Government is both idiotic and dangerous – because it is empowers idiots. There are many examples. One more came in the mail the other day from an idiot government worker by the name – appropriately enough – of Gerald F. Lackey, who added PhD to his name, so as to impress us with the authority of his credentials.
Like “Dr.” Jill Biden.
Like the credentialed “experts” who assured us that facial underwear “works” to “stop the spread.” And who insist that if even a fraction more carbon dioxide is added to the 0.04 percent of the Earth’s atmosphere that is CO2 the “climate” is going to “change.”
Whatever that means. Which means anything, of course. Which is just the point.
Back to the Lackey – who heads Virginia’s Department of Motor Vehicles. Italicized for reasons that will shortly become clear.
He has “more than 15 years of experience in collaborating with government . . .” Italics added, again. There was a time when collaborating was generally considered to be something not to brag about.
Viz, Marshall Petain. Viz, Vidkun Quisling.
He sent me and probably every other person in my state who has a driver’s license a letter to counsel me about the importance of learning how to properly ride a motorcycle. The motorcycles – plural – I have been riding for decades.
You would assume that the person who is the head of the Department of Motor Vehicles – which is the government bureaucracy that issues driver’s licenses and driver’s license endorsements such as the “M” on the license that indicates the person has qualified for and obtained a motorcycle license – would refrain from sending letters to people who have the latter urging them to “complete a rider training course.”
That is to say, a new rider training course.
As in, the one the DMV suggests people who’ve not learned how to ride a bike take in order to learn how to ride one.
These courses are not pointless – assuming you don’t know how to ride a bike or haven’t got much experience riding. They teach the basics of riding; the proper use of the bike’s controls and give advice to people new to riding about how to reduce the risks of riding that are specific to being on two wheels rather than four. This is all fine – if you’re new to riding – for the same reason that learning how to properly saddle and direct a horse is valuable to the just-beginning equestrian.
But it is to beggar the meaning of idiotic to pester-lecture people who’ve been riding for decades – who have had a motorcycle endorsement for decades – to take a rider course that is specifically designed for people who have little, if any, experience riding motorcycles.
The Lackey writes that – “shockingly” – “76 percent of motorcyclists involved in crashes in Virginia haven’t completed a training course. And a staggering one-in-four riders aren’t even legally endorsed to ride on Virginia roads!”
So why not send them the pester-lecture letter?
Instead, the Lackey sent me – and probably tens of thousands of other licensed motorcycle riders – a letter, indicating that the Lackey who runs the DMV has no idea who is licensed to ride motorcycle and who is not.
Is it asking too much for the DMV to use its resources – that is to say, our resources, taken by force from us via a litany of taxes and “fees” that are just another name for taxes – to cross-reference its records and not waste more of our resources on idiotic, pedantic and supercilious pester-lecture letters addressed to people who are in need of such counsel to the same degree that a continent adult needs counsel to correctly keep himself clean?
If it seems small of me to devote an entire column to this idiocy, remember that it is the idiocy we’re forced to finance. It is of the same species of tyranny Jefferson denounced when he spoke of the tyranny of compelling a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he detests (viz, NPR; viz, government schools).
Would you – would anyone lacking access to an unlimited supply of other people’s money – spend money on a mass-letter campaign pester-lecturing people about anything, let alone a thing as superfluously idiotic as a letter pester-lecturing people who already ride motorcycles and who already have the government-mandated endorsement to ride a motorcycle that they really ought to take a new rider “safety” course?
It takes a real Lackey to do that.
A credentialed one. Like the ones who pester-lectured people that “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.” As in, stop looking at alternatives to the mRNA poison they were pushing, y’all. So as to give the pester-lecture the mouth feel of just-folks as opposed to arrogant idiots pester-lecturing people they look upon as idiots.
All of it paid for by the people these people look upon as idiots.
“Completing the course qualifies you for that all-important endorsement on your license. It’s a no-brainer!”
