I probably won’t be able to write new car reviews come next year – or the year after. Because I probably won’t be able to drive the damn things anymore. Maybe you won’t be able to, either.
The jihad against sail fawn gabbling – and worst of all, texting – is about to bear fruit in the form of the ORIGOSafe (see here). It is a dock – an interlock – built into your car (perhaps your next new car) that will prevent the engine from being started unless you first insert your sail fawn into said dock.
For safety’s sake, of course.
“April is Distracted Driving Month,” lectures ORIGOSafe Founder Clay Skelton. “No matter how much people talk about the dangers of hand-held texting, especially among teens, driving isn’t getting any safer… .” He drones on for awhile more along the same lines before coming to the denouement: His device – installed in every new car. You can almost see the double dollar signs in his pupils.
Now, he doesn’t actually say the word. You know the word. Mandate. But where else is this headed? The concept is far too profitable to be lefty to the vagaries of the (semi) free market, to (what’s left of) consumer choice. Because – no doubt – very few consumers would freely choose to have their cars mauled with ORIGOSafe.
After all, would you?
“For only (italics added) $279″ – plus another $125 to install the filthy bugger – “you can have peace of mind knowing your driver is focused on the road, with the phone safely docked in the ORIGO,” trumpets the company web site.
Yep, “only” another $400 or so out the window – on top of the air bags ($1,500 per car according to most estimates) the back-up cameras ($200 per car) the tire pressure monitors (another hundred, maybe) all the rest of it.
But, you’ll be safer!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3FIajCJqP8&feature=player_embedded
That’s the magic word. The word that justifies anything – cost no object. And which renders individual choice irrelevant. No, anathema.
If it’s “safe” then it’s a must do. Just what the doctor ordered.
And that’s what worries me most – the ordered part. My Spider Sense is tingling. I just know – with depressing certitude – that ORIGOSafe will tread the same path already well-worn by other safety items, once optional (failed) now “successful” (because mandatory).
Air bags, for instance. These claymores in the steering wheel would not be in every new car absent the order they be installed.
Same goes for the back-up cameras recently mandated.
Most people, left to their own devices, would elect not to purchase this gear. Not an opinion – a fact. Seat belts were available as optional equipment before they became mandatory equipment. Most people – when they still could – skipped them. Same with air bags when they first appeared in the early ’70s. Same with back-up cameras – which have been around for more than ten years but which many people didn’t buy because they couldn’t justify the additional cost and didn’t feel the need.
Unsafe! Intolerable! It cannot be permitted!
Mandates, for all! 
Did you know that several automakers already have in-car Breathalyzers in the works? Yes, indeed. The same interlocks currently fitted to cars owned by convicted “drunk” drivers are almost certainly going to be incorporated into the cars of non-convicts (that’s us) in order to . . . keep us safe. After all, it’s unendurable to imagine that anyone might drive drunk. Therefore, everyone must submit to being handled as presumptively drunk until proved not-drunk.
That premise has already been accepted by the courts – and much more unfortunately, by many people too. So, there will be little objection to mandatory in-car Breathalyzers, when those get rolled out. After all, if it’s okay to stop people at random and compel them to prove they aren’t drunk – well, why not insist they have Breathalyzers installed in their cars? You don’t support drunk driving . . . do you?
These same people will not only embrace – no, demand – that sail fawn interlocks be installed in all new cars. Just as they have insisted that all new cars be fitted with air bags, back-up cameras and tire pressure monitors. Because other people (not them, of course) cannot be trusted to act responsibly and competently. They need – in the insufferably oleaginous phraseology of one of their leaders – to be “nudged” in the right direction.
Well, among other things, I don’t even own a sail fawn – and hope to god I never will. What happens when they drop off a brand-new 2016 car for me to test drive . . . and I can’t even get the damned thing to start because I don’t have a sail fawn to insert into the ORIGOSafe?
I guess it’ll be my cue to exit, stage left. They’ve already sucked most of the joy out of driving anyhow – by taking the driver out of the equation. The latest new cars pre-empt the driver in a multitude of ways – transforming him, with each new model year, into a passenger. If one squints a little and looks hard into the distance, one can see the driverless car coming. Just another couple of years now, at most.
Meanwhile, we’ll all be so much safer (albeit $400 poorer) with our sail fawns securely docked into our ORIGOS.
Next up: Hannibal Lecter-style mouth guards to keep us from talking while driving.
Safety first!
Throw it in the Woods?
eEric i’m sure you probably watch Paul Joseph Watson on youtube. You sound just like him ha. Great guy.
anyone else want to lay long odds on the next step with this critter? So, I’ve got my sail fawn duly docked, and am whizzing along the highway at perfectly legal and safe speeds…… somehow, Big Bro gets a burr under his saddle blanket for Lil Ol Me, and decides we need to have a chat over some inane detail. Hmm.. where is he, anyway? Oh, sure, he’s right there, on that road. We can get our Man there in abour four minutes. SO, we’ll just activate his Supersmart Sail Fawn and order it to drop his speed to about 35 mph, and in a few more seconds, turn off his engine. That way we won’t have to chase him down, we’ll be right there to “take care of business”. If GM’s Onstar can do that for GM and/or LE, why not the cell phone complete with GPS.. which is already interfaced with the car’s electronic control systems? Can’t ANYONE else see where this is going? Obamaphone indeed. Obamabots, all of us, that’s the goal.
Hi T,
Just wait… I’ve got an article coming about what happens when a new diesel-powered car runs low on urea.
People have said no to putting GPS in the cars so that the cars can be tracked. So in the name of safety, docking cell phones so that people cannot talk and drive at the same time, the cell phone in each car will be tracked instead.
Off topic, but I uncovered this gem in the owner’s manual of my 2013 Jetta diesel:
http://i.imgur.com/w6rohpC.jpg
No EDR!
Bonus…when I asked the sales guys about this, they just gave me blank stare…and started talking about how to rig up a Bluetooth sail fawn connection.
I can’t wait till they just get rid of cars, those things are dangeous. Especially, when I am using my cell phone and trying to cross the street at the same time!!
“Especially, when I am using my cell phone and trying to cross the street ”
I know it. Don’tcha just HATE it when some guy in a car just runs right over you? I HATE when that happens.
What can I say? When you’re right, you’re right.
Each kind of tyranny is different. We have a “safety tyranny,” where Boobus Americanus has to be watched over constantly. Why? Because WE ARE OWNED BY THE STATE. Why can’t you legally kill yourself, drive without a seat belt, use drugs, or get a Big Gulp? Because you are property of the state and you are damaging state property when you do these things. You are nothing but a milk cow for the system!
I can’t be the only one who has noticed that the media now expresses the need for some new edict, restriction, law, regulation, or what have you with how much something costs companies in productivity. That’s what we are told on the TV news. How much our ‘bad’ habits cost our employers.
If we cost more than we produced we would be fired. So we cost them nothing. The media is expressing that we could be more profitable for our employers, who are largely owned by the people who own this country.
Cut through the BS language and it is very clear what this system is effectively.
You totally hit the nail on the head with that. I hadn’t thought about that before, but it makes complete and perfect sense.
I don’t use cell phones period! The EMF radiation is likely to prove eventually fatal! It will most likely cause some form of brain tumors.
So what do these tech geniuses want? That I should have to own a cell phone to drive?
Got some very bad news for you. I will stay with older cars if they do.
Perhaps someone should break the news to them gentle like. There is a depression going on out there. Up the annie a little more and no new cars are going to sell in the coming year.
Dave, I use mine almost exclusively on speakerphone and have for 9 years. The first mobile I had was a bag phone and driving a one ton diesel pickup, generally dragging a trailer, I’d just punch the button and it would pick up on speakerphone. I had people bitch about me sounding like I was in a well. I was in a some really shitty traffic one day and trying to negotiate a hard turn and this friend started in on me for sounding that way. I retorted “I’m steering this sumbitch and shifting gears and trying not to run over these fools and you really want to bitch at me for the way the phone sounds?” I guess it sounded like I felt, bent, and he came back, Well, I guess it does require both hands don’t it?”. Ya think? Dumbass, you’ve been in that truck too many times and you know it’s a handful without the load I’m pulling. By the time I got a small cellphone, I was ruined on good sound so I fairly much hated the small little bitch but at least it wasn’t digital and had 3 watts and would boost on external antenna but once again, I used the speakerphone since you can’t steer, shift and pay attention with something plastered in your peripheral vision. By that time, I’d read all the medical reports so people know they’re going to have to listen to background noise(if there is any)when they talk to me. It’s a good thing. The people who really want or need to speak to you will endure(I’ve always had Motorola’s except for one of those Samsung things made to be run over and survive, a milspec phone, that actually fell apart when I took it out of my shirt pocket one day). It had spent it’s whole life either in the console or sitting on a desk or occasionally in my shirt pocket. Now I don’t wrestle for a living so there was no cause for that thing to break except the plastic hinges. All my Motorola’s had titanium hinges. Of course they don’t sound like the bag phone did on speakerphone so people don’t bitch much but I don’t care. You haven’t missed anything but frustration by not having a cell phone. I’ve run all over the country trying to find a hill I could hit a tower to get directions or information. Frustrating as hell. It’s another ball game in the reaches of west Texas.
