Uber sent me a ride request yesterday afternoon. When I arrived at the passenger’s location, a woman walked out of the house carrying a baby in a basket-style baby carrier. It did not look like an approved child safety seat. I didn’t see how it could be strapped into with a seatbelt. I didn’t see her child strapped into the carrier.
Maryland
Uber failed me by refusing to follow Maryland child safety seat law
I had an unpleasant experience Monday while driving for Uber. It involved Maryland’s child safety seat law and Uber’s refusal to support it.
Maryland child safety seat law applies to Uber and Lyft drivers
I thought that when you drove for Uber or Lyft, you were exempt from the law requiring young children to be in a child safety seat. Taxis are exempt from the Maryland child safety seat law. I was under the assumption that Maryland considered rideshare drivers to be like taxi drivers.
The national nightmare is now over, Chris Davis gets a hit
Baltimore Orioles slugger Chris Davis’ hitless streak is finally over. Davis hit a two-RBI single off of Boston Red Sox pitcher Rick Porcello yesterday in the first inning.
Prepare thyself for White Death 2018
The weather people are calling for some brutal winter weather today. The National Weather Service issued a Winter Storm Warning for all of Maryland:
Although I’m a fan of winter weather, I’m not a fan of sleet. It’s the centrist of winter weather. Sleet is not rain and it’s not snow. It’s an unholy, wishy-washy combination of the two.
Jarrod Ramos kills five at Annapolis newspaper
A lone gunman, Jarrod Ramos, 38, of Laurel, Maryland entered the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis armed with a shotgun and killed five people. Two other people were injured in the attack.
Ramos has evidently has had a long-standing grudge against the newspaper. In July of 2011, the paper mentioned Ramos by name in an article about a criminal harassment case against him. He tried to sue the paper in 2012 and being the loser that he is, lost the lawsuit. The two individuals named in his lawsuit no longer work for the newspaper and they were not present yesterday during the shooting.
The victims include:
- Gerald Fischman, columnist
- Rob Hiaasen, editor
- John McNamara, sports reporter
- Rebecca Smith, sales assistant
- Wendi Winters, reporter
We don’t have a gun problem, we have an asshole problem
A lot of people will be quick to say this was caused by the easy access to guns we have in this country. They say we should ban all guns. I don’t think we should do that. We don’t have a gun problem, we have an asshole problem. Take Ramos’ shotgun out the equation, he still wanted to murder five people he did not know, five people who had done him no harm. Three old men and three women.
Every mass shooting in this country has involved an asshole with a gun. Recent estimates say we have over 245 million guns in this country. Considering that number, if guns were the problem, mass shootings would be a much greater problem. We would experience multiple mass shootings each and every day.
Jarrod Ramos is a homicidal asshole
Until we have a way of removing homicidal assholes from society before they commit murder, I wish the government would make it easier for law-abiding citizens to arm themselves. My greatest fear is that I will end up in a gunfight without a gun. When I die, I don’t want it to be hiding under a desk. First of all, I don’t think I’d fit under a desk. Secondly, I don’t want to die as a helpless victim. If I have to die, I would at least like to know I went down fighting.
Currently, it’s very difficult to get a wear and carry license in Maryland. The most difficult hurdle is you have to demonstrate a valid reason to have such a license. Not wanting to die unarmed in a gunfight is not a valid reason.
If more law abiding citizens were armed, it might detur assholes like Jarrod Ramos from walking into a building and murdering people.