BMW Drivers - The Ultimate Jerks?

As a male driver of a blue BMW 5 series, I question this "research." I wonder who sponsored it, Audi? ;-)



Postscript on August 17:

Excerpt below from today's Barrons. I guess Audi isn't to blame. And the inclusion of Toyota Pious owners reflects my personal experience.

"A study published in the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences that swept through the media last week found that, last year, drivers of fancy autos were the worst in their road manners, being less likely to yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk or more likely to cut in front of other drivers at a four-way stop at an intersection. "BMW drivers were the worst," Paul K. Piff, a researcher at the Institute of Personality and Social Research at the University of California at Berkeley, who conducted the study of 152 drivers in California, told the New York Times. But drivers of the ever-so-socially conscious Toyota Prius hybrids also were more likely to commit "infractions," he added.

"This tendency doesn't seem unique to BMW drivers in California or the U.S., for that matter. The U.K.'s Daily Mail reports that the vehicles with the highest incidences of road rage were BMWs, followed closely by Land Rovers and Audis, according to a study of 2,837 motorists by an outfit called VoucherCodesPro. The worst culprits were men 35 to 50 years old who drove blue Bimmers on Fridays around 5:45 p.m. "

A-Rod Agonistes

Suspended for 211 games. And yet, as said on Twitter last night, "A-Rod's playing third, batting fourth and taking the fifth."

50 Shades of Weiner

Carlos Danger. Really?

Good to know that he says his behavior "is behind us now and in the rear view mirror." If only the Weiners could see beyond their ambition and understand that we've been run over and over and over. Go away, please.

John Cuneo ~ The New Yorker

Earth . . . from 900 million miles away

Earth as recorded by the Cassini spacecraft while Saturn blocks the Sun from a distance of  900 million miles. Earth is the bright blue dot in the lower right. Nothing like a photograph from space to put things in perspective.

Go away, this beach is private

Peter Simon

It's summer and it's hot. And that means people want to cool off in the ocean. It also means some people will ignore any and all signs that say "private, no trespassing" to do it, jamming up single-lane roads and limited resident parking. Worse, they'll get in your face if you ask to see their beach parking pass. Here on Martha's Vineyard it has become a clash some insensitively call "beach apartheid."

The rub is this:

"According to 2005 Martha’s Vineyard Commission figures, 124,565 linear feet, or 37.5 percent, of the Island’s shoreline is open to all. The remaining 62.5 percent is either restricted town beach – 4,090 linear feet, or 1.2 percent – or land held privately in one way or another. The greater portion of this is held by individual big landowners. The rest is held by beach associations, shares in which trade for astonishing sums."

And these landowners, most seasonal summer residents, pay 80 percent of the island's taxes, supporting the schools, roads and public services all year. And for that, they want a little privacy in July and August.

Bruce McCall ~ The New Yorker

David Sipress ~ The New Yorker

The All Star

The well-deserved tributes to Mariano Rivera keep coming. Pure talent and class.

Grace after disgrace

What does it say about our society when the leading candidates for New York City Mayor and Comptroller are two men who both resigned from public office for behavior they initially lied about and then only admitted under the weight of the facts?

What does it say about Anthony Weiner and Eliot Spitzer that despite their known character defects they're running for public office again? Are they unemployable in the private sector? Doesn't New York deserve far better from elected officials paid by taxpayers?

Peggy Noonan hit the nail on the head in a recent Wall Street Journal editorial titled How to Find Grace after Disgrace.

"So what are we saying? You know. We're saying the answer to the politician's question, 'What is the optimum moment at which to come back from a big sex scandal, and how do I do it?' is this: 'You are asking the wrong question.'

"The right questions would go something like: 'What can I do to stop being greedy for power, attention and adulation? How can I come to understand that the question is not the public's capacity to forgive, but my own capacity to exercise sound judgment and regard for others? How can I stop being a manipulator of public emotions and become the kind of person who generates headlines that parents are relieved—grateful—to explain to their children?"

"And of course the answer is: You can do what John Profumo did. You can go away. You can do something good. You can help women instead of degrading them, help your culture and your city instead of degrading them."

"You can become a man."