Senseless and Stupid

[echnidna]

When I go past the hotted up commode in me old valiant ute.
At the next few sets of lights just keep abreast of him.
When I get sick of foolin around just sink me foot hard.
Reckon theres been a few flash commodes (and fords) gone in for tuneups and rebuilds.

[jackiew]

What exactly is his motivation?

Impress other road users? Impress females? Is it adrenaline? Establishing manhood?

never having been a young man I couldn't say but having (once upon a time) been a young woman I can only remember thinking "what a w*****r". I suspect that they are trying to get attention any way they can - its a way of shouting "look at me" in the same way that toddlers want you to watch them walk along the top of a wall for the nth time.

And lets face it if you are young, haven't got much money, aren't good looking, don't have a fantastic personality no-one is going to be paying you any attention at all. I'm always bemused by young men who shout rude things out of car windows at me in the street I always want to ask "why are you shouting at me - no-one else cares about your opinions why should I be any different".

Maybe we should have a series of tv adverts where young and attractive women discuss boy-racers in less than complimentary terms.

[LineLefty]

Maybe we should have a series of tv adverts where young and attractive women discuss boy-racers in less than complimentary terms.

Thats not such a bad idea you know. When I was in high school we had to do a story board design for an anti smoking ad.

Basically, two girls were in the toilets discussing some hot guy and doing their best to spruce up their makeup and perfurm etc, they were also smoking. To cut a long story short, she ended up almost kissing the guy ecept he simply said. "you stink".

I think if you could get the message across that chicks think you're a wnka then you might be getting somewhere.

[namtrak]

Australian Bureau of Statistics Mortality Atlas

Age Standardised Death Rates (deaths per
100,000 persons)

Cause Males Females
Malignant Neoplasms 237.8 146.7
Ischaemic Heart Disease 190.0 119.9
Cerebrovascular diseases 65.8 65.8
Chronic lower respiratory diseases 46.6 23.2
Diabetes mellitus 18.8 13.6
Influenza and pneumonia 13.4 11.4
Accidents 35.6 17.7
Motor vehicle traffic accidents 13.1 5.5
Intentional self harm (suicide) 21.9 5.5
Organic, including symptomatic, mental disorders 9.3 10.8


I know its an old chestnut, but for those old fogies/woodies before you/we run off on the car crusade, maybe we should lose a few kilos, slap some sunscreen on, put that beer down and leave the next cigarette alone!!! And if we are depressed - maybe go down to the pub and drink some rasberry to minimise our personal problems!!!

Cheers

[bitingmidge]

Malignant Neoplasms 237.8

The new V8 Turbo Mitsubishi sports car eh??

Cheers,

P

[namtrak]

Originally Posted by namtrak
Malignant Neoplasms 237.8



The new V8 Turbo Mitsubishi sports car eh??

Cheers,

P

Actually in hindsight I think it might refer to angry people who watch too many repeats of the Matrix on big screen TV's?

[DanP]

Where do I start? Just came across this thread and I find it to be interesting reading. Not the people dying bit, the discussion.

I think the idea of a curfew is rediculous for several reasons. Many young people work shift work at servos, supermarkets, fast food outlets, etc. There goes their job if you impose a curfew. Also, if you limit their driving, they will play up more in the hours they are allowed to drive and do you tink for a moment that the ones who are willing to drive at 180 km/h will pay attention to a curfew?

Video games - are you kidding?

High Powered vehicles. I work in an area where the kids are mostly bought their cars by their parents. I'm not talking about the datto 120Y either, Skylines, hotted up Lancers, SS Commodores, WRX's. You name it. P platers in Victoria are power limited to 125 kilowatts per ton. When I got to the area I wanted to knock off a few of these kids in their rockets but VicRoads hasn't issued a restricted vehicles list since 1999. All of their cars are newer than that so they are still driving cars way too powerful for them. I think the idea of power restriction is a good one but 125kw/ton is too much. It should be reduced to 100 kw and motorbikes should be at the very most, 125cc.