Indeed, it is.
. . .
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Florida DMV: In 2020, I moved to South Dakota for about 2.5 years. Having moved back, again, to Florida, I attempted to change my driver’s license back to Florida. It turns out that I died in about 2002 (despite holding a FL driver’s license from 1999 through 2020). My first move was to attempt to obtain my death certificate. I though that would be quite a trophy to put on my wall. Of course the Health Department had no such information or document. And they were pretty baffled after asking who I was, when I stated that I was the deceased.
Back to the DMV: They wanted me to get a letter from the Social Security Administration stating that I was still alive. I did that at considerable inconvenience to me. Then, back at the DMV with my “Alive” letter, they attempted to finalize my new driver’s license. They faxed all the documents to Tallahassee, where the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLDHSMV) lives and breathes. The local DMV agent got into an argument with Tallahassee about me actually being alive and actually being me. I’m not sure what would have happened, had two of the DMV agents not personally known me for more than 20 years. I did get my driver’s license.
One of my friends who deals with people and organizations more than I do has maintained for years that everyone is getting more incompetent and unreliable. I have to concur. I generally create a phone call log for every technical phone call where I might need to refer to this in the future. These days you have to continually be prepared for bureaucratic warfare (Tip of the hat to Terrence Popp, YouTuber, for that concept … he’s a 33 year veteran, retired, of the Army and also a Ranger).
In another case, I had to go to court to get the title to a mobile home that had gone through a tax deed sale as real property. Due to ignorance of the prior owner and incompetence of the tax sale authorities, a title was never issued with the court ordered auction sale (this was a Real Property tax deed sale). The DMV (them again) said that while my paper trail was perfectly intact (they took 35 minutes with all the experts in the back room to decide this was true), I would still need a Judge to sign an order commanding them to issue me the title.
It took about 60+ pages of documents (neatly organized in a three ring binder), 60 hours of preparation on my part (pro-se … without an attorney), serving of papers on the above mentioned FLDHSMV (they would not accept an emailed PDF, US Mail delivery, or fax … so another $72 on top of the $300 filing fee for the court case). The serving of papers was to induce the lawyer for the FLDHSMV to appear on court at the appointed time via Zoom.
In court, the case went smoothly, except for the FLDHSMV lawyer, who clearly hadn’t read my chain of custody materials, from his line of questioning and objections. The Judge had read the material and ruled in my favor. At the conclusion, I stated to the judge that getting her signature took 60 pages and 60 hours of work. She said that this was par for the course in court. Ugh!
So now that all my FL paperwork is all squared away, I don’t want to have anything to do with the government on any level if I can help it. And God help you if you actually get caught up in the maw of the Police Judicial Prison Legal Complex (PJPLC). Be very careful out there. These entities are all Tar Babies.
Rant off.
“ everyone is getting more incompetent and unreliable “
Oh absolutely! Fired the HVAC contractor after initial install and three follow-up visits failed to make things right. Well, warm air comes out when needed and cool air when it’s hot out, never mind the noise from the out of balance blower and the low frequency noise furnace startup rumble – what do you expect for nearly $19,000? I’ll contact the mfg. for another authorized dealer and start this merry go round again.
I end up doing most fixups myself as I am sick of incompetence. And then unreliable, the lawn spray guy that never shows up, the carport builder that won’t call back, the motorcycle tire swap shop that gave me back an out of balance front wheel.
Exactly. I do much of my own work again, despite having the money to hire things out. I work on my car again after a 30+ year hiatus. I’m much slower than the experts, but I get it done correctly in the long run.
Yep, not loaded but enough to hire out stuff and I’d gladly do that if the work was done well.
RE: the cycle wheel, I got weights and a balancer as I don’t trust them to get it right, and it’s a chore getting a Harley wheel off and back on, correctly, with no adjacent damage.
