One of the reasons so many traffic stops go “bad” is because there are so many pretexts for traffic stops. No harm done – but some law (that is, some authority) affronted. This triggers the Authoritarian Kabuki Show.
We fear being pulled over. They make a big whoop about pulling us over. Lights and sirens and riding our bumpers – all designed to disorient and terrify. We are forced off the road in a modern variation of the ancient “stand and deliver” routine that people used to have deal with in the era of horse travel through the woods.
Note that those ordering folks to “stand and deliver” also wore face diapers.
We – if we don’t want to get shot – quickly pull over, put on our hazard lights, turn off our engine, turn on the dome light, put our hands on the wheel in a visible place and await our fate.
The armed government worker approaches – lately, hand on gun, having been PTSD’d into regarding every mom behind the wheel of every minivan as a “threat” to his “safety.” Or rather, a challenge to his Authority – which must not be brooked.
He demands ID, our “papers.” We hand them over. Hoping he’ll “give us a break.”
Better he left us alone to begin with.
If armed government workers weren’t constantly pulling people over for pretextual stops, simple math says there’d be fewer traffic stops and thus fewer gone bad. This sounds good – for all concerned.
Them as well as us.
If armed government workers concerned themselves with the demographic that warrants concern – i.e., criminals – as opposed to concerning themselves with penny-ante “violations” that (let’s be very honest) most of know exist solely as excuses to hassle and mulct people who aren’t harming anyone – it is probable the 95 percent of the population that isn’t criminal would harbor less resentment toward AGWs because AGWs wouldn’t constitute a daily threat to them.
It is literally not possible to drive to work anymore without committing at least one and probably several “violations.” Books have been written about this. There is always a reason – that is, a pretext – for an AGW to pull anyone over practically anytime he wants to.
This is unsettling. Especially now, as tens of millions of people have had their lives and livelihoods Corona’d. Hassling – and mulcting – unemployed and broke people over window tint, out-of-date inspection stickers, not “buckling up” and not quite stopping all the way at some deserted stop sign can set people off.
It’s obnoxious in normal times. It’s dangerous in these times. It ought to stop for that reason.
If AGWs stopped hassling people for pretextual non-legitimate reasons, there might even no longer be AGWs – i.e., nihilistic mercenaries who enforce the government’s edicts; i.e., the edicts of the handful of people who by dint of office or title are “the government.”
Some of the worst of these edicts are the most recent ones – but there are oldies and baddies, too.
Probably the number one worst is a two-fer.
Part one is the systematic and recent painting over of practically every previously legal passing zone. This is a trend many have noticed and commented upon. It is now common to find straight and clear stretches of road with ample time and sight-distance to pass – where it was legal to pass – but no longer is.
The reasons for this are several and probably include the usual dumbing-down; i.e., there was a wreck at that spot because some incompetent wasn’t able to pass safely – and now everyone must be presumed incompetent.
And pulled over if they refuse to be so presumed.
But why should this be? Who is harmed by a safe pass? If anything, a safely executed pass makes traffic flow more smoothly, which is objectively safer. This has been objectively demonstrated by numerous traffic studies. There is no data contradicting them. Allowing faster-moving traffic to pass decreases back-ups which reduces tension. It makes it possible for drivers to operate at different speeds without conflict. This is why in many European countries, everywhere is a passing zone. There are no double yellow lines. If it’s safe to pass, you pass.
This is taught.
Here, it’s punished.
The same with driving faster than the least-common-denominator. Which of course AGWs do all the time but for them it’s not a pretext for being pulled over – because who pulls over the ones who do the pulling over?
All of it is a form of Harrison Bergeroning – a reference to the short story by Kurt Vonnegut about a society in which people are punished for being more capable than the least-common-denominator.
It’s sly and vicious and marketed as egalitarian. It’s actually totalitarian, since none of us are equal at anything and using force to make it so results in a system of universal terror.
They can get you for anything, anytime.
Another pull-over pretext is insisting on totemic obeisance to all stop signs and red lights all the time. Everyone not an imbecile understands that a stop sign or a red light indicates the need to exercise caution before proceeding. But that stopping completely or indefinitely when there is no reason to do so – other than mindless obeisance – is the definition of imbecilic.
And yet, people are punished for not being imbecilic.
