Only in America?

[Earthquake923]

I just read that a woman in California was pulled over and arrested for having nine people crammed into a car. She put 4 kids in the back seat, an adult in the front seat with a child on their lap, and 2 kids in the TRUNK. No one was wearing seatbelts(Of course in the trunk you can't). She was on her way to her sister's house 60 mile away.

It's things like this that makes me wonder if America has the monopoly on idiots. It just seems like when I read about these things it's unfortunatly americans. Don't get me wrong I love this country, but WTF. People need to use their brains.
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[Sophita]

Oh, trust me, Americans don't have the monopoly of stupidity. Everyone else has their share of idiots, too, they just don't get as much attention. Though America does have a very long standing traditional stance of antiintellectualism in certain circles....

It probably says something, though, that my first thought was "Dude, that truck had a trunk?" I've never seen one with one, but then I've only seen about 10 trucks in my life and I don't really need one, so I don't pay attention to them.

I have to wonder why she didn't just take the bus. That's what I do if I've got to go a decently long distance and do so with more people that would fit in my car. A bus ticket isn't that expensive (at least in my parts of the united states). Or a train, really, if that's an option. And since gas prices are getting ever higher, it's not like it costs much less to ride around.

Honestly, public transportation is very undervalued, I think. I've never had a bad time on the Subway/train/bus; can't figure out why anyone would want to drive when someone else can do it for you. The only distinct disadvantage I can find it that it locks you into a schedule - you've got to be at the train station by whatever time the train leaves, and if you're late, you can't just take a couple short cuts or speed up or what not.
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[Exile]

Of course America doesn't have a monopoly, god you think you're the best at everything don't you?! :P

I know a few people who have gone home in trunks before from parties because they didn't have a lift, not quite as dense as putting kids in the back but pretty dumb all the same.

Edit: Typo
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[sybillious]

of course not, but we do specialize in making our idiocy newsworthy: last night, i caught a news snippet about a woman who put her son in the trunk of her car while she was at work, but this one has a tragic twist-he died from spending 16 hours locked in during a hot day. this one definitely qualifies for sterilization... :evil:
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[Tron Bonne]

this reminds me of a something my granfather says: "God must like stupid people, because he sure did make a lot of them!"

seriously, though, alomost every day on the news there is some story about someome who did something stupid. i remember a story from 2 years ago that an asian man was angry with his wife, so to teach her a lesson he cut of his.... "appendage" and ate it. :shock:

and there was that one recently about the lady that sued the Wendy's resturant because she claimed to have found a finger in some chili. only no one at resturant or the precessing plant was minus one finger.....
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[Scarlet Assassin]

Sophita are you from Washington D.C? Because that's the only place I've ever been that had a non-craptacular subway system. New York subways make me want to crawl up in a ball and puke.

but anyway, yeah, us Americans are dumb. But there was that German guy who shot one of his students for getting a question wrong, that's fairly idiotic in my book.
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[Admiral Ackbar]

Americans do not have a monopoly on stupidity. We just embrace it.
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[Arenegeth]

No it's not a privilege of Americans believe me where I'm at people are really stupid.

Is just that Americans seems to excel at it (not meant to be offensive here made opinion from all I seen on TV so don't flame or anything) and get more coverage as someone else said.
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[St. Ajora]

One would think it's only in america because you hear about so much crap happening down there, that doesn't seem to be publisized anywhere else.

[Tonberry]

It's not nice to stereotype, but there ARE a lot of idiots here. I can think of many, but I don't want to start with politics. :P

I find that there are also a lot of really smart people too. You just have to know where to look.

[Tron Bonne]

[Starslasher]

After reading your description, Earthquake, letm e tell you that it has happened before. I should know, i was in a situation like that! We were supposed to all go into one car, my friends and i, in a birthday party. But there was not enough space for all of us to cram together, enven if we were stitting on one another's laps. So two friends of mine felt find with sitting in the open trunk, and we drove over the highway like that. It was done out of both necessity and stupidity and in Pakistan. So watch out, Americans, you got competition coming your way!
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[Arenegeth]

Well to make some Americans feel better I will describe something very stupid someone did over here a few years ago.

A local national TV journalist with his own weekly political talk show, bit the ear of another female journalist in front of his colleges because she said something to him that he didn't like (yes some trivial stuff), the bite left a mark though the ear wasn't cut or anything.

That said journalist lost his show and his job over this, and after all this years he just started to work as a reporter on TV again.

So don't feel bad there are stupid people everywhere.

I'll tell you more of the local stupidity if I remember anything more.
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"I am ye who walks his own path and thus I walk alone"

[Lunarblade]

The reason you hear more about this from America is because the public gets perverse pleasure in hearing about these stories around here, and thus whenever something does happen it gets huge publicity. Almost every paper in my area has a "wacky news" segment or something along that line. So I don't think it's a matter of monopoly on stupid actions as it is on media coverage.
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[Starslasher]