There are millions of cars out there with ticking time bombs in their dashboards … and steering wheels. Air bags with defective components produced by Takata, a Japanese company that supplied the components to 14 different automakers, who unknowingly installed them in their cars.
Some of these defective bags have spewed bits of metal – shrapnel – into people’s faces, killing at least ten and causing serious injury to 100.
Understandably, people who own cars with Takata air bags are nervous about going anywhere near their cars – let alone getting behind the wheel.
Many more could be injured – and possibly, killed – because there are so many cars in circulation that have the defective bags. Models from Honda (and its luxury line, Acura), Nissan (and its luxury line, Infiniti) as well as vehicles made by Toyota/Lexus, Subaru and Nissan.
But the problem is not confined to Japanese-brand cars. It turns out Takata also supplied air bags to General Motors, Chrysler and Ford, too. The affected cars – that we know about so far – date back to the 2002 model year all the way through to 2015.
The full extent of the problem is not yet known.
A massive recall effort (see here for details) is under way but the logistics are daunting. Literally millions of cars are involved and fixing them all – a major job requiring extensive disassembly of the dashboard and steering wheel – will take months if not years.
Meanwhile, the owners of these vehicles are expected to expose themselves and their families – to a known defective product that is known to be actually as well as potentially very dangerous.
This is pretty outrageous when you stop to think about it.
If, say, it were discovered that a fast food chain’s hamburgers were tainted with e. coli bacteria, there would be an immediate cessation of the sale of those burgers. The chain would not be allowed to sell burgers again until it was known the outbreak had been contained and all the tainted beef taken out of circulation.
Of course, the problem is we’re dealing with cars, not burgers – and it’s hard to tell people they should simply stop using their cars until the problem can be fixed. It’s not realistic – and it’s not fair. People have to get to work, take their families where they need to go. It’s what they bought the car for – to get them around – and unless someone is going to give them a loaner, what else are they going to do?
Keep in mind, it’s not Honda – or Nissan or GM’s or Ford’s – fault. They can’t be expected to give out free long-term loaner cars.
It would bankrupt them.
And Takata – which is bankrupt (or soon will be, after all the claims are settled and fines paid) is in no position to pay for loaner cars to millions of people stuck with cars that might injure or kill them.
But there is a way to address the problem without denying owners of the affected vehicles the right to use their cars.
Just turn the air bags off.
Unlike replacing them, installing an on/off switch – or simply disconnecting the bags – is something easily and quickly done. And once done, the owner has the peace of mind of knowing he and his family members will not be maimed or killed by a defective air bag.
On/off switches have been installed in some vehicles – regular cab pick-up trucks – right from the factory, because of the known danger of the properly functioning air bag to a child riding in a refacing safety seat.
Allowing owners to have a dealer install a switch to shut off a defective air bag seems both logical and entirely reasonable.
It would take pressure off dealerships – who’ve been left holding the bag (so to speak) for a problem they didn’t cause – and it would greatly reduce the chances of more innocent people being subjected to a danger they didn’t sign up for and a hassle they don’t deserve.
But it’s illegal to disable air bags. Even known defective ones.
The law would need to be changed in order for dealerships to be allowed to install cut-off switches or otherwise “defeat” the defective air bags.
It’s worth noting, meanwhile, that Uncle has told VW it may not sell any diesel-powered cars for the foreseeable future because of the hypothetical “risk” to a minuscule number of computer-modeled “people” from the fractionally higher exhaust emissions of these vehicles. Not one actual person has been shown to have been harmed by a VW diesel – but Uncle is so concerned about this phantom menace he stomped on VW with both of his heavy feet.
But when air bags – which Uncle force-fed to us via mandate – actually kill (and maim) actual people, then Uncle is somehow less concerned.
Apparently, “if it saves even one life” only cuts ice when it’s not Uncle taking the lives.
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I was driving a Volvo on a really rough construction job. It was bought with a bunch of electrical tape around the airbag, a sign of something amiss for sure. On a particularly bad bump I didn’t see it flew off into the floor. Once I was stopped I picked it up and looked at the bottom side where it had obviously been uplugged for a long time. Since the entire shitty was part of the horn system(the little electric horn and the air horn are engaged simultaneously on Volvo’s) so I couldn’t leave it off but I did wrap tape around the electrical connector for the airbag before re-installing it. It’s was the best airbag I knew of…..till the Northern Pacific nullified the truck.
An air bag killed my father, he was in a 35 mile an hour front end collision with a parked car. It broke his back.
We have a Honda pilot, and Honda was polite but refused to disconnect the airbag, so I did. If I go to jail it will be to save my wife and kids lives.
Thank you Democrats.