For not quite stopping at a stop sign (because there’s no traffic and hence no reason to . . . other than mindless obeisance to a red metallic octagon. Traffic would flow more smoothly, less time (and gas) would be wasted if people were only expected to completely stop in the presence of another vehicle at the intersection. And only punished if they failed to exercise caution and practice competence and the result was harm done – as opposed to Authority affronted.
Same goes for the red light. Why should a driver be required to just sit there like a stunned rabbit if the intersection is clear and it’s safe to proceed?
Because Authority. Bow low! Avert your eyes. Submit, obey. Or else.
Some localities are experimenting with flashing yellow lights instead. The idea being to slow but not necessarily stop traffic – in order to keep traffic moving. It seems like a good idea.
A really bad idea – inarguably so from the standpoint of morally justifiable actions by armed government workers – is this business of wig-wagging and sireening people for tinted windows or “loud” exhaust or not wearing a seatbelt. Even worse, the random stopping of people who are buckled-up, don’t have darkly tinted windows or loud exhaust. Who just happened to be driving – at the speed limit – on a particular stretch of road that AGWs decided to turn into an ad-hoc cattle chute/Fourth Amendment Free Zone.
Cumulatively, all these little things add up. People are fed up. They sometimes lose their cool and snap at their tormentors. Or their tormentor snaps at them – at the first hint of less-than-submissiveness. And then things get out of hand.
If they never began, they couldn’t get out of hand.
. . .
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A friend of mine had a guest from a South American country (Think it was Brazil) that got a good laugh when he stopped at a stop sign with no other cars were around. She said she never saw someone do that in her country.
Hi Anon,
All of this – the mindless obedience to signage – is of a piece with mindless obedience generally.It’s the whole point, you see. Don’t exercise your judgment – defer to our authority.
A few generations of this and you can see why most of the population is face diapered.
eric, here’s a chart of the stats on covid. Don’t look for it on MSM.
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
Unfortunately the current nonsense will only result in MORE federalization of local police.
I don’t see any real reform coming from the events of this summer. It’s going to get worse as DC makes more of the rules for LE.
Good point — that the lame/bad laws are creating a bad situation — putting people at odds with each other.
I have a perfect solution for all of these lame laws — a CROWD BASED justice system. Have no laws whatsoever, have no republic. I know that sounds crazy, but get this… instead, for every crime/charge/accusation, there will be a jury that decides. And the jury must obviously be a large jury of the public, not a fake/corrupt jury. Maybe even some kind of internet based jury. So, if anyone (or a cop) thinks someone else is committing a crime then that person gets arrested or gets a ticket, but… it’s not a LAW that’s already been decided, every single charge/infraction must be individually decided on by a jury. So if the cops know that juries never convict, then they won’t bother writing a ticket. A jury is better than laws because every situation is more detailed than it seems, and therefore needs individual case by case analysis anyways. It’s FAIR for everyone, because The People (the majority) decide what’s right & wrong, instead of a minority of ‘legislators’ (aka dictators). It’s a better justice system.
Now if only I could propose this, and have The People vote on it, then we could change our society for the better, but noooo, instead I have to submit it to my “representative” who will file it in the ’round file’, or if they actually propose it to the other “legislators” then they will vote it down because it usurps their absolute power over The People. So we People can never get our ideas implemented. We’re just living in a dictatorship. But we’re supposed to somehow believe that there’s moral angels that are saintly perfect of course, and they work so hard at ‘government’ stuff (as if it’s so hard and complicated, as if they even work full time, nevermind part time) and they look over us and care about us so much and we’d all whither away without them — they call the lack of their governing “anarchy” to make it sound like there’d be no organization or order without THEM — the mighty lords that have the magical enlightened wisdom to know what’s best for us all. Oh my! The horrors of “anarchy”!
Now remember to wash your hands you stupid filthy children animals, because the magical invisible vyyyyyyyruz might GET YOU! And be afraid, be very afraid. You need us representatives to protect you!
One thing nice about the current ‘situation’, is there are not a lot of cops pulling over anyone for less than crazy stuff.
I am not a big rule follower, so got pulled over a lot. Pull way over to make it safer for them, Interior light on, hands out the window. 10%+/- ticket rate.
“Even worse, the random stopping of people who are buckled-up, don’t have darkly tinted windows or loud exhaust. Who just happened to be driving – at the speed limit – on a particular stretch of road that AGWs decided to turn into an ad-hoc cattle chute/Fourth Amendment Free Zone.”
