Government is nonsense and force – assembled in either order.
Those mandatory “safety” inspections most of us are forced to deal with every year, for instance.
The presumption underlying them is, of course, that because some people are fools everyone must be presumed a fool. Smith does not take care of his vehicle; he drives around on bald tires. He lets his brake pads wear down to nothing. The government must protect us from Smith by imposing hassle and expense on Jones… and everyone else, too.
It does not matter that Jones isn’t a fool. That he periodically checks his car over to make sure it’s safe to drive and makes repairs as necessary. Just as it does not matter – to the eyeless, thoughtless, rights-rending monster that is government (and its Little Helpers, of course) that most people are not “dangerous drunks” (or “terrorists”). They must be presumptively treated as such. In order to assure “safety” and “security.”
You may have noticed a common thread. The ancient doctrine that a man is innocent until proved guilty has been eroded to the point of practical nonexistence. The new doctrine – its reverse, that all men are to be presumed guilty (of everything/anything without limit) until they prove to the satisfaction of the government that they are innocent – has replaced it. Not yet de jure. The system still pays lip service top the old doctrine (just as the most authoritarian regimes trumpet the “freedoms” their subjects lack the loudest). But, de facto, innocence is no longer any meaningful defense against, well, anything the state may decide to do to you.
Those state “safety” inspections can be used to make the point.
Each year, in my state, I am required by law to take each of my seven vehicles in to be “inspected” – on my time and at my expense. It does not matter that I know this exercise is a massive waste of my time and money, since I know my vehicles are “safe.” I am very conscientious about my vehicles (being consciously concerned about my own safety as well as the safety of others) and so keep track of such things as the condition of the brakes, the tread left on the tires, whether the signal lights are working – and so on. I also know I am competent to do the repairs – and feel more comfortable driving a car that I know is in good order because I keep it in good order.
None of this matters.
I must prove to the satisfaction of a minion of the state that the car is, in fact “safe.” Indeed, the car is presumed to be unsafe irrespective of its actual mechanical condition. And, here’s the real kick in the crotch: I am subject to violence – to being waylaid at gunpoint by armed gangsters (i.e., the police) if I do not obtain the inspection irrespective of the actual condition of my car, its tires, its brakes (and so forth). Innocence is no defense. Just as one need not be “drunk” in order to be treated as presumptively drunk at a “sobriety checkpoint. Refuse to take their tests? You are as guilty under the law as if the floorboards were littered with empty fifths of Jack Daniels. Even if, later on, you demonstrate beyond any doubt that you were completely sober at the time of your arrest and caging. Just as it will be deemed irrelevant if you provide incontestable evidence that your car was in sound mechanical condition when you were stopped by the armed gangster. 
Failure to submit and obey – that is the real crime, as far as the government is concerned. Whether you are (or are not) actually guilty of the window-dressing “offense” is beside the point. You must stop at the checkpoint and prove that your are not drunk. It is not necessary for the cop to prove that you are “drunk” in order to remove you from your vehicle, arrest and cage you. Nor for the court, later on, to suspend your privilege to travel unmolested. Just as one must set aside “x” block of time, once each year, to wait on line for a government agent to “inspect” a vehicle that you know perfectly well needs an “inspection” like a fish needs a bicycle. Adding injury to insult, you are forced to pay for this. If you, like me, own multiple vehicles, the total sum is not trivial. In my state (VA) the mandatory annual inspection is $15. I own seven vehicles. That’s another $105 out the window – and into the hands of government – each year. Over the course of 20 or 30 years, it amounts to several thousand dollars.
In return for absolutely nothing useful to me or anyone else not on the receiving end of the money or the sick joy some get from ordering others about.
But most people not only accept this – they endorse this. They have swallowed – hook, line and sinker – the authoritarian coda of presumptive (and collective) guilt. What a given individual has actually done – or can reasonably be suspected of having maybe done, based on specific things that can be articulated and pointed to and which a third party, of reasonable mind, would agree constitute reason for suspicion – that’s all been thrown in the woods. Presumptive, collective guilt has replaced it, to such an extent that most people embrace it implicitly and (much worse) unconsciously. The idea is not only hardly ever questioned, it is almost never mentioned.
Cry “safety” – and “security.”
Then, submit – and obey.
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Hey Guys, tomorrow’s Tuesday! All the clovers will be going to the polls to vote-out all the old crooks/enemies of freedom, and vote-in the new crooks/enemies of freedom! -and thus the police-state continues, with the consent of the governed…..
I’m currently in Va. I didn’t even bother to register to vote. I will probably compromise and vote for Rand Paul in 2016 if he is the Republican candidate. I will likely vote for a third party candidate otherwise. I see little reason to actually care about this election, though.
Even if Rand’s daddy were running, I wouldn’t waste my time (and I love Ron!) -Even if Ron ran and got in, there’s really not much he could do- except get the blame for the mounting co0nsequences of what 100 years of others before him have done. This country (and people) are broken beyond repair. And all the clovers who gladly tolerate all that Obozo and GWB (et al) do, would not tolerate if somebody in office were to do what is right. (If they could do what was right- with a whole government at every level filled with crooks and traitors).
I was glad when Rand got elected in my state- but sadly, I have not been impressed with his performance- he’s just another politician. It’d be better to have him in WWH than Hitlery or Jeb…but still, it really wouldn’t accomplish anything, other than to make us feel a little better.
I’ve never voted in my entire life- why give assent and approval to their system, and waste my time? I would have liked to have voted for Harry Browne [If anyone’s not familiar with him, Google it- I think his radio show archives are still up, even though he died a few years ago. Pure libertarianism in all it’s glory! Hear him get the better of all the clover callers! Classic!) -but of course, my vote would be meaningless when added to the c. 1% of the vote that he got.
You guys sure have small expectations for what will happen once the powerful central governments are neutralized.
Everything you take for granted will be gone. Everyone will go all over. And do all kinds of things with uncounted others. Noone will be able to track or follow any of it.
Powerful people will become vastly powerful. Weaker people will learn to do with less, or align with others. The slow pace of events you’ve grown accustomed to will be at an end.
The number of significant events of a lifetime will multiply 100 fold or more if you want it to. Personal property and commons will be nothing at all like what we now experience.
You’ll be surrounded by all kinds of languages and customs. And countless new ones that evolve daily. New ways of communicating and cooperating you’ve never thought of. Everything will become fluid and alive. From a distance, the surface of the Earth will teem with motion.
This morose graveyard of corpses lurching about will be at an end. No one will wait around for what some book says. What some official says.
There will still be paved surfaces. And fast moving vehicles.
But this idea of words on pages holding sway over the freely acting individual organisms will be soon forgotten.
Why do you cling to this living death so tightly. What is it about the Dr Manhattan types that compels you to listen to a single lunatic thing they have to say.
Do you not see how uniquely crazy every idea you now accept is. Free beings will just move from A to B and then do a thousand other things. Time will unthaw. Some will even move pass fluid to gas and then to plasma. Finally our potentials will not be stifled by fearful superstitions and quivering dangers.
Your OCD Rainman’s litany of stupid repetitive harrangues will be useless in a freed world.
No longer will you concern yourself with those who lay the foundations of human wax museums.
No longer will your flame of youthful life briefly flicker and then be snuffed out by the dictatorships of positivism, relativism, and rigor mortis monotonous collectivism.
I will NEVER, EVER live in an inspection state again!
In NY, an inspection was $50 (May’ve gone up, since I left 13 years ago)- If so much as the check-engine-light is on for some BS piddling reason….it fails automatically.
After you spend $400 in repairs, then it gets to pass, whether the problem is fixed or not- so guess how much every inspection costs?[ $50 fee + $400 in “repairs”].
In places like Taxachussetts, they will now fail vehicles for having small cosmetic rust holes in body panels, and so much other minor piddling crap, that people are scrapping low-mileage good-running vehicles that aren’t 10 years old.
It’s getting to be just like the UK in such states- where only the top half of society can afford to drive.
In the 13 years I’ve been out of NY so far, I’ve saved THOUSANDS of dollars just on “inspections” alone. And, surprise, surprise! The cars around here are actually in better shape, because their owners can spend their money on what legitimately needs fixing, instead of wasting it on inspections and bogus repairs of BS things.
Yup,My Aunt,in Ma,had a perfectly good Miata.Great car,but it had a tiny rust hole,so it failed inspection.As usual this is just another money making scam.The garages love it ,of course,they can always find a reason to fail you and offer to fix the problem for a fee.wWat a racket,get me out of here,I cannot take it anymore
Hi Getcha,
It’s interesting, isn’t it, that the obvious conflict of interest doesn’t occur to people? You’re forced to take a vehicle to a place for an “inspection” that makes money repairing vehicles. No incentive there to fail the vehicle over some hyped up/non-issue, eh?
Oh,I agree totally withe you.It is like Dick Cheney owning huge amounts of stock in prison corporations .There are a million examples like that one.Nobody knows or seems to care,which makes me sick.If it wasn’t for people like you ,I would just give up hope.
Exactly Moleman. Here in Oz we also fail when it comes to minor rust holes in external bodywork, even if the chassis is fine.
It’s money-go-round racketeering. Penalising people makes money for the State, so having them inspected (fail, repaired and inspected again) also makes tax dollars fly. Whatever makes the grabbermint money is priority. They owe the World Bank trillions and the easiest group to pick on is the motorist.
Hi Mole,
This business of failing vehicles over cosmetic flaws (e.g., minor rusting of exterior sheetmetal) is done – I believe – to “nudge” people into new cars, to “stimulate” demand for same. This is why it’s done in Japan – and our system is just their system on slow burn.
Hey, Eric,
Exactly! Just like in Britain- I hear you’ll almost never see an older car on the road there (Maybe an occasional restored classic, but virtually never a 10 or 15 year daily driver- much less a 20 year-old one)
It continues to amaze me just how much people will tolerate. You’d think there’d be a mass exodus from these places…. and funny, because all the states that are so persnickety, are the same ones in which the cost of living is so high; and where they rape you the worst on taxes and are always moaning about “the poor” [sure…they make everyone poor!] and have a plethora of “social programs” to “help” you from cradle-to-grave, as long as you remain non-productive and have a few illegitimate kids- so that everyone is dependent on the state, because thanks to all their laws, one never has a chance of recovering from poverty as long as they live in such a place- but these are places inhabited almost solely by clovers- so they gladly comply, and say “Thank goodness we’re not like those backward Southern states!”.
Ya know, Eric, I’m so glad that I found this site of yours! It amazes me how 99.5% of us whop comment here, can all be on the “same page” on so many things. It’s so nice to see a bunch of people who have not only a realistic outlook on the world that we live in, but who also have the morality to maintain consistent principles across the board. If only even 10% of the general population were like this, this country would be a paradise. (BTW: Did you ever receive the MO?)
Amen, Moleman!
This site is a refuge for me, too.
Remember: Sanity is not statistical.
One thing I appreciate about this site, and especially you, Eric, is that we are free to disagree without being denigrated, but focus on what we DO agree is right.
Indeed, Phillip.
The back and forth here is almost always top-drawer. I enjoy it immensely, because I am often stimulated to think along new lines and, regardless, the regulars here are a smart (and witty) bunch.
What we have here is a kind of digital age analog of the correspondence that existed in the 18th and even 19th century, when people took time to gather their thoughts and put them down in letters to esteemed friends, who would then respond in kind.
A literary society, of sorts – especially Tor.
Your so right about that.When they first started these stricter inspections in MA.,my co-worker said the same.I did not believe him at the time because this was before my awakening.
Dorothy Parker (1893 – 1967)
There’s a hell of a distance between wise-cracking and wit. Wit has truth in it; wise-cracking is simply calisthenics with words.
Excuse my dust.
Her proposed epitaph for herself.
Drink and dance and laugh and lie,
Love, the reeling midnight through,
For tomorrow we shall die!
(But, alas, we never do.)
The ones I like … are “cheque” and “enclosed.”
On the most beautiful words in the English language
I’m never going to accomplish anything; that’s perfectly clear to me. I’m never going to be famous. My name will never be writ large on the roster of Those Who Do Things. I don’t do anything. Not one single thing. I used to bite my nails, but I don’t even do that any more.
You can’t teach an old dogma new tricks.
Too fucking busy, and vice versa.
Response to an editor pressuring her for overdue work.
It serves me right for putting all my eggs in one bastard.
On her abortion.
You can lead a horticulture, but you can’t make her think.
Parker’s answer when asked to use the word horticulture during a game of Can-You-Give-Me-A-Sentence?
“If the doorbell rang in her apartment, she would say, ‘What fresh hell can this be?’ — and it wasn’t funny; she meant it.”
If I didn’t care for fun and such,
I’d probably amount to much.
But I shall stay the way I am,
Because I do not give a damn.
Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
A medley of extemporanea,
And love is a thing that can never go wrong,
And I am Marie of Roumania.
Razors pain you,
Rivers are damp,
Acids stain you,
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren’t lawful,
Nooses give,
Gas smells awful.
You might as well live.
Men seldom make passes
At girls who wear glasses.
By the time you swear you’re his,
Shivering and sighing,
And he vows his passion is
Infinite, undying,
Lady, make a note of this —
One of you is lying.
Some men tear your heart in two,
Some men flirt and flatter,
Some men never look at you,
And that clears up the matter.
I am sister to the rain;
Fey and sudden and unholy,
Petulant at the windowpane,
Quickly lost, remembered slowly.
Four be the things I’d been better without:
Love, curiosity, freckles, and doubt.
They sicken of the calm, who knew the storm.
Whose love is given over-well
Will look on Helen’s face in Hell;
While they whose love is thin and wise
May view John Knox in Paradise.
If with the literate I am
Impelled to try an epigram,
I never seek to take the credit;
We all assume that Oscar said it.
It costs me never a stab nor squirm
To tread by chance upon a worm.
“Aha, my little dear,” I say,
“Your clan will pay me back some day.”
That woman speaks eighteen languages, and can’t say No in any of them.
And there was that wholesale libel on a Yale prom. If all the girls attending it were laid end to end, Mrs Parker said, she wouldn’t be at all surprised.
Brevity is the soul of lingerie.
The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.
Upon my honor
I saw a Madonna
Standing in a niche
Over the door
Of the glamorous whore
Of a prominent son of a bitch.
How odd
Of God
To choose
The Jews
‘It wasn’t odd;
the Jews chose God
But not so odd
As those who choose
A Jewish God,
But spurn the Jews
This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.
Tor, good one. It brings to mind Cynthia Ann Parker. They never tamed her and she never left any eloquent thoughts except those of “leave me alone”. We now have a Quanah Parker running for 4th Judicial district judge. I got sick of him long ago back in the days of tee vee. He blanketed local channels with commercials to hire him to go after somebody for money. He is technically a defense lawyer but I know him as a shyster.
