President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

Up here, once someone turns 80, they have to go in every two years to retest and renew. I'm kind of shocked that such a thing doesn't exist in the US, or at least your state. I'm also kind of not shocked, because MURRICA.

 

I really can’t wait for robot cars to make this moot in 10 years. Saw one on the road in Phoenix last week

 

I read a story yesterday about the liquor and service industries cheering for autonomous vehicles. Made me think an unintended consequence might be that bars will get rowdier since more people won't have to worry about driving home.

 

Maybe. The rowdiest bar scenes are in cities and college towns, where people generally don't have to worry about driving home. But suburban and small town bar scenes are less rowdy not only due to the driving thing, but also because suburbs and small towns are less rowdy, generally.

 

I just decided to put all my money into car detailing services, because people are going to puke like crazy in their autonomous vehicles.

 

My post wasn't so much about the "rowdiest" bar scenes getting rowdier. It was more about the regular bar scenes becoming rowdy.

Also, lots of college towns require cars. Cities where residents already make use of good public transportation would obviously be less affected.

 

Then don't walk out. The smart thing was for schools to prepare for a mix of both.

This particular kid said he was in favor of stricter gun control regulations, but also gun education in schools. There is an intelligent debate to be had there, but the NRA makes it impossible. They fight the discussion at every turn, so even somebody who is theoretically on their side feels he can't express himself.

 

That's what I'm addressing, too. I'm saying that maybe they won't get that much rowdier, because those places generally don't contain the rowdy 21-25-year-old crowd that cities and college towns do.

I think what it would do on the positive ledger is lead to much rowdier married sex when neither person has to worry about driving home from dinner.

 

Hard to say because I live in a small college town, so my perspective is probably skewed. Spitballing a bit here, but a lot of those 21- to 25-year-olds don't worry about driving as it is because of Uber and Lyft. And they're already pretty rowdy. I'm wondering if the biggest "growth sector" for rowdiness might just be our generation, which has the money to purchase autonomous vehicles and may feel somewhat released from the shackles of responsible driving.

Speaking of Uber and Lyft, it would probably make for an interesting story for local papers (particularly in college towns such as mine) to gather police statistics and see if drunk driving arrests have gone down thanks to rideshare services. When I was in school, taxis were hard to come by and too expensive. Uber and Lyft have changed that equation around here. They're much more accessible, and they're so inexpensive, it's almost stupid to drive yourself to the bar anymore instead going out with three or four friends and pooling $2 each for a ride.

 

Of course you do. I never said you don't. There was a breezy quality to TF's first "Um, maybe you should talk to your dad about not driving anymore?" that rubbed me the wrong way. I didn't have this problem with my parents, thank god, but I had a patient who did. His father owned a good sized manufacturing company and was financially well off. He also had a very bad temper which worsened as he aged and became senile. He had three wrecks *after* they took his keys away. He got a locksmith to replace his "lost" keys and make a couple of extra copies. He hit a phone pole one time, sideswiped someone another, and I don't remember the third. No one was seriously hurt, although the father got pretty banged up twice. I don't recall all the details, but I think only one went through the insurance company. He paid for the other two out of pocket. He got thrown in jail briefly after the third crash because he was giving the cops hell afterwards. His license was pulled, not that would have stopped him.

It was a knock down, drag out fight. They got it done eventually, but it took hiring a guy who was basically a male sitter/nurse to drive him around, take him to the store, etc. Anytime the sitter left he'd pull a wire under the hood so that the cars would not start if he tried. That didn't last long as they sold both cars and he went to a nursing home shortly afterward.

The son had increasingly moved from helping run the company to managing it. The real nightmare was when the old man would show up at work and start telling people what to do, including going out on the factory floor and jumping on the workers there, complete with cursing and racially offensive language. He was eventually put in a nursing home because he was hugely difficult to deal with. Physically fairly healthy but Alzheimer's took his mind.

 

I joke with my son, who has his permit, that he's learning a skill he may not need in 10-20 years.