Pettiness and turning left

I went to Starbucks last night only to encounter two things that irritate me: people being petty; and people who turn left...

The Starbucks I went to is located next to the local Armed Forces Center. A group of Marines were congregated outside in the parking lot next to their cars. As I was walking past them towards Starbucks I heard them making fun of other branches of the Armed Forces simply because they are not Marines. I'm sure most of you have heard stuff like this before. Unfortunately it's nothing new. It's shown in the movies quite often.

I don't get it, though. How is it cool or funny to genuinely make fun of a fellow citizen of your country who has chosen to engage in armed conflicts with you against those that threaten the rights of the rest of us? I mean, for Marines to call those in the Navy 'pussies' because they live on a boat...Granted, there is probably among those in the Armed Forces an acceptable level of needling between branches, but anything more than that (such as the aforementioned statement, if said with malcontent) is the epitome of ignorance to me.

Ever have those close calls when you are turning right at a stop sign, and at the same time a car is coming from your right and turning left into the area from which you are leaving? By law both cars are allowed to turn at the same time, particularly when the car coming from your right doesn't have a stop sign. Theoretically there shouldn't be a problem...except when the car coming from your right makes the narrowest left turn geometrically possible and almost hits you...It's amazing how narrowly people turn left sometimes, only to find themselves curiously close to a car that's turning right. Do they realize that they are turning narrowly? Is it a general awareness thing? Is it bad driving? Or both?