I'm not sure the phrase "running over" is accurately descriptive. "Striking," "hitting," or "running into" might be more appropriate. Your blurb had me wondering why the ex-school board member wasn't being arrested for murder.
In his joking, #6 brings up a fair point...since Georgia is a "Stand Your Ground" state, could the girl have legally shot the man dead who coming at her with a deadly weapon (the car)?
@5 - I can't decide which way this should be tweaked. Put Ronald Reagan's picture on it (or Jesus!), and the far right will have to publicly decry a coin featuring their god. Put Obama's own face on it, smirking smugly at the viewer, and the outrage could power the whole eastern seaboard. Put Uncle Pennybags on it, and it would just be goddamn hilarious.
@5 It would actually be a bad idea. The markets would have a complete meltdown, just because the optics imply that the country is monetarily lawless.
A better idea would be the Treasury/Executive Branch/President making the case that Congress already effectively raised the "debt ceiling" by approving budgets that require borrowing to effectuate. Congress can't have it both ways. They can't say "borrow money to pay for our spending" and "don't borrow money to pay for our spending" at the exact same time, referring to the exact same spending. So, if Congress brought the President to the Supreme Court to try to stop Treasury from issuing bonds without their explicit additional permission, they'd run into a) logic, b) reality, and c) the 14th Amendment. And, the markets wouldn't freak, because Congress clearly is still in control of spending, raising taxes and indirectly, borrowing.
@16: I don't know how tall the girl is, but I think the vehicle is some kind of SUV (does Lexus make an SUV?). The tire could have been tall enough to brush her thigh if she got sideswiped.
Oh, and @Goldy -- I see what you're saying about the state-run liquour distribution system, but the law we passed explicitly says that pot stores have to be dedicated, so we couldn't have combined them with the liquour stores anyway.
Regarding the "run over" girl, I just want to say for the record that you don't get to save a parking spot by standing on it. You can try, but as soon as someone calls your bluff and starts pulling in, a normal person concedes and gets the fuck out of the way. If you keep obstinately standing there trying to hold your ground, well...getting run over is the risk you take and your right to sympathy is greatly reduced.
@27: Also, the officer who responded and reviewed the surveillance tape said that the car "lurched" toward the girl, so it doesn't even sound like she had much of a chance to get out of the way. The local news reporter for WXIA ended his report by saying, "Remember, the pedestrian always has the right of way." Sounds like you need a reminder of that, yourself.
@27 and 28: Look, obviously you can't hit people with your car. All I'm saying is that blocking a parking space with your body is a cheeky maneuver, and while it's fine to try, the proper response to someone pulling into the space while you're standing there is not to hold your ground like you're staring down a tank in Tiananmen Square. Just concede the point and get out of the way. Parking spaces are for cars, not people.
In this specific instance, it's pretty hard to tell from the video who's at fault...the girl seems to kind of step into the path of the car. It's not even clear the driver knew she was trying to save the spot.
The story about the mass shooting in Switzerland has one real stand-out point for me. After the fellow started psychiatric care back in 2005, his known guns were confiscated and destroyed. There are no mechanisms for this in the U.S. and I'm sure that the NRA would oppose any such legislation.
@ 31, in parking lots, pedestrians always have the right of way. The girl has ZERO fault, regardless of what's happening. You don't pull quickly into spaces because there could be someone getting into one of the cars on either side, and you can't see clearly until you're going in.
You can allege that people shouldn't hold onto parking spaces in this manner, but there is NEVER any right on the part of the psycho behind the wheel who just has to have that spot and will run over a person for it. Jesus. She could have honked or done any number of things instead.
@27 I usually agree with your comments. I find them generally witty and insightful. Alas, dear virtual-friend, I think you must be under the weather today, because you're not your usual self.
Just because someone is in command of a 5000-lb motorized conveyance does not mean they are immune to laws regarding battery and assault. They're still a person, with no more rights than any other person.
@35: Calm down, man. I never said the driver has a "right" to run somebody over just because they're in the way of a parking spot. I just think a pedestrian is abusing the spirit behind "the pedestrian always has the right of way" when he or she purposefully blocks a parking spot with their body, and then stands there like an asshole after someone has made it clear they'd like to park there. A non-asshole would concede the spot.
So in short, while it's not cool to run over assholes, and assholes--no matter what--unquestionably maintain their right of way as pedestrians, I don't have a lot of sympathy for someone who gets nudged by a car strictly because of their aforementioned assholishness, even if they do have the right of way (and to be clear, the driver in this specific scenario, if she did indeed "lunge" straight into this girl without giving her a chance to get out of the way, is the asshole here).
@33 The NRA will say "See, they took ALL of his guns, and it didn't change anything.".
Nevertheless, I understand your point: Swissyland, the peaceable nation of Guntopia; even they choose to implement rational gun management laws.
As the article suggested, I also sought and read info on the prior 'big incident' in which a Swiss madman shot up a courthouse. The story said that it was followed by a national call for better gun management - defeated. The voters see their citizen 'army at large' as national defense. They consider it as the reason they weren't overtaken by Nazis.