Get lots of these stupid flyers in the mail from various local politicians. IMHO I think they are thinly veiled campaign mailers paid for by taxpayers rather than their campaigns. Just enough information about something so they can deny they are for their next election…..
Imagine what just one mailer costs. it’s plenty and a waste of money, ours unfortunately.
Eric – I suspect the reason Mr Lackey is so concerned about everyones safety all of the sudden is that the said course is probably outsourced to a buddy who is paid by the government for everyone who attends – and Mr Lacky will somehow get some sort of kickback for every person attending the course….
Which is why its in his interest as many people as possible do….
I would recommend the course to any new rider.
If someone didn’t take the course I would still recommend that they read some good books about riding techniques, and take their motorcycle out to a parking lot (maybe several times—as many as it takes) to get comfortable starting, stopping, braking, and maneuvering it before taking it out on the road.
I don’t care *how* anyone gets the information or gets hands-on practice.
I do think it’s a good way to try to avoid becoming road pizza.
Bikes are smaller and less protected, and other drivers often don’t see them until it’s too late. Leather jackets and 💩 kickers look cool, but there are other (important) reasons why bikers wear them. Those are just facts we all have to work around.
And if they don’t do it, and if they choose to wear flip flops, and otherwise act like idiots, well, then that’s their problem.
Experienced bikers don’t get to be that way by acting foolish. We can all learn something from them, class or no class. Did anyone ever stop to think that might be part of what motorcycle clubs are for? Sheesh. Not everyone learns well in a class setting, and not everyone is good at teaching.
Some years back a buddy took the advanced riding course, he said it was well worth it. They were big on braking, avoidance, cornering technique and included some classroom time as well. He said it was a good wake-up call for him, he had years of riding experience but yet plenty of room for improvement.
Not a motorcycle, but when my kid got his license I took him to a driving course specifically for new drivers. It was held at a race track and taught by racers. The kids didn’t learn racing, obviously, but the class was worth every dime.
https://www.birmn.com/streetsmarts
As I’m getting older I am thinking it would be good for me to do some advanced driving work. Bottom line, there are plenty of voluntary opportunities to improve skills. Miss me with the regime approved courses.
My experience with regime-approved drivers ed was that it was mostly a waste of time. I learned way more about traffic laws from studying the rules of the road pamphlet, and way more actual driving skills from my dad. Drivers ed wasn’t bad, per se, but it wasn’t that good either.
I’m sure there are many better programs out there, but you have to look for them. It sounds like you found a really good one.
Wholeheartedly agree with the value of the beginner’s riding course for a beginner! That’s what I did, and I still remember those drills. Surely helps that my instructor was a Marine! I hear good things about the advanced rider course too, but never took one. My old carpooling buddy was an instructor for the beginner course: as a prerequisite, he himself did the advanced course. One nice thing about being older is that my “need for speed” is subsiding and I can enjoy any kind of ride…
Need an “endorsement” for a motorcycle but not towing a trailer or piloting a motor home, well that makes sense! Imagine Joe Biden getting the keys to a class A motor coach and off he goes. Somehow I’m a hazard on two wheels without that magic endorsement. What a country!
Government rules are always arbitrary and capricious. Made up out of thin air by imbeciles, losers, incompetents and failures. The worst people are in charge of your life.
How would he finish without two steering wheels? IIRC the F150 Lightning
Lackey looks exactly like one of the fellas in the Soy Boy illustration that you sometimes put in your articles.
https://www.ericpetersautos.com/2019/07/18/2020-dodge-charger/20-soy/
I got the same bureaucratic B.S. invitation, read it, and threw it in the trash. Some bureaucrat is just doing this for a feather in his cap. They don’t give a rat’s ass about anything but accolades and revenue.
I got my Class C endorsement in 1981, after doing the parking lot antics for the DMV bureaucrat. I have participated in a few advanced technique riding workshops since then, but nothing with official ‘endorsement’ paperwork or government affiliation. Every other ride nowadays is a survival course in and of itself anyway, lol! Most of the motorcycles I own are older than the DMV bureaucrats as well. What they know wouldn’t fill a thimble in the first place.