We may differ regarding which traffic regs are merely “pretextual. In fact, some of your rationalizations about why you don’t have to pay attention to stop signs, or lights, just crack me up.
But when it comes to your paragraph quoted above, I’m with you 100%. That’s “line in the sand” territory.
Hi Mike!
Well, it’s always good to agree on some things!
I think it’s time to get serious about re-establishing the idea that people who’ve not caused harm ought to be left alone. Is it harmful (as such) to not completely stop at a stop sign? When it’s clear there’s no one else there? How about “running” a red light – when it’s clear there’s no cross traffic? Why be forced to just sit there? I don’t see the sense. If one can safely proceed, why not proceed?
“How about “running” a red light – when it’s clear there’s no cross traffic? Why be forced to just sit there?”
How about when there’s cross traffic approaching, but you, in your expert opinion, feel you can “safely” run the red light before they reach the intersection?
Hi Mike,
We make exactly such time/distance calculations when making a left turn on a flashing yellow/yield. Again, I prefer the presumption of competence until proved otherwise to the presumption of incompetence, generally.
“We make exactly such time/distance calculations when making a left turn on a flashing yellow/yield.”
The calculations are similar, but not “exactly” the same. In the flashing yellow/yield left turn scenario, you only have to traverse the traffic lane(s) going in one direction. When you blow a red light, you are crossing in front of traffic lanes going in two, opposite directions. Twice as many calculations to make. Twice the risk of error.
Be vigilant out there. Don’t want to get T-Boned by someone who believed that they too had the expertise to ignore the color of the traffic lights. 😉
eric, people who’ve been tazed often can’t hear or figure out what’s being said. But these sorry fucks could care less. They want to fight because they’ll always have at least a 4 to 1 ratio of cops to real people.
I had a friend who got so disoriented from so many lights of various colors and all blinking at different rates that he ran into a tree trying to get around a wreck where someone had run into a tree.
Hi Mike,
“…about why you don’t have to pay attention to stop signs, or lights,…”
Hmmm, doesn’t approaching an intersection and determining whether it’s safe to go through, require paying attention?
Cheers,
Jeremy
Hi Jeremy,
If I understand Eric’s position correctly, it still is necessary to pay attention to whether the intersection can be safely entered. But is is not necessary to pay attention to whether a stop sign is present, or whether the signal is red, green or yellow.
Hi Mike,
Well, I don’t read it that way. If one is paying attention to conditions, then one will, necessarily, pay attention to stop signs, lights and signals. If by pay attention, you mean obey, then yes, Eric is arguing that it’s not necessary to obey the signal if not doing so poses no risk and causes no harm. This is not a crazy sentiment and most people feel this way, at least sometimes. Anyway, the argument that it’s OK to ignore a traffic light, sign, etc… is predicated on paying more attention to conditions, not less. It is possible that if most people behaved this way, driving would be far safer.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Jeremy, it’s the fear factor that causes the problems. These guys are cowards. I realized it how big of cowards they were one day since when getting pulled over by the DOT, you pull over wherever you feel it’s safe. This is law in Texas and I suspect other states.
I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve come up on stop signs and seeing nothing coming, just cruised on through to be SAFE. It’s much faster getting across and intersection in a big rig if you don’t stop. I have never had one mention it, not one single time. But those guys will admit they have a pretty good gig because they only have to deal with professionals.
Hi Eight,
Yep, fear leads to distortion of one’s ability to judge one’s own competence.
Cheers,
Jeremy
VDOT: Has the time and manpower to remove a passing zone, but doesn’t have the time and manpower to fix a pothole. Or a malfunctioning traffic signal. Or a ditch that’s eroding. Or a failing culvert.
Although I agree with your consensus, the term safe is different with everyone. Running a red when it’s safe,,, no problemo! I have done so myself at 2AM and I am the only one there, or the light is stuck, or the motorcycle doesn’t trip the light. Where the problem lies however is everyone’s idea of ‘safe’ is usually vastly different.
I have in fact noticed them double lining areas where in the past you could pass. I believe this may have to do with the ‘average’ speed in the area rather than the posted speed. If posted 45 but the average speed of traffic is 55 then one would require a longer passing area as most cannot afford those 0-60 in 4.5 second autos nor are Indianapolis certified. I also agree some are double lined when it makes no sense.