Hi Soren,
To be fair, Republicans are equally to blame for air bags. Nixon and Bob Dooooooooooooooooooole’s wife, for two.
Some old mechanics are leery of airbags…so our exploder, ranger& soul have had them disabled for 18 yrs,6yrs&4yrs respectively. Canadians can get a form from their dealer or ottawa, fill er out&wait for govmt stamped ok, present it to their garage & then inform their insurance co.cheers
Will the government stop mandating things we cannot turn off in “our” cars due to this lesson? Of course not. Nope, they are just adding the new generation of devices that some of course will be defective.
Such is the delicious irony continually provided to us by the mentally defective folks that somehow end up as the decision makers. If we aren’t making disposable cars with maddeningly short lifespans in the name of the “environment”, we are installing deadly Rube Goldberg contraptions in the name of “safety”.
“We the people” cannot be trusted to make our own decisions and act in our own interest. Uncle and his minions feel that they MUST step in and protect us. After all, it is abundantly clear that only an inferior being would dare to consider a life that does not include blind allegiance to the wholly outdated concept of “policy”. Last time I looked, anyone with the slightest faculty for critical thought can recognize that any rigid law or policy is nothing more than an attempt to let the weak hide behind their own Oz-like curtain of perceived power. The same applies with lawyers and their insistence on clinging to Latin terminology, or local traffic cops trying to look like they just invaded Normandy.
I’ve lost a friend to the “safety” of airbags in a relatively minor collision, and a friend was lost to the “genius” door mounted seat belt in her late 80’s/early 90’s Grand Am in a collision that should have resulted in little more than a mangled Pontiac – sideswiped by a mixer at an intersection, pulled out of the car and thrown under the drives by the seatbelt.
I believe that if there were any decency in the world, the NHTSA dictators would show us all how safe these airbags are by stepping up to the plate and doing a human crash test or two. Then they could allow airbags installed in their desks to be hit by an occasional random firing to simulate one of the myriad failures inherent in the SRS system. Until they make such a commitment, they can keep their mouths shut about disabling the damned things.
Hi El Guapo,
Thank you, it felt good to read that. Although, I am sorry about your friends.
Jeremy
Thank you for the condolences. These things need to be stopped!
This is why I’ve shied away from acquiring a sorely needed new(er) vehicle. I didn’t have too much problem disabling the first generation SRS systems, but I have my concerns about disabling the newer ones. Given the more “advanced” computer systems and the nature of my luck, as soon as I fiddle with the airbags my car will go HAL 9000 and accelerate itself into a preschool.
I think tonight I’ll take another shot in my war on political correctness by firing up the hot rod and letting the old flathead sing unmuffled for a trip to the Sonic and grab me a burger and a pineapple shake.
“letting the old flathead sing” – sweet harmony!
Hi, El Gaupo,
My sympathies for your friends. We accumulate too many empty chairs as we pass through life.
Minor exception to your line here:
“The same applies with lawyers and their insistence on clinging to Latin terminology, or local traffic cops trying to look like they just invaded Normandy. ”
The men invading Normandy didn’t have the sort of armor that we issue normally these days to meter maids.
Seems someone’s compensating for shortcomings to me. (Just to ensure it’s clear, I am in no way referring to you, but the orificer you also refer to.)
“Seems someone’s compensating for shortcomings” – or short something, LOL
I tried to come up with something that “fit” a little better as a reference, but the honest approach didn’t work right (looking like they just invaded a 7 year old Cuban boy) and I just couldn’t come up with anything else of the military magnitude that these steroid addled morons appear to have geared up for.
While not [i]everything[/i] that I would hope for, I am happy to see that one of these morons has at least been charged with murder and set up for an exciting career in the mall security industry. Who would have thought that engraving “You’re f___ed” on your personal AR-15 rifle might someday call your sanity into question?
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/mesa/2016/03/30/philip-brailsford-mesa-police-officer-charged-murder-rising-star/82403496/
I always find myself wondering if Dan Aykroyd and John Landis had any idea that they were predicting the future with the SWAT raid on the serial traffic offender at the end of The Blues Brothers.
Dear EG,
“… the NHTSA dictators would show us all how safe these airbags are by stepping up to the plate and doing a human crash test or two.”
Excellent suggestion. I always knew the safety Nazis were dummies. But it never occurred to what good crash test dummies they would make.
From the archives of the Philadelphia Inquirer:
http://articles.philly.com/1988-06-04/news/26267114_1_air-bags-automatic-restraints-belts
Iacocca Flip-flop After Thousands Died, Detroit Tries Air Bags
POSTED: June 04, 1988
…Yet there is similar absurdity in the new ads that show Lee Iacocca, who worked to keep lifesaving air bags out of new cars during the 1970s and 1980s, bragging that these “truly remarkable” devices will be built into new models by Chrysler Corp.
