” Typical.
June 2nd, 2005 at 8:54 pm
Wow, I am surprised at all of you. Behaving like children. How did we go from driving records to abortions and war? Being that the Christian “god” gave humans the right to choose and this country was founded on the same right to make your own decisions; it includes the men and woman who CHOSE to die in iraq, the men and women who CHOSE to vote for either presidential candidate, the men and women who CHOSE that abortion is right for them, or the men and women who CHOSE to have 12 kids and live on welfare. CHOICE is what “god” and this country are all about, so why argue about it?? Live and let live, die and let die, its the CHOICE of the person walking in those shoes, not the people around them. If we cant allow our fellow americans make our own choices, what separates us from the terrorists, forcing their people to live a certain way…..THINK ABOUT THAT!
June 2nd, 2005 at 9:05 pm
Nope, you’re all wrong…we here in Des Moines, Iowa have a saying that “…having a licence in Polk County is a licence to drive like an idiot…”
February 24th, 2006 at 8:17 pm
The reason the discussion about MA/RI drivers turned into a discussion about every other thing under the sun is because MA/RI drivers are so ashamed (and rightly so) about their driving abilities that they need to grasp at straws to find any excuse to dodge the topic. Here’s a message to all MA/RI drivers (mainly, but for anyone else who might not know):
The LEFT LANE is called the PASSING LANE. It is used to PASS other vehicles. If you are not PASSING someone and are in the left lane…GET THE HELL OUT OF THE LEFT LANE!
If you ARE in the LEFT LANE and ARE passing someone, but you’re only going ONE MPH FASTER THAN THEM, and it seems like instead of PASSING them, you’re just kinda….you know, HANGING OUT NEXT TO THEM!?!?!?! Why not just go 65 instead of 66, and get the fuck OUT of the left lane, so that the people who are REALLY passing them, can do so.
The FAR RIGHT LANE is the BREAKDOWN LANE, and is NOT ACTUALLY A LANE. It isn’t your personal “bypass the traffic jam lane because I’m so damn important and where I have to go is more urgent than anyone else” LANE!!!
If you are making any kind of turn…and WOW this one is kind of a stumper, but all you MA/RI morons try to hang with me here…theres this thing called a TURN SIGNAL. It is just the NEATEST little gadget. What it does is alert the people around you that you are going to be making a turn, BEFORE you slam on your brakes and veer onto another road. This “blinker” as some call it, is to be used BEFORE YOU TURN!! Not AS you’re turning, as if you’re just using it because “you have to” or because “it’s the law”. No, use it because I don’t want to drive into your backseat. Fuckin really simple huh?
Don’t blame your bad driving on road conditions - and speaking of the condition of your roads (which is absolutely awful) - MA/RI has more toll booths than any state I’ve been in. Wheeeeere does the money from these tolls actually GO?! Obviously not to road maintenance as it’s supposed to. I’m from CT (whose drivers are only marginally better from my experience) and our roads are maintained so much better than MA/RI. And there’s not one Toll booth in the entire state.
GO FIGURE!
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February 7th, 2007 at 10:30 pm
To Joshua Brown, OMG!! There is someone out there with a brain!! I couldn’t agree with you more…. RI has to have to the most ignorant, clueless retards on the road. No turn signals and driving in the left lane are my biggest peeves too! And flash your lights or give up and pass on the right what happens? Yep, YOU get the finger! I live in CT. and have been driving to work in RI for 26 years. These are the skills needed to drive in RI…You can be the only car on an empty streach of highway and guarr. some asshole will wait till you are just about to pass em before they’ll pull out right in front of you…If on a multiple lane highway, garr. they’ll be the same number of cars going the same speed side by side…A 4-way stop is a major clusterfuck! Either everybody goes at the same time or they all sit there with their thumbs up their asses…Yield means either “Stop” or “go fast and cut everyone off”…..Merging on or off a highway is something you close your eyes while doing. Don’t even think of looking first, this could damage the neck….and while you are refusing to get the hell out of the left lane, make sure you cut off all cars 20″ before your exit. When YOU decide to move over, everyone else will gladly slam on their brakes for you!… And NEVER ever touch that thing sticking out of the left side of your steering wheel! You could very badly strain your left hand…The cell phone is your #1 concern! Make sure you are even more oblivious then usual while talking on it…The rearview mirror is strickly for your nose picking enjoyment, not to acutally become aware of what is around you…Any garbage(yes, that includes cigerette butts!)go out the window….Never drive with your headlights on in rain, snow or fog. Somebody might actually be able to see you…If you see a “no parking” sign, park there!….If lost, make sure you stop in the MIDDLE of the road, while you look around and say “duhhhhh” and scratch yer brainless head. The 10 cars behind you will be happy to wait all day and if anyone gets impateint and “honks” give the finger & honk right back!…No such thing as a 3 point turn. It’s more like a 27 point turn….If behind a school on a multiple lane road, stay off to the left but don’t pass the bus once it’s moving. That way nobody else can pass the bus and everyone can stop every 10 feet when the bus does….When on the highway, drive in packs….Oh, and allways hit the brakes for absolutly NO reason! Every 50′ or so is good or when a leaf falls out of a tree or the wind blows etc…If following a slow vehicle, never pass when it is legal and safe. Just continue to ride yer brakes and stare at the bumper in front of you….that’s it, fingers getting tired.