Maybe I”m judging him wrongly but it’s not, like what the Shrub said, what my “gut” is telling me. Yep, he’s running on the Libertarian plate and that being said, would tend to make me vote for him more than his R&D opponents.
Texas “just us” is a bad thing to begin with. I’m not sure how the people of this state got so bamboozled…..and maybe they didn’t until tee vee took over. I remember a childhood and adolescence of sheriff’s and a single deputy being the only LEO in a county and almost to the man, someone you could count on for help. It took LBJ and Nixon(more this bastard)to turn this state into the drum-beating anti-everything it has become.
I have learned a great deal from this site and you, Tor, hold great sway for those who wish to educate themselves. I would counsel anyone and everyone to not change any view they have without due diligence in every respect, to research every subject they hold dear to the nth degree.
I think….and hope you agree with me. I see no other conclusion to your comments. And thanks once more. B
Eric:
In Pennsylvania, inspections are simply an annual bit of graft for the local garages. All they have to do is get that stupid Pennsylvania metal sign and open their maw, and the garages are guaranteed a baseline of business, every year.
It’s also a twofer in PA. Vehicle and emissions. Double the cash.
Inspections are also loved by car dealers, as you can “inspect” old cars right out of service. Something too rusty? We won’t pass you. Buy a new car.
Why do people call America a “free country?”
Hi No,
Yup. When I hear the “free country” stuff, it makes me want to retch… .
eric, that would be “wrench” or “rinch” in this state. I rinched my socks. I suppose I should have a part of my paycheck auto-deposited to your account too. Maybe I will after I can buy another pickup(not truck…goddammit…..like all the women in this state say and want).
I was looking at “new” used pickups and found a nice 800 series KW with a 72″ sleeper and a freshly rebuilt 993 Cat engine with less than 400,000K for less than what a used Duramax costs. Crazy….ain’t it? But this site helps my sanity
Oh yeah,the whole free country,our freedoms thing is just absurd.We are free to pick from a few state approved choices in most cases.WOW,now thats freedom.
Vote for communist A or communist B- as long as you can cast a vote, you are “free”- or so say the clovers.
“Government is nonsense and force”
“I must prove to the satisfaction of a minion of the state ”
Libertetians object to being forced by the government to pay to build highways they say should be built and owned by capitalists. Once the highways are built minions either public or private will inspect your vehicle and decide if you are able to operate it. While I cannot say for sure I think privately operated roads under a libertarian system seeking to maximize profits would have more onerous rules and would likely give preference to commercial vehicles. It is also likely insurance requirements will be higher.
You could be right George, although I doubt it. As Ancap51 pointed out below, road owners will be looking to maximize profit. And w/o a gunvermin monopoly on roads, there will be more alternatives. Some of them might not even be roads.
Who knows, if we actually had a free market, we might have practical alternatives to IC engines burning hydrocarbons. Or at least we would by the time we actually needed them.
BTW, “Peak Oil” is a fallacy. As long as prices are allowed to rise, more and more oil becomes available. Eventually it will be priced out of the market, but not likely for quite a while, given current stage of development in electrical and hybrid vehicles.
And while I’m on the subject of energy, check this out –
http://www.businessinsider.com/andrea-shalal-lockheed-nuclear-fusion-breakthrough-2014-10
George,
The fallacy of your reasoning is shown out in every other form of privately owned businesses who compete. There are literally thousands of real world examples that show what you believe to be “likely”, to actually be highly unlikely.
People who otherwise believe in freedom and free markets, often seem to default to the state on the issue of roads…..it baffles me. The government doesn’t do anything as well as the private sector……..except for roads, police, and courts. We must have a soviet system for those things to work. Baffling.
Hi George,
Possibly. But without coercion in the equation. This is the key difference. Consider:
I am not forced to buy a Chevy. I may still choose a Ford – or no car at all. Hence, I do not resent Chevy (and so on).
But when government is involved, you are made an offer you can’t refuse. Literally.
Government is a mafia.
Roads are a perfect illustration of how we got to the destination of tyranny at which we are now at: Not much more than 100 years ago, most roads were simply maintained by the people who lived along them. Some of the major commerce roads were maintained by private companies- often paved with wooden planks- i.e. “plank roads”, and one was charged a toll for travelling them.
As soon as the automobile came along, which was also right around the time that the communists took control of this country, and established things like the Federal Reserve and the Income Tax- these creeps figured out that by offering a communal scheme to provide wide-spread smooth-paved roads, they could get control over people’s ability to travel; and extort more money from them, because the masses will always trade freedom and personal rights for convenience. It was still at a local level, then.
Then in the 50’s the Feds came along with the Interstate Highway idea- under the guise of a military project- supposedly to foster the moving of tanks and military equipment from place to place- and in just a few years, the Feds had full control, and were now road-builders who surpassed even the ancient Romans.
People got hooked on the smooth, fast, easy-to-drive-on nice wide highways without intersections, and now 99% of the people would not want to give them up for anything. Oh, perish the thought that we should have to drive on dirt and gravel roads, and couldn’t fly around everywhere at 70MPH!
Meanwhile, the social, political, environmental, etc. impacts of this humongous system of paved roads has probably done more to alter life than any other single political act in history. Those roads have shaped our lives in so many ways. How I’d LOVE to live 100 miles from any paved road!
Just what one man- Robert Moses (who didn’t even drive!) did to alter the lives of millions of people in just NY, by implementing his utopian dreams of an automobile-centered life; and how he inflicted those ideas on NYers, from his position in an unelected office- ideas which still radically affect millions of people today- and which also produced the largest displacement of people and private property through “eminent domain”, read like a story of a Nazi mastermind. (If anyone reading is not familiar with that creep, just do a little Googling!)
Our loss of freedom and loss of quality of life can be told almost exclusively just from just a history of our road system. It makes one fully realize how Jacques Ellul’s ideas on how the ascent of technology would be the means of the loss of personal freedom, were spot-on.
Glad you wrote about this! Upon moving to Texas from Florida, I was shocked that I had to get my car inspected every year. It proves you own nothing in modern America- we merely rent our stuff from the government. Ugh, when will it all end?!?!?!?!
Hi Brittany,
I don’t expect it to end until a large percentage of Americans decide such things are illegitimate and thus, unacceptable. And refuse to comply.
The reverse for me — grew up in TX, now live in FL. Imagine my joy when I moved here in 1995 and learned FL axed its inspection law c. 1990! Worse, if you live in or near a population hub TX forces you to get an emissions test. I avoided that by driving to an outlying county for the inspection, but I understand that loophole has since been closed.
Believe it or not, 99% of all vehicles on the road in FL are perfectly safe and drivable — without an inspection law!
Dave, actually not very many counties in Tx. have emissions tests, only the most highly populated and hence(originally wrote Hance…as in Kent, that SOB)highly taxed by politicians of every sort and bureaucrats of every color rely on those tests.
While I’m on the subject of bureaucrats, I want to address TxDOT, a bunch of lazy, inept bunch of idiots who are a major hazard to anyone driving Tx. roads. I suffer it every day.
They must’ve run a help-wanted ad in NY to get those DOT guys, ’cause they sound like the same ones!
IDOT has the same ones too. They all came from NY!
In Idaho we actually have the DOT fags and State Pig DOT fags. The Pig DOT are the worst. They rove the streets and pull trucks over on a whim. There is always something “wrong” with a truck. My family excavation business has had a dump truck and sidedump shut down this year. The dump truck actually got a $500 fine……We’ve had it for a year and half but never licensed it……….the cop said he could have fined us for a bunch of things, but he just fined for no plates………and people wonder why we don’t license or register things.
“…….the cop said he could have fined us for a bunch of things, but he just fined for no plates……”
This, is what it means to be ruled.
You count yourself as being lucky, right?
/sarc OFF.
I’m telling the story from a 3rd person perspective. But if I had been the one pulled over, I would have thanked the hero for his benevolence, and his service……like all good Americans should. After all, he’s just doing his job.
DOT has increased to the point of ridiculousness in Tx. You can’t stir em with a stick on I-20 at times. They just pull you over and pick on the smallest of things like no backup light on a tractor, a tractor that won’t ever be run without a trailer. And then when nothing else can be found, a new law is brought in, no ability to clean the windshield with the squirters. Doesn’t matter you might have just used the last of your fluid and intend to replace it when you go by the first place that has some.
Tx. seems to always have a “new” law the public and even the trucking community knows nothing about. So that’s what they go to first thing in an inspection. Well, I found your windshield washer doesn’t work so I’ll just give you a ticket for that seeing as to how I’m such a good guy. Never mind you have a tail light out and never mind you have several tail lights so there is still one working on both sides.
To avoid this, most new trucks look like a carnival coming down the road at night. Trailers have big long strips of LED running lights, center lights, tail and brake lights and even the cab are lit like a carnival ride. I like useful lights as much as the next guy but some of these rigs are garish. What anyone should really want, and few have, is a clear side light you can turn on to see what’s beside you. More and more trucks are running cab and trailer strobe lights, maybe a good thing in the day but they suck at night if you have to look at them.
The real danger on the road though is the TxDOT employees who are supposedly working on the road. Twice I’ve had a pickup pull right out in front of me in construction and slam on the brakes to bring my speed down. 75mph limit and I’m doing 70 since the sign says slow down, but it doesn’t say how much. The second time this guy did this I did my best to run over him but he sped away after I’d already slammed on my brakes to avoid hitting him. I got mad after I realized he’d done that “just for me” since there wasn’t another vehicle visible in that construction zone. I would have donated my sucker rod tire bumper if I could have gotten close enough. And then they create traffic jams by driving 20mph on the shoulder and not quite being all the way over so you end up pulling a hill at 30 you’d normally cruise over at 70+, so of course, so does everyone else behind you including all the other big rigs. Grrrrr
The trailer I was pulling when I got run over couldn’t have passed many of the safety mandates and without an inspection, you have no tags. The trooper cited it for no inspection but missed it not having plates. Had it been the DOT arm of the DPS though the list would have been long.
As an aside, equipment is much more valuable that people as evidenced by the insurance company of the guilty party having coughed up the price of a new trailer immediately but never contributed one cent to the tests and doctors I’ve been to since.
How much freer are the Germans, I wonder. It does seem like they’re a lot less restricted in a number of categories.
They’re doing pretty well I’d say, seeing as they’ve got 82 million people crammed into a territory half the size of Texas. We’re already suffocating, imagine how much worse it’d be if we all had 6 1/2 times more people packed in all around us?
Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany
Preamble
Conscious of their responsibility before God and man, Inspired by the determination to promote world peace as an equal partner in a united Europe, the German people, in the exercise of their constituent power, have adopted this Basic Law. Germans in all 16 states have achieved the unity and freedom of free self-determination. This Basic Law thus applies to the entire German people.
This Basic Law, which since the achievement of the unity and freedom of Germany applies to the entire German people, shall cease to apply on the day on which a constitution freely adopted by the German people takes effect.
Human dignity shall be inviolable. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all state authority.
The German people therefore acknowledge inviolable and inalienable human rights as the basis of every community, of peace and of justice in the world.
Certain basic rights shall bind the legislature, the executive and the judiciary as directly applicable law.
Every person shall have the right to free development of his personality insofar as he does not violate the rights of others or offend against the constitutional order or the moral law.
Every person shall have the right to life and physical integrity. Freedom of the person shall be inviolable. These rights may be interfered with only pursuant to a law.
All persons shall be equal before the law. Men and women shall have equal rights. The state shall promote the actual implementation of equal rights for women and men and take steps to eliminate disadvantages that now exist.
No person shall be favoured or disfavoured because of sex, parentage, race, language, homeland and origin, faith, or religious or political opinions. No person shall be disfavoured because of disability.
Freedom of faith and of conscience, and freedom to profess a religious or philosophical creed, shall be inviolable. The undisturbed practice of religion shall be guaranteed. No person shall be compelled against his conscience to render military service involving the use of arms. Details shall be regulated by a federal law.
Every person shall have the right freely to express and disseminate his opinions in speech, writing and pictures, and to inform himself without hindrance from generally accessible sources. Freedom of the press and freedom of reporting by means of broadcasts and films shall be guaranteed. There shall be no censorship.
These rights shall find their limits in the provisions of general laws, in provisions for the protection of young persons, and in the right to personal honour.
Arts and sciences, research and teaching shall be free. The freedom of teaching shall not release any person from allegiance to the constitution.
Marriage and the family shall enjoy the special protection of the state. The care and upbringing of children is the natural right of parents and a duty primarily incumbent upon them. The state shall watch over them in the performance of this duty.
Children may be separated from their families against the will of their parents or guardians only pursuant to a law, and only if the parents or guardians fail in their duties or the children are otherwise in danger of serious neglect.
Every mother shall be entitled to the protection and care of the community. Children born outside of marriage shall be provided by legislation with the same opportunities for physical and mental development and for their position in society as are enjoyed by those born within marriage.
The entire school system shall be under the supervision of the state. Parents and guardians shall have the right to decide whether children shall receive religious instruction.
Religious instruction shall form part of the regular curriculum in state schools, with the exception of non-denominational schools. Without prejudice to the state’s right of supervision, religious instruction shall be given in accordance with the tenets of the religious community concerned. Teachers may not be obliged against their will to give religious instruction.
The right to establish private schools shall be guaranteed. Private schools that serve as alternatives to state schools shall require the approval of the state. Such approval shall be given when private schools are not inferior to the state schools in terms of their educational aims, their facilities, or the professional training of their teaching staff, and when segregation of pupils according to the means of their parents will not be encouraged thereby. Approval shall be withheld if the economic and legal position of the teaching staff is not adequately assured.
A private elementary school shall be approved only if the educational authority finds that it serves a special pedagogical interest or if, on the application of parents or guardians, it is to be established as a denominational or interdenominational school or as a school based on a particular philosophy and no state elementary school of that type exists in the municipality.
Preparatory schools shall remain abolished.
All Germans shall have the right to assemble peacefully and unarmed without prior notification or permission.
In the case of outdoor assemblies, this right may be restricted by or pursuant to a law.
Sunday and holidays recognised by the state shall remain protected by law as days of rest from work and of spiritual improvement.
“Children may be separated from their families against the will of their parents or guardians only pursuant to a law, and only if the parents or guardians fail in their duties or the children are otherwise in danger of serious neglect.”
This includes attempts to home school, or otherwise educate children in a non-approved facility.
Home schooling is one of our greatest hopes here in the USSA, as the children actually learn rather than just being indoctrinated into good sheeple. Our generation may be lost, but there may still be a future.
It doesn’t look like there’s significant homeschooling anywhere else in the world but the US.
If I am the one paying to provide for my dependents, how does it become anyone’s business what they do with their time?
Maybe they have no rules at all until they’re 30 years old. Maybe I demand they all get two full time jobs starting at age 5.