Speed is another area where many feel the limit is too low. The other day out riding I was doing 57 in a 45. They were passing me like I was sitting still…. had to be 70-80+. This was in town on a 4 lane boulevard. A car in the right lane changed lanes to turn left. One of those Speedy Gonzales types almost piled into him, dove into the right lane causing those there to go every which a way causing me to do some serious maneuvering on a bike not suited for that and double up. Most of these were younger folk,,, at my age almost everyone is younger!,,,with one Granny who did quite well. The person changing lanes had little choice as there were so many speeding he would have missed his turn. He did signal. Even the speed I was at he had plenty of time and room but not when someone is doing 80+. I imagine everyone thinks they’re the Bandit but the difference is we are not on a track and it is not a movie. Some common sense is required.
I may catch some flak about this but,,, like ‘almost’ everything,,, it’s okay so long as done in moderation.
Hi Ken,
There is a simple, objective way to determine what is “safe.” It is by establishing whether harm was caused. If not, it was safe. I understand some will feel differently. But feelings aren’t objective. Did you cause harm – or not? That is objective.
Why not use that standard? Yes, I know. Some people will “push it” and “get away” with actions that may (and probably inevitably will) result in harm. Agreed. But that will happen anyway, regardless of laws – and it serves no good purpose to blanket indict and arbitrarily punish everyone on that basis, does it?
You might just HAVE to run a red if the left turn detector at traffic light is broken and VDOT takes over a month to fix it.
Ken, you wrote, “Although I agree with your consensus, the term safe is different with everyone. Running a red when it’s safe,,, no problemo! I have done so myself at 2AM and I am the only one there, or the light is stuck, or the motorcycle doesn’t trip the light. Where the problem lies however is everyone’s idea of ‘safe’ is usually vastly different.”
This is an example of the slippery slope mindset that causes freedom lovers to inadvertently slide into statism. It is this idea that “some people” can’t be trusted with freedom.
As Eric says, harm caused is the only moral basis of punishment. Punishment based on what “may” occur is why we are where we are.
Excellent excellent point Philo. A big THUMBS UP!
” It is this idea that “some people” can’t be trusted with freedom.”
Ohhhhh you’re gonna hate me! (lol) but that is exactly what I believe. There are those that will push the envelope. That’s okay so long as it is their life they’re risking but when driving you are risking others as well. And therein lies the problem. When ‘harm’ is done on the highway, many times means a life is taken or serious injury. Maybe yours,,, maybe someone else. This kind of harm is irreversible,,, cannot be undone. A ‘sorry’ won’t work, neither will millions of dollars.
I don’t like what’s going on with the police either. Don’t like DUI checkpoints. Don’t like any of it. They have pushed it way too far. At the same time there has to be some reasonable rules of the road. A reasonable speed limit rather than a speed trap. Yield signs where possible rather than stop signs. Yellow flashing on a highway while red flashes on a connecting side road. Right on red is reasonable.
Hi Ken,
Everyone has a right to be trusted with freedom. Those who abuse it and cause harm must be held accountable, obviously. But holding everyone – or anyone – “accountable” for harms not caused is the very reason why we live in a police state today.
Yes, you’re right. Someone might – and someone probably will – cause “irreversible harm.” But your position is that everyone should be done irreversible harm to prevent that. And it doesn’t even do that.
You may have noticed that, in spite of all the laws – and all the enforcement – there are still plenty of harm-causers out there. But in addition to them, harm is also being caused to people who’ve not caused any, via presumptive/collective guilting and pre-emptive punishment – because some people believe harm might be caused. By “someone.”
Note the lack of specificity. The emotion behind it.
What, exactly, is a “reasonable” speed limit? For whom?
I am pretty sure I am more in control of a car at 100 MPH than my ex-mother-in-law was at 65. She was a wonderful woman but a terrible driver. She always drove at or below the speed limit. And she had several “accidents.” I always drive much faster than the “reasonable” speed limit and haven’t had any. Why should I be forced to obey a “reasonable’ law based on the least common denominator?
This applies generally.
Look at drug laws, for instance. Lots of people use the arbitrarily illegal ones without becoming addicted and more to the point, causing harm to anyone else. Yet they are subject to criminal persecution because “someone” might go on a tear while high.
