Yes, really.
They are working on a gadget that can tell the polizei whether you’ve been texting while driving.
For your saaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety – as depressingly always.
An Israeli company called Cellebrite – which sounds like the latest “ask your doctor about” pill to cure your ills – has ginned up this altogether different pill. Real-time and probable cause-free dragnet monitoring of people’s cell phone use and driving, so as to roust people who dare to ignore no-texting-while-driving statutes.
Automatically, furtively. Everyone. The cops in collusion with your sail fawn “provider,” as they are styled. You won’t know – until they let you know they know.
A police state technology from a police state country – what a surprise.
The Textalyzer would work in much the same way as a Breathalyzer does except it would be in your car and on all the time instead of by the side of the road – and with a cop demanding that you blow into the thing.
No checkpoints necessary. They’ll just check on you all the time – without you even having to slow down. Think of the manpower it will save. Think of the revenue it will generate!
Think of the fear it will impart. Which of course is just the point.
Like Santa – but not jolly at all – they will know, so to speak, when you are sleeping and know when you’re awake…
(And there is wonder why people – especially the young – are growing weary of cars and of driving. I stopped flying for very similar reasons; if I am going to be processed like a convicted felon I want to be convicted of a felony first.)
New York – the first American state to become a Safety State, the first state to depart from the usual practice – in free countries – of restraining people from harming others but otherwise not pestering them to restraining them from potentially harming themselves via mandatory “buckle up” (or else) and helmet laws – is “reviewing” possible (read: certain) implementation of the Textalyzer.
Bet your Bippie.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo – this is the guy who also supported outlawing sodas over a certain size – finger wags that “despite laws (that) ban cellphone use while driving, some motorists still continue to insist ion texting behind the wheel . . .”
Oh, the humanity.
They also some of them drive unbuckled and maybe have a beer with their dinner before heading home. Cue conniption fit.
The particularly creepy thing about the Textalyzer, though, is that it goes beyond merely Big Momma buckle-up and helmet laws, which can still be evaded – and should be, since they are affronts to freedom. If we are not free to assume risks for ourselves, we are essentially minor children who will never reach the age of 18 and assume adulthood.
Cue Cuomo – who very much wants to parent us all. And all the time. That is the difference here.
Textalzyer is exactly like having a cop riding in the passenger seat, observing your every move. Worse, actually – because you think you’re alone in your car but you’re not. That sail fawn in your pocket is narcing on you, in real time all the time.
It is as if everyone voluntarily agreed to wear an ankle bracelet, like the ones they affix to minor criminals who are given supervised release. That’s what carrying a sail fawn on you amounts to. Even if it’s off, by the way. Did you know that?
But texting while driving is dangerous!
Sigh.
When done by some people, yes. Maybe. Sometimes. But others are capable of doing it without it necessarily being dangerous. A fact of the same species as the fact that some people have better eyesight and physical coordination than others. And that some people are simply better drivers than others.
Equality of abilities is nonsense.
Americans have lost sight of such facts – or just don’t care about them anymore. Everything becomes a one-size-fits-all jihad, based on the least common denominator.
If an appallingly bad driver can’t safely negotiate a curve in the road at 35 MPH it becomes illegal “speeding” to take the corner any faster – for everyone. Including those who can negotiate the curve more safely – being in more control of their car – at 45 MPH.
If an enfeebled, glaucomic old lady can’t judge the distance and speed of oncoming traffic at an intersection, right-on-red becomes illegal for everyone – including those who are not enfeebled and who can see and correctly estimate the distance/speed of oncoming traffic and make a right on red without imperiling anyone’s “safety.”
Instead of separating the wheat from the chaff, everyone is presumed chaff.
It is a recipe for Idiocracy – the real thing predicted by the ’90s movie.
And, for tyranny.
A working definition of which is the persecution of people who’ve done nothing except transgress a statute.
This is now the main reason people are hassled, corralled, monitored, controlled and – increasingly -punished. Not for anything they’ve done to cause harm but because a nervous ninny worries they might – that worry having become The Law.
Our freedoms are so easily surrendered.
And for what? The idea that, somehow, we will be perfectly protected and perfectly safe – provided we exchange the risk that something bad might happen for the certainty that it will.
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Unite The Right’ Rally – Aug 12 Lee Park Charlottesville, VA. – Near intersection of I-64 and US-29 – Punch a live SJW Clover in the face
https://altright.com/2017/08/05/the-unite-the-right-rally-is-going-to-be-a-turning-point-for-white-identity-in-america/
The Lunatic Left has met disciplined and motivated opposition from the Alt-Right. And they don’t like that one bit. They are so scared that they can’t even think straight and can only hit the ‘Panic’ button to try to shut us down. They are afraid because our message is starting to resonate with thousands of young white men and women.
They should be. And after Charlottesville, they will finally understand the depths of their failure. They will know that they have failed to stamp out the White Identity movement in America.
They will try to break us at Charlottesville, and they will fail.
People will talk about Charlottesville as a turning point. There will be a before Charlottesville and an after Charlottesville. Will you stand up for your history, your race and your way of life?
Will you be there?
I hear that the Red Cross will be passing out coloring books and stuffed animals to the snowflakes….
I’ll tell ya though- if this isn’t the Hegelian dialectic being played out in textbook fashion- like 1930’s Germany- National Socialism vs. Communism. No one wins but the authoritarian collectivists. Good to see ’em fighting the snowflakes; but their flag-waving cop-sucking can be just as bad.
I wouldn’t be surprised if at least half of the alt.-righters listen to [c]rap “music”. It’s likely identity politics with no substance.
Nope, too far from Cody, Wyoming in every way to be worth the time, money, and effort.
Organization is pretty much the death of anything that “they” don’t approve of, ’cause as long as there is an established group, it can be infiltrated and controlled. And since one must always cede personal beliefs/ideals/agendas to those of the group, organization is the very opposite of anarchy. An oxymoron- like a loner’s club.
Aha. The SWP nation strikes back. I would join in if I was white because that antifa bunch is just asking for an ass-whipping.
The Joooos are responsible, thx Peters for disabusing me of kind thoughts about you. You ruined it for me.
Hi Ross,
Authoritarians come in all kinds. The government of Israel is authoritarian socialist; does pointing that out make me anti-Semitic?
If so, oy vey!
Name me a nation that isn’t authoritarian, at least? And the oy vey comment is another typical JooooHater ploy, cause only a Jew could disagree w/ fill in the blank. Whatever…
Let’s see: Virtually all of CNN’s executives are Jews.
Hollywood/all major US media in general is controlled by Jews.
Most of the wars the US has fought in the last 100 years has been at the behest of or for the Jews.
Communism/Socialism/Marxism was invented by Jews, and they are the leading propagators of it today.
Jews spend more money lobbying/have more lobbyists badgering Congress than anyone else.
Jews have successfully lobbied in many countries, and are now working here, to make Holocaust denial and or criticism of Israel a CRIME!
Jews control the Federal Reserve and all major banks in the Western world.
Ummm, need I continue?
In short, a people who comprise only a fraction of one percent of the world’s population *there are only about 18 million Jews in the world) virtually control the modern world- it’s governance; finances; culture; etc.
They’ve done this repeatedly throughout modern history- which I guess is why they have been expelled from and or banned by 150 countries over the years.
Jews have created and propagated modern liberalism!
FUCK the Kikes!
You sound like you’re a level 9 or 10 red pill.
Here’s the 10 levels of enlightenment spectrum.
https://kek.gg/i/4bpYnd.jpeg
1. apolitical. violet pill bliss. just want to be left alone to eat drink and be merry.
