Random Rants 80: Computer Says No

[Synobun]

We're in the rants thread, so shouldn't that be whine?

That is the hilarious yolk I crafted with mine own two hands, yes.

Edit: My "o" key is misbehaving.

ooooooooooooooo

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Big rant: My mother's become a VERY dangerous driver, to the point where I'm afraid to go in the car. I've been trying to find a way to get her license taken away (preferably without getting a ticket, because we...can't really afford it) but I can't find anything. Apparently doctors can submit a referral but I don't think I can get her doctor alone.

 

[EnglishEdward]

How old is your mother?

 

[Birdjaguar]

Quitting smoking tobacco is a no-brainer. Other nicotine products aren't always as easy to motivate oneself to quit, due to the fewer health risks involved. Still, it's not great for you.

Needing Nicotine is a very difficult habit to break. Europe should probably sue Native American tribes for introducing it to their European conquerors. Reparations might be in order.

 

[tjs282]

We're in the rants thread, so shouldn't that be whine?

Are you angling for @Arakhor's position as CFCOT's Punmeister-in-Chief...?

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

How old is your mother?

A few years over 65, but from what I've found there's no restrictions due to age. (There's something about annual medical tests here, but I think that's for truck drivers and the like.) I've been documenting all the near-accidents she's had in the last few weeks (swerving to the wrong side of the road while screwing around with her cigarettes, doing 70 km/h in a 50 zone, randomly speeding up and slamming on the brakes before she nearly rear-ends other cars, almost hitting a pedestrian after forgetting to turn on the blinkers....oh yeah, and I'm a horrible person for pointing it out...) but I don't really know what to do with it.

While searching for the issue (preferably finding a way to report her anonymously to the RMV, because I really don't want to deal with the reprisal if she finds out), I found this article.

4) A concerned family or community member can report someone to the RMV, but without a history with the driver and enough information the department’s options are limited.

Someone's going to get hurt or worse.

 

[Snerk]

Needing Nicotine is a very difficult habit to break. Europe should probably sue Native American tribes for introducing it to their European conquerors. Reparations might be in order.

Tell me about it!

Funny thing about when tobacco was first introduced to Europe, it was said to be soothing and helpful for upper respiratory tract problems. Marketing gold

 

[Zkribbler]

Funny thing about when tobacco was first introduced to Europe, it was said to be soothing and helpful for upper respiratory tract problems. Marketing gold

I remembering seeing TV ads like that in the 1950's. I have a DVD compilation of the Jack Benny Show which I cannot watch because of its constant drumbeat to smoke cigarettes.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I have a young adult book from the late 1980s where the main character, who is 17, goes to a therapist every couple of chapters. And the therapist actually gives her cigarettes to smoke in the office.

 

[Takhisis]

Governments all over the US are rushing headlong into various vaping bans on effectively no evidence. A handful of people have died but uh.....thousands die every year from smoking and drinking and we aren't banning those things.

I support a ban on all forms of tobacco.
Not least because we're going to need a lot more cropland and instead of continuing deforestation we could just repurpose existing lands, but also simply as a matter of principle. The damn thing poisons its users, poisons the air I breathe and the water I drink, and it both directly and indirectly impoverishes people.
As for alcohol… I drink so little of it (only partially because of its co$t) that we could ban that, too, except that alcohol is used as a cleaning fluid, disinfectant, fuel, etc. and addicts would turn to that as a replacement; with tobacco you have no legitimate uses.

I read somewhere that if you stay quit long enough, you get most of your pre-smoking health back.

For some symptoms ‘long enough’ is 5, 10 or even 20 years from what I've read.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I've heard stories about severe alcoholics in rehab drinking the hand soap. They must be desperate.

 

[Zkribbler]

A ban on tobacco is not something I've yet considered. I'll have to give it a think-think.

Banning alcohol didn't work in the thirties.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Alcohol can be made pretty easily, i think. And out of a lot of things. Meanwhile, tobacco needs to be grown.

 

[Zkribbler]

Alcohol can be made pretty easily, i think. And out of a lot of things. Meanwhile, tobacco needs to be grown.

Comedian Shelley Berman's grandmother used to make alcohol in her bathtub for Al Capone.

When my older brother was in college, he made it in his apartment.

 

[Takhisis]

The cultural landscape was completely different back in the 1930s. People drank far more than today on a daily basis, drinking alcohol was a sign of manliness/adulthood, and except for cirrhosis people thought that drinking was a harmless vice. now we know better but we still allow massive advertising campaigns, sponsoring, billboards, you name it, all by spirits companies. We need a cultural change on that front because, as aimee says, alcohol can be made by fermenting almost anything, whereas tobacco needs to be cultivated in large quantities (unlike, say, a certain person I know IRL who happened to install a high-powered lamp in the bedroom closet and kept half a dozen hemp plants in there) so is easier to fight; also, tobacco's a far newer vice so it's not as ingrained a habit.

 

[Arakhor]

Just six months of not smoking is enough to clear your lungs and bloodstream.

 

[cardgame]

I left my car at work and took the bus home.

 

[Ajidica]

I left my car at work and took the bus home.

Is there a reason you didn't take your car home from work?
Also, I'll be honest, I didn't realize there was public transit in southern Idaho!

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I left my car at work and took the bus home.

For this to qualify as a rant there has to be more to it. So...

Did you forget that you drove until you were looking at the empty spot in the driveway? Yes, I've done that.
Did the car refuse to cooperate and force you to leave it behind? Yes, I've done that too.
Something else?

 

[cardgame]

Yeah, I forgot I drove to work this morning. Realized it like 5 minutes before my bus ride was over.