The Last Bass Outpost

Main Forums => The Outpost Cafe => Topic started by: Dave W on February 23, 2011, 05:40:11 PM

Title: Beware of the seniors
Post by: Dave W on February 23, 2011, 05:40:11 PM
At my age, I can appreciate this.

Warning: NSFW due to language

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99jIIjgGNe0

Title: Re: Beware of the seniors
Post by: lowend1 on February 23, 2011, 06:49:15 PM
I'm on the fence about this. On one hand, I hate golf. And obviously some people take the game a little too seriously. It WAS kind of a funny gag, and an ingenious little scooper there to corral the ball. There is another version on YouTube that shows a closeup of the car.

On the other hand, I see Dave's point - if they make a habit of doing this, it could get old real fast. The second guy must have been a holdover from Cocoon...
Title: Re: Beware of the seniors
Post by: Aussie Mark on February 23, 2011, 07:43:53 PM
I would have smashed the car as well.  Golf is supposed to be relaxing, not a place for college kids to play with their younger brother's toy cars.  And old guy #1 has a point about the green - the course staff would be more pissed than the golfers if they saw the kid f**king with the greens that take so much care and attention to look so good.
Title: Re: Beware of the seniors
Post by: OldManC on February 23, 2011, 09:48:49 PM
I'm not a golfer nor a fan of the game but if that was legit those kids got exactly what they deserved.
Title: Re: Beware of the seniors
Post by: the mojo hobo on February 24, 2011, 05:48:24 AM
My sentiments exactly.
Title: Re: Beware of the seniors
Post by: gweimer on February 24, 2011, 06:18:35 AM
LMAO!  "Whoa.  This guy is fast!  He's still running."
Title: Re: Beware of the seniors
Post by: lowend1 on February 24, 2011, 06:36:32 AM
As is our custom, I digress... ;D
Ya know what bugs me about golf? (and tennis, bowling as well) Why does everybody have to be quiet when these guys are taking a shot? Because they have to concentrate? Gimme a break! Hitting a 90 mph fastball requires concentration too, but nobody tells 50k people to shut up while the ball is put in play! Every other sport has cheering during the entire competition, not to mention obnoxious, beer swilling fans and gigantic PA systems. I say get some of that on the golf course and we'll see how good these guys are at hitting the little white ball. And what's with the "no spitting" rule? Again, in almost every other sport, saliva flows freely on the field of play - it's practically mandatory in baseball. It'll help water the green fer cryin' out loud. At least make it legal to launch one into the water traps every so often. Likewise, lets make sure the participants get to scratch periodically as well.
Title: Re: Beware of the seniors
Post by: Dave W on February 24, 2011, 09:15:12 AM
You don't have to like golf or its odd customs to appreciate this. They interfered in someone else's game. They have only themselves to blame.
Title: Re: Beware of the seniors
Post by: gweimer on February 24, 2011, 09:40:56 AM
Quote from: Dave W on February 24, 2011, 09:15:12 AM
You don't have to like golf or its odd customs to appreciate this. They interfered in someone else's game. They have only themselves to blame.

Exactly.  It's not all that different than some jackwagon bolting across a football field or baseball diamond while the game is on.
Title: Bitingly dissenting opinion ...
Post by: uwe on February 24, 2011, 12:26:29 PM
This sounds a bit like if those old geezers had shot the kids "the kids would have only had themselves to blame".  :-\ :-\ :-\ :-\

Big no. The resident attorney speaks. Using the toy car was a joke of candid camera ilk. You might not like the joke or think its funny. But it didn't do any permanent or material harm. The old geezers could have laughed it off, wagged their fingers at the kids and yelled "now have that toy car shove the ball back to its original position or we'll spank you and speak to your parents". And the kids would have probably done so. You know what, the old men could have acted as sports not as vicious idiots. The appropriate reaction would have been to pick up the car and holler good-naturedly at the bush: "Does that mean we get to keep this now or do you want it back?"

Smashing the toy car was ill temper and bad style by the bearded guy. But it gets worse: Attacking the kid with the club by the unbearded one was armed assault, nothing else. I would have indicted him for it, the f***ing idiot. What would have happened if the kid had stumbled, would it have been ok for the old, idiotic badger to hit him? Just a little, until he starts to bleed or completely dead? He did disturb their game you know.