Maybe in my tribe, you start full time work at 4 years old. Then get Ages 8-10 off. Then work 11-14 full time. Then take ages 15-17 off. And then work 4 more years. Take 3 years off until you die. Or any other equally valid arbitrary system.
There is no rhyme or reason to all the things that are mandatory. And then to the other things that are optional. It’s time to retire every vestigal thought of society as being a collective army
What difference does it make to me what the kids in Maine are doing for instance. Why is everyone still so eager to be a control freak about everything.
Just pointing out that, in Germany, as in most of the rest of the world, despite protests to the contrary, the gunvermin consider children to be THEIR property.
I hear you. We’re getting there, but there’s further ways to go.
“Home schooling is one of our greatest hopes here in the USSA, as the children actually learn rather than just being indoctrinated into good sheeple. Our generation may be lost, but there may still be a future.”
I would hope you’ve come to recognize there is no “we.” Homeschooling is an example of taking small independent babysteps but still heading down the road to serfdom. Certainly it is a good thing. But probably not much cause for excited congratulations.
I hope the wheels come off the American shit wagon, and the means to keep everyone under their thumb crumble away. Then you and I become two wholly unrelated people living 2,400 miles away from each other with no connection whatsoever.
I would hope you recognize there is no imperative for children to be educated by anyone. It’s highly likely this is yet one more idiotic idea and source of damage and mutilation to the potential of young human beings.
Larken Rose October 27 2014
“You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t force it to objectively reconsider fundamental paradigms which are based on a life-time of authoritarian indoctrination.”
There’s enough good people on here, that we could join forces as some kind of voluntary group. Or remain unrelated individuals who come together to compare notes and share best practices.
Until we embark on things of that caliber, of being able to survive wholly without the state, we’re really just “The Watching Dead” talking about the unfolding tragedy of “The Walking Dead.”
Forget Larken Rose – I prefer Dorothy Parker – “You can lead a whore to culture, but you can’t make her think!”
Now it’s a social worker for every child – in Scotland
More state interference in families will not protect children
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/children_shealth/10080013/Now-its-a-social-worker-for-every-child-in-Scotland.html
PTB, your words ““Children may be separated from their families against the will of their parents or guardians only pursuant to a law, and only if the parents or guardians fail in their duties or the children are otherwise in danger of serious neglect.”
Not in Tx. All is needed is a lying cunt in a robe and you can count dozens of children “gone with the wind”…..or taken to be housed with perverts, whichever comes first. This state sucks horribly at that. The statistics are there for anyone to see. I regret I don’t have time to find them and post them but they are something Orwellian to the nth degree.
Germany…where the cops will inspect your garbage can, to make sure you have the proper items in the proper cans……
The same thing happens in Fairfax County, Virginia, and probably in other localities in the USSA that have progressed extra far down the totalitarian path. And that’s just one aspect of the lunacy up there. I can’t imagine how my buddy who lives there manages to put up with it, or why he can’t understand why I would want to live way down here in Spotsylvania.
I love this website and will financially contribute when my new VISA card arrives shortly. It was hacked earlier this week.
I detest so-called state inspections. Life long resident of Virginia, and I well remember when we had them twice a year ! Wonder if there is any statistical difference between states with no inspection (I think N.C.) and Va on vehicular accidents incident to state inspection, etc. ?
To my comment: All this caterwauling about inspections, emissions, and all the other big brother stuff is missing the main line agenda. I dare anybody to cite to me any of these “safety or environmental issues” that do not involve stimulating commerce. So what, you say… If it is not clear to us that we are in a Fascists political world, than keep taking the Blue Pill. Money now drives virtually all political decisions. Banking is a private for profit enterprise and they own governments at all levels. Everything we bitch about, and I do plenty, pushes money through the economic system, to their benefit and to our impoverishment.
Most of this stuff about the environment, safety, and foreign threats is for the money mongers. Go look at who donates to political influence sources, and then look at the legislation that takes our money.
Keep up the good work !
Jack
Hanover County, Va
PS: Last week I got rid of the DRLs on my VW Passat TDI. Small victory !
Thanks, Jack!
Good to have you with us, too!
My F-150 will soon be 25yrs old and can be licensed antique with no inspection required, I can’t wait! Thought about buying a new truck but with title tax and yearly property tax and inspections, I’ll drive the my old one forever.
Remember the German autobahn you’re so fond of?
Have you forgotten their vehicle inspection lanes? The .05 BAC limit? The forced blood draws?
Yes, of course you have. How conveeeenient.
PERCIVAL, I do not follow your “logic”. How does one being against those things here mean they support them over there?
Two separate things, Percival.
One can applaud the one (higher speed limits) without having to applaud the other (mandatory inspections and absurd definitions of “drunk” driving).
How many of the clovers catch that the “definition” of “drunk” can not be at all “scientific”, since it can vary from place to place, and from one time period to another (i.e. in NY it was once .10….then lowered to .08- guess they wanted to make more money for the state and their licensed cohorts(lawyers). So in Krautland it’s .05 -I guess the air there affects people differently or something, eh? 😀
How many of the clovers catch that the “definition” of “drunk” can not be at all “scientific”…….
None. Absolutely none.
Drunk varies by the person and many other factors. The “legal” BAC is a load of shit. There are people who drive “drunk” for years and never have a problem. Then randomly get pulled over for drunk driving. If you refuse the test, you get a DUI anyway. Lawyers fees, insurance costs, and on and on and on. Pure bullshit.
It’s like the poor [poor as in unlucky- not impoverished] farmer in [I believe, IIRC] AZ. [or maybe NM.] who was driving down the road perfectly fine, when a guy coming the other way [a lawyer, no less] fell asleep; crossed the yellow line, and hit the farmer head-on. The farmer had had like 2 or 3 beers or something, and blew just over an .08 -so even though he did NOTHING to contribute the accident, and was in-fact the victim, it was “his fault” and he went to jail.
Or, back in NY, some poor slob is driving along a six lane highway in a deserted area late at night. Some guy trying to escape a robber, runs out right in front of him- out of nowhere. Boom! The guy was over .08, so he’s a “criminal” and gets charged with vehicular manslauhter” and all that good stuff- but if he had blown an .07, then he would have been perfectly innocent.
Laws that make criminals out of people for technicalities; or which punish the victim rather than the real perpetrator just because of some technicality, are SICK! The very definition of injustice- but don’t expect it to ever change, ’cause the minute you mention things like this to the clovers of this world, they start screaming “Oh! You condone drunk driving! You MONSTER! Don’t you know how many people drunks kill???!!!!” (Yeah, like the guy who ran out while escaping the mugger, who would have been just as dead if the driver was tea-totaler, like me)
My idiot sister used to commit adultery with this married NYCPD sergeant- the guy would drive the 60 miles from work in NYC, to my sister’s many nights, completely blotto. I guess if anyone had ever gotten in his way, they’d just charge the poor schlepp with assaulting a donut-eater. 🙁
Indeed, Ancap.
I’ve tried to explain to Clover the fact – indisputable – that some people are more functionally impaired absolutely sober than others are who are technically (as defined by the law’s arbitrary standard) “drunk.”
For example: My mother in law is a horrible driver. She reacts slowly, misjudges the position of her car relative to other cars, regularly allows her attention to wander to the extent that her car is a third of the way across the double yellow – and so on. I am more in control of my car even at .08 BAC than she is at 0.0 BAC. This fact could be quickly established by watching us both drive.
Yet, if she fails to notice the light just changed and hits another car, it’s a mere traffic ticket.
Whereas if I do notice the light – and do not strike anyone – yet have the bad luck to roll through a “sobriety” checkpoint, I face massive punitive sanctions.
Mind: I don’t drink much at all; and I have not gone driving after having drinks in years (because of the current hysterically over-reactive “drunk driver” witch hunt). I write the above just to make a point.
One that Clover, of course, cannot grasp.
The DWI thing is so ingrained in people today, through life-long propaganda from the time we are little kids, in the gov’t schools and media, that people can not even debate the subject rationally [much less see the absurd contradictions and injustices of it]- their reactions are purely reactionary and emotional. Seeing these blatant effects of the massive DWI propaganda campaign, makes me realize that this is the way it is with a lot of other issues which are heavily propagated- be it the forced acceptance of faggotry; or the denial of reality for fear of being labeled a “racist”; vaccinations; the war on drugs; the war on terror; etc. ad-infinitum- it’s very effective mind-control, through schools, media, “science” and peer pressure. A matrix from which few ever seem to escape.
No one even has the sense to realize that the state establishes an arbitrary criteria (be it .10, .08, .05) and then labels anyone who is involved in an accident and who meets the criteria, as automatically guilty- even if the accident was not their fault/was non-avoidable. Then they parade the victims of their loony legislation around as “proof that drinking and driving causes death and mayhem”.
They could just as well outlaw the wearing of blue shirts while driving- because people wearing blue shirts were involved in 20% of all accidents. Then the next time someone has an accident and is wearing a blue shirt… “See?! If we could only stop people from wearing blue shirts, we could reduce the number of accidents by 20%!”. Oh, I can just see the little sound bytes that could be used in the propaganda campaign… “Don’t wear blue, or you’re through!” – and before long we’d have Mothers Against Driving While Wearing Blue….and all of the “heroes” who shoot puppy dogs and taser grandmas, coming home to their wives or bend-over buddies, all proud, saying “Today I save a bunch of lives, ya know, ‘cuz I arrested 8 guys for driving while wearing blue!”
0.1 BAC had some real work behind it at the point where people are a real danger, measurably lower than what is considered acceptable of a sober driver. Since then it’s just the prohibitionists comparing people ‘before and after’. Which is the ‘best driver you can be’ argument.
In the state I live in, the legal limit for BAC used to be .15%. That was some years ago. The reasoning behind it was that is how intoxicated a low risk driver, somebody in the 25 to 55 year old age range, would have to be to rise to same risk level as someone in a high risk group. E.G. inexperienced teen drivers or the elderly.
I think in NY (and probably many other states now, as well) if a teen driver is found to have ANY alcohol in their system, they are considered “drunk”.
One can only wonder how it is that the goons would have the opportunity to know if there was any alcohol in the teen’s system- since there would be no obvious signs if the teen were, say .01%. So do they just automatically test every teen they stop? Then I guess they would stop every teen they encounter, for our protection, of course…..
So basically, “drunk” is whatever the locale says it is. Some teen loses his license to travel because he has a minute trace of alcohol, and then the Clovers of the world say “See? Another drunk off the road; and more death and mayhem prevented! Isn’t our Master doing a great job of keeping us safe?!”.
At what level of blueness would you be guilty? Why does that white car look different from the other, one having blue mixed in and the other having black mixed in? And then everybody getting pulled over and color-tested. Sounds familiar. “I had every right to pull over someone wearing a shirt you could consider blue or green, looked blue to me”. Bam, says the appellate court judge, Yes you did” and now it’s friggin law.
>”At what level of blueness would you be guilty? “<
At whatever point the color analyzer shows you to be in violation of the current arbitrary standard! (It used to be denim blue, but now it's robin's-egg blue…)
You see, you can never know when exactly you are in violation- if you're wearing a shirt with any blueness at all in it, you may or may not be guilty of having committed a crime- that is for us to decide, comrade!
If one of your tail lights burns out and we thus pull you over and we see any blue, we will whip out our color analyzer, and if you have too much blue, it's jail for you, buddy!
Or if you get into an accident, if you're wearing a red shirt, and the other guy's wearing a green shirt, then we'll actually investigate to see whose actions caused the accident; but if you're wearing a blue shirt, it's automatically your fault!
eric, your “functionally impaired” came to mind this week when I come over the hill, balling the jack as it were and see where this ancient woman had pulled her big Buick right out in front of a super-wide load on a tri-axle tractor and about a six axle lowboy. He had a pilot car in front and strobe lights all over his tractor but never mind that, the old gal pulled right out as soon as the pilot car was by. I had had this young woman on my ass for 15 miles with plenty of room several times to pass but she’d rather stay back there and hopefully soak up a blown 11R 24.5 than simply go around. I instinctively dove for the shoulder so that truck could go on around the dangerous obstacle doing maybe 30 mph. Things wouldn’t have been so bad at the point but Ms. high and mighty clung to that center stripe like she owned it leaving the guy no room to pull into the oncoming lane a bit. He was heavy on the brakes and I could just imagine what was going through his mind. But here’s the deal, since he didn’t run over the old biddy, she wasn’t at fault for anything and proving failure to yield in this state takes some doing if it’s the “right” person at fault. Of course little miss bitch had every “right” to stay close to the stripe, even if self-preservation would never kick in. I see crap like this constantly and wonder why there aren’t more accidents. To hell with anything that might be there for safety, just using the controls at hand and feet properly would set you in good stead as far as the “s” word is concerned.
Here’s another problem we had last week too. One of the welders hit another car, a small dink that didn’t even scratch either vehicle. Not a mark on the hit car nor any damage so they go on. A couple days later a letter arrives from an attorney. Seems like the injured part had noticed the business sign on the side. Time for payup now since they are “injured”, whiplash.
Why must things be accepted as wholes? What is good about the autobahn has nothing to do with the bad sides of German laws which otherwise are as bad or worse as most anywhere else. There is no reason for an all-or-nothing attitude.
PS: there are people in Germany have been trying to get rid of the derestricted speed zones for many many years now.
When I lived in Miami there were no inspections to worry about. I still had to pay $30ish/yr. to renew my plates but that was all. When I moved to Houston I had to pay almost $500 for a new Texas registration, $100+ for a new drivers licence and $40 for inspection. I’ve spent over $700 to enjoy the “privilege” of driving a vehicle I owned and paid in full. It isn’t even worth $1500!! This doesn’t count the mandatory $50-60 for insurance…
Texans like to brag about being the freest and being their own “Republic of Texas”. In my experience, this state is one of the worst police states in existence.
1) Small city cops who LOVE to extort via tickets (4 so far this year ALL dismissed in court)
2) Ridiculous property taxes (I heard they jumped 20-30% this year alone)
3) 8.25% sales tax
4) Inspection fees
ect…
I’m a Texan, and agree with your sentiment. We are not that free in some ways. And yes, this car inspection is an irritation that does little to make us safe and a tremendous waste of time and gas for everyone.
This has been making the rounds, too….
http://www.thedailysheeple.com/did-you-hear-texas-plans-to-fingerprint-everyone-within-the-next-12-years_102014
Pre-emptive fingerprinting.
But they can’t find a single illegal alien in our country.
Several years ago I heard about a cow in Oregon IIRC, that was diagnosed with Mad Cow Disease. They claimed to be able to track all of her offspring. So maybe we just give each infiltrator a cow?
Ah yes, the Republic of Texas. It didn’t seem so bad when I lived there back in the ’80s. Then I moved here to the “Free State” of Maryland. Made me miss Dick “the _______” Armey.