Lefty, you should come and see the 'culture' that is in this town. Roll your seat right back, sub woofers in the back, crank the stereo up till you can hear it a kilometre away (not kidding) and do laps around town in convoy. These kids must do 100+ laps of a small country town on a friday night. Must cost them a fortune in fuel, but all the chicks get to see them and everyone else gets to see their hot car. You hit the nail right on the head. In fact, most of them can't even tell you why they've just driven past you for the fifteenth time in ten minutes.

I actually drive faster now than I ever did. I've been trained to do it though. I think we should stop teaching kids how to get their licence and start teaching them how to drive. Skid pan training should be a must. P platers should have governors set at 115 km/h on their cars.

Silent, In answer to your concerns for your own son. You will not be with him every minute. Trust that you have brought him up the right way and that he knows what is safe and what is not.

All kids will speed at some time and for as long as cars are under the control of a human driver we WILL have fatal accidents on the road.

Dan

[Zed]

as long as we have petrol, cars, testosterone, good looking birds to impress, peer group pressure etc people will die on the roads.

the unfortunate thing is that sometimes not just the wank@r in the driver seat dies.

The only answer (Preparing to be flamed) is to make modification of cars illegal, confiscate cars, rip up liscence and not let people drive until they are 65!

Man, I remember my first car I shoulda died a couple of times over.... sometimes darwin candidates dont get thier lotto numbers drawn eh ? ever seem the lucky wildebeast on that nature show that had no tail, limped, only one horn and a grey muzzle ?

[Peter R]

After todays revelations in the press it puts a larger, far-reaching concept on the loss of these three lives.
The lad was not allowed to drive this car. His father had told him it was off- limits and yet the lad sneaked the car out to die and kill in it.
I raised the issue of standards in another thread. Ken Moroney raised the issue of standards afterwards in the press and here again is an issue of standards.
If this lad had taken a gun, belonging to his father, and shot two people and himself he would be guilty of murder/suicide and his father would be charged with not securing a fire arm.
I am not suggesting that the parent should be charged with owning this car or for not ensuring that it was immobolised when he was not around, but I am suggesting that through the confusing standards that abound in society, society is culpable.
The legislators are not able to point to their own standards as the idealistic way to live in society so they just follow the dictates of the do-gooders, the greenies and the civil libbers who all have a different set of standards, have different agendas and no real solution to the problems that abound in society.
It is no good applying the standards of yesterday to todays youth, things have changed dramatically, there is little respect for parents or for elders coming from the youth of the day.
The words from 'Dan" are words of wisdom and words from a person on the front line, but it needs more - Permanent loss of license for any P plater caught speeding 30k over the limit anywhere. Much better than permanent loss of life for speeding.
Nothing will change until there is sufficient deterrent to, at least, take the rat-bag off the road one way or the other.
The Civil Libbers will say that everyone has the right to drive a car, but I say I have the right drive a car and live.
Sorry, folks, it really gets up my nose when lily-livered politicions will not legislate to save lives.
Peter R.

[silentC]

When I posted this yesterday, I was motivated more by a feeling I get from time to time about my kids. I probably empathise too much with what it must feel like when you get that four o'clock knock. The feeling that there's nothing you can do, he/she is gone and wont be coming back. That must be very hard to deal with.

I know there is no easy solution to the problem. As Namtrak points out, there are plenty of other ways they're more likely to go, although I'd like to see an age-group breakdown of those stats.

I know what I was like when I was that age and I know how I'd have felt if anyone tried to stop me from driving. It's hard to think of a solution that is not going to discriminate against individuals or cost a heap of money. Maybe it's just going to be a fact of life. Part of the balance. A lot of kids used to die during birth or not make it to adulthood. That's a lot rarer these days, so maybe this is just compensation for that. I don't know.

[barnsey]

PeterR makes a good point

"It is no good applying the standards of yesterday to todays youth, things have changed dramatically, there is little respect for parents or for elders coming from the youth of the day."