Just had a stroke that knocked my balance control out of whack. Just gave my last motor to my son. Life is a long gamble. Been riding over 70 years if you count peddled tricycles….. Didn’t need a corpgov riding course to learn. They didn’t have a m/c endorsement,,, you were considered and sometimes treated as an adult back then.
You’ve got to know when to hold ’em
Know when to fold ’em
Know when to walk away
And know when to run
You never count your money
When you’re sittin’ at the table
There’ll be time enough for countin’
When the dealin’s done
Well, for me, the dealin’s done and the countin has begun.
I thank the Gods I did not have to put up with mind numbed corrupt Lackeys.
Ken: Wishing you a speedy recovery.
Thanks,,, but doesn’t look good,,, too old. (About 75) To those that think their health will stay with them until they die, think again! Goes quick,,, I don’t care how much you work out or the quality of food you eat. Even the terminator (screw your freedoms) now has a pacemaker….
Problem is Corpgov, poisoning the food, water and air on the lie that a certain gas necessary for all life will destroy the world. The economy is in tatters because of out of control spending and too many Lackeys sucking off of not enough producers.
Most representing government today have loyalties to nations other than the USA and are using America to suicide itself. Most running for President have split loyalties. Illegals in tanks you purchased coming down the street to disarm you.
Here’s hoping I don’t live through that period and rest assured it’s coming soon. Already illegals are taking over government and many are now in law enforcement and soon the military. Illegals arresting citizens! Now there’s a picture for you.
Real Americans are needed,,, not the hyphenated ones.
“We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile. We have room for but one language here and that is the English language, for we intend to see that the crucible turns our people out as Americans, and American nationality, and not as dwellers in a polyglot boarding house; and we have room for but one soul [sic] loyalty, and that is loyalty to the American people.”
Back when most Americans were not hyphenated. Teddy Roosevelt.
I bought my first and only motorcycle in 2005, a brand new Honda VTX 1300. I had never ridden a motorcycle before. Not even a dirt bike.
It was delivered to my house. I hopped on and after a few times killing it while trying to take off, I figured it out and was on my way.
Rode it for 10 years. Never took a training course and never got my special license (I didn’t feel it was necessary since I was already licensed to drive a car).
10 years later a lady on her cell phone slow rolled into me from behind at a red light and that was enough for me. Had a lot of close calls due to cell phone distracted imbeciles. Sold it and bought a 70’s muscle car.
My grandfather held a doctorate in education. He was a high school principal. Grandpa Russ didn’t make a big deal about it, he had his sheepskin hanging in his very modest and messy office that doubled as grandma’s sewing room (and our bedroom when they’d babysit me and my sister).
My nephew is about to graduate high school. He’s a co-valedictorian, along with a few of his compatriots. Thanks to grade inflation he’s earned something like a 4.8 GPA, mostly taking college AP classes his senior year.
I figured he’d have his pick of colleges, unless he was looking at ivy league schools. I also assumed he’d get some access to merit scholarships too. I don’t know the details, but my understanding is he’s going to try and sign on at the Walmart distribution center for a few years, and take advantage of the company’s generous college benefit. Because top of your class with high ability is average.
Credentials don’t make you smart, they just confirm what you already know. But there’s inherent flaws in any testing system, in that the test is by definition a “small world” problem. There’s always a correct answer. The test is a simplified version that is highly controlled. Think parallel parking a Subaru between well-spaced orange cones vs trying to shoehorn an Electra 225 into a tight space between a pickup and Chevy Impala. No one claims that because they got their divers license that they shouldn’t be at fault, yet that’s the implied declaration the little card in your wallet says.