My father in law expressed a similar sentiment as to why Japan never landed in (continental) America during WWII. Apparently, they were too afraid to even dare.
@37: Not under the weather, just being misinterpreted. I am not trying to say the driver shouldn't be legally at fault, and obviously you don't get to run people over, not for any reason (and to reiterate, nobody was "run over" in this specific situation). I'm just making a point about general courtesy, and the responsibility of pedestrians to use their right of way politely and intelligently. That might be a little much to ask out of a Georgian Wal Mart parking lot, but I'm an idealist that way.
@ 38, go back and re-read your comment @ 27. You're blaming the victim and defending the perpetrator's actions. Oh, you didn't say they have the right? You didn't have to. Hell, just your justification of "nudging" a pedestrian with a car tells everybody exactly where you're coming from. Yeah, that's absolutely as justified as honking, or rolling down the window and asking her to move. And you think you're standing up for general courtesy? Seriously? Asshole.
And you're also wrong about this incident. You either didn't watch the video, or your outsized rage at the girl blinded you to the obviously dangerous way the SUV accelerated at the girl. This was no "nudge." The driver was literally on the brakes just in time (like, hundredths of a second) to keep from seriously injuring the girl.
"Hit," "struck," "came into contact," "run over" - all these terms are interchangeable in a situation like this. Learn that, if nothing else.
Also, if you look at the video, there's an empty space a few spots back and to the left. The driver decided risking that girl's safety (and if the driver hadn't braked in time, the girl could have been seriously hurt) was better than backing up a few spaces.
If there was another empty parking space nearby, why was the girl so adamantly "saving" the one she was standing guard over? Walmart parking lots are huge. Lots of spaces. I can't see why anyone would stand in a parking space.
Unless maybe she dropped a contact lens and didn't want a car in the space before she found it. But that's unlikely to be the case here.
Also, car windshields are surprisingly bullet resistant.
Richard M. Nixon
The story I read about this yesterday also mentioned the police measuring the tire mark on the girl's pant leg at about mid to upper thigh level.
A better idea would be the Treasury/Executive Branch/President making the case that Congress already effectively raised the "debt ceiling" by approving budgets that require borrowing to effectuate. Congress can't have it both ways. They can't say "borrow money to pay for our spending" and "don't borrow money to pay for our spending" at the exact same time, referring to the exact same spending. So, if Congress brought the President to the Supreme Court to try to stop Treasury from issuing bonds without their explicit additional permission, they'd run into a) logic, b) reality, and c) the 14th Amendment. And, the markets wouldn't freak, because Congress clearly is still in control of spending, raising taxes and indirectly, borrowing.
http://13bankers.com/excerpt/
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-26…
from http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat…
Oh, it's more of a Mitt Economy than you know - most job creation is in high tech in Blue cities, the Red rural areas are not doing very well.
Oh, wait, it was the police.
In this specific instance, it's pretty hard to tell from the video who's at fault...the girl seems to kind of step into the path of the car. It's not even clear the driver knew she was trying to save the spot.
You can allege that people shouldn't hold onto parking spaces in this manner, but there is NEVER any right on the part of the psycho behind the wheel who just has to have that spot and will run over a person for it. Jesus. She could have honked or done any number of things instead.
Just because someone is in command of a 5000-lb motorized conveyance does not mean they are immune to laws regarding battery and assault. They're still a person, with no more rights than any other person.
So in short, while it's not cool to run over assholes, and assholes--no matter what--unquestionably maintain their right of way as pedestrians, I don't have a lot of sympathy for someone who gets nudged by a car strictly because of their aforementioned assholishness, even if they do have the right of way (and to be clear, the driver in this specific scenario, if she did indeed "lunge" straight into this girl without giving her a chance to get out of the way, is the asshole here).
Nevertheless, I understand your point: Swissyland, the peaceable nation of Guntopia; even they choose to implement rational gun management laws.
As the article suggested, I also sought and read info on the prior 'big incident' in which a Swiss madman shot up a courthouse. The story said that it was followed by a national call for better gun management - defeated. The voters see their citizen 'army at large' as national defense. They consider it as the reason they weren't overtaken by Nazis.
My father in law expressed a similar sentiment as to why Japan never landed in (continental) America during WWII. Apparently, they were too afraid to even dare.
And you're also wrong about this incident. You either didn't watch the video, or your outsized rage at the girl blinded you to the obviously dangerous way the SUV accelerated at the girl. This was no "nudge." The driver was literally on the brakes just in time (like, hundredths of a second) to keep from seriously injuring the girl.
"Hit," "struck," "came into contact," "run over" - all these terms are interchangeable in a situation like this. Learn that, if nothing else.
Also, if you look at the video, there's an empty space a few spots back and to the left. The driver decided risking that girl's safety (and if the driver hadn't braked in time, the girl could have been seriously hurt) was better than backing up a few spaces.
Unless maybe she dropped a contact lens and didn't want a car in the space before she found it. But that's unlikely to be the case here.
Anyway, if the driver thought it was worth driving to a pedestrian to get, it was probably worth saving.