2. college SJW. indigo pill idiot. Want men further enslaved. Crave total statist control.
3. typical numale. blue pill majority. thankful for heroes. salute the troops for making you safe. Proud to be American Metrosexual Cuck where at least you know you’re free.
4. conflicted normie. Green pill revolutionary. Things could be better. More efficient and humane.
5.&6.Yellow pill.
7.&8.Orange pill.
9.&10. Red pill.
Tor, I am off the charts, baby!
I really just want to be left alone….but just like an oil-rich Mid-East country, no one willl oblige unless ya have nukes!
It slays me when folks use the “kike” thing.
Clearly, they are clueless as to the origin of “kike” and would never use it again if they knew the completely innocent, in fact respectful beginning of it’s use.
Hi Aljer,
I have found that you can really get a rise out of a conservative Republican by voicing any criticism of Israel, its policies, the influence its lobby has over the U.S. government and the aid (especially military aid) provided to the government of that country at the expense of U.S. taxpayers.
Apparently, it is “anti-Semitic” (or verging on it) to broach any such criticism, however mild – and notwithstanding the total absence of any malice toward people who happen to be Jewish, or even Israelis.
That, of course, is merely the equivalent of Al Sharpton’s perpetual warble of “racism” to stifle legitimate questioning of his race-hustling schtick.
It’s tronic: There are more “Christian” Zionists in the world than Jewish ones. Another case of mainstream Christians doing the very opposite of what the Bible advocates.
Yes, too many of my fellow Christians conflate the Israel of the Bible (meaning God’s people) with the modern Israeli state. Therefore, they believe, if you say or do anything to oppose the latter, you will go straight to hell. Nutty.
Exactly, Roland.
Meanwhile the promises and blessings which were made to ancient Israel (which were then God’s people) have been transferred to those of all nations who believe in Christ- who now make up God’s people- spiritual Israel- so decreed by God for the Jews rejecting Christ.
God threw the Jews out of Israel- which is why there will never be peace there as long as they and the NWO insist on rebelling against that decree- which even many sincere Jews acknowledge:
http://www.truetorahjews.org/mission
In the NT it even refers to the end-time land of Israel as “Sodom and Egypt”.
And 80% of Jews in the world aren’t even real Jews…they’re Turks who converted in the Middle Ages. (There are several distinct racial types seen among Jews…they can’t all be descendants of the original Jews!)
Of course, an anti-semite is someone who hates semites, but most modern jews are not semites but ashkenazis.
With all the migrations of people over the years; intermarrying (Don’t let people tell ya the Jews don’t intermarry- My nicer sister is married to one…and he’s a good one- I really like the guy); captivities; assimilations, etc. it’s hard to know who’s who- with anybody. Like: What’s an American? The Americans of today aren’t the same people that were here 200 years ago, or 400 years ago or 1000 years ago.
You see Jews with blond hair and blue eyes and light skin; and Jews with dark skin and big noses, and tall; and Jews even with Celtic features, like pale skin and red hair…. Who’s to say which ones are the Semites, because the people of the Mid-East nations today that we associate with the Mid-East racial type, likely weren’t the people who were there 2000 years ago- just as the Greeks of today aren’t the people who were in Greece in Plato’s day.
It’s funny, too, ’cause the Bible says that Israel shall be scattered among all nations- and most people that have DNA analysis done today, find out that there’s a percentage of Jew in them, no matter who they are.
And you know what they say: “There’s a little Jew in every Italian”. (With my luck, it’s probably Woody Allen! He’s a little Jew…)
But these people who make it about “race” or ethnicity are morons. No one hates a race; they just hate the things that a preponderance of the people who are of that race always seem to do.
I mean, you could take the most adamant nigger-hater in the world, but if he has a shred of morality and intelligence, he’ll still love Thomas Sowell. (Who in their right mind wouldn’t?)
But racists will never look past the color of his skin to see his true character.
The whole idea of “racism” is BS. Except for a tiny handful of brain-dead morons, there really is no such thing as a “racist”. No one in their right mind believes that a person’s skin color has anything to do with anything, any more so than than a dog’s fur color has anything to do with the intelligence or character of a dog.
But when a majority of members of certain groups repeatedly engage in negative behavior, and the group to which they belong can be identified by an outward trait such as skin color, then naturally that trait becomes the identifier.
If someone doesn’t like the English because they drink a lot, does that mean that they don’t like people with pale skin, big ears and bad teeth; or just that people who tend to exhibit those traits are often practitioners of inebriation, because of their culture?
The whole premise of the existence of “racism” is retarded. It’s just another thing invented by liberals to pervert reality and justice.
If I hear someone criticizing Italians, you think I get all bent out of shape and say “Ooooo! You’re hater! You’re prejudiced against Greaseball-Americans!”?
No! I usually laugh, because I am well acquainted with those stereotypes, and they are very true. They may not be true of me, but they are true of many Italians- so if i have a problem with that, my beef isn’t with the person who has observed and identified the stereotypical behaviors, but rather with the people of my own kind who engae in the negative behavior!
About 98% of Italians are Catholic. I’m not. Do you think I get all excited if someone assumes I am Catholic (as much as I abhor Catholicism)? Nope. They’re merely making an observation which is true of 98% of Italians. What is wrong with that? “Oooo! They’re stereotyping me!” So what? I can open my mouth and fix that, or by merely observing my behavior, they will see that I do not fit the stereotype. And if they think otherwise, why would I even care?
I’m not PC, Aljer. I call my own people “Dagos”. I don’t even know what an “Italian-American” is.
I use “Chink” as a term of endearment.
Any of these words can go either way, depending on context- including “nigger”. (Which must be true, because niggers say nigger all the time!)
Most of these words are neutral- like “Kike” and “Hebe”, as they convey no animosity of their own- as you pointed out about kike.
If I said “My friend Schlomo is a kike” that woyuld convey a quite different meaning than “Damn kikes!!”, wouldn’t it?
Mr. Policeman? What makes America great?
“It’s candied apples and ponies with dapples,
You can ride all day.
It’s girls with pimples and cripples with dimples
That just won’t go away!
It’s spicks and wops and niggers and kikes
With noses as long as your arm!
It’s micks and chinks and gooks and geeks
And honkies (Honk! Honk!) who never left the farm!”
(Firesign Theatre, “How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You’re Not Anywhere At All?”)
Or, as is said elsewhere, by the same:
“This is bag of shit!”
Ah, yes, Firesign Theater. Careful with that axe, Eugene.
We’re all bozos on this bus.
Jewish immigrants, ignorant of writing with the Latin alphabet, signed their entry forms with a circle, eschewing the customary “X” as a sign of Christianity.
Ellis Island immigration inspectors began calling such people kikels, and the term shortened as it passed into general use.Kikes originally were newly immigrated to America Russian Jews.
kike – derogatory slang for “a Jew,” by 1901, American English;
used at first among German-American Jews in reference to newcomers from Eastern Europe, perhaps because the names of the latter ended in -ki or -ky.
There is no charity organization of any kind here a small city in Pennsylvania and, what is sadder to relate, the Jews in this city will not form one; that is, if the present temper of the people can be used as a criterion.
The German Jews are bitterly opposed to the “Kikes,” as they persist in calling the Russian Jews
Yiddish kikel “circle.”
Hi Alger,
Can you expound a bit on the origin of the word kike?
My ex was Jewish and she didn’t like that particular word. But she was quite fond of using the phrase “fucking Jews.”
