We’ve all heard the evil mantra that a thing is worth imposing on everyone if it “saves even one life.” How about when the thing imposes the risk of death on 20 million people?
Then, apparently, it is worth the risk – imposed on those 20 millions by the handful of people who have acquired the power to do just that.
The 20 million are people who own a GM vehicle equipped with a defective government-mandated air bag that could blow up in their faces. So far, more than “just one life” hasn’t been saved.
At least two have been taken . . . so far.
“This will happen again,” NHTSA investigator Sharon Yukevich said during a public hearing recently. “A recall of the entire subject population will address this risk.”
But it won’t.
All it would do is decrease the risk imposed on people forced – for all practical purposes – to sit just inches away from an explosive device the government requires the car companies to embed in the steering wheel and dashboard of every new vehicle. There hasn’t been a new vehicle available for sale without an air bag since the mid-1990s, which means almost everyone is de facto obliged to assume the risk of sitting just inches away from the explosive device built into their vehicle’s steering wheel and dashboard.
Also their kids – if they’re not strapped into a “safety” seat in the back. Ever ask yourself why that’s necessary? It’s because the explosive devices the government has forced new vehicle buyers to accept (and pay for) present a risk to children, especially smaller ones. Hence, they must be seated as far away as possible from the “safety” devices the government forces their parents to sit just inches away from.
Put another way, the people who’ve imposed these risks are well aware of them. Just the same as Stalin was aware that it required the breaking of a few eggs to make an omelette. The risks imposed – and the eggs broken – are of little consequence to the Stalins who impose them as they are not the ones who bear them (or get broken, for the sake of the omelette).
It is why the “recall” – in air-fingers quotes to mock the use of this word in this context – does not actually take these risk-imposing vehicles off the road. It does not even allow for the risk-imposing devices the government forced the people who now assume the risk of having to sit just inches away from them to be temporarily disabled until they can be replaced with less-risky (but not risk-free) explosive devices. It merely advises the millions of people who are effectively forced to sit inches away from the explosive devices the government forced them to buy (assuming they wanted to drive) to “schedule an appointment” to get the riskier devices embedded in their vehicle’s steering wheel and dashboard replaced . . . with less risky devices. 
Which might take months or even longer given there are 20 million “affected” GM vehicles – equivalent to several million more than the total number of new vehicles sold in the United States annually.
The total number of “affected” vehicles exceeds 52 million – and includes a variety of other makes and models, including various Jeep, Chrysler and Dodge vehicles afflicted with defective (i.e., more risky) “inflators” (i.e., the explosive part of the device) made by supplier ARC Automotive.
But don’t worry. NHTSA “estimates” that only one out of every 370,000 air-bag inflators will cause “future issues.”
Future issues. That’s the blase way the people who imposed deadly risk on tens of millions of people style the possibility of having an air bag explode and spew shrapnel into their faces.
How about fundamental issues?
Such as respecting people’s right to decide for themselves whether a risk is worth risking? Some people say the risk of an air bag hurting (or killing) someone is slight in the grand scheme of things – this is the breaking-of-eggs to make an omelette argument. And that may be so.
But what gives anyone the right to decide that a risk is “low enough” for you to assume? 
The effrontery of this is exacerbated by the duplicity of their primary argument – that if it saves even one life then whatever it is they’re pushing on everyone is worth the associated risks (and costs) that will be imposed on everyone.
Well, the fact of the matter is that it would have saved at least two lives if the people killed by the dangerous devices they were forced to sit inches away from hadn’t been embedded in their vehicles, per the government’s Supplemental Restrain System (SRS) mandate, pushed first by Joan Claybrook back in the ’70s and then by Bob Dole’s wife in the ’80s.
These women claimed the risks were worth assuming – and several people have paid with their lives for it.
So much for if it saves even one life.
If there were any honest intentions behind that mewly phrase, air bags wouldn’t be recalled. They’d be outlawed – as lawn darts were. As leaded gas was.
But “saving lives” has never been the point.
It is merely the excuse.
. . .
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Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla) arrived Friday October 13, 2023 on Capitol Hill wearing his military uniform from his service in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in a display of unity with the country following the Palestinian militant group Hamas’s surprise attack last weekend.
In my humble opinion, Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla) is a TRAITOR, and should be stripped of his U S citizenship and be immediately deported to israel.
