How long do you suppose it will be before they simply close down the roads for saaaaaaaafety? Why not? Every dumbed-down traffic law on the books is premised on the same idea. Slow down. Don’t pass (ever). Only make a turn when the light goes green.
Driving is dangerous! Drivers are dangerous!
Why not follow this to its logical conclusion?
It’s already being done by on some roads – those controlled by the head Uncle in DC rather than the little uncles at the state and county level.
I happen to live very nearby to the Blue Ridge Parkway, which runs from Northern Virginia through the state – parallel to Interstate 81, if you’re interested in Googling it – and on down into North Carolina. The Parkway is federal property – the land having been expropriated from its former owners back in the 1930s on the orders of Franklin Roosevelt, America’s Mussolini – who sent armed government workers to remove the people who’d been living on the land for generations.
Anyhow, Uncle now owns the land. And he – via his minions, armed government workers – regularly closes down access to the Parkway via gates that are placed every so many miles. This is often done for no discernible legitimate reason.
The threat of snow, for instance.
Not actual snow. The possibility that it might snow, later. Down go the gates. The road is closed – often for days on end – except, of course, to the minions of Uncle. The armed government workers who patrol the Parkway, which becomes their private roadway for as long as the gates are down.
This is all done in the name of . . . saaaaaaaaaaaaaafety. It might be slick! “Someone” – not an any particular person – might not be able to deal with this. We are are all presumed to be inept. Therefore, none will be allowed to use the roads their taxes paid to build and and keep up.
Except, of course, the armed government workers. Somehow, every last one of them is presumed able to deal with slick roads. Not a chance that one of those anointed might slide off the road.
They are all Great Drivers – just as they are all Great Shots, with Great Judgment who never handle their guns recklessly. The putting on of a government-issued costume or the acquisition of a government title makes one responsible, competent, ipso facto.
It’s nonsense of the most obnoxious sort, but warbling saaaaaaaaaaaaafety has a kind of mesmeric effect upon the populace. It stills all dissent. Justifies any outrage. Enables the government to get away with doing things that are as unbelievable as they are outrageous – to the extent of empowering the lowest scum to legally put their hands on people’s private parts – including the private parts of women and children – provided the creeps doing so are wearing a special government-issued blue costume.
It’s for saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety!
The word is being used in the same way and for the same ends today, in this country, that other words, now in disrepute – the proletariat, the Volk – once were used in other countries, in earlier times. Saaaaaaaafety provides the pretext for the ruling cabal in this country to impose its will on the masses without actually having to impose it. The people – in the main – accept it on that account. More than accept, they defend it.
They – i.e., government workers – are just trying to keep us safe, after all.
You hear this everywhere.
So why not close the roads? Not just the Parkway. Any road. All roads. Whenever government workers decide it’s not saaaaaaaaaaaaaafe for us to be out there? Which could be anytime.
After dark, certainly. Or when the sun is “too bright.”
Right?
Isn’t the logic ineluctable?
They are just trying to keep us saaaaaaaaaafe!
But what is the origin of this mandate to keep us saaaaaaaaaaaafe?
There is language in the federal Constitution (which is a “contract” none of us actually agreed to) about the “general welfare,” which could be – and has been – construed to mean almost anything, in order for the government to authorize itself to do almost anything. But the government didn’t begin squawking about saaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety until rather recently. One did not hear the word back in the ’60s and ’70s, unless in the company of old biddies.
Then came the ’80s.
Baby on Board signs, all of a sudden. The random, probable-cause-free checkpoints which presume everyone’s guilty of “drunk” driving until they prove otherwise. Seat belt laws for grown adults. TV shows that glorified armed government workers (e.g., Cops, America’s Most Wanted) rather than poking fun at them. The first attempts to force people to buy insurance, first for cars – then for “health.”
It all began in the ’80s.