Pedro. Tx. inspections are $15.50, a Class A CDL is $45 for 4 or 5 years. I know this since I pay these fees. Of course, most Texans don’t think of Houston(and this is sad) as being part of Texas. It’s been that way since I was a kid and that’s been many decades ago. I met people from Houston in the 60’s when I went to college. They could have been from anywhere and thought us real Texans were simply hicks even though we knew everything they did and they had no clue as to what real Texas life was about. They’d speak about the same things all big city kids learn and we’d show them what riding, roping, farming, ranching and all that stuff that is Texan was about. I remember most of them as having more in common with guys in the Air Farce I met who were from NYC’s various burgs.
So… let me ask all of you this…
In an ancap society, with roads built and operated in the free market, by private investors… Do you think you would be free to drive any car, in any condition, on those roads?
While I’m not justifying the states intrusion in to my automotive upkeep habits, I suspect that on free-market, private roads, the operators would still demand some soft of guarantee of safe operation on your part, both in terms of a competency exam (driver’s license) and assurance of mechanical soundness of your car.
In that situation, I see something where a number of private organizations, either independently, or many agreeing to a set of standards, would work out a “certification” for your car, and the road owners would choose which certifications they’ll honor. Maybe something like the UL tag… Obviously, this market would be more responsive to the true needs of the marketplace, like… a one year old car does not need a safety and emissions sticker… just because that car driving on three wheels has a valid sticker, doesn’t mean it’s “safe”. I work in IT and there are many meaningful (and some not so much) certifications used to determine any given employees knowledge of a subject. Markets that demand interoperability, like cars on the road, naturally evolve to these “standards”.
Yeah, I’d rather be in the scenario. I’ll take my chances with the market as opposed to the state any day of the week. But… I don’t see that environment eliminating something similar to a safety inspection. After all… when I go to the track (a one-way private road, in a loop, with no speed limit, for all intents and purposes), my car still needs to pass “tech”.
That would be mostly correct. But because the road owner and driver would possibly disagree on the car using that road (no contract), the driver would not use or be charged for the road.
Hi Late,
Sure, that would almost certainly be the case. But the difference is, there’d be a free market in roads. Or rather, the market – not government – would determine which roads to build, how they’d get built and used.
Right now, we’re forced to use government roads – roads we’re also forced to pay for. Which is why it’s particularly grating to be told how we may use them.
eric, garysco, Late, private roads as in paved highways are built to make money. The WAY you drive would be more important than What you drive I’d think. Pay to play would be the motive and our newest road of this sort is only limited by the state jumping in and declaring the authority to patrol it with state troopers and limit the speed to 85mph. Once again, private enterprise is screwed via the state. I have to dodge damned state troopers doing 120 every day to “catch” someone doing 6 mph over the PSL. Bullshit, pure and simple. Those dicks will run over you just like everyone else and not even have their emergency lights on but don’t get in a wreck with them cause they’ll lie and cover up the truth(as in deleting a video of their actions).
I’m a trucker(funny how those DPS don’t run over my rig) and equipment operator and it’s only because of private companies I have a job. No matter what I haul, big equipment, base material, hot asphalt mix or any other thing needed, I basically build roads. I just got off a job for a RR road. I don’t think most people understand how many roads are privately built. I recently helped build a road in the famous Guitar Ranch among other places.
@8 – Hillary will disagree. She says all jobs are because of the benevolent government, and that you should be thankful for the work offers it provides.
What I see is is a 50 year long plot to get the public to pay for the roads (at least once, twice or three times with tax money) for “public benefit”.
Once again our government finds the credit card over extended, payments due and is looking under every cushion for tax revenue to cover. Because it has become fascist they now want to “sell off” the roads to private cronies, who will then charge us to drive on them. Got your fast-pass yet? That new Mexico – Canada highway in Tx. is a good example of the criminal cost shift.
Garysco, that has been a shitstorm(screw you spellcheck) of controversy. Anybody with half a brain is really PO’d about it and enough so that it’s become a non-issue in that the MSM says nothing about it so people don’t realize it’s progressing ahead as planned. We did have a first in court of stopping eminent domain last year and that’s a good thing as it will help in keeping people from being screwed on that politicians dream highway. I see more vehicles every day with Mexico tags. And that ain’t a good thing since they’re mostly junk.
Yep, this state and this entire country has gone to hell.
SOME Libertarians say open borders are fine. I don’t think they take into account the safe harbor as in free everything for illegal aliens from everywhere at the taxpayer expense. I have no problem with open borders but there comes a time(tax time, every nanosecond)when it’s not so great on the bordering states nor any other state. But I realize I don’t need to tell anyone here how that works. I don’t even see clover standing up for that.
This Gregg Abbot a-hole running for guvner has commercials saying he’s going to increase DPS funds for border control by 50% or some such bs and add another 500 DPS cowards. They have already, under Hair Perry, added $500 M in the last four years to the DPS budget and that’s mainly for “administrative personnel” since most of those jobs are in the $200K range or above and that’s big money in Tx.
Don’t get me wrong though, Wendy Davis, his Dem opponent is the same Wendy who told Ft. Worth and surrounding counties she’d never let red light cams come to town when she was their rep. and then pushed them through all the while owning a big portion of the major company installing them. Graft…….get it while you can.
RE: “when I go to the track (a one-way private road, in a loop, with no speed limit, for all intents and purposes), my car still needs to pass “tech”.”
Is it the standards of the track tech, or the standards of the state?
I imagine it’d be like this, too: “The WAY you drive would be more important than What you drive I’d think.”
“Pay to play”
BTW, imho, the correct spelling is, ShitStorm.
[Caps make all the difference spellcheck!]
Also, RE: “SOME Libertarians say open borders are fine. I don’t think they take into account the safe harbor as in free everything for illegal aliens from everywhere at the taxpayer expense.”
Removing – the taxpayer paying – is the key. Then there’s no problem. Otherwise you’re just fighting over scraps same as any other animal at the back door.
As I’ve said before, it’s like your neighbor putting cans of cat food out on the back-porch and then complaining the next day about how tore up the cat is and being irritated about all the raccoon shit everywhere and how there’s so many varmints about. …It ain’t the wildlife’s fault.
The mice are always happy to get graft.
@Helot: Ha! That’s funny! Cat food, or welfare programs…it’s always the coons that come’a running! 😀
“Is it the standards of the track tech, or the standards of the state?”
I’m not sure why I have to keep saying this…
The track. But that’s precisely my point… I don’t suspect private roads would eliminate the need for an “inspection”, in some way, shape or form. Certainly, that market-driven mechanism would be more efficient and effective but… still present, just like on the track.
>” I don’t suspect private roads would eliminate the need for an “inspection”, in some way, shape or form. “<
That would be fine- you could choose whether or not to drive on a particular road- and not have to pay for it's construction and use if you don't care to drive on it- unlike the communal gov't roads, where we all pay; but don't get to choose.
In reality, in a free society, there might indeed be some private high-quality high-speed smooth roads, as was the case in the past, when we had private toll roads (How "turnpikes" got their name), but I think the vast majority of roads would be dirt and gravel, maintained by the people or businesses who are located along them- and we could simply drive vehicles that are appropriate for such roads.
For the love of Pete… Yes, I AGREE, 100%. I’ve stated this over and over now. Does everybody here think privately owned roads would be a free-for-all. Maybe some would, but the better ones… probably not.
The premise of Eric’s article was the elimination of the “safety inspection”, or at least that administered by the state. It’s not necessary, period.
While I agree… it’s entirely expectable and reasonable that one would be required by private road operators.
I understand how “free” roads would work and I understand that as the owner of one, I would have expectations as well, just like the “state”. That being said… the cost, efficiency and effectiveness would be many factors better than what the state can implement.
Sheesh, calm down, Late Ape- no one’s arguing with you, or accusing you of supporting a non-lib position- we’re just all positing our various ideas about a hypothetical situation.
Here’re a few things I was thinking today:
a)When private roads actually did exist for public/commercial use…the owners didn’t seem to give a hoot about your competence or the condition of your vehicle- pay your money, and you could drive on the Long Island Motor Parkway or the Flushing Plank Road, no questions asked.
b)Competency tests and vehicle inspections are not worth a thing, unless they are comprehensive, and done often. I couldn’t drive worth a darn when I passed my state driver’s test. And even if someone could, I might go crazy 5 months later; or spend the next 2 years never driving, and lose even what little skill I may’ve had- etc.
Ditto inspections. Car passes today, tomorrow it could have no brakes.
c)By requiring tests, the road owner would conversely be giving their tacit approval to all whom they let drive, so when there is an accident, the victim (or even the one who caused the accident) could hold the road owner liable, because they gave their approval for the person to drive on the road.
If we lived in a libertarian world and I owned a road, I’d simply post signs that all who drive on the road do so at their own risk, and since I do not control who drives on the road, I am not liable for their actions or competency or negligence.
[Remember, I’m not saying these things to counter what you said, nor to imply that you believe the opposite- They’re just my thoughts on the subject]
Hey, even many states don’t require inspections to drive on their roads…..
Hi Late,
Hey, I need your mailing address… email me privately at [email protected] …. and, thanks!
When I said, “Is it the standards of the track tech, or the standards of the state?” I meant, is there something unseen going on? Does the state require the track to have insurance in order to operate and in turn does the insurance company require the inspections? In that way, the state would mandate the inspections at the track.
I don’t know, just asking. I certainly would not be surprised to learn that’s the case,
I can’t say for sure but… given the variability I’ve seen in terms of “tech” at tracks, I don’t think there’s any state and limited insurance company involvement.
It goes from “you have a helmet?” to a comprehensive inspection of your car, your harnesses, you logbook, etc.
I don’t think the state knows how to regulate this. Insurance companies… maybe… I’ve investigated buying “track day” insurance. Typically… I only track what I’m willing to write off. I’d like to track something more expensive, someday.
Morning, Eight!
Yup. “Open borders” is a fine idea… provided it doesn’t come with opened-at-gunpoint wallets. Otherwise, it is a guarantee the host organism will be bled white. It’s as naive – as imbecilic – an idea as letting it be known that one’s home is open to anyone who wishes to enter the front door, grab some chow from the ‘fridge and have a snooze on the sofa… and it’s all his for the taking, by right.
Me gusta! Si, se puede!
How long before a stranger is sleeping in your bed? How long before your ‘fridge is empty?
Madness.
Yes, I agree with both of you, Gary and Eric. My point just was… if we had a “road” free-market, I wouldn’t expect to be relieved of licensing and inspection requirements if you expected to use those roads. Obviously, the state’s system would be replaced with something more efficient and effective, but still, replaced with something serving a similar purpose. You’d just have more choices… the Wal-Mart or the Wegmans of roads, with the expected differences in quality of the road, other drivers, engineering, etc.
Late,
Another thing to consider is the competition of the road companies. Just as McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, etc., want as many people as possible in their restaraunts, so it would be with roads. The private sector must be careful in how discriminating they are. A government monopoly doesn’t have to worry about anything like that. You have one “choice” and that’s it.
Yes, that is an often forgotten factor in the consideration of private roads. Around here (near Babylon on the Potomac) there are often NO viable alternative routes when some idiot causes a wreck and the main arteries are partially or completely blocked. And the worse the accident, the longer the gunvermin troops spend ‘investigating’ instead of cleaning things up and letting the rest of the lemmings proceed to their cages. Want to bet that the priority of a private road owner would be getting the rest of the paying customers on the way? Because I for one would at least expect a discount, if not a full waiver of the toll, when delayed like that.
Honestly I am not big on private roads. One my retorts to ‘who will build the roads?’ is to say, if government was reduced to Managers of the Roads, that would be a good thing.
I really don’t have a problem if society were to create a board of road managers who took care of the roads. That is they would still be the public way, etc and so forth. But without the monopoly on legal violence government enjoys.
This isn’t the space to fully develop this idea, but rather only to consider that we can still have social institutions to take care of common things without it being a government.
When we say ‘private’ we mean not under gunvermin control. HOA’s would likely own their own roads and roll maintenance into the fee structure, with allowances for guests, etc., to be worked out locally. Malls, and some of the roads near them, would be owned jointly by the stores and usually available w/o toll as they WANT the traffic.
And so it goes.
Actually, I consider an HOA to be a government, but one you chose to submit to when you bought the house.
“I suspect that on free-market, private roads, the operators would still demand some soft of guarantee of safe operation on your part, both in terms of a competency exam (driver’s license) and assurance of mechanical soundness of your car.”
Not necessarily. You might just be held liable for any damage or delay you cause, whether through driver error or mechanical failure.
Phillip
You make an excellent point. Liability. That’s something that just blows clover’s minds. Only being liable for something you do, rather than eliminating liability for things that may happen. When something does happen, there are many situations where people aren’t held liable, because they “followed all the rules and did everything you could do to avoid a problem”.
What a load of shit……paying fines for things you ‘could’ have done or damage you “might cause”. Then getting out of things you did do and harm you did cause because the “paperwork is legit”.
Yeah, it’s kind of like ‘Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity.’ I can understand GUILTY by reason of insanity, but not guilty? Mitigating circumstances may affect the penalty, but not the verdict.
On the other hand, when you as a driver have been ‘licensed’ by the gunvermin, and your vehicle licensed and inspected by them, driving on roads designed, built and maintained by gunvermin, then whenever there is an ‘accident’ you could claim the gunvermin are liable.
That is the whole principle behind “innocent until proven guilty”- to be held accountable only for what you have actually done; and then to have total liability if you actually did something which caused harm/damage. In a nutshell, that is freedom.
The “freedom” most people believe in today, is freedom FROM responsibility. Where the actual causer of damage/harm has only limited liability (especially if he hasn’t “broken any law”); but in-turn, all of society- all innocent people are dealt a share of liability for what others do.
So the kid who was negligent and made a left turn in front of my nephew’s motorcycle, killing him, suffers absolutely no consequence, because he was not drunk, and had all his papers, etc. While the guy rolls through a 4-way stop after having 2 beers will have fork over thousands or lose his “privilege” to travel.
[Please note: I’m not saying that the kid who hit my nephew should be criminally punished or anything- as it was “an accident” (Even though the moron is a POS, who later bragged about “having killed someone”)- but the idea that you can kill someone, even accidentally, and have absolutely no consequences- i.e. he was insured- so the insurance co. paid the max, and since the kid didn’t have anything, he’ll never have to so much as lift a finger nor have to give the incident another thought).]
Basically:
Freedom = Unlimited liability for harm you actually cause. No molestation for “what you might do/could do/technicalities”. i.e. a punitive legal system. Innocent until proven guilty; only the guilty pay for things they’ve actually done.
Tyranny = Limited liability for your actual actions. Actual liability transfered to others; Punishment for what you might do/could do/technicalities. A preventative legal system. Assumed guilty just for having the ability to do something; all citizens pay and are considered criminals.