“I use mine almost exclusively on speakerphone”
Eight, the best $80 I ever spent was on a Jabra bluetooth 2-way speaker that clips to the sun visor. Phone rings, I say “answer” and I’m immediately on a 2 way speaker phone with better sound quality than the expensive conference speakerphones in a lawyer’s conference room. Totally hands free answering and making calls with the voice activated speed dialing.
I drive a manual 5 speed most of the time and it’s the only way to go for me. Customers call and I can speak to them while running through the gears without tying up a hand at all. All the while my cell phone is in my shirt pocket. Cool as shit, huh?
Ed, guess this shows how long it’s been since I checked on that technology. I considered the bluetooth insect for your ear but couldn’t see myself with one. It looks uncomfortable and evidently is since the people I know who use them are always looking for a better one. I remember there being very expensive systems to dock your phone into and have handsfree phones but my stereo wasn’t “electronic”, tied into everything else since I had no computer, the only way to haul ass. Thanks for the heads up here. Every phone I’ve ever had had voice dialing so this is the nads. What I’d really like is to be able to use my old bagphone. Hook it to my ext. antenna and you could talk like old time Motorola two way FM’s. Hit that tower way out there from the boonies.
” What I’d really like is to be able to use my old bagphone. ”
Oh, HAIL yeah. Those old phones had some range. One of the big old Motorola flip phones from the ’90s would reach a tower from out on the salt when you were boating.
The phones today have less range, because the towers are closer together in most places, but for the places where they ain’t you need the range.
Ed, the first flip phone I bought was of course analog, a Motorola that blew the then dominant Nokias away. It had an ext. antenna port so you could get an adapter and use that same antenna your bagphone used. The phone also was a 3 watt phone combined with antenna would even hit a tower from the Jim Ned(small town, SE of Abilene, middle of nowhere) creek bottom, quite a feat. I did the most stupid thing I’ve ever done with a phone, loaned it out and it came back destroyed but no one would admit it. It got ruined in shipping. Sure, the phone was cracked from one corner to the other, something I hadn’t been able to do dropping it from 3 story roofs and running over it once with a trailer but the box it was shipped in was fine. Try to buy one of those phones now and it’s really expensive. One of those “I ruined it so I’ll send it back” things but never admit it.
Um, I don’t HAVE a cell phone. What am I supposed to do with a car that won’t start without having my cell phone safely docked?
Same issue for me, Ayn!
Death before sail fawns….
Cell phones are ruining our society. Kids hardly even talk to each other anymore, and they don’t even look out the window when driving on vacation. They’re too deep into their portals.
I agree, Esteban.
I know it makes me sound like an old fart – and a Luddite. But, really, what’s the upside to “texting” vs. actually meeting up with a friend/hanging out? Or actually doing something vs. spending hours every day fiddling with “apps” and such?
Bah. The cell phone manufacturing business is already down to a controlable number of players. Apple is still an outsider as far as government is concerned. If some selected office holders hear of this thing and think it a good idea to force upon the children of the state it will not take this form.
They will make a new standard where the phone will interface with the car, such as Ford Sync. The car will then disable the phone. Done. Now you say you won’t activate the blue tooth… well there will probably be a jammer requirement that is functioning any time the car is motion or some such. That’s if they decide to do it. I don’t think they will. Why? 1) automated prevention hurts revenue and being intrusive. 2) they won’t have the special privilege in their own cars.
This device featured is made by some nothing company of people who probably don’t know anyone who knows someone. It will be going nowhere.
Real power is a wedge for government employees to get into your business while senator muckymuck can still make a call with his phone to his ear while driving maserati.
I’m dead serious about leaving phones behind completely. I said I’d go back to two way radio and I’m not bluffing, for the very reason you stated. For years now I remove my cell phone battery when I’m on the road and I don’t travel with the one on my phone bill. That new facility in Utah is going to monitor every phone that comes through this country and many others. I have heard about the amount of power being run to the place so I don’t doubt their capability to monitor every phone call, text and email. Of course what would it take to make that work in some sort of real life scenario? How many people would it take to make sense of those zillion records? More govt. folly. We could all work for the govt. so we could get back some of our tax money. Hell, they just punch a few keys and here’s another $100B injected into the economy next month which by the way is what was injected last month. $85 and $95B for the two previous months. That could turn into some real money after a while…..for wall street bankers.
Actually not such a bad idea. As a bike rider, 100% situational awareness is a key factor in avoiding accidents. Not much I can do though if I’m stopped at an intersection and someone behind me texting on their smart phone plows into me.
Hi Steve,
It’s a terrible idea, actually. Want to know why? Because the principle behind it – that everyone must be treated as a presumptive imbecile because some people have behaved as imbeciles – can be very easily redirected at you. And me.
Why, all bikes should be required to have air bags. And not “too much” power. Helmet laws are a great idea. They keep everyone safe.
See?
“everyone must be treated as a presumptive imbecile because some people have behaved as imbeciles”
this is how the government school I was in was run. Now as adults people see that as the way the world should be run.
But it’s a paranoid conspiracy theory that the schools are to condition people for the benefit of the state…. just paranoid they say.
BrentP, sorry you had that experience. While my schooling was limited in many ways, the teachers had good heads(for the most part)and treated us as if we had good sense and didn’t have to suffer fools and wouldn’t so it was more like being with your dad all day and back talk or not paying attention or acting the fool wasn’t an option. There was no ADD or ADHD when I went to school. If you couldn’t shut up, you went home or got your butt busted(something to be said for that as long as you don’t have abusive teachers, which we mainly didn’t) and that was worse so everybody paid attention and everybody got respect. I look back and see how lucky I was although I’d certainly liked to have had an education like some people on this forum. I mostly sit back and learn and try to figure out the foreign languages some communicate with, a fine thing, very fine. There was an old entertainer who was hilarious since he poked fun at everything but he was a really smart guy, Dave Gardner, brother Dave as he called himself. He told a joke about having an adult tell him Go get that education, that’s something nobody can take away from you and he’d say But who wants it? He was just being facetious, a smart guy who died too young. You might actually find him on Youtube…or maybe not. From another BrentP from another generation.
Yeah Steve, there is something you can do to avoid getting rear-ended at an intersection. Stay to one side of the lane you’re in (which also keeps you out of the oil patch), watch your mirrors constantly and keep you bike in gear. When you see that distracted asshole coming up fast, nail it between the cars / trucks in front of you and let them hit the four wheeled vehicles instead. If you’re the lead dog, be ready to nail it and turn. As you said, situational awareness is the key and not being there when someone else tries to occupy your space / time slot is easy on a bike. Drop your guard on a bike though, and you may not have the chance to ever be careless again. True, this method may not 100%, but it gives you a lot better odds of surviving an unwanted interaction with another vehicle than just sitting there obliviously picking your nose waiting for the light to change.
Boothe, yeah that’ll cut down the odds of being hit in the back. People caught texting while driving should have their cars impounded, their licenses suspended, plus a hefty fine.
Well, Clover, er I mean, steve. If “they” really wanted to cut down the odds of being hit in the back, why not simply outlaw motorcycles altogether?
I mean, just like a cell phone in a car, no one really ‘needs’ a motorcycle to get around. That’s what our overlords might say.
Go a step further and require six foot thick rubber bumpers on every car too?
Does the phrase, ‘slippery slope’ mean anything to you?
If these devices cost $400 and the US auto industry produces 10 million cars a year that’s $4 billion wasted.
If the average worker earns $1 million dollars in a lifetime this idea will destroy 4 thousand lives per year.
That’s a 9/11 disaster every year. Engineered by the government. No conspiracy theory needed here.
I don’t feel much safer.
Here’s one piece of good news:
Mayor Bloomberg Refused Second Slice of Pizza
“Bloomberg was having an informal working lunch with city comptroller John Liu at Collegno’s Pizzeria at the time and was enraged by the embarrassing prohibition.
Witnesses say the situation unfolded when as the two were looking over budget documents, they realized they needed more food than originally ordered.
“Hey, could I get another pepperoni over here?” Bloomberg asked owner Antonio Benito.”
