The Four-Wheeled Patriot Act

By
eric
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Whenever Congress does something unanimously (or nearly so) you can rest assured it’s in their interests, not ours.

The USA Patriot Act comes to mind.

Another is the Safely Ensuring Lives Future Deployment and Research in Vehicle Evolution Act – aka the SELF DRIVE Act – which was rubber stamped through Congress the other day. This is the law that exempts automated cars from the safety requirements that apply to autonomous cars – that is, the cars which are independent of government control and controlled by us.

Just as the Patriot Act was written, not to “fight terrorism,” but to make it easier for government to terrorize us, by circumventing or simply ignoring the Bill of Rights.

Same operating principle behind both.

There is irony – and malevolence – here.

Irony, because the same government that endlessly croons about “safety” – when it suits – is willing to back burner safety when it suits. If a car company dared to even suggest that it might be a good idea to install air bag Off switches in new cars (and it would be a very good idea, if safety is a concern, given how dangerous air bags are; not can be, but are) that company would be the focus of great abuse if not threatened prosecution.

Meanwhile, the SELF DRIVE Act will exempt automated cars from the necessity – under laws that apply to autonomous cars – of having things like steering wheels and brake pedals and other controls by which a human might intervene to save himself in the event the automated car makes a mistake.

It is presumed automated cars will never make a mistake, that their systems and technology are immune to defects, wear and tear and so forth.

You know. Like air bags are.

It’s not very “safe.”

And yet, it slid through Congress like shit through a goose.

It’s worth noting that no one is suggesting commercial airliners – which already have the ability to fly themselves, including take-off and landing – do so without human pilots standing by to step in just in case. Much less have cockpit controls removed and the now ex-pilots told to go watch a movie back in Coach.   

Why is it acceptable to do exactly that with machines that are more dangerous, en masse, than airliners simply by dint of numbers? There are only a few thousand airliners flying on any given day.

How many millions of cars are out there?    

And the cars – the automated ones of The Future – will not be subject to the strict, FAA-style inspection and maintenance protocols that apply to airliners because it’s simply not feasible (leaving aside the money) to have millions of cars brought into a facility for close examination of all their critical bits and pieces, preemptively replacing many of them according to a specific time/mileage schedule as a necessary precaution against the inevitably increasing risk of a failure based on wear and tear.

No one mentions this fact.

Nor the fact that without some way for a human driver to assume control of the automated car when an inevitable failure occurs, whether from wear and tear or a defect or some other reason, the human will be utterly powerless to do anything to save himself.

And we will have no choice but to get in and hope for the best – because vehicle automation will not be a matter of choice. Stevie Wonder can see what’s coming. Automated car technology will be mandated; the SELF DRIVE Act being the preparatory groundwork. It standardizes things at the federal level; gives the federal regulatory apparat the power to nudge.

And malevolence?

Well, there is the obvious malice of exposing people to a known risk, of a piece with air bags; the deliberate thwarting of any way to reduce that risk – as by not allowing the car companies to install air bag Off switches – and by passing a law that will permit manufacturers of automated cars to build them without any controls which could be used to control them, in the event they go haywire.

Which they will.

Just like your smartphone or PC. Technology isn’t infallible; things wear out and break down. Exposure to heat and cold, to moisture and potholes jarring the works. What works fine today may not tomorrow – and one day, will not work fine.

What then?

But there is another layer of malice, a deeper cut.

Leaving aside the outright reckless disregard for Our Safety, the SELF DRIVE  Act – like the USA Patriot Act – is an outright attack upon ourselves. Upon our right to not be herded and tracked like the residents of an ant farm.

Has anyone stopped to think about the information an automated car would collect – and store and transmit? It would know, for instance, when you go to work each day – and when you come home. Where you stopped along the way – and for how long. The route you took – and whether you took a different route last Thursday.

It would, in brief, know every last detail about every movement you made that wasn’t made on foot. It will probably know who is in the car, too. There may be audio and video recording. We know this has already happened with smartphones and even “smart” home appliances such as “smart” TVs that listen in to our conversations and transmit them to . . . somewhere.

The authors and promoters of the SELF DRIVE Act cross their hearts and hope to die that there will privacy “safeguards,” that we have nothing to worry about. Three words ought to throw water on that:

USA Patriot Act.

We were assured of its innocuousness as well; no worries! It was all for our – yes – “safety.”

It is of course too late now, as before. The thing got passed hurriedly and with very little media coverage, which might have made a difference and which probably explains the lack of media coverage.

When something important to them needs to get done, it gets done.

Perhaps the “Moms” will say something. The ones who marinate in “safety,” who have made it the driving principle of our beaten down, submit and obey American culture. But probably not. Because “safety” has never been the issue, just the window dressing. The excuse to achieve the true objective.

Which, by now, even Stevie Wonder can see.    

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135 COMMENTS

  1. Eric,

    At least we HEARD of the USAPATRIOT Act; at least we were TOLD about its passage! Until I read this just now, I had no idea of the SELF DRIVE Act even existed…

  3. Hey, Eric,

    Did someone hack your email?

    I got something purporting to be from you- an Amsoil ad- but not from your regular email address. Has your site graphics in it, and was obviously written by someone who’s familiar with you- but I wouldn’t expect such from you…..

  4. Some humans ain’t human
    Some people ain’t kind
    You open up their hearts
    And here’s what you’ll find

    A few frozen pizzas
    Some ice cubes with hair
    A broken Popsicle
    You don’t want to go there

    Some humans ain’t human
    Though they walk like we do
    They live and they breathe
    Just to turn the old screw

      • Ol’ Johnny is one of my favorites along with Glen Cambell, Gordon Lightfoot, Bach, Mozart, a lot of the Motown artists, Otis, etc. Sort of like cars, no one company owns my loyalty, some of today’s failures were great back in the day’
        Eric how about a lament or “Fanfare for the Common Man”? The Lord knows we could use some boosting.

        • I love the way Gordon Lightfoot harmonizes some of the words in “If You Could Read My Mind”. And sometimes, ya can almost hear the Canookistanian coming through in his songs!

          I like a lot of classical, too. Not much for the more modern stuff, but I love this:

          Eric Satie: Gymnopedie No. 1
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WNCBPdetG4

          That just sooths the soul, and makes ya think and or zone-out!

          • Yeah, “Sundown” was the one Lightfoot song I really liked. I kind of started avoiding his music on jukeboxes after “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”. I was always worried that any new tune of his on the juke would turn out to be another 12 minute history lesson, and somebody in the beer joint would beat my ass for playing it.

            What interested me the last time I was in a beer joint in about ’02 and looked at the juke, was that “Della’s Long Brown Hair”, “3rd Rate Romance”, and “Amazing Grace (used to be her favorite song)” by the Amazing Rhythm Aces were still on there on CD and being played by young rednecks whose parents used to dance to those tunes 40 years ago.

            I doubt any of the top 40 of today will still even be available for download in 5 years, let alone 40 years from now.

              • Ol’ Van had some good songs. He had a few that sucked, IMO. I found out when I bought the first album of his that I owned, that his best songs never got on radio until years after they appeared on albums.

                The musicians that made it into the studio with him were all top-notch and made better, even, by his genius for arranging.

                • We used to listen to Van, Guy Clark, Leon Russel, lots of people who didn’t get airplay and had a few ARA albums that nobody had heard of but liked.
                  Don’t know how many cassette copies I made of them and Jackson Brown and Van and Guy for people.

                  We used to buy cases of expensive tapes that were supposed to be the best of a couple top brands. Most the time they were nominally better. What a relief CD’s were.

                • Ed, that’s the problem I have with most singers whose voices I like: They may have a few good songs, but the majority they choose to sing, suck. If I can find 4 or 5 songs by any one singer from any one singer I like, I’m doing good.

                  8Man, Leon Russell is another good example of what I just said. And Tom Waits… (Actually, I don’t think I like any song that Waits does- but with that unique voice, if he’d do some good ‘uns, I’d love it)

                  Or Rickie Lee Jones….she has like one good song….but if she’d choose better songs, every one she’d do could be good.

