Karma is a real b*tch....

The Pirate regales us with the (true) yarn of a moron who died for his beliefs.

Derek Kieper was 21 years old, a student at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, and the kind of Joe Perfect that sets off the asshole detector in all of us. In short, he was smart, had a 4.0, was a loyal frat brother, forced debates in the student senate, and wrote a column for the school newspaper in which he was passionately outspoken about his views, including the right to not wear your seatbelt.

He was killed after being ejected from the car he was riding in during a traffic accident because he wasn't wearing a seatbelt.

There's dying for your beliefs, and then there's dying for your beliefs. It's really too bad in his case. He could have made a real impact otherwise (terrible insensitive pun not intended).

One of my real beefs is people who are so passionately for a cause when it comes to others, but not themselves. The classic example of this is PETA etc folks who are against animal testing, yet they continue to utilize the fruits of modern medicine. Maybe now I'll be more inclined to believe them when they say that they would refuse treatment for cancer or Alzheimer's disease since the treatments were developed through animal research.....