“I’m sorry sir,” he replied, “we can’t do that. You’ve reached your personal slice limit.”
The owners would not relent, however, and the pair were forced to depart to another restaurant to finish their meal and meeting.”
http://dailycurrant.com/2013/05/02/bloomberg-refused-second-slice-of-pizza-at-local-restaurant/
[Actually, it turns out this is a fake news story, but it feels so good to think about the little bastard finally getting some measure of well-deserved comeuppance!]
The only reason I’d think it’s fake is because of those gutless NYC pricks wouldn’t dare do that, especially to one of their blueblood dick suckers. Sorry, I meant fellatio expert.
How much longer with the people in the U.S. trust their safety to those people who so obviously want to use them? Lets put this into perspective to see if it even closely approaches what it says it wants to do:
Requirements:
*You will be forced to own a cellphone, likely a *particular* cell phone in order to use your car.
*Doubtless the monitor will demand the device be powered on, network attached (your bill is paid), and will almost certainly be sold to government as a way to send information about you and your driving habits to the police.
*Nothing stops the person from having a second cellphone, which even if every safeguard in the book is followed can’t be defeated without ruthlessly tracking every cellphone and demanding only one per person (and this wouldn’t stop you borrowing a friends – better make that a 1st degree felony also)
In the end the roads would not be safer, the population would be poorer, the government would be intrusive, bigger, more violent, more evil, and the quality of life for everyone but the makers of the device, government, and cellphone companies would be reduced.
Is there anything that the citizens of the U.S. won’t knuckle under too anymore? You do know that eventually the police will be able to detain you at will, search your house at will, commit any act of violence against you or your family at will (including rape and murder) and all this nonsense about keeping you safe really is just enabling all of this right? You know and understand this and yet do nothing? There are other places on Earth to live.
Imagine this… I having never ridden a motorcycle rented a Honda Wave in Thailand presenting nothing but money. I drove around like an idiot learning how to use it fully conscious of the fact that without a helmet (couldn’t find one to fit) and on the road I could easily be killed. Months later and much wiser I rented a larger bike and rode it all over, up into areas I never should have and being very “unsafe”. That was 5 years ago. Now I can easily say I can ride whatever motorbike is thrown my way and I have ridden dozens, in various shapes, sizes, etc. Life. It is not safe but it is better than a prison cell.
Amen, Aremo!
As Gen Xer, I can remember an America not unlike what you describe:
“Imagine this… I having never ridden a motorcycle rented a Honda Wave in Thailand presenting nothing but money. I drove around like an idiot learning how to use it fully conscious of the fact that without a helmet (couldn’t find one to fit) and on the road I could easily be killed. Months later and much wiser I rented a larger bike and rode it all over, up into areas I never should have and being very “unsafe”. That was 5 years ago. Now I can easily say I can ride whatever motorbike is thrown my way and I have ridden dozens, in various shapes, sizes, etc. Life. It is not safe but it is better than a prison cell.”
Indeed.
It existed here, too.
No mandatory “buckle up” laws; no mandatory child “safety” seats … no DUI exceptions to the Fourth Amendment. You could walk into any airport – smoking, if you wanted – buy a ticket in cash, without showing ID and just walk to the gate, then get on your plane. Back then, it would have been considered Soviet or Nazi to be subjected to pat downs and crotch-grabs.
Kids – 12 year olds – could buy fireworks. Real ones. That flew. And exploded.
You could swim without a lifeguard present. People didn’t have to put up a “safety” fence around their backyard pool to avoid being held liable if some idiot neighbor or the idiot neighbor’s kid used the pool without having asked permission and drowned. The response would automatically have been: Stupid kid was trespassing. Stupid kid should not have jumped in the pool if he didn’t know how to swim.
My friends in high school had shotgun racks in their pick-ups. Sometimes, these contained actual shotguns/rifles. In the high school parking lot. This was the 1980s. Not all that long ago.
More and more, I finger Ronald Reeeeeeeeeeagan as the asshole pol who set this train in motion. His flag-humping and troop-worshipping, his extra-constitutional activities (Ollie North and REX84), the post-Vietnam resuscitation of the military-industrial complex, his corporate hog-troughing…all wrapped up in the image of a genial old man who could disarm all comers with a well-placed weeeeeellllll.
And of course, it was RR who acted as the John the Baptist figure for the otherwise un-electable Chimp Sr. – which in turn led to Clintgula (and freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee trade as well as the first round of “terror” legislation post OKC bombing) and then, to The Chimp himself.
And now Barry.
America was by no means perfect – much less free – before RR. But it was much more free – and less overtly evil than it became after RR.
When I was in school, they loaded us up on a bus(no a/c, no tinted windows, no exhaust system occasionally), hauled our raucous butts to the nearest or clearest lake and opened the door. Sure, a couple people nearly drowned but the best swimmers were always up to hauling them out. Even the near drowners had a great day. Then get back on the bus with your wet swim suits on with ROC Cola in hand and they haul your nasty butt back to school where you could get on another bus to go home…if anyone was still around. Otherwise, you could walk down the street(school locked up)to someone’s house and call for somebody to haul you home. Those really were the good old days and You’re right again eric, it really got shitty when RR got into office after his ill fated debacle in Ca. and his gun control measure he got passed that affected everyone. Thanks Ronnie for sweating black people so much.
” eventually the police will be able to detain you at will, search your house at will, commit any act of violence against you or your family at will (including rape and murder)”
This is already the case today. This has been the case for a few decades, actually, with only the scattered example of a judge here or there making a ruling intended to give the appearance of a hand, somewhere, being on the reins of the enforcement class.
We’re all living with one foot in the black market, one in the controlled market, partly in and partly out of the control matrix. I think that more people are aware of the current situation than one would assume, because the over-arching media presents a widely disseminated false picture.
So what is to stop someone from having 2 cell phones? And won’t Apple be happy that you must buy *their* phone to be able to operate your own car. Naturally it will have to be charged, on, connected to the network, so just plugging a dummy in won’t do it. Otherwise how could it forward all your driving data to the police and government taxing agencies? Forget to pay your cellphone bill? Oh well no driving for you. Hope you don’t need to go to the hospital or see your sick/dying grandmother. Take the bus – its safer right?
Not sure if I would want one in my car, but I sure wish the dude who thought texting was more important than not slamming into the back of me would have had one in his car. I’m still pissed at him
Esteban, Seems to me the true cause of the accident was a lack of priority and maturity along with poor observational skills rather than a lack of goberment oversight and control. I.e. when I was rear ended we didn’t have texting and cells phones. Seems to me goberment controls change little.
Also, stop being pissed, it might eat you up.
[Insert some video about the Dark Side, here x.]
That’s good advice DownshiftFast… I’ll try to let it go
Heh, there is no, ‘try’, there is only, ‘do’.
It’s not easy, I’ll grant you that. Oh I know.
I understand the sentiment, Esteban – but consider: You can get rear-ended just as effectively by a driver addled by old age, or distracted by a shrieking child, or tuning the stereo… literally, dozens of possibilities. Rather than focus on a piece of equipment that is not necessarily a problem (like guns) how about focusing on the specific individuals whose actions cause problems?
If I rear end you, I am at fault and ought to be held accountable – whether I rear ended you because I was texting or because I just failed to pay attention for some other reason. But why hold others – who haven’t done anything – accountable by either forcing them to buy equipment they may have no need for (some people are excellent drivers, fully capable of multi-tasking and maintaining control of their vehicles while doing so) or punishing them pre-emptively on the basis of the theory that because some people can’t handle it, no one will be allowed the freedom to show they can handle it?
E.P. check out this Dutch hot rod racer:
http://www.donkervoort.com/
Heh. That’s fecken awesome. Reminds me of the Caterham or the Ariel atom, but somewhere between those and the Batmobile.. 😉
Great looking car. I like hotrods that are built in home garages, too, but that one is cool.
dom, I remember not long ago we all used CB or FM two way radios and they worked pretty well, as well as cell phones in west Texas did for a couple decades. My first phone was for business and it was a bag phone but that sucker would talk for a great distance, esp. if you had an external antenna which I always did on my pickups. Having said that, I was 50 years old before I ever got a mobile phone and 54 before I got a cell phone, one of the old Motorola’s that would plug into that same external antenna and talk like nobody’s business(not as well as the bag phone but almost since it had 3 watts that it automatically boosted when hooked to an external antenna. It was all downhill after that because of digitized signals and low power. They can have my damned cell phone now and many of us will go back to radios and landlines. If they haven’t made it mandatory to show ID on trac phones I’d use one of those like I have now when I don’t really want to be tracked. Of course you have the McCains of the world and all the rest who want to make it a police state. I made it 50 years without a mobile phone and can finish my life without one too. There are limits of what I can take and this Sail Fawn crap is well beyond my limit. Screw ’em, just get everybody I know to get a Ham Radio handset and stay in touch. I have very little to say anyway as far as calling people on the phone. Another expense gone…..and if someone wants to supply me with one on the job, they can do so but it’ll stay at work or turned off after hours(and the battery removed if I take it with me after being off the clock).
tagged for emails…
I didn’t read through all the stuff, so this might have been mentioned. If this is mandated it will be very difficult to bypass. Uncle Sam will tie your mobile phone number into the system. This will open another can of worms as far as registered/requirements on mobile phone numbers. If this shit gets mandated we’re talking total and complete grid lock down!