Public Law 960-185-Jan 7, 1980 (Legislation passed to bail out Chrysler). Can’t post a link because the spam filter won’t let me, but search for that number and you can get the full text. From the bill:
Never let a crisis at Chrysler go to waste, I guess.
Apparently in the mid 1970s the NHTSA blew $30 million ($162 million today) on several “ultra safe” demonstration vehicles. Can’t seem to find much in the way of details and all the test vehicles were destroyed. Anyone want to bet they had airbags? 8 years is about right for the development timeline too. Chrysler was told to produce cars with airbags, but they had a guaranteed market with Uncle.
So when that claymore goes off, be sure to thank crony capitalist Lee Iacocca for “proving” the economic viability of airbags.
After pointing out that airbags have been deadly since day one and a Takata airbag only has a greater risk of killing a person and is more of a true lottery on another forum I caught a great deal of flack by the usual cloverian majority. However of the few people who actually wrote in support instead of just starring my comments offered a very good article on this.
http://www.star-telegram.com/cars/ed-wallace/article73174332.html
We will never see airbags corrected because fedgov mandated them and the regulators cannot and will not admit they errored. They can’t admit it because the “evil” automobile companies warned them airbags would kill. Automakers didn’t avoid airbags because of profits. They avoided them because they killed customers. But the public will never get it through their heads that automakers want people to live through wrecks because then they go out and buy another car, very often of the same make they just wrecked. Two sales instead one. Dead people don’t buy cars.
ammonium nitrate, some really good explosive but very age sensitive. I don’t recommend it in any amount inside a vehicle except for politicians. Hell, double up on it for them.
Back in ’66 I recall a truck hauling ammonium nitrate and blasting caps along I-20 near Trent Texas. It had a flat so the driver caught a ride back to a truck stop to get the tire fixed. While he was away, the flat started burning so by the time he got back it had been reported and a couple volunteer fire depts. were arriving on the scene. First to suit up and start to drag a hose were guys from Merkel, Tx. That’s about the time it blew up, blowing those guys out of their boots and a couple into their saviors arms. A Stuckey’s a mile away with a 150′ tall sign was relieved of most of its walls along with the sign. Signs of all types were blown down for miles and even ones that weren’t blown down were full of shrapnel holes. A piece of axle(probably the front)was the largest thing left of the truck and not much more than that left of firefighting trucks as well as vehicles traveling. A friend in his new ’66 Stang was going to work in Abilene from Sweetwater. He came to in his car with no windows and blown to shreds. He had no idea of what had happened but managed to drive back to Sweetwater where he was treated at the hospital and his totaled car was taken to the dealer. Everybody for a couple hundred miles in both directions got a crash course in handling fertilizer. And this is the best thing they can think to use inside a car? Something that’s never really stable, esp. over time.
Ammonium nitrate – isn’t that what they said was mixed w/diesel in that truck that was parked outside the Murrah in OKCity?
That’s it. A friend soaked a 60 lb sack of it with diesel back when it was still available and was going to take a ragged section off the edge of a drop off. He used a blasting cap to set it off and slid a good portion of the whole hillside down the way, nearly blasted himself in the process.
It’s what all the companies used to use for blasting, It was cheap and predictable if kept dry and new but moisture and age make it dicey to handle like dynamite. I used to work in a lab and now and then the guys from the quarry would bring a case of dynamite to have me get an accurate weight so they knew what sort of shape it was in. In the heat of summer it was common for it to be covered in this oily sweat, not the best shape for it. If you’ve seen an old movie of sweating dynamite, they got that part right. It gets dicey like that.
I think we all grew up with access to dynamite and thought nothing of it. Some friends had a case they’d filched off a drilling rig(use it for casing perforation) and were having a lark with it. There’s a long, high bridge across the Double Mountain Fork of the Brazos near here and they were out there in the moonlight messing around. This big, tall boy with a good arm decided he’d see what 5 lbs would do so he throws it off the bridge and allowed a guy can’t throw 5 lbs far enough. When everybody regained consciousness they had to put their shoes back on. There was a lot of “huh?” What’d you say? ha ha ha ha”.
Another friend had gone to work for a gyp mill and he was really young and never did get too wise. They showed him how to drill a hole the correct depth, fill it with ammonium nitrate to a certain depth, run a stick of dynamite and a cap with a wire down to it, get back 3/8ths of a mile or so and touch it off. Well, dumb young kid he was he had been drilling and blasting all day and one hole he said just kept taking fertilizer. He kinda lost count of it all and since he was a newbie didn’t realize how much it had taken to get to that certain depth. It was beyond him at the time to understand it should be a fairly standard amount but he’d hit a cavern when he drilled and not understanding that so he kept pouring till it got to the right height. He backs off and touches it off. Then he dove under the drilling truck as big stuff flew everywhere including a rock bigger than the truck that flew well beyond the truck. He said he learned a lesson on that one. They had to send some big equipment and a big haul truck to get the rock out of a cotton field. That was probably not what they needed for depth for sure. Live and learn…..hopefully.