Having grown up in Detroit (in the 70’s) as the only white boy on my block, I use the word Nigger as a badge of honor. This century I’m often called a racist.
I find it ironic that some people want to ban words. Humans use words to communicate. We think in words. The folks who are against using words are against the human race.
I guess they would be the original racists.
Hi Tuanorea,
The culture of “sensitivity” is itself insufferable. Either the “sensitive” person feigns offense and makes a ludicrous production of it – or they are genuinely “hurt,” in which case they are so fragile as to be not-functional. If you can’t handle hearing someone utter a word, you have a problem. If someone calls you a “nigger” or a “kike” or a “piece of white trash,” the response is: Shake your head and walk away – or reply with a choice term of abuse of your own.
And – as you note – a society that bans words is a society that will ban (and punish) other things, too.
Most people do not know that the term, politically correct, was first used in Soviet Russia during the Stalin era.
“If someone calls you a “nigger” or a “kike” or a “piece of white trash,” the response is: Shake your head and walk away – or reply with a choice term of abuse of your own. ”
I prefer the standard response of the Boston SWP: “Faaack Yeeou” in that weary, exasperated tone they use.
Better yet, Ed, tell ’em to “Paak the caah”! (The Bostobn accent is entertaining to be offensive to anyone, no matter what is said! Ya gotta do more Jew York or West Coast liberal thing….)
My wife is from Boston, and she has a sister named Donna. Their mother pronounces Donna “Donner,” and car “cah.” Go figure.
LOL! Gotta love that, Roland!
They also pronounce Darlene: “Dolleen”; and Isabella: “Isabeller”!
It’s sad that in most other places, regional dialects and accents have largely died out, but the Boston accent is still somewhat alive.
But years ago, you could tell when someone was from NYC; Philly’ Baltimore; etc.
They pronounce ‘saw’ as ‘sar’. Some of their terms are interesting, such as “Serious White People”, which I shorten to SWP.
That’s ay errr uh wicked pissuh, Ed.
Ed, a bit of hilarity here. A couple years ago some friend’s son got hooked up with a Joisey girl who spoke in that Boston way…..and quite brashly as well.
They went to a football game his grandson was in between 2 tiny towns but being in Texas most of both towns population were in the stands.
The refs made a bad call so there was a lot of grumbling and a few more louder grumblings.
It went against the son’s team. Just as everyone there got totally quiet the Jersey girl sitting with the rest of the family throws in her 2 cents, FAAAACK YEOUW! that echoed around the whole field and caused every spectator there to turn and stare.
My buddy said his wife tried to disappear. He thought it was fairly hilarious.
I’ve wondered why “po buchra” disappeared. I could posit a few theories but they would probably lead to more speculation.
Nuncio,
Demonstrating that you think that all of anything are the same as the worst drags you down to their level.
Awww, no one said “all”, Bill.
But why should any group get a free pass? I mean, people of every variety generally suck, unless and until they’ve broken from the thoughtless majority and have started thinking for themselves; and assuming they are of good character.
Otherwise, they all worship The Beast. Politicians, soldiers, cops, and the masses who participate in their unjust schemes as long as they can get theirs, come in all varieties.
Some groups though, though they may comprise a tiny minority in the world or at least in certain parts of the world, can always be counted on, as a whole, to participate in the same behaviors.
Niggers=crime, violence and poverty.
Jews=Liberalism, financial control, media (And they while promoting liberalism that empowers the above, they are sure to reside in areas which they keep prohibitively expensive and highly taxed, so as not to have to deal with those people)
Sicilians=Mafia, spaghetti, and mumbling.
Chinks & Japs=Smart, low crime…..
Micks=Violence and booze. Like to be cops.
You do the selecting, so everyone that fits in the groups that you create are all of them.
Bill, if you had a teenaged daughter and you got to choose where her car is going to break down at 1 AM, would you pick the all-black ‘hood…or the all-white neighborhood?
We don’t have to choose anything….just observe. People used to do this. Today it’s been shamed out of most people, as if making an observation is somehow bad….but of course, engaging in violent anti-social behavior (as long as you’re a minority) isn’t.
I don’t know “what” you are, Bill. You could be black for all I know- but your answer would still be the same- just as a black friend of mine proved, when she moved out of the apartment complex where she lived, because “too many niggers were moving in; and they stand around near the entrance, looking like thugs”.
Although lately, the differences are starting to blur, as white culture is dying, and whites are acting more like jigs- going around making babies with women they’re not married to; listening the rap “music”, etc.
It is the melting pot, after all- and all are brought to the level of the lowest common denominator; or should i say the dross?
Nigger is not a racial descriptor.
Try telling that to the dopey liberals! (I jeep telling ’em, I love niggers- but they don’t believe me!)
Bill, if it isn’t a racial descriptor, then why is its use prohibited to all but one race?
Nunzio,
“It is the melting pot, after all- ”
Funny you should bring that up.
Oahu (home to Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, and the dakine) means melting pot in Hawaiian. There is only one thing the locals hate more than a black man – and that would be a haole (white boy).
Interesting tidbit, Tuanorea. Thanks!
Hey, can you blame them? It’s DISGUSTING what “we’ve” done to HI. We’ve turned paradise into a disgusting cement-and-glass police state which is indistinguishable now from anywhere other place in the US.
White or black, most Americans are certainly A-holies, alright! 🙂
An Oliver Stone quote that was deleted from his recent appearance on the Late Show/Stephen Colbert: “if you want to talk about a foreign power influencing American elections you should look at Israel”. CBS made sure that didn’t get broadcast; hat tip to Paul Craig Roberts for outing it.
If I’m a Catholic that belongs to JPFO ( http://jpfo.org/ ), what does that make me?
How about Jews who belong to Jews Against Zionism?
http://www.truetorahjews.org/mission
Is that you Dr. Duke? Say hi to Mom…
50 years ago, people knew what niggers and Jews were all about. Nothing has changed, except now we have had a half a century of a propaganda campaign to convince everyone that what they can still easily observe before their own eyes really isn’t so- and that we should ostracize anyone who tires to say it is- i.e. like if someone says niggers ruined Detroit, or that Israel is the largest terrorist state in the world, armed with nukes, and fully supported and subsidized by the US taxpayers.
Ross, it’s just the eevull joos, not the reg youlah joos. Don’t you even get it?
I don’t think this is for the safety of the driver.. This is for the safety of other people. When I’m driving I cannot know if some other driver has decided to abandon the driving process, and partake in a snooze, a meal, argue with someone on the phone, update their facebook, or take care of personal grooming. Since driving is a privilege not a right (nothing about driving in the constitution or the bill of rights), then it’s fair game for the legislators.. Personally I look forward to driving, as I can ignore the texts phone calls and emails. My car becomes a refuge from the onslaught of information.. Why drivers even interact whilst driving beats me 🙂 Deaths on the road are rising for the first time in decades. This means we can look forward to more law enforcement.. Last week the NTSB announced a drive to encourage LEO’s to be more stringent with speed laws (https://www.ntsb.gov/news/events/Documents/2017-DCA15SS002-BMG-Abstract.pdf).. Yikes!
John,
This isn’t for any person’s safety. It is for the safety of the state.
Driving is a privilege that we obtain in exchange for the federal court designated right to travel.
It has nothing to do with the Constitution because the only thing they drove then were animal-drawn, and animals have a far better safety record than humans ever have. Many are the stories about blind drunk people being delivered home safely by their horses. Now it is possible to be cited for drunk driving if you are riding a horse.