It is no surprise that gov’t operates under the latter scenario- as one of their basic powers, is that of creating corporations- and what is a corporation? An artificial being created by the state, for the purposes of limiting liability to those who own the corporation.
Tyranny
I read somewhere, I think ‘the rockefeller file’ that on just one estate, one property, the rockefellers had 72 miles of roads.
Ok I found it…
http://educate-yourself.org/ga/RFcontents.shtml
“at the time of the marriage of Nelson’s son Steven, the estate, with its 70 miles of private roads, was said to be 4,180 acres in size.”
How much ya wanna bet every mile of them private roads was paid fer by you’in me? [Sorry- my fingers get a TX accent after reading 8SM’s posts….]
Moleman, come now. RR’s only get a few billion subsidy a year. And of course a few hundred billion to keep the oil companies in cheap foreign oil(although we don’t need it now with oil flowing like….. well……not water…..since we have more oil than water but flowing unabated for certain). I actually have never built a gummint road though except my first job out of high school and we actually worked back then. Now we have a “new” wind generation project going so I’m hot to get more trucks and haul some of that stuff. It pays really well. I appreciate everyone contributing to this too. Many thanks since I’m sure everybody couldn’t wait to chip in.
Well, what to do except try to get as much of it as you can…..and that ain’t much from my perspective but I’ll take all I can get….. 7 days a week and 90+ hrs a week ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.
I logged 700 miles yesterday, loaded and unloaded my truck twice by my lonesome(did all the paperwork, fueling and maintenance too) and did it all between 0430 and 1730. Probably not a lot of folks would fight me for that privilege.
Late,
Welcome to the Fray! Good to see another IT guy here. However, on the subject of certifications? I hate them. Why? Because anyone good at memorizing trivia can pass a test. I’ve known thousands of such individuals during my long career in IT (35 plus years). Yes, I’m older than moon dirt! (shhhhh, be 62 the 27th of this month and yes this year my birthday is on my actual day of birth!)
At one time, I was the IT director at a local casino. I’d interview the candidate and then throw them in a lab with equipment with issues (the equipment depending on the position of course). I’d give them 2 hours max to isolate and resolve the issue. Some candidates were able to do it quickly, some took the entire 2 hours and some couldn’t resolve the issue at all (even with the internet available). You can guess who my top candidates were. That is not to say that some of my candidates didn’t have certifications, what I’m saying is I don’t put any stock in having certifications.
A case in point, (this was an actual person that was contracted by Northwest Airlines for a Field Engineer’s position. Please pay close attention to the list of credentials I list this person had) Engineer A held a BS in Computer Science issued by the University of Memphis, MCSE certified, A+ certified, Server + certified, Network + certified, CNE (Novell) certified & Unix certified. Yet, this individual was not able to replace a hard drive in a computer. This person was good at memorizing the information to pass test then forgetting every thing so he could cram for the next certification. Suffice to say, at the term of this individual’s 18 month contract, he was not offered a permanent position with the Airline.
OK, I’m off my soap box about certifications…..
Again, welcome to the Fray. Try to avoid the resident village idiot known as Clover.
David Ward
Memphis, Tennessee
I agree 100%. I’ve been at my present employer for 18 years now. I only have terribly out-dated certs. I don’t think they’re worth much except to make sure you at least get the interview, if you’re looking. Not having them could be the reason you don’t get called…
I’ve always prided myself in my ability to troubleshoot. Although I started out in desktops, I’m on the Architecture and Engineering team now, which just means the problems are more complex and impactful. Just the same… I *think* I’m pretty good at isolating components of a problem and eliminating them one by one. It amazes me how many peers seemingly have no ability to do that. …and like you said… also don’t seem to know how to use Google. I’m not a DBA (though I know my way ’round SQL reasonable well) but I have built out and support a virtualized MS SQL environment with about 150 VMs and 200+ SQL instances. It continually amazes me how many “DBAs” come to me with SQL questions, the answers to which I find easily on the internet in < 5 minutes. I'm not sure if I should tell them that or not. I look smarter than I am but I should encourage them to find their own solutions.
Long story short… one of the most valuable skills I've found when we've brought more junior members into our team was troubleshooting. …and there's no cert for that, specifically. The ability to break down a problem into sub-components and "resourcefulness" in finding solutions simply can't be taught or tested for…
I agree they're generally not worth much. Heck… here in PA you have to have a state-issued beauticians license just to cut hair. A bad hair cut seems like a problem the market would correct on it's own rather quickly. I just used them as an example of how systems that interact with other systems tend to move towards standardization and certs are component of that.
Here in fascist CA, the inspections are extra special. They don’t give a damn about the safety of the car, as long as it passes the smog check, but that’s a tall order.
In other states where I’ve lived, they read the OBD codes, put a sniffer in the tail pipe, and measure emissions. If you’re under the limits, you pass.
In CA, you must also be using CARB (California Air Resources Board) approved parts on your car! This includes everything on the intake side of the engine, everything on the exhaust side, and the ECU tune. If you’re using an aftermarket air filter that hasn’t been certified specifically for your car, you fail and have to fix the “problem” and then go to a more thorough facility that will go over your car with a fine tooth comb looking for modifications. The same goes for changing your exhaust. If an air filter is certified for use in one car, that doesn’t mean it’s CARB approved for use in another. Why all this bother? Because it costs a lot of money in fees and testing, which the state collects from each manufacturer.
If you have a high volume car like a Camry or Accord, odds are good aftermarket manufacturers will pay to certify parts for your car, but if you have a low production car, you’re out of luck finding aftermarket parts since the certification isn’t worth it.
I care about my car not emitting smog chemicals, and so, I run it with a cat and with a tune which runs clean. This costs me power, but I’m ok with that. Since my car isn’t stock, I’ve had to find mechanics willing to overlook my mods, despite the car being completely within emissions limits! A mechanic doing this is risking his business license and fines, so this is pricey – about $100 for the inspection, and another $100-200 for the mechanic’s risk.
CA got wise to this, so starting with OBD-II cars, they’ve made it all but impossible. OBD-II can report to the state whether your air/fuel maps in the ECU are stock or modified. Anything you do to change your power level will change these maps, as they will either adapt automatically, or you have to reprogram them. CA’s smog testing equipment detects this, and if yours are modified, despite testing clean, you can be called in for a re-inspection. It’s bullshit. All the smog testing equipment logs tests made on it, and calls them into the state, so you can’t even test a car to see if it passes without notifying the state. A mechanic can’t disconnect the machine from the network or phone, since it’s got something analogous to an odometer that records everything locally, and the next state audit would catch the discrepancy.
These days, to get my car to pass the smog test (and be street legal), I take off my supercharger, change the spark plugs, injectors, and exhaust, re-flash the ECU back to stock, drive 100 miles for it to pass the readiness test, go get the inspection, and put all the parts back on. Total waste of time and doing this doesn’t improve the emissions one bit since I built my car to run super clean to begin with.
And the rules and dollars/year change county by county that the car is registered in. I went the gamut but now have them registered in a “mountain county” with no bi-annual, and only a smog cert if I sell it.
OppositeLock, you said “It’s bullshit.” Be careful now, they’ll lump you in the same category with my redneck ass. I’m laughing my ass off since I’ve cussed the rednecks I live with my whole life yet I am one and respect SOME of the crap they do. But to most people, they can’t tell a redneck from country folk or simply those who can get along without the help of mostly anything or anybody. But you are correct and Bullshit is the same no matter where you are.
You gotta wonder about how entrenched the automotive lobby is here in VA. The yearly inspections are a boondoggle. Forced market… man that pisses me off! The other thing is….. Thou shalt come into compliance…. period! I typically take my cars to my trusted mechanic once a year for a stem to stern evaluation, and have him fix anything that might flunk an inspection. So I did this one year with my 97 Mercury and got a clean bill of health. So far, so good. But on the way to the inspection station the stupid airbag light came on! So, I knew it was gonna flunk. Long story short is: fast forward $750 and I get the sticker with the light being off. Next time I’ll just reach behind the dashboard and snip the damn wire to the light!
In Missouri, if your car is under 5 years old, it doesn’t have to be inspected. It’s really another “poor man’s tax” since wealthier people rarely drive a vehicle that is more than 5 years old.
The $12 inspection fee hasn’t changed in decades. My trusted mechanic only performs inspections for his valued customers as a service because he can barely break even at $12 a pop.
It’s a scam, but at least I can watch the mechanic actually perform the inspection as opposed to most government “services”.
Paying property taxes on my vehicles every year, especially the ’68 Olds and the ’94 Toyota, is much more painful and expensive.
Hi Rick,
I own two older trucks, a ’98 Nissan Frontier and an ’02 Frontier. Paid just over $7k for each, used. I’ve had the ’98 since ’03. The personal property tax alone – on the one truck – has cost me more than $1,000. The two together, over $2,000 over the past decade.
And these are trucks with fairly low assessed value.
Which is one reason why I’ll never buy vehicle those sons-of-bitches “assess” at more than $8k or so.
The poor guy who treats himself to a new $30k truck can look forward to sending hundreds in taxes every year for years; thousands of dollars over the life of the vehicle.
And yet, we tolerate it…
Eric, you need to buy some long johns and move up here to the Great White North. Relatively cheap land, unless you want to live in a Clover infested city.
I have a yard full of vehicles and other than the criminal transfer tax when purchased, they sit fee-less forever.
The only (overt) ongoing tax is on my property, and while offensive and wrong, it is only $350/year.
Lower Clover density (outside the urban) too. You can even keep your guns, though handguns are pretty restricted (No carry at all) and some ‘black and scary’ guns are arbitrarily and specifically banned. Just pack a shotgun, that is still legal, if frowned upon and an invitation for being hassled by the man.
Most of the official Missouri vehicle inspection stations are conveniently located at local chain tire dealerships and oil change shops which also offer basic repair services. At $12 a pop, they are not making any money off the fees. Rather, they find reasons to fail the vehicle inspection, and offer to repair the offense. Fortunately, I have a mechanic that I can trust, which is very rare in this day. He runs an alignment shop, and has enough business to keep himself busy and profitable.
A few weeks ago, I was hanging out at his shop, and a lady in a late model Ford crossover drove in complaining of the brakes being soft, and a “hissing” sound coming from under the dash when she hit the brakes. She informed him that the vehicle was due for its first inspection because it was now five years old. She was afraid that it wouldn’t pass.
Anyhow, he correctly suspected a bad brake booster. When he put the car on the rack, he called me over, and showed me the front tires. They were 100% void of any tread. Lucky for her that we had a mild summer or else they surely would have failed. I’ve never seen anything like it. Obviously, she had never rotated the tires in five years of owning the poor Ford.
The brake pads were dust. The rotors were grooved, thin, warped, and shinier than the front bumper of a “59 Cadillac. The rear tires and brakes were technically still there, but wouldn’t pass inspection either.
She was looking at over $1500 to replace the tires, brakes, and brake boosters just so that it would “pass inspection”. I doubt that she had ever even opened the hood.
There are plenty of late model vehicles running around Missouri that really don’t need to be on the road, and fall under the five year threshold. People just don’t know how to take care of their stuff anymore.
Hi Rick,
Yup, certainly.
I wonder, though, whether the system encourages more such by effectively absolving people of responsibility for keeping track of maintenance on their own?
I consider mandatory inspections another form of idiot proofing – and idiot proofing seems to alway create more idiots…
Eric – “and idiot proofing seems to alway create more idiots…”
More idiots? I think that is just population growth. The above average get lost in the majority as the drone masses grow.
To me, removing personal responsibility and self-reliance seems to me to be the real driving force behind evolving even more egregious examples of the Homo-imbecilus.
Many of the average Joes/Janes are not necessarily idiots or stupid full stop, they are merely ignorant, and ignorant of their ignorance. The true stupidity is revealed when these people choose to remain ignorant when given the examples, tools and directions to learn while continually denying others have superior knowledge.
IMNSHO anyway.
That Edge has extended warranty on the brake booster. She can take proof of repait to the dealership and get a reimbursment.
My now deceased mother had at least 3 cars before I became a teenager. All three ended up with destroyed/ blown engines. When I used to call her to check in I would ask if she had the oil changed, car serviced etc. on the one I gave her. Her usual response was something like, “oh yes, I added a quart last month.” Doh!
eric, $30K? I use pickups every day that cost $50-60K and nobody even thinks anything about it. I looked around for a used pickup today. Most of what I found would pass for brand new outside. What I Could Not find was a mandatory thing for me, an 8′ bed. Add that bed to the current crewcab(there’s almost no other kind of pickup in Tx. any longer)and it’s “too long” for those people who mainly just buy one to haul people or person as the case may be. The patch is just et up by these types of pickups, useless POS for the most part. What can you haul in a short bed? Not much. I have a couple people “looking” for me a long bed pickup since now “standard” bed means short bed. Not that long ago you couldn’t give a short bed pickup away and now it’s made a 180 degree turn. Disgusted me. I had one short bed pickup and it was worthless for anything except 4 Wheel Driving, exactly what I bought it for. A couple years ago I saw a vehicle going down the dirt road in front of my farm. I couldn’t figure out what it was and finally realized it was a regular cab, long bed pickup. I hadn’t seen one in so long it wasn’t recognizable. BTW, shopping for a new pickup today, I saw not a single one that was regular cab nor long bed. Now that sucks(long bed part, I have no use for a regular cab).
Hi Eight,
Indeed.
Same here. It’s much more common to see a quad cab/short bed truck than a regular cab/long bed truck.
And how about the spectacle of a truck sportin’ those gnomesayin’ 22-inch reee-uhms?
eric, those ree-uhms are good for the biz, get to put in all new front end parts in few miles. I notice a huge amount of Ford 4X4 fancy pickups with much wider wheels and tires than is necessary, so much so that the center treads wear agly. And then there’s all those “trucks” with such huge tires they can’t possibly wear evenly and most never have a speck of dirt on them.
I saw a welder’s truck with non-stock wheels and tires yesterday that had the outside rear tires way out to the side. That was one nasty Dodge. Whatever floats your boat though but remember those tires sticking out could get you a ticket or a punch in the nose when you break somebody’s windshield.
WoW! It’s like cosmic equilibrium! I saw a dually once, with a non-dually bed and only one wheel on each side in the rear; and the axle shafts sticking out a foot on each side1
MM, I used to see that fairly commonly. Add some overloads and a one ton rear-end to a 3/4 T and haul more. Ain’t my style though.
Then there’s the outfit I saw the other day – PU w/6′ bed, but 8′ topper. Talk about doofus.
That’s pretty doofus and it brought back a few memories of pickups with short campers on long beds which isn’t quite as funky but still, I guess if they’re just trying to protect “some” stuff it’s better than nothing.