Your standard is subjective, arbitrary – and thus, tyrannical. You advocate punishing people on the basis of laws affronted; without the obligation to demonstrate that anyone was harmed by the accused. Merely that “the law” was not obeyed.
The standard of harm caused – a victim presented – is objective, undeniable and thus, just.
Here’s some bad driving that turned deadly.
http://www.ktvu.com/news/coroner-identifies-four-victims-killed-after-suv-plummets-off-carquinez-bridge
I saw that video. Note how those high sitting suvs do all kinds of crazy gyrations and flips when touched by another vehicle. I maintain they re the most unsafe vehicles on the road due to their high center of gravity. Well, 4 people took the room temperature test and failed due to bad driving.
All those people were driving way over the speed limit in spite of the risk of a ticket, so “enforcement” doesn’t have any effect on safety. Almost all accidents are the result of somebody making a stupid mistake or not paying attention, for which there is no way to prevent by enforcement.
So it’s just a reverse lottery that most people are willing to play. So yeah, except perhaps in the most extreme exceptions, the cops would be better off solving/preventing real crimes against actual victims.
ken, since I always drive a pickup or a big rig, I know countless places where there are double lines and the only reason is because of a change in height of the road but in a pickup you can see every inch of it and wonder if they use a go-cart to determine the double line.
Then there are those long straight stretches that you can see down the road for a couple miles, but you can’t necessarily see that there is a driveway or ranch road intersection with double yellow painted for a hundred yards or so on either side – until you are doing 80 mph in the left lane in the middle of passing somebody 🙁
Anon, I can think of one specific road in west Tx. that’s just that way.
Yesterday, David Knight talked about the lack of training US cops receive vs. those in other countries. In Norway, they receive THREE YEARS of training; it’s the same in Finland. German cops get two years training. In those three countries, only a handful of people are shot by police every year; in each of the countries, it was single digits. Meanwhile, US cops get 21 weeks before they’re turned loose on us…
It’s probably because the mental capacity of the average US cop is such that going beyond 21 weeks of training would be like pouring 2 gallons of water into a 1 gallon container.
Oh they get training…from israhell [at your expense] on how to incapcitate anyone that doesnt goosestep immediately. Thats all that matters…
I am pushing 60 years and have spent a little more than half my adult life overseas, Europe and Asia. I’ve had my share of minor police interactions, and been witness to many more as a casual observer, all over the world. U.S. Law Enforcers are, hands down, the most unprofessional, malicious, arbitrary, masters of escalation, taunting, us vs. them, self-entitled, dregs imaginable. There is nothing like being accosted by low IQ, obnoxious, bored, U.S. cops on a fishing expedition. What really stands out is how they will look so hard to find an ‘infraction’ to the point of illegal searches and trickery and ‘stings’. In SOCAL stings LE likes to use young Explorer Scouts (when they are not being used by cops for sexual gratification) to stand in front of liquor stores propositioning customers to “please buy me some beer, I’m underage, here’s some cash” while numerous cops are in hiding near by waiting to pounce. Or send the scouts to buy spray paint, which is locked up (must be 18 to buy) in stores with hyperactive cops again waiting to pounce, oppress, and fine.
My point is if LE has to look that hard to find a reason to make a bust they have entered an authoritarian zone that is not conducive to ‘keeping the peace’ and which I have never witnessed in other countries LE. And, not to mention turning explorer scouts into good little Nazi brown shirts who will move on to LE careers.
On a different, but related, note I would like to point out another major flaw with U.S. LE which is not so prevalent in other countries. For many years I have been aware that LE is America’s most whiniest profession.
Nobody whines, moans, cries, and bellyaches, as much as U.S. cops about how bad they have it, even though they are more financially overcompensated, by tax payers, than any other low skill, non-college, job. U.S. citizens are now waking up to this flaw and even have a name for it – POLICE PERSECUTION COMPLEX.
The US has 5% of the world population and 25% of the people in prison.
But it not a police State.
Firstly one thing their populations are a lot smaller.
Secondly the cops rarely run into an armed citizen as citizens in EU for the most part are forbidden to own handguns.
Thirdly many US LE are ex military. This is a military that invades nations and gets away with literally murder. Most actions in IRAQ, Afghanistan and Syria have our soldiers doing mostly law enforcement duties. They have no constitutional constraints. They are constantly entering homes looking for arms etc. Some of this will inevitably come home with them.