                  I just put on Russell’s “Tight Rope”- after that, I’ll have to listen to Leon Redbone- (The best song he ever did was that old “All” detergent commercial!)

                  • The one good song and the rest is the result of the music “industry”. What should have been a single becomes an album. The suits don’t understand the creative process, they want a full album (even today with Apple selling single songs). So you get the one good song with the rest of the we have to write something.

                    • So true, Richb- and yet, I’ll never understand it, but [I don’t know about today, but in the past] people would still buy those albums…..even though they may’ve only had one good song. Once in a RARE while, you’d come across one with 2 or even 3 good songs- but that truly was a rarity.

                      There’s one album by Ian Dury & The Blockheads that must have about 10 good songs- It somehow must’ve slipped through in spite of the music industry. (Their “Sex & Drugs & Rock ‘n Roll album)

                  • Leon didn’t sing most songs he wrote. He made stars of countless singers, even Gary of |Gary and the Playboys(sic). It was all Leon, from the written songs to figuring it all out in the studio. As far as I’m concerned, he’s a legend and one rarely rivaled.

                    • 8Man, speak of the Devil!

                      I was just looking up some trivia about the ‘Stones “Let It Bleed” album….and sure enough, Leon has a credit on there (I think it was for arranging and playing the trumpet or something…).

                      The dude got around. (Never realized that before- I always thought he was kinda obscure)

  5. All this legislation does is stop states and local municipalities from legislating arbitrary bills to regulate the industry. No one is FORCING the self-driving auto makers from adding brakes and steering wheels. It’s simply giving them the option to figure out how their company’s vision works best for them.

    This is like when large groups of angry liberals in North Texas got a petition to ban fracking in the entire county of Denton signed into local ordinance, and Texas went ahead and passed legislation saying “No, you can’t just be mad and stop an entire industry from working in an area just because you don’t like it.”
    Every libertarian should be for this kind of legislation because it keeps anti-capitalist groups from being capricious and passing legislation that hurts other businesses that operate responsibly.

    • Ah, you mean the “got mine and screw you crowd” probably not a callused hand in the bunch.When a person gets out in the elements and struggles, fights to survive, they get a sense of whats sustainable, rain running down the back of your neck when it’s near freezing, the boss stops nearby in His warm pickup and tells you to put the radio under your raincoat so it won’t get wet , gives you one of those”its nice to be home in a warm dry house” moments.
      We struggle for a better life and to be frank ,we do it mostly for ourselves.

    • Hi Kommon,

      This bill immunizes the manufacturers of automated cars from any liability resulting from the lack of intercessory controls that can be used by the person in the vehicle to control the vehicle. The same controls that are mandatory in autonomous ( we drive them) cars.

      It is designed to push automated cars onto the market.

      And automated cars are being pushed precisely because they take control away from us.

      Do you really believe this bill was passed to make things more loosey goosey and free? To give us more choice?

      Libertarians are sometimes blindingly naive.

      • You said it, Eric!

        That’s exactly why a lot of such laws exist- to immunize from liability.

        You can hear the court decisions now : “…..since the law does not require automated cars to offer a means of human control, our client did nothing wrong by not including a brake pedal or steering wheel, and therefore bears no responsibility….”

        Me thinks Kommon is about as Libertarian as The Libertarian Party……

        • Maybe some of these legislators will get their brains out of their a$$es long enough to actually write a bill that would eliminate liability of any kind for those who may have done something, even if that act resulted in no actual harm; in effect, repeal “infractions” and pre-crimes, and return to the concept that an actual injury has to occur for a penalty to be assessed.

        • Perhaps one’s most important faculty is their HQ. Their individual Happiness Quotient. Their ability to make someone happy. Not everyone. Just someone. Maybe that someone is themselves.

          Consider a solitary horseman riding between rows of trees along a rocky road.

          What are the elements capable of philosophical illustration?

          Consider these four things: the man, the horse, the trees, the rocks. Here we have four examples of bodily substance. And the first truth about them is that they are all bodies, one as much as another, one as truly and completely as another.

          These bodies are essentially or specifically different kinds of bodies. Each is a bodily substance; there is no mere accidental in their true bodiliness. Nor is there any mere accidental in their difference as bodily substances.

          For a substance that is living, like the tree, is substantially different from the substance which lacks life, like the rock. And a substance that has sentience, like the horse, is substantially different from a non-sentient substance, like the tree.

          And, finally, a substance which has understanding and will and is a rational life, is substantially different from a substance which lacks these perfections; so that the man and the horse are different by no mere accidental difference, but by a substantial difference.

          September Song Jimmy Durante 1955

          Oh it’s a long, long while, from May to December
          But the days grow short, when you reach September.
          When the autumn weather, turns the leaves to flame,
          One hasn’t got time, for the waiting game.

          Time, space, the universe, music, love, it only exists in a higher consciousness that can conceive it.

          The four bodies are all bodily substance, yet the four bodies differ from one another as substances.

          There are two substantially fused substantial principles in each of these bodies. For the four things are in agreement, they are at one as bodily substances, and, at the same time, they are not the same substance at all, but are substantially different.

          There must be a substantial principle in each of the four which is the basis of its bodiliness; and,

          There must be a substantial principle in each of the four which is the substantial determinant of the kind of substance that it is.

          The first of these principles is prime matter; the second is substantial form.

      • It will probably LEAD to self driving cars not having human overriding controls. If I can’t be sued if there is no steering wheel, there will be no steering wheel.

        Remember folks, you don’t have to directly ban something. You just make it so it has to be that way.

        Example never banned large cars outright back in the 1970’s, but made it so car makers couldn’t make them anymore.

    • “Every libertarian should be for this kind of legislation because it keeps anti-capitalist groups from being capricious” Sounds like an Ayn Rand objectivist rant to me. I’ve never met an objectivist who wasn’t an insufferable asshole.

  6. Once again, we see the dumbing-down of our legislature to the whims of such uber-control-freaks as Elon Musk and the like.

    There is a reason many people prefer cars to trains, besides simple things like logistics and location. One of those is the sense that the driver of the car has some sense of control over the destination and the route. Trains don’t allow for that autonomy; they allow for mindless herding of people.

    Maybe “mindless” would be the wrong word. “Controlled” would be a more accurate description.

    There are enough historical references to what happens when controlled herding of people takes place. And most of them are not good, especially when free will would result in different choices being made.

      • True, it seems everyone (especially these Guys) are after easy money, one of these days the pitchforks will come out(history tends to repeat doesn’t it?)The “Masters” will let the underlings fall, whilst they remain “occult “.

    • Ha! Travis, Reading your comment made me think of where I’m originally from- Long Island, NY.

      Every morning, several hundred thousand people get on a train at 7AM, and stare for an hour and a half on their way to NYC, where they board a subway or bus to take them to the cubicle where they’ll spend the next 8-10 hours, and then repeat the same morning’s journey in reverse- getting home at 7,8, or 9PM.

      Ask them why they are willing to live like this and pay $10K-$20K a year in property taxes for the privilege, and they will tell you “Because we can’t make the same money somewhere else”!

      Some people spend 30 or 40 years doing this. (Well, not my friend, who is still back there…he drives- and spends his 4 hour-a-day commute sitting in traffic)

      This is what humanity has come to. The very definition of the term “rat race”- and people are living lives of debt and taxation for the “privilege”…..

      We are truly doomed when there are enough people in the world who will tolerate such, so as to make it the accepted norm.

  8. How the “H” do these “conversations” get so far off track?
    One second they are going 90 wpm in a straight line.
    The next they’ve taken a hard turn and are upside down skidding and spinning like a top.
    About the pedophile thing, for those who think it ain’t no big deal.
    A close friend is sheriff’s deputy who works this venue and my sister just retired as a court advocate for abused children.
    And having been on a rescue (first-responding) rig for 14 years I feel somewhat qualified to comment.
    Pedophilia is a horrible crime and those who marginalize it are either involved or enablers.
    A cure for anyone who would abuse an 8 year old is a 158 grain hollow point at around 1500 fps.
    Open season – no bag limit.