I haven’t received a moving violation in over 40 years, nor been involved in a chargeable accident, nor received a logbook violation. All of this was not because I refrained from texting, because I have never had to refrain from something I’ve never done. I have a dislike-hate relationship with modern computers and the personal digital devices that they make anything but friendly. The Univac 1106 I learned programming on was far friendlier than anything I’ve used since, and I never had to worry about it violating my privacy.
Bill, I knew a cowboy who got a DWI but he beat the rap since there is no law of that sort applied to horses. They might have made drunk in public or some similar charge stick but they went for the gold. …so to speak.
“Since driving is a privilege not a right (nothing about driving in the constitution or the bill of rights), then it’s fair game for the legislators.”
John, it appears you do not understand how the Constitution is supposed to work. Rights are infinite and do not have to be listed. Government powers are strictly limited, and do have to be listed. Since there is nothing in the Constitution giving Congress, the president or the supremes the power to boss drivers around, this is not “fair game” for them.
Of course I’m talking about the U.S. Constitution; individual states can and do make all sorts of wacky rules.
BTW, the old bit about driving being a privilege is sickening. It implies that the state owns us, and that we should have to beg it anytime we want the “privilege” of doing something.
Yeah, they take our money and our property to make a giant infrastructure for cars (leaving us no alternative for any other uses of those roads), and then they tell us that driving on the roads which they have unconstitutionally built is a “privilege”.
Ditto the airports! (I seem to have missed the part in the Constitution where they get to deprive us of the rights guaranteed to us in the Bill Of Rights because we’re in an airport…)
Nunzio,
I just I just missed the airport.
Bill, I hear you… No argument from me on the principles. Government needs to be chained down. I guess I treat it as a privilege for me. I am astonished when some folks take the tack that it’s a right, thus I can behave how I like without consideration for others, whatever the consequences. I don’t care if someone wants to be reckless and the consequences are only going to be on them, but in driving more often than not the consequences involve other people. I agree with Eric that unfortunately the motoring laws are created and applied in such a fashion that we hold little respect for them.
John,
My 40+ year clean driving record (the last 26+ on a CDL) is all the proof I need that caution is the best defense. If someone is driving like a moron in front of me, I take my foot off the accelerator and give them more separation. I seldom drive the speed limit, but that is because my speedometer indicates faster than actual, about 35 at 32, etc. If one has no respect for the law, they shouldn’t be surprised when the law has no respect for them.
Government does not grant rights.
Privileges are at the whim of the grantor.
Government used the new technology of the automobile to claim a power it never had, turning use of the public way by common conveyance into a privilege.
Privileges are something the grantor can demand anything for. Keep that in mind when you call motoring or driving a privilege. Because if it is, then government can demand anything of us for it.
This represents a dumbing-down of police work (excuse me…law enforcement) also.
The LEOs just want slam-dunk cases that are based upon these arbitrary statutes. They don’t want to be required to investigate anything, which could leave results that are open to interpretation. They want to make it as easy as possible on the overworked LEOs.
Then their brothers-in-arms, the prosecutors and judges, don’t want to have to listen to expert witnesses fighting against their arbitrary rules. The laws get written that accept the testimony of the LEOs as 100% correct, where the defendant is required to prove their own innocence. It should be noted that every one of those payment notices has court costs automatically added, whether there is a court appearance or not.
All this happens while real crimes against people and property are ignored.
Then when the political hacks see an increase in real crimes, they complain that “we don’t have enough police.” So what happens next?
An increase in fines, and more laws we are forced to obey, so we can hire more police to prevent crimes that will never be investigated or stopped. And where do those police end up? Being LEOs, attempting to extract payments out of drivers not injuring anyone.
What a vicious circle!
Travis, I think you have a pretty good handle on it. The “L” in LEO, of course, stands for Legislation, not Law. The notion that the pests in government costumes protect us is one of the biggest fantasies of our time. Hell, the closest they come to protecting is when they lock somebody up after the harm has been done. Then the rubes go nuts cheering for Our Heroes. Oh wait… the victim is still dead.
Catching the guy who done it is not the same as protecting the person that it was done to. I always want to ask cop worshippers: If you were paying a private security company to protect a loved one from harm, and a bad guy murdered that loved one anyway, would you thank and praise the company’s employees? Would you accept the excuse that “we can’t be everywhere”? Would you call it good enough if they later caught the murderer? Would you put signs of support in your yard? Would your pastor pray for them every Sunday morning?
Roland,
It could all be easily solved by abolishing the unconstitutional standing armies known as police departments.
I’d go for that. Privatize everything.
We were given a militia system long before Sir Robert Peel came up with his bobbies in London, who were created to put down labor rebellions more than to secure the public safety. As is the source of much of our governmental degradation, the We the People neglected to keep the republic as Franklin counseled. Thomas Jefferson knew that we probably wouldn’t when he wrote that “(t)he spirit of the times may alter, will alter. Our rulers will become corrupt, our people careless. A single zealot may become persecutor, and better men be his victims. It can never be too often repeated that the time for fixing every essential right, on a legal basis, is while our rulers are honest, ourselves united. From the conclusion of this war we shall be going down hill. It will not then be necessary to resort every moment to the people for support. They will be forgotten, therefore, and their rights disregarded. They will forget themselves in the sole faculty of making money, and will never think of uniting to effect a due respect for their rights. The shackles, therefore, which shall not be knocked off at the conclusion of this war, will be heavier and heavier, till our rights shall revive or expire in a convulsion.”
You might be interested in this treatise on the subject: http://www.constitution.org/lrev/roots/cops.htm
Travis,
It is based on the fact that it no longer takes a damaged complainant to file charges.
It isn’t the cops that made it that way, it is the prosecutors.
I agree; the LEO’s are just the foot-soldiers enforcing the arbitrary rules handed down from above by the prosecutors and the legislators that they control. The aim of my post was supposed to be the system at large, not necessarily the pawns that just follow the orders from above. They are just a part of it, but it’s the part that most people see.
The technology already exists in the phones to keep people from texting while driving.
If you are moving faster than 3 miles per hour the phones sensors would know and not allow
you to send or receive any texts.
But than there would be no money in it for the police and government .
It is not about safety , its about revenue and control.
Exactly! If they cared about safety every car would have a breathalyzer machine, no more drunk driving. But they don’t care about safety, they only care about revenue.
Devin,
Are you old enough to remember when you had to fasten your seat belt to start the car?
Toyota has proposed this, for a mandatory $1500.00 – $2000.00 they were going to equip every new car with one. No Thanks Devin.
Joe,
How would the phone know that you were a passenger and not driving?
It doesn’t care. Just like the passenger cannot adjust your touch screen while the vehicle is in motion, the sail fawn don’t care.
I’m guessing they’ll monitor SMS usage. If that’s the case, then there is a solution. (1) Use a secure texting app that doesn’t use the SMS protocol. I use Signal because it’s the most secure. (2) Use a VPN so nobody can determine the destination of your data.
Just a minor correction, Idiocracy came out in 2006. Wasn’t a 90’s movie.
The root problem is that people are taught from childhood that as a driver, your job is to always and everywhere look for a sign to tell you what to do. Don’t pay attention, don’t cooperate, don’t think. Just obey. And if the government’s rules say that in this situation you have the magical thing called right-of-way, then you can double down on your inattention and belligerence with the state’s blessing. If you bash into somebody, well, it’s his fault, and that’s what really matters. You are righteous, because you have the right-of-way, and he is your enemy, because he does not.
If my intention were to make roads as dangerous as possible, and to cause otherwise intelligent adults to act like fussy four-year-olds fighting over a toy, I don’t think I could do a better job of it than governments have done on the roads.