The Ascendance of Mommy Culture. Of women obsessed to a neurasthenic degree with . . . saaaaaaaaaaafety. This is where the water slide ride began. To quiet the harridans, men enacted laws. Soon, women were enacting them directly. Men soon became largely indistinguishable from women – or did their best to convince women of it. If anything, men strove to out-woman women by being even more “concerned” about saaaaaaaaaaaaafety than the typical neurasthenic woman.
And so, here we are.
A society ruled by a mewling authoritarianism. Not Big Brother – Big Momma. The worst sort of tyranny imaginable because it’s not just tyrannical, it’s insufferable. The endless cloying claptrap about abusing us, treating us as idiot children who can’t be trusted to crap competently in our own pants. . . . because Big Momma cares and wants to keep us saaaaaaaaaaaaaafe.
Your 5th grade teacher in stretch pants, but with a gun now – and the school day never ends.
It makes my teethe ache.
. . .
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So, how long before we are required to wear a helmet just to walk down the sidewalk?
We’re already told in many places where we may and may not cross the freaking street…
Now C’mon…after all…isn’t a car just “a two-ton projectile and incendiary device”? It could be used for teeeeeeerrorism!
Maybe they can mandate that it be programmed into your AWD/traction-control/automatic ABS braking that your car be immobilized as soon as the sensor mounted on your rearview mirror…err…uhhh, I mean camera, sees a gray cloud!
I’m telling ya’s- we leave this shit-hole before it’s too late….because the day will soon come when we are no longer able….. Stay and fight it out? That’s probably what they want. Gives them reason to dispose of us, and route the ideals of liberty from human consciousness- and they can easily replace any of their buzz-cut idiot servants who may get blown away in the fray.
I, for one, am not giving them what they want.
In truth, since we are not yet killing them wholesale, this crap will continue until we start.
Yes, it started under the sainted (to “conservatives”) Reagan. Let’s not forget the vile and vicious “Liddy” Dole that was the dominante grausame Frau of his regime.
21 would now be the drinking age in the Fatherland.
Here’s a taste of the ruin she left in her wake…
http://www.automotive-fleet.com/news/story/2007/12/elizabeth-dole-honored-for-advancing-air-bag-use.aspx
If you want to know the point at which I became libertarian/anarchist the Reagan Regime is it. I actually did some local campaigning for him in ’80. What a flippin’ idiot I was.
Hi Mark,
Gawd, me too… supporting Reagan, I mean. But I was very young; a foolish high school kid. And I got wise soon thereafter.
Reagan was the John the Baptist figure for the tyranny which really blossomed after the rheumy old fraud retired to California. He set the stage for the worship of cops and soldiers – remember Ollie?
He represented the putrescent stench of flag-wrapped, Bible-beating “conservatism” that led to The Chimp and most of the loathsome things we suffer under today.
Preach it Brother!
Just remember who he was running against. And what was going on with Carter, the Iranian hostages and the “general malaise” of the country. Iran-contra and the deal to wait on releasing the hostages until after the election makes the alleged Russian influence on the 2016 election look like a joke (which it is of course).
Hindsight shows Carter was much better than his presidency. It was Volcker’s FED that got inflation under control, only to have Greenspan undo it all. He actually got Egypt and Israel talking, and tried to unwind the military. That he failed (with the Democrats holding both houses of Congress and a sympathetic Supreme Court) really shows just how intrenched the power base is in Washington.
As for Mondale, well, what do you expect? Plain vanilla would have more flavor than this guy.
See….us oldies do have/had oneadvantage. We weren’t taken in(not all of us)by the Reagan bs. I knocked off the entire thing for what it was. My only problem was thinking voting was still a viable choice. I was cured of that by Bush 1 and totally cured by BC. I was working till after the polls closed when next Bush came along. I am spared the embarrassment of voting for either though I was miffed at things said by the CEO of Diebold and Ralph Nader. God, I hate Nader.
I wouldn’t know whether to vote for Ralph Nader or Bernie Sanders. (In a contest to declare which was the bigger Marxist asshole).