It is obvious that Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla) is not a true American as he holds allegiance to a foreign country…israel.
This goes for every other U S politician who holds israeli citizenship. There is NO ROOM for “dual citizenship” in MY country. This goes for every country, not just israel.
In the “good old days”, Mast would be run out of town on a rail…
That was HIS uniform?! I thought he was just the NPC/boomer-con type who’s frontal lobe wasn’t operating. If he’s an actual Israeli citizen, who “served” in there military, in the minimum, he shouldn’t be allowed to be in any government in these united States. Deported? Yeah, probably.
As someone who wears glasses, I do NOT appreciate having a bomb in front of my face every time I drive! I wish we could choose whether or not to have airbags in our cars.
EV’s risk millions of lives….
Luton Airport fire: More than 16,000 customers contacted
Luton Airport says it has replied to almost 16,500 customer queries after a fire ripped through one of the car parks.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-67107474
Terminal Car Park Two was severely damaged by the blaze on Tuesday.
There were up to 1,500 cars in the structure when the blaze broke out and many passengers have said they are still waiting to hear if their car has been damaged or destroyed.
================================
COMMENT:
Basic gist is the suspect vehicle is a hybrid Land Rover…video showed fierce flames from the underside of left hand side where the battery pack is located. This is a common problem with hybrid Land Rovers.
They are trying desperately to blame “diesel” vehicle…but in no way is this possible. As one analyst said…EV fires create an oxygen source from their battery components..classic thermal runaway
The fire spread and destroyed hundreds of cars..most likely other EV’s acted as literal bombs as fire spread.
ALSO:
EV sales have dropped…it takes almost 100 days to sell an EV…double time of a year ago..while ICE vehicles take around 50 days.
The Luton Fire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZEku6lHfDM
EV’s Are Exploding In Shocking Numbers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8JrPXvWkW0
Car ferries…..
Only a matter of time before a EV lights up and takes a ship with it.
A Norwegian pivate ferry company has banned EV’s from their ferry fleet.
https://www.autoevolution.com/news/norwegian-ferry-company-bans-electrified-vehicles-from-transport-on-its-ships-208942.html
‘If it risks 20 million lives’ — eric
Or a ‘mere’ five hundred:
‘Horrific reports of a mass casualty bombing are emerging from Gaza, where a hospital suffered a direct hit reportedly by Israeli airstrikes. Gaza’s health ministry has said there are at least 500 casualties in the aftermath of the hospital blast, with “hundreds of victims” buried under the rubble. Gaza sources also say that a UN-run school housing refugees was attacked.’
As a decades-ago automotive ad campaign — now memory-holed by Google — declared, This changes everything.
Including Holocaust museums (‘Never again, oy vey!’) whose soi-disant victims now mete out ghastly collective punishment to the Arab Untermenschen.
Well played, assholes. You just baked your fucking cake.
You’re a fucking hero!
Words spoken by a nurse to my son last night at the emergency room.
He saved a young woman trapped between shelves and a counter from certain death in just minutes after the driver of a vehicle slammed into a building causing extensive damage and creating a life threatening situation.
She was not breathing until he lifted the shelves off of her body. She then gasped a breath of air.
What you call divine intervention.
Beer ain’t drinkin’.
Hi drumpish,
Kudos to your son for his quick action! Seems to be a vehicle driving into a building almost every day recently, wtf is up with that?
Uh, Trump Shot for $400, Alex!
Vaxxing and driving is a fool’s errand.
We’ve had several semi truck wrecks in the last week, it’s nuts out there. No ice here yet either. One wrecked, Staters then on scene, another truck piles into the DOT truck which then rammed the Stater, one Smokie had to jump out of the way into a barb wire fence.
Yah, Sparkey, RE: ” Vaxxing and driving is a fool’s errand.”
Whole lotta verbs can fit in/replace that word, ‘driving’.
Whole lotta. …
Their fucked up shit/mind blown, is all over the place & in your face,… for those of us noticing. Anyway.
Yes, some of you will die, but that is a risk I am willing to take. (Lord Farquaad)
Its not a bug, it’s a feature!
If over the air updating was actually useful for vehicle owners vs. the government/automakers, doing an update shutting off the defective airbags would be something it could/should be doing. But I bet it’s not possible to shut them off, due to how they built it.
