One of the most obnoxious trends lately is the leveraging of government force to pad the pockets of private businesses.
Obamacare is perhaps the most grotesque example (pssst... you don’t get “free” or even “reduced cost” medical care; you are forced to buy an insurance policy, and that is something quite different) but it’s becoming SOP – standard operating procedure – in terminal stage America.
Here’s another example: The Automotive Service Association – which is the lobby for repair shops (yes, they have a lobby, too) is pushing with all its might for a nationwide car “safety inspection” mandate (see here).
At the moment, a majority of states have done away with these – or never had them. Only 11 states currently have a mandatory (annual or semi-annual) inspection requirement.
ASA croons that it’s all about “safety.” They care, you see. And of course, they do… just about something else.
Ka-ching.
That’s the sound of the money they will be able to extort from people – who (if the ASA is successful) will be forced – let’s not mince words – to turn over their cars once a year for an “inspection. Which won’t be free. It is big business. And it’s not just the money that will be filched for the stickers. The really big money comes from the repairs – parts and labor – that will be drummed up.
That is one obvious objection to this shakedown – and that’s exactly what it is. If you are forced to bring your car in for an “inspection” – and you know going in that the shop will immediately scrape off the sticker you must have to legally drive the car, it will be hard to say no to any proposed repair.
The car may need new brakes or tires. But then again, it may not. Getting a second opinion becomes onerous given the pressure to have that sticker on the windshield.
You are under duress – just as you are when you go shopping for car insurance (and now, health insurance).
ASA presumes all shops are honest (and competent) but that’s like saying all doctors and lawyers are competent and honest. Who thinks so? But we’re not (yet) forced to deal with doctors (whoops, take that one back)… or at least, not lawyers (yet).
Also, there is the presumption of incompetence on the part of the car owner. There are still people who are conscientious about upkeep and maintenance – and who are quite capable of taking care of their cars themselves. Who do not need to have their car “inspected” by a person who may be less competent with a wrench than they are. (State-approved “inspectors” need only pass a test that shows they know how to “inspect” a car, per the government’s test rigmarole.)
Forcing people who are conscientious and competent to waste their time and money having their car “inspected” because – as ASA argues – some people (always a minority) aren’t conscientious about maintaining their vehicles is no different than the specious argument trotted out by gun control advocates that because some people misuse firearms no one can be trusted to own firearms.
There is also the presumption that once inspected, the car is safe to drive. Perhaps on the day it was inspected. When it passed the various requirements… even if only just barely. But what about a month after it was inspected? When the brake pads have worn down the remaining 10 percent of material they still had on the day the car was passed? All the sticker means is that the car passed muster on March 9, 2017 (or whatever).
But wear and tear continues; things break.
There is a fair argument to be made that inspections encourage owner passivity about the mechanical condition of his vehicle. Why worry about the brakes or the tires (let alone check them oneself, or arrange to have them checked)? The car passed! It has a sticker.
It must be safe!
And if it’s not safe – and there’s an accident as a result of worn-out brakes or some other thing – will the shop that passed the car be held responsible?
No, of course not. 
And it’s not just an expensive, useless hassle – there being no evidence that mandatory inspections reduce accidents that can be attributed to equipment failure.
These at-gunpoint (and that’s just what they are; see what happens if you drive around without the requisite sticker) “inspections” can end up costing you money in other ways. One very common problem is damage done to lug nuts, brake rotors (and wheels) during the brake part of the “inspection.”
Shops tend to use air guns to loosen – and tighten – the lug nuts that hold the wheel to the hub. During removal, the lug nuts – which are often chrome plated – get chipped and rounded and then, rust.
You get to pay for the damage.
If the gun is not set to the right torque (tightness) value when the wheels are re-installed, more serious problems are possible. If the lug nuts are installed too loose, the wheel could shear off the car and a bad accident might be the result. Will you be able to prove the shop was responsible?
Good luck.
Sometimes, the lug nut is not threaded properly by an in-a-hurry inspector (who has a conga line of cars waiting) and the lug gets cross-threaded or snaps off the stud. It is not unknown for the shop to let a “customer” (air quotes for the same reason you are a “customer” of the IRS) drive off with four rather than five lug nuts holding the wheel to the hub … the fifth one having been sheared off by the air gun.
But the most common problem is over-torquing the lug nuts, which can (and often does) warp the brake rotors, which results in pulsation and vibration when the brakes are applied.
Good luck proving the inspector was the cause – or getting the shop to make it right on their nickel.
It’s not that safety inspections as such are a bad idea. The bad idea is making them mandatory.
Most people are not irresponsible. Why should they be presumed so?
Also, when inspections are mandatory, the cost will necessarily be high. Because there is no market incentive to keep costs low. The same problem currently bedevils the car insurance market. Since we can’t (legally) say “no” – the insurance industry knows we have no choice – and can charge more or less what it likes.
And that’s a very bad idea, indeed.
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Missouri really sucks in that area. Back in the ’80’s, I built a V-8 Vega while I was stationed in Kansas. Of coarse I installed headers and dual exhaust on this formerly 4 cylinder car, and of course there were no exhaust or tailpipe kits available for it from local parts stores, and muffler shops assume that car builders are flush with excessive cash.
I ordered exhaust tubes that would bolt to the header flanges from a catalogue, and I bought glass pack mufflers from Walmart (yes, they used to sell mufflers, along with other car parts). I needed tailpipes to connect to the rear of the mufflers and to exit out the rear of the car, so I bought a pair of flex pipes as well.
I then drove home to the state of Misery, and tried to get my license plates switched over. My new leak-free exhaust system would not pass due to the flex pipes and the resulting potential of carbon monoxide poisoning. It is legal to use flexpipe in semi-truck engine compartments and under pick-up trucks so long as it/ they are mounted behind the cab. It is not OK to have them mounted at the rear of the cars cab and only extending over the rear axle and under the trunk. I had to pay a muffler shop to remove my non leaking tailpipes, and to have them form solid exhaust flow restrictive crimped replacement tailpipes.
Since then, I have had to repeatedly replace brake hoses in various cars I have had due to tiny weather cracks. I have also had to replace a cracked windshield even though it was entirely out of my driving vision range.
Just a couple of years ago my solid 2000 F-350 failed inspection because the inspector claimed to have heard excessive noise from my power steering pump, and that series of trucks were indeed sold by Ford with weak noisy pumps. I did not allow them to gouge me by making said repairs. I bought the parts from somewhere else and did the repairs by myself. The new pump made at least as much noise while turning the steering wheel on the parked truck as the old one did; yet the inspector claimed my vehicle to now be up to standard, and he passed the re-inspection.