And the truth is, there’s no way of knowing which is more duplicitous. You have to remember it was Ronnie who introduced the worst anti-gun legislation cause he was scared of those uppity niggers(didn’t mean to put words in his mouth but you know that’s what he was saying). And my friends of color would readily agree with me.
Reagan was a great actor. He often spoke great words, while increasing the size and scope of government more so than any other politician in my lifetime.
I could actually feel more of a change from the early 80’s to the mid 80’s, than any other time, including pre/post 9/11.
Federal agencies like the EPA really got their teeth and started becoming extremely intrusive on local levels during the Gipper’s admin- especially under his 2nd term.
Hi Nunzio,
I can remember RRRRRRRRReagan, too. In particular, the upswelling and normalization of cracker religiosity and Bible-beating, flag-humping which attended his reign. The ground was laid for what Mencken predicted 70 years prior: The election of an outright moron (The Chimp).
Remember there are two Ronald Reagans. The one before he was shot and the one after. I can understand why people would support the former. He even started to put liberty minded people into government positions. After he got shot… well he knew he better do what he was supposed to.
Yep. Reagan may’ve won an election, but the Bush fambly was clearly calling the shots [pun intended!].
Wow, Eric. You hit the nail on the head. The shit began in the 1980s. Ironic as it is. Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980 against a backdrop of rampant inflation, declining American standing around the world, domestic overregulation (mostly manifested with the 55 mph speed limit and onerous CAFE and emissions laws which sucked the last drop of performance out of cars), and a seeming moral decline. The baby on board and MADD safety culture was in full swing by 1984. While people were mistreated to music without a deep bass and a synthesized and increasingly feminized schtick, we happily tried to get laid and acquiesced to increasingly vocal demands for more regulations, more laws and more saaaaaafety. It would take another 10 years to get rid of the 55 mph speed limit, but then it was a phyrric victory as our own carmakers were already predisposed to sell us out.
It’s a sad state of affairs. I just wonder if I would be happier with fewer creature comforts and more freedom at this point. I think I know the answer to that question. I would throw away my sail fawn and even my current ride, a generic 2003 Lexus ES to get back to a saner time.
On Netflicks, you can watch Jerry Seinfeld’s “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee”.
These are 15-20minute pieces, where Seinfeld uses some really great cars (fifties and sixties stuff), picks up a famous comedian (Steve Martin for instance) and they ride around, then go to a coffee shop and chat. It’s actually entertaining, if you like that sort of thing.
Anywho, two of the episodes featured Ricky Gervais and Fred Armisen. The vehicles involved were like a 53 Beetle and some other oldie but goody. Both Gervais and Armisen just about shit their pants because of metal dashboards, no air bags, no shoulder belts….I mean these two guys were absolutely disgusting.
Total panzy-asses.
It’s not a walk in the park when you’re a private property owner adjacent to a national park (or other federal land for that matter). It can ruin the benefit of being next to real estate that won’t ever be developed, the main reason why some people want to live near the park to begin with.
It can be especially bad if your an in-holder (meaning your surrounded by federal land) and depend on crossing that “public” land to get to yours. Even though you’re guaranteed access to your land (even by their rules), it can be difficult at times to excise that right. Vengeful federal land managers can make life very difficult. Sometimes they aren’t required to maintain that road, and don’t. Other times they make it impossible for you to even do the work (you also have the right to improve your access if they don’t maintain) they are supposed to be doing.
Seems like among park managers the attitude that part of the job is the elimination of in holders and of course the expansion of the parks. I know it has been on the agendas of several park managers at my local national park (Indiana Dunes). Thankfully most of those plans went no where since there is usually no money for these stupid things. It’s hard to expand Indiana Dunes as it is in an urban/suburban area, and its largely developed (and frankly its large enough).