There are times I’d like a cover(camper type)to keep a bed full of expensive tools and parts safe but being a dyed in the wool sunfighter headache rack and side boxes I’d have to build it myself. Then what do you do if you get somewhere with it on and have to drag a gooseneck trailer.
>”it brought back a few memories of pickups with short campers on long beds “<
Sounds like a redneck balcony/urinal! 😀
Inspections are welfare for mechanics.
I agree. Coincidentally, I had to get my Jeep inspected today, or at least before the end of the month. Last year, and I detailed it here, the dealership tried to tell me I need $2200 worth of work (new steering rack and lines) in order to pass. They said power steering fluid was leaking quite a bit… despite no apparent drops on my garage floor. Plus… this isn’t something they can really “fail” on an inspection, per my sister and a friend (see below) who are both “certified” for PA safety inspections.
I took it down the road to the local shop. One line had a small leak. I let him go ahead and do it. $350 for the fix and the tags.
Today though, my buddy is employed at a Ford dealership, locally. So… he picked the Jeep up on his way to work, changed the oil, rotated the tires (both of which I usually do myself) and put both the safety and emissions tags on it for $55, tax included. The dealership has to pay for the “stickers” so… this is pretty much at cost and $10 for labor. For the convenience of having the car picked up, serviced and dropped off… he even pulled it back into my garage… I can’t go wrong. It helps to have connections.
To your point though… yes… This really serves as nothing but a crony-capitalist ploy to drive customers to dealers for non-critical, high-margin “repairs” or maintenance, which should have been done before this point. But they have you on the hook… I was told once my wipers needed replaced… at like $40. I told them A) they don’t; they’re fine and B) I very rarely use them. I Rain-X the crap out of my windows. Who needs wipers? Like I said… gets you into the dealer, you need the sticker… what are you going to do?
We have emissions inspections here in Oregon at the DEQ (Department of Environmental Quality) every other year, which are required before issuance of our tax stamps, er… I mean vehicle tags. Since I have a later model Nissan Altima, this usually just involves attaching a cable to my vehicle’s on board computer for a minute or so and paying the registration dowry after it passes. There is no safety inspection.
There are only a couple of DEQ test stations in each city, and it’s a huge nuisance for most people to have to drive halfway across town to pay an ever compounding fee for their inspections and tags. When I had to endure the process again last summer, I noticed an extra twenty bucks or so added to the cost of registration. When I asked about it, I was told that it was a “county fee” for………….. something or other.
Hi Dan,
Yup.
A couple months ago, I wrote a column tabulating all these “little” fees. Annual safety/emissions; tag renewal. Property tax.
It’s shocking how much it costs merely to own a vehicle. That is, to be allowed temporary and conditional use of a vehicle.
Example:
2002 Nissan truck –
Annual registration, appx. $50
Annual “safety” check, $15
Property tax: appx. $75
So – minimally – $140 per annum merely to be allowed to own/operate “my” truck.
Say I own it 15 years. That’s $2,100 – a significant sum.
Now add the mandatory insurance mordita: Appx. $250 annually (which is low, relatively speaking). Over 15 years, that’s another $3,750.
Add the two together: $5,850.
I paid $7,200 for the truck itself.
These “little” fees amount to appx. 75 percent of what the vehicle cost, roughly doubling its true/total cost to own.
Yeah… I got rid of the collision and comprehensive coverage that the bank “requires” me to carry on a financed vehicle. The rates were ridiculously high, and I thought I’d give it a shot to see whether the bean counters at the bank or insurance company noticed. So far they haven’t said anything, and we’re going on about nine months now with nothing but straight, mandatory minimum liability.
The car isn’t completely paid off yet, but it will be by next summer. I have never, ever had an at-fault accident in some forty years of driving, so I really didn’t see any reason to send any more of my hard earned money to the insurance grifters than I absolutely had to.
I drive a 28-year-old Benz 300D (as in diesel) sedan, and here in Florida we have no vehicle inspections, tag renewal is 36 bucks a year, and I haven’t had to pay a dime for car insurance in years. When I lived in Maryland and in California, car insurance cost me more annually than fuel, oil, and tires combined. Here I can fill out a form for Tallahassee and be “self-insured” on showing a net worth of 40 grand. Sure we are heavily laden with Clovers, but if a crash happens, it’ll be one of them that will be at fault. Hasn’t happened yet and I’ve been living in this paradise for over 20 years. Plus, no gun registration of any kind, and I can carry concealed just about everywhere I go.
Eric;
I own a shop specializing in German cars and we also do State Inspections. On the one hand, I’m with you because I have always taken care of my stuff and fixed defects before they become serious, but on the other hand most people aren’t that way, particularly what you call “Clovers”.
We have in Charlottesville many prosperous people driving nice cars and they bring them in for annual inspections, frequently oblivious to tires with cord showing, etc. In many ways, as state inspectors, we serve a useful function for these people, people who just use their cars as appliances and don’t even think about them otherwise, by providing a framework for them to have an awareness that cars need upkeep. Many of these folks are as sanguine about the process as they are about annual checkups with the doctor and are often appreciative of the whole process. We do get certain folks who resent the process of course…
Hi Adrian,
Yes, agreed.
But my point was that it’s obnoxious to presume everyone’s irresponsible because some – or even most – people are. I’m tired of being held to various dumbed-down standards; of being punished not because I’ve caused a problem but because some got-damned Clover has caused a problem.
Punish the Clovers – but leave me (and other non-Clovers) out of it!
The thing is there has been no proven benefit in states with the inspections over the states without them.
If inspections really addressed serious safety issues that could harm others then we would see people avoiding and fleeing from states like Illinois. No safety inspections of any kind and I’ve seen a lot of hazardous vehicles on the road back when I lived near the CHA (urban housing projects). Never saw one cause anyone but its owner difficulty. Had friends and friends of friends and brothers of friends buy $50 rust bucket cars that somehow still ran. They all lived.
The inspections really don’t have a measurable effect.
Maybe next time you’re pulled over by the fuzz, ask them why their emergency lights came on when there was no emergency – which is unlawful. Note to them that their siren also came on and disturbed the peace. If they did it all on purpose, note to them that they’ll be receiving a citation. Ask for their ticket book.
Pull out a pen and notebook. Motion for the cops to stay on the footpath for their own “safety”, then tell them you’ll have to safety-inspect their car because of the violations.
What’s good for the goose..
Besides, they’re no experts either and they shouldn’t be trusted to have everything above-board by dint of them belonging to a commercial operation WHICH YOU PAY FOR! Bet their spare is low a few PSI.
Ask them for ID, licences, hazard bonds and registrations. Tell them to take their licence/ID out of the plastic wallet like they demand us to do. If they won’t do it or give you their ID, refuse to give yours, get outta there quick and call 911. They might be fake cops, which has happened many times before.
If it’s an unmarked car, don’t pull over until you’re in a safe area with lots of witnesses. Anyone can rent a costume and get blue and red strobes at Radio Shack.
Hi Rev,
I love the sentiment, and it would have been a great thing to try 20 years ago. But today, in the USSA, cops have become de facto “troops” – buzzcut Officer 82nd Airborne types – and they have been trained to immediately beat-down any perceived “threat” … which amounts to the slightest recalcitrance.
Hi Eric,
Don’t include us active or prior service military with the SS/KGB police goons. Police are no longer “peace” officer. They are law/regulation enforcers/goons. Myself and many of my men are combat vets and laugh at the SWAT guys running around in more kit than we wore in Iraq. They LOVE to be seen in their gear sitting in restaurants eating for free. Modern police attract the wrong kind of people now. Just as the priesthood became a magnet for pedophiles as they could get close to kids due to implied trust, modern police attract men are sadistic, violent and want to impose their will on us sheep. Just keep in mind this sheep has teeth.
craig K. wrote, “Don’t include us active or prior service military with the SS/KGB police goons.”?
How would anyone know if this was true or not?
impaler19120 on Yahoo says, “No one (not the VA nor the DOJ) keeps statistics on how many combat vets are employed as law enforcement officers.”
If this is true, the police force could be 95% vets and no one would be none the wiser.
This is just active duty, not vets:
“According to 2003 data2 from the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) survey compiled by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), 4,100 of the approximately 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States, had officerswho were called to active duty in the National Guard or Reserve. Of those 4,100 agencies, an estimated 11,380 full-time sworn law enforcement officers were activated in a 12-month period. About two-thirds of these officers were from local law enforcement agencies. Moreover, 11,380 officers constitute about two percent of the available law enforcement workforce nationwide.” …
Two percent is a very low number, but again, that’s just active duty.
Then there’s this new requirement that might have been unofficially followed nationwide for the last, oh, ten years? Who knows?:
“Under the Justice Department’s COPS (Community Oriented Policing Services) program, 629 of the 800 police jobs funded for the next three years – all the newly hired officers – must go to veterans” – csmonitor.com
https://www.bja.gov/Publications/IACPEmployingReturningVets.pdf
So, I guess we’ll never know?
At the same time, “Your actions overseas are placing our freedoms here at home in ever-greater jeopardy.” …
An Open Letter to the Troops: You’re Not Defending Our Freedoms
by Jacob G. Hornberger
http://fff.org/explore-freedom/article/open-letter-troops-defending-freedoms/
Kettle, meet pot?
Amerikans have let their country go to Stalin and Mao. Record the beat-down and hang ’em with it later. I’m sure it’ll show them reacting violently to no threat whatsoever. They might not get the jail time they deserve, but it should send a message if more take action against them. It has to happen eventually.
Might work for Chuck Norris. For you? Probably NOT!
Gee whiz.. then why might it work for Chuck Norris? Are they afraid of a physical beat up or the law?
MFW, Chuck IS one of them. He’s a member of the Harris county(Houston)sheriff’s dept, a deputy. He just loves kicking in doors for people who might be smoking a J. There is no larger danger for liberty than the Chuck’s of this world, a raging, raving human POS. Old Chuck got no-billed(of course)for shooting(an alleged pot smoker) in his own home cause he was a-skeered that joint was a threat I suppose(I have no idea if anyone was even smoking at the time, nothing but a simple possession bust). I guess when you think kicking in people’s doors is a good thing you tend to think of what is right and true(them shooting your sorry ass) as being a very real threat. Too bad not every damned one of them that do this shit doesn’t get a load of buckshot. I’d guess it wouldn’t be so popular. Then every county would need a Huey aka WACO to hold their mini-gun so they could spray down every square inch of the alleged perp’s home for “occifer safety”. Never mind the chilluns. What? That’s their “raisin detre” ain’t it, doing it for the chilluns?
4:00AM No knock warrant? For what? Why could they not tag him on the streets? The story keeps changing and no official source is talking about that…
PASADENA, Calif.
A SWAT officer died early Wednesday, a day after being wounded by a shotgun blast while attempting to force open a door during a pre-dawn raid at a Southern California home, authorities said.
Pomona Police Officer Shaun Diamond, 45, succumbed to his injuries at a Pasadena hospital, Chief Paul Capraro said in a statement.
The suspect in the shooting, David Martinez of San Gabriel, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder of a police officer. He was jailed on $4 million bail, and it wasn’t immediately known if he had a lawyer.
Diamond was wounded as he attempted to lead fellow officers into the home around 4 a.m. Tuesday, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Lt. Eddie Hernandez said.
“When Officer Diamond was attempting to breach the outer door of the location, the interior door opened and he was met with gunfire,” Hernandez told reporters at a news conference outside the hospital.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/article3435883.html#storylink=cpy
While this is probably true for most officers, my sister is a state trooper and although I’m probably biased, one of the few with at least an appreciation for “our” perspective on the role of the state and its police. (We have great conversations.) She is “certified” to perform PA state inspections and graduated with honors from CMU, though she still asks me for advice when it comes to auto maintenance and repair.
Like I said, though I may be biased… on this topic… there are a few decent cops out there and she’s probably one of them. Obviously, she’s way over-qualified for the job. She mostly enjoys it. I’m not sure why. She’s not a power-seeking, Type-A personality.
Like Eric, she drives an older, basic car… (at least) a 12-year old Nissan Sentra. It works. She won’t replace it even though she could easily afford to… No cable TV. Heck… she just got a 32″ TV about a year ago. Eats organic and limits processed foods in her diet at much as she can. No caffeine. Runs in the morning and gets eggs and milk from the farmer on her route. Carries them back. The most expensive thing I’ve known her to buy in years is a Vitamix, mainly so she can do her own grains. Recycles *everything*. Hiked the Appalachian trail. Rented a lousy, cheap, apartment for ten years and paid for her house, cash. We split a copy of Turbo Tax every year to save money and I help walk her through it. She donates over 40% of her income, every year, to her church and various charities, many domestic-violence related because of what she deals with every day. A lot of detail but believe me… she’s not your typical statist “authority”.
That being said, I agree, she’s not representative of the “lot”.
Hi Late,
Your sister sounds like a decent person – which is why I wonder how she can stomach arresting/caging people for manufactured “offenses” such as possessing/consuming/freely buying/selling arbitrarily illegalized “drugs,” not having state permission slips of various kinds (inspection stickers to gun permits) and enforcing laws because “it’s the law”?
I would respect cops if their work consisted exclusively or even mostly of keeping the peace; of interposing themselves between aggressively violent people and the victims of such. But, unfortunately, the “mission” of cops today is to enforce the law. Because it’s the law. Whether it’s right (or wrong) being irrelevant.
They are law enforcers. Of laws that – to a very great extent – are simply arbitrary edicts, often grotesquely violating people’s rights. Does your sister, for example, live in a state that has seatbelt and helmet laws? I assume she enforces these laws, if so? How can she abide doing so? I could not. Just as I could not abide waylaying your sister at gunpoint and hectoring her about her personal life choices that are no legitimate business of mine.
I don’t mean to be harsh toward her, per se. My goal is to articulate harshness toward a system that turns good people like her into tools of authoritarianism. A system that destroys a person’s principles. Or rather, diminishes them by rendering them “situational” and subject to whatever the whims of the masses happen to be, as expressed via the vote or their “representatives” in government. The individual no longer has any rights that may not be trampled on if “the law” says it’s ok. The absence of a victim or harm caused is no longer sufficient to void a “charge” – and punishment. Etc.
I’d be very curious to have her reply to the above.
Believe me, Eric, I’m of the same opinion as you and like I said have had many long, interesting conversations with her. My point to Rev was, there are a few cops out there that aren’t the ex-high-school-bully with a 2-year criminal justice degree from community college, looking to abuse the power of their badge.
I doubt I could get her to respond since she rarely uses the internet outside of work. She just recently got access at home and only because she upgraded to a smartphone with a hot spot. I think she would probably say that, within a certain degree, she can’t pick and choose what laws to enforce, or not enforce.
