It’s an affront to the right to travel freely to have to get the state’s permission to be allowed to do it – which is what having to obtain a driver’s license is nominally all about. You may not “drive” – that is, operate a motor vehicle – on the government’s roads (to call them “public” is etymologically dishonest because the “public” does not control the roads; the government does – and whoever controls something owns that thing) without the government’s permission.
It has little, if anything, to do with whether you can drive. That is, whether you can competently operate a motor vehicle. What we commonly refer to as a driver’s license is – effectively – a government-issued identity card. The government hardly bothers to hide the fact anymore. Case in point: Whether you can competently operate a motor vehicle is an irrelevance as regards your ability to occupy a seat as a passenger in a commercial airplane. Yet, try to board a commercial flight without your government ID – whoops, “driver’s” license. Or open a bank account.
Or buy cough syrup at the CVS.
The government even calls it an ID now – as in a REAL one. Facial-scan/biometric identifiers; a bar code containing everything about you. Soon you won’t be allowed to walk into government-owned buildings without one.
The “driving” part is vestigial, a kind of paperwork appendix.
In European countries like Germany the driving part is still a big part of the license, which is for that reason something much more than an ID. Obtaining one requires extensive driver training meant to impart the skills one must learn to be capable of safely driving a motor vehicle on German highways – their Autobahns – where people are expected to have the skills to safely drive on highways that do not have speed limits. Or – rather – where the speed limit is however fast the driver, in his judgment, thinks it is safe for him to drive.
And this is legal.
Right about now the Safety Cultists reading this are clutching their Rosary beads.
That’s because they consider “speed” – a term lacking precision but which roughly translates as any faster than they are comfortable allowing anyone else to drive – to be “unsafe.”
That “speed kills” – their own phrasing.
Except it doesn’t in Germany. Perhaps because a driver’s license over there has something to do with demonstrated competence behind the wheel. More finely, people must demonstrate such competence before they are granted permission to drive on German roads, including the Autobahn. They must show that they know the importance of situational awareness – in particular, being aware of what might be coming up fast, behind them. They are trained – and expected to – keep right, except to pass.
And they do.
This lane discipline allows for safe high-speed driving on German Autobahns, which have a lower accident fatality rate than American highways – where it is unlawful “speeding” in most states to drive faster than 70-75 MPH and “reckless driving” everywhere to exceed 100 MPH.
In Germany, it is common for drivers to exceed 100 MPH and maintain that speed. And it is safe, because German drivers take driving seriously. Are required to take it seriously. A driver who does not maintain situational awareness, who fails to yield to faster moving traffic, is considered the driver at fault if there is an accident.
It is not just considered obnoxious to sit in the left (passing) lane. It is regarded as unsafe. It will get such a driver pulled over, because his driving constitutes a danger to himself and others. He risks causing a catastrophic accident if he fails to get out of the way of a car closing on him from behind at 100-plus MPH whose driver assumes the car ahead is driven by a competent driver who will see him coming and get out of the way in time.
Of course, The Safety Cultists will screech that it is the “speeding” driver who is the cause of such an accident, if it occurs. He ought to have slowed down! Or – rather – not have been driving so fast that he didn’t have enough time to slow down for the driver ahead who failed to yield.
This, in a nutshell, is the ideology of dumbing down driving.
It is what new drivers in this country are taught when they aren’t taught how to drive, much less expected to demonstrate that they’ve learned how. What they are taught is that “speeding” – i.e., driving any faster than the Safety Cultists are comfortable allowing anyone else to drive – is synonymous with “unsafe” driving. They are not taught to practice lane discipline. They are encouraged to drive as part of a herd rather than judgment-exercising individuals with the competence to do just that.
And the result is guess what? More dangerous roads – as the Safety Cultists style it. American highways are more dangerous – statistically – than German Autobahns.
In fact, it’s more dangerous drivers, the result of not expecting much of them, as drivers.
It’s arguably stupendously, flippantly reckless the way the government allows almost literally anyone who has met the age requirement and answered a minimum number of questions on a multiple choice test a license to drive. If pilot’s licenses were issued on a similarly flippant basis, it wouldn’t be safe to walk outside – because of the high chance a plane might crash right on top of your head.
