12-14-2011, 01:06 AM
It seems like every time I'm at the supermarket, somebody is chatting on a phone and just wandering around distracted, totally oblivious to their surroundings. They'll walk right in front of people, walk right in front of people pushing carts. They shuffle along in a straight line until they hit an obstacle, and then they turn either 90 or 180 degrees and shuffle off. They're like zombies, or Roombas, so I call them Zombas. The woman with three kids in the cart and another one hanging off the front and yet another child running ahead and pulling a box of twinkies off the shelf? She's distracted, but she's still present. She's navigating the store. She's not wandering in some dreamy mental landscape of distant ghosts.
Talking on a cell phone is a distraction, and it should be illegal while driving. Here in CA, it's a ticket, but no points on your record. That's absurd. Anybody saying "X is also distracting" is missing the point. We don't legalize heroin because alcohol is legal.
Remember when terrorists killed 3,000 people ten years ago? 400,000 Americans have died in car crashes since then.
Talking on a cell phone is a distraction, and it should be illegal while driving. Here in CA, it's a ticket, but no points on your record. That's absurd. Anybody saying "X is also distracting" is missing the point. We don't legalize heroin because alcohol is legal.
Remember when terrorists killed 3,000 people ten years ago? 400,000 Americans have died in car crashes since then.