I asked Chat GPT “Do you know the story of the engineer who said it would be safer to put a spike on the steering wheel of a car?”
Yes, the story you’re referencing is often used as a thought experiment or anecdote in discussions about safety, incentives, and risk compensation.
The basic premise is this: An engineer (or sometimes it’s told as a behavioral economist or other professional) suggests that if you really want to make driving safer, you should mount a large, sharp spike on the steering wheel pointed directly at the driver’s chest. The argument is that with such an immediate and severe threat to their safety, drivers would be incredibly careful and cautious, thus reducing accidents. Of course, the idea isn’t meant to be taken literally but is rather a provocative way to illustrate how changing incentives can affect behavior.
Oh, but now we actually have the spike aimed at our chests!
Jesus that answer is so correct it’s kind of chilling.
Funny how the right side mirror warns that OBJECTS ARE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR … but air bags do not caution that THIS GAS BAG CAN EXPLODE IN YOUR FACE WITHOUT WARNING.
Maybe some appropriate text can be added to the EULA on the Clownscreen. You have been duly warned.
How many air bags does the presidential state Cadillac (reported to weigh 20,000 lbs) have? With eight-inch armor in the sidewalls, embedded airbags would constitute gaps in its ballistic defense, one supposes. But the answer is classified — not for lowly dung-beetle citizens to worry their little heads over.
Airbags would be very dangerous in an heavily armored vehicle. Even if you are protected from an outside blast for instance by the armor, things inside the car will still break apart from the shock wave and be shrapnel. I know someone who was a tank commander during Iraq who was seriously injured not by the IED explosion outside the tank, but by the stuff destroyed from the shock wave inside. He is permanently disabled because of it.
Thanks for this added perspective, richb. So, probably the presidential Cadillac does not have side airbags. And maybe not any — professional driver and all that, though a state police officer at the wheel didn’t save Governor Jon Conzine from getting badly mangled in a 95 mph crash on the Garden State Parkway.
As usual, the politically privileged are authorized to disregard the rules that apply to the little people. And we’re not even allowed to know what waivers they’ve granted to themselves.
“This gas bag can explode in your face without warning.”
…Brandon? Walnuts (McCain)? Haley? Graham?
WHICH GAS BAG DARNIT???
THIS INFORMATION IS FOR STUDY PURPOSES ONLY. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO DO THIS UNLESS YOU ARE QUALIFIED TO DO SO.
Airbag disconnection is technically illegal under federal law but it can be done easily and safely.
You will need tools to disassemble the steering wheel and will also need a volt-ohm meter. Additional parts needed will be a 100K potentiometer, used to determine the resistance value needed to turn off the airbag light. Connect the center and one of the side lugs on the potentiometer to the airbag vehicle connector, NOT to the airbag connector itself.
1. Disconnect the vehicle battery and wait 15 minutes for the airbag circuit capacitors to discharge.
2. Remove the airbag from the steering wheel and unplug the airbag connector.
3. Reconnect the vehicle battery and connect the potentiometer to the vehicle airbag connector.
4. Rotate the potentiometer shaft until the airbag light goes out.
5. Disconnect the potentiometer from the airbag circuit.
6. Using the volt-ohm meter, measure the resistance of the potentiometer center and side lug.
7. Obtain a fixed-value resistor of the same resistance value (ohms) and attach it to the connector.
8. Reinstall the airbag without plugging in the connector.
IMPORTANT! DO NOT ATTEMPT TO MEASURE THE RESISTANCE OF THE AIRBAG DIRECTLY. IT WILL DEPLOY IF YOU USE THE VOLT-OHM METER TO ATTEMPT TO MEASURE AIRBAG RESISTANCE DIRECTLY.
I just disconnected the airbags in both my cars at the connector and put a small piece of black tape over the idiot light. Put it back when I take the car for its saaaaaafety inspection and then immediately disconnect it again when I get back home.
Thanks, anarchyst. I love hack info like this. I always wonder whether the data loggers, safety nannies, gps tracking and camera monitoring in modern cars can be hacked and shut off.
There needs to be a website dedicated to instructions like these (although there probably is one, but I just haven’t checked).
Mr. Liberty,
Unfortunately Anarchyst left out the most important step…again. He his correct with everything else.