But then, getting a private or commercial pilot’s license entails extensive training and (ultimately) having to prove you are competent to fly an airplane. If you can’t do that, then you don’t get the pilot’s license.
But that’s because it’s not an ID pretending to be about something else.
. . .
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You may want to take the Hitler test.https://www.johnkaminski.org/index.php/16-best-kaminski-stories/56-the-hitler-test.The national socialists invented the four lane/divided highway Which crypto Jew Ike the cunt brought back from his travels
Recently in Byron Bay, NSW, “Land of Oz”, Frank Singh, a 77 y.o. pensioner, was cited by the local traffic court, based upon a surveillance camera showing him holding what MIGHT be a “sail fawn”. Trouble is, he says that he doesn’t OWN one. Nor did the Court allow him to file for a hearing because he also has no email. Yes, a latter-day Luddite, whom the Court couldn’t bother to ptint and sign a letter and MAIL.it.
My license renewal comes up in a year. Not only are the fees going up, considerably, CA also ties YOUR fees to reported PRE-TAX income., to make “fat cats” pay. Also CA is imposing the “Real ID” Owellian thing, AND…they want access to your email and social media accounts, else, no DL. I just got my mail-in ballot, will check to see if the Postal.Service can see how you voted by checking the vent holes, like in the Gubernatorial recall election FARCE of 2021.
[…] Guest Post by Eric Peters […]
The control freaks of the USA are going to have to move to a more obvious papers please system if the agenda of people not driving anything is successful.
It seems there are more and more ways western nation governments are acting to making cars unaffordable. The most recent news from EU is apparently that if your car is too hold and the repairs are beyond what they, the bureaucrats consider reasonable, repairs will be illegal to perform regardless of their quality.
Meanwhile in the USA the anti-automobile control freaks are pushing for speed limiters, more taxes, and the usual expensive chase after diminishing returns on emissions plus their climate change religion.
Without the pretense of driving the papers please mentality is going to have to become much more in our faces. It has to be normalized well beyond the airports and such first. Perhaps it will be the various forms of payment tech. The approach will probably come from multiple angles. Meanwhile we’ll keep hearing that voting doesn’t require ID. It’s as if ID is only required when it suits power.
Eric – “assumes the car ahead is driven by a competent driver who will see him coming and get out of the way in time.” Here in Florida, it is much safer to assume that they will NOT get out of the way.
Heck, on I95, I10 or I75, I always drive in the right lane because often it is devoid of cars; they are all stacked up in the left lane like a choo-choo train.
I’ve seen them come up the entrance ramp, and immediately cross three lanes and park themselves in the left one.
It’s idiotic to see one clown in the left lane, mo cars for a half mile in front with 30 cars backed up behind it. It always makes me wish I had a James Bond missile launcher behind my headlights.
Now supposedly there is a new law dealing with left lane bandits obstructing traffic but it relies on the fat assed FHP clown sitting in the median with his radar gun to notice and enforce.
The radar gun isn’t calibrated to detect these imbeciles. We shall see I guess.
I’ve been behind people who shove their way in with a 35mph merge into 70mph+ traffic then as they slotherate to some lower than average speed dive across lanes to the left.
Since 2020 cops in Illinois no longer enforce the trucker lane restrictions so semi trucks in the left or left two lanes has become commonplace.
I spend almost all my time in the right two lanes cruising along at the normal speed of traffic often making better time than all but the most reckless high speed weavers. Why? The rolling road blocks in the left lanes. While I cruise on by staying at speed others have to slow down and find a way around the blockages.
In my neck of the woods the idiot drivers self righteously proclaim that since they are going the speed limit it is perfectly within their right to sit there. It doesn’t matter if they have cars behind them that want to go around them. Doesn’t matter if everyone is passing them on the right. They camp there, often causing two lanes of backed up traffic if you have someone driving slow in the right lane. And yes, forget about merging with the flow of traffic. The general mind set is that that I am supposed to move over and let them in. The idea of using that on/off ramp to speed up with the flow of traffic already on the highway is completely lost on them.
The slaves are getting fed up with the abuse/theft from the slave owners….
There is a small STF….sovereignty, truth, freedom movement among the slaves……the slaves don’t usually organize and co operate, to get rid of the slave owners…..
