Why I can't be president and bad drivers.

In response to Stepner's column (who takes everything I say completely out of context, although he does it brilliantly), I'll clarify what I was saying. I was just postulating that I could never be elected president for 2 main reasons. This is assuming that the political climate in 40 years would be such that a first generation American and a woman would not be an unreasonable nomination for the presidency. I don't think this is an implausible assumption since Arnold is the Governator and I think he would get a strong showing of support should he try to run for President (and should they change the Constitution to allow him to do so). And that is in 4 years. So in 40 years, perhaps a woman and a non-white first generation American would also be strongly supported. It could happen.

But those are two qualities which I can't really change. There are two things that I can change, but have chosen not to, but which speak of my general character and which I think greatly impede any chance I may have to win the Presidency (not that I want it, I'm just speculating about what career options I have). The first is that I'm not religious. I was born into a very devout Catholic family, but the religion didn't quite take for me. Currently, I'm more of an agnostic than anything else, the generally-confused agnostic brand, not the we-can't-ever-know-so-who-cares agnosticism. While this could change, I don't see it happening in the foreseeable future unless I have some sort of miraculous experience where I see the face of God on my toast. I just doubt the American people would want someone to run the country who does not look to some higher authority for moral principles. In other words, if I'm not religious, my moral code is created only by myself. And although I can guarantee that is it not evil, no one has a reason to believe me.

The other quality is that I have no record of military service. Now I suppose I could change this by enlisting in the military now, but I really don't want to. I definitely appreciate our soldiers, but I'm too physically wimpy to be a soldier type, plus I'm scared of guns. I think the nation is much better off with me being in away from our tanks or subs or fighter jets, not that I don't have the mental capacity to command the armed forces, but physically speaking, I'm just not that soldierly. Although there have been past presidents who have not served in the military (like Clinton), I think that this one combined with being non-religious and having parents who immigrated, works against me. If I had served in the military, then people would be more forgiving of the other two, perhaps even completely ignoring it.

Anyway, so that's my thoughts on that.

On to the next topic. I love driving but I have never been more scared of driving in my life than when I was driving through the Northeast, particularly in New York and New Jersey, and sometimes DC. People who drive up there are crazy and this confirms that:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/AUTOS/05/26/drivers_study/index.html
also, look at this for a state-by-state account:
http://money.cnn.com/2005/05/27/Autos/test_scores/index.htm

NY, NJ, and DC are all in the worst six states for dumb drivers. And I know what you guys are thinking: Florida is bad too so I shouldn't complain. Our drivers aren't as crazy aggressive as the NY and NJ drivers though. I don't feel like everyone surrounding me is trying to drive me off the road in Florida. Although when I was driving home from NC two weeks ago, when I was driving through Jacksonville, FL, there was this psycho driver behind me who looks like she was falling asleep. She was half out of her lane and she was way up in my tail, although there was plenty of space around me so she could have just passed me. For about 20 minutes, she was doing all sorts of crazy maneuvering and it seems like all the other drivers around me also noticed her craziness and so were trying to give her room too. As I was thinking to myself that Florida did indeed also have crazy drivers, I noticed her plates were actually from NY. Not only are NYers driving crazy in their state, they are also coming to FL to show our drivers all their crazy moves!

NC drivers are comparatively pretty safe, as the study shows, and I have to say that I find driving in NC to be the most pleasant experience. Except when I'm on 15-501 and I have only 8 miles to go and it takes me 30 minutes because of all the damn traffic lights. But in terms of other NC drivers, everyone seems to be pretty chill on the roads. I guess it goes along with the relaxed Southern attitude which applies to everything, even driving. Ok, that's enough ranting for me. I got to prepare for the all-weekend bachelorette party I'm going to today.