Yet when it comes to hiring people, the credential is essential. This is a direct result of EEOC rules hoisted on businesses. The HR department adds another layer, themselves credentialed by their own peers through professional associations that wield unearned power. I once was told flat out that the reason I wasn’t selected for a position was because the successful candidate had a degree and I didn’t. Yet when there was a problem he couldn’t figure out, who did he call? We also saw our fair share of “diversity” hires, one of whom had an MBA, brought in for tasks they had no business doing. But they had paper saying they could do it, so they got in.
I don’t ride motorcycles, but I have ridden them. I do ride bicycles, sometimes down very steep grades where my speed can exceed 40 MPH. I understand the physics involved in riding a two wheeled vehicle at speed. I have no doubt I could get my motorcycle endorsement if I wanted. But I don’t want to be bothered with taking the classes and all that (nor do I need another money pit hobby). If I were in a situation where riding was my only option, you bet I wouldn’t give it a second thought, and I’d be fine. Credential or not.
We are finding out now that these degrees these morons have are all fraud….all plagiarized…copying someone else’s work, to get their degree….totally clueless on the subject….or they just bought a fake degree, or just claim they have one…nobody checks….and get high paid jobs as a result….or positions of power…like DA….
We are finding out now that these degrees these morons have are all fraud…diversity hires are the worst…all fake bs….now running the government…
Hi Anon,
I have a BA – which I only needed to get my first job as a reporter. It did not qualify me in any way to be a reporter. Much less an editorial writer/columnist. That requires some ability to write coherently and a degree of native intelligence, all of which I possessed as a freshman in high school. If it had not been for the need to get the degree to get the job, I could have begun working that job at 14 or 15 years of age. This is what people used to do – before the credential became more relevant than capability.
Eric, you’re a competent writer. And then some.
Thanks, Rain!
The coffee – and the irritation – help!
Doing original work at the graduate level is nearly impossible these days. And the real way to learn how to do research is to rigorously test others’ work to find faults. But that doesn’t make you popular amongst your peers, so you run a few derivative experiments that prove some new minutia and get yourself published. And if you’re lucky, someone will review your work, quid pro quo style. Gotta build that network, right?
My experience with academia was you spent two years coming up with a theory & the rest of your life defending it.
Good stuff RK.
Re: HR
I’m fighting our own HR person and I’m a co-owner. No way they are going to compromise my salesman’s ability to sell for paperwork, PTO crap, etc.. I am winning, there are always ways……..
I always thought the job of HR was to be the first line of defense against the resources when they got out of line. I guess that’s no longer the case…
13 Years ago, when I bought my 68 BSA Lightning I needed to get the motorcycle endorsement for Oregon. There were only (2) options, take a safety course sponsored by a specific company which took a whole weekend or go to the DMV and take the test with a bureaucrat watching. At first, I thought; sure, a safety course would be fine and useful. Looking further into it there was only (1) firm approved to provide this course. I smelled corruption…why isn’t there several or even many? I went old school and showed up at the DMV and did the figure 8 for the bureaucrat.
We get a monthly newsletter, paid by the taxpayers of course, on how the county is spending taxpayer dollars. I asked our county commissioner –who I went to school with– why they keep sending paper when it could be done online for free. The answer was, “brother I don’t know”.
“You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.”
Over-educated X-er Wine Mom.
Like “Doctor” Jill Biden.
Neither am I a guinea pig.
I’ve had my class M for 36 years even though I haven’t owned a bike for a long time. Thanks for the heads up Eric. I’ll be looking for this piece of junk mail in my mailbox.
I’ll bet the mailing is triggered by a motorcycle REGISTRATION within the last 10 years or so and you won’t get one. The way the communist mind works.
It is living proof of comments made on LRC this past April.
“[W]e are governed by an insular elite acculturated and educated to intellectually incestuous intersectionalism at the moral and practical effect of disastrous public policy.”
In addition, the logical fallacy of Appeal to Authority is what drives most of our society. The more “credentialed” a person is, the more you must submit to them. This Appeal to Authority will inevitably lead to a society based on Authoritarianism. Not a pleasant thought.