This video looks at the property tax theft….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXnnXJC_6go
When I received my German Driving License in 1992, it cost me a little less than $700. My cost would have been higher but I had documentation stating I had been driving in Germany for over 6 months with a valid Driving License from another Country. I still had to take Driving Theory classes (approximately 30 hours), a Vision Test and drive with a Licensed Driving Instructor for about an hour on both A and B roads – all at my expense.
Not certain if the fines have increased however, driving in a Passing Lane on a highway outside an urban area is an 85 Euro fine and 3 points on the offender’s Driving License.
It should be noted: A Passing Lane is any Lane other than the Right Lane. This means: On an Autobahn with 3 or more Lanes in one direction, the Right Lane is the Driving Lane and the Middle and Left Lanes are for passing. Passing on the right is forbidden.
Somebody went through an airport check in….they didn’t look at their passport, they already had all their information on their computer screen through facial recognition….
Another poster said they were going to use your cell phone’s id number and your car’s serial number to id/track you….the cell phone is already there….the new cars are connected 24/7/365…..sending all your data collected by surveillance cameras, sensors, etc……
Slaves still have free will, this has been ground down through brainwashing in the education system, 24/7 media programming, etc…..soon the slaves will be chipped…no more free will…..you can’t have slaves around with free will….a slave revolt is needed before this happens….
That Bugatti video was insane. Breathtaking. I’d be afraid that someone in front of me was only doing a leisurely 150 MPH or so. 🙂
As a thought, theoretically, if you were to only drive private roads, you’d need no drivers license, correct? That is, if the owner(s) of said roads didn’t make that a requirement.
Just to review some facts, things we know that do exist. The knowledge that is here in the real world has never been more prolific. Humans know more now than in 1960. Crick and Watson proved the existence of the double-helix DNA molecule only in 1953.
Humans have made huge strides and advances in machinery in the last 50 years.
Although, some do stumble and fall sometimes, Joe is one, been there too many times myself.
Can’t be that much fun for Israel, stumbling and bumbling its way to some kind of mere existence looks like what is happening, you see the grim results. Might be better to seek peace, sounds better than bombs all of the time. You’ll be able to get some sleep.
Difficult to admit failure, your lying eyes will never accept it.
It is all the internal combustion engine’s fault as to why hydrocarbons are consumed in massive quantities, kerosene from lamp oil to jet fuel, things do go wrong.
Leave it to Mr. Peabody to have a WABAC Machine:
Ed Roberts manufactured torpedoes to shoot oil wells that have oil, but low production.
“The Roberts Petroleum Torpedo Co. was organized in New York to construct torpedoes and carry on the business extensively. Oil men were rather skeptical as to the advantages of the Roberts method, fearing the missiles would shatter the rock and destroy the wells. The Woodin well, a dry-hole on the Blood farm, received two shots and pumped eighty barrels a day in December of 1866.”
175 years ago, there was little to no commercial production of petroleum, the industry was in its nascent stage, green shoots. Colonel Drake changed the world, so did nitro-glycerin. 200 years ago, 100,000 whales were harvested from the oceans annually and the numbers were not increasing, declining is what was happening.
Had to cut back severely. Whales are still harvested, hunted, but nowhere near 100,000 per year. Whales are harvested at 1,000 per year from 2019 statistics. The same was being done to the Plains buffalo. You have to learn from your mistakes.
By 1859 it was peak whale oil. Also the year of the Carrington Event. Commercial oil production became the new game in town.
Titusville went dry, oil exploration continued, started chasing sand out there in Texas, Spindle Top gushed 75,000 bpd. Thousands of abandoned oil wells in California, wells go dry, fields are abandoned.
A sea change in energy harvesting has changed the entire world.
Now the whole world is an industrial machine that does not stop at all. Hydrocarbons are necessary for it all to move like it does.
When you ‘shoot’ the well hole, tamp it with water after you have lowered the charge to where the oil is, the show, detonate it, more oil, hydraulic fracturing. Hydraulic fracturing is also done on water wells, you get more water. Can’t knock it if it works. If it didn’t, nobody would do it. Halliburton is good at that kind of work.
You will destroy civilizations if hydrocarbons are eliminated.