If this is mandated it will be very difficult to bypass.
Difficult, probably, but NOT impossible. Not at all. All of the current digital technology is riddled with holes. It’s just a matter of finding the right one(s) to exploit.
I’m having visions of cameras reading license plates and calling the cell phone registered to the plate. Also, cars automatically shutting off for cops. It seems no matter how much we don’t want shit it still happens and we’re told we wanted it. I don’t want any of this crap! All beeps, lights, traction control, air bags, take it all back.
Or better yet, cops doing random cell phone checks. Saying while they’re riding behind you, or at a saaafety stop, they call the number associated with your plate. They then press an option “verify” which does something to indicate quickly its paired. Maybe like wig wag your lights for a second or strobe.
cameras reading license plates and calling the cell phone registered to the plate.
One possible workaround: register your license plate to multiple cell numbers, none of which are valid (of course this will depend upon the registration software that the state uses – software that, I GUARANTEE YOU, will have been coded by the lowest bidder and not beta tested or locked down for security). Or, alternatively, change your cell number every week – or more accurately, modify your registration profile every week to include a new cell number. Which doesn’t have to be a valid one (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).
cars automatically shutting off for cops
I would imagine that this would have to be done via wireless or satellite transponder. The frequency ranges for these are generally well-known and are susceptible to manipulation or interference. Also, in order to shut down a specific car, it would stand to reason that some sort of unique key would have to be assigned to each car. This too could be corrupted, modified, or destroyed. The obvious problem here would be if the ignition of the car itself were tied to this key or code, which would be another problem to be worked out with the software code base on which the ignition system works.
Or better yet, cops doing random cell phone checks. Saying while they’re riding behind you, or at a saaafety stop, they call the number associated with your plate. They then press an option “verify” which does something to indicate quickly its paired.
People change cell phone numbers all the time. It would thus stand to reason that there would be a very great chance that any given cell phone number associated with any given license plate number at any given moment would be out of date. That’s why the idea of a cell phone check like that described would be impractical – not that this would be any means stop the state from trying it.
you see? people see these new laws they come up with, these new technologies that the progressives, rulers, slave drivers create in the name of safety, and everyone just says, “oh well, i guess i have to play along…at least until everyone else decides its time to revolt…” fuck that. ill keep driving my jag, i know they aint gonna put a sail fone thing in it. but i say, yall are witness to the changes, what change is it going to take until you all are finally going to say, enough is enough?
We choose our battles, Jim.
Not everything is worth going to the mattresses over.
Everything is a risk-return calculation. Smart people only risk when there is a good chance the return is going to be worth it. Never the reverse.
I routinely “speed” because I have a top-of-the-line radar detector and regard my risk to be relatively low – and the potential consequences if caught to be fairly trivial (because, they are… we’re talking fines at most).
I don’t fuck around with the IRS – because the risk is very high and the consequences extremely serious. As in life-ruining and permanent.
Ultimately, what matters is winning the intellectual/ethical battle – convincing people that the current system is wrong – not waging war against it, one individual (or isolated individuals) in futile, suicidal direct confrontation.
“yall are witness to the changes, what change is it going to take until you all are finally going to say, enough is enough?”
Who knows? Who says it’s going to be some collective movement? In my life, I’ve seen a lot of change. The changes I like best have been due to individual people, going about their business in spite of being robbed, enslaved and ruled.
Think about it. I just noodle along, trying to do what I can with what I have and things change. I didn’t do anything to make them change, but they changed nonetheless. 20 years ago, I couldn’t do what I do now without encountering so much hassle that what I do wouldn’t be worth the trouble.
The people who brought the changes about didn’t know me and weren’t trying to help me out, they were noodling along, doing their best with what they had, pursuing their own interests. If it took several million of us being mad as hell and refusing to take it anymore, I doubt anything would have changed for the better.
I dislike collective movements. I hate joining up with a bunch of people for any specific purpose. The one thing I know that big, angry crowds of people produce is piles of corpses. The mobs and movements can get along without me. I ignore them as best I can, the way I do with government.
“Who says it’s going to be some collective movement?”
Yeah, I got that same impression [things fall down, everything goes to barter for awhile] while reading this bit:
http://thedailybell.com/29047/Anthony-Wile-Antal-Fekete-Gold-Backwardation-and-the-Collapse-of-the-Tacoma-Bridge
Ed that’s the most profound post you’ve written. It’s a pearl, my friend.
You’re exactly right; “Der Tag Kommt”, but it comes differently for everyone. As the saying goes, the revolution won’t be televised.
And what you point to is Ludwig von Mises’ Human Action–praxeology, that the world is not built by collective action or central planning, but by individual action.
You make a good point too; while so much has deteriorated on the freedom front, so much has improved. We’re whacking the hell out of the War on (some) Drugs. We’re killing them in the 2nd Amendment fight; the most popular rifle in America is the AR-15. I used to be the lone nut with a battle rifle at the range twelve years ago; now they’re the vast majority. The internet is destroying their memes faster than they can false-flag them.
But all that happened because individuals went “noodling along” minding their own business–as you say.
Brilliant post Ed.
Aw, shucks….
Thanks for reading it, meth. My daughter and I went to see “The Hobbit” on Christmas day. There was a scene in it where Gandalf tells Galadrial that he thinks Saruman is wrong to think that great power is needed to win the struggle with evil. He says that great power isn’t strong in the way that the simple acts of individuals are. He puts it in the context of love of family and hearth as being more powerful than great influence over others.
I see it that way, too. Great power serves itself and is not controllable by those who serve it while imagining that they are wielding it. I think that humans aren’t supposed to have power, especially not power over other humans.
The power that some people imagine will “turn things around”, such as the power of a huge collective of like-minded people, will fry our asses as quickly as it beats down any rulers we have.
I’d rather clean up my yard than attend a rally. That’s just me, though.
Pretty deep stuff there Eric_G.
“Such a shame that most of the fundamentals of our technology were developed during the golden era of the progressive movement.”
One thing I’ve noticed is that simpletons neglect momentum in their causal world. They assume that just because the billard ball is still moving that the impediment didn’t have a causal relation because the ball is still moving. The best physical analogy I can surmise is that of vacuum tube in operation. Here in simplest form you’d have a (negative) cathode heater, a positive gate (control modulator), and plate anode (collector). The voltage between the gate and the cathode heater acted as the primary accelerator. But as the electrons developed momentum, most of them would have enough velocity to make it through the screen wire mesh of the gate without collison with it, and then continue on to the plate anode. Same is true with a bipolar transistor. Except the electrons and holes of the base material are so thin that a majority make it through the no mans zone without recombination. Now to apply the analogy, the gate represents previous economic motivators like free enterprise and sound money of the past. The electrons position represent progress. You could add in another gate control that was a decelerator and if its field was smaller than the accelerator the electrons will still make it through the impediment. At some electric field and field length the electrons will stop and even reverse.
The problem is that progressive attribute all the progress made in science and engineering as due to their policy when in fact they are a decelerator grid on the economy. We’d most likely be already as common people having access to the space if it weren’t for progressive trash. At this point I believe we have passed the point where regulation is actually now descending society backwards not forwards. Case point is that most businesses are not surviving due to all the cost and regulations foisted upon them. The ones that are surviving are small operators where the fixed expenses are lower or in ones that are able to bypass all the burden.
“. I’d actually be more in favor of state mandated licensing if it were run more like the German system, where you were expected to have a fairly good understanding of basic physics as well as the rules.”