My motorcycle didn’t fair so well though. It was in the back of my truck, and had been running albeit a bit roughly when I first bought it in Oklahoma. I replaced both bald dry rotted tires, rebuilt the front forks with better variable rate springs, replaced the horns, repaired rain corroded wiring circuites and switches, used dielectric grease to protect said connections, and solved and repaired the charging system problem/ factory defect that the ’92 1100 Virago had since it was manufactured. By that time my gas was old. I hoped to get the bike to pass because I could demonstrate that every safety device work perfectly and passed their checklist. It failed because the bike would not start. How dangerous can a bike with working brakes, lights, and electrical system be if one could not then drive it? They claimed the need to check for exhaust leaks (!?????!) on it, and for noise. (compared to Harlys?) I had to return to Oklahoma to work, and I got it licensed and insured there.
We used to have vehicle inspections here. My second car was a 1074 Vega, which I maintained. The only fault they ever found, and they did every year, was that the gas cap leaked. The problem was they did not have the correct adapter to check it. To save money on a retest I always had a spare in the glove compartment. When it failed, as it did every year, I handed them the new one in the package and asked them to replace it. They would then pass me without testing the new cap. It was a nuisance but part of the cost of dealing with the system.
Possibly this has been said, but perhaps if this thing comes into effect, then there is no better time to man-up and try out the non-consent approach. Too much to rehash here, but in the end, it sounds something like this before a judge (if indeed it does come down to a court appearance; there are ways to accomplish this via mail): “I claim Common Law jurisdiction. I do not consent, and I waive all the benefits.”
This is statutory stuff. It requires your consent. You don’t need to give it to them. Look into it if you haven’t, and make a determination if indeed you want to try.
You “may” be right that the law says you need to give your consent, but the judge does not care what the law is, and he WILL fine you, and he WILL imprison you if you do not pay. The law means virtually nothing. There is NO law that you have to pay federal income either. Just try not paying and see what happens… Laws are an illusion, power is reality.
Exactly, Charlie. “They” pick and choose which laws THEY will obey and enforce. THEY have all the power (the guns and the hired mercenaries who wield them), and we the people no longer ANY power, so they don’t even make a pretense of being restrained by the Constitution anymore, much less common law or mere codes and statutes. The law now only exists to be used against us. THEY can do whatever they want- what are we going to do about it?
Those idiots still preaching that common-law stuff should be castrated. There followers sometimes luck out on rare occasiuons and have one brief victory, but they all always end up with lots of problems/fines/losing their property/going to jail, and even being ordered to undergo psychiatric evaluation!
Anyone who believes that we will find justice by playing by the corrupt system’s rules on their own territory, is a fool..
If i lose a loved one i could at least use some cash to help my remaining ones.
What kind of slobbering idiot feels justice is served by forcing the tribe to provide room board and a cage for the destroyer of lives.
That fuckers needs to work for me until i feel compensated and made whole. How is that even debatable?
In 1985 a friend inherited his father’s 1970 4-door Oldsmobile Delta 88, which he drove until 2012. To pass Arizona’s annual smog inspection he first took the car to a mechanic, who for $20 “inspectionized” it, which made it run terribly but also ensured it would pass Arizona’s smog test.
Once my buddy had the gubmint sticker in place, back to the shop he would go for the deinspectionizing.
On a side note: This is the guy who loaned me Albert Jay Nock’s “Our Enemy, The State”, thus curing my statism.
“anybody got any lynch?”
somethings, like Firesign, like Aldrich family, Have Gun Will Travel, and especially Pat Novak, maybe disappeared more due to cultural losses under our glorious Mercenary/Mercantilist Culture and other statism nihilism mutations…
Cheech had to go because warrrrrrr on druggggs are badddddd IMHO
– –
Waiting for the Electrician or Someone Like Him (1968)
Speaking for the great white father in Washington and all the American people, let me say we respect you savages for your native ability to instantly adapt and survive in whatever Godforsaken wilderness we move you to. Out there. Sign here.
Oh my White Brother.
Hey man, don’t let ’em bring you down now. There’s a lot of young people in this country just like myself who really know where the Indian’s at. And don’t worry, soon we’re all gonna be out here on the reservation, living like Indians, and dressing like Indians, and doing all the simple, beautiful things that you Indians do. You got any peyote?
Gentlemen, gentlemen! I won’t take any more credit for this victory than necessary. Lord Kitschener did not – nay, will not – die in vain, grid willing. [Applause]
Gentlemen, gentlemen – I, as leader, will use power like a drum, and leadership like a violin. Take out any idea. Compare ideas, with the one idea left we are left you have no doubt and without a doubt we have enthusiasm! Gentlemen, gentlemen, please, gentlemen – to make life whole, it’s as easy as a bridge! Now, now, gentle- gentlemen, now that we have obtained control we must pull together as one – like a twin! Keeping the prophecy of power as enthusiasm! All for one!
All for one!
– and all for one!
All for one!
Let me hear it for me!
You’re under arrest!
String him up!
Anyone got any string?
[Later] Lynch him!
Anybody got any lynch?
How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You’re Not Anywhere At All (1969)
Happy motoring and back to the freeway which is already in progress.
Just remember: Abraham Lincoln didn’t die in vain, he died in Washington D.C.
Why she’s no fun, she fell right over.
The pyramid is opening!
Which one?
The one with the ever-widening hole in it!
The President of these United States is named “Schicklgruber”.
Come on big fella – take this guitar! Put on this wide belt and work shirt and tell it like it was!
“Stop”! It wasn’t always like that. No, first they had to come from little towns with strange names like: Smegma, Spasmodic, Frog, and the far flung Isles of Langerhans.
What do you think they took? “Oil from Canada, gold from Mexico, geese from the neighbor’s backyard – boom boom. Corn from the Indians, tobacco from the Indians, Dakota from the Indians, New Jersey from the Indians, New Hampshire from the Indians, New England from the Indians, New Delhi from the Indians” – Indonesia for the Indonesians! Yes, and Veteran’s Day.
One shining steel rail, from sea to mighty sea, from coast to mighty coast, from Bangor all the way to mighty Maine!
So how about that, Mr. Smarty Pants Communist? Mr. College Professor? Mr. Beatnik? Mr. Hippie? What have you done for me lately?
