Wow, nice makin' up the rules!

Just a quick link to one of my favourite writers, Mark Morford, who is simply brilliant.

Sin 2.0

If you like this column, stick a live bookmark into your Links bar. Mark posts weekly.

Drunk Drivers: It IS a dead end road

Today I went with my daughter and about 15 other teens and a bunch of parents to stand with a friend who was very badly hurt - nearly killed - by a drunk driver on November 18th 2006.

Go here for the first installment and HERE for the next
More HERE and HERE.

I cannot begin to find words to describe sitting there listening to those people's vicitim impact statements.

I cannot imagine how one lives through a cop coming to one's door at 1 a.m. with a wallet and cell phone and the news that your child was killed by a drunk driver.

I cannot imagine how one lives through a child being in a coma for six weeks and that the rest of that child's life will be lived in a wheel chair or how one deals with the "what happens to my child when I'm gone?" part of that story.

I thought, for a second, that I felt sorry for the guy who killed Connor, so badly injured Mike Hagar and who's left John Broadbent with serious emotional scars.

Only for a second though.

See, as Mike's mom so eloquently stated, it is a priviledge to use mind-altering drugs. Along with that priviledge comes RESPONSIBILITY. That means if a person decides they're using alcohol to the point of imparment they have the RESPONSIBILITY to make sure no other person suffers from their drunken state.

The guy who killed Connor got drunk all by himself - he chose that state - but he did nothing at all to protect people.

And he killed a guy, maimed another for life and seriously damaged another guy. And two weeks after that, his FaceBook profile has, as his favourite activites, "Drinking."

And that's not it. Three families are directly, permanently and devastatingly affected.

A HUGE group of friends lost their innocence along with losing a really, really great friend.

A school's population was unalterably changed by this 'accident.'

So no, I don't feel sorry for the driver. He has serious problems. Rumour has it he'd had several previous charges for DWI - seven I've heard. ONE is too many.

Yes, he's going to do jail time. Yes, he's remorseful.

Yes, in a few years, he'll walk out of prison with a fully functioning body and mind. He'll get a job; he might have a wife and he might have children. Yes, he'll probably never forget.

But he'll have a life.

Mike? Unending boredom; loss of freedom entirely; loss of speaking ability; loss of mobility; loss of a best friend; loss of a business; loss of many friends, because they don't know what to say or how to act; probable loss of marriage prospects and children; loss of independence.

Connor. Dead.

Connor's family ...

John's family...

Nope. No sympathy for the driver. None. He deserves every second of suffering he endures because what he suffers will never, not in a million, billion years equal that of those who by no fault of their own, lost everything.

I wonder how much a taxi would have cost.....

Certainly not that many lives.

Religion sucks

Criminal negligence disguised as religion! If you're a right-winger, fundamentalist "christian," you can let your sick children die without fear of going to death row. Nice.

Girl Dies After Parents Pray for Healing Instead of Seeking Medical Help

By: John Amato on Thursday, March 27th, 2008 at 10:00 AM - PDT

This is so sad. I’m all for freedom of religion, but this didn’t have to happen.

An 11-year-old girl died after her parents prayed for healing rather than seek medical help for a treatable form of diabetes, police said Tuesday. Everest Metro Police Chief Dan Vergin said Madeline Neumann died Sunday.

“She got sicker and sicker until she was dead,” he said.

Vergin said an autopsy determined the girl died from diabetic ketoacidosis, an ailment that left her with too little insulin in her body, and she had probably been ill for about 30 days, suffering symptoms like nausea, vomiting, excessive thirst, loss of appetite and weakness. The girl’s parents, Dale and Leilani Neumann, attributed the death to “apparently they didn’t have enough faith,” the police chief said.

The family does not attend an organized church or participate in an organized religion, Vergin said. “They have a little Bible study of a few people.”

I hope this sends shock waves around the world to this type of community so it never happens again. I grieve for that little girl. Can you imagine the pain and suffering she was subjected to for thirty straight days?

Ah... so the rules only apply to everyone BUT you?

I see.

About 10 years ago, you ordered me, in no uncertain terms, to stay away from your family. As I'm decidedly uninterested in your weird, pathologically insular family, I happily complied and continue to do so.

However, despite 14 years having passed, you persist in contacting my family.

A fool is defined by his actions. As your choice of family members is two, bitter old women, it's an interesting, odd definition.... Like definitely attracts like. Ridiculous. Whatever do you hope to gain?

As for the guilty parties, you can protest all you want that you love your children, but your actions reveal another story. Why you continue to fraternize with a person who abused your child and your grandchildren is beyond comprehension.

You're all silly and you all deserve each other.