The solution is not more cracking down, but less. Start removing the regulatory signs, signals and striping. People will pay attention and cooperate if they are required to. Every time I see a roundabout, I think there’s a glimmer of hope. But even there, the control freaks can’t resist screwing up a fundamentally good idea by adding “Yield” signs. Traffic-control planners have to be among the stupidest people on earth.
You would like to look into the work of Hans Monderman https://www.wired.com/2004/12/traffic/
But the problem is I think people in the USA may be too far gone for this approach in a number of ways. If a traffic signal fails they simply can’t handle it. People drive specifically to irritate others as well.
Excellent link, thanks. My gut reaction is to agree with you about American drivers. But in our local Walmart parking lot, where drivers routinely ignore lane markings (because they don’t fear being ticketed by a pest in a government costume, I assume), I’m pleasantly surprised at how attentive and cooperative they can be. I intentionally drive sideways or diagonally just to see how people will react, and I’ve never known anybody to get pissed off over it. I think we’d all be surprised at how well – and how quickly – drivers would adapt if the control freaks ever eased up. Of course I’m not holding my breath on that.
Roland,
Right of way doesn’t make right. When two or more collide in a 4-way stop, they all get tickets, here anyway.
The regulatory signs haven’t changed since before my father grew up. When it becomes apparent that many can’t remember what they had to know to pass their first driving test, it is time to give more driving tests or post more of what they have forgotten.
Are you suggesting that converting all intersections into uncontrolled intersections would solve the problem?
How would one know where the line of sight is enough to pass safely without stripping and signage?
“Right of way doesn’t make right.”
Exactly correct. So get rid of this destructive concept. It kills people every day.
“Are you suggesting that converting all intersections into uncontrolled intersections would solve the problem?”
Yes, it would go a long way toward it. Look, pay attention, use your brain and cooperate. People do these things all the time everywhere except on the road. It would be “uncontrolled” only in the sense that it would be not dictated by stupid control-freak central traffic planners. Humans have an amazing capacity to cooperate and create order when they are left alone to do so.
“How would one know where the line of sight is enough to pass safely without stripping and signage?”
By looking. Crazy idea, I know.
Roland,
You can see around hills? Sounds more psychic than crazy.
An uncontrolled intersection is merely one without stop or yield signs, the same right of way rules apply as if they were 4-way stops.
Of course I can’t; that’s why I don’t pass when I can’t see what’s ahead. Do you, just because the stripe says it’s OK? Of course you don’t; that would be dumb. As I wrote originally, the current mindset is: don’t think, but look for a sign (or a stripe) to tell you what to do. That is dangerous, and creates conflict where there otherwise would be none.
An intersection with no regulatory markings at all would be sort of like a four-way stop, but much more efficient (you could roll through when it makes sense to do so, without penalty) and much safer, because everybody, knowing that nobody has the right of way, would be forced to pay attention.
That’s not to say that certain customs wouldn’t arise or carry over (like the driver on the right going first when two of you arrive at the same time), but with no formal right of way – and everybody being aware that there is none – drivers would quickly learn that they have to be on their toes all the time. Isn’t that what we want?
I’d prefer to have them obey the rules of the road that they already demonstrated an understanding of when they passed their driving test before they test everyone else on their ability to avoid hitting their sorry butts while they violate them. Laws aren’t designed to make people do what they should, they are designed to deal with them when they do what they shouldn’t.
Do you know the difference between positive and negative rights? That concept applies to all law.
“Laws aren’t designed to make people do what they should, they are designed to deal with them when they do what they shouldn’t.”
I alluded to this mindset in my original post. What you’re saying is that the most important thing is to be able to assign blame after the harm has been done. I prefer a system where the harm doesn’t happen in the first place, because it capitalizes on drivers’ natural ability to cooperate and create order.
Rights really have nothing to do with it. Whether you consider driving a right or a privilege or whatever, a dumb authoritarian system that is at odds with human nature will produce bad results.
Governments’ impotence in dealing with the distracted driving “epidemic” is proof that your approach does not work. With many people being harmed, it’s not really funny, but I can’t help but chuckle as clueless politicians pass one silly cell phone law after another.
That line of sight isn’t the same for every vehicle. I’ve had the clover mentality car driver speed up, a very stupid move, just to keep me in my place when passing them in a no passing zone.
If I couldn’t see the whole picture it makes even less sense to keep a car and 80000 lbs of big rig side by side but some fools will do that. You have to be pretty stupid to not understand you and that big rig driver aren’t seeing the same picture.
That sort of thing was rampant back when 55 was the law of the land, not because they didn’t think you couldn’t see but because they would attempt to hold everyone else to that speed. There were plenty killings over such back then.
I guess often those killings only turned up a victim made people rethink that shit. Even the DPS finally weighed in and urged the public to let them take care of speeders. It was amazing how many people there were who did the blocking bs.
What a ridiculous amount of self righteousness it requires to be this stupid.
Hi Eight,
Yes, this is the kind of petty crap I had in mind when I wrote that the state’s rules cause “otherwise intelligent adults to act like fussy four-year-olds fighting over a toy.” When you safely pass a clover in a no-passing zone, you have done no harm, yet he will get all pissed off and take it on himself to punish you, even if it puts him and his passengers in danger. I suppose this is actually the essence of cloverness, eh?
I don’t recall who it was, but someone once wrote on LRC that traffic laws only serve to give drivers more reasons to become indignant. I now firmly believe that. We would be better off without them.
Interesting point aabove .. whoat if there are two people in the car, the driver hands HIS phone to his passenger and asks HER to tet to so nd so.. while HE continues to drive. HOW dey gonna know whose fingers were smacking the screen?
If its one of those tickets in the post ganes, a solid defense would be “your onner where is the PERSON who can personally resity fo SEEING me hold tha phone and text at the same time I was driving? For that matter, where is the person who SAW me actually driving? I have some questioins I want to ask that individual whose eyewitness testimoy I want to examine, as is my RIGHT under the Constitution of this nation. Without my exercising my RIGHT to examine those giving testimony against me, there CAN BE NO CONVICTION.
How will this machine disceren between a user who hands his phone to another person in the vehicle? how will they know the car is moving? What about in stop and go traffic, all too common these days? the difference between the stopping/going in the roadway, and stopping at the side of the road to type the text and send? how to know WHO was actually driving the car? Could I have loaded my sail fawn along with my old truck? Do they KNOW it was ME smacking that screen or Charlie? On what basis?
stupid nannies….. spending OUR money to accuse US of things we may/mayn’t have done, to collect MORE of our money.
Not doing so well at draining the swamp yet. Maybe it needs gasoline spread out over the top of it and something to llight it? SOMETHING heeds to be done to “take care of” the rats, snakes, ‘gators and crocs……
All the new hi-tech cars can tell where you are in the car and can disable the texting feature of
your phone if you are driving , your passengers can go and text away
Joe,
What if you have a flip-phone are riding in a 1966 VW?
Tionioco, here in Virginia, there are no trials for traffic offenses unless the charge carries jail time. You’re going to show up in court and get 15 seconds with the judge, who will side with the officer, or if he gives you a break will still direct you to the clerk who will collect court costs from you.
The officer doesn’t need to present any evidence other than his testimony, which trumps anything you could present.
Ed,
Maybe you should give them a copy of the 7th Amendment to the Constitution.
Several year ago, in Commerce City, Colorado, a man got a speeding ticket in the mail.
He went down to the courthouse and set a trial date.
On the trial date, he demanded his right to face his accuser, a photo-speed radar van.