I’d like to order a pizza to go with no anchovies.
No anchovies? — you’ve got the wrong man. I spell my name “Danger”.
You can sit here in the waiting room, or you can wait here in the sitting room.
Catherwood: Let me introduce myself. I am Nick Danger.
Danger: No, let me introduce myself. i am Nick Danger.
Catherwood: If you’re so smart, why don’t you pick up your cues faster?
Danger: Are those my cues?
Catherwood: Yes, and they should be dry by now; why don’t you pull them up out of the cellophane before they scorch! All rightcha. may I take your hat and goat? Ah. I assume you’ve come to see my mistress, Mr. Danger.
Danger: I don’t care about your private life, or what his name is.
Catherwood: Nancy! Who is that ugly dwarf with his hand down your throat?
Rococo: Rocy Rococo, at your cervix.
Danger: Well, it’s like in the Army, you know? The great prince issues commands, founds states, vests families with fiefs — Inferior people should not be employed.
Bradshaw: Nick, I can’t knock success, but you still put me through too many changes!
Don’t Crush that Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers (1970)
Shoes for Industry!
10-4, Eleanor
Offer not good after curfew in sectors R or N
Watch out for that entrenching tool!
I Think We’re All Bozos On This Bus (1971)
Here comes another one, just like the other one
Why does the porridge bird lay his egg in the air?
Geez, I’m standing here like an idiot, talking to myself. Might as well stand on this line like an idiot, talking to myself.
The Giant Rat of Sumatra
Hemlock Stones: Aha!
Flotsam: What is it, Stones?
Hemlock Stones: I sat on my pipe!
The Case of the Missing Shoe
Danger: Pathetic! Either Acme was walking around with only one shoe, or there was something seriously wrong with our sound-effects man.
(off mic) Something wrong with you, Eddie?
– There used to be honest discussions and debates about beatniks, hippies, commies, etc. No there’s just bleating sheeple going 4 statisms good, 2 statisms bad. Eek a communist.
Only the market can determine communism is successful, or not. It does seem to be doing pretty well for China, if you give a crap about national metrics, which I for one couldn’t give to tin shits about.
We seem to be the authoritarians du jour(jure?), not them.
Mandatory inspections apply to all kinds of things besides cars. I’ve been a state inspector in Va. for 30 years. You may be conscientious and responsible and you’re a gear head, so you’re not oblivious. Most of my clientele consists of responsible people, but the problem is they are not car geeks and are generally oblivious about what’s going on with their cars. I have people bringing in GL450 mommy wagons with cord showing on their tires and they have no clue. The inspection for these people is like an annual physical.
I understand YOUR resentment, but for many folks it’s a good thing.
On some level everyone just wants to do their own thing with out interference. Hell, I have a neighbor whose stupid dog barks all the time and what I’d really like to do is cap the dog and him too if he protested!
I have customers who are car geeks whose vehicles are always in tip top shape and so are mine, but we are in the minority.
Can you acknowledge in the least that this issue may be nuanced or are you one of those who, as a great man once said: “I don’t do nuance”?
Hi Erik,
Can you cite evidence showing that mandatory evidence has reduced accidents? Or is it just an assertion?
Rather than herd everyone into these mandatory cattle chutes like… cattle… why not presume responsibility and competence until a person actually does something (like cause harm) before presuming otherwise?
Why not hold individual people accountable for what they actually do – rather than holding them accountable for what “others” might do?
Arguably, the police state we currently suffer under exists because of precisely such logic as critiqued above. “If it saves even one life”… “if you have nothing to hide”…. “safety” (hypothesized/asserted) … etc….
The masses take the laziest path. That’s why dumbing things down only builds better idiots. When they have to take the car in for inspections at least some stop inspecting themselves. After all the state licensed experts said it’s just fine. They do the same with everything else where government keeps us “safe”. Illinois has no inspections and yet there isn’t any issue regarding the deaths of soccer moms from bald tires.
Wow BrentP. You are still alive with your poor driving? Impossible. How many accidents have you had this year?
I had to laugh at this blog. Do not trust the private car repair guy? Really? Did that come from Eric who said that to make the world better that everything needs to be privatized? Thanks Eric for backing me up.
I will be out of here for a few more months and try to come back the day before this site goes broke. Who in their right mind would donate for this garbage?
Clover,
Your imprecision – or is it dishonesty? – is always something to behold. This article argues against government forcing people to get inspections – not against having cars inspected (if that is the owner’s wish).
So – to be clear (unlike you) the debate here is over the mandate that every person have their car inspected (based on the argument that “some people” do not take proper care of their vehicles).
“Privatizing” has nothing to do with it.
Not coercing people to have their cars inspected by anyone (private service station or state-run inspection stations) is the issue at hand.
It’s revelatory that you never address a point directly; that you always have to create a straw man or trot out a non sequitur.
But I’ve come to the conclusion that you are simply not very bright rather than dishonest. I believe that you have a low IQ and are not capable of comprehending a precise, logical sequence; of understanding the core issue or principle in a given discussion. That low IQ – plus a government education – results in…. Clover!
It’s been good to not have you around. Perhaps you will continue to do us that favor!
PS: The site reaches a quarter million people monthly. That’s got to be driving you nuts!
Don’t let the screen door hit you in the ass on the way out. Still more cop-sucking to be done eh? Some girl’s jobs just never end.
Aww… Clover’s lonely.
And as belligerently imbecilic as always!
I picture him in the ill-fitting uniform of a mall security guard…
I If I cause someone to suffer a loss (meaning an accident with my car) I am liable. That alone should be good enough. No amount of fulfilling state mandated requirements alleviates me of this. So, mechanical failure or not, if I cause an accident, I am liable. Having an inspection sticker does not transfer this risk from me. So, what’s the point?
Actually, my personal belief is that since I am liable for any and all damage I cause, there really shouldn’t be many laws covering motor vehicles. (inspections, DUI, seat belts, checkpoints, hell: even freeway speed limits….) Further, as a Libertarian, the tort system is the way by which all of this gets equalized. No inspection, but if I cause you to suffer a loss, you sue me. See?
Excellent point, Tom!