I know she’d be fine with repealing seat belt and helmet laws *IF* those who chose not to wear them were held fully accountable for their actions. Turn yourself into a vegetable because you didn’t wear a helmet? Don’t expect the taxpayer to cover your health care costs in excess of your insurance and provide support programs for you and your family the rest of your life. We’ve discussed that before. But… yeah, she can’t really pick and choose.
However, she’s not on the road so much any more. More administrative… was doing auditing, now more management…
She volunteers every few months, non-paid, to do those child seat safety checks, like in a Wal-Mart parking lot. (I always “failed” btw. Straps were never tight enough…) She’s said they could have a field day writing equipment violations, expired tags, etc. but… they don’t. That’s not the idea. She kindly advises them to deal with whatever it is… before they do get a ticket.
She certainly does have more faith in many laws than I do in that it’s assumed there’s a net “good” effect (like drug laws) but she also sees the abuses of the police state, like SWAT teams going after raw milk farmers. More than most in her position, she probably has more balance in terms of respect for individual liberty and freedom.
Sadly, it does make her a bit caustic sometimes. She doesn’t like being present when CYS removes kids from a home filled with trash, needles, animals, abusive boyfriends, etc. She sees the worst of us. Being in a supervisory role, she’s often the one that has to knock on a parents’ door in the middle of the night to let them know their kid is dead. She’d probably gladly write seat belt tickets all day than deal with the other issues.
She sounds like a good person Late. If the requirements of her job, superiors and State don’t get to her, she’ll likely have a very good career and continue to be a valued member of the community. Kudos.
Late,
Don’t take this the wrong way but in 1939-1945 Germany the people in the SS had brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, cousins, aunts & uncles that thought their relative was a good person. Even while they were committing crimes against humanity.
Point being, your sister is the part of the enforcement arm of the state, that at gun point, extracts the property of non state actors against their will. I don’t care how much of the loot, she receives as part of that act, she gives to a church or any one else. She basically is dealing with stolen goods and so is the people that receives them.
The only truly moral act she can commit is to end her association with the state and repent her transgressions by apologizing to the entire populace of the united States, which she has either directly or indirectly harmed.
David Ward
Memphis, Tennessee
Well-said, David.
Guy down the road from me is a state cop. I’ve been to his place several times; he’s been over here. We both like motorcycles. He seems like an ok guy – on the “neighbor” and “fellow bike enthusiast” level. But what would he do if, say, he were ordered to draw his gun on me and put me in a cage for any reason? Would he do so, provided it was a “legal order”? I believe he would. Just as I believe Late’s sister would – and probably has – used her gun (its implied threat of lethal violence) to put people in cages who harmed no one but violated “the law” – and would do so again, so long as “the law” told her it was ok.
I’ve mentioned before that, in my very younger years, I briefly thought about becoming a cop. I like the idea of going after criminals. But my definition of “criminal” differs from the state’s definition. My definition is: People who harm others; typically, using aggressive violence. Thus, people who assault others or threaten to – and take other people’s things. But that’s not the type of “crime” most cops spend their work days combatting. A great deal of their work consists of harassing – and punishing – people who’ve harmed no one (except perhaps themselves, which is no one else’s business) or who have violated some arbitrary “law” which these cops all-too-unthinkingly (and willingly) will enforce.
The state cop up the road from me? He once told me in conversation that he just enforces the law. His indifference startled me. No concern over the rightness or wrongness of the thing. Just whether “the law” says it’s ok.
Eric, As I’ve said before, much of her job does involve dealing with people who have, indeed, harmed other people and have violated the NAP. She’s not on the road much at all any more enforcing arbitrary, silly laws, which is more of a legislative (and budget) issue. Unfortunately, most of “our” interaction with the system, yes, involves enforcement of these laws that deal with victimless crimes and over-regulation. …but that’s far from the bulk of her job.
David, if there’s a case to be made for an elemental, basic police force in order to deal with violations of the NAP, she’s probably one of the more moral, ethical, intelligent, articulate and reasoned candidates you’d find for that role. Unless you’re calling for a no-police, purist anarchy (which is fine), your demands for an apology should be saved for the type of officers we all despise, with cause.
She most likely will be leaving this occupation within the not-so-distant future. It’s a political boys’ club and she’s becoming increasingly frustrated. So… she’ll be replaced with somebody probably less principled, with less of a live-and-let-live attitude and with less respect for your individual liberties and freedoms. If that makes you feel better…
Late,
Just few things to point out.
1. The market would provide for protection services. Hell, it already does, so ‘sic’ state police service is only for the purpose of projecting power. The motto you see, “To protect and serve” means they protect and serve the system of thuggery currently in place aka TPTB.
2. The state doesn’t have any money. The only way the state can obtain money is to forcibly take it from the people that produce wealth.
3. Your sister is part of the state. Whether she is on the beat or not, she is the problem due to her willingly accepting that it is OK to take from productive individuals so she can have her lifestyle. There upon she gets not one drop of sympathy from me.
4. You mentioned anarchy. Just a reminder, anarchy is lack of an organized group of thugs calling themselves the state aka government. Anarchy is not and should not be confused with thuggery. Chaos is just lack of order. The universe is full of chaos. So yes, I’m all for anarchy and chaos. I’m totally against thuggery aka the state and your sister who is part of it. I don’t care how nice the coat of sheep’s clothing she wears while being the wolf.
5. Poison is poison, the degree of poison isn’t the issue. The fact the person that replaces your sister will be probably be a larger dose of poison and more at ease with killing than your sister is not the issue. Your sister is still willing to kill for the state. After all a person that is a member of any police organization is merely a hired killer for the state and nothing else. It isn’t my way or the highway with her and her compatriots. It is the state way or the grave. This is what her position actually stands for.
David Ward
Memphis, Tennessee
We had our pumphouse burn down several years ago. The winter was very dry and grown up grass everywhere so it was dicey. We called and 3 fire depts. responded, all volunteer. They all stood back and sprayed the area around where it was burning since it was a moot point by the time I even called(3 a.m.). We measured the fire at nearly 1200 degrees so not much was left except puddles of aluminum. I don’t mind contributing to that sort of situation and no one was ever there holding out their hand for payment either.
Back on Lawn Guyland, an average of $1000-$1500 of the yearly property tax was for the [volunteer!] fire dept. (which alone is 4-5 times my total property taxes here!!).
Here, there is no tax for the volunteer FD- we can send them a voluntary contribution of $35 a year, and in exchange, they waive the $500 service fee if we ever need their services. THAT is a good plan- and thusly, we have no $23Million fire houses here- unlike Long Island- just a perfectly good metal building to house the engines- with no lavish party facilities for the firemen to get drunk in.
When I first moved here, there was a grass fire just down the road. The neighbors formed a bucket brigade to keep the fire from getting to the guy’s mobile home, and by the time the FD’s tanker truck arrived, the fire was out. -No cops; no 15 different pieces of equipment; no 90 “first responders” milling around for a small fire.
FD’s make the clovers feel safe- yet 90% of time, the building which is on fire is destroyed anyway- if not by the actual fire, then by smoke and water- or the firemen. [Love the part where they cut a hole in the roof to “vent” it- thus making the house effectively into a charcoal chimney. once you see ’em doing that, you can figger[sic] the building has had it)
The pig who says “Sorry; just doing my job; I don’t make the laws, I just enforce them” is morally more bankrupt than the average pig, because they KNOW they are doing wrong, and yet choose to do it. They willingly transgress what their conscience tells them is wrong- whereas the other kind merely has no conscience or sense of justice. Either way, it amounts to the same thing in the end.
Add to that, that it is virtually impossible for any pig to even make it through one hour of work without lying….
Virtually all who carry a gun and a badge, do so to buy themselves respect, credibility and power that they would not otherwise have. In a society of clovers, it’s easy enough to maintain the charade.
I agree whole-heartedly except and you’re not telling me anything I don’t already know, acknowledge, understand and mostly agree with… You don’t think that I can’t conceive of market-driven services replacing state provided one? Both my mother (econ degree) and I (MIS) graduated from Grove City College. Believe me, we’re both steeped in Austrian econ, Mises, etc. You don’t know me very well.
Like the premise of this article… even if you privatized police protection, which I’m all for, those contracted services will still be compelled to enforce the laws on the books. If not, what would be the point of having them? The root cause (to use an over-used IT term) is primarily legislative.
Do you think I like paying for protective services based on the value of my home and income despite the fact that I “consume” fewer of these services than nearby, “problem” residents who pay far less?
If we privatized roads, one should expect that that the road owners and operators would probably demand some sort of competency exam and certification of the vehicle you intend to operate on their roads.
I’m done debating this with you since your responses have strayed far from the point of my response to Rev in that he’d stated “they’re no experts either”. While not experts, some may be more educated and knowledgeable about the subject-at-hand and more sympathetic to your point of view than what you might expect or is typical for that line of work, regardless of whether you have any sympathy for them, or not.
To your point, unfortunately, it is guilt by association. I get that. Regardless of how much of a genuinely good-hearted, selfless *individual* she might be, she’s part of the state. She understands that as well and does regret this position she’s in at times. She’s bound, at this point, by the choices she’s made until legislation changes or she pursues a different path, which is in the works…
One time, I pulled up next to a police cruiser at a red light. I had noticed something, and motioned for the cop to roll down his window.
“Yes?”
“Officer, your police car has a brake light out. Right side. ”
“Oh, hey, thanks for telling me. I’ll tell the mechanic to fix it.”
“Ok,” I said, “i’ll let you off with a warning this time…. but next time, I’m writing you up!”
He and I both laughed, the light turned green, and we went on our different ways.
Nice one Cabbie Paul. Keep it friendly and them on their toes. They know when they’re being watched. Keep an eye on yourself tho, as doing this with the wrong cop might attract a backlash of harassment down the line. Record everything.
Hi ‘Rev such a comeback in the USSA will get you a trip to the cemetery. An operator at our local tip in Victoria said he had some friends from Arkansas staying with him. The friends told him the cops in Ak shoot and ask questions later if you are still alive. Our cops here aren’t like that. Yet. 2 cops who came to fingerprint my son’s car after a break in said they would not want to be a yankee cop. They were telling me some cop stories, I told them a lot more stories. But I love your ideas Rev.
In the Great North Woods…cars don’t survive long enough to need inspection ! Between the winters, salt ,crappy roads and kamikaze deer…. cars that don’t die young are usually driven South to ward sun, warmth and civilization.
dan, my wife’s car has a drivers side front fender smashed in with blood all over it. She said she never saw what it was but by the height, I’m sure it was a deer. A few days later she hit a hog square in the center of the bumper. This is in rural Tx. More and more, I see all types of vehicles, cars, mini-vans, SUV’s etc. with big grill guards(hell, not grill guards, vehicle guards). I asked her what size hog she hit. She said “Oh, about the size they are when you haul them to the butcher”. Shit, a 250 lb hog and that Cutlass isn’t even dented although it does look rather off-kilter. Of course two deer on the same fender and hood will contribute to that.
I don’t quite understand why so many animals are hit. Who else puts in 700 mile days in a vehicle you can’t stop or swerve in yet never hits an animal? I don’t think it’s just the luck of the draw. I have had one vehicle I was driving run into by a deer. I did run completely over a 400 lb calf in my ’55 Chevy pickup though…..didn’t bend a thing on the pickup but the calf was totaled.
Here in Indiana we have every other year smog tests in the urban areas (Indianapolis, Fort Wayne and Northwest Indiana outside Chicago).
Its a de-facto safety check too, because they will not test the vehicle if idiot lights are on, or other “defects” are present. (AKA, defects drivers of old cars just live with because they are not really necessary and/or too expensive to fix. )
What irritates me the most about it in my area (northwest Indiana), is that its not even necessary under federal air rules anymore. We are in compliance and have been removed from the federal attainment zone a number of years ago (interestingly enough the rest of the Chicago area in Illinois is still not in compliance, even though Chicago actually borders Indiana) .
So has the smog tests been shut down in northwest Indiana? Of course not.
When I was at a luncheon once with our so called “small government” governor, I asked him why we were wasting money on smog tests here in Northwest Indiana. I said, we have been removed from the federal government attainment zone so, when are you going to close the no longer needed testing centers?
You can probably guess the answer.
Like a politician he gave the non-answer answer. The reason was that the Obama administration was going to raise the standards so we would be right back in the attainment zone again. So far the Obama regime hasn’t done so, in spite of its love of more and more rules. On the states website the reason given in the FAQ is to prevent “backsliding”. Lame…….
Government inspections…. anyone who has ever been responsible for building subject to government fire safety inspections and such probably knows how they always need to find something. Every year without fail IME the government fire safety inspection found something or the other, usually something that had been that way since the building was constructed 30+ years prior. Yes, construction inspection, annual inspections for three decades and then they finally find this or that which must be ‘corrected’. If it was so damn important why didn’t the 30 something prior inspections find it? This would imply the inspections are of dubious value. If it isn’t important then why go through the exercise of changing it now?
Yes, my Grandpa was a dairy farmer. Every year when the “health” inspector was due to come by, he would leave one light bulb burned out, so the poor man would not need to hunt for something wrong.
Reminds me of a story, I’m a bit vague on details – I believe it was a home inspection, the person who had built his hime wanted a Cert. of occupancy.
After something like 6 inspections, he finally got wise (based on what one of the inspectors said), and left a blank check for the insepctor to find…
Somehow, the inspection passed….
“Failure to submit and obey – that is the real crime, as far as the government is concerned. ”
Yup.
Regarding inspection, here in BC back in the late 70’s, we had the mechanical inspection stations. Pay the man, sit in the car having a smoke, while the team of 2-4 guys pulled the wheels pit crew style, checked the brakes and fluid, did and actual chassis inspection. They would rotate the tires if you asked and always had top up brake fluid. Get your chassis condition report, little sticker and on your way. Maybe 20 minutes. This was a Government inspection station.
Now, I am not defending this as correct, simply that an actual service was performed and at a very reasonable fee IIRC.
In 1984 (go figure) they were replaced with a smog station.
http://www.aircare.ca/inspinfo-overview.php
Get out of YOUR car, let some stranger drive it on the dyno, with no accountability if they wreck something. Get a pass/fail report. If fail, come back and do it all over. Which I am told often resulted in a pass if you just got back in a different line at the same station (and paid again).
Fortunately I am not in the urban part of BC so this is not a requirement here…..yet.
Another thing, ignoring the entire wrongness of this, at least they should reward those who have maintained their vehicles by not charging the fee at any mandatory inspection.
BTW, it seems they are scrapping this in BC now. Rumored to soon to be replaced with a new improved fee-sucking province wide version, after the election.
One of the ‘justifications’ for the fee.
“The AirCare program is required by legislation to recover the full operating costs. Reducing the fee in 2013 would have resulted in a severe revenue shortfall by the end of the program and was therefore impossible to implement.”