So they often pressure adjacent homeowners to sell (or outright donate!!!) their property. A manager a number of decades ago got a few homeowners to donate their home and arranged lifetime leases (former homeowners can remain until they pass away). A more recent manager wanted to speed up the process and kick out people in their 80’s and 90’s out of homes they gave back in the 1960’s and 70’s (guess they never figured people would live so long). Those former owners sued to maintain their leases and narrowly won. Most now regretting giving or selling their properties.
Seems the worst abuses are in Alaska and out west though.
The more politically connected citizens are very interested in “preserving” the land around the well known ski resorts in Colorado. Instead of selling off public land to meet demand for more affordable property, the municipalities invent harebrained schemes to provide a way for poor people to own property. In Aspen there’s an ongoing lottery for highly subsidized condos. They rarely come up on the market and when they do there are far too many applicants, decreasing the odds of success. And every morning there’s a traffic jam on hwy 82 that’s every bit as bad a Denver.
And thanks to social media the public lands are getting overrun by tourists looking to recreate the selfie they saw on Facebook. This leads to rationing of trail access, overnight campgrounds being booked out months in advance and overflowing parking lots. But instead of coming up with a way to accommodate the increase in activity, Uncle’s plan is to restrict and whine. Further restrict activity and whine about the problem in the press. Except when it comes to showing off the beauty of a pristine natural environment, then they’re quick to quote John Muir and encourage everyone to get in touch with nature. Just touch it somewhere else please.
If only they treated public lands the way they treat the “living document” called the Constitution…
Environmentalism has been the method used to impose communist principles on western society–especially in the USA.
Environmentalists are not content with promoting clean water, air and land, but are hell-bent on controlling human behavior, and yes, promoting extermination plans for much of humanity as these “anointed” types consider mankind to be a pestilence (except for themselves) to be reduced in population “by any means necessary”.
Environmentalists HATE the God-given concept of private property and have imposed government-backed and enforced “land use controls” on private property owners without compensation–clearly an unconstitutional “taking” of private property. If environmentalists want to control land use, let them purchase it themselves–not by government force. Today the only method of negating government-imposed land use restrictions is “shoot, shovel, and shut up”.
If environmentalists had their way, the earth’s human population would be reduced by approximately 90%, with the remainder to (be forced) to live in cities, in soviet-style high rise apartments, utilizing bicycles, buses and trains for transportation. The use of automobiles and access to “pristine wilderness (rural) areas” would be off-limits to us mere mortals, and would only be available for these “anointed” environmentalists.
The “endangered species act” is another abuse of environmentalism. Species are always changing, to adapt to their environments–”survival if the fittest”. In fact, the hoopla over the “spotted owl” (that placed much northwest timber land “off-limits” to logging) turned out to be nothing but scientific misconduct and arrogance. There are virtually identical species in other parts of the northwest.
More scientific malpractice occurred when government biologists attempted to “plant” lynx fur in certain areas to provide an excuse for making those areas “off-limits” for logging or development. Fortunately, these “scientists” were caught–however, no punishment was given.
In a nutshell, today’s environmentalism IS communism… like watermelon…”green” on the outside and “red” (communist) on the inside…
When I first noticed those signs, I always thought: so what? A lot of people have a baby in their car. Big deal. When I see men driving cars with those signs, I think: eunuch on board.
I thought they were a joke. I’m just now figuring they meant something, and what they meant was sadly something far deeper.
And this goes right here:
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
― C.S. Lewis
This is the legacy of the Cult of Safety and the stultifying Grundyism of gynocracy.
Amen. And further irony is that Khristians that claim to be big fans of Lewis are often the ones promoting the very thing he derided. To which I would ask, if you’ve got Caesar to do your religious bidding, why do we need churches?
My 5th grade teacher was a man, so no yoga pants for him.
OTOH, my third grade teacher (the one who drove a yellow Corvette), in yoga pants… hmm.
Of course she was actually teaching us, not just paddling us or sending us to the principal’s office. In fact most of my teachers were pretty good except by high school it was pretty clear they were worn out and clearly looking at the end of their careers.