If I'd stolen my fathers car, I'd wouldn't have been able to sit for the first week of the grounding I'd received. The do gooders now call that "abuse", but it was a brilliant deterrent

Then I see in todays press an article on the effects of video games - another of the must have entertainment items for kids these days - stating in their opinion the games were teaching children to be shooters and not respect anyone :mad:

So we have a generation that has no respect for anyone? anything? If you look at the change society has gone through and the results today and try and think where it will be in another 50 - f@#$%&g scary. :eek:

There's a lot to be said about "spare the cane or spoil the child" - not that I necessarilly advocate corporal punishment but a disciplined approach is something I believe is required to avoid total anarchy. If that means greater fines/penalties so be it however that is just a small part of it, seems to me culture is way off the rails.

Jamie

[TassieKiwi]

I think that that if namtrak had those stats for 17-25 yr old males, the highest cause for males would be suicide, followed by auto accidents.

I've done a bit of reading (Iron John by Robert Bly, and Manhood by Steve Biddulph ..an aussie) and there is a groundswell of thinking that points toward a lack of a)mentoring from older males 'other' than dad, and b) a lack of any formal initiation of a young man into 'manhood', as a key scource of this ubiquitous anti social/self harming/violent behaviour by young men.

Some quotes from the book:

The result of this lack of male contact [for boys] is a problem we are all aware of: that in today's world, little boys just grow into bigger little boys. These emotional children in adult bodies then spend their lives pretending. The loneliness of this and the confusion - not knowing how to be comfortable with one's feelings or how to be close to others just makes the pretending more compulsive and more isolating. The loneliness of men is something women rarely understand."
"Good friends [at times of relationship crisis] will listen to you talk about your problems but they also have fun, take you 'up the bush', eat, cook and play. They will also - when the time is right - point out that it's time you got back to your family and sorted things out. It's as if male friends and elders bathe your wounds, refresh you, give you a hug and then throw you back into the ring!"

Chec it out:www.certifiedmale.org/wint95/manhood.htm

and maybe :www.manhood.com.au/

Couple this with the over 50% of homes without any dad or other father figure around, things get even more messy, as the teens then look to other teens for direction, and lookout - Lord of the Flies in every town.

Is it time for us to stop excpecting 'them' to sort it out, and maybe take a grasp of the beast ourselves? Form metoring groups, offer to help with the neighbouring single mum, whatever. Maybe it could save lives, and make a difference.

End of rave.

[HappyHammer]

Is it time for us to stop excpecting 'them' to sort it out, and maybe take a grasp of the beast ourselves? Form metoring groups, offer to help with the neighbouring single mum, whatever. Maybe it could save lives, and make a difference.

I like this suggestion, I had an uncle that I used for this when I had things I "couldn't" speak to my Dad about. Fortunately my uncle is a pretty good bloke and steered me in the right direction without making any decisions for me. I had a lot of respect for my uncle and when he confirmed points of view my Dad had I listened. Unfortunately for my Dad he didn't have the time to explain the background to every piece of guidance he gave us and was unaware of which ones we latched onto, enter my uncle.

I'd be happy to do this and have a mentor for my son, you can manufacture this relationship without your kids knowing as well to ensure they get a good mentor.

HH.

[barnsey]

All my Dad's mates were "uncle" to me - that was the respect I was taught to treat them with!

They would take me to the footy, one even took me to father & son night coz Dad was out of town. But back then there was a real sense of community and the kids all played cricket & footy together on the street in front of our houses.

Don't know about you guys but city life these days you're flat out getting a wave from neighbours much less knowing their names. Kids get driven to and from school and I haven't had to wait while kids take the wicket/fruitbox/rubbish bin off the road for longer than I can remember. Community is insular and polarised - not sure that is good.

Mentoring - a fine idea but with the community as insular as it is it's hard to know whether you should trust school teachers who don't even need to hold a Blue Card. You would want to be pretty sure whoever is organising mentors that they are capable and screen every potential mentor. After all they are all fine upstanding citizens until the freaks get caught - or at least in the society in general.

Where will we be in 50 years??? :confused:

[Zed]

I dont want to offend anyone but :

this is all well and good - the facts remain :

a very stupid individual removed himself from the gene pool.

According the the news he also took with him a 15 year old girl who was 7 months pregnant and the 30 old year (approx) man who made her that way. under the laws of nsw shagging a 15 year old is against the law and makes the 30 yr old a peodofile...

for the best ?

what a depressing topic!