Driving me crazy

I'm driving to work this morning half awake as usual wondering why traffic is moving about 40 miles an hour slower than the posted speed limit. There are so many cars on the road. I wonder how many of them are stuck in traffic stressing out about being late for work like me. There are a lot of out of state license plates this morning and I wonder what brings then here. I have nothing against travellers, but I really do question their need to be driving on unfamiliar roads in the middle of rush hour traffic.

Same with the elderly people who, in their last attempt to hold onto their independence, refuse to relinquish their license even when reflexes and vision issues clearly warrant it. You can usually find them haphazardly careening in and out of traffic driving 45 mph in the left lane of the highway. I am not sure what is so urgent that these people feel compelled to jeopardize their own lives and the lives of others by driving in a Mr. Magoo like fashion during the heaviest traffic of the day. Maybe they ran out of Depends or canned prunes, which I can almost understand, but stilll. Another half an hour and the roads would be almost clear.

The real kicker is that elderly people get all sorts of breaks on their car insurance rates. Probably because of the strong AARP lobby. It is really sad because elderly people are in the news more and more in the past few years when they "accidentally hit the gas pedal instead of the break, oh dear!", or get "confused" and get onto a divided highway going in the wrong direction, or end up driving down a crowded sidewalk mowing down anyone in their wake. This is just another example of how modern health and science has allowed our bodies to continue function long after the mind has ceased to.

How many more people need to die before someone puts together legislation to get keys out of the hands of those who are clearly no longer fit to drive. Age discrimination? Well, it's age discrimination not to let 5 year olds vote then, or drink for that matter. Is age discrimination only not considered age discrimination when those being discriminated against can't do anything about it? I never saw a rally composed of angry 5 year olds marching in the street because of faulty lids on their juice cups. Actually, come to think of it, the insurance industry has discriminated against those under 25 for years saying their are statistically worse drivers so they are allowed to charge them more. Maybe that's true, but I'm pretty the elderly are also in the same category, so why do they get discounts? It's sort of funny... College students get screwed but they don't care because they are too busy with school and partying to organize and make noise, whereas I am sure the AARP would raise holy hell if insurance companies tried to raise the premiums for older drivers. See how that works? Whoever can't or doesn't make noise, get the proverbial shaft.