When I was a kid a couple of ‘hoboes’ as they were called back then broke into a warehouse at the GLF (farmers co-op) for a place to stay, and lit a campfire on a stack of fertilizer bags. They say the Good Lord looks out for fools and small children. For no known reason, the stuff not only didn’t blow, it didn’t even burn. It could have taken out 1/2 the town.
“Live and learn,” my Dad used to say, “some folks never do either.”
Several years ago a town nearby did get blown away with fertilizer. Improper handling and storing. A leak in an anyhydrous tank created a huge cloud of vapor. When people came to work a spark, a lighted smoke, whatever it was, set it and a huge amount more of it off. It was a tragic thing and couldn’t even blame it on terrrrisstttsss.
“couldn’t even blame it on terrrrisstttsss” – unless you consider Monsanto, ADM and the rest of ‘Big Agra’ terrists. I’m not saying they are, but I’m not saying they’re not either.
PtB, ok, I’ll say it, terrorists of the 1st degree. I thought I’d die last fall from the new cotton defoliant. I was sick and had asthma attacks and horrible headaches until the cotton was gone and the weather was cold enough to keep the vapors down. I may have to move this year or “die of natural causes” as they’d term it “officially”.
Was that West, Texas? I thought that was another case of mishandled ammonia fertilizer.
The local FD had no idea what the place had on-site, if they had, they would have not allowed the town to build up around it. Much less shown up to fight the fire.
In the case of Takata, there are reports that the engineers were all reporting that “this is a really bad idea”, but one guy acting as the go-between them and the company HQ was telling the executives “We’re going to save a lot of money by switching.”
This whole scenario would make a great case-study in an engineering ethics class.
We talked about similar when I was in engineering school. If I got the details correct, this example should work.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyatt_Regency_walkway_collapse
On reading these details, I had to revise my thoughts, but the core still stands.
Originally, I understood that the redesign came from issues with the threaded rods being too long to transport (WRT cost, mind, it WAS possible.)
Still, it seems a similar issue (the cost of threading an entire length of rod) was too much for the builders.
They reduced cost, and it failed fairly spectacularly.
I’d guess the same here, as Chip mentioned: Engineers say, “Bad Idea,” but management only hears, “Padding the bottom line.”
FWIW, it’s the same across the society. I work in a place where we’re actively prevented from doing work….
Permissions on installing our tools, for example. No license needed, but need to provide a license. (Freeware, Python 2.6) And SVP approval for the install of a language compiler – that the application under test is written in. Which we then need to profile, with an agent we must develop…
Making no sense yet?
Anyway. We the Little People can’t get things done, then it’s held against us. Not the first time, either. I left a company because they blamed me for TONS of hardware errors and breakdowns. SunFire database clusters, an EMC storage cluster, a Cisco switch @ $10,000…. I got the hardware fixed when my boss left (he’d been pushing it along, it was on life support), and then this stuff hit…
Found out, a few months after I left, they found the real problem.
The power substation outside was defective, the entire building would lose power regularly… Over night. We lost the better part of 3 months on this, trying to make an environment stable for testing. Probably blew close to $50K. But it had been CHEAPER to do things this way, up front (they BOUGHT the hardware… Not leased.)
This is the same place that denied the A/C designs the lab owner planned. A month later, pancake servers (rack mount, multi-processor, 1″ high with up to 4 processors, no heat sink of note, high power fans to cool the system, up to 16 GB Ram, and this in the 2005 range) showed up. Also, the EMC cluster – 8′ high, 4′ wide, 6′ deep, all disk drives… And then 4 SunFire database servers. For OUR project, mind – we had to share space.
They spent the rest of the time I was there with fans, all doors on the “secure” lab open, and when the elevator opened, you got hit with a wall of heat, like a blast furnace. You were dripping sweat by the time you made it to the actual lab….
It’s not necessarily the engineers. It’s the people who prioritize dollars over sense, Economic Man, the sociopolitical amoral @$$hole interested in self-aggrandizement purely for the sake of climbing the ladder.
And they do well, because people see a chance to profit with these sociopaths. Indulge their own sociopathic tendencies with a sort of buffer.
And no one in polite society will DEAL with the problem. No one wants to be the real deal…. No one wants to Punish the Guilty.
I think most humans are somewhat selfish, but we’re seeing the new breed become sociopaths and gain immense power and wealth by destroying others. We’re just numbers….