The judge dismissed the case immediately because there was no witness to question.
The man happened to be a newspaper reporter and he wrote the case up in the paper.
Commerce City would up dropping over 200 speeding tickets and returned 3 leased photo speed radar vans to Lockheed. Yeah, that Lockheed.
I am 64 and I have 100% total custody of my great grand son. I plan to move to FL and home school him since I am retired. None of this bullshit statist crap for him. He will probably hate me for it though because he will be a free peg in a statist hellhole.
NoneYa
Would that all grandpa’s were like you, Noneya! This world would not be the disgusting zoo that it now is.
As for the kid hatin’ ya? Well, I’m 55, and I thank God to this day for the circumstances in my upbringing which set me apart from the masses and made me different; made me able to see; kept me free all of my life in a day when such is almost impossible because of the crap that parents buy into, and which kids get entangled in from a young age.
Anything which keeps a kid from those entanglements is a HUMONGOUS blessing and a real head start. Kids see who cares. Some parents swishing them off to gubmint school for 8 hours a day and tellin’ ’em to just believe and parrot whatever they are told, vs. a grandpa who lovingly teaches them real knowledge on a personal level. Unless the kid somehow ends up being a total tool (which is unlikely) he will appreciate what you’re doing for him; and when he sees the tools around him, he will thank you for the fact that he is not one of them.
Hey Nunzio!
I have a tidbit for you…
https://www.ericpetersautos.com/2017/07/31/helicopter-life/
When I was a kid, we would ride our bikes sans helmets. We built forts. We threw rocks at passing freight trains. We went camping without our parents and would shoot frogs with our .22 rifles. We would play in the fields and in the streets all day and the only rule was to be home when the street lights came on. Somehow I have managed to live 70 years without significant injury.
Eric, ya know?! It’s as if these idjit parents have become servants to their kids. I wonder if she says “Where to, sir?” when the kid gets in the car?
And this is why we will never have a Libertarian society in our lifetime: These kids grow up [if you can call it that] not being able to think independently; and not being remotely capable of being self-sufficient. They know how to navigate the system, because that’s all they’ve ever learned from constantly being under the authority of adults and rules their whole lives, as opposed to learning how the world works by playing and exploring; and learning how to deal with situations when their is no one to run to for appeal to the rules.
No wonder half the people today are afraid to ever be alone or quiet- it’s foreign to them. This is why they have to text constantly.
It’s truly disgusting. Imagine how much better off the kid would be, if instead of being chauffeured to all of those games, he instead were to mow the lawn?
Does that dingbat date? I’m wondering if even the biggest simp would put up with such behavior and wasting of time? (My gosh! How does she endure HOURS of sitting and watching games?!)- Or does she complain that she “can’t find a good man”? [I wonder why!]
And this seems to be the standard operating procedure for most parents these days. And as if it isn’t bad enough that the kids can’t just be kids, but instead always have to be in some organized adult-supervised activity, what’s even worse, is that it’s never anything creative or constructive….99% of the time it’s: SPORTS! SPORTS! SPORTS!
Sports are a very constructive way to create a fortune based on the disposable incomes of those who saving it would never dawn on.
HAhahaha! I like that, Bill! And it is so true! Sports…and lottery tickets!
Nunzio,
Your odds of winning the lottery are much better than your odds of winning a professional sporting contest:-)
But the IQ’s of the participants/spectators are about the same for either, Bill! 😉
I suspect, based on the idiocy that I have heard on sports channels, that those who play the lottery have, on average, at least a 20 point advantage, before chronic traumatic encephalopathy sets in.
Oh, you mustn’t pay cash when you buy gas, Bill; ’cause if ya did, you’d see the welfare queens clogging up the line at the cashuer- who just bought $7 worth of gas for her 1988 Hyundai Excel, and then spent $30 on lottery tickets (which she proceeds to scratch off at the counter, no less) and $60 on cigarettes…..while bitching to someone on her iPhone how “ebil dem rich peeple be ‘n sheet”.
Love it Eric! I have been complaining about the strict regimen children have to put up with for years and years no.
Thanks, Bill!
As sick as it is, maybe there is an upside; maybe the idjits who feel the need to constantly text kinda deserve this Orwellian society that they have helped to create….
Wonder how long it will be though, before people like myself who don’t even carry a turned-on cell phone will elicit suspicion just for not transmitting a signal? Surely they’ll say that we “must have something to hide”.
Nunzio,
I have had a dislike-hate relationship with cellphones since they became small enough to fit in a shirt pocket.
I’m a klutz, and my favorite cellphone (which I still have) was the Motorola brick phone I bought in the early 90’s and found that it had no service in front of the store on the 16th street pedestrian mall in Denver after leaving the store with it. I went back into the store and complained about the lack of service, and they asked me if I wanted to buy out my contract. I’d love to see Motorola come out with a multimode (CDMA/GSM) phone like that one, because the battery could be a large lithium ion that would support the phone for months of stand-by time. I couldn’t care less if it could do anything on the Internet, although it would be neat if it had a USB to hook up to.
Bill, I remember carrying my wife’s gym bag phone for her while she shopped one weekend when she had to be on call to support clients. That goes back a ways. I remember the first “flip phone” her office assigned to her. I didn’t have a pocket big enough to put it in, and she had to carry it herself in her purse. I think that was in the mid ’90s, back when there were still car phones.
My first mobile phone was in reality a 100W Motorola radio with a regular looking,for the time, plain ass ol MA Bell cradle type handset made outa indestructible whatever the hell plastic equally useful for knocking somebody out or driving nails. When you pressed the send button an operator, always a woman, would answer, then almost always recognize your voice and greet you and ask who you wanted to call. Then she’d page that person who you wanted to speak with……via the horn on their vehicle.
Not uncommonly you’d have made it home already and passed out on the sofa. Most likely your better half was already in bed asleep and would have to wake you to answer. They let the old horn go for a while so everyone but you would have answered it if the vehicle hadn’t been locked.
The neighbors knew you were dead to the world so nobody got bent and were simply glad it was you on call and not them.
The neighbor who drove a rig-up truck and used the Jake Brake at 3am got cussed more.
8, back then I was always glad that I didn’t have to have one of those phones to do what I did for a living. Fast forward to about ’02 and I was tied to one all the time for business.
Life was better when I had a pager and a terminated voice mailbox, but those have been obsoleted by cellphones.
8,
I used to work for a company that provided the interconnects through human operators back in the days of manually connected mobile telephones. Our operators had it pretty easy because most of our customers were oil drilling firms whose tool pushers would keep their connections for hours at a time, in total silence. The operators would just turn up their monitors and read a book. I doubt that the horn buttons on any of those tone decoders ever wore out. Those times are so forgotten that even Google can’t find any hits.
Yep, in the ’80s, my brother was a sales manager for a big millwork outfit and was out on the road a lot. His car phone bill was $1400 one month that I saw it, so cell phone service is dirt cheap now comparatively. In the late ’80s, $1400 was like $5200 now.
Ed,
Cellphones didn’t get much smaller before the end of analog, because it required a 100% duty cycle in the phone’s carrier to maintain a connection. Now that they transmit for single digit percentages of the time, a tiny battery can carry them for much longer. Add lithium ion batteries of vastly higher power density than anything that proceeded them and the size is based on big enough buttons, on phones that still have them, or big enough displays. The Dick Tracy phone is right around the corner.
Yeah, in a way it’s been a boon, but with daddy gov getting into everything, it’s as much a curse.
Ed, $1200 was a common charge in the mid 70s. Use one like the typical smart phone user does now, it would be into 5 digits.
