၍ᙡᗩᙢᙢᙦᖇᗠᗩᙢᒞ
26th June 2023, 05:04 AM
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
A recent news story reminded me of one of my own taxi rides. Let me stress that during my ride I never once had the slightest feeling of fear or confusion. Yet the ride was memorable because it occurred to me that another passenger might have thought he was being kidnapped.
I was in Central Bangkok and hopped in a taxi, asking to go to the Morchit Bus Station. Soon we were on the expressway heading North at high speed. Driver and I were chatting away like old friends, distracted, when I noticed we were well past the exit for the bus station. Driver laughed and said he'd take me to the Rangsit bus station (all northbound buses stop there) and that there'd be no charge at all since it was his blunder.
Going all the way to Rangsit would take him yet another 25 minutes out of his way. I "should" have been very suspicious, especially with the "no charge." I was a foreigner in a country some might view as dangerous. Was he going to rob me? Sell my kidneys? Why was he taking me all the way to Rangsit, when he could have turned off and just gone to my original Bangkok destination?
Despite my undiagnosed autism(?) I think I'm a pretty good judge of character, and not for one instant did I consider that something might be wrong.
We arrived at the stretch of road in Rangsit where buses stop. Despite his insistence there was no charge I paid him the full fare shown on the meter, and began lugging my suitcase the 35 yards to where my bus would stop. But he insisted that he drive me these last 35 yards. A friendly little encounter: I think he and I were both happy he'd missed the Morchit turn-off!
Contrast this with a story I just saw at cbsnews.com:A Kentucky woman has been accused of fatally shooting her West Texas Uber driver after mistakenly believing she was being kidnapped and taken to Mexico, according to police. Phoebe Copas, 48, remained jailed Sunday in El Paso, Texas, after being charged with murder last week in the death of 52-year-old Daniel Piedra Garcia.
Copas allegedly shot Garcia on U.S. Route 54 as he was driving her to a destination in El Paso's Mission Valley on June 16, the El Paso Police Department said in a statement.
"At some point during the drive, Copas thought she was being taken into Mexico and shot Piedra. The investigation does not support that a kidnapping took place or that Piedra was veering from Copas' destination," the statement said.
...
Believing she was being kidnapped and taken to Mexico, Copas is accused of grabbing a handgun from her purse and shooting Piedra in the head, according to the affidavit. The vehicle crashed into barriers before coming to a stop on a freeway.
The area where the car crashed was "not in close proximity of a bridge, port of entry or other area with immediate access to travel into Mexico," according to the affidavit.
I'm posting this in Politics because American politics, for many people, is now almost synonymous with psychotic delusions. Half the voters almost literally want to kill the other half; and most of these hate-filled morons have guns. Thank heavens the woman, like most Americans in Flyover Land, carried a handgun. Without that uniquely American shibboleth the Uber driver might have guessed she was an illegal alien.
A recent news story reminded me of one of my own taxi rides. Let me stress that during my ride I never once had the slightest feeling of fear or confusion. Yet the ride was memorable because it occurred to me that another passenger might have thought he was being kidnapped.
I was in Central Bangkok and hopped in a taxi, asking to go to the Morchit Bus Station. Soon we were on the expressway heading North at high speed. Driver and I were chatting away like old friends, distracted, when I noticed we were well past the exit for the bus station. Driver laughed and said he'd take me to the Rangsit bus station (all northbound buses stop there) and that there'd be no charge at all since it was his blunder.
Going all the way to Rangsit would take him yet another 25 minutes out of his way. I "should" have been very suspicious, especially with the "no charge." I was a foreigner in a country some might view as dangerous. Was he going to rob me? Sell my kidneys? Why was he taking me all the way to Rangsit, when he could have turned off and just gone to my original Bangkok destination?
Despite my undiagnosed autism(?) I think I'm a pretty good judge of character, and not for one instant did I consider that something might be wrong.
We arrived at the stretch of road in Rangsit where buses stop. Despite his insistence there was no charge I paid him the full fare shown on the meter, and began lugging my suitcase the 35 yards to where my bus would stop. But he insisted that he drive me these last 35 yards. A friendly little encounter: I think he and I were both happy he'd missed the Morchit turn-off!
Contrast this with a story I just saw at cbsnews.com:A Kentucky woman has been accused of fatally shooting her West Texas Uber driver after mistakenly believing she was being kidnapped and taken to Mexico, according to police. Phoebe Copas, 48, remained jailed Sunday in El Paso, Texas, after being charged with murder last week in the death of 52-year-old Daniel Piedra Garcia.
Copas allegedly shot Garcia on U.S. Route 54 as he was driving her to a destination in El Paso's Mission Valley on June 16, the El Paso Police Department said in a statement.
"At some point during the drive, Copas thought she was being taken into Mexico and shot Piedra. The investigation does not support that a kidnapping took place or that Piedra was veering from Copas' destination," the statement said.
...
Believing she was being kidnapped and taken to Mexico, Copas is accused of grabbing a handgun from her purse and shooting Piedra in the head, according to the affidavit. The vehicle crashed into barriers before coming to a stop on a freeway.
The area where the car crashed was "not in close proximity of a bridge, port of entry or other area with immediate access to travel into Mexico," according to the affidavit.
I'm posting this in Politics because American politics, for many people, is now almost synonymous with psychotic delusions. Half the voters almost literally want to kill the other half; and most of these hate-filled morons have guns. Thank heavens the woman, like most Americans in Flyover Land, carried a handgun. Without that uniquely American shibboleth the Uber driver might have guessed she was an illegal alien.