I like Germans heck I have a lot of their blood coarsing through my veins. I’m not fond of the German systems. Much of it sadly is pioneering the subjection of greatness of the German people as well as the rest of the world. Here I will give my analogy of why that is so. Germany possessed probably some of the best in mathematical, engineering, inventive and industrialist minds at the beginning of the previous century. Mind you when you have this kind of unbridled knowledge and power, the Cainnites come with their yokes to destroy and steal and plunder. The Cainnites not being any one race like Hitler thought, but being a school of thought possessed by all races and surpessing all good and taleneted people. The whole idea of control freaks being Jezebels of the old testament. Jezebels exist in both sexes, they love to connive, steal, defame, slander, and pass as truth falsity all for the lust of power of control. The Jezebel’s are in all aspects of life, in both sexes, and distributed by Pareto’s principle in the unprincipled in all races. Germany because of all the talent was ripe for the slave conquistdors as was America, so the suppression of the German people was as real as day. But the final scapegoat used by Hitler was not real. And yes there were Jews that were Jezebels at that time too. Anyway, Germany as I see it and the control freaks including their burden to drivers is anything but productive.
Sadly their is no shortcut for losing naivette than costly experience. I cringe when I see a newbie driver tail gating me or others, but I mean some of these kids are quite smart they just aren’t practical yet about stopping distance. You hope they learn and the lesson isn’t too costly. And sadly I remember hearing that engineers are the hardest to teach to fly. The answer is because the engineer is thinking about all the rudders and flaps and the physics instead of learning the motor skills by reflex. The thing is though that when engineers do learn the motor skills they become the best pilots, the reason of course is that they know exactly what is going on at a higher level.
“When I think back to my grandparents, I often wonder if they knew what they had, and understood what they were giving up when they voted in progressives and demonized business and individuality.”
Me too! But in reality the whole thing is contrived and has been for a long time. I doubt their vote ever counted.
Such a shame that most of the fundamentals of our technology were developed during the golden era of the progressive movement. Thanks to progressive-era thinking, driving is a “privilege” not just something we do. Riding a horse or driving a buggy requires no license nor is there an age limit, bicycles are considered toys even though prior to the practical automobile they were mostly for adults, and don’t require any sort of certification to ride one.
I’m sure the writers of the legislation that put our licensing system in place thought that they were doing a good thing, by requiring a “neutral third party,” the state to certify your ability to drive. We all know how that is going though. I’d actually be more in favor of state mandated licensing if it were run more like the German system, where you were expected to have a fairly good understanding of basic physics as well as the rules. But this also puts a limit on the number of drivers, so that hurts the economy (what’s good for GM is good for America, right), so dumb it down a little, ok? You don’t really think anyone is any better at driving because they passed a 10 minute driving test in a parking lot do you?
So we ended up with a system that exists only to feed itself, not actually do what it was intended to do, basically certify drivers. We all just accept it because we’ve never known any other way. When you’re young you’re taught that police will help you when you’re lost, and that they’re all nice people like Andy Griffith. That lasts until you turn 16 and suddenly find out that they really don’t like you at all, and see you as a revenue source. And just to drive the point home, they live to scare the crap out of you by showing you movies of what happens to people who don’t understand practical physics.
When I think back to my grandparents, I often wonder if they knew what they had, and understood what they were giving up when they voted in progressives and demonized business and individuality. Did they think they’d have a utopia, where everyone was taken care of without anyone actually doing anything to help their fellow man? Did they realize that by building the bureaucracy they’d be insuring failure of the state to even get the most basic functions of government right? Did they realize that using taxes for social engineering and handouts would only create resentment of recipients of benefits? Or was it a matter of greed and envy, where the rich only got their wealth by beating it out of the rest of us?
The true nature of Germans like all other scandanavians is basically barbarian nomads and rebels, not fascist and control freakish. The Romans actually found this out the hard way. Germanic people thrived when they weren’t subjected by the Cainnite Jezebels. They developed a certain momentum to make it through all the self imposed control and regulation in the beginnings of the previous century, to be finally destoyed by these same forces shortly thereafter in WWII. The real goal in life as far as I’m concerned is to recognize that the Jezebel’s exist. Don’t be naive that these goulish slave traders still exist today. You’ll know them they are naturally attracted to power structure. Their dumb as fuck. And they stand as obstacles to that is good. They want credit by fucking over the good and talented people, you know the ones that God loves. Finally they slander, lie, and bear false witness as much as they steal. You’ll know you aren’t a scumbag if you actually 90% of the work that matters and put up with 90% of the shit from aholes that do nothing. Its the goal of God in my humble opinion of us to break the chains of all bondage to these scumbags and let them naturally descend into their own hell.
Yes, you’re right, Hotrod. I think we’ll do well to just let them descend to their own hell, rather than to send them to hell ourselves.
The way I see it is that when somebody steals from me, they harmed themselves more than they harmed me. Until they attack me, I won’t shoot. I’ll only shoot to defend my family or myself.
I (guess obviously) disagree.
Takes too long for Divine Justice to catch up. We need to follow Proverbs: God helps those who help themselves.
You just defined the results of the fall, told to the bearer of 46 (XX) genetics…
And the reason most masters are either married very late in life, or not at all…
“So we ended up with a system that exists only to feed itself, not actually do what it was intended to do, basically certify drivers.”
I think that the system is working exactly as it was intended to work. It does indeed exist to feed itself. What it isn’t doing, and cannot do is to function as described by its creators.
I doubt that it was set up to certify drivers for the purpose of making travel safe. It was set up to certify drivers as a means to the end of exercising control over ordinary people while feeding itself for the purpose of growing steadily, year by year.
That’s what I think.
I think you’re exactly right, Ed. In fact, you’re so obviously right that I find it hard to believe that our parents’ and grandparents’ generations didn’t very quickly see that this was the case just as soon as these institutions became entrenched. And yet they STILL put up with them anyway, even after seeing the obvious harm they were doing.
I still wrestle regularly with the question of whether my parents’ and grandparents’ generations were well-meaning but naive or just plain stupid. Unfortunately, with each passing day I lean more heavily toward believing the latter.
Same things apply to the “public” schools.
@ERic_G:
Absolutely. To be fair, my grandparents back to 1620 lived in South Africa; but they made the same mistakes.
And although I don’t like to think in terms of collectives, I still resent to a great extent the Baby Boomer generation…who sleep-walked us into the present Dumbfuckistan we live in. Just what the hell were they thinking? How did they not see the consequences of what was happening? Granted, the Elites have run thousands of highly sophisticated psy-ops; the predators have become quite clever over the last few thousand years in co-opting their food–US.
But after the JFK assassination, after the Gulf of Tonkin…the “New Deal”, the “Great Society”…the “war on poverty” and “war on drugs”–hey, wake up, do you GET IT yet?
But they didn’t. And today, they whine and bitch about “their” sosh-security, “their” fucking Medicare that they “paid into”. Hey morons, cretins; did you ever sit down and do the math on those things?
So yes; I resent the Baby Boomers.
I still resent to a great extent the Baby Boomer generation…who sleep-walked us into the present Dumbfuckistan we live in.
While the Boomers ran the ball to the end zone, it was the “Silent” and “Greatest [**bullshit!**] generations (the generations of my parents and grandparents) that put the ball in play. Had THEY not had their collective heads firmly ensconced up their collective asses and not swallowed the manipulative bait of the bankster classes, none of the current travesty would be unfolding. Those two generations are the ones I damn louder and more vehemently than any other.
“Just what the hell were they thinking?”
Sex Drugz Rock-n-Roll were shoved down their throats by the counterfeit money terrorist elites for the sole purpose of getting them to stay childish and stop thinking. Public school and TV broadcasts are their most potent tools for enslaving their Fucktardians…Stupidity and violence (Brutishness) is what they wanted from their tax cattle as the US is the conquest and enforcement arm of their NWO. Nothing can stop their NWO – Facsist slave plantation earth now.
Oh, the NWO will stop alright. The parasites can’t help themselves; they’re cancer cells. They’re botulinum bacteria. They’re tapeworms, lampreys, hagfish. Lice.
They’ll destroy their host and perish in the process.
Or we’ll become aware of the infection and root it out.
Sex Drugz Rock-n-Roll and TV are the centerpieces of their psy-op against us.
“Sex Drugz Rock-n-Roll and TV are the centerpieces of their psy-op against us.”
Well, y’know…I kinda like the sex and rock’n’roll part.
Methylamine, I love your vocabulary! You’ve given me some great new names to call certain people (I’ve become bored by the same old ones). Yours aren’t only apt, but quite funny. I really especially like “tapeworms”, “lice”, and “lampreys”, but “hagfish” is definitely the best. I can’t wait for the chance to use it. I am sure I won’t have to wait very long!
From the picture at the top, the passenger air bag will blow the phone back into someone’s face when the airbag deploys. Is that the purpose of this item, to blow someone’s face apart?
Yup –
The entire premise of this thing is ridiculous. Ok, so “texting” is bad. Well, fine. What about manipulating the 747-like array of controls for the “infotainment” systems in so many new cars?
What about just talking?
Or eating?