You won’t be in need of a driver’s license.
I always found it odd that New Hampshire _license_ plates are emblazoned with “LIVE FREE OR DIE”.
Before all the Massachusetts carpet baggers got there it was a common sentiment among New Hampshirites. But the “Hey, in Massachusettes we used to….” has made it moot. Can’t shoot your neighbors, even in New Hampshire.
Here in central WA the illegals run rampant (farm and orchard communities). Zero regard for “the law” is the new normal. Yet us, the asset owners, taxed up the a** to support them risk asset loss if WE don’t follow all the rules. Latest rule coming soon will be the .05 alcohol limit. Will do zero to reduce drunk driving deaths, we the asset owners know better already. Meanwhile the miscreants are causing all the mayhem here on the roads totally stoned or wasted drunk, .05 means nothing to them. No money so why pursue them? Add in our “equity justice” and it’s game over for civilized society.
Kids were stationed in Germany for about 8 years total. I visited twice and we took long road trips. I did most of the Autobahn driving since my daughter’s digital driving technique was making her best friend carsick. Also I’m better at highway situational judgement which she takes offense to. “Why did you wait so long before passing that truck?” “It was fine!” Ugg. Race up behind, stab the brakes, crack the wheel left and stab the gas, oh boy. Anyway, it was a joy to me driving with smart folks on the highway but you MUST pay attention at all times. If you’re going to pass on the four lane autobahn size it up early – truck ahead half mile or more, better be sizing up what’s coming in the left lane cause at a hundred plus that dot will be on you quickly. Sadly many areas no longer have the unlimited zones.
I greatly object to this “Real ID” shit. When I had to get my DL renewed, I didn’t go with the full-blown “Real ID,” I went with the “enhanced DL” option. Even so I regret it and there doesn’t seem to be much difference. It’s still got an RFID chip and I like to keep it in a Faraday envelope.
I have no desire to ever go to any federal facility or fly unless I’m the one behind the yoke. I object to being treated like a terrorist and having to prove to everyone who I am.
It’s particularly absurd that you have to show a driver’s license to buy beer when you’re almost 60, while millions if illegals swarm across the border. And you don’t have to show ID to vote. I actually got proofed once at Tractor Supply trying to buy a can of silicone spray for my ignition wires on a rainy day. I said “Fuck that” and walked out and went to NAPA.
Hi X,
Amen, brother.
I’m in my 50s and obviously not under 21. It annoys me to my core when some “rules are rules” checkout person demands to see my ID. I know, they are just doing what the store policy requires and it’s not their fault. But I won’t participate in that ritual. If they insist on ID, I leave the stuff on the conveyor belt and walk out.
the way i see it is IS THEIR FAULT…they choose which job to do and they choose to enforce rules without telling their employer NO! giving them a pass for being enforcers ensure more of the same!
i once had a clerk tell me they were just doing their job and i told them to find another job. they CHOOSE to be enforcers of tyranny. willingly. i will not pat them on the back for it. and i will not obey it. and those who enforce it i look down as the actual tyrant.
those who are creating the policy are never the ones to enforce it. if people learned to say NO…I WILL NOT DO THAT TO SOMEONE ELSE…it wouldn’t happen..too many useful idiots in the world today. none of the things taking place today would be there if there was no one there to enforce it. period.
Another money grab here in WA. Charge way more for “real ID” and, no thanks. If I need “real ID” I’ll be using my passport.
TS needed my birthdate to buy a rubber patch kit. The young ‘un at the registered didn’t know why and had a puzzled look on her face. I told her I huff rubber cement in my spare time. She still didn’t get it. Sad.
When I last renewed my license they wanted something like ten different id’s and then take off your glasses when they take your picture to be sure they get a good one to put in the FBI facial recognition database. No way to opt out of that, I specifically asked about it. Meanwhile the invaders crossing the border can get a car with no license, no registration, no insurance, no problem 😡. This country is well and truly screwed.
Hi Mike,
I’m up for renewal in 2026. This may be when I go feral as I will not be biometrically cattle tagged – especially while hordes of Third World invaders are de facto exempt from any such requirements.
That’s just it, why should we comply when half of Central America is here running loose with no enforcement. This selective enforcement BS is really pissing off the otherwise law abiding tax slaves.
