I guess I should come clean

I'm not really a youth anymore so I changed the name of my blog from Disenfranchised Youth to Just Disenfranchised. I don't know if you ever consider yourself as a youth, it's mostly older folks that just consider you as a youth, 'cause when you are an actual youth you consider only those younger than yourself to be youth.

Wow, could that be any more confusing? At any rate, there are a number of things I feel somewhat disconnected from or, oh what's the word I'm looking for . . . how about Disenfranchised! Yea, that's it - I'm Just Disenfranchised.

I often feel like I don't fit in with groups, I'm too old to hang with the younger generation (although I still enjoy most of those "younger" activities and music) and I'm too active to hang with the older generation . . .

I don't know anything about wine and I don't like jazz. I'd rather ride my skateboard or bike in an empty swimming pool while listening to Rise Against than fill it up and sit beside the pool drinking some "hoiti-toiti" french wine. When in Paris, I'm more interested in street food than shopping for wine or clothes.

I don't have kids and have no interest in having them in the future. Often times I will be in the store purchasing a pair of skateboard pads or a batting glove to use at the batting cages to swat a few pitches and the sales person (usually some 20 something kid) will ask "Is this for your kids" and I say, "no, it's for me." I sure love the expression on the persons face when that happens! God forbid someone MY age should be buying a skateboard or a cellphone that plays MP3's.

Here are some issues I'd like to address: (in no particular order)

People suck, in fact the more people I meet, the more I like my dog! (and I don't even have a dog)

Noam Chomsky says that the war in Iraq is not about access, or profit it's about control, and if you think about it, that makes sense. We (the US) don't care if the Middle Eastern countries give us access to all their oil, we want CONTROL of it all! Boy are we a long way from achieving that!

My parents suck

Young pricks with that "entitlement" attitude suck

Customer Service sucks

Gas prices suck

The economy sucks

The war on the middle class

Most fast food sucks

I'm not sure what else to bitch and moan about right now so I'll just leave my post at that and figure I'll address these items in future posts.

Until Next Time

I guess it just needs to be said

OK, so here is the setup:

ATLANTA - A small college in Ohio was thrown into mourning Friday after a bus carrying the school’s baseball team tumbled over the side of a highway overpass and slammed onto the pavement 30 feet below, killing four students and the husband-and-wife drivers.

The team from the close-knit, Mennonite-affiliated Bluffton University was making its annual spring trip to Florida before daybreak when the charter bus crashed, scattering bags of baseball equipment across the road and splattering blood on the overpass. Some of the athletes climbed out the roof escape hatch, dazed and bloody.

CNN ran a show titled Tragic Journey in which they talked about the confusing nature of the exit/HOV lane where the bus crashed and how if Motorcoaches had seat belts and more secure side windows passengers wouldn't be ejected (ejection is the leading cause of injury and/or death in Motorcoach accidents). The program continued with interviews from team members on the bus about their sad ordeal and grieving parents of the players that lost their lives . . . and yes it is tragic when someone is killed in an accident, especially young college students, but . . .

It must have taken 15 or 20 minutes for the program to get to the real culprit of this tragic accident, Tickle Me Elmo! No, that's not it, I just wanted see if you were paying attention. I'm guessing it was the bus driver. When the bus driver got into uncharted territory why didn't he slow down? If he saw a road sign that was not familiar to him, again why didn't he slow down? It was reported that this wasn't the first time this gentleman had piloted a Motorcoach like this one filled with the team to it's Florida spring baseball tournament.

I have no idea what the real reasons are, but I believe a contributing factor is what I'll call the "Fear Factor" effect. People watch shows like Fear Factor and see regular people flipping cars and doing dangerous stunts and never get hurt, so they assume there is no danger or assume no responsibility for the lives of either the other drivers around them and/or their passengers.

In MOST places in the good ole' US of A we drive 5 to 10 mph OVER the speed limit and when the speed limit on the highway away from the city center is 75 mph that means MOST drivers are driving anywhere between 75 and 85 mph, dang that's fast. When driving at 75 mph things happen pretty quickly.

So let's say the Motorcoach driver was driving at 65 mph, or even 60 mph what is the distance in feet it would take the bus to stop given its fully loaded state?

Assuming reaction time and brake application causing skid marks on the roadway we can determine at what point the driver applied the brakes to stop the bus, right. Well yes in theory, however the bus driver would have HAD to apply the brakes . . . Yep, that's right NO skid marks were found, the driver thought he could make the turn? OK, a Motorcoach doing say 50 mph making a 90 degree right hand turn, with NO indications on the roadway that the driver tried to slow that big ole' bus down?

What exactly happened here?

Someone needs to step up and take responsibility (like the driver) I know, I know it's sad that he and his wife passed on in the accident, but in the end isn't HE responsible for his passengers?

On the lighter side of things

For some reason the news media thinks Anna Nicole Smith deserves it's full and undivided attention. After all she cured cancer, stopped world hunger and single handily saved the world from the scourge of dumb blond jokes!

Remember way, way back when she was the Guess Jeans Model? (you know before the Anna Nicole Show, where we heard her speak and realized she gave creed to the dumb blond jokes) I know it's poor form to speak ill of the dead, but please let her sole rest and move on to the "next big thing."