Some people can’t multi-task.
Others, can.
It’s not the technology – it’s the people using it.
And we have done everything in our power to repeal Darwin’s Law and devolve the species.
WW3 would be an IMPROVEMENT, in that regard. People don’t get it – and the ones doing the MOST squaking (Maybe even myself included) are the WORST ones. These are the ones who wish to control OTHERS, because they are unable to control themselves. It’s all the Man behind the curtain in Oz…
All a deception.
(For instance, if you read the book – the Emerald City wasn’t Emerald, everyone wore green glasses so as not to be blinded by the beauty and radiance of the city. Same sh!t, different geolocation.)
Clovers never quit do they. If mommygov can order you to purchase mchealthcare then what can stop them from mandatory purchase of a certain make of vehicle and cell phone ignition lock.
Hi Ulf,
That’s it, exactly.
The principle is the issue. I’ve been hammering at this for years. Unfortunately, all too many people seem unable (or are unwilling) to grasp it, or its implications.
They have accepted Stalinist totalitarianism, intellectually/ethically/philosophically. The fact that we don’t – yet – have an outright Stalinist state is only a matter of detail and time.
But, rest assured: It’s coming.
Mandatory in-car breathalyzers? No more renting a car for me! I’d stick my a$$ up to the thing and fart into it. Poor saps who rent the car after me!!
Better yet, stick some other part of your anatomy up the thing.
If this is an INTERLOCK, that implies that the possession of the mobile phone is universal and mandatory. To put it simply, what if someone does not want one of these style of phones and hence doesn’t own one. They are now banned from driving because they don’t want to have a piece of technology that has nothing to do with driving?
while most people own a mobile phone, one does not NEED to own one, and one does not need a phone to drive. So forcing the 2 to be linked is just stupid.
That’s coerced sales last time I checked, gouvernment doing it or not. So it can’t be mandatory until they literally make the phones mandatory, otherwise it’s blatent discrimination.
I thought the same thing, Mamba, as soon as I read the first paragraph of the article. I don’t doubt for a second that the dumbshits who invented this thing and who want to make it MANDATORY [insert ominous thunder rumbles here] in all vehicles probably haven’t even considered that obvious factor at all.
Lib, I’ll bet “they” and especially their actuarial gurus have considered all those factors. I’d even go so far as to compare this to a nasty little incident of amoral corporatism that occurred in Virginia back in the 70’s. DDT had been banned, so another pesticide called Kepone was designed to pick up that market share. Allied Chemical didn’t dare produce this nasty stuff, so they subbed the production out to Life Science Products; a mom & pop chem lab operating out of an old gas station in Hopewell, Virginia. If things went to hell in a hand basket, Allied figured they were insulated from liability. It didn’t quite go that way, since Allied was held responsible at least somewhat. But not before Life Science Products poisoned their employees, contaminated the James River and sold a bunch of this shit. The big boys at Allied were clearly behind it and profited from it before they got caught.
I’d say this is a similar thing. The wet dream of the cell phone service providers standing in the shadows, letting their toady boy push this contraption in the name of safety see a major increase in “sail fawn” consumption. Want a new car and don’t have a cell phone? Guess what you’re going to buy, maybe even from a kiosk right at the car dealership. It doesn’t get any more convenient than that!
Now I’ve long been assimilated by the “sail fawn” Borg collective myself. I became cell phone dependent doing field service work and ditched my land line years ago. Why pay for both? But I sure as hell don’t want to have to plug the damned thing into my dashboard to start my car!
I know folks that still don’t want or see the need for any kind of phone. They’d either toe the line and buy a “sail fawn” or they wouldn’t be able to activate a new car. That’d be great for the cell phone service providers and the car companies could charge a premium too; it’s a win – win…for corporatism. Nothing like a little more government backed extortion to boost the bottom line!
In my case, at least until retrofits on older vehicles become mandatory, it wouldn’t affect me. I drive nothing but older used rigs. But I have numerous coworkers that trade cars every couple of years. Any of those folks that don’t have a phone in their pocket or on their belt, will have one as soon as this becomes mandatory. And many will go along with it and tout the virtues of another “safety measure.” I guess it feels better to convince yourself that you wanted a good screwing in the first place when you’re getting raped.
They’d either toe the line and buy a “sail fawn” or they wouldn’t be able to activate a new car.
Again, I really, truly need to revisit the world of programming (I hated programming in my college years, which is why most of my career as an IT security engineer has been network-focused). There is a MINT to be made in the very near future in hacking/jailbreaking/working around this sort of police-state shit being programmed into mobile technology. But even if there isn’t huge profit to be made, SOMEBODY has GOT to put a stop to this nonsense.
Jailbreaking is illegal now, BTW.
The NETWORK owns the phone, even after your contract period is up.
The constant question is, WHY HASN’T THERE BEEN A REVOLUTION YET?
Remember the advice in the rape handbook: “Just lie back and enjoy it.”
O’Nigger phone, anyone?
How long before your SSN is part of the RFID (replace the SIM) implanted at time of birth? And the SIM/RFID is required for phone use, of course, but the phone itself is just a block of circuitry unless with, say, 5 feet of you? Now, it could be paired to others, too… But that’s further down the road, when the sheeple have accepted their electronic bridle and saddle and happily wear their economic (debt-slave) chains…
What in the world is a “sail fawn?” I’m going to assume it’s some sort of cell phone… but I never heard of that one. I don’t normally use any kind of cell phone. I’m 60% deaf, and can’t understand much of what people say on any telephone.
I have an old “TracPhone” that I activate when I travel, just so I can call for help if necessary.
Anyway, I don’t anticipate ever buying a new car… so I won’t worry about it. 🙂
What in the world is a “sail fawn?” I’m going to assume it’s some sort of cell phone
You guessed correctly, Mama. “Sail Fawn” is Eric’s mock country way of saying “cell phone,” just as he sometimes uses “Nahleven” as a mock country way referring to “9/11” or “terrist” for “terrorist.”
Oh!!! OK, now I can see it. LOL
We like to think we don’t have any “accent” here in NE Wyoming, but we’re probably wrong. 🙂
I thought it sounded like ebonics.
Not that I am in any way in favor of this device.
Damon said….
“You can still use the phone and be distracted–which is why laws preventing hand held used of phones don’t reduce “distracted driving accidents”. What a waste of money.”
I would strongly suggest that hands free phone conversations, with one’s eyes still on the road and hands on the wheel, are Nowhere Near as dangerous as texting.
I agree that texting and using the phone are different levels of risk, however, using the telephone, regardles of hands free or not, generates about the same amount of distraction, so laws banning hand held use of cell phones don’t actually reduce accidents. Laws against texting MIGHT
I disabled texting on my phone, but will use it handheld….. when traffic conditions are suitable. I am quick to say “adios, I need both hands and all my brain for this stretch”. And I can also NOT answer the dumb thing when the time is not right. I drive one handed often enough anyway, so what if the other is hanging onto a phone?
On the other hand, I’ve known some people who can text by “braile” , phone completely out of sight, faster than I can type watching a full keyboard…. astounding. A quick trip up to eye level when a response comes in, taking eyes off the road ahead maybe three seconds…. or less. Doable, LIke Eric said, WHY make something a crime when no harm has been done? The REAL answer is to make folks liable, criminally as well as civilly, when negligence or distraction is a causative factor in causing harm. Then, those who can’t manage both activities safely will be faced wiht heavy penalties for trying and failing. Same solution SHOULD have been used to combat drunk driving. Hit someone while you’re drunk? No more drive for you, Bucko. And you face jail time and restitution just as if you’d done the damage deliberately.
“WHY make something a crime when no harm has been done?”
Clover can tell you.
His answer will be along the lines of: If some people can’t handle it, can’t do it without causing problems, then no one should be allowed to do it. Doesn’t matter that some people are quite capable of texting while driving – indeed, they’re still better drivers than many Clovers who aren’t texting. No. What matters to Clover is that everyone must be held to whatever dumbed-down level he and others like him are personally comfortable with.
That you’ve caused no problems – done no harm – is irrelevant to Clover.
This is getting ridiculous. Remember the good old days when “advancing technology” meant making life better? These days, it seems to mean “managing your life for you”. Between the government and their crony-capitalist friends in the technology field, we’re being turned into a nation of drooling idiots.
Then, yesterday, I saw this: http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/137025.html
I wish I had the weath and ability to leave, because at this point, I believe I would pack up and move to another country.
no joke.. it’s downright depressing when you’re aware of the truth, as dread pirate roberts writes “But such vision was a curse. Everywhere I looked I saw the State, and the horrible withering effects it had on the human spirit. It was horribly depressing. Like waking from a restless dream to find yourself in a cage with no way out.”