Our rural county now suffering from home invasion robberies, seems a “Latino gang” from CA is up here now targeting Asian and Indian business owners. Owners at work running their business then their house gets hit. And the cops show up, corner the getaway car & the perps run never to be seen or heaven forbid, caught. Thanks, great work while I write a check for the doubled in 4 years property tax.
‘[Getting] the state’s permission … is what having to obtain a driver’s license is nominally all about.’ — eric
Some perspective: during WW II when he was a teenager, my dad found out that Louisiana did not require either written or behind-the-wheel tests to get a drivers license.
His older sister lived just across the state line in Shreveport. So he went to the DMV, paid the nominal fee, and had it mailed to his sister’s apartment. No proof of identity or residency needed: if you had a dollar and a valid mailing address, the state was satisfied.
Dad ended up driving 80 years without ever having to take a test or prove his competency. But as with so many Big Gov functions that began as simple matters — hand over a small tribute, get a piece of paper — drivers licenses mutated into IDs, photo databases, virtual line-ups for facial recognition and pre-crime trawling.
Where can I get a freaking permit for a 155mm howitzer and a dozen grenade launchers?
Mister Saturday Night Special
Got a barrel that’s-uh blue and cold
That ain’t good for nothin’
But puttin’ meh-uhn six-uh feet in a hole
— Lynyrd Skynrd, Saturday Night Special
Hi Jim. Had an uncle who did something similar in the 60’s and 70’s. He was in the air force and traveled all over the country, before all the states databases were computerized and tied together. Every state he went to, he got a driver’s license. He had a pocket full of them, probably about 25. Got pinched in New Hampshire for drunk driving and they took his license away. No problem, just use another one! Ah, for the good old days when the government didn’t know about you.
I’m impressed with that Bugatti. A little calculating just told me that he was pushing 260 mph for a while there. I suppose it’ll do that all day long, too. Sigh. Must be nice!
I couldn’t see why he was sliding back and forth between the center and left lanes when he wasn’t passing any center-lane traffic, nor was he being passed (stepping along that quick, no wonder!).
Given my own sad experience with even much-lower speeds, I was wondering what the chances of encountering a suicide deer in Germany are. Plenty of forest there. But then, you can’t drive slowly enough to avoid collision with a determined deer; they can always jump out so little ahead of you that there’s no steering around them, or stopping. I remember once, returning home from the second shift at work, when a herd of deer crossed the road in front of me. Far enough ahead that I saw them, got onto the shoulder, threw out the anchor, and was nearly stopped — walking speed, a few mph at most — when one of the bastards ran into the side of my car. Sometimes all you can do is shake your head.
Thanks for that autobahn video!
James, I think our US interstate highways are fenced. At least the ones I frequent in forested areas are.
If it isn’t 10′ high or better, it isn’t a deer fence.
Correct! I90 goes thru ‘Elk Heights’ nearby which has monster fencing. Deer bad, elk much worse in a car encounter.
Never understood this need for speed. Anything over 85 I would just hop on my Centurion (wishing! ). Cruise at 250,,, stall at 67. Doesn’t get any better than that.
Most of us cannot afford anything other than a passenger car to ride along the interstates at anywhere from 70-100 mph as the cruising speed. I run between those speeds at any point on a road trip. Much higher than 100 requires a lot of attention and lower than 70 should not really be permitted on a limited access highway outside city limits.
I like to run at top speed for a couple of miles on any trip, but haven’t gotten past 120 mph in the last 5 years.
At 260 mph, suicide deer don’t have time to get from the shoulder across the left lane. Which is why he’s hugging the line or better. It gives him a little more leeway should something go wrong.
How much gas is the Bugatti burning up at 200 miles an hour plus? Probably not enough for the driver to go more than a few miles at that speed.
It’s the tires also, not long life at those speeds
Perhaps allowing a 100+ mph design spec freeway to be legislated into retarded clover patch has trained the deer herd ?
The Psychopaths In Charge have been working on a national ID ever since Social Security was created. Even though it says right on the card it is not to be used for identification. At least it used to. I won’t bother looking for my current SS card, because whatever it might say on the card, your SS # is used as ID. As is your “real ID”. A redundant ID, in case they missed the SS #.