An eye for an eye, a smashed head for a dislocated golf ball? You guys can't be serious about this. We're writing 2011 not 1811 where it was ok to hang someone for stealing horses. Or maybe it wasn't even ok to do that back then.

This has nothing to do with golf, college pranks, old or young. It has to do with reasoned, balanced reaction. You're expected to have that as an adult, more so as a pensioner. I find how the sour-faced unbearded guy/armed assaulter acted absolutely intolerable. Too bad he didn't have a heart attack while running. Or maybe he did. There is still hope.

I've done worse things as a kid or youth. No one ever attacked me with a golf club for it nor would I have thought back then or today that he would have had a right to.

Look and behold: Dave has started a political discussion.  :mrgreen:

Title: Re: Beware of the seniors
Post by: gweimer on February 24, 2011, 01:13:40 PM
Leave it to the lawyer to make sense.  Killjoy.   8)

Still, I see your point.  I don't have a problem with them busting up the car, but I can see that physical assault is taking it too far the other way.   I don't have a problem with practical jokes played on friends, but I tend to draw the line on unsuspecting bystanders.  I didn't even find all of Candid Camera that funny.   Some stuff was, some wasn't.
Title: Re: Beware of the seniors
Post by: uwe on February 24, 2011, 01:26:40 PM
"Leave it to the lawyer to make sense.  Killjoy.    8)"

You mean I was too heavy-handed?  ;)

Title: Re: Beware of the seniors
Post by: Highlander on February 24, 2011, 02:09:35 PM
Nope, just precise... ;D

Billy mentioned something that might be worth moving forward with...

Shooting, Archery, Golf... they are all sports that are essentially "solo" - the better you get, the more the inner-calm settles on you - that's the only way I can define it... to a lesser extent "one-on-one" (squash/tennis etc) requires a certain degree of concentration... "team-sports" are "dislocated-battles" - supporting the warriors who are your chosen heros to do battle with the arch-enemy; the wearing of colours; the battle anthems... it's tribal, it's WAR...!

My sport was archery with a "take-down" bow but I haven't done any shooting for about 10 years due to shoulder damage...

(can't stand golf) :P
Title: Re: Bitingly dissenting opinion ...
Post by: lowend1 on February 24, 2011, 02:44:06 PM
Quote from: uwe on February 24, 2011, 12:26:29 PM
Look and behold: Dave has started a political discussion.  :mrgreen:
Yay! :thumbsup: Welcome to the dark side, Dave!

Oh counselor...
What would the situation be if old guy #2 vapor-locked and croaked while chasing the kid?
Boy, we can turn ANYTHING into cannon fodder around here!
Title: Re: Beware of the seniors
Post by: Dave W on February 24, 2011, 03:40:28 PM
Oh come on now, no one is advocating shooting them.

If the man had hit the punk with his club, he might have been charged with assault, depending on the venue and the prosecutor. But maybe not, since the punks ran out and confronted them. If he were charged, I can't imagine a jury anywhere in the US would convict him.

Nothing political about this.
Title: Re: Beware of the seniors
Post by: uwe on February 24, 2011, 04:05:26 PM
I stand flabbergasted!  :mrgreen: That comes with the honorable Administrator job, you get to define what's political and what's not.

Stop Press: US jury exonerates angry senior golfer from manslaughter of youth steering electric toy car! "He wasn't even a member of our golf club and he had the wrong shoes too. Plus he threatened my handicap."
Title: Re: Beware of the seniors
Post by: Dave W on February 24, 2011, 04:39:51 PM
There's nothing political about whether you think it's malicious mischief that deserved the response, or just a harmless prank that didn't. Judicial, maybe. Political, no.
Title: Re: Beware of the seniors
Post by: Aussie Mark on February 24, 2011, 04:45:06 PM
Uwe, if the partners in your new Australian office take the same approach you've just recommended, then your firm won't do too well at all in this country.  We were founded by convicts, so we don't embrace the "if it moves, litigate it" approach downunder.  :mrgreen:
Title: Re: Beware of the seniors
Post by: Chaser001 on February 24, 2011, 08:26:11 PM
That's a very convincing argument against the seniors.  If I were on a jury, and this were an actual legal argument, I would have been swayed.  No doubt about it.  Of course jury trials themselves are problematic, and I'm not even a big fan of the jury system, but that's not the point.  I am, of course, speaking of Uwe's argument, in case that is not clear. 
Title: Re: Beware of the seniors
Post by: fur85 on February 24, 2011, 10:05:36 PM
Uwe, from a financial standpoint, I would argue that the pranksters deprived the golfers of the privilege they had paid good money to enjoy: a relaxing round of golf. The value of the round of golf of which the golfers were deprived was greater than the value of the RC car.