  9. That will work nicely when the “tax per mile” gets implemented. Every movement traced and the applicable tax applied. I am not “proud to be an American.” Nor am I under any delusion of “at least I know I’m free.” SERIOUSLY? The music and lyrics that once moved me so deeply make me almost sick these days. I don’t recognize my country. Nor most my countrymen. I am very thankful for the great articles you write, Eric, and for all the commenters who “get it.”

    • Pam, perhaps you can give me some clue as to why so few women are libertarians and feel as you do, a great resentment of what this country has become.

      Did women really like Bush and Cheney? I have no way of knowing this answer as I realize you may not either. I do know plenty of Bush worshipers still……men…..and have no clue as to why.

      As a recent article in LRC pointed out, Bush and Cheney destroyed this country, countless other countries and freedom worldwide.

      As an armchair sociologist I’ve often wondered what the attraction could possibly be to tyrannical govt.

      What we now have in this country no one, men or women, could have dreamed of back in the 50’s and 60’s and here in rural west Tx. DC and anything to do with the federal govt. was a dirty word that made normally quiet and respectful people say dirty words loud enough to hear. We lived in a completely different world and yankees weren’t welcome.

      I was having a conversation with my best friend yesterday morning. We’ve been best friends 60 years or so dating back to the third grade. He’s of the mind when you “wish” you should go for something worth having.. I wished some trivial thing and he said “I wish I owned Texas”. I told him perhaps to wish he could “buy it back”. He liked that since it was accurate and then he said “My first move would be to expel every yankee, just give them enough time to get across the Red River”. I couldn’t argue with that. No matter where you live it seems you can’t get away from them and/or their mindset.

      Anyway, thanks for giving me hope more women will catch on and become adamant in wanting to change it all. peace b

      • 8, as dreadful as The Bush & Non-Lon Cheney were, really, they were just yet more nails in the coffin. Licoln; Wilson; FDR; Truman; LBJ; Nixon; Cart….even Reagan…and then it got kicked up a notch with Bush I, then Slick Willy; GWB and of course Obozo and now the Orange Ass. Who hasn’t done evil and done their share in ruining this country and increasing the size and scope of the police state? (Including the ones I left out for brevity).

        Bush and Cheney just helped give ’em an excuse to keep the people docile and tolerant, whereas if they hadn’t perpetrated their crimes, by now, maybe some would have started rising up.

      • Eightsouthman, Well, I wish I could understand it myself. I have only known TWO other women in my six decades of living who were free thinkers and really could grasp the concept of liberty. I am going to throw out a theory, just for fun, because there may be a bit to it. It seems to me that most women are raised to be pleasing; to subject their thoughts to others. This is certainly a learned thing, although I know I rebelled against it early on and have never stopped kicking! I have paid a high price in many ways for it. I have a heck of a time getting along with women. And most men don’t appreciate it either! : / My mom was an independent thinker too (oops, forgot to count her! Sheesh!) and raised me to not jump in the lake just because everyone else does.

        As far as Bush and the like, I never was a fan. Ron Paul and Michael Badnarik are more my speed, but Amerika wasn’t ready for ’em. And I wonder, will she ever be at this point? Most people are afraid to do anything that stands out from the crowd. I guess that is the goal of Socialism, after all…

        I do what I can in my conversations with others, but it is so hard to REASON with people. It’s as if they have entirely lost the ability. Logic is lost on them for the most part- as if they enjoy being in their stupor. Tyranny is no pleasure cruise, that’s for sure. It is hard to understand why so many march toward it with such glee and dim-wittedness.

        • It was always hard conveying the concept of personal liberty to those who hadn’t figured it out for themselves or had it bred into them. Today, it is virtually impossible, because people no longer are capable of independent thought. The constant barrage of media, through TV, radio, computers, phones, video games, etc. never leaves those who partake of such things a free moment to think and reason and observe. They are told what to think and how to think about everything- and anything which doesn’t conform to the narrative they hear from the media and the schools and their equally vacuous friends, is rejected as loony/heretical.

          It’s not even that they can consider something, and then reject it for logical reasons which they can articulate; but instead, they reject it because it’s contrary to the majority of what they normally hear- and if you ask them to articulate why they reject it, or what is wrong with the idea you proposed, they can’t do it, and will just say something like “Because it’s stupid”. Ask them why is it stupid, and again, they are at a complete loss, and just repeat “It’s stupid!”. “You gotta have ______________”, or “Everyone knows __________”.

          It’s sad, but most adults have essentially been reduced to the mental level of toddlers- and this is the product of a society in which more people are more highly “educated”[indoctrinated] than ever before.

        • Women are a different form then men. Not just physically but in their reasoning as well.

          3 month old girls respond to faces. They perceive abstractions that boys overlook.

          Boys respond to faces and objects. They perceive abstraction in base matter and things that girls overlook.

          Women go their own ways towards liberty. I know this is true because Ive read Claire Wolfe and Wendy McElroy and Lauren Southern and many more.

    • “The music and lyrics that once moved me so deeply make me almost sick these days. ”
      I’m with you there, except the first time I heard that retarded song, I wanted to hunt Lee Greenwood down and whip his ass.

      • Oh Ed, That is so funny! I felt that way too, and scolded myself for it! I thought, what kind of patriot am I? Well, I guess I wasn’t too far off-base in my initial response to it.

      • Ed, I couldn’t have hunted him down I was so nauseous. The first time I heard it I was on the verge of retching. But eventually, I did get a mad going and you’d had to beat me to him to whip his ass. I don’t even care how it looks. Call me a bully or anything else you like but just hearing him squawk like a duck hit with 4 shot mid-cluck would be so satisfying.

        And just so ol Lee knows, if he’s proud to be an American, I’m proud to not be one. I never pledged much of anything and the closest I could come would be singing the Yellow Rose of Texas although these days these herons in the Lege at Austin would think I was complimenting them so I’ll remain mute.

        There is a great scene in” Bernie”, the movie, where a native Texan has a map of Texas on a big piece of poster board and he’s explaining how Texas should be broken up. He refers to Austin as the People’s Republic of Austin which is just circled off by itself.

        I always wonder where those old ranching families down there moved to once their land was too valuable to keep. Maybe they mostly went to Brazil since lots of them were Germans also….aha.

        • 8, I would have been happy to take seconds after you were done with him. The lyrics could have been written by a government propagandist. The silly little tune sucked so badly that it didn’t last long on the charts in ’84, but it was rebooted about the time that Charlie Daniels put out his paen to the flag.

          Greenwood is and always has been a fucking California pop singer, and has never been a country artist by any stretch of the imagination. The way his bullshit has been promoted by the yankees who run the country music scene indicates the divide between actual country music and the crap that’s pushed as “kuntry” by the assholes who run the music business.

          True country music is now called “americana”. People like Ray Wylie Hubbard, Russell Smith, James McMurtry, and those guys are the real country writers. Kuntry stations now play this rap/pop shit and try to pass it off as music, but I could never stomach it.

          Listen to The Amazing Rhythm Aces version of “The Rock” on youtube. That song was written by Russell Smith of the Aces and his own cover of it is so much better than the mainstream cover by Vern Gosdin. Old Vern covered it OK, but it’s just not as solidly country as the Aces version.

            • Ed, remembering Don Williams yesterday I couldn’t help but think of Townes Van Zandt, one of the truly great songwriters,especially of Texas music. All the greats made their reputations off his songs yet so few it seems knew of him and his influence.

              He wasn’t a huge success as a vocalist singing his own songs, all the more reason to give him his due

              • 8, I remember Townes. Guy Clark, and Townes van Zandt and them were just experts at playing joints while drunk, but they were great writers. Steve Fromholz was another one of them from those days.

                Other people made hit records of their songs and they all just kind of bumped along in the beer joints and dancehalls. Ray Wylie Hubbard’s “Wanna Rock and Roll” was Cross Canadian Ragweed’s big hit. Some of the best songwriters have come out of Texas.