“Woe to thee, O Earth and Sea, For the Devil sends the Beast with Wrath, Because he knows the time is short.
Let him who hath understanding, reckon the number of the Beast, for it is a human number….
Its number is Six hundred and Sixty Six…”
Hi Jean,
I have this recurring fantasy that there is a real John Galt out there and he reads my stuff and – one fine day – I will get an invite to take a seat inside his FTL-drive ship and get the fuck out of here… destination, the undiscovered (by Clovers) country….
Let us know before you leave. We will miss you.
eric, if there’s a real John Galt anywhere, he’s being over-shadowed by supposed libertarians. I thought this essay by L. Neil Smith said it all. It’s short and sweet. Well, Gary Johnson, what say yee?
The Insane Barber
by L. Neil Smith
[email protected]
Bookmark and Share
Attribute to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise
In the 1948 movie, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, which, otherwise, was merely another lame socialist rant against “greed”, a character opines the “the world’s being shaved by an insane barber.” In reality. Mankind is just about to tip over into the Cold War, and in the novel that the movie is based upon, in the shadow of the “Great War”. World War Two is looming over history’s horizon. Our species is indeed being led by a gaggle of idiots, lunatics, and rank villains, including Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Josef Stalin. Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and the “War Party” of Imperial Japan.
It is no different now, not a bit, and nothing that you and I can do is very likely to change it. I am just a humble scribbler (well, fairly humble, anyway). Someday people may actually look back and say, “He was really right!” but I almost certainly won’t be around to hear it. And if you repair automobiles, manufacture clothing, police the mean streets, or do the state’s evil bidding in far-off hell-holes, then you and I are in the same boat.
Nevertheless, progress does somehow manage to get made. People all over the world are far better off now, they live much longer lives, enjoy more freedom, and possess more wealth, than they did during the Middle Ages, all through the efforts — usually obstructed vehemently by the state — of private individuals working in the free market system.
The world of politics sadly doesn’t evince any indications of getting better. We’re in the process, at this very moment, of choosing a new barber to shave the world, and just look at the choices before us. In the lead, the ultimate used car salesman; remember Herb Tarlek, on WKRP? Coming up right behind him (I wouldn’t feel very comfortable with that, myself), the most natural woman in the world to be cast as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeny Todd, a nasty-tempered, cackling, sticky-fingered hag of a mass murderer whom millions of gullible idiots worship. And speaking of gullible idiots, an elderly collectivist whose compatriots murdered over 200 million people in the 20th century.
Who does that leave, to join the stellar ranks of the likes of Vladimir Putin (old-fashioned villain), Angela Merkel (cowardly idiot) , and Kim Jong-Un (straitjacket ready)? One might reasonably have expected this to be an unusually good year for the Libertarian Party. But as I’ve often observed, the Libertarian Party has always had a serious problem selecting genuine libertarians to run for office. Even worse, it has spent the last 45 years chewing up its founding principles and spitting them out. This year is no different.
Question, Governor Gary Johnson: if a “Fair Tax” were established as the law of the land, what would happen to an individual who refused to pay it? Taxation, this individual might protest, is theft. Taxation is slavery. Taxation is the fuel of war. Would he be arrested and thrown in jail? Would his personal possessions, his home, and his car, be seized by the state that you aspire to lead? Would he be shot down and killed if he resisted? Question, Governor Johnson: exactly what the hell kind of libertarian are you, anyway? And tell us about your “running mate”, that once-and-future tax-devouring, gun-grabbing socialist scumbag William Weld? How in the hell was that a libertarian choice?
I sometimes think that human politics is governed by the Stockholm Syndrome, the survival-oriented unconscious process in which hostages come to love and defend their captors. Elderly Russians wish Stalin could come back, and a resurrected Juan Peron would have Argentina handed to him. People in general come to worship their oppressors, simply because they have no choice. It can happen here, too, and it has — Franklin Delano Roosevelt stands on a godlike pedestel, even though his ignorant tinkering with the Depression that his party caused, lasted for an unprecedented dozen years.
During this election season I have seen libertarians nostalgically praising Harry Browne, despite the well-documented financial irregularities of his campaigns. “But he wrote How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World, and changed my life.” I hear them say. Somewhere around here, I used to have a document with the names of the couple who ghost-wrote that book for Harry, and if I ever find it again, I will publish it here.
You may recall that I endorsed computer-innovator John McAfee for nomination by the Libertarian Party. John seemed to me like a nice enough fellow, and an adventurer who had personally fought authoritarianism (naked, with a .357 in his hand), possessing a genuine regard for individual liberty. I have since heard that he doesn’t have much “formal” education in the philosophy of freedom (he doesn’t know who Murray Rothbard was, for shame!). I sincerely commend to his attention — and that of his associates — my book, Down With Power, “the ‘official’ platform of the real Libertarian Party”. If he reads that, he will then know vastly more about libertarianism than any presidential candidate that the party has ever fielded — except, possibly, for Dr. John Hospers. Gary Johnson was physically handed a copy and he appears to have ignored it.