Step 4 should be,
Attach capable scan tool to monitor the specific air bag that you wish to bypass.
Turn potentiometer until reading on scan tool reads “correct”.
The last step should be,
“Use scan tool to clear fault memory.
Cycle key to confirm successful bypass.”
The real benefit from airbags that don’t grenade are in side impact collisions where there is often no space for typical energy absorbing crumple zones.
The deadly bag lots were often when they switched using sodium azide to ANFO for the explosive charge. Besides being “cheaper” I actually read several industry rags where claims that sodium azide was ‘toxic’ and emitted dangerous greenhouse gases. I shit you not.
ANFO is a cheaply produced mining explosive which degrades in an unreliable fashion over decades inside a canister in a steering wheel subject to a myriad of environmental extremes.
So IMO, the technology worked well until they fucked it up without proper testing. I have no idea how some green agenda bullshit penetrated a carefully calibrated explosive device sitting a foot from peoples’ heads…
Hi David,
Side air bags may confer a benefit (as is also true of frontal air bags). So does eating one’s veggies. So does regular exercise. Is it any legitimate business of the government’s?
If there is any legitimate justification for this entity styled “government” – which is really just the people who wield power in a given society – then it is to prevent harm being done by people to others. This idea that it is legitimate for government to impose things on people who’ve not harmed anyone because doing so might prevent them from being harmed, themselves, is something akin to giving the powers-that-be parental authority over other adults, which is an obnoxious and insufferable idea.
Just wait until the driver-facing camera checks for your double-mask over your nose!
Only Teslas will roam the streets then.
I agree that none of this expensive stuff should be mandated…. ever….
Eric: Did you ever try the tape over the infrared sensors the other day?
That’s the gist of the argument. NOT Technology, nor safety analysis, but FREEDOM. We Americans must insist on our Federal Government, and all lesser governments, treating us as ADULTS, capable of CHOICE.
Disconnecting all airbags sounds like a good idea to me. At least hey can be disconnected and you can trick the computer to believing they are active. Unlike the tire pressure monitoring system which alerts you when it is disconnected and provides no way to bypass.
Personally, I wouldn’t disconnect, because I believe they provide a marginal benefit. That isn’t the issue. The government has no business making that choice.
With proper marketing and information, I believe that the public, stupid as they are, would have demanded better handling automobiles and probably some better post crash protection than they were getting. Volvo was leading the way on that in the 1960s. Mercedes, Jaguar, BMW and other euro makers were making much safer cars than what was available in the USA.
It was said that the perfect sedan was the Jaguar XJ6 in terms on handling, cost, safety, etc. Pre an post crash proteciton.
Bottom line, the market would have eventualy made much better choices than what we are stuck with now.
Hi Swamp!
I am so eager to remove the air bag from my ’02 Nissan pickup and replace it with the spare ’70s Trans-Am Formula steering wheel I have in the parts bin… just need to steal away the time to do it…
When they say it will happen again also means it will take many years before they are replaced. Have all those defective Takata airbags been replaced yet, somehow I doubt it.
PS- I’ve still got my pointy Lawn Darts and they’ve hurt any one.
Proofreading one my many mistakes.
PS- I’ve still got my pointy Lawn Darts and they haven’t hurt any one.
I can’t think of two more loathsome women than those harpies. Dole was as smarmy as they get. When she was running for Senate in NC she had an event where she was signing a “pledge” to not raise taxes. It was held the day that the Enron scandal broke; she’d gotten ~$10k from Ken Lay. When asked about that she smiled that condescendingly sweet smile and said, “I’m here to sign my pledge.” Her greenmailing of states to raise the drinking age to 21 was one of the slimiest things a bureaucrat has done.
She and Claybrook led the charge to ruin Liberty in this country. A pox on their houses.
Both females. Both attorneys. Both political insiders and political hacks.
Likely neither could change a tire; or tell you what an aileron on an airplane is; or how train brakes work; or gap a spark plug; or.
Yet both were put in positions to issue diktats that are a) unconstitutional (but who the fuck cares about that nowadays) and b) potentially lethal.
Kenny Boy! Who wasn’t on the take from that guy before Enron imploded.
All of the Sunday news shows had Enron ads running back in the day.
Why ask why ask why …
Plus, the Bush cabal. Don’t think for one second that they’re idle right now.