                Poor old Townes died from the booze and an untreated broken hip. Lots of great songwriters have that affliction.

                • Yep Ed, we lived down near Cedar Park back in those days and hit near every honky tonk around…..and there were lots around back then. Ray Wylie lived just a across the way from us and god knows where a guy might run across Steve Fromhotz, hopefully not in a parking lot when you didn’t see him.

                  It was Doug Sahm too and Jerry Jeff and I run out of names just thinking about it…..SRV came along later and he was just a child, a junky child but mid teens. Not knocking him. Some friends who lived near us moved to Dallas and opened a club, gave SRV a venue and a place to sleep. It was honky tonk heaven back then and not just hippie bars but all the bars. Not too many of the redneck mothers back then, everybody getting along for the most part. Guy grew up down I 20 from me but ended up making his way in the hill country for the most part, where he was ‘discovered’ much like John Prine by Kris.

                  Don’t really know how I lived through that since nearly all my friends didn’t. I’d be on the road for 2-3 days and come in ready to rock. If the wife had been a better shot I wouldn’t have survived. Don’t know what to say. Lots of temptation of all sorts back then. I once got pulled over by the mother and her late teen girls. Long haired truckers were a novelty.

                  Lord, I hope this day is good,I’m feelin empty and misunderstood. I should be thankful Lord I know I should but Lord, I hope this day is good.

                  The sweetest sound I ever heard? The hammer dropping on a not quite seated 16 gauge 3″ #4.

            • Yeah, all that real stuff was removed from radio programming by the mid ’80s and replaced with crapola. The piano player on that track, James Hooker, is really something. He left the Aces and started touring with Nanci Griffith, a pretty good Texas songwriter who kind of became a country-for-yuppies star for awhile.

      • Have to agree Ed , these lyrics make Me want to hurl, sending our future into God forsaken Deserts, to die for a made up abstraction.when they (the PTB) have no intention of winning.I know people are being treated bad there( especially Woman) if we are not going to stay the course and get rid of the perps , then vamoose!
        Some old Rednecks will take exception to what I say, I just don’t like young torsos coming back here in the good ol’ United States of Amerika, with their future gone.
        If we are going to be the World’s Police , then announce it and make sure our young people know what they are in for.

        • You said it, guys. All the maudlin hypocritical patriotism; all the words bandied about; like “freedom” and “liberty” by those who love tyranny and advocate a police state.

          All these damn phony holidays- Memorial Day; The 4th Of July….and now, Sept. 11th is becoming like a defacto holiday for gov-luvvers who can not recognize controlled demolition when they see it….

          I tried! I was really hoping to get through the day yesterday without hearing any of the bullshit. Being I don’t watch TV/listen to the radio or have much contact with people, ya think it woulda been easy….but NOoooo!

          Someone just had to tell me of this interview, or some “hero” who injured sifting through the debris of the demolition, and recovered….but yet felt such a need to still be glorified as a “hero” that he donated a kidney to some stranger….although it will likely shorten his own life, after over a million dollars was spent on him, so that he could live….

          Such is the drive of some people to be venerated as “heroes” even when they are no longer capable of playing Superman. Such is their psychosis, that they will even give up organs from their own broken bodies, rather than be looked upon as just a humble person content to live his own life.

          Please, Mr. Gook in N. Korea- just nuke this country [as if he could]…I can’t take it anymore, and can’t leave just yet…..

        • Yeah, Kevin. I live in hope that people like Lee Greenwood get the piss slapped out them for sucking up to the gov like that. Lee should have to ride in a closed Smart car with HiIllary Clinton from LA to NYC.

          If the stink didn’t get him, her screeching would.

  10. My grandfather was a rural mail carrier. If he fell asleep the horse would take him back to the post office on its own. Of course, horse sense would give the animal the option of avoiding visible hazards.

    • Things were better when horses were involved. Picking up a girl and giving her a ride on your horse is still the best way to do things.

      This site would draw in a lot more women if it also talked definitively about horses, instead of just horse power.

      Sometime soon I would do this:

      From US-221 North Take Blue Ridge Pkwy and VA-116 South to VA-678 in Gills Creek

      It’s one hour to Roanoke Valley Horse Rescue 1725 Edwardsville Rd, Hardy, VA 24101

      Brendan Perdue 20 reviews 3 weeks ago
      I feel sorry for the animals. They have too many horses for the size of the rescue. Someone needs to go and fix this problem. It’s sad for the horses not to ever have a chance to be adopted. If the rescue doesn’t have time to work with the horses then don’t call it a rescue!!!

      Get a horse. Chicks dig horses.

      Many girls develop a lifelong horse obsession. The horse is life itself, a metaphor but also an avatar of life’s mystery and unpredictability, of life’s generosity and beauty, a worthy object of repeated and ever changing contemplation.

      Why?

      They are beautiful animals.

      From their flowing manes and big innocent eyes to their elegant strides, horses are beautiful to look at.

      Horseback riding is romantic.

      Since it’s a mode of transportation that has been on the decline since the advent of automobiles, riding horseback is nostalgic and can be very romantic.

      Horseback riding makes you feel at one with nature while working with a majestic animal.

      As seen in the all time highest grossing movie Avatar, there is a special connection with nature while riding a horse. The mutual respect and moving through space as one unit is an emotional experience as the rider connects with her own animal spirit.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7h6D3Y_ZtA

      Horseback riding is the ultimate escapism.

      The wind in your hair, the sound of crunching leaves under the horse’s hooves and the time spent outdoors are an incredible escape from the stresses of everyday life.

      Horses have an air of adventure.

      It takes guts to climb on top of an animal and relinquish some control, going for a ride wherever the two of you may roam.

      Women tend to be better at picking up nonverbal cues than men, making them more likely to work well with horses.

      Horses communicate with small, gentle gestures prior to larger, more elaborate ones and, since girls tend to be more observant of other’s feelings and responses, the relationship is often a loving, respectful one.

      Horses are powerful and being able to control a horse makes women feel powerful.

      A girl may have little to no control over her life including what she eats, wears or gets to study in school but, put that same girl on a horse, and she will feel like she could run the world.

      Girls are attracted to the role of caring nurturer, which horses require.

      A girl’s relationship with her horse is most often symbiotic. It’s a give and take in which both sides provide the other with something and get much in return. There are few instances of functional relationships such as this in life for many women.

      Horses fuel the imagination.

      Riding on a horse can feel like flying and it provides a different view of the world. Authors, artists and change-makers have all had revelations while riding their horses.

      Many women consider their interaction with their horse a profound relationship.

      There is something incredibly intimate about riding a horse. The emotional vulnerability and connectedness that one feels with the animal is what equine therapy is founded upon. It’s a beautiful thing.

      Taming a horse is similar to taming a man.

      Horses require pretty extensive training when it comes to saddling up and following a rider’s lead. That said, the firm hand with a gentle touch you learn when training a horse can be used on a man too.

      Women grow up with the fantasy of the prince on a white horse sweeping us them away from their mediocre existences.

      The horse obsession is similar to the Cinderella obsession.

      A horse can act as a protector.

      Like dogs in a way, horses can be very loyal and protective of their owners.

      Horses appeal to women’s desire for dominance.

      From time to time, women want to run the show and, when seated on a horse under their control, they get to feel like the powerhouses they really are!

      Best thing, you’ll never run into one of those clover Yankee fraus riding a horse.
      https://i.pinimg.com/736x/b1/52/6a/b1526ab2cb8406abb7a30079b3e2d27b–cowgirl-and-horse-cowgirl-style.jpg

        • Probably about as many real pedophiles as men who walked on the moon.

          Strange how one day out of the blue everybody and their uncle is some kind of pedo. And they’re nearly always rich and with considerable power.

          Just the kind of people the state loves to harass to hoover up revenue.

          • To,r most of the pedophiles work for the TSA and other government agencies that intercourse with children, like public schools, doctor offices, child care centers (for the women peds, and there are quite a few of them popping up lately).

          • I know, right, Tor?!