But the state doesn’t use its monopoly on legal violence to hold a person accountable for his actions to those he causes a loss to. The state is only concerned with itself. Few people actually see that. Someone robs you but the thief has a debt to the state. (the state confuses this by saying a debt to society). The state taxes the victim to house the thief in prison. It doesn’t even bother doing anything with regard to accident damage. In some places the government then contracts out the labor of the prisoners and they keep the money. It’s a racket. It’s an obvious and transparent racket. It’s got to be conditioning and emotional manipulation. People seek revenge instead of compensation. I don’t want revenge, I want to be made whole plus a little for my troubles. But all we can get in this government managed society is ‘revenge’.
This government has built up all sorts of mechanisms to lay claims on our wages, productivity, income, property and so on but doesn’t use it to compensate the victims of crimes except in rare cases. Sure we can take on the additional expense of civil lawsuit but the state won’t enforce the judgment so that’s usually all it becomes, a judgment. Now figure out how to collect it on your own but don’t you dare use any method that will actually work or the state will put you in prison.
“Nuance” is a word used to convince people to give up at least part something they possess. In this case freedom from being fleeced. There are reasons why most states who used to have mandatory annual inspections have abandoned the practice. None the least of which was the fact that the inspections were shown to have no discernible effect on road safety.
Looks like the activists of Libertarian Institute are on the case! https://www.facebook.com/The-Libertarian-Institute-Libertarian-Lawyers-Law-Students-Network-286391731371825/
Got Dam this Revenant movie is addicting. A Revenant is simply someone who returns. Someone either alive or dead. But seeing pioneer libertarian North America as it once was is well worth the watching.
I sometimes nihilistic ally hope at least a few of us might return in a like fashion and doggedly track down and settle up with these human livestock herders or their sheepdog flock tenders.
But better to build and live somehow outside their clutches is the best way to drive your bio-bipedal life machine, tho sometimes it’s mor therapeutic to veer than to steer.
“Got Dam this Revenant movie is addicting”
Tor, I do mean to see that one in a theater. It’s another telling of the Hugh Glass story, like the Richard Harris 1970s version, “Man in the Wilderness”.
Probably the Top 10 Best Patriotic Country Songs of All Time
10. “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” – Toby Keith
Toby Keith got a lot of grief over writing this song, and talking about “putting a boot in your ass, it’s the American way.” It was written after the 9-11 incident, and helps us remember that there are men dying so we can sleep at peace each night. The music starts soft and acoustic, but builds to a powerful guitar heavy chorus.
9. “If You’re Reading This” – Tim McGraw
Tim McGraw first performed this song on the ACM Awards show in 2007. The story is of a soldier that has passed on, and his wishes on how he’d like to be remembered, and where he’d like to be buried. The tempo is slower, the instrumentation is sparse and Tim’s vocals are very emotional. With our country involved in war, it’s something too many families have experienced.
8. “Arlington” – Trace Adkins
This song instantly touched me as we see war from a soldier’s perspective after he dies in battle. How pathetic, giving up your life so some heartless rich scumbags can make even more money, even though they’re destroying valuable property and beings, instead of being productive. The tempo is slow, and the music acoustic, with Trace Adkins’ rumbling baritone telling the story. The part that always makes me cry is where he meets his grandfather, who is also buried at Arlington, and the lyrics say, “And it gave me a chill, when he clicked his heels, and saluted me. Guess being a stupid moron runs in certain families.”
7. “8th of November” – Big & Rich
This song is the true story of Vietnam veteran Niles Harris, who survived a battle that took place on Hill 65 in War Zone D on Nov. 8, 1965. How the fuck the Vietcong were any kind of threat to the US is beyond my comprehension. Anyway, he was part of the Army’s 173rd Airbourne, and lost forty-eight of his fellow comrades. The song has a slow dirge-like quality to it, fitting for the subject, and the video is amazing. Instead of spitting on the returning soldiers, maybe this time we’ll get to spit on Trump when the war ends and all them other Fascist Warmongrels.
6. “Fighting Side of Me” – Merle Haggard
This song is from the Vietnam era. Merle Haggard talks about how everyone has the right to stand up for what they believe, but don’t run down the country. The tempo of the song is mid-range, with a strumming guitar along with the powerful lyrics. Guess Merle wouldn’t get paid, if he sang to the real causes of the war and national destructions, on not only the insignificant effects of class warfare.
Everyone has the right to their own opinion in this country, but this song talks frankly about how one’s outspoken opinion might make someone else feel about it. It’s possible to be against the war while still favoring the fighting forces involved in it. Best of all, be mercenarily against the lying assholes who sell us eternal war and then act all holy and benevolent for militarily enslaving everyone.
5. “Only In America” – Brooks & Dunn
How lucky we are to live in a country where so much is possible. So much international booty to pilfer. So many weaklings to dominate, bully, and kill for national pride. This song has a strong uptempo country rock feel, with a heavy guitar line. By the end of the first chorus, you’ll be pumping your fist and singing along. Listening to this definitely tricks you into feeling proud to be an American.
4. “God Bless the USA” – Lee Greenwood
This powerful song is sometimes referred to as the unofficial National Anthem. With guitar-driven verses and choruses that really showcase Greenwood’s vocals, it’s a song that can really bring out the patriotic spirit just by listening. Even though this came out 25 years ago, everything still rings true. How can you hear this song and not feel “proud to be an American”?
3. “The Ballad of Ira Hayes” – Johnny Cash
“The Ballad of Ira Hayes” is a folk song, written by Peter LaFarge, and recorded by many different artists, from Bob Dylan to Pete Seeger, Townes Van Zandt and Johnny Cash among them. The version by Johnny Cash reached No. 3 on the charts, telling the true story of a Pima Indian traitor that served in the Marine Corps in World War II, and was one of the men that raised the flag over Iwo Jima. After returning home from war, he suffered from alcoholism and despair over the holocaust of almost all of his Asian American brethren, which ended up claiming his life. Cash’s version uses recited verses and sung choruses, with a sparse acoustic arrangement to go along with the somber song celebrating Extreme American Assholism.
2. “Some Gave All” – Billy Ray Cyrus
So many people think that Billy Ray Cyrus is all about “Achy Breaky Heart,” but this touching ballad is another of his many hits that remind us that “all gave some, some gave all” and we should always honor those people. Cyrus makes good use of his vocal ability with an heartfelt performance on this loving tribute to the men and women that fight for our freedom each day. Plus he gave us Miley Cyrus, which should be able to bring you to full salute, even with all her ridiculous geegaws and goofy honky tonk kitschy cabaret antics.
1. “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)” – Alan Jackson
I bet you can remember where you were when the 9-11 attacks took place. For cripes sake, two of the Jew’s best office buildings came down, and it cost them 100 billion American. 600 billion New Shekels. Or 10 million pounds of grade A American Goyim flesh.