The militarization of US police consists of selling them military equipment and the ex soldiers joining the ranks. One can see the militarization when looking at their dress. They have Sergeants, Captains, Lieutenants, and 4 and 5 star Generals.
Fourthly and the BIGGIE,,, the Supreme Court has given LE complete carte blanche with Qualified Immunity. Even when some police are convicted the supremo’s overrule or won’t hear the case.
The Supremo’s have recently passed up many cases trying to convict cops just this past Monday. So long as LEO’s are protected by the highest court their abuses of citizens will continue…. which is one reason why BLM is demanding defunding. Personally I think the Supremo’s have the Cart before the Horse.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/15/supreme-court-qualified-immunity-police-cases-320187
ken, the entire reason Julian Assange is being slowly killed is because he showed the murderous troops killing unarmed civilians in the mid-east. It mattered not to them that it was children, women and men, they are simply trigger-happy psychopaths who should be “put down”.
As to passing, it’s absurdly stunning how many people go psycho upon even legally being passed.
There’s a serious mental disease affecting a great percentage of people in our country.
Hi 37,
Amen that. Last week, I came up behind a guy doing around 47 in a 55. I didn’t ride his ass; I just passed him – in a legal passing zone! – and the little freak freaked out. He tried to catch up with me but I left him far behind on a windy mountain road. It is axiomatic that freaks of this sort can’t corner any better than they can drive fast in a straight line!
eric, you should spend a year driving a big rig. You could write the best selling book EVER. You just have to be out there every day to see how often people resent you passing them, regardless of the speed they’re going.
I used to know and old man(probably much younger than I am now)who had a KW with hood locks. He wouldn’t let anyone see his powerplant. So finally one day, a bunch of truckers kept kidding him and saying he just had a 6V 71 Detroit under there although they had been blown off by him so many times they knew it was something special.
I was just a young scrub so I kept my mouth shut but I had to pick my jaw up when he opened it and it was a Detroit 12V 71 with not the two superchargers which is about the baddest of the bad but four superchargers. Well, that explains why you could be doing 90 in the middle of the night and he’d pass you neat regardless of the terrain or load.
He was a great trucker and his rig always looked good. It was one of the KW’s with a long hood like a 3 series Pete. I would love to have had that truck to blow off the idiots that would speed up to keep you from passing. I bet he left a lot of 4 wheel drivers with their mouths hanging open. He said the way it was geared it as a 160 mph truck. I didn’t ask if he’d ever reached that speed since it would have been irrelevant. It doesn’t take a genius to look at a tach and a speedo and figure out how fast something would go. Oh yeah, he had a 6X6 Spicer and something like 3.48 gears.
Not to be verbose but there was another guy who run a Chevy C 60 with a big block Chevy. We’d all be out there in the wee hours hauling big overloads of grain and see headlights coming up fast. Sometimes the guys with really big power(people were always building home-made screamers back then)would lay into theirs and he’d still just pass everyone. It was a big block Chevy but how the hell it was built was anyone’s guess. BTW, he pulled a double hopper Hobbs belly dump trailer with the slides removed so it not only had the trailer full but the hoppers full too. That was commonly 120,000 lbs. GVW.
A 12V71 Detroit with FOUR superchargers? That thing sounds like a HOT ROD rig! Bet it made some noise when he got on it too; those old Detroits weren’t quiet..
MM, mine was quiet as a mouse. A crazy mouse on crack. And that’s one of the things I loved about the 2 strokes. Instead of soaking it up though, I insulated not only the engine with foil backed insulation but the cab with stick on carpet all over it.
I had a friend with a 353 Pete who got in it one day so we could go eat since I was unloaded and he wasn’t. He couldn’t believe how quiet it was. I didn’t spend much money doing it but it made all the difference in the world and so did that stack tall enough to barely clear a 14′ overpass. It was turned back so the sound was behind me.
I actually drove a home built 335 Cummins in a Freightliner(cabovers only back then)that was much louder. It would pass 400 Big Cam Cummins like they were tied down and everyone wanted to know what it was. A nice truck but rough.
