I'm currently in the midst of looking for a used car, and I've come to a realization. Corporations are annoying. I've been looking at vehicles and car insurance online, just trying to see what I could fit in my budget and what insurance would be best and inexpensive.. Most of these companies require you give them a phone number and email before they will even quote you. I don't even have a car yet, but my phone is ringing off the hook from insurance companies. I keep telling them that I was just checking, and that I don't yet have a vehicle, but they keep calling. I've stopped answering my phone if it isn't a local number, but they still keep calling. Ugh. I don't look forward to changing my phone number again.
I've been considering a car, but maybe I'll just get a bike. Problem with that is that our town has a very high number of car/bicycle accidents because no one looks where they are going. I'm really timid on the road when I'm on a bike. I don't really want to get squashed. Winter is coming, and biking to school doesn't work well on ice. If I do choose a car, I want a very small one, preferably a reliable one with a manual transmission. Perhaps even a hybrid, if I can swing the cost. Most of the time I ride the bus, but the route that goes by my apartment stops after 7 p.m., and I have a class that goes past 8. I'm really not looking forward to walking home, alone, in the dark and cold. It's at least a thirty minute walk as well, which I suppose isn't too bad, except for walking past the "rough part" of town (meaning the multiple bars all clumped together, a lot of bad stuff happens right there). Walking isn't exactly the greatest form of exercise for me either. I'm so clumsy that I fall often without ice; I can't even imagine how many times I'm going to bust my butt this winter.
I hate how buying environmentally conscious products costs so much more. It doesn't even make sense.
Anyway, if you have any ideas or advice on what you think I should do, shoot me an email. I may not be answering my phone, but I do check those. :)
On to the news.
-- A group called the Protest and Assembly Rights Project is giving police officers something to answer to. The group has put together documentation of over a hundred instances of excessive force and other misconduct by police, compiled since September of last year. Police are not responding to the group's allegations, except to say that their actions were lawful, while Occupiers gave them no cooperation or notice of their events. The first link gives a general overview of what the group has been doing. The second link provides 14 specific instances of police misconduct, taken straight from their report. (Be sure to take the time to read the second link. It made me outraged, even though I had actually both heard and seen video of many of these events previously.)
-- Remember that post I did the other day about the clown annoying police in Seattle? Well, MyNorthwest.com is linking it to the Colorado shootings, saying that the clown protester went too far in the wake of the tragedy. The problem is, it happened on the same day (although they never say that, and make it seem as if it happened more recently), and it could be that the protester did not actually know about the shooting at the time. (I didn't know it happened until I checked the news.) That isn't stopping this article from blasting the demonstration, calling it "suspect at best."
-- Things are not getting better in Anaheim. Not long after the shooting that caused protests from the community, another man was shot and killed by police. Yesterday, five people were arrested after a protest went wild, with businesses having windows broken and rocks and water bottles being thrown. One person was taken to the hospital. Over 600 people came out to protest the shootings. There have been five officer involved shooting deaths in Anaheim this year alone. (In unconfirmed news, Anonymous has come out to say that the shooting victims' families have been being harassed by police.)
***Solidarity***
To contact me, email elvishbutterfly@hotmail.com. Thanks.
No comments:
Post a Comment