And that’s my general advice for everyone within the range of my “voice”. Whether or not you believe the LP, being torn to shreds from the inside today by the white, middle class equivalent of “Black Lives Matter”, is worth saving, a better education in libertarianism is a good thing. I have spent 49 years acquiring it. I’d like to think I am passing it on. My publisher would like it, too, as the book isn’t doing well at present.
I urgently abjure you (look it up): rebuild the Libertarian Party — or create an entirely new Libertarian Party — working along genuinely and strictly libertarian lines, and you will surely surprise yourself by electing a President within perhaps only a dozen years.
Just make sure that he or she is a real libertarian.
If he comes for you, put in a good word for us.
We’d like to get out of Dodge too.
I hope there will be room for all of us!
Dear 8sm,
It’s appalling what has become of the Libertarian Party.
It’s now worse than a weak sister. It is now a liability to the good name of libertarianism.
NB: I’m using the term libertarianism not as a synonym for minarchism, but in a more general sense, as the advocacy of political liberty.
Hi Bevin!
Some of these “Libertarians” seem chiefly interested in securing the minor vices, such as smoking pot and sex between consenting adults who happen to not be of the opposite sex. But they are otherwise very much like Republicans used to be circa the ’80s (today’s Republicans are chiefly a herd of imbecile religious fanatics and flag humpers).
bevin, if Gary Johnson is a libertarian why didn’t he make a mark of some libertarian sort in NM when he was guvnah? NM is a hellhole right now, complete with a lower class of choice for coptards to pick on.
Back in the late 70’s, early 80’s when I still trucked there, Albuquerque was known as gay town, bars filled up with women every night looking for a “man”.
From Ruidoso west it was filled with Indians and fedgov……still is but with the new “killer” cops.
Hi Eight,
The only self-identified Libertarian candidate I am aware of (who actually ran for national level office or held a major elected office) is Ron Paul.
I consider him the John the Baptist figure of the movement, so to speak.
Dear Eric,
I’ve noticed that too.
These “LINOS” Libertarians In Name Only, seem utterly oblivious about the underlying principle behind genuine libertarianism, the NAP.
PS: I stumbled across this online. It’s a graphic that unwittingly reveals how deluded and dangerously out of touch with reality the heroes in blue are.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/d2/cb/ba/d2cbba986dcc69e7b5f60ac42c7ff2ec.jpg
Dear 8sm,
Re: Johnson
This article says it pretty well.
The more objectionable view of Johnson is that social liberalism is essential to libertarianism. In fact, it is distinct, if not in opposition to the philosophy. The great libertarian scholar Murray Rothbard put it like this:
“There are libertarians who are indeed hedonists and devotees of alternative lifestyles, and that there are also libertarians who are firm adherents of “bourgeois” conventional or religious morality. There are libertarian libertines and there are libertarians who cleave firmly to the disciplines of natural or religious law. There are other libertarians who have no moral theory at all apart from the imperative of non-violation of rights. That is because libertarianism per se has no general or personal moral theory.
Libertarianism does not offer a way of life; it offers liberty, so that each person is free to adopt and act upon his own values and moral principles. Libertarians agree with Lord Acton that “liberty is the highest political end” – not necessarily the highest end on everyone’s personal scale of values.”
Johnson’s embrace of social liberalism has gotten him into trouble with the base of the party. It reveals him to be not a libertarian, but a libertine and an authoritarian, which are qualities today well-represented by the Democratic Party.
http://www.redstate.com/diary/southernconstitutionalist/2016/05/28/gary-johnson-and-william-weld-are-fake-libertarians-miseducating-the-public/
Bevin – ‘congol”? Can’t even use spell check or a dictionary.
Dear Phil,
Nothing more dangerous than ignorance plus arrogance all in one.
Mind-boggling how these thugs in blue actually think they’re are in the right.
They don’t even realize they are the embodiment of evil.
Here’s the story from Bloomberg.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-06-02/sixty-million-car-bombs-inside-takata-s-air-bag-crisis
> Lillie says he met separately with the engineer who served as the liaison with Takata headquarters in Tokyo. “What I gathered from the conversation was, ‘Yes, I’ll pass on your concerns, but don’t expect it to do any good, because the decision has already been made.’ ”
Yeah, about as expected.
Business decides with limited knowledge. (That’s the selling point, they’re deciderers.)