My wife said our dog would go bananas when I was bout 10 miles from the house. But Cholley Jack went bananas when I was hundreds of miles from the house and headed for a place far away and then got a call or decided to just head home. The wife would call and ask what I was doing. I’d tell her I was headed to some far west place and decided I’d just come home for the week-end and finish up Monday. She’d call cause CJ would all of a sudden start running from window to window, going outside and looking around when I had just decided to come home. Dogs must be the second smartest animals on earth with cats being the smartest since they pretended not to give a shit but come bed time, they’d be so close I couldn’t get comfy. Naw, dogs are the smartest of all animals, they just don’t speak English as well as we do. But they understand every word.
The best part is that dogs and cats train US without words! They’re so smart that they get us to do their bidding without saying a word… 🙂
Here’s a 12V71 Kenworth hauling a load. This driver shifts like a PRO!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yiIbkcQBzI
8S,
You might appreciate this. It’s a 1980 Crown school bus with a 6L71. That can’t hold a candle to your friend’s hot rod rig, but she still makes some noise. I don’t think many kids got homework done on THIS bus!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7BFvVoXEX8
8S,
Here’s a Brockway with a 12V71 going over Bear Mountain, NY. I don’t know if the truck is hauling a load or not (I’d assume not, since I haven’t seen Brockways on the road in EONS), but she’s handled by a pretty good wheelman; he keeps the four wheeler in sight… 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEKwI4XqHo0
I’ve seen 8V 71’s turn 3500 rpm day after day. It wasn’t company policy but what home office didn’t know was all good.
Those two strokes were virtually indestructible. I had marine injectors on my 6V 71 and had it turned up to 2600 if I wanted to turn it that high. It got great fuel mileage and the oil stayed clean for a few thousand miles. My uncle was a tractor mechanic and he couldn’t believe the clean oil at a few thousand miles.
The more you pumped them up, the better fuel mileage they got if you didn’t nail them all the time.
I read in one of the YT comments that, if a DD didn’t sound angry, there was probably something wrong with it.
All I know is that, growing up, I used to hear those two stroke diesels everywhere. I remember the San Diego Transit buses had ’em. They had a fleet of GM buses (like the one in the movie, “Speed”) when I was stationed there. It’s not until you watch a video of a DD in action that you realize that they’re gone now.
POTUS talks about making America great again, but how can America be great again without the two stroke Detroit Diesels that helped MAKE her great? DD was as American as apple pie! As I understand it, DD was sold to MTU of Germany! How on Earth did THAT happen? How did we lose an American institution?
MM, three letters EPA. Nearly every engine they made could be run in either direction so many of them were stuck head to head to run something like a pump or generator.
DD has never flagged from the marine market. They have a unique way of keeping the engine from over-revving in that application with the props leave the water. But over-revving one is not a big deal. I had a 6 71 that I bumped up the governor to 2600 rpm. I rarely got it that high, maybe only a few times but I normally ran it 23-2400 since it made so much more power when you upshifted and the engine just seemed to have more power without problems.
FUCK the EPA! I was reading more YT comments about how the more “environmentally friendly” diesels don’t hold up like the old ones.
The problem is with the particulate trap system and the DEF along with the PVC that has to be hooked in with the other systems.
Those two strokes were virtually indestructible.
That’s probably why they had to be done away with! I was reading in the YT comments (to the videos I posted for you) that, in Australia, people still using DDs in marine and industrial applications refuse to give ’em up…
I head down this one road EVERYDAY, it’s a 45 and you’d be lucky to see someone going that fast minimum.
Double solid, but it needs to be stripped, as why should I be punished because Joe schmo is going 35 in his blandmobile and not speeding up or pulling aside when I flash ya.
Also, speed limits are stuck in the past, 65 is too slow for modern roads, everyone does 80, yet that’s all an AGW needs to getcha
Something needs to change indeed
Hi Zane,
Yup. Todays highway PSLs are just barely what they were back in 1970. If it was “safe” to drive 70-75 in a 1970 model anything surely it is “safe” to drive at least 80 or 90 in anything made lately, with decades’ of improvements in suspension/brake/tire tech such that even assuming no increase in the abilities of the average driver, the car is just as “safe” at the speeds just mentioned.
The whole thing is a rope-a-dope.
And everyone except the Karens knows it.
At this rate, anything with more Hrsprs than a Mitsubishi Mirage or Smart Car can easily go 80.