My late father never tested for a driver’s license. When he got his they were sold just like a hunting or fishing license. You paid the fee, and they gave you one. He never let it expire.
In Missouri, a driver’s license test has been a joke at least since I took mine in 1970. Drive around a few blocks from the testing station, parallel park, and it was done. Now “qualified” to drive on dual lane highways. Like registration, it’s a fee collection system.
> parallel park
In Nevada, you no longer even have to do that to get your license:
https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/nevada/parallel-parking-eliminated-from-nevada-dmv-driving-exam-1953021/
It could be coming to your state in the future, too, as “[t]he skills test in Nevada meets the national standards set by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators even without parallel parking featured in it.”
I have no doubt. In 1970 in Missouri it was required. And it isn’t much of a requirement.
Drop the parallel park BS and include merging on a highway. Nobody parallel parks anymore and everyone doesn’t know how to merge correctly.
Hi Pug,
The ability to parallel park a car is a very good way to evaluate a driver’s sense of spatial relationships and mastery of fine control. A person who cannot parallel park ought not to be driving because they lack the skill to do so competently. A driver who can parallel park is a driver who knows how to merge. I’d wager a $20 on that!
Merging is something I do well, parallel parking not so much. They aren’t the same skill.
The reason I am horrible at parallel parking is that I don’t do it much and I want to be perfect. So I will make multiple attempts until the car is perfectly situated and not in a spot where someone in front of me or behind me will tap my car’s bumpers.
Parallel parking is important. Doesn’t anybody drive into town anymore? Every Main Street in America requires some form of parallel parking unless you want to walk a mile and a half from the nearest parking lot. It isn’t difficult. Pull up lateral to the car in front of your parking spot. Put the car in reverse, look behind you to make sure no other idiots are trying to take your spot, turn wheels sharp to maneuver into space. Straighten wheels and align car.
For additional fun be pulling a 6’x10′ utility trailer behind you. 🙂
I know how to do it, but I am paranoid of messing up my wheels on 6-8″ high square curbs but also of being too far away from the curb.
I parallel park once a year now. I was better at it when I did it three times a week. Also I could see out of those cars better.
Furthermore since Chicago ‘leased’ the parking meters for a century finding a nice wide spot to pull into was pretty easy since the cost was much higher than it used to be. So even when I last went into the city regularly it wasn’t the typical find a space 6″ longer than your car and park type thing.
[ and whoever controls something owns that thing) without the government’s permission.] eric
Which is why lemmings own nothing. They simply lease their house,,, pay to use the roads only if you have the gov required insurance. Pay fees to do this or that.
Land of the free? No way…. Land of the fee.
When I was in Germany about 1968 or so there were no speed limits on autobahns. The tests were mostly common sense issues. I think they have autobahn limits of about 80mph today.
The nice thing about an airplane license is they don’t expire like the auto license. You must maintain a up to date medical then show proficiency to a check out pilot,,, do your 3 take offs and landings. At one time long ago they realized you don’t lose your skills if for some reason you don’t fly for awhile.
Stupid asses pulled my commercial drivers license simply because I wasn’t driving a big rig at the time. All the money for the add ons I got…all the testing… wasted. And you still had to have a up to date medical as well. All they needed to do was require the medical. No current medical,,, no driving.
Because the single engined aircraft evolved directly from the “safety” bicycle. Wrrrrrright bro?
Anyone who’s motivated enough can get a private pilot license, a few more can get the various “ratings” that allow for more interesting flying such as instrument ratings, multi-engine, etc. The community itself trains you. Your flight instructor might not have much more flight time than you, but is further along. Your instructor might be working up hours toward a commercial rating. It’s largely a self-governing profession, and the FAA’s traditional role has been more of a facilitator than an enforcer (although they have a lot of enforcement power too).
I imagine when cars started getting known, there were car clubs and trainers. You pretty much had to have someone show you the way to run a vehicle, or pay someone to take care of it for you (Jay Leno always jokes about the owner’s manuals in old luxury vehicles mentioning to have “your man” take care of various maintenance schedule items). But then we know what happened next, the Model T put everyone behind a steering wheel and the culture around the automobile was unprepared for the onslaught of new drivers. Someone figured out solutions, but they weren’t great -the state requiring licensing and testing. But what should be tested? Who should administer the test? What of revoking a license? And how much should it all cost?