            Who’s gonna get their sexual jollies off of someone who ain’t yet developed the parts what make for the sex?

            Unless ya count teenagers- like some slutty 15 or 16 year old girl who’s been spreading for boys her own age, and then decides she wants a man. The man automatically becomes a “pedo”, ’cause the state now dictates what the age of consent is, instead of the parents.

            And of course it doesn’t matter a bit that the girl was willing or even looking for it…..it’s automatically a “crime” for the guy.

            When I was a teen, I hung out with this 15 year-old girl (just friends- she was too fast and loose for me!), and she was already dating a 21 year0old ex-con. Her, her brother and I would go to the movies, and she’d go to the guys apartment and get boned. And I’d be sitting there with her stupid brother in the movie…. 🙁

            Her father used to beat the crap out of her, for all her shenanigans- so’d she’d swpend a lot of time at her sister’s, who’d help her out by letting her see the guy, and buying her beer and cigs, in exchange for babysitting.

            This was in the 70’s. I guess today that would be impossible. Everyone’d be calling the pigs on everyone else, and the whole fambly would be in jail….and other than being made poorer for all the legal bills, what would it change?

            I still remember that girl from 40 years ago, although she’s been dead a while already. She was fun to hang out with (platonic!), and even though she really wasn’;t even all that attractive, I’d often have the hots for her- I still remember the smell of her hair. Glad I didn’t get to see what she turned into as an adult though! (It probably wasn’t good).

              • I know that feeling all too well Nunz.

                So many things happen through the years, you undergo so many unexpected modifications and changes.

                If only life were like the boot up screens of the Windows operating system.

                If only you could choose to “restore last known good configuration.”

                • HAhahah! “Last good configuration”!

                  Meh….things seem better in retrospect. She was a fun girl to hang out with- just a “regular Jane” with no pretenses, and no pretensions nor chips on her shoulder….but definitely (even at that age) not someone to get involved with- I’m sure she grew up to be a silly women- who continued to make bad choices…which is probably why she died in her 40’s.

                  But those were good memories. It’s funny how I remember the hair smell! Seemed like every time I’d see her, she had just washed her hair!

                  Come to think of it, one thing I liked about her: I never remember her having any girl friends. You know how most girls/women are- always cackling with a gaggle of other women…. She was a rarity in that respect- and that appealed to me, ’cause that’s the kind of woman I’d require to be compatible with me. I like my own private world. If I were to take a woman into it, it would have to be just her. A woman who required outside support/socialization would NOT work!

            • Hi Nunzio,

              Even sillier – in re arbitrary ages defining “adult” by the state:

              The government sends 18-year-olds to some other country to kill people on behalf of corporations – i.e., “fight for freedom” – but the 18 year old is still too much of a child to be able to legally have a beer in the Homeland.

              • Ha! Isn’t the absurdity of absurdities, Eric?!

                Or how about: Someone smoking pot in the vicinity of their kid is charged with [read in pompous reverent tone]”endangering. the welfare. of a child”.

                But choose to down a fifth of vodka instead, and that’s fine, because Uncle made some money off of it, and THAT intoxicant is officially approved.

                And of course, when the SWAT team breaks in, pointing automatic rifles, and shooting the dog….that’s fine….but the parent smoking a J was “endangering the welfare….”….

                And we have the NERVE to talk about N. Korea!

            • So you think as an adult she was less than desirable as a person? Some of my best friends were very sexually active when they were young but it has nothing to do with what they are now.

              The use of an arbitrary age is simply to benefit the ruling class and their judges and prosecutors and cops.

              When the west opened via the Sooner rush 14 was a common age for a couple to tear out and stake out land on their own. Both sexes has learned to do everything it took to survive by at least that age. I realized yesterday when thinking of my lost family I never asked my grandparents what age they were when married but probably not much over 14. My grandfather already had a few occupations when he was drafted into WW1 and served in the army as a muleskinner, something he was very good at. He could “talk” to animals better than anyone I’ve known since. No doubt he was a skilled plow hand, smithy and much more when he was 14.

              Children grow up fast when needed. Some baby boomers never grew up and those younger haven’t fared as well in a general sense.

              I recall when 14 was a typical age girls begin dating without any parental oversight. I’ve known 14 year olds that didn’t have much to learn about life, especially females who mature faster physically. I grew up dating girls that age with their parents blessings. It’s a different world now and a worse one in my view.

              The pictures of my families that comprised my grandparents and great grandparents are very telling.

              A married couple might be 16 or 18 and have a few kids and there was wisdom in those old eyes and age in their faces. A family gathering photo of the men in an extended family often had every one of them armed to the teeth, holding their guns with pride and no doubt the ability to use them for whatever necessity was put upon them.

              Hell, I’m old enough to recall when buying your first clothes washer was a big deal and a matter of accomplishment and pride. In fact I was about 14 when my surviving grandparents added on and had their first in-house bathroom…..and damned if it wasn’t a big improvement too. One friend came back from Nam with enough money saved to build a bathroom on his parent’s house eliminating the outhouse for the first time in their lives.

              People speak badly of the socialism involved in cheap govt. loans for building electric coops but they were the saving grace even back when I was young. We’d still not have electricity if I had to wait for some outfit like the big gas and electric companies we now have to build lines and no telling what the price would be. When a line came close enough you could get electricity it changed life radically and those reaping the rewards didn’t give a shit what you called the process, they rightly called it progress and a huge load in life was diverted just by a small electricity bill. I just cashed a $20 check recently the coop sent for money paid back to the customer owners. Beats hell out of sitting around at night by the coal oil light. We get to do that during bad storms that take down a lot of lines. Drawing water for bathing and commodes isn’t the greatest fun and sweltering in hot humid conditions isn’t great either. You can use that Kindle for a food tray. Things change, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. At this late date I think I won’t have them pull my meter. Dammit, that cold beer is fine and so is that food in the freezer. Well, me and Cholley Jack gotta make a run to the liquor store. You’ll know it’s us returning when you see us……or if you just have to use that damned cell phone(mixed feelings about those for sure).

              • Awww, I’m very much in favor of young marriage, 8. Ironically, that 14 year-old I knew….her parents had gotten married when the mother was 13 and the father was either 18 or 19.

                There’s a big difference between that though, and a girl who chooses to be with some creepy ex-con….and then just went from one creepy guy to another- and drank and partied, and who just wasn’t raised right.

                People like that generally don’t improve as they age. They get worse. Their adopting of that lifestyle catches up with them at an early age. They end up with bastard kids; on the dole/child support/etc. Their heath suffers; they have legal troubles (DWIs, drug-related arrests, shoplifting, etc.)- they basically just end up making a mess of their life, and so for anyone who gets sucked into their vortex.

                I’ve seen so many people like that, that I grew up with. Childhood friends, people I went to school with, etc. It’s amazing how many of them didn’t live to be 50. And their lives a mess, and many of ’em were living only on a marginal level for virtually all of their existence.

                They died of AIDS, drug overdoses, cirrhosis, hepatitis, suicide, car accidents, etc.

                You take up with people like that, you either end up becoming like them- or at least reaping what they sow- or they leave you for someone who is more like themself. You can’t convert them. In the scheme of things, the bad corrupt the good….not the other way around.

                Holy crap…had i taken up with that girl when I was 14, I’d either be dead or miserable today.

                I read her obituary- that girl died alone; had one kid, and nothing in this world to speak of, for her c. 46 years of existence on this earth. A waste of what could have been a perfectly good life.

                Her mother on the other hand- who married at 13, was a different story. Instead of spreading ’em for felons, she was married to one guy her whole life- and out-lived 2 of her daughters. I’m sure when she was a teen, instead of chasing guys and smoking and drinking, she was happy to have that wringer wurshing machine, and was busy cooking dinner and cleaning the house. Big, BIG difference between her and her daughter.

                Heck, my own mother, who grew up in the heart of NYC got married at 17- and my nephew in his 20’s married a 16 year-old (They’ve been married for 30 years now).

                It’s apples and oranges.