The more knowledge, the more grief. I’ve struggled my entire life to get any sort of income, to no avail (finished my M.S. just in time for the economy to derail in ’08). I wish I could move as well, have some sort of income stream that didn’t depend on geographic location (all the ones I’ve seen pay peanuts). Guess the ‘little people’ are screwed, again.
To borrow a line from Bill Clinton, “I feel your pain”.
I’m a bit late to the game, just having finished my B.S. last week at age 41. Problem is, with that degree, I can now get a job that pays less than what I make now (and I am by no means well off). Stuck in a dead-end job that has a lot of cronyism itself, I understand what you mean.
yea. What really rubs it in is that damn promotional video. If that’s Skelton’s rich life (looks like he lives in a nice California gated community) from inventing garbage like this, I can understand the incredible temptation for people to switch to the ‘dark side’ & leave this dog-eat-dog world of scratching an existence out of the dirt his daughter’s car just drove over. And that plastic smile and stupid wave really pisses me off – he’s just dreaming of the day his government contract shows up, and he can sell this device to a captive audience, just like the insurance companies with Obamacare.
The anger and corresponding despair continues to well up inside me, daily. Perhaps there’s a way to monetize such emotion, aside robbing banks à la the movie “The Town.” Though, it would nice to be on the other side of the theft, for once…
Actually, that’s straight out of Ann Raynd’s Objectivism. 😉
Good as a starting point. Better if we “deal” with the root problem os “overpopulation.”
(And since the UN et al wish to reduce piopulation, they can’t call us the bad guys.”)
Just another piece of nannytechnology awaiting someone to come up with a workaround for it.
Once again, I hear a little voice in my head calling… “Career change…career change…career change…”
This is mad what next?? We know it’ll become mandatory sadly.
I would not be surprised to learn they have mandated air bags for motorcycles – or outlawed motorcycles, period.
If motorcycles didn’t already exist, if they were a new invention, they’d never be allowed.
Saaaaaaafety first!
Isn’t it interesting that motorcycles which have only two wheels and are, in fact, unstable unless moving are deemed “safe” and legal for sale and use on the highway. Yet three wheeled ATV’s were deemed “unsafe” and banned because some bureaucrat considered them “unstable” due to only having three wheels.
I see lots of trikes on the road around my parts. I could just put some mudder wheels on one of those and have me a real 3-wheel ATV.
Although it’s paradoxical, it’s actually true that tricycle systems are less controllable – less dynamically stable, once you include the rider’s feedback – than bicycle systems, if they are moving at any serious speed. You can’t apply the right leaning responses you need in any curve away from straight line motion, and you don’t know you’ve pushed things too far until it’s too late and one wheel has already lifted.
I did once work out a sort of outrigger wheel system for motorcycles that wouldn’t interfere with leaning while moving forward but would prevent toppling when stationary. That wasn’t for “safety” but in the hope that it would become practical to have a weatherproofed cabin even without putting your foot out when starting and stopping. It wasn’t, because you still sometimes need to wheel a motorcycle rearward and because the cabin itself would have interfered too much with the aerodynamics and visibility; to cope with those issues would have needed an entire redesign rather than just a simple conversion. But the outrigger wheel system looked as though it would work, short of icy conditions.
Well, my understanding is that trikes are more unstable in a turn. The rest of the time, they’re more stable. But turns allow for flips if done too fast. (OTOH, they allow for low-side when you’re too slow on a bike, so WTF?)
How about we just let people mind their own business, and shoot those who stick their nose up our @$$, and get back to living life?
True Eric. I did see a cartoon in an Easyrider mag decades ago, where a guy in a helmet is at the counter of the DMV, and the narc behind the counter says: “Let’s get this straight – you want to register a vehicle with only 2 wheels, one headlight and metal protrusions all over it?”
The guy was holding a picture of a bike. It really got me thinking.
About the device tho.. There’s a million types of phones out there, all with and without bluetooth and different physical attributes. What’s to say you have to get a phone that works with the device just to buy a new car?
That would suck. Because of these limitations I can’t see it mandated as it would cut most of the population out of buying a new car. The auto companies would scream. Then again, we know what the political gestapo is like.
Besides, any electronic device can be got around as it has wires coming out the back.
If the device even has a switch in the bottom I can see people stuffing it with tissues or make a wooden “phone” to keep the switch pressed.
In any case, it’s a very badly thought-out piece of equipment.
Seeing as how they only make it to fit either the iPhone or Samsung Galaxy, other phone manufacturers will have their lawyers lining up to file suit against any such mandate.
They could be planning on playing the long game on this. Voluntary installation by parents (thinking about the children at all times) of course will desensitize future tax victims to accepting such devices for a variety of purposes.
I’ve looked at the site. You can use your phone via bluetooth. So the point of the device is to prevent HAND HELD use of the phone. You can still use the phone and be distracted–which is why laws preventing hand held used of phones don’t reduce “distracted driving accidents”. What a waste of money.
Meh!
Has all the hallmarks of a gravy-train that someone is trying to climb aboard (or build and get gubbmint suckers to force the rest of us aboard).
I bet if you were to check into the political contributions and political leanings of that company, you’d find out they are democRATS.
Hell, they probably contribute money to BOTH parties. Almost all state-corporate concerns do. They never know which of the two wings of the beast of prey will hold power at any point in the future, so they suck up to both. You never know which side your subsidized bread will be buttered on.
Susidized?
Or sodomized? 😉
And regarding those in-car breathalyzers, I bet more than one alcoholic has figured out that you can keep a can of compressed air handy to beat that piece of shit too.
No doubt!
Do you get the sense the entire country is being turned into a giant crib or playpen? How long before they insist we all wear diapers, too? After all, someone, somewhere, might crap his pants… can’t be too safe.
And in the words from dear leader/liar…”if it saves even one pair of underwear from becoming soiled, we have an obligation to try it.”
No Eric, I get the feeling that country is being turned into one giant prison! They won’t need to ship us off to Alcatraz or Siberia, the whole continent is becoming a Constitution free Gulag…for our own good of course. I have a hard time believing this is the same country I grew up in.
Rest assured, it ISN’T.
The question is, when are WE going to force some “Hope and Change” of our own?
ENOUGH already. On ALL this BULLSHIT. From Taxes (severely f*cked up since, oh the 16th Amedment was – we’re told – ratified) on down, it’s ALL about extracting resources from US, the Productive. These are parasites. You find ways to remove the parasites, or they kill the host.
We need to remove a few billion parasites. But no one is willing to roll up their sleeves and get to work…
This infantilizing of America is possible only through technology. I’ll bet not a single poster here didn’t eagerly jump at power windows, smart phones, remote control furnace thermostats (which, by the way, my electric co-op considers a great way to control a house’s temperature–forget the homeowner), and any kind of digital gadget imaginable. Because we don’t have the sense the Amish do, which is to weigh each technological innovation and decide which to keep (some Amish even use engines), we gladly embrace every dumb ass gizmo that comes down the pike.
Given my druthers, no car newer than 1990 (max) would be in my garage. Unfortunately, banks won’t finance anything more than five-years old, and I lack the skill to maintain an old car. But I refuse to smilingly let society wrap its smothering digital blanket around me.
Not me, Ross!
I don’t have – never have had and never will have – a sail fawn or PDA. My trucks have manual windows – and manual transmissions! Our house does have a thermostat for the heat pumps, but we almost never use them. Instead we use the wood stove.
I do have a computer, of course. And I’m not a Luddite.
Technology is just tools. Some tools are useful; others essential – some, neither.
Manual windows, achh. I don’t think they even sell them in Texas any longer. Lots of good reasons. Hot day vehicle in the sun. Put on your gloves and open drivers door and then hit the switches to open the windows, step back and let heat escape. Then there’s the huge dirt devil that nails you every time the windows are down and you are speed and can’t reach the other side. It’s ok, you’ll get all that dirt, weeds and RoundUp out of your eyes and nose later when you shower. But you see the dirt devil in time, shed the seatbelt, get the other window rolled up while your dog is cleaning your sunglasses. Once again, you’re blind for another reason. But your dog is happy. Look how he just helped, good boy. Or when you’re going along at night and blindly run into a mud storm and it comes in the passenger window and bounces off the back of the cab. There’s a good reason why Texas vehicles have blacked out windows. I saw a new GM regular cab, non-blacked out window pickup today and realized our new neighbor to the south must be a yankee. I’m serious. I don’t recognize a regular cab pickup from a distance. You can get an x-cab if you look hard or buy used(as I do)but the norm is crewcab, black windows.