At first those test were hard. But as cars became ubiquitous, not driving meant not participating in the economy. So make the test easier, make cars “safer” and blame the manufacturers for making them “dangerous.”
It seems like there’s a parallel to the Internet years later. Up until Windows 95 the Internet was a pretty civil place. Newbies were put in their place by the old timers and mods, and people knew that doing things like sharing copyrighted materials was wrong. But then Windows 95 came out (with built in TCP/IP stack and Internet Explorer), around the same time AOL brought the Internet to their subscribers. Now everyone was online, and like the Model T no one was ready for the onslaught of new users. The “endless September” had begun. Great things happened, but also the rise of the trolls, Napster and Limewire, and of course “someone” had to do something(!). So we got the DMCA and Facebook and HaX0rZ for LULZ. Don’t need a license to get online, but you’ll be kicked if you do anything that runs afoul of the admins.
Hi RK,
I have a simple way to separate the wheat from the chaff – so to speak – that could easily be implemented: New driver’s license applicants must take their driver’s on-road test in a car with a manual transmission. If a person can pull into traffic, deal with traffic and parallel park a car with a manual, then they have demonstrated baseline skill to competently drive.
That’s a very good idea. In europe, cars are still by and large manual transmissions, at least I think, Only here are 95 percent of people too lazy to learn to drive stick. Imagine retesting everyone on a manual car. It would certainly clear the roads up. It would serve the goal of reducing car trips, a goal of the left, but still. Traffic would return to 1970 levels in no time.
Most cars are manual in Europe. They simply drive faster & better than Americans because Americans are absolute retards. We have an ‘education’ system tuned to 80 IQ Africans. We are drowning in African ‘culture’ and the mediocrity it brings. Europe is mainly full of Europeans still. Although our pernicious global media still leaks over there. For now, they are still somewhat resistant.
Your ‘nation’ is a dead man walking. It wears a skinsuit called “The United States” but it will be Brazil North in a decade. Enjoy!
You might really enjoy the Corporate Cosmology speech in the movie Network. “There is no America, there is no democracy” OTOH Europe is suiciding itself if it’s not dead economically dead already. That’s why they need the war in Ukraine.
You can just read the transcript
https://pophistorydig.com/topics/tag/ned-beatty-network-speech/
Too bad that nowdays only folks like “Big Mike” can actually afford a “my man” who clears up issues like lightning.
That’s what I’m thinking. As a fellow driver who’s properly trained, you’re in a good position to set community standards. But we pawned off the responsibility to a disinterested third party who’s got no “skin in the game” when the driver has an accident. And to make matters worse, the legislature demands that the DMV pile on a bunch of other regulations unrelated to driving ability, including turning it into a domestic passport.
Image if whomever issued your drivers license was liable for your bad driving? That’s how it is with parents and children until they turn 18, but the driving school or state is not. So the tests aren’t challenging, and most people pass.
Just got my driver’s license renewed and an interesting bit came along with it; it cannot be used for airport security after May of 2025. Federal ID required after that date. Did congress pass a law invalidating state ID’s for Federal ID’s? Or is the current situation of state ID’s being issued to illegals is so bad they invalidated themselves?
Will I need to produce my federal *papers* when crossing state lines as a driver or pedestrian?
Yes sir. Real ID act passed in 2005 by a majority republican congress. If you don’t have the endorsement by May 2025, you can’t board a commercial flight. Unless you’re an illegal alien (sarcasm).
[you can’t board a commercial flight. Unless you’re an illegal alien (sarcasm).] Mike
No sarcasm Mike… Illegals are flying commercial and private all over the country at our expense. Airlines and Private companies/individuals have contracts to do this… Americans screwing America over a buck. Always been so I guess…. sigh.
They’re flying them to central America, then cargo planeing to a landing field near the border.
If you think they’re walking 2-3-4000 miles to the border which would take months you are kidding yourself. The cartels are being paid to bring them up to the border and stupid Americans are flying/busing them throughout the nation toting bags of drugs and carrying diseases eradicated here years ago. Free lodging,,, Free food,,, Free transportation,,, Free medical… The grand red carpet treatment that even the vets, we care so much for, do not get.
