What Kind of Ass**** Shoots a Gun Into a Car Full of Teenagers?

There is an ongoing battle in my neighborhood between residents and teenagers in parked cars blaring loud music. Not once, in the years that I’ve been living here, has any of us pulled a gun on one. single. teenager.

Not once!

To be sure, blaring your music at top volume, with the bass up so high it shakes my house, is inconsiderate at best. It shows a lack of respect for your neighborhood. It shows the world that you’re the worst kind of ass who’s probably trying to overcompensate for some major insecurities. But it’s not reason enough for me, or anyone for that matter, to take a life.

Most of the time, as with Mr Davis and his pals, it’s just teenagers being teenagers. They haven’t had enough life experience to understand that the people who live in these houses have to get up in the morning to go to jobs they hate, jobs that don’t pay very much, so that they can pay an outrageous amount of rent. They don’t need to listen to some punk kid showing off his bad taste in music. Oh… Don’t think you have bad taste in music? Just wait until you’re an old head like me and some snot nosed kid blasts your house with whatever passes for music at that point.

But I’m in a residential neighborhood where there’s a certain expectation of a reasonable noise level. Something just above a whisper would be nice, but probably unrealistic. Mr Dunn was at a gas station where there is no such expectation.

He was at a friggin gas station convenience store, for crying out loud! It is reasonable to expect that there will be lots of noise! Hell, it’s almost guaranteed!

I wasn’t on that jury so there’s no way of knowing what the hell was going on during deliberations. But there’s one fact that I just can’t get past. After shooting ten rounds into an SUV full of teenagers, Dunn left the gas station and drove 40 miles away to a bed and breakfast in St. Augustine, where he “walked his dog, ordered a pizza, and drank rum and cola.”

A normal human being would have called for an ambulance.

But then, a normal human being wouldn’t have fired a gun into an SUV full of teenagers over loud music.

What an ass****!

The Unsung Heroes of the American Workforce

I posted this to Tumblr the other day, and thought it worthy of a re-post here.

A Labor Day PSA:

The next time you go to a bar, a restaurant, or any other service oriented place of business, please remember to leave a decent tip.

TIPS = To Insure Proper Service

People in the service industry work hard to make sure you have a pleasant experience. They’ve got to keep a smile on their faces even with rude customers.

They are not slaves. Please don’t treat them as such.

The way you treat service personnel will be reflected back to you. If you treat your waiter or bartender with kindness, their gratitude will be evident. As a bartender, I periodically sent complimentary drinks to good customers. The bad ones were often made to wait.

Remember also that there are some things beyond your waiter’s control.

Your waiter is your advocate, and does everything in his/her power to bring you what you ordered. Don’t punish your waiter because the kitchen made a mistake.

Finally. If you don’t have enough money to leave a tip, stay home.

Never, ever stiff your wait staff. If the service is bad, take the waiter aside and calmly explain. Believe me, they do want to know if there was a problem so they can correct it. If you blow your cool, it will be YOU who is wrong. They can refuse you future service.

For more on Tipping, see CNN Money