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Re: speeding tickets and E36 bulb replacing

My finger was hovering over the Page Down key; all I had to do was hit it.
But no. Idiot that I am, I had to read Reji's posting about cops, a thread
which has been rapidly deteriorating over the past few digests. Besides, I
haven't made a fool of myself in the Digest for at least three weeks. I'm
due.

So Reji gets pulled over, apparently beats the speeding charge, but gets
unjustly nailed for a missing front license plate. Now, based on this one
incident, he no longer has a high regard for any cops, and he undertstands
why they get shot so often.

Hey, Reji, let me ask you. Did the cop steal your front license plate, or
did it fall off between the time you left home and got pulled over? You
lost $80 because you broke the law, man. Now maybe, if you had a front
plate, the cop might have found something else to gouge you on, but don't
bitch because you got written up for a missing plate. It sounds like a
righteous bust to me.

Next, let me point out that, IMHO, you haven't got a clue as to why cops
get shot so often. I don't have the latest crime statistics in front of me
at the moment, but my gut feeling tells me that most cops don't get shot by
guys doing the speed limit who get pulled over anyway and then get tickets
for a missing plate. Most cops get shot by scumbag criminals who don't want
to be arrested. They get shot because they put themselves in harm's way to
try and take some of the filth off the street so you and I have a fighting
chance to get back to our BMW without getting killed and be fairly
confident that once in a while, it will still be there. I'd like to believe
that your comment was simply a feeble attempt at humor, not the reckless
and ignorant remark it appeared to be.

I'm not preachin' from the pulpit, either. I've had trumped up speeding
tickets written by cops who had to make their quotas. I know that in many,
if not most, jurisdictions, speeding tickets have nothing to do with safety
and everything to do with revenue generation. But hey, them's the rules.
You don't like it? Get yourself elected Chief of Police or City Councilman
or Mayor and change the rules.

Let me ask you something else. Since you were obviously singled out and
unjustly picked on, did you have the moral courage to file an official
complaint with the police department? Some final questions: Did you ever
exceed the speed limit and not get caught? Yes? How many times? Once?
Twice? Practically every damn day? How many times did a cop pass you by
when you were speeding or missing a front plate and he didn't pull you
over? Well then, maybe you should pause before you cast the first stone and
realize that you had one coming.

Complain all you want about the snotty cop you ran into, there are
certainly a few power-mad boneheads out there. But please, don't paint them
all with the same brush.I've known some good ones, who didn't think that
all BMW owners were rich, self-centered, elitist jerks.

Now, as to your technical question, "Anyone know how to remove the
headlight assembly on the E36 cars. My high beam light seems to have gone
out and I was thinking of replacing the light blub myself."

I'd be happy to answer that, Reji. Look under your hood. The headlight
bulbs for the low beams are in the two outer lamps. Turn the lamp holder
with the wire counterclockwise and remove it from the back side of the
headlight. Replace the bulb. The headlight bulbs for the high beams - i.e.
the inner lamps - must be replaced in the same way.

I knew the answer to that question because I looked it up in my owner's
manual, something I always try to do before I ask someone else how to do
something. I used to not mind people who didn't.  From this point on I have
a very bad opinion of people who don't read their owners manuals....I used
to have a very high regard for them...no more...now I know why they get
flamed so often.


Scott Blazey
(I'd like to write more, but if I stay online any longer, the Bandwidth
Police could get a trace on my phone line, raid my office, and give me a
ticket for doing 32k baud in a 28,8k baud zone, or worse yet, removing the
modem's FCC warning label. Hey, it looks so much better without it!)