Mortons 5: Terrible News from the Smith Home: Sitara Killed while Helping Bret Cut Down a Tree

[Hane]

Yesterday at the doctor’s office, a loony old guy behind me in line was raving on about how he was getting “carbon dioxide poisoning” for having to wear a mask inside the building. It was obvious he was hoping someone would chime in and agree with him, but he was ignored. Dude, I just wanted to get my Pap test and GTFO.

[Mudgie]

14 hours ago, lexiloumarie said:

Mariah Campana Thomas apparently doesn't believe in seatbelts from her recent q and a. 

What is dangerous about the Mariah's of the world is how proud they are of their chosen ignorance. She knows better, she has access to information to learn better and choose better, and yet she deliberately and willfully chooses ignorance and stupidity. She operates on hubris and conceit.

Edited September 10, 2021 by Mudgie

[Howl]

Not wearing a seatbelt in a moving car (Click it or ticket! is the motto) will get you a big ticket in Texas.  Is this true in other states?

[JermajestyDuggar]

9 hours ago, Howl said:

Not wearing a seatbelt in a moving car (Click it or ticket! is the motto) will get you a big ticket in Texas.  Is this true in other states?

I believe the ticket is over $100 in my state. I don’t think many fundies just have an extra $100 to spend on tickets.

[apple1]

10 hours ago, Howl said:

Not wearing a seatbelt in a moving car (Click it or ticket! is the motto) will get you a big ticket in Texas.  Is this true in other states?

Yes in Ohio, but usually not enforced until you are stopped for something else, or are in a crash.

[fundiefan]

30 minutes ago, apple1 said:

Yes in Ohio, but usually not enforced until you are stopped for something else, or are in a crash.

Same thing here in Wisconsin. Although they're not all that likely to pull you over, they can & will if they have it in them. I just don't think cops want to deal with it. 

[JMO]

There have been Mortons who have been ticketed in the past for not wearing seatbelts.  Just the ebil gov'ment trying to put them down. 

[Black Aliss]

On 9/9/2021 at 5:01 AM, JermajestyDuggar said:

You can actually compare anti-maskers to the anti-seat belters of the past. Back when seat belt wearing became mandatory, many people were against it. It’s their rights blah blah blah. But if you look at stats, over time, people came around. Now people wear seatbelts without even thinking about that it and most people agree with wearing them. There are just people in this world that can’t handle change. They fight it at first, but eventually just go with it. Of course there are hold outs. But for the most part, people tend to accept it over time.

Same with the shirts and shoes rules in restaurants. I have actually witnessed, at Florida beachfront restaurant, a man wearing only swim trunks (picture overweight, man boobs, sweaty chest hair and sunburn) argue with a restaurant worker about his right to eat in their cafe' while shirtless. I had been going to eat there myself but I lost my appetite just then.

16 hours ago, Howl said:

Not wearing a seatbelt in a moving car (Click it or ticket! is the motto) will get you a big ticket in Texas.  Is this true in other states?

Only if you are a POC. It's usually not enforced against white people unless they can add it to a list of charges.

[fundiefan]

40 minutes ago, Black Aliss said:

Same with the shirts and shoes rules in restaurants. I have actually witnessed, at Florida beachfront restaurant, a man wearing only swim trunks (picture overweight, man boobs, sweaty chest hair and sunburn) argue with a restaurant worker about his right to eat in their cafe' while shirtless. I had been going to eat there myself but I lost my appetite just then.

Only if you are a POC. It's usually not enforced against white people unless they can add it to a list of charges.

Sadly, that is true. And now that you say that I am reminded of a study done at one point. I don't honestly remember when - within the past few years?

They did a study of driving tickets that were not related to speeding or criminal behavior in the eight counties that make up my geographic part of the state. Things like not using turn signals, broken lights, not wearing seatbelts, expired registration and/or no plates at all, running lights, rolling stops, etc...

Three of the eight counties have the highest population of POC in the state. Those three counties had a higher ticket rate EACH than other five counties combined combined. 

Of course, all the powers that be were full of "ums'" and "wellllll" and whatever excuse they could come up with to justify it and say it's not related to race but population, etc...and every argument had a counter that blew them out of the water. Walker was governor at the time and he is pond scum, so there was no state investigation and it caused a shit show among county execs arguing back & forth & blaming each other - typical political tantrums by all involved. Now I want to look & see what, if anything, came of it. 

But anyway, you are exactly right. 

[Granwych]

I believe that most, if no all, automobile insurance companies require seat belt usage.

[JermajestyDuggar]

I’m embarrassed to admit I got a seatbelt ticket back in 2002. I normally wore my seatbelt all the time but I was in my sister’s car riding along in the front passenger seat blabbing away. I just forgot. She got pulled over for speeding (it was a pretty well known speed trap so that was on her). She got a speeding ticket and I got a seat belt ticket. 

[sleepygirl1]

2 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

I’m embarrassed to admit I got a seatbelt ticket back in 2002. I normally wore my seatbelt all the time but I was in my sister’s car riding along in the front passenger seat blabbing away. I just forgot. She got pulled over for speeding (it was a pretty well known speed trap so that was on her). She got a speeding ticket and I got a seat belt ticket. 

Only ticket I’ve ever received was because of a speed trap. They are the worst.

[Bluebirdbluebell]

21 hours ago, Howl said:

Not wearing a seatbelt in a moving car (Click it or ticket! is the motto) will get you a big ticket in Texas.  Is this true in other states?