Alan Jackson gives us visual references, and reminds us not to forget. He performed this song acoustically at the 2001 CMA Awards, just two months after the attacks, and the whole country took notice. The vocals are sung from the heart, and you can feel his anguish in every word. And he is totally not just a dirtbag shill singing for millions of dollars, and only faking everything he’s pretending to emote and deeply feel.
Where the fuck were you? Remember when. Was it way down yonder on the Chattahoochee? Where the fuck are you now? I know I learned A lot about living and a little bout love. Never new how much those UK Jews office buildings meant to me. Well I learned how to work, and learned how to repay compound interest loans. A lot about living and little bout loooooooove.
I hate these hayseed paeans to “serving the country” (you mean, serving as paid mercs for the people who run the government) and snarlin’ gnarlings for “the troops.”
I absolutely hate all of those songs, especially the idiot Lee Greenwood’s “God bless the USA”. If I hear it on the radio or television, off it goes. I don;t know how anybody with a drop of liberty in them can stomach this hack job of a propaganda song. BLECK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ditto, Bill!
The late-stage American worship (literally) of the Enforcer Class is obscene and ought to embarrass even the most depraved Cuckold.
“the idiot Lee Greenwood’s “God bless the USA”
Buuut the flag stills stands fer freedumb an they cain’t take that awaaaaaay.
Evruhbuddy sang!:
An I’m proud to be a Merkin, whar at least I know I’m freeeee.
Pardon me while I puke. Fuckin Lee Greenwood. Fuck him and FORCE feed him fish heads.
Hi Ed,
My rewrite:
If tomorrow all the Pols were gone, I’d worked for all my life
Then I could start again with just my children and my wife
I’d thank my lucky stars to be living free today,
“Cause the flag don’t stand for freedom, no matter what they say
But I’m proud to be an American, where at least I’m told I’m free
And that I control my government because we got “Democracy”
So won’t you stand up next to me, just vote it’ll be OK
‘Cause there ain’t no doubt they stole this land, God Damn the USA
From the lakes of Minnesota, to the hills of Tennessee,
across the plains of Texas, from sea to shining sea,
From Detroit down to Houston and New York to LA,
Well, there’s fear in every American heart,
and it’s time to stand and say:
I’m not proud to be an American, where I get to pledge fealty
To the ruthless scum who rule by lies, who stole my life from me
And I’ll no more stand up next to you and vote, it’s not OK.
“Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land, God Damn the USA.
Jeremy
eric, it’s obscene to include The Ballad of Ira Hayes with this other crap. JC certainly didn’t mean it to be a paean to war and it wasn’t written that way by Peter LaFarge, quite the opposite. Johnny said he’d wear black till we had peace. That’s all he wore to his death. I find myself on the verge of tears listening to his last album. Townes Van Zandt’s version of that song is great too…..but then I’m a big Townes fan…..wrote and performed a lot of good songs.
“eric, it’s obscene to include The Ballad of Ira Hayes with this other crap.”
AMEN TO THAT.
Buddy and Julie Miller doing a great song by Utah Phillips, that old antiwar commie who said, “I’m already against the next war”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvSf2PQF1Fc
How old is this Tor? I don’t remember exactly how old ‘God Bless the USA’ is, but it’s over 30 years.
” Best Patriotic Country Songs of All Time”
Ain’t that like saying, “most fragrant turds”?
Ed, I dunno. A fresh cow patty via some green alfalfa ain’t all bad. OTOH, all but one of those songs are real stinkers.
I used to live in a state which had mandatory inspections (and I never will live in such a state again!) and I can tell you that the cars where I now live are in MUCH better shape than most of the ones you’d see in the inspection state, because here in the non-inspection state, people can actually use their money to repair and maintain their cars, and deal with legitimate issues that the car may have. In the inspection state, for anyone to whom money was tight, you’d save your money for the inspection and to “fix” the BS “issues” they’d find so that the car would pass.
And when is the last time anyone heard of an accident being caused by a car being “unsafe” to drive?
But it wouldn’t surprise me if we end up with this BS, because it seems like everything they have in European/UK socialist countries, and CA/NY/MA. ends up being implemented throughout our whole country before long as we put the finishing touches on the adoption of communism/fascism.
So it will be like ion London or Boston, where if your car has a little dent or a small rust spot, it goes to the junkyard. I have a friend who buys cars at salvage auctions to resell, and he’s been getting all of his cars from MA. because they’re not wrecked; have clean titles, and have virtually no damage except for little maintenance issues or cosmetics which kept them from passing der Kommissar’s inspection. So someone junked their 10 year-old cream-puff Grand Cherokee, because it needed a brake job and a little rust hole in a rocker panel, and the estimate to fix it from the state-licensed goons was thou$ands.
And that’s the interesting thing about licensing businesses. The state is then in partnership with the business. They cut a cut of the profits in the form of taxes, and by mandating patronage, they act as a promoter of such businesses,, guaranteeing that the business owner and the state will profit even more. Partners in crime.
I swear, I think it’s time to think about leaving this country. We never ever get a chance to relax. Every time we open our eyes, they’re shoving some new tyranny down our throats. One after another. it’s not going to end until we’re nuked, or the economy completely collapses.
Hi Nunzio,
in re: “I swear, I think it’s time to think about leaving this country.”
Amen. But where to?
My fantasy is something like Galt’s Gulch, via FTL Drive. Another world, leave these bastards behind.
Maybe it’s genetic.
Maybe people like us need to literally find breeding partners of like mind and deliberately, purposefully attempt to create more like us.
The longer I ponder, the more I lean toward the idea that a part of the problem is simply due to heritable biological factors. It’s known (and accepted) that temperament and personality are to some degree a function of your parents’ genetic makeup. So also intelligence.
Why not a propensity – or lack thereof – to Cloverism?
Over the course of 5000 years man has bred wolves into dogs. There does come a point where the poor yipping dears whould be better off dead, one might claim.
The natve Asian American tribes considered wolves their equals.
The beaver created the great lakes and many other lakes before the Great Castor purge and pelt monetization happened.
Our ruins pass away after only a few millenia and they dont do much for anyone.
Maybe we’re not as superior as we think, I sometimes wonder.
The ruination of a man com s the first time he sits down probably. Avoid chairs and soft beds and dont fall for their making a soft feeble cripple almost totally worthless. Or at least raise children asian style and not western fatass.