My smartphone is a great tool for finding parts and GPS but I sometimes wish we still used bag phones.
I kept mine on the hump between the console and the transfer case shifter. A manual transmission and generally dragging a trailer often had me on speaker phone. Complaints from everybody but the wife ended most calls quickly. Bitch about me sounding like I was in a well and what’s so noisy. I’d say speakerphone, diesel, turbo. It was fine for me since having the stereo cranked up was SOP for me. Call someone else who won’t tell you “I’m 30 minutes closer than 30 minutes ago when you asked where I was”. Calling me every half hour just pissed me off and still does. WTF do you think I am? Oh, I stopped and ate and got a wash job then stopped at Luskys and looked for some new boots and a belt. A foreman used to bug the living shit out of me continuously calling. Dammit boy I know you’re waiting on me. I guess if I had one of those fancy spoons and lighter’s 30 minutes would seem longer to me too. I got tired of working with crackheads.
Yeah, I know you were in West T because you said “Lusky’s for Boots and belt. If you’d been in East or Central T you would have stopped at Cavender’s.
I think that was a Lusky’s in El Paso in that scene in “No Country For Old Men” where Lewellen walked in wearing a hospital johnnie and a pair of Larrys and wanted to buy everything else.
Those stores like Cavenders and them have something like 2,000 pairs of boots on display, except for their bigger stores in the bigger towns. Those might have 20,000 pairs, or that’s what it looked like to me anyway.
Yep Ed, I’d bet that was a luskys in that movie. Funny you should mention that. The wife said that night, OK. Your turn to pick a movie. I hadn’t seen that in a while so I stuck it in. It was going to be a Coen Bros movie even if I had to put in O Brother, Where Art Thou? or Raising Arizona.
8, “Hell or High Water” is a later one that I bought on DVD to watch over. It ain’t a Cohen brothers film, but the dialog is great.
There was an analog motorola startac. Also the vulcan (V8160) came in dual mode CDMA/analog.
The analog battery drain wasn’t bad and the optional big battery made up for it.
For size reference w/ the optional big battery:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY8Qh21a8ik
Phones got a little smaller yet after vulcan before the smart phones took over.
Brent,
The battery drain of an analog phone was vastly different when it was engaged on a call, not so much digital phones, which are always engaged in listening as long as they have enough battery power.
I am well aware of that. I ran my vulcan in analog only mode for a couple years after the CDMA side died.
Eric,
GovCo is once again “fixing” a problem they themselves created.
I’ve been instructing in the Street Survival School done by Tire Rack. One of the factlettes I’ve come across is that something on the order of 80% of teen drivers have a collision in the first 3 years of driving. My question is, Who taught them how to drive and who certified they could? GovCo is the initial instructor and they then “certify” they have the skills by giving them a license. Like the DARE program and sex education, drug use is highest among those that take DARE and unwanted teen pregnancy is still at a staggering level.
We don’t need to get rid of texting and driving, we need to remove GovCo from the equation, else we’re doomed.
Hi Mark,
Agreed!
I have been giving a friend of mine’s nephew driving lessons; kid is 15 now – and (as you describe) would be handed a license after a cursory drive around the parking lot and successful passage of a “driving” test that is nothing of the kind.
If I had a kid, “driver’s ed” would start around 13… so that by 16, the kid would have three years of experience under his belt.
That is how it ought to be, sez me!
I’m currently teaching our grandson (who is also racing go-karts) how to drive a manual transmission. He can get his road race license at 15 and has plans to start auto racing at that point. His Dad & I currently co-drive an ITA Miata.
Excellent, Mark!
Capital!
Mark, show your grandson how 70+ year old Ben Wenzel drives his original 1967 Z-28 stick car (Turn the volume up!:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCjvb6rzlSc
Hi Aljer,
And that is why I loathe electric cars with every cell of my being…
I’ll also teach my kid how to drink before he drives by himself. Alcohol and its effects are such a forbidden thing here, that kids get drunk and get in cars not knowing what it’ll do to them.
I like the idea of a manual transmission car too, forces more attention to driving.
Hi OP,
That is also a capital idea!
My parents did this with my sister and I. Gradual introduction to alcohol; a sip of beer, some wine … so it was no huge big deal when we got into our mid teens.
Many Europeans do this (including Eye-talians)- Their kids will have wine with dinner; or wine diluted with water as a thirst-quencher on a hot day, etc. but these are usually families where alcohol is used quite liberally, and the kids thus grow up to accept alcohol use as the norm. But if the parents drink, then it’s likely that the kids are going to drink at some point, so may as well start them right.
Quite frankly, I’m glad that I was brought up in home without alcohol. I’ve seen too many people, both kids and adults, mess up their lives, or at least make very poor decisions with often long-lasting consequences because of intoxicants. I consider myself very fortunate to have avoided all of that; especially when I was a teen, because when my peers were partying, I was learning (Not in school- but by exploring the world, and taking on manly responsibilities, like being self-employed) and formulating Anarchistic ideas.
A lot of the kids I grew up with, were doing things because of that partying, that affected decades of their future- if not their whole lives.
I’ll can not express how grateful I am to have missed all of that, as well as pornography. These things enslave the mind, and often the body, just as much as politicians/governments/media/schools do.
My dad taught me to drive, and his lessons were amazingly good. I did take “drivers ed” in high school, not because I needed it, but because there was this babe I wanted to get closer to. According to dad, my mom “steered” the car, she didn’t “drive” it. He was the one who taught me the difference. RIP.
Years ago I was teaching my cousin’s son to drive in a parking lot, he was about 14 at the time. The lot was empty in the early evening. We approached a blind alleyway. I instructed him to stop even though there was no crosswalk or stop sign. Why? he asked. Well just because you have the right of way, doesn’t mean that there isn’t an 18 wheeler coming down that alley that doesn’t care about your right of way. He stopped as if at a stop sign, with that an 18-wheeler came speeding out of the alleyway – They didn’t teach that in Drivers ed nor in any driving school.
Who knows? Maybe this will get people to toss their cell phones altogether!
Hi Eduardo –
I wish.
I avoided getting one until my divorce this year. But I gave in and got one because it is almost impossible to function in the single world without one.
It’s a kind of social rip tide that carries us along.
Eric,
I suggest you get a used Samsung Galaxy S5 (if you can find one). It is what I use. It is, in my considered opinion, the best sell phone ever made. It is water proof. It can be expanded to 128 gigabytes of SD memory (I have more than 12gb of music on mine)). It can be used as a modem tether on your laptop when using June Fabrics’ PDAnet (there is a version for OS X). It can also be used with your computer to make calls, text, check email and other niceties using Samsung’s Side Sync application for OS X and Android. Lastly and bestly, It has a removable battery so you can actually TURN IT OFF! 🙂
NoneYa
Uh Er, cell phone, cough cough hack hack.
NoneYa
Off topic, but it’s a shame about your divorce. It might be for the best, but so much time, effort, and emotion go into a marriage, it’s hard to see a break-up end it all. Besides, the world needs more Erics and Ericas educated by parents concerned about Big Brother.
Hi Ross,
Thanks for the kind words. I wish it had not happened. My friends all egg me on to date but I am having trouble summoning the gumption – the interest. Not that I’m not interested in (as my friend Fred Reed styles it) that. It’s the rest of it. The ex and I were together a long time and most of it a good time. I would put up with a lot… from her. But starting over with someone else? Much as I am not particularly happy being a kind of redneck man in the high castle, up here by myself with a bunch of cats and chickens, I don’t know whether I could ever really be open to another woman. I have thought about this extensively. I’m a broken toy, like most divorced guys.