                But yeah, the way it is now, virtually guarantees that one can never find an uncorrupted girl who hasn’t been used-up like a tube of grease at an antique tractor parade staging ground!

                That 14 year-old was just ahead of her time- she did it on her own, without nay help from Uncle.

              • Dang, sounds like my childhood 8, us wage slaves had to wait awhile for our semi-modern life.One thing that that strikes Me as absurd as having to pay the Gov’t a tax on jiggling electrons( not to mention{dare I say it- the aether} Some of the Hippies had a pretty good idea, the strange part is they were usually wealthy enough to afford that lifestyle( zoning board won’t let us around here, only exceptions are for nuts or the wealthy )
                sign Me , Flummoxed.

      • Thousands of women died every year from horses. Ever see what a horse does when a snake or rat runs across its path? It panics and throws itself in the air along with anyone on its back. Or what happens when a horse at full gallop breaks a leg, or has a heart attack? Or any of a thousand problems? Ever tried to get rid of a dead horse? Ever try to bury one? They shit and piss big piles of the stuff. They have to be fed food, food that could be used to feed people. Then you have to grow the food to feed them, and harvest that horse food, get a vet when the horse gets ill, shelter the horse from the weather, buy expensive saddles to ride the horse, and the fucking smell is horrible. Then you ride the horse completely exposed to the elements, like a cold windy day with a temperature of -70 deg F, days of blowing sandstorms and dust clouds, torrential sheets of rain pelting your body. Then there’s shoes for the horse……………Someone wrote a nice article on the problems of horses in cities, do read it. Written almost 100 years ago now. It’s out there in cyberspace somewhere.
        Horses are an awesome sight on a race track. That today is their only use. Been on horses myself, and I much prefer cars, despite their hassles, most of those hassles caused by shit brained bureaucraps.
        Did I mention that horses are not suitable transportation for our society? I was going to say great society, but the bureaucraps have turned it into a hellhole.
        Oh Nunzio and the fertiliser, you had to work that into the soil. How much horseshit have you ever worked with? Imagine breathing those harmful “emissions” that emanate from the horseSHIT! Worse than the carbon monoxide from a car’s tailpipe.

        • I don’t “buy” that thousands of women died around horse (Maybe collectively over the course of 100 years…)- People who mess with horses know how they behave, and thus hiow they must behave in order to be safe. If that’s true even today, imagine how much truer it was back when horses were an everyday sight for most people.

          My cousin had a horse when I was a kid. First thing she said when I went to check out her horse: “Don’t walk around the back of him!”.

          A few years ago, when I had cows, a friend came to visit from NY. He had never been around cows, so was enjoying checking them out up-close and in-person. He’s petting this one steer, as the steer was eating some grain out of a waist-high trough- and his his face was right above the steer’s head. I told him “Uh….move over! If he just lifts up his head to look around, he’s gonna break your jaw!”.

          Accidents can happen of course. A cow stepped on my foot once. That hurt…for about 2 months- I think he broke something…

          Remember, it wasn’t that long ago. Horses will still a very common sight on the streets of NYC when my 92 year-old mother was a little girl.

          Horses that weren’t fully broke yet, or horses on quiet farms which may not have been used to noises and such could do unexpected things….but for the most part, horses that were used for work and transportation, especially in cities and towns, were quite reliable and not easily spooked. Horses have gotten a LOT wimpier as the decades have gone on.

          Today, most horses are so easily spooked, it’s ridiculous…but this didn’t used to be the case.

          Womwen getting trampled by horses was probably the past’s equivalent of today’s “drunk driving”.

        • Several years ago the wife was doing some research for her family in McClellan county(Waco). She accessed some old newspaper articles concerning the interred and there were a few of men getting killed on their horses returning from a night on the town. It was probably ammo for the prohibition crowd.

          to, horrible emissions….reminds me of Seinfeld episode where Kramer is hauling some stuck up couple around in a NYC horse drawn carriage when he feeds the horse some human food.

          You are correct about horses being expensive. I can’t think of any other animal that can destroy more than a horse. Let em get to your vehicle and you won’t like the results. I’ve had em get in the barn and tear holy hell out of all sorts of stuff. Hell, I had one die against the barn and bent the hide so it leaks air there. I never found most of the parts to my air compressor due to a horse getting in the barn and having a little kicking fit. They’ll try to kill your dogs and cats. A pit bull and a horse is a terrible combination I can attest to from experience. Pit bulls raised with horses is a different thing but I never trust a horse around a dog. Of course I’ve had cows that tried to kill dogs and cats too and vice versa.

          I had one dog who started out well in rounding up cattle till a big crazy heifer kicked him into next year. He got up with blood in his eyes and death in his heart. He hit the cow doing about 30 and latched onto her muzzle and flipped her over. There was no reasoning with him or the heifer. He was banned from cattle duty for life cause he never forgot that kick. I don’t really blame him. I couldn’t believe it didn’t kill him.

          On the other hand, Cholley Jack will lick the wounds on livestock and chew the dead hide off cleaning them up. But let one get up and have an attitude and it’s time to separate dog and horse or cow.

          • The university library where I went had a gem of an area in a corner of the basement. Magazines, the physical publications, from the school’s founding in the late 19th century to about 1950. I used to pull random bound volumes from the shelves and read. The automobile was heralded as clean and sanitary. The problems with horses were immense. The automobile saved the cities.

            Everything the new urbanists and other automobile haters tell us are lies. They love to say wide urban streets are for cars. In other forums I would post photos of the same streets in the 19th century and they were little different. Some updates to pavement, curbing, sidewalks, lighting, but usually not much more than that.

            • Difference is though, Brent, today, those streets are FILLED with cars. Every inch of them. Between parking, and the constant stream of multilane traffic whizzing by 30, 40, 50MPH….it’s quite different than a few horse-drawn vehicles sauntering by and one or two parked at the curb making a delivery.

              The average city-dweller in the 19th century did not own a horse. The average city-dweller today does own a car.

              It was nice when there were few/no cars….but when that was just the way it was. It won’t be so nice when that returns as a tenet of the police state.

              • Nunzio,
                kinda like air travel, used to be a privilege, alas the masses ruin everything.One of these days people are going to wake up to the fact, there are simply too many of us.Urban life may be growing, I want none of it .

    • Yep. The original self-driving transportation.

      It didn’t pollute; but instead made fertilizer.
      Ya didn’t need to wage wars against camel-jockeys to get their erl, ’cause ya could grow all the fuel your horse needed.
      It could reproduce itself, so you didn’t need to be in economic bondage to maintain a couple throughout your life; and no one had to go deef working in a crappy factory to build horses.
      Didn’t need extensive networks of smooth roads for them to operate on, and the gigantic burdensome infrastructure that that entails…
      40,000 people a year didn’t die from horse crashes…maybe 4 in a bad year.
      It wasn’t so convenient to go as fast and far as we do today, so families tended to stay near each other, and people tended to live near where they worked….no one spent 2-4 hours a day commuting in 1850.

      Today we’re more advanced, and disdain such wonderful things which served the world well from the beginning of time until just recently, which was also coincidentally when everything started going to Hell- when the horse disappeared.

      • It’s only the Yankees who demanded everybody live like pavement apes.

        You go to France, England. They have all our modern infrastructures and conveniences. But they’ve also kept large swaths in the original human scaled condition.

        Jeremy Clarkson could ride a bike every day to his job at Top Gear the BBC.

        Only America has this obsession with throwing everything away as Brent puts it.

        Why did cell phones cause pay phones to be thrown away. Where did they go, they were worth a lot of money, and many people preferred to use a public phone as needed, and not be tracked and endlessly charged to maintain their own private portable phone.

        Why are so many clovers coming on here and telling us self driving electric cars are going to replace manual internal combustion vehicles. Why not keep perfectly good capital around and let them compete in the market.

        Why can’t the suburbs have their own jobs. Why all the long commutes. Why did everything have to be connected to the electric grid. Why does everywhere need a paved road to it. India and other places have countless millions still off the grid.