They weigh things the wrong way, placing bottom line and their Feelz above what IS important: Human lives, intact economy, value.
Dodged a real bullet here – my mom was in a wreck yesterday, her Buick is dead, she almost was (WRT severity of accident.)
Head-on collision, someone drove into her lane…
Be warned, I’m venting a little…
so, just for review, I have a woman who’s been suicidal, whom I’d PREFER to just jump out the window; she’s gone to counseling, but her personality is still barb wire and broken glass. Her daughter is living with us again, 21, mental/emotional 14 year old. I’m several hundred miles away. Paycheck to paycheck, which on my income, is unforgivable. But Barbwire Woman can’t/won’t discuss budget, or keep a job. (driving for Uber now, we’ll see… One accident already, someone sideswiped her.) Work is insane, it’s mostly busy-work, everyone’s developing rather than facing the issue of, “SHIT STOPS WORKING OCT 1!!!!” Virtually NO testing. Then there’s the entire database, going to change. ALL of it, hardware, technology type, etc. Our database had a meltdown, we’re rebuilding – for almost 2 months now. With almost 3 months before that asking how we’d avoid the whole problem, but The Business Deciderers won’t spend the $$$ for what’s needed. Including free tools. And we’re being locked out of the systems even more, while they have a security audit running as well, which flagged 4 of our machines as “security issues” because of an expired certificate. Bear in mind, not ONE of our internal sites has a valid security cert. Not. ONE! But we’re down test machines. Can’t get the test tools packaged (that’s another team’s job, they own the software.) So I finally filled out the paperwork yesterday, because people want to use the software, but it needs to be packaged, or helldesk won’t install it. And now I’m entertaining TWO women instead of just One, with board games every effing night. and the cookies and candy and shit just keeps coming in. I know, I could just NOT indulge, but “She made you cookies…” Yeah, no win there. And I’ve got to go make several medical appointments to deal with my personal issues, plus we’ve got outstanding niggercare bills…. (High Deductible plan; we met that deductible in January. Been a bang-up year.) Somehow, everyone equates noise and chaos with leadership, I don’t get it… Oh, and the whole “therapy dog” bit, it’s been two months, maybe? Not even an appointment with the psrink yet. And mom’s eyes, she’s got glaucoma in both eyes, and her good eye’s lens is disintegrating in her head. She’s been defrauded by her investment manager, too…
That’s just what I remember, mind.
How much stress can you handle at once? It would be SO simple to fix a fair amount of this, slit a few throats, end the problems, make examples of the evil people, make deals with those who aren’t evil, so we can move forward…
Nope, can’t actually resolve anything, just “The Decision has Already Been Made.”
GOD HISSELF has SPOKE!
And you little shits better knuckle under.
I side with Lucifer more and more: “I WILL NOT SERVE.”
Because they serve themselves, at my expense. Even after I give them a fair shake, even after I try and be moral and forgiving. If they’re not worthy of my decent nature, maybe they should meet the lunatic… Briefly…
/rant
Hi Eight,
Years ago I read an article that claimed that GovCo not only knew about the deadly risks of airbags but, once they decided to mandate them, barred car company spokespeople from alerting the customer to the danger. I remember the claim being sourced at the time but I can no longer find it.
Jeremy
It wouldn’t be the first time ‘the people’ have been kept from the truth. Just look at all the things we’re not privy to since shrubco’s reign of terror. I put it in that light simply because govco couldn’t think up lies as fast as that before but it’s working OT now.
Thanks, Brent, for the link. This is a good read, but regular readers of EPAutos know this stuff. This analogy stuck out for me, in regards to mandating a safety feature for everyone, not matter the circumstance. One size fits all:
“If you look at people who have some types of cancer, you will see that those who get radiation treatment have a better chance of surviving than those who don’t. However, radiation is inherently dangerous and could actually cause cancer. If you give everyone radiation treatments, whether they have cancer or not, then you will probably find an increased risk of death in the general population.”
Here’s a great racket for fleecing people by bureaucrats. I hadn’t thought of this since i was 6 years old and my father was given a ticket for parking in a no-parking zone in Matamoros. Once we’d gone into the shop the local gendarme stuck a no parking sign up, a pipe sign stuck in a larger pipe in the sidewalk. It was made especially for Norte Americanos.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blacklistednews/hKxa/~3/aGjatpMkPbU/M.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email
For what it is worth, if you have a Honda on the airbag recall list, you can call your dealership and insist that they give you a loaner. They will feed you some bullshit that they can’t do that, but if you hold your ground and insist, they will. They have to, Honda allows it:
http://hondaairbaginfo.com/takata-airbag-inflator-recall-fact-sheet/
They just do not want to broadcast this as it probably will cost them a small fortune if everybody does it.