And their legacy lives on. What do you think ever happened to all those young buck traders in the pits who were trained by Enron? Think they might have scattered to every trading desk in the world?
Think back to the S&L scandal of the late 1980s. Then we see the lending rules changed across the board by Geo. W Bush (brother of Neil Bush, of Silverado S&L fame), and oh geez, the early ’00s housing bubble.
Wonder why energy is getting more expensive while more and more proven reserves are taken offline by the Department of the Interior?
Can’t make money when there’s plenty.
Exhibit A of why women shouldn’t vote, let alone hold power. what you get are Karens on steroids!
Que: ‘James Brown – It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World – Live – 11 July 1981 • World of Jazz’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClhBXVygWbc
I guess we can thank a bunch of pussified men….
Yes, we can. Some theorize that feminism was one, big massive shit test by women to see of men would check them on their BS. Women do shit tests, or fitness tests, on guys to see if they’ll be masculine and keep them in check. If he does, then he’s a worthy mate, and that he’s fit to pass on their genes; if he doesn’t, then she knows he isn’t a worthy mate.
I never experienced shit-tests in this manner. I tell a woman ‘no’ or otherwise raise objections to something she decides to go find someone else who won’t. Poo-Tee-Weet
Didn’t the Biden Thing and authoritarian governors who implemented draconian COVID measures & mask/ vaxx mandates also use the “If it saves just one life it’s worth it!” excuse? I’ve seen people claim on social media that such draconian measures “Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaved lives” despite little to no evidence of that. Instead, there’s MASSIVE evidence that such measures DESTROYED lives instead. What’s egregious about that whole thing is politicians & bureaucrats who destroyed people’s lives with such measures are now trying to claim that they never forced anyone to close down a business they own, wear face diapers, take “vaccines” (or lose their job if they didn’t take that vaccine), etc.
There are several correct responses to the “If it saves one life/vision zero” kooks. But in my judgement the best one is, “Prove it.” Because the fact of the matter is that they cannot prove it- anybody who claims that their life was saved by something is making a subjective judgement- the only way to prove it is to do a double blind experiment where under identical circumstances except for their chosen intervention, they died.
Though a very valid response is,” So what, you have no right and it’s none of your business.”
It can’t be proven because no one’s life has ever been saved. Extended or shortened, but no one gets out of this alive.
there’s MASSIVE evidence that such measures DESTROYED lives instead…..
Excess deaths keep rising!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdSvKLAjDgA
Socio/psychopaths have no empathy sympathy, guilt or remorse. They would most definitely prefer you dead than damage their ego by admitting they were wrong.
Hi John,
Another thing these psychopaths are doing is trying to make people think they never did what they actually DID do even a few years ago or that they would have done things differently had they known then what they know now. Politicians and bureaucrats like Tony Fauci, Justin Trudeau, Gavin Newsom, the Biden regime, etc., are using such psychological tricks.
New Zealand has a “conservative” government now. How much you want to bet they will be the same as their last one?
It probably wouldn’t be as bad as the labor government, but who knows. The tories have been in power in the UK for 25 years. They suck too.
At least Jabcinda Ardern is out of power!
The fake government/corporation/vatican gave the slaves the right to vote…you get two or three choices…but…they are all freemasons….lol
Hi John,
Totally agree; the psychos who totally ruined so many lives want us to pretend it never happened, “we need to look forward, not back” is their mantra now. I’m looking forward to some reckoning for these rat bastards but will probably never happen. They’re all playing Emily Littela from SNL – “never mind”.
Profitable deaths?
Politicians and bureaucrats like Tony Fauci, Justin Trudeau, Gavin Newsom, the Biden regime, etc…is there a commission kick back per death?
When you are born the globalists/vatican/corporation take control of your trust account…the Cestui Que Vie Trust ……. you can’t access it….
and they use it as collateral to finance everything they want….
when you die the vatican becomes the beneficiary and gets your money….the end of the contract is displayed….on your gravestone in all upper case….ie dog latin….with your corporate/slave name
https://odysee.com/@Obelievers:3/THE-PERFECT-CRIME—Romley-Stewart:2
The Birth Certificate, Cesta Que (Cestui Que Vie) Trust, “Justice System” and What Role We SHOULD Play
https://stillnessinthestorm.com/2015/11/the-birth-certificate-cesta-que-cestui/