        Why can’t communism be made to keep to itself. Why must America be at war with it. Why can’t homogenous societies be left alone. Why the need for forced diversity.

        Why did the Euro necessitate the destruction of national currencies. Why are private currencies illegal. Why did the automobile have to end use of the horse. Why did powered ships have to replace sailing ships that used wind for free.

        Why does everyone seem to prefer store bought over self made. Horses were still in use before the world wars. That’s what made them disappear more than anything. Make way for the war machines.

        No time for the good life with gardens, animals, children, women, rustic natives, crops and livestock in every neighborhood.

        Men have become allergic to nature. They prefer the sterile plastic and hypoallergenic death of nothing but components around. Nothing living and real.

        I miss the horse.

        • Speaking of pay phones, Tor, it’s interesting the seemingly unscripted, often unnoticed, and perhaps unintentional/coincidental, or maybe totally planned scenarios that play out…but:

          When I used to haul junk cars, I relied on pay phones (in the mid 90’s, when cell phones for the masses were just starting). I’d often stop at pay phones to check my answering machine, so I could return calls quickly and score more business.

          I had been using pay phones since I was a kid. Calling home if I had gone somewhere “far away” (Like 10 or 15 miles); or using them to call people if i wanted some privacy, etc. Back then, you just walked up to any pay phone; put in your dime, or whatever, and 99.9% of the time the phone worked.

          By the mid 90’s, it seemed like 70% of the phones were out of order. I’d learn which places (gas stations, etc.) had good phones, so I wouldn’t waste my time pulling in somewhere and getting out of my truck, only to find that the phone didn’t work.

          By ’97 it seems like there was zero maintenance being being done on the phones, and if they were vandalized, they were NEVER fixed. If just broken, they may or may not have been fixed eventually. It got to the point where it wasn’t even worth noting where the reliable phones were anymore, because they’d work one day, and be busted the next.

          I was so disgusted i GLADLY went and bought a cell phone, and paid for call forwarding to have my business line forwarded to the cell.

          Was the decaying state of the pay phones merely coincidental, or was it planned so that people- even people like me, sho HATE cell phones, would rush to get one (And i got rid of it in ’01).

          This was also the time when they were trying to hawk pay phone ownership as a small business for [clueless] individuals. (If you think people aren’t that stupid, think again! My dopey sister has an idiot friend whose husband got blown away in Iraq or something; she gets c. $80K in insurance, and, c. 2007 mind you, opens a FILM processing store! As if THAT isn’t a bad enough idea on it’s own, she did so in a declining town of 1500 people! Needless to say, the store didn’t last a year, and the money was squandered)

  11. Seeing things from a “different angle”; here is one you probably haven’t thought about.
    The Russian Kalashnikov company is developing a shoulder held (rifle-type) weapon to shoot down drones.
    This thing interrupts the circuitry causing the drone to either land… or fall from the sky.
    The “civilian version” is forecast to cost as little as $5000 when, introduced.
    Drones be hanged…
    Anyone see a potential problem for self driving vehicles here?

    • Simply stopping it is the least of your worries. You’re in a machine whose software is identical to millions of other machines. Government hackers have been able to hack very sophisticated, well protected machines. The software in cars will not be very sophisticated or well protected. It will be protected to the standard required by law and no better, if such a standard exists. It will certainly include the ability to update wwhile on the move, whether you want it to or not. So you are in a situation where government hackers can crash your car anytime they want. Now before you say “The US government would never do that to it’s own citizens.”, yeah right, I didn’t say AMERICAN government hackers did I? Do you trust the Iranians not to crash your car?And they could because as great as the USG is a stealing your secrets it’s horrible at keeping it’s own. Lots of quality hacking tools, including ones for faking the source of the hack, walked out the door at the CIA. These are for sale to anyone with more cash than conscience at various places in the dark web. Yes they accept bitcoin.

      • Call me a conspiracy theorist… yet, I believe this is already happening. Too many true, honest-to-God Americans, who just happen to be making a huge impact in their respective worlds, have mysterious car accidents. I’ve lived too long to believe it is simply bad odds or mere randomness.

    • Thank you for purchasing your Kentucky built Horse.

      He becomes self driving once you take him to your destination.

      To use equine autonomous mode: You’ll need to program the destinations in your Horse console so he knows what you mean by distinct sounds.

      Your Horse is a three speed manual transmission.

      Your Horse walks at 4 miles per hour, trots at 9 miles per hour and canters at 14 miles per hour.

      Anyone who regularly travels at speeds faster than that is probably some kind of cuck in a cuck dystopia.

      Why is it you have to get everywhere so fast you should ask yourself.

      What are you running from. Where are you running to.

      Slow down and stop being a cuck.

      Your Horse can help you with that transition.

      Enjoy your made in America Horse.

      Cowboy Up.

      Horse though American made is owned by Kobayashi Int. LTD.
      https://i2.wp.com/knuckledraggin.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/28-Za1dQHX.png

  13. it slid through Congress like shit through a goose.

    Thanks Eric, Hurricane Irma is racing to run up my way and I needed a good laugh. I think I will keep this quote. 😉

  15. well, my ‘puter is on the Friedrich* this week…
    and “self driving autos” ain’t nothing *BUT* computer.
    Point made, Eric.

    *I could have said “Fritz,” but that might be considered offensive to those (of us) of German heritage.
    Oh, right. How could i forget?
    It has been official U.S government policy to be offensive to those of German heritage for approximately 100 years, except for rocket scientists, usw.

  16. I honestly can’t imagine who would get into an automated car with no manual controls. I know that people are sheep and most of them seem to be accepting the idea of self driving cars – but no controls to take over in the event of an emergency? I just cannot fathom that. Even trains and roller coasters on tracks with little uncertainty in the mix have accidents. What would it be like to be in a self driving car and realize that you are approaching a construction zone where part of the road is missing and your self driving car doesn’t realize it – and you are driven right to your death? As everyone who has done any driving knows, there are countless unusual situations where a driver must respond – and there are moral choices to be made too. If you are about to hit a child who just ran into the street, do you swerve and risk killing all the occupants of the car? Or run over the child? Do we really want a computer in a car to make that decision with no human input beyond the hypothetical that some programmer or AI created in a simulation?

    • Hi Krista,

      I can’t imagine it, either. But then, I could never imagined we’d have a “Homeland” department and be forced to submit to felony style processing just to board a commercial (but not private) airplane.

      America has changed – because Americans have.

      • Eric I have always enjoyed and look forward to reading your informative articles. With this latest write, I wanted to check the fine print. Well I quickly found this only passed the House and is not law yet. The senate gets to squeeze in their concerns.

    • My thoughts, exactly, Krista! Could you imagine the sheer terror of getting into [what is essentially] a cage, and being whisked along, with absolutely no possibility of affecting any control over your own destiny?

      Then again, for the average NAC [North American Communist], that is just life as normal- as they’ve already ceded control over pretty much every other facet of their lives already.

      Quite frankly though, whether intentional or not, I think that this self-driving car agenda is actually going to just create havoc and result in the ultimate destruction of autonomous transportation- but NOT because of the existence of the self-driving cars, per-se, but rather because of the havoc that these vehicles are wreak upon the roads, because in reality, in the real world, such a thing as self-driving cars will never work. There will be untold deaths and accidents and property damage of unheard of proportions if these things become ubiquitous- and at some point, the folly of such an idea will be realized- but by then it will be too late- as all of the old cars will be worn-out/scrapped/legislated out of existence, and so, when the self-driving cars are finally banned, there will be nothing to replace them with, except for very expensive new cars- and people who are no longer skilled at driving them.

  17. Since the vast majority of “self driving cars” will be rentals, you can be guaranteed there will be video monitoring to prevent “vandalism”. Undoubtedly there will be one way loudspeakers for those monitors to tell you to not do something not allowed too. In order to ride you will have to click on the software like “agreement” to even make the vehicle move.

    Guessing there will be lots of screens with lots of ads on them too. Where it will be hard to turn the sound of them off too, if you can at all.