Here's a link to a wikipedia article that says which states have which seatbelt laws.

From the article:

Quote

U.S. seat belt laws may be subject to primary enforcement or secondary enforcement. Primary enforcement allows a law enforcement officer to stop and ticket a driver if they observe a violation. Secondary enforcement means that a peace officer may only stop or cite a driver for a seat belt violation if the driver committed another primary violation (such as speeding, running a stop sign, etc.) at the same time. New Hampshire is the only U.S. state that does not by law require adult drivers to wear safety belts while operating a motor vehicle.

In 15 of the 50 states, the seat belt law is considered a secondary offense, which means that a police officer cannot stop and ticket a driver for the sole offense of not wearing a seat belt. (One exception to this is Colorado, where children not properly restrained is a primary offense and brings a much larger fine.) If a driver commits a primary violation (e.g., for speeding) they may additionally be charged for not wearing a seat belt. In most states the seat belt law was originally a secondary offense; in many it was later changed to a primary offense: California was the first state to make this change, in 1993. Of the 30 states with primary seat belt laws, all but California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, and Oregon, originally had only secondary enforcement laws.

Thirty-four states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands have primary enforcement laws for front seats.[3][4]

Ohio is a secondary enforcement state, meaning they can't pull you over for not wearing a seatbelt, but it can be added to another charge (i.e. drunk driving). 

A friend of mine wasn't wearing his seatbelt, when he was in an accident involving a commercial truck. The truck driver was at fault, but my friend didn't make it.

[browngrl]

I had a seat belt ticket once. I was driving my cousin (a toddler at the time) and he had just learned about traffic lights and felt like he needed to help me notice red/green lights. The trouble he was ALWAYS talking about the traffic light one stop ahead of the light we were at so I never listened to him and this was tremendously disturbing to him. So he unbuckled himself and crawled over to me to better let me know what was up. A couple of things happened at the same time. I tried to grab him and steer to the side of the road and a policeman caught us in this moment. My cousin was no help when the cop was talking to me because he kept telling him how I was not following the traffic lights. You see why I have tried to get out of baby sitting ever again right?

 

[hoipolloi]

On 9/5/2021 at 12:56 PM, SolomonFundy said:

Campbell has high-maintenance, low-reward energy in the best of conditions. My guess is that she's treating this like a quirky poverty tour.

Not only quirky but QUICK -- they left today. 

That's got to be one of the shortest S'Morton family visits ever. Usually, they stay for weeks or even months, which I can understand. It's a long way to travel.

[JermajestyDuggar]

9 hours ago, hoipolloi said:

Not only quirky but QUICK -- they left today. 

That's got to be one of the shortest S'Morton family visits ever. Usually, they stay for weeks or even months, which I can understand. It's a long way to travel.

Princess Campbell can’t handle a long poverty tour. Only long enough for her in laws to gush over her and the new baby and then leave. 

Edited September 11, 2021 by JermajestyDuggar

[fundiefan]

I would not go through 15+ hours of flying / traveling for a mere week. 

By the time you recover from jetlag, you're getting repacked to head back. 

No thank you.

But, I agree that there is no way Campbell & John could handle any more than a week of their poverty tour. They are far too reliant on life's conveniences as well as their place in the Morton bubble. John's hair probably got messed up & Campbells shoes got dirty. It will take a month for them to recover.

[NachosFlandersStyle]

It appears Campbell took her camera and did a family photoshoot for Kressant. Pregnancy announcement, maybe?

Speaking of photos, I'm also fairly convinced that Edwin and Francesca are engaged. They've both locked down their IG accounts and changed to the same profile pic, which definitely looks like an engagement shoot.

Edited September 12, 2021 by NachosFlandersStyle
Typo

[JMO]

Edwin's profile is still open if you were already a follower. No engagement announcements yet but I'm assuming that it will be soon. 

[adidas]

Seatbelt fines are $349 here, and 3 demerit points.

Our local fundies don’t believe in seatbelts and they believe passionately in speeding. They send one person in one car about 10km ahead as the ‘trap’ so that after that after the speeding car is caught, the others in the convoy (usually 10+ per fundiemobile) are notified to slow down and put their seatbelts on. 

[fundiefan]

The Smith trash are having a yard sale. Everything $1.00. Including - you guessed it, teen girl's clothing. 

Is she even cold in the ground yet & they're selling off her possessions & trying to make a buck? 

[nelliebelle1197]

On 9/9/2021 at 7:45 AM, lexiloumarie said:

Mariah Campana Thomas apparently doesn't believe in seatbelts from her recent q and a. 

None of the Mortons do. Why should Mariah be any different?

[JermajestyDuggar]

Ok so I know the Mortons, Campanas, and Thomases are proud of their ignorance and their big FU to seat belt laws. But for some reason, I just don’t get that impression from the Robertses. I feel like the Robertses want everyone to think they are witty, hip, and smart. I guess I just don’t get how those families can interact that much. I feel like the Roberts family would fit in way better with the Neidnagels. They are the same type of fundie in my brain. 

[browngrl]

1 hour ago, fundiefan said:

Is she even cold in the ground yet & they're selling off her possessions & trying to make a buck? 

I was thinking the same thing. From the outside they seem have taken Sitara's death much more in stride than I could have. But who knows? Maybe they are crying on the inside?

[NachosFlandersStyle]

They are treating it exactly like they treated Alan's arrest. Just skip straight past any difficult feelings or demands for accountability and declare that everything is fine because Jesus is in control.