“But you see the dirt devil in time, shed the seatbelt, get the other window rolled up while your dog is cleaning your sunglasses. Once again, you’re blind for another reason. But your dog is happy. Look how he just helped, good boy.”
Got damn, Eightman. That was great. Don’t go back to driving. You can write. ahaha, that was a killer.
Not me, either, Ross!
I don’t have a sail fawn (what is that, btw?) nor an Android phone, nor a remote control to control temperature, nor an iPad or anything of that nature.
I’ve always wondered: what’s to keep any shitfaced driver from simply having a sober passenger Ior even a sober bystander) blow into the interlock breathalyzer?
lib, that’s exactly what a friend had his son do when he had a “blow and go” installed in his vehicle at his own expense, court ordered. It screwed up constantly too and wouldn’t work no matter who blew it, alcohol or no. I just used some compressed air on it and it worked…but that’s when it’s working.
I’m way late to this question but here in AZ the breathalyzers require three different “blows”. I think they did this in an attempt to make in inconvenient to have someone else “blow” for you.
Reminds me of the scene from “Death Comes to Town” where half the town is needed before someone can start the mayor’s ignition interlock: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=S3vrIi6oaW4#t=31s
What a piece of shit. What’s to stop a teenage passenger from handing their cell phone over to the driver who could then use it for texting?
The whole concept is poorly thought out.
Here’s how I would defeat that system. I would use my old android phone which no longer has service as the authorized phone. That would bypass the system so I could start the car. Then I would use my galaxy S2 for all my needs.
The product would actually be more useful to me in that manner by allowing me to reuse my old smartphone as a security keyfob for my car. If you don’t have that phone…you ain’t starting my car.
Nah, the makers will supply you/the car with a device that functions like a phone so drivers can do reviews.
You know there will be a greymarket for cell phone shells to shove into this thing, or folks will used their old phone for the device and continue to use their current phone to talk away.
Buy your used cars now 🙂
thats the first thing i thought of, I have an old cell phone that barely holds a charge but I could use to negate the system. They will sell a $400 system that will likely be negated by a device that cost $5.
There could be a real market for fake iPhones that are nothing more than shells with simple circuit boards and batteries that trick this POS device. What happens when a cop pulls you over bc he sees you on a cell phone but there is a fake one plugged into the Origo? Next up will be a law that limits all people to 1 cell phone, lol.
Essentially what this will do is make your cell phone your car key. This is a way to make sure you don’t leave your phone/tracking device at home even by choice.
They could rig the device to your sim card, which is unique to your phone. You’d have to also write a fake sim card into your other phone.
You would also have to give someone your phone for them to drive the car, unless they allowed a second sim card to be registered, in which case, you could get another phone.
Sorry if this has already been mentioned (not read 86 responses). One could easily have 2 phones, which would get round this, and I suspect even the H & S guys can work this out for themselves.
I suspect the real purpose, is a tracking device.
Seems like it’s been nearly a year since Chuckie S and Insain McCain went off the deep end about trac phones you can pay cash for with no ID. I have one but haven’t bought minutes in a long while. I’m not sure if they’ve convinced Walmart to stop selling minutes for cash but I know they’re trying. I was living in the wonderful, beautiful, non-paranoid(sic)town of Odessa, Tx. almost 5 years ago when the cops got wind of some local mid-easterners buying 50-60 phones at Walmart. They came in force and gave these people hell and I think Wally didn’t sell them. Anyway, it was merely because of their looks that the phones were denied them. The people buying them said it was nearly impossible to get cell phones where they were going to send these as the reason. I’m sure they were correct and they had a bit of extra coin to toss around for their trouble. Just goes to show no good deed goes unpunished if you’re an out of towner. Meanwhile, back in DC, heads are butted and teeth are gnashed trying to figure out how to fuck us all in new ways.
Why can’t states or localities just legislate huge, and I mean really huge, (like $550 to $1000) fines for people seen using cell phones while driving? The cop would be mandated to provide visual proof, and then we can all watch the money roll in. Get stung to the tune of 4 figures and you might not mind waiting to talk.
Why not leave people alone unless they’ve actually done something to cause harm instead?
eric, everyone else who knows me, I apologize. I guess Carine just hit that nerve in my leg. I’m not good at housebound. No apology to you Carine. You’re the kind of guy I COULD go off on…and I did, much to my dismay and I’m sure, everyone else’s.
It’s cool, Eight!
Happens to me, too. Perfectly natural. I kinda went a little Medieval on ol’ HJ this morning, too!
I was ticketed in New Rochelle, NY for talking on a cell phone while driving. You know what, I wasn’t talking on a cell phone. I think the porcine parasite saw my aftermarket navigation unit (which is mounted to the driver side air vent) and thought it was a phone. Personally, I’m glad the fine was $60 (or whatever, it was a quite a few years ago) and not $1000 as you are proposing.
Carine, are you for real? Doesn’t the govt. in any capacity far exceed it’s powers? Any govt. agency can get you for DWI with 1-2 beers in your gut depending on your digestion and other factors. I can and have driven countless times, mostly while working my butt off with half a case of beer in me over a few hours. I can remember when Texas said if you drank 6 beers in 6 hours you were sober and then they realized what a cash cow DWI’s were. Then they started on a campaign to convince the public. I don’t know they convinced anyone of the legitimacy of it but they damned sure convinced you it would cost you $20,000 in the long run, maybe more. Why would you want to ban anything? Some people can juggle fire, drive, have sex and snort coke at the same time and not be particularly impaired and never cause an accident doing it. You are impaired in that you are brainwashed into thinking the state has any right to restrict people’s freedom when there are no victims. If you want to stir a nest of snakes, come on by and hit my thrice broken leg(sorry eric, been a bitch since I been back but I’ve been over 3 days without sleep)and I’ll learn you a bunch of things. As for why states don’t do these things, you evidently haven’t had a Texas fine for anything. When I got out of jail for a bogus DWI, I ran a mile out of town with the family following me in the pickup waiting for me to stop and blow down which I eventually did. They knew not to say shit to me, one mad MF I was. THEY were all drunk so I drove them and got my ass nailed. How many times you been in jail? It ain’t all just fines you know. You can be as nice as I am…and I am a nice guy normally, but have the local Hiway Patrol whose wife is the president of the local MADD chapter stop you and you find out before you go to court that he won’t show because his word is no good in court and all you have to do is show up and bow to the local gendarmes and pay a silly ass fee for PI or something and that enormous attorney fee(or two)and go on your way. Everything is big in this state and the fines for the now USSATEXAS non-republic ARE huge. Why do you think we have more people in prison than the rest of the world? The Chimp certainly did his worst even though he broke every law there was and on an hourly or minute by minute basis. I know the guy who knocked him off HIS stool at the Holiday Inn in Odessa, SS just weren’t quick enough or they were probably sitting back and laughing their asses off just to see that smirk get turned into a bloody mouth. Is that really what you want? Don’t we have way too much of this already? What planet did you come from? Were you the guy at my last trial saying “hang him”, he don’t respect me? I damned sure don’t but I can keep it to myself and let a mealy mouthed federal lawyer speak for me and try not to shoot the judge out of his chair with my look.
“Some people can juggle fire, drive, have sex and snort coke at the same time and not be particularly impaired and never cause an accident doing it.”
Well, yeah, but..
If you burp and sneeze and cough and hiccup and fart all at the same time, you will die.
That is a well known medical fact.
Ed, I have heard that but haven’t been able to do it that I know of. Guess not, I’m still above room temp. You notice I’m only speaking of 4 things while five things you speak of is 25% harder…..at least.
Individually, they ain’t too hard, but doing even 2 of them at once would be quite an accomplishment. Three at once might leave you kind of simple for life, and 4 at once would likely put your ass in a coma.
I’m not that ambitious, myself. 😉
Because, of course, a cop taking a picture while driving is much safer than someone talking on a cell phone.
“then we can all watch the money roll in.”
Who is this ‘we’ you’re talking about? Watch the money roll in to…where?
because some of us are smart/coodinated enough to use a cell phone while driving under certain conditions, and do so totally safely. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been driving back home late at night, and call a friend to talk to to keep me awake to make it home in one piece. I’ve done the return favour many times as well. Some folks can’t drive and talk to their passenger at the same time, heck, SOME folks can’t even DRIVE competently whilst doing NOTHING else. Don’t saddle ME with the same level of incompetence that YOU demonstrate.
I already HAVE my well-used car… a 77 Mercedes 300 D. Let then try and figure out how to wire one of the Reego things into that system. If they can figure it out, I can figure out how to shortcircuit the fool thing. Stupid people, what wil it take to get rid of this Nanny mentality?
T,
That 300D is – in my opinion – one of the finest cars ever made. You lucky dog!