You ain’t broken, eric. You’re just taking a break. Go about your business and when it’s time, you’ll meet somebody in the course of taking care of your business who will be a good match because you met them in the course of doing what you do.
If you’re still isolated after several years, then you might need to worry, but not now.
I’ve wondered myself what I’d do living also in the High Country without my wife. Extreme SW NC
I manage to “text while driving” when necessary (rarely) simply by pressing the single button on the iPhone, waiting for Siri’s “ding” sound, then giving voice commands via the bluetooth earpiece. Eyes don’t leave the road. Not recommended for everyone, but if you’re a decent multitasker…
Unless I’m missing something, if there are two people in the car, how do they known who is texting?
Sounds like a bunch of bull $H!T to me.
It sure is, but they are probably able to track the phone number that is doing the texting. I bet it goes that far. I remember being ridiculed by mentioning this device by people who said they haven’t heard of it. I had read about it about a year ago somewhere. This kind of thing is a complete violation of privacy. No one seems to give a shit.
When traveling, my wife and I often swap phones on the road. That way the non-driver handles the phone while the driver drives. We’ve done this for years.
Funny thing was when we had a RHD (right-hand-drive) truck. We would get some weird looks if my wife was reading a book or knitting while I was driving. We even had people slow down and gawk. The kids would be tapping dad on the shoulder and pointing.
Had a CHP yank me to the side of the BayShore Freeway long about Palo Alto some years back.. I was driving my LandRover Series !!A, right drive. My dog was sitting in her usual spot… straight up observing everything from her perch in the left front seat. CHPper lit us up, I saunterd over to the right shoulder, he approached HER window, at which point SHE went off… I calmed her, the CHPper had stepped back at the snarl/bark, then he got a better look. She wasa quite by then, and he came up to the open window and announced “I am SO SORRY, I saw your dog sitting where YOU should be and thought something was wrong.. now I see you’re over THERE and all is well. Accept my apologies. Good evening….. pretty funny, I thought.
That must have been a long time back. Today the Hero would have shot your dog and then beat you into submission for exiting the vehicle, because officer safety.
Back at the station he would get congratulatory back slaps from the other Heroes before going on his paid administrative leave vacation.
Second that, Guerrero…
The idea of a “hero” apologizing… hard to grok these days.
Years ago, I used to take my dog everywhere. Today I don’t, ’cause pigs.
Nunzio, same for me if I am headed out of the county. I used to haul both my pits with me everywhere unless I had to lay over.
People were always asking me if Ace was a good driver since he’d be behind the wheel as soon as I’d exit and sit like he was driving.
People constantly spoke to me about what great looking dogs they were and how much one would look like a dog they had or have.
A common remark had to do with my not having my pickup stolen.
A good friend took his pit everywhere in his Wagoneer. He had the back seat out and would chain Spike to a rear seat mounting point so he could only get to the window. We’d leave everything in plain view with the windows down. Our dog Roy boy wouldn’t let anyone near his vehicle either and I always parked well away from the crowd.
Now I fear coming back to the pickup and finding a broken window and dead dog via porky.
Yep, nowadays, the shit cops do to people are crimes that an apology won’t fix anyway.
Isn’t it thoughtful of Marx Brother Cuomo to worry so much about NYer’s safety? Though he was’t very concerned for all the boys his boss out of laws chool who was paying him over $200,000 in 1985 was raping in the office next to his for years. He kept collecting partnership checks from him even when he was in prison and had plead guilty to a watered down charge of possession of child pornography. Cuomo had no concerns about being placed on the Board of Trustees in the $450 Million fraud of Heritage life that this same child rapist owned and looted. If anyone cares to read what NY’s Governor and his governor father allowed and partnered with – https://www.scribd.com/document/327564828/USA-Confidential-December-1998
We can trust an Israeli company and the incorruptible NY police to seize our phones and determine our guilt. NY is a Constitution Free Zone – it is deadly to believe you have rights guaranteed under what is considered a nebulous fiction here. Perhaps a skilled inventor can begin marketing burn safes for cellphones that can do a Mission Impossible style self destruct before our safety monitors can seize them and send us to detention?
The Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Amendments are not in effect in The Peoples Utopia of NY one is advised that they have no rights here.
Slowest ship in the fleet restrictions were the practice of grade schools in the 1980s.
This is how it works. People when they become adults want the society run the way their grade schools were run. So just wait until the more recent grade school graduates become of age of political goal achievement.
Hi Brent,
Mexico is looking better all the time… only half joking…
I like that idea. Mexico or the far east.
What’s the joke? Mexico doesn’t fuck with you.
Hi Doug,
I like Mexico; no issue with the country or its people on my end…. I have an aunt/cousins who live there.
I think that the women there are better compared with the flaky half homo women in the US. I can’t stand most here. If you have relatives there, I’d split.
We’re stuck in a horrible situation here. Most normal people go on about their lives, live and let live, and keep their noses out of regulating or politicking, these are the people that would make good politicians, but they don’t go into politics. The busybodies who want power strive for it, and so, they get it. These are the people who want society to live their vision, and the last people we want to be in power. In the past, these busybodies would be laughed out of town, but now, people just ignore them which allows them to do damage.
How do you fix this?
How to fix eh? Everything in life, especially your career almost always comes down to a reward/risk ratio decision.
Maybe the 3 S’s adopted en masse by the abused at the top level and work down from there.
3S’s are soon to be the only justice in the Western World. We are racing there at this moment. Smile before your state appointed torturer- pay close attention to his name and the route he takes home so when the hour Jesus calls him home, you can hand him his luggage.
What are the 3 S’s?
**oot, **ovel, **ut-up
They used to be done before going out for the evening.
*hit, *hower, and *have
Gum up the works the best you can. Never plead guilty to anything, take everything to trial. They’re betting that the majority will look at a $350 fine and do the math for taking time off to fight it and decide it’s “better” to just plead guilty and send in a check. And who knows, you might even win and walk out a free man. But don’t bet on it unless you have a lawyer with you. Last time (hope to be the last time) I went to court for a violation a line I said in jest got my ticket wiped out, but that was a fluke. The enforcers are paid to know the law inside and out. I doubt most of them could know anything about what you do for a living any more than you know the law -assuming you’re not a lawyer or in the judicial system.
Early 80’s and a friend had to make a 400 mile round trip frequently. Try driving Abilene to Lubbock, Tx and back several times a year at 55 and you can feel yourself aging
I was driving any old speed I liked with my Escort radar detector then before instant on radar. Why he didn’t have one only he could say.
He got enough speeding tickets he finally had to go to court.
He asked me what I’d do and I told him to get a lawyer.
Couple weeks later we met and he said “Man, you were right about that court date. I took a lawyer with me and I was the only defendant to leave there with my license ” .
A great deal of money was saved on insurance alone not to mention the onus of losing your license.
8,
That lonely patch of 4-lane is much more interesting when a north Texas ice storm has left it a sheet of black ice. I haven’t gotten a speeding ticket since I was driving cab in Denver, and I wasn’t speeding then, I was just the only hack in the platoon. Those tickets were best paid and allowed to disappear, never to be seen on a driver’s license record, just the city’s revenue flow.
Well, I for one lean toward tar and feathers then riding them out of town on a rail. The wooden kind not the iron one. The hotter the tar the better. Why? You may ask? Because hot tar scars the skin and is in effect a type of brand. When the arse hole goes to another town they know what happened before. They might allow the offender entrance but the offender best be on their best behavior!
NoneYa