Obviously, not all the cars are built for triple digit speeds, but same time, most cars CAN easily cruise 80-90 w/no issues and I know Virginia is HARSH on speeders, with my sister’s ex fiancee telling me how his friend was busted going 80 and even with a lawyer, he was going to jail for a few days.
Has to be a way to get things going forward so we’re not stuck in the past due to the deep states desire to control us all, but that’s another discussion for another day I presume
Botetourt County was infamous about 15 years ago for giving jail time to speeders who exceeded 80MPH on I-81. I don’t know if they still do. I’m not about to find out. I tend to stay away from places like that, not being from around these parts and all….
My ’05 Dodge minivan can do 80+ without blinking. I don’t really go that fast but it CAN. And the brakes on it are like a race car — it stops on a dime and there’s STILL more brake power left.
Eric, my 2015 Ford Focus feels more secure at 90 than my old ’66 Chevelle felt at 60 or 70. Hell, it feels more secure at 90 than my old 2006 Nissan did at 60 or 70!
“Another pull-over pretext is insisting on totemic obeisance to all stop signs and red lights all the time.”
Most of the minor intersections (non-arterial streets) in Buenos Aires have no signs at all.
Believe it or not, some research indicates that uncontrolled intersections actually are safer. No one cruises through at 25 mph complacently looking straight ahead, convinced that they “have the right of way.”
Totemic obedience and mindless obeisance derive from the “zero tolerance” mentality that set in with the War on Drugs, and reached full flower post-9/11, now that “the name shown on your travel documents must exactly match your government-issued Real ID.”
That’s what happens when a former republic morphs into a control-freak “Homeland.” Thanks, President Shrub, for the in-our-faces nazi nomenclature. Fool me once, shame on … well, we won’t get fooled again.
The COPs have become the tax collectors for the failed cities and states. The fines have increased far beyond inflation. You can get a $400 ticket for not coming to a Kelvin molecular stop at a meaningless nowhere stop sign placed more for *set up* vs safety. The working poor are most vulnerable. You get a $400 tax bill and having a choice of paying the rent or paying the fine, well we just created a new criminal that never previously existed.
On the other side of the George Floyd moment, if someone was a good cop is this a job you want? A good cop would have to push back on his masters to not mulct the public. Any use of force even if justified against the wrong ethnicity means punishment. What kind of people would volunteer for that type of job? Bad ones is my guess. Policing will be become political. You will be written and arrested for driving the wrong green house gas producing car. The right ethnicity can do whatever it wants to the wrong previously privileged group. It will get worse.
Hans, it has gotten worse and it will get worse. Eventually it will break- the world works in cycles and this communist enforcement one has long since overshot.
The cops were supposed to keep the ni@@ers in line (OK also the Irish, and the Italians, everyone not “somebody”. But the cops were too stupid to know that 1. Not every black is a ni@@er, not every ni@@er is black, and there are lines and limits in the world which you cross at your peril.
I was listening to the remarkable Sean Hannity on the radio and one of his remarkable guests was opining that the result of all the recent ruckus was that good cops would quit and there would be only bad ones. I found myself screaming at the radio that it happened decades ago- they turned them into communist law enforcers!
30 years ago had you told a cop that he was going to be forcing people to wear seat belts he’d have laughed at you. Only pussies did that- and ironically in the era of hard steering wheels, slippery vinyl bench seats, and inferior door latches seat belts might have had a important function.
These days I’m feeling old and just not inclined to take it any more. At 56 if I take a few communists with me It will be a fair trade and doing right by posterity.
It’s only about robbing peaceful law abiding citizens of their money. Everyone, especially the AGW’s know this and no one seems to care except Eric.
Hi Anon,
I also seem to be the only who is not buying the “cases” bullshit.
When they pull you over and are strolling up to your vehicle, just remember that the man you see in the mirror is just a pudgy, fat-ass boy in costume with no self-respect. Nothing to fear. Except he can kill you w/o recourse.
I would venture to say that getting rid of drug prohibition laws would probably eliminate at least 50% of the “need” for cops to waylay the citizenry.
Yeah, the enforcement has become a greater harm to society than the drugs were.
The filth are there to protect their paymasters. Everything else is merely engineering consent.
I am ancient of days and the number of times I’ve said “Oh goody, a cop” is equal to the number of people I know who have died of the WuFlu: zero.