I was being darcastic about Senior Senors epic hike thru the freakin darien. . .
Sorry.
No meanness intended. It’s hard to interpret a written comment. Besides, I’ve never believed this walking thousands of miles through the Darian crap gap. I know people in Mexico and none of them have seen these large groups walking through the country. Like EVERYTHING,,, it’s all BS.
There’s no need to have an endorsement on the DL. Simply use a passport. It’s a federal ID and no biometric BS or other nonsense.
I won’t be bothering to do any real ID with the DL when Illinois gets cut off if ever, I have a passport already.
Hi Hans,
Yup. Also, you will be barred from entering “secure” federal buildings. Me too – as I won”t get the REAL ID. They can go to Hell.
Really.
Eric –
They don’t have REAL ID in VA?
I have had that shit for years as my exposure is way too high to do otherwise. There will be a time where I just drop out, but not now.
My license is up for renewal this April. I hope I can do it online instead of carting myself to DMV. Fuck that.
Yup, 25s gonna be interesting.
…and I would give them map and directions, too, Eric. For the way they drive, they probably will need them!
At some point they’ll “chip” us and most people will say it’s about time and so convenient.
Spring is coming and Motorcycles! The only downside of it is that you can smell people smoking pot and driving and yet more and more people smoke and drive. As is no doubt obvious by this point a competent driver should be able to figure out that drugs and driving are a bad idea but a lot of drivers are not competent anymore.
As for pilots or even air traffic controllers, new hiring policies are weeding the competent out and hiring the incompetent. Fun times.
Hi Landru,
I don’t know if you saw this before, but I saw a video of a woman who was shopping at a Whole Foods store (owned by Amazon of all things). When it came time for her to pay for her groceries, she used the palm of her hand to pay, and she bleated about how that was the “Coolest thing ever!” She must not have realized the potential implications of that “coolest thing ever!”, as the globalist/ technocratic elite are trying to implement CBDCs worldwide. I can only imagine how many people also thought those “vaccine passports” that these sociopaths tried to implement was about “Keeping people Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafe”.
https://youtu.be/e-7peFVujfk?si=UTZynSCkvbWrXmej
That video could be fake. But it could be programming, condition for that kind of thing.
Hi John.
I’ve seen similar videos and here’s why it concerns me.
The big problem with the “Chip’ and CBDCs is lack of information control. When you pay cash to a certain extent you are anonymous but with items purchased digitally .gov will find out and potentially use that against you. I presume by now you’ve read how the Canadian government froze the bank accounts of people who supported the truckers? It would kinda suck to have your bank account frozen and then your house foreclosed on for non payment of the mortgage just for donating to a non approved group; wouldn’t it?
Another problem people tend to forget is that what you buy or do today may be totally legal but in the future may not be and if that happens I bet you’d be glad if you had paid cash back when you could.
From Amazon site: As Amazon One—Amazon Web Services’s palm recognition service for identification, payment, loyalty membership, and entry at over 400 locations across the U.S.—reaches a critical milestone with more than 3 million uses, Whole Foods Market stores are going all in. By the end of this year, all 500+ Whole Foods Market locations in the U.S. will offer Amazon One for payment and Prime membership benefits.
https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/amazon-one-whole-foods-market-palm-scanning
What’s bigger than a credit card, smaller than a breadbox?
They have that beast system in Whole Foods already. Once that is mandatory, I’m out. I call it the Beast Pass.
Landru, the problem of people smoking dope and driving are largely a function of the safety Nazis and their childishly slow speed limits. The same reason I web surf and text while driving on rural highways- the speed is agonizingly slow and you have to do something to keep your brain active. I strongly suspect that simple self preservation would keep one from smoking dope and driving on the autobahn. And for that matter of smoking dope and driving in most countries- Americans are typically shocked by the level of traffic freedom in other countries. Yes, cops will stop you, but its just an honest shakedown.
Except the land down under. I was backing up in an empty section of the local train station when a cop pulled me over after i went onto a public road. Tested me for alcohol. I was clean. The real reason was that he thought I was a terrerist.