On Tuesday, my rearview mirror in my Acura failed.  There is a liquid in the mirror that is responsible for the automatic dimming when headlights shine on it.  Fancy, huh?!  My mirror assembly seal ruptured and this liquid spilled out of the mirror all over the interior of the car.  Worse, this liquid eats plastic and stains leather.  So now my expensive car is worth a lot less.  I don't care what it is worth but I paid a premium to have a nice car and take immacualte care of it.  Now it looks like I don't take care of it.  If I were to try to sell this car, the damage would take thousands off the value. 

Why didn't you buy the extended warranty on this car?  I did.  Rear view mirror nor damage caused by that failing item are covered.  Acura said this should be a warranty item.  They declined to help because I have the extended warranty.  So I am in the middle of two parties who refuse to take responsibility for the failure but should, as that is what they contracted to do (certified used car has 12 month or 12,000 mile warranty, extended warranty covers anything above that to 100,000 miles).  Unfortunately, when I read the literature, I didn't realize the potential damage a rearview mirror could do.  Fine print can kill.

On my way to work, while I thought about my car woes, my wife was heading to daycare with our little boy.  She met up with officer Joe Billy Bob whose side arm can't quite make up for his lack of self-confidence and masculine prowess.  I have a feeling its the same waste of carbon that gave me a ticket a year ago in the same basic area.  The traffic on two roads travels at 45mph+.  period.  The speed limit is posted at 30mph. That speed is inappropriate for the conditions of the road and volume of traffic coming through and should be reviewed.  35mph would probably suffice but 40 is appropriate.  Regardless, issuing a ticket to someone doin 10mph over such a slow limit is extreme and doing so on a road where traffic is cruising at 50mph is just plain offensive.  She was going 40.  He's a dick.  I already can hear the people saying, "the law is the law and he's just doing his job," but I am not that easy to convince.  The suicide bombers whove killed thousands of people were just doing their job.  To be so blind to the hardship your actions cause is immoral.  This is purely a revenue gererating speed trap and anyone engaging in such sackless practices deserves whatever karma comes their way.  This is why, in general, I hate police officers.  I have never met one I can respect and this is a shame.  They are there to protect and serve.  I don't feel safe in many places in my beatiful city yet there is never a shortage of traffic crack-downs when I am on my way to work.  I have had several people hit with burglary recently and one of them even knows who did it but the cops won't investigate without serial numbers.  Beurocracy gets in the way of justicce and resolution.  They are not doing their job.  They are frustrating, extorting and harassing common, good people.

The point of this is not just to say, "oh, poor me."  That's a big part of it.  I feel better.  The other part is to point out that people get into a situation where they feel their performance to their company is more important than the people they affect.  Their establishment becomes greater than the people who created it.  Is this where evolution has brought us?  And where will it go from here?  Will we one day live in a world where faceless administration dictates our fate?  When will this faceless administration be automated?  Will people one day live or die, succeed or fail, eat or starve by virtue of an algorythm fed into a machine?  Corporate america and our government are very much system based entities.  Even though the worker entities are humans, they seam to, more and more, adhere to the system rather than their own creativity and conscience.  Creativity and conscience are what make us human.  These are the things that led us to the top of the food chain and to mastery of the world.  Why are these traits disappearing in people?  We are working hard to make machines creative and self-developing.  The greatest minds are creating the simplest minds while the simplest minds are shutting down.  Will we one day live in a world where faceless administration dictates our fate?  I believe we already do.  I believe there is a lack of conscience in America and that too many decisions are centered on the common addiction to money.  Money can be freedom but it can also be a prison.  Making decisions based entirely on money and taking no consideration to human values is immoral.

The most ironic thing is this:  All these injuries I've been administered can be fixed with one, little, simple thing.  Money.  The solution is also the cause of the problem.  It is wise to pursue having as much money as physically possible to provide endurance to misfortune and freedom to act.  When the pursuance of that wealth steps on human values, that is when it has gone too far.  I hope, in my pursuit of financial freedom, I never intentionally hurt someone who was merely in my path.