Keep your powder dry.
https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/the-elite-who-govern-us-2/
Hi Eric,
I know one dude that turned goverment bueracrat. I saw him after a year. Its amazing how they break your brain there. You stop thinking and just following procedure. Something thats simple and logical to common population becomes insanely difficult. Someome who spent a life gathering credentials sucking up to the right poeple simply looses ability to think. Even when he wants to do good he cant. Problem solving and creativity is just something those poeple lack.
Indeed, Pupet –
Also, in government, the incentive is make-work. Not productive work. They do things to be seen as doing something. It can be anything – and is usually either superfluous, idiotic or evil. In the world of free exchange, only productive work is rewarded. Which serves to discourage unproductive “work.”
I have a distant cousin that is an officer for the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. He told me one day that he spends a majority of his time goofing off, sometimes even going fishing. I think there’s no better activity for a government worker. Better to be goofing off than to be actively harming others.
“he spends a majority of his time goofing off,”
that explains why…..94% of crime is undetected.
Former councillor and mayor, Brian Silvester informs us how we can turn our councils around to work for the people, and the untapped methods of infiltrating it to make change.
Local councils can’t fix potholes but spend millions of dollars on climate change bs…virtue signalling…..
Councillor Brian Silvester says…94% of crime is undetected…..poor police performance….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSKetdjrtaU
The OHP doesn’t try to detect any crime, only rule breakers that they can mulct. I want them doing as little as possible. We can discuss the proper role of crime solvers/detectives (and why they shouldn’t be financed by the state), but crime prevention is a farce, and it’s where the abuse begins.
Agreed 100 percent. I’m happy that their presence is relatively rare on Oklahoma Interstates. Despite that, there aren’t a huge number of high flyers on the highways. Most drivers are going 80-85 in a 75.
I’ve been pulled over by OHP twice very recently. Before that, it had been 10 or 20 years. Both times for “seat belt”. The first one, I got a ticket that I threw in the trash. The most recent, he just told me to put it on and said drive safe.
The funny thing is, the one who wrote a ticket was a guy about my age, friendly and chatty, he liked my Firebird.
The one who didn’t write a ticket was a young guy, all business, no chit chat. I can’t ever imagine as a young man, telling a guy double my age to wear a seatbelt! If he didn’t have the ability to steal my car and kidnap me at gunpoint, I would have told him to F right off.
94% of crime is undetected……the leftists figured this out a long time ago…that is how they finance their agenda and maintain power..
The control group uses crime to finance staying in power…..
It has been pointed out elsewhere that the communists spent something like 80 billion dollars on IRS scum. And now they’re bragging that it’s a success because they shook down tax payers for an extra 250 million.
In my book that goes past stupid and even insane and pegs the needle in “evil”.
Two words: Mesabi Range!
Steel, not plastics.
Taconite from Silver Bay in Minnesota to the Merchandise Mart in Chicago makes the market. Cleveland Cliffs does a lot of decision making.
State Street makes some serious investments.
We’re from the IRS and we are here to strike you so you can cry out in pain, it pains us to do it, but orders are orders.
We’ll cry with you. har
Do not forget, Ernie, these detested IRS are now armed, courtesy of we taxpayers. So now they can simply shoot us at our own expense if they want to. For any reason or no reason.
That sounds like a typical govco ROI – spend $80 billion to get back $250 million. Plus them saying they’re only going to audit “high income” individuals is pure BS, those people have armies of lawyers and accountants who can fend them off, so once again the middle class will get bent over.
They say slaves that can’t make it the real world, the dinks and losers….end up working for the government…the slave owners…they are traitor slaves….(they are paid well and get a gold plated, defined benefit pension..or two…)….helping the control group rob the good, worker slaves….just as evil as the control group….
if you could get the traitor slaves from helping the control group…maybe change could happen….