    • Probably about the same time ICE cars are banned. 2030 at the latest, if they think they can get away with it earlier, they will.

      The irony of it, there will be people still paying for those cars yet. At best, they will allow an annual day, likely a nice summer day for a “car show”. And they will put up “history” displays around them warning and showing how greedy people were when they had personal cars. They will make people who keep them look like kooks too.

      • They are going to have to resort to bans. I’m noticing something. It’s still small but the restoration of old cars for daily use is starting. Cars nobody in their right mind would have a restored a few years ago for all purposes too. I am seeing growth in Pintos and 1980s VWs and other things nobody would have spent money on before.

        • Get this, Brent: A while back, I picked up a CHEVETTE for $500 and flipped it for $2400 on Ebay! Someone came from 1000 miles away to get it. X CHEVETTE!

            • No, believe me, Eric, you WOULDN’T want to have a Chevette! Even though they were tough and simple….they were pretty much the bottom of the barrel as far as cars go- just above Fiats and Renaults! Talk about SLOW! (And the one I had bought had a recently rebuilt motor and ran like a top).

              The guy who bought it actually had several Chevettes- The whole family drove Chevettes! (Never had to worry about the teens getting speeding tickets!)-Something to be said though, for a 35 year-old car which, other than the rebuilt injun, was all original- that someone could come, get in it and drive it home 1000 miles without a hitch!

              I wouldn’t mind having a GOOD car from that era! The last of the full-size rear wheel drive Buicks/olds/pontiacs…..man, why can’t I find a virtually rust-free specimen of one’a them for $500? (Or even $5K if nice!) THAT I would keep and drive myself.(While we still can drive ourselves)

                • Good morning all. I’d prefer a ’72 Vista Cruiser and preferably with a 70 model 455 SD.

                  A friend had a buttload of cars and one way he’d get favors done was to leave one or two or three with you. I often drove a ’70 and a 72 98. That 70 was a beast with the high compression 455. The ’72 wasn’t a slouch and overall was a better car, much better brakes, handling, etc. They both had dash mounted cruise control that seemed to be a step above the later stalk mounted cheapies.

                  I couldn’t tell you what the fuel mileage was cause I paid no attention to it and didn’t git a shit. The ’72 had a backseat worthy of a ’70’s orgy and that particular car probably had a few in it.

                  Wanta get real good fuel mileage? Just load anything else up on a trailer behind one of these but be careful of trailer tires.

                  I recall coming back from the east coast with a 14′ Uhaul tandem axle trailer with the cruise set somewhere past 120. Of course we had the latest and greatest two way gear along with a radar detector that was pretty much useless. It was great for detecting automatic doors and such.

                  Going through Arkansas once I’d been talking to a trucker so when we passed him well into triple digits he radioed on down the line “Hey, you west bounders, why don’t you move over out of the way. We got a couple Texas boys here in a hurry”.

                  I loved that car. Load 7 people up in comfort and everything but the kitchen sink in the trunk. DPS and cops (it was a dark metallic brown)just didn’t see it or if they did didn’t want to try to turn around and catch it.

                  I think that was the first car we used the old passenger as spotter with a set of 10X50 armored binocs. Those suckers were army surplus and had been used on a ship as ship spotters. They were long enough to prop on the dash and be pretty comfy.

                  Olds did the old downsize thing in ’78 and things were never the same……and they deleted the Vista Cruiser that year……their bad.

                    • Eric, correct you are. The Olds had the Rocket(which is what the ’71 had…..with chrome factory air cleaner)and the HO that I don’t think was ever put in anything but the Hurst car. As a caveat to factory cars back then you could get just about anything you wanted

                  • My sister had a c. ’70 Vista Cruiser in the very early 80’s- think she paid $200 for it. My favorite of all the hoopties she’s had. It was indeed a beast! I really have no use for cars….I drive strictly trucks….but I’d gladly drive that Vista today if I had one!

  19. ‘Merican companies, making ‘Merican products to be sold to the world. We get to be beta testers. The people who fund reelection campaigns got what they wanted.

    There will be controls. They’ll have dead-man vigilance switches like Amtrak trains. You’ll have to push a button when a bell rings or light comes on to prove you’re paying attention:

    en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead-man%27s_vigilance_device

    This will eventually be considered to be “driving” the vehicle. People will test their reaction time from the time the bell rings to when they push the button. It will become a contest. People will bet on it. ESPN might show the contests. There will be fans. Companies with good lawyers will argue that because the delay between the signal and the button press was so long after the accident there’s no way they could be at fault because clearly the “driver” wasn’t paying attention (even though the only control over the vehicle might be a big red panic stop button). Uncle will define the length of time required for the button push and the time after missing a button push that the vehicle will be required to stop. It will be a very short time period. Missing too many button pushes will get you a suspended license (and a ticket and court costs) and your rental rate will skyrocket.

  21. With autonomous cars what will happen to the *tax* revenue that comes from minor driving infractions and of course DUI convictions? Will the failed cities and states have to resort to other revenue gimics? A tax on autonomous vehicles to make up the lost revenue from driving infractions? Will the heroes not be needed for traffic duty any longer? No more DUI check points and ID searches? Or will government pass a new law that you give up your constitutional rights will traveling in an autonomous vehicle; subject to search and seizure at anytime anywhere?

    • Hi Hans,

      Unfortunately, you can already be arrested for “drunk driving” even if you aren’t driving. Let’s say you feel you’ve had one too many and – instead of driving – you decide to sleep it off in the back seat. You never turn the engine on; it’s stone cold. A “hero” discovers you asleep in the car. He can charge/arrest you for DWI nonetheless.

      The same ill apply to automated cars.

      And rather than gin up money via speeding fines, they will do it via mileage/usage fees.

      Wait.

      • The fees and taxes will be like the ones on rental cars. Lots of them from various layers of government. If you get a good discount on the car rental itself, the fees and taxes can end up costing more (especially if its an airport location) then the actual rental.

      • Hello Eric, I have heard the key is never sleep in the driver’s seat. As long as you do that, and keep your mouth shut at the time of arrest, your lawyer will beat the charge. Of course, you are out the dough for the lawyer.

  22. I still don’t see how anyone would accept a vehicle that allows ZERO control at any time. Just thinking off the top of my head, there are many scenarios where I NEED (not just WANT but NEED) manual control: 》putting my car on ramps to get underneath 》driving around to my backyard to drop off or pick up a load, or to connect/disconnect my utility trailer 》putting my car in an exact spot in my garage 》parking in general (think about tailgating for example). Also, what am i supposed to do when someone throws something out the window and I need to stop, turn around (or back up) then stop to retrieve it or I see a friend/family member walking by the side of rhe road and I want to pick them up?

    If I sit down and think about it, I could probably think of hundreds of reasons why people (even people who don’t like drivng and would generally he accepting of driverless vehicles) have the need to sometimes take manual control of their vehicle.

  24. Most people are already voluntarily tracked wherever they go – including on foot – thanks to their “smart” phones. Then they invite voice-control eavesdroppers like Amazon Echo into their homes to record and anaylyze everything they say. All while spending their time on Facebook opening up every detail of their lives to be digested and analyzed behind the scenes.

    What Orwell got wrong was that people would need to be forced into this. The surveillance state is being welcomed with open arms by the general public and any thoughts of privacy are sacrificed on the altar of convenience and entertainment. We can resist as much as possible but it’s impossible to completely escape the dragnet unless living in a cabin out in the woods totally off the grid.

    Where is Galt’s Gulch when we need it?

    • Jason, even a cabin out in the woods isn’t safe, if it’s in this country, as such are the people they consider most highly suspect, and are also easiest to surveil. We really need to go to some far-flung place, where they don’t have the resources (and aren’t a part of the UN) if we expect to live out what’s left of our lives with any degree of freedom.

      These smart-phone/Facebook people are getting the government they deserve….and like Nazi Germany, anyone who stays in the police state, also gets the government that the smart-phone/Facebook people deserve….and maybe more, because we are dissenters- and they can’t tolerate dissent, because it might serve as an example to others of what it was like to be free.

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