IM240 is what as I recall the dyno emissions test is called in the USA has been rendered obsolete. Now in Illinois at least, they just check the OBD2 for codes. Anything built before OBD2 has been rendered exempt. The testing stations no longer even have the dynos or the sniffers. Thankfully this is the only inspection in the state and only in parts of it and once every two years with no fee. It’s all rather nannying and pointless.
Why pointless? If the car isn’t that bad the OBD2 can be gamed. If the car is that bad it’s a self correcting problem. The car will render itself undriveable if the problem is not corrected. Do the stations force repairs or retirement before natural causes? Probably. But it’s a lot of nonsense and expense to achieve it.
Expense is irrelevant as long as it’s someone else’s money…
Wasn’t that what Margaret Thatcher said she was running out of?
Brent, how I hate computerized anything. Just yesterday a Volvo fleet truck wouldn’t start. For hours a guy works on it trying to figure the problem. Finally he gets a scanner and it shows a bad code. The damned thing was low one gallon of coolant so the flashing light that said it was protecting the engine against damage was for that. Jaysus, what a friggin pain. The computer had to be reset so it would start with that extra gallon of coolant. It was in the middle of nowhwere. Why not let that be the owner’s problem if they burn it down? It does have a coolant temperature gauge although none of the Volvo’s have a voltmeter or anything for the electrical system. They also have no way of cleaning the windshield without standing on the engine and risking your life getting there and then having to stand on the cowl to get the passenger side cleaned(big air cleaner on that side so it’s only accessible from the driver’s side). No grab handles to hold to clean the side windows or mirrors(well, you can clean the mirrors from inside but not the outside of the side windows). They’re a pain to get in and out of too. I suppose their designers have their own Peter Pan to clean glass. I’m not quite that flighty.
I know there is no god. If there was, I could buy a new 359 Peterbilt(old style, no computer) with a 15 liter Detroit Diesel and a Spicer 4X5 double gearbox and never have to worry about a “new age” driver using it.
I can tell you why it is like that. Implementation of the lock out across all units cost a tiny fraction of the warranty cost of engine damage due to a simple coolant leak. Somewhere buried in the owners manual is probably a way to reset it without clearing codes. Good luck finding it with the usual poor index and size of the manual.
It’s the same problem that folks use to justify the inspections, a world full of morons who just keep using things until they no longer work despite symptoms that should tell them to stop or simple checks that would at least mitigate the issue (regularly checking and topping off coolant).
@BrentP – That should be an easy fix for the manufacturer these days. Just a couple lines of code in the black box ROM / LCD display – “Hey dumbass, raise the hood & check the coolant”.
RE: “just keep using things until they no longer work despite symptoms that should tell them to stop”
Dang. Are you slamming the guys who ride it hard and put it away wet?
Imho, the, “Run it Til it breaks, then fix it” crowd isn’t always wrong. AFterall, that’s why they invented black tape and bailing wire.
It’s too bad those don’t work on computer sheet. ..Or, is that what’s known as a patch?
Ha! A black tape bailing wire patch: “Just a couple lines of code in the black box ROM / LCD display – “Hey dumbass, raise the hood & check the coolant”.”
Crack me Up.
@helot – Just think, for luxury car owners it could be the concerned On-Star operator making the call.
A “concerned” On-Star operator saying, “Hey dumbass, raise the hood & check the coolant”.
That’s just too funny.
I wonder if the robot at the hardware store will say something like that too?
Especially when I tell it to fuck off in reply to if it can help me?
http://online.wsj.com/articles/newest-workers-for-lowes-robots-1414468866
Robots, ARE Taking Over the World, contrary to the best optimists.
The question wasn’t really answered imho in reply to this:
” CIO President Walter Reuther was being shown through the Ford Motor plant in Cleveland recently.A company official proudly pointed to some new automatically controlled machines and asked Reuther: “How are you going to collect union dues from these guys?”
Reuther replied: “How are you going to get them to buy Fords?“…”
http://www.garynorth.com/public/13045.cfm
Maybe after several decades of?
“The business makes purchases of robots, and some of these robots may have been produced mainly by other robots. So it goes, all the way down the chain of production.”
Spiral down and spiral up?
“how are businessmen going to sell the total value of the output of their robots to other robots?”
They are not.
Spiral down and spiral up?
Maybe after several decades of?
“Modern economics teaches that value is imputed by customers and their agents. Value is not imputed by machines. It is imputed by acting individuals. Furthermore, after this value is imputed, the individual must be willing and able to back up his imputation by a purchase.”
What if this feedback mechanism takes a decade or so to complete? All it takes is a dash of state imposed minimum wages.
“Anyone who says that there will be massive unemployment in 30 years because of the power of robots and computer programs to replace human beings in the labor process is saying that the micro decisions of all of these rich entrepreneurs are leading to a situation in which the entrepreneurs will find themselves in possession of capital that is worth essentially nothing: few buyers of their output.”
Well, what about right freaking now?:
Longstanding San Francisco’s Luna Park Restaurant to Close Because of Higher Minimum Wage
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2014/10/longstanding-san-franciscos-luna-park.html
Pardon me, I digress. I guess it’s just that I’m not a part of the upper crust and I wonder about things like why some animals are more equal than others?
90 Pounds of Cocaine Found on Cargo Ship Owned by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s Father-in-Law
http://www.targetliberty.com/2014/10/90-pounds-of-cocaine-found-on-cargo.html
“If the implementation of plans that are based on robots and computer programs leads to losses, because individuals do not have sufficient economic wherewithal to buy the output of the robots and the computer programs, then replacement robots will no longer be purchased, and the software programs will no longer be bought. All along the chain of command in the capital production system, messages will go out to managers: “Stop!””
I guess the question, much like the collapsing housing bubble and the falling Dollar – is – how long? And, what happens in the meantime?
>”Especially when I tell it to fuck off in reply to if it can help me?”<
That 'splains the robot I saw in Lowe's last week, standing in the corner; facing the wall; one arm moving furiously in a repetitive motion; and the centerfold of Nuts & Bolts unfolded.
Hey, too bad robots didn't work at Ford sooner- maybe Detroit wouldn't have turned into the slum that it is.
LOL, LOL. Now I want one to talk to. I will name it “Her” and have a great time.
So THAT is how the eugenicists are going to achieve their nirvana of 90% population reduction. Then the robots will war with each other over their own survival and resources. Shades of 2001 A Space Odyessy, The Matrix, Brave New World and They Live.
Woo-hoo. Have some food & propane stored, grab a beer, kick back and watch the show.
No, Mang. The robots will NOT war with each other over their own survival and resources.
The owners will:
Robot Wars
“The series involved teams of amateur and professional roboteers who made their own robots to fight against each other in both friendly and tournament matches. As well as fighting each other, they had to avoid the “House Robots”, which were not bound by the same weight or weapon limits as the contestants. ” …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_Wars_%28TV_series%29
Does that remind you of anything?
Anyway,
>Ahref=”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westworld”>Have we got a vacation for you!
Test
>href=”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westworld”>Have we got a vacation for you!
Can’t wait for robot cops! (At least they’d be smarter and more human-like than whatever the current species of donut-eaters are…)
Only the ones that want warranty coverage.
The ones who don’t come crying for warranty coverage all the power to them.
RE: “Only the ones that want warranty coverage.”
Ah, I see.
I thought you meant everybody.
RE: warranty coverage.
Anymore,for myself, if it says ‘limited warranty’ or ‘one year warranty’ I equate that with, “Its prolly junk and it might last awhile if you don’t beat it or work it Very hard”.
If it says, “Lifetime warranty” that means it’s prolly pretty good sheet, beat it, ride it hard, and put it away wet. ….And, if you don;t abuse it, it should last a looong assed time.
Otherwise, I’ve just about given up on “warranties”, the hassle, time and expense make s it not worthwhile in most cases. YMMV.
Hey Brent,
In re: “a world full of morons who just keep using things until they no longer work despite symptoms that should tell them to stop or simple checks that would at least mitigate the issue (regularly checking and topping off coolant).”
I spent much of yesterday working on a car owned by a guy I know who is perhaps the most maintenance-averse person I have ever met. He was complaining about his clutch, which didn’t “feel” right. First thing I checked was the slave cylinder reservoir. Fluid looked like liquid coal. It had never been changed. 2000 model car. Did I mention it was also low? (And he never checked it, or even knew it needed to be checked).
The punchline?
Ruined slave cylinder. In this particular car, the transmission has to be dropped to replace it.
I explained to him that – probably – he could save himself all kinds of hassle (and expense) had he bled/replaced the brake fluid in the system every three years rather than having left the same fluid in the car for almost 15 years…..
Computer engine controls are Clover-proofing, once again. They were developed (if we give TPTB the benefit of the doubt) to deal with the problem of maladjusted/degrading-over-time engines that produced excessive emissions as a result. With OBD, the “check engine” light comes on – and Clover (and his fellow Gamma Minus Machine Minders) knows to take the car in for service.
The city of Memphis, County of Shelby, State of Tennessee has scrapped the inspection system. They still collect the fees though. As Eric has so adroitly stated, late model cars emit co2 and nitrogen aka plant food. As for safety, most new cars now have tread monitoring not to mention tire air pressure monitoring, brake pad monitoring, oil monitoring, coolant monitoring systems that tell the owner when they need to be serviced.. IMHO smart cars suck (pretty soon the damn things will shutdown until you get the relevant system back into spec) but they do make the inspection rather moot.
I do want to make one point I think should be made. Who cares if my tires are bald or my oil hasn’t been changed in 2 years or my brake pads are gone? As long as I don’t cause harm to anyone else why should it matter? However, just as soon as I do harm someone, (until then I should be left alone) they should have total recourse to my assets. This is the core and essence of the NA principle.
As for the fees by the state? No reprieve for those whom the state stamps the boot of tyranny upon their face.
Mind you, I am staunchly against the state and the tyranny it imposes.
David Ward
Memphis, Tennessee
As a follow up, Inspections are a result of the crony capitalism system. God, I’m going out of business! Let’s pass a law to force people to do business with me even if it is just inspections….you get the picture.
David Ward
Memphis, Tennessee
Very true, David –
Imagine if (probably, when) people were required by law to get a physical every year. Gee, I wonder whether that would create business for the “healthcare” system?
David, I’m reminded of coming out of the local drugstore when I was about 15 and hearing a hissing noise from my pickup. I followed it to the RR tire that was worn through the tire and the safety tube. Dammit, that thing only had a few minutes of life left so I go down to the local station, got some other worn out tires for the back and continued on, hammer down. I never had a wreck and I barely had tires. I nearly fell over one day months later when my dad “had” to use that truck and he went to the gin and got a new set of “Safemark” mud tires for the back. You might have been able to see where tread had been on the fronts but they didn’t get you through the mudholes so we were good to go. BTW, it had brakes when you pumped them and the steering only had about half a round of play but I drove that thing like Fireball Roberts day in and out. I even had a spinner on the steering wheel(boy did it piss me off when they outlawed those)that made it have really fast steering, much like a Ferrari ha ha. One of my dad’s friends said he’d really never known that pickup was a sports car but after seeing me drive he had no doubt. But I never had a wreck, except with the tree I used to use to stop at school. It was controlled though and only banged the bumper a bit…..every day. I used first as a brake when I backed up but I never hit anyone.
Sounds like typical every-day normal automotive protocol for Mexico….and yet they continue to live!
I sat on the side of a boulevard in Tuxpan waiting for someone to lead me into the nearby mountains. I watched a couple guys pull up to a warehouse in an old Toy pickup and back up through the door. After a while they came out with flattened cardboard piled about 10′ high in the back of that pickup, just how they’d stacked it by hand. They have thrown a piece of rope/twine over it and left only to have to negotiate the traffic that was fairly heavy on that boulevard. As they turned onto it at as oblique angle as they could get, the old Toy listed heavily to the side and they sorta turned into it and got under it again and continued on with it teetering but things looked ok as long as they were in sight. In the US we’d have had a forklift pile load that into a van and haul ass, requiring only about 100 times the invested equipment and manpower costs. And the costs simply get transferred down the line.
Speaking of which, I predicted tiny trackhoes and such and was duly rewarded at a new construction site for a gas compressor station. It was a tiny Komatsu excavator with tiny tracks and a tiny blade. One seat in a ROPS system and it would do the most delicate of digging jobs and covering. That’s what I want for Xmas.
Darn! Now I’m gonna be drooling for that Komatsu! I’ve seen some things like those….always imagine what I could do with it around the farm, and to make a few bucks in the neighborhood. Seems I had forgotten about them…till ya mentioned that Komatsu! 😀 [I’d imagine, iffin ya buy a brand new little bitty backhoe/trencher, with itty bitty tracks, etc. as part of the service plan, they have a little leprechaun come and give you little bitty dollhouse cups of tea while yer playing…I mean working]
Talk about take the back break out of lots of farm chores. All those trees I need to take out but will have to do with that old 416B Cat backhoe, would be proud to be uprooted with such a bad little machine. Leveling the hog pens would be a breeze and cleaning under fence lines might take me months if I take a jar(or two….or a dozen) of shine with me. Anybody seen B lately? Naw, I did hear something with tracks off in the pasture last night but the fuel trailer and the big cooler are gone so……..Deer season ain’t it? And hogs are thick. He’ll be back for warm clothes the first ice storm.
Hah! I have 1200′ of fencing that needs re-doing along my north property line- and it’s all in brush- my neighbor offered to scrape it away with his bulldozer, but I don’t want to destroy all the good trees…..that little Komatsu would be perfect-O-mundo! If I ever see a used one at a reasonable price, I’ll buy it…do what I gotta do, then sell it! (Guarantee ya my other neighbor would buy it!)
Hmmm…maybe dig a trench for an automatic waterer for the cows (The cows that I could get again, if the fencing was done!)
In Idaho, luckily, we don’t have these types of inspections–for regular vehicles. My taxi’s must be inspected every year by the city police though. It’s annoying as hell. $20 a pop. You have to schedule the appointment. Then the ignorant pigs have no respect for your time. They are sometimes 30 minutes late, or more because they are so “busy”.
All this to have a pig who’s more ignorant of cars than my 4 year old daughter. The only thing they can do that my daughter hasn’t-and better never-done is abuse a tax victim paid car.
Back in the 70s’ we had car inspections in Nebraska. It was repealed because of civil disobedience.
Hi Larry,
If only more Americans had that mindset today.
But – cry “safety” – and they’ll accept anything.
Its so stupid and ridiculous. I’m pretty sure most people I know would fall for it to.
Here in the “Free State” of Maryland, we have vehicle inspections only when the vehicle changes hands. And that can be avoided by selling to/buying from a family member.
We do have biennial Emissions inspection, but my TDI is exempt from that (so far, knock on wood).
When I say “Knock on wood,” I’m referring to the head of a gunvermin employee.
A life time of doing that could never satisfy your appetite for doing so. There’s also a never ending supply of drones to replace the knocked out wood