Hi RK,
Not Yoga pants…those stretch pants fatties used to wear back in the ’70s and ’80s…
They started out ok (Mary Tyler Moore wore them both on the Dick Van Dyke show and the MTM show), but then every woman thought they could pull off the look. Reminds me of the last trip to Vegas. There was a gaggle of women waiting to get into one of the clubs at the Venetian, all in the same “little black dress.” Two of them were really built for it, one was pretty much falling out of it, and one was just huge and had no business being in that outfit. Not that she was an ugly person, but that getup was unflattering to say the least.
I used to work with a woman who was very large and struggled with an eating disorder and weight. But she also knew how to dress and looked fantastic most of the time. Not saying I’d want to see her out of uniform, but at least she was honest with herself.
Anyway, way off topic. Sorry.
My father and I were behind a wide load one day with no chance to pass…..in Wally. Those stretch pants have never gone out of style there. I asked if he had the number for the SPCA and he said No, why? I said I was going to turn that woman blocking us in for keeping that whole litter of piglets in her pants. He cracked up. Man, you had to laugh about it cause taking it seriously would send a person into a blue funk.
Another time at the same Wally I was looking for some popcorn and a big fatty in a really short skirt was in front of me. She kept looking for something on the bottom shelf. I was trying to ignore her but I was trying to look on that same aisle. She bent way over once again…for something else she couldn’t seem to find on the bottom shelf and then I noticed….she had on no panties. Out of curiosity I almost asked what the going price was on beaver pelts…..geez.
Ahhh…the classics…Homer & Jethro…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHcIgeQP_cM
Yea 8S I see a lot of these fat women with all hanging out. A most unpleasant sight, and a most unpleasant stinking odor if you happen to get within a few yards of such a pile of fat. Imagine how much oil it would take to cremate a load of fat like that.
Heh… I still see (and laugh) at the ‘baby on board’ yellow signs in ‘mommy cars’
I wonder how many times ‘mommy’ is on her cellphone not paying attention to traffic.
Also, is this the same ‘mommy’ that now drives a brand new sport ute with a ‘child reminder’ sensor in the rear seats?
Asking for a friend, of course.
Sigh
Hi Say,
It is very hard to tamp down the urge to floor the gas pedal and achieve Ramming Speed whenever I see one of those signs… 🙂
I hadn’t seen one of those signs in years but 2 years ago or so, I was running east on I 20 in Step Child, a bright red 379 Peterbilt when a young woman in an old tiny station wagon pulled over right in front of me and there it was. I saw no baby and I was glad cause I nearly ran over her. You’d think a big red truck would stand out in everybody’s mirrors but she evidently didn’t use hers and thought the sign, like the cops that have told me their “red and blues” protected them, would be enough.
I got to see first hand what a big rig into a pickup would do one day when a friend went through a green light and had a building to his right limiting his vision so when the trucker in a big conventional cab hit his pickup it smacked the passenger side, smashing hell out of the passenger and sending the pickup on down the road which he then hit again in the drivers side, smashing my friend up. The truck was doing about 30. Both those guys convalesced for months and neither ever regained their former health. I wish everyone could have seen that wreck and the consequences.
Me too Eric. Every time I see one of those hated bob signs I want to aim a bazooka at it. Who cares that your baby is in the car? I don’t. Emotionally immature idiots sprout those signs in their cars. Not having a bazooka to blow the signs out of the windows makes my teeth ache.
I would have liked to replace every one of those BOB signs with a more accurate “Future Tax Slave On Board” sign.
She can’t be expected to have total situational awareness! Her life is super-stressful what with all the playdates and conflicting child raising advice! Not to mention having to put up with her incompetent non-husband who wants her to indulge his childish “hobbies” like x-box and larping.
And besides if that sign saves just one life, it will all be worth it. Unless the sign costs more than $2.2 million dollars anyway.