Also, the swinging of the club was not in response to the car, it was in response to being charged and sworn at by the "pranksters". The confrontation was initiated by the kids, I would argue the poor, frail (though speedy) senior was merely defending himself. And no one was hit or hurt, to imagine what might have happened is pure speculation. And I'm sure you know that the "I've done worse" argument has no legal standing.

From a social/psychological viewpoint, I would agree that the old dudes over-reacted and it was bad form. But was it criminal? No way.
Title: Re: Beware of the seniors
Post by: Freuds_Cat on February 24, 2011, 10:40:30 PM
Quote from: Dave W on February 24, 2011, 03:40:28 PM
Oh come on now, no one is advocating shooting them.

If the man had hit the punk with his club, he might have been charged with assault, depending on the venue and the prosecutor. But maybe not, since the punks ran out and confronted them. If he were charged, I can't imagine a jury anywhere in the US would convict him.


Reverse the roles and a conviction would be inevitable. Whats fair depends upon who has the best lawyer sadly.
Title: Re: Beware of the seniors
Post by: uwe on February 25, 2011, 04:13:26 AM
Quote from: Aussie Mark on February 24, 2011, 04:45:06 PM
Uwe, if the partners in your new Australian office take the same approach you've just recommended, then your firm won't do too well at all in this country.  We were founded by convicts, so we don't embrace the "if it moves, litigate it" approach downunder.  :mrgreen:

Ah, Mark reads newspapers!  ;)  You talk anymore nonsense like that and I'll come down and visit you!
Title: Re: Beware of the seniors
Post by: nofi on February 25, 2011, 07:06:20 AM
dumb kids pulled a clever prank and the old golfers got revenge. it's beautiful in it's simplicity if you you take away the 'what if's' and legal ramifacations. fifty years ago this would have been a non issue and a good story to tell. times do change but pranksters are forever.
Title: Re: Beware of the seniors
Post by: ack1961 on February 25, 2011, 10:35:58 AM
I play golf and I'm a bit of a hothead, and even I would have laughed at the car scooping up my golf ball.
You laugh, applaud the kids, they return the ball and everyone has a a funny story to tell the geezers at the 19th hole.


Title: Re: Beware of the seniors
Post by: Pilgrim on February 25, 2011, 11:20:08 AM
Quote from: Dave W on February 24, 2011, 03:40:28 PM
Oh come on now, no one is advocating shooting them.

If the man had hit the punk with his club, he might have been charged with assault, depending on the venue and the prosecutor. But maybe not, since the punks ran out and confronted them. If he were charged, I can't imagine a jury anywhere in the US would convict him.

Nothing political about this.

IMO they got what they deserved...a broken car.  For all they know these golfers had a $100 bet on the hole and they screwed it up with a $20 electric car.

What SHOULD have happened is that they should have offered to set up the balls where they had been, the golfers should have laughed it off, and it should have been no big deal.  But why was the kid surprised with the golfer nailed the electric car with his club?  I sure wasn't!  That was pretty forseeable.  The kid could have grabbed the car and left, or just walked away.  It wasn't worth getting into this for a cheap battery-op car.

I for one think that the guy with the club grossly overreacted (even if he did have a bet on the hole), and if I were on a jury I would be all for supporting a charge of attempted assault.  The guy with the club was way out of line.  I have no sympathy for people who think physical assault is the way to deal with this kind of incident.

Of course, I also have the radical idea that drunks are responsible for their actions, because they chose to get drunk.
Title: Re: Beware of the seniors
Post by: lowend1 on February 25, 2011, 01:27:07 PM
Quote from: Pilgrim on February 25, 2011, 11:20:08 AM
IMO they got what they deserved...a broken car.  For all they know these golfers had a $100 bet on the hole and they screwed it up with a $20 electric car.