Hi, Eric,
Where? Hmmm, dunno. Maybe some remote place in Africa? Somewhere that is NOT easily accessible, and which does not have any natural resources that “they” are interested in stealing. Some place where we can just be left alone.
Dunno about the breeding. It seems impossible just to find a non-clover woman, and i don’t know about the genetics of libertarianism. Virtually all of my ancestors/relatives are Clovers. How I managed to be a freedom-seeker, literally since adolescence, I don’t know. But maybe if we did have truly like-minded couples procreating, and in an environment where kids wouldn’t be a liability, as they are in the first-world today, and where we were free to raise them as we’d choose, it might be interesting.
Check out this video of a c. 10 year-old in another country, who can drive a semi!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks1L-weU7RQ
Here in America, the safety cult has made it so that our kids can’t do anything, and thus grow up to be 30 year-old men who can’t do anything.
Now, now everyone. Those stickers are another reminder of the precious freedom we have to shut up and do as the government tells us to do.
Cue up some Lee Greenwood would you Eric?
That brought back a really old memory. I was a young child at some sort of gathering and a loudspeaker or band or some noisemaker began playing a song someone had already said was coming up. Everyone stood and put their hand over their heart and removed their hats. I recall asking why they did that in my tiny child way. Somebody said something like ’cause that’s what you do’. I was never much on simplistic answers so I just watched everyone else. I recall someone turning my head to this flag flapping in the west Tx. wind. A flapping flag seemed reasonable but I went back to watching everyone else. They all looked sorta zoned out and some hummed to the music.
I had a fairly fast uptake on the lyrics though and they didn’t make a lot of sense. Later in life, many times people tried to verbally and physically pound the import into my body and mind. By then I had already understood, it just didn’t make much sense. Then there came the point where everyone closed their eyes and dropped their head and some guy droned on about god and lord and such. I noticed many of them did this just because it was what you did. I always enjoyed the prayer since I got to look at everyone with their eyes shut…..or not. I got thumped a few times for now bowing and closing my eyes. Well, if everybody had their head bowed and their eyes closed, how’d they know I didn’t? Ah ha, there were those who were more intent on watching for blind obedience than doing what they were thumping me for not doing. I knew what hypocrisy was early on.
I’m still trying to figure out when it became expected (some even say “The Law”) to salute during the ‘National Anthem.’ It wasn’t when I was growing up, though it was during the Pledge of Allegiance. That makes sense to me, and if I did still pledge allegiance, I would salute. But during a song?
As for Greenwood, I used to be ‘proud to be an American.’ Funny thing is, he’s a Canuck.
Last time I had to deal with this, I very blatantly turned my back and did not salute. This was at a 5k race. The announcer was a cammo-sucker/flag-humper and I simply refused to play along.
More weight!
…. if it comes to that.
During the pledge I’ve thought about giving the original salute.
Hi Fred,
Oh. God. No…… please. If I hear that braying donkey Lee Greenwood song I will just have to start smashing stuff again.
That song is god awful. Right about that time that crap came out, a much lesser known Steve Vaus released “We must take America back” and “Remember in November.” I think you’d like those a lot better.
Remember when popular music was anti-authority?
The elder caregiver bath lady and I were just remembering Cheech and Chong. Up in smoke 1978 was a great one. The best art and way of living I can recall was back 30 40 years when authority was hardly considered or encountered at all.
“hey double bubble…”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CWxgfTMLtc0
“remembering Cheech and Chong” – never really cared for them. After Firesign Theatre they seemed stale to me.
” After Firesign Theatre they seemed stale to me.”
CAREFUL WITH THAT AXE, EUGENE. AAAAAIIIIIII
I do love that album. Got to get my Zen fixed so I can listen to it in bed. Seems like I called my wife Eugene after she cut her leg with my axe. I just wished somebody made summa that lsd like the good old gunvermint did. Sheewanaa, ‘at was sum gud stuff.
This is a tough one for me, a libertarian. I live in Pennsylvania, where inspections have been mandatory long before I started driving as a kid back in the 1960s. When they were changed from twice a year to just annually it was practically a statewide holiday. Still, even once a year is a pain in the butt and rankles me– just as I was rankled when applying for my learner’s permit and discovering that the state considered driving a **privilege**, not a right. In retrospect, the outrage I felt upon seeing that on the application form may have been my first anti-state thought. In any case, I feel that without inspections, some people *will* let their cars deteriorate and drive them in a condition that poses more danger than average to others. I think it *is* something of a safety issue, and that it can be argued that one of the few proper roles of government is to protect its citizens. So, I have mixed feelings….
Hi Steve,
Ok, but can you show me any data that supports the supposition that these inspections actually do reduce accidents? Or is it just an assertion?
Also, let’s for the sake of discussion accept your supposition – that the inspections are necessary because “some people” will let their cars deteriorate, etc.
Well, so?
Why should the rest of us be punished on account of this?
Is it not exactly the same argument used by the gun control crowd? “Some people” can’t be trusted to handle guns; therefore, gun ownership must be restricted or outlawed generally.
Wouldn’t a better – because fair – solution be to hold individual people responsible for whatever harm they cause, whether it’s with a poorly maintained car or a firearm – and leave the rest of us in peace?
Curious to have your reply…
Yes, freedom and responsibility would be better. Freedom trumps safety concerns, but… let me ask you this: would you rather hold some jerk responsible (i.e., see him in prison) for his decrepit auto causing the death of a loved one — or still have your loved one? IMHO this is not an easy answer.
I could build a better strawman but so what? Would you rather have been in the pickup I ran over when my ABS decided it would only allow a tiny bit of braking or would you have rather ABS on my pickup to not exist or be unplugged? I bet I know the answer. It was a no-brainer for me. There are more strawmen than there are men so let’s don’t create them to make a point that’s not really debatable.
Hi Steve,
The answer is easy – for me.
Just as I would rather not be denied my right to own a firearm because some other person might use his recklessly or criminally, so also I do not not wish to be treated as a presumptive reckless, irresponsible person regarding the upkeep of my vehicles simply because someone else might be.
Respect for individual does mean accepting the possibility that something bad may happen. But when there is no respect for the individual, it is certain that something bad will happen… to everyone.
