Handicapped Parking

On many levels, the Americans with Disabilities Act is a failure. For one thing, it's a patronizing piece of horseshit legislation that treats grownups like dummies and seeks to draw black-and-white distinctions between myriad disabilities, all of which demand case-specific solutions. Now let me tell you how I really feel.
I wholeheartedly support bringing old buildings into compliance with the reasonable part of ADA: the accessibility statute. As a graduate of the most kickass university in the US of A (North Carolina, in case you don't read so good), I can say that there is no reason in the world why buildings can't be made easily accessible for all physically disabled people. UNC, however, has "historic" status for many of its buildings, and so you get shit like the professor I knew who was in a wheelchair and couldn't get access to her department's offices because they were on the third floor of an old building and nobody could get a permit to put in a chair lift.

Come on, people. That's some sad-ass bullshit. Shame. Shame.

The rest of the handicapped-affiliated world, though, and especially those who enforce the ADA, can kiss my round hairy ass. With tongue. See, there's a fundamental flaw built into the ADA (which complements the conceit that all handicapped people are the same): the law offers protections and privileges to all handicapped people that are above and beyond what other, not-handicapped people receive.
Case in point: handicapped parking.
Now, not everyone needs handicapped parking--never mind, for a moment, that about 90% of those with a handi-parking placard are actually teenagers and lazy adults who took it from grandma's car. No, actually very, very few of the legitimately physically (not mentally!) handicapped people in the world can operate cars or know someone who will drive them around in their car. Think about it.
One might say, if one was a real bastard, that if you are so damn deflicted that you cannot walk more than twenty feet to a doorway, you should probably stay home; have that pizza delivered.
Which brings up another point: why does the government mandate handicapped parking even in places where it's blatantly inappropriate? Like at the KFC--hey, fatty! You don't need greasy chicken! Especially not if you already have a physical condition!
Same with sporting goods stores, gyms, very large stores like Wal-Mart (yeah, like somebody with a disability that prevents them from parking in a normal space is going to wander around a 4.5-square mile supercenter...), and all buildings that have long flights of stairs leading up to the front door--like the US Capitol. Dammit, that's just a slap in the face to everyone!
It almost goes without saying, by the way, that most of you have probably never seen a parking lot where all the handicapped spaces are taken. In fact, I personally have never seen a lot where even half of the spaces were filled. What does this tell you? It tells me that handicapped people are being represented by some shrewd-ass lawyers, who got them all sorts of shit they don't need. But the government will never take it back, because, for all our "handicapped people are just like us" rhetoric (you don't really think that, do you?), we are afraid of them. They will say we're Nazis, and assholes, and Republicans. And I, for one, don't want that.
I just want you to think about this. And if you come up with a way to somehow remodel the hornets' nest without getting stung, let me know.