I was fine waiting my turn to get my Ridgeline airbags replaced, but my worry-wart/”pitbull if you cross her” wife insisted I get a loaner now that my daughter is home from college and would be driving my Honda. She made the calls and bitched enough that I now am driving a sedan loaner from Enterprise. All cost picked up by Honda. Just letting you know it is an option.
Just a follow-up, I should point out this loaner is not just for a day or two while the replace the airbag. I may have this loaner for well over a month, as Honda has yet to get the “parts” needed to fix the airbags for the 100,000 or so vehicles in their recall.
Good stuff, Gort – thanks for that info!
Yes, Honda is giving loaners to people who either complain enough, or have a valid reason (live in a coastal area). Their lots are also full of used cars & trucks that they cannot sell because of the stop-sale order.
If you’re shopping for a used car from a small dealer, ask to be shown the printout that shows that there aren’t any open recalls for the car, before handing over any money.
The last number of deaths I knew was 13 but who’s counting? Really, who is counting? Not the automakers for sure. And since the recall isn’t complete those airbags are still being installed by at least 4 manufacturers which include VW but not GM or Ford. Still being installed, a deadly, defective product, still be installed by some companies. That says a lot about those companies.
A switch is the easy way but no telling how the state will treat someone who disconnects the airbag, then has a wreck in which a passenger wasn’t “protected”. Insurance companies will use that excuse to give you a huge hickey too.
The bad,well, worst thing about this is the airbag came about simply for profit but not profit for car companies but profit for people such as Nader and Claybrook. One demanded by the state though, the car companies took a look at it and decided it was a cash cow and been on board ever since.
In meetings in car manufacturers worldwide there was the person(s)who saw this as a plus, a way to double down on profits.
What does and airbag and installation cost a company? Airbags are cheap enough for carmakers they might only be out $100/per but the profits they can and do reap are more than ten times that per.
I can’t help but think of that poor guy rotting in prison for what may be the rest of his life because he forgot to turn the airbag switch off on the passenger side of his pickup, had a car run and light and t-boned it causing the airbag to employ and kill his child installed in his childseat. Reckon he sees that as fair? I can’t imagine even clover seeing that as “fair”. But it was another notch in a prosecutor’s gun handle and the insurance companies involved laughed all the way to the bank.
I unplugged both airbags in my ’03 Corolla when I found it was on the “killer” list; was afraid the computer would rat me out when I took it for the annual saaaaaaafety inspection but it passed ok. Figured if it did fail I’d just plug them back in for the test and remove them again as soon as I got out of there.
As you mentioned there is the issue of what the insurance mafia will do to me if the car is ever in a crash, but at least I’ll be alive for them to screw me over.
The company has an ’06 Chevy pickup it bought at auction. The airbag warning has flashed in the dash since day one. I think we all try to not think about it but it’s not easy. It could probably be stopped but we don’t do maintenance till the vehicle stops working. It’s a good truck but nobody fights to drive it.
Wow!
Eric, Is there any chart to indicate exactly which 2002 and newer vehicles may have these defective Takata airbags? Couldn’t seem to find that info in the link you posted.
Thanks.
Oh, I found a fairly comprehensive list http://www.safercar.gov/rs/takata/takatalist.html
Glad to see that the model and year built for my Acura, and Tundra are apparently “not” on the list.
“If it saves one life … ” seems to only matter if it supports what they wish to do regardless of whether the benefit is worth the cost/hassle to implement.
An on/off switch (for the potentially exploding devices) would seem to be a reasonable compromise until the unsafe devices can be removed and replaced with a (hopefully) safer device. Reason does not seem to apply when dealing with certain regulations.
” Reason does not seem to apply when dealing with certain regulations.”
Maybe that’s because regulations are not rooted in reason. The whole idea of making a rule to prevent something from happening is absurd. The people who want the rule are idiots, and the people who accommodate their illogical desire are just out to control other people anyway.
Ah, Claybrook’s Claymores.
Where to begin? Perhaps the 1973 studies done in Sweden that showed airbags would kill kids and people of small stature. Or, maybe the fact that sodium azide, a virulent carcinogen, is used as the propellant. Or, well, you get the idea.
These things were sold as a “passive” safety device, no need to buckle up said Ralph Nadir [sic] acolyte Joan claybrook, head of the Dept. of Transportation. These things were shoved down our throats, literally in some cases, by the satanic clover spawn. Expensive, ineffective and dangerous, the perfect GovCo device.
You are wrong, Eric,to say “the law needs to be changed”. It is what you have accurately described as a Fatwa by bureaucrats that forced these things upon us.
Yet, still, car makers tout them as a safety device, “The new Honda Odysseus has TEN, count ’em, 10 airbags.
People are idiots.