BTW Steve, I don’t want to see anyone in prison for an act they didn’t maliciously cause even if it results in death. If you really need prison, it should only be to hold psychopaths if you don’t know for a fact they killed someone purposely for evil intent. If prison is the answer, why are there so many politicians? walking the street? and not in prison where they belong? if such exists? Why is Hitlery running for prez instead of being hung long ago? along with Janet Reno and the entire BATFE? Recall Waco, Branch Davidians, very peaceful people and well thought of?
Ahhhh Virginia inspection: Where do I start? I try not to think too hard @ it, since it immediately causes my blood pressure to spike. One positive note: if you have an old clunker in VA, *and it has a current inspection* (especially with a number of months left on it) the car is worth at least $1500. ‘Cause any Mexican will buy the car, run it for the remaining few months, then junk it…
The thing that annoys me the most, is that the vehicle *shall comply*, period-full-stop. No matter what is wrong and no matter what the cost. My friends teenage son has an old Cavalier hooptie that, while it runs decent enough, is a rust bucket. So VA insp flunked him on the body rust. End result: Car is off the road and he is forced into buying a replacement. Now, the end-around for him may be Antique tags or “Farm Use” plates.
Sometimes the inner Clover in me scoffs at the abuse of Antique and Farm Use tags, but that conflicts with the Libertarian in me cheering somebody “sticking it to THE MAN”. What is a real hoot are seeing the “Farm Use” plates on $60+k Suburbans and F-250 King Ranch diesels around Middleburg…..
Hi Tom,
It pays to have friends in low places….!
Here is what you do. Get one road killed ferret and a bag of turkey guts. Gut the ferret. Make certain you get the scent gland and put a cut deep into it. Put ferret guts into a shallow bowl and place under the drivers seat just prior to going into inspection. Also spill turkey guts all over the suspension and under the car. Make sure you get it all over the wheels. It works best if the turkey remains are a bit old. A couple of days on the sun works wonders. Take car in for inspection and stand back. The job gets hurried. It is even faster if you pooh trap the hubcaps. One time I put a cow’s intestines on the bonnet. You get your car back fast with no defects. They just want you gone. Washing up takes no time at all. Just remember where you pooh trapped and be careful of that.
Sione
We can’t run and we can’t hide. There’s no second Mayflower to take us to a new land. Libertarians yap all the time about how technology is cheap and helps make us free, while ignoring that cheap technology also gives governments much more power to monitor us. Conservatives bow before authority, licit or not. And the people at large just don’t give a damn either way. I should’ve been born a hundred years ago.
Hi Ross,
I hear you.
I’m leery about technology for just the reason you lay out.
As a practical matter, we were more free back in the ’70s and ’80s, simply because of the limitations of technology. The government could only do so much, no matter how much it wanted to do.
Now it can do almost anything it wants.
Ross, my whole family told me I should have been born 100 years ago starting from the time I was a kid. If my closest neighbor was a week’s drive away I’d be just fine with that.
“It’s time to move when you can see your neighbor’s chimney smoke.” – Daniel Boone, IIRC
I tend to agree. I like having people around now and then, but on MY terms. Not as a mob, not just any “People.” A few good friends, I’m good. Preferably a “short” distance away. They’ll help if you ask, and MYOB if you don’t ask. Not that I’m a luddite, obviously (IT guy). Just know how the technology will be used against us (IS being used against us!) and know the vast majority of people are too ignorant and uncaring to be useful in the best of circumstances.
The rest I could call friends… The type who have their own life to live (so don’t need to mind yours), and are willing to help, and produce something on their own.
Not many of those left, the mindset is being exterminated. Free men are harder to rule.
This doesn’t surprise me at all. Many moons ago I worked as a wrecker driver and I
don’t remember going to a wreck that was actually caused by mechanical failure.
It was almost always tailgating, drinking or not watching where they were going.
There were also cases of being on the wrong side of the road or trying to “beat the light.”
Almost without exception the person at fault would concoct some ridiculous explanation
of what happened which was plainly contradicted by the evidence.
I anticipated this about 4 years ago with a satirical story about mechanics forming a lobby,
but it was actually about the medical profession. http://differentbugle.blogspot.com/2012/06/mechanics-lobby.html
there was a serious multicar crash on I-5 northbound, just south of Seattle last week…. four cars, serious injury. cause? A car had a wheel come off as it drove along the freeway. My bet is the lost wheel was one issue, and triggered the crash, but I’ve yet to drive that section late afternoon and NOT see hundreds of cars tailgating, pushing, jumping lanes….. had the drivers been “making nice” instead of dog eating dog, the crash likely would have not happened.. or if it did, would have been minor. Cops almost NEVER cite for following too closely. Hah, I’ve seen the state troopers do it., One was so bad I called dispatch to complain. Got a call from the guy’s seargeant next morning, he tried explaining it away.. I reeled him back in and said NO WAY. THIS is what I observed, over the distance from one milepost to this other… some twenty miles. “Oh, well, I think I shall go have a talk with that officer”. Yes, sir, I think that’s a great idea. He was being dangerous and obnoxious.
I *HATE* inspections, and the g-ddamn stickers that go with them. What am I, a third-grade girl with a sticker collection? Two nightmare stories:
Some years ago, I bought a car from another state, which plasters its ridiculous stickers on the opposite side of the windscreen from my state. Stopped by the local po-po; not only was I given five days to get a new sticker, but I was also required to have the mechanic sign a statement saying that it had been done in the allotted time, as if I was a small child getting a note from home. Miserable SOB.
Some years after that, the sticker expired on my 7-year old Ford Exploder with only 65,000 miles on it. A local “reputable” shop wanted $8,000 — eight grand!! — to put a new sticker on it. The shop across the street charged me $35. That was the same shop that gave a car taken with a wiring problem back with a gas tank leak.
Pure extortion, nothing more.
Thankfully Arizona has managed to avoid this crap, other than the sturmfuhrers of emission testing taking hold in 2½ counties.
I did have an incident with a Texas State trooper a few years ago that could not believe that my humble desert of a home did not require the annual inspection tag displayed prominently in the driver’s field of vision on our vehicles. This guy made several phone calls to confirm that A) Arizona did not have inspection stickers and B) that a long expired smelter parking sticker was not a ticketable offense in any state, with the possible exception of California. He seemed kind of dejected when all he could do was issue a repair order for the famous license plate light (apparently Scotchlite reflective material is enough for control signage, but just doesn’t cut the mustard for a 6″x12″ piece of aluminum 20′ or less away from halogen headlights).