The RC car was no $20 toy from "The Shack".  You can tell by how quickly it moved out onto the green. In all likelihood it cost at least as much as a decent golf club. It seems to me, though that the geezers stood to lose a lot more than the kids in a legal battle. The pranksters could be charged with trespassing and some kind of "mischief", but they didn't destroy any property or cause bodily harm. I would think that any legal action would have to be taken by the golf course's management. OTOH, "Statler & Waldorf" could be held responsible for destruction of personal property and would have to pay for the car - at the very least. In a worst case scenario, the second guy could be charged with assault - possibly with a deadly weapon - since he swung his golf club at the kid and gave chase to boot. If he had actually connected, he'd be in some REAL deep doo-doo. Hitting a (maybe) minor with a golf club over a silly prank - the personal injury lawyers would be a-salivating.
And it's all on tape.
Title: Re: Beware of the seniors
Post by: gweimer on February 25, 2011, 03:25:55 PM
Possibly a little relevant - when I was in my road band days, we were in a Sambo's in Battle Creek, being WAY too obnoxious.  Let's say that we were bad enough that the strippers who came to sit down near us on lunch break got up and left quickly.  It ended up with us leaving the parking lot, with the munchies, and getting pulled over a couple blocks away.  As I'm in the squad car, I hear the officer on the radio come in - "Well, they didn't actually break any laws.  They were just being a royal PIA."
Title: Re: Beware of the seniors
Post by: Dave W on February 25, 2011, 03:33:39 PM
Attempted assault? If there's such a statute on the books in any state, it shouldn't be. Swinging and missing is not a crime.

Odds of an American jury convicting the club swinger of anything are about the same as winning the Powerball jackpot 5 times in a row. Odds are even less that he would ever be charged with anything just for chasing the punk. If he had managed to hit him, maybe, but again, you won't find 12 jurors who would convict him of assault. There's a better likelihood that they'd give him a medal.

As for damage to their RC car, the best they could hope for is to sue and hope the guy's insurer pays them to go away. They'd never find a sympathetic civil jury.

I don't like pranks and pranksters. You prank somebody, you have only yourself to blame for what happens.

Title: Re: Beware of the seniors
Post by: Pilgrim on February 25, 2011, 10:31:25 PM
Quote from: Dave W on February 25, 2011, 03:33:39 PM

I don't like pranks and pranksters. You prank somebody, you have only yourself to blame for what happens.


Agreed.  OTOH, sometimes the payback is worth it.
Title: Re: Beware of the seniors
Post by: Freuds_Cat on February 26, 2011, 04:54:44 AM
Quote from: Dave W on February 25, 2011, 03:33:39 PM


I don't like pranks and pranksters. You prank somebody, you have only yourself to blame for what happens.



I dont like hot heads. Given the choice between having to deal with a Hot head or a prankster give me the prankster everytime.
Title: Re: Beware of the seniors
Post by: Chaser001 on February 26, 2011, 09:42:04 AM
Quote from: Freuds_Cat on February 26, 2011, 04:54:44 AM
I dont like hot heads. Given the choice between having to deal with a Hot head or a prankster give me the prankster everytime.

I dislike both. 
Title: Re: Beware of the seniors
Post by: the mojo hobo on February 26, 2011, 12:13:36 PM
It wouldn't surprise me to find out this video was staged.
Title: Re: Beware of the seniors
Post by: Chaser001 on February 26, 2011, 01:02:38 PM
The audio on that is too convincing for it to be staged.  At least that's the way it seems to me. 
Title: Re: Beware of the seniors
Post by: fur85 on February 26, 2011, 01:05:14 PM
Quote from: Chaser001 on February 26, 2011, 01:02:38 PM
The audio on that is too convincing for it to be staged.  At least that's the way it seems to me. 

I agree about the audio. And if it was staged those old guys are really good actors.
Title: Re: Beware of the seniors
Post by: uwe on February 26, 2011, 01:53:43 PM
I've had pranks played on me and I just don't take myself serious enough to ever be offended. As long as a prank doesn't endanger anybody - this one certainly didn't, at least none of the golfers - I'm fine with it. Schadenfreude is great as long nobody gets hurt.
Title: Re: Beware of the seniors
Post by: Aussie Mark on February 27, 2011, 03:46:25 PM
If I were the car guy's 6yo little brother I'd be really pissed that he took my toy for the day without permission.