And people wonder why I cringe when the word “safety” is mentioned. We spent 5 hours down (not processing rock, hemorrhaging money) yesterday while we kept 2 welders, 2 mechanics and a machinist tied up building a guard to keep people that we probably shouldn’t be hiring in the first place from climbing over a 1500hp electric motor and sticking their arm into a 1¼” hole to come in contact with a 1800 RPM shaft.
Oh well, stupidity makes me money………..
The conscientious and competent people are the problem. All this LCD dumbing-down and infantalizing is designed to make them obsolete at best or villified and resented at worst. It’s another example of tall poppies syndrome.
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head, Paula… unfortunately. The object of the exercise (deliberate, conscious) seems to be to punish competence and responsibility while encouraging their opposites.
eric, Paula, you both said it well. It’s been pointed out for some time now though.
“What I want to fix your attention on is the vast overall movement towards the discrediting, and finally the elimination, of every kind of human excellence — moral, cultural, social or intellectual. And is it not pretty to notice how ‘democracy’ (in the incantatory sense) is now doing for us the work that was once done by the most ancient dictatorships, and by the same methods? The basic proposal of the new education is to be that dunces and idlers must not be made to feel inferior to intelligent and industrious pupils. That would be ‘undemocratic.’ Children who are fit to proceed may be artifically kept back, because the others would get a trauma by being left behind. The bright pupil thus remains democratically fettered to his own age group throughout his school career, and a boy who would be capable of tackling Aeschylus or Dante sits listening to his coeval’s attempts to spell out A CAT SAT ON A MAT. We may reasonably hope for the virtual abolition of education when ‘I’m as good as you’ has fully had its way. All incentives to learn and all penalties for not learning will vanish. The few who might want to learn will be prevented; who are they to overtop their fellows? And anyway, the teachers — or should I say nurses? — will be far too busy reassuring the dunces and patting them on the back to waste any time on real teaching. We shall no longer have to plan and toil to spread imperturbable conceit and incurable ignorance among men.”
— C. S. Lewis
“No child left behind” = no child gets ahead.
Indeed. If you substitute soldier for child you have an Anglo military slogan at least 70 years old now. Isn’t that just New Sparta for you. A 100% warmongers immersive environment.
The youth are New Sparta’s walls. What need have we of other fortifications. (King Agesilaus reincarnate redux)
I
Got my first red light camera ticket the other day. 11 pm at night coming home from visiting my Dad in the hospital. Thanks Obama.
Sayyyyyy Fuhhhhh Teeeeee !!!
Sorry to hear about the ticket, Tor. But – check into this: It may be that they have to serve you in order to proceed. If you ignore their mail, don’t sign for anything, they can’t do anything to you. It’s basically the principle (in law) that applies when an actual cop pulls you over. He has to confirm your identity and obtain your signature on the ticket. These automated tickets do neither thing.
My Car Muh must be bad. That was another 82 bucks I coulda sent here.
I already paid it unfortunately, but that’s still just one more unliquidated debit to my SWP-mental ledger that will have to be reconciled come the end of the next Celestial Accounting Period.
And I heard as were, the sound of white lightning and thunder asunder. And the four beast SWPs were there in their beaten rusty white pickups. When the Serious Man comes around the elite will fill and pale with terror with each human blood claret wine snifter gulped…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtK-QCiD-FE
See this, Tor: http://ericpetersautos.com/2016/03/10/a-hero-story/
Varies from state to state with regard to that. Some states are more criminal than others. Also don’t rely on the letter of the law. The mechanisms work the way they work and they don’t care about what the law plainly says until a higher authority tells them differently from what they’ve been doing.
In TX it’s a “civil” infraction, but the enforcement has very little teeth. They can’t go to collections/credit reports. They are written to the owner of the car, not the driver (because good luck proving). The county may deny your registration if you have outstanding red light camera (RLC) tickets, but they don’t have to force payment as I found out. I went to update my registration in Williamson Co, they told me I had an unpaid RLC ticket in Montgomery Co, I said well, I can send them the money I was going to give you and I’ll register the car next year. She replied that I’d get ticketed without the registration, to which I replied, “it’s a good thing I have more than one car then, I guess.” She over-road the system and I never heard another thing about that got-dammed ticket and I sure won’t pay it.
It never matters for those who receive public assistance. A safety check would be another cost passed on to the taxpayer – like obamacare 🙂 I believe over a dozen states still do not even require a smog – must be nice.
No smog check – yet – in my rural SW Virginia county… but it’s coming, no doubt.
Once upon a time I lived near some of the poorest neighborhoods in Chicago. This plus even in middle class neighborhoods people keeping cars for 20 or 30 years I saw all sorts of rolling wrecks on the road. I saw stuff that would be top notch material for ‘just rolled into the shop’. Over the years I was there there was only one crash I saw the aftermath of that might have been due do a equipment failure. A 1970s Japanese made car that was held together by rust somehow ended up on the sidewalk in curve and hit a light pole. It sat there for about week or more then disappeared.
Basically less than 2% of crashes are due to equipment failure and most of those are single car. It has been proven that annual inspections cannot catch problems this infrequent and random. Because in many cases that’s what they are, random unpredictable failures due to road debris, manufacturer defects, improper installation, and so on and so forth. When we get down to the things an annual inspection can actually do something about it’s vanishingly small. Insignificant. Noise in the data is bigger.
I know of two wrecks due to equipment failure, my Chevy pickup whose antilock brakes decided not to allow a stop of any sort. The other was a brand new Dodge pickup carrying two people and it’s rear wheel virtually exploded leaving it upside down on the service road heading the opposite direction. Luckily, no one was hurt in either wreck.
I actually debated with someone recently who said the worst of us will drag down the best of us (in reference to gun control and justification for programs like mandatory safety inspections). I said that this may occur in the real world but morally it is incorrect.
He didn’t reply to that so I’m guessing morals don’t really matter?
Welfare for mechanics. When I lived in PA, the time before a state inspection meant 0 service for a month or so. That way the wrench could find something wrong and I’d have a fairly good idea about how much tribute I’d have to cough up. And I always wore the oldest, most tattered clothes I had, but the car was always spotless.
“the wrench could find something wrong”
Kind of like when my Grandpa knew the milk inspector would be coming around soon, he always left a light bulb burned out in the milk barn, or something like that. (Wouldn’t want him to start poking around and find that pile of dead calves behind the barn)
You are so right about these inspections sometimes messing up cars. When I still lived in a mandated inspection state (Rhode Island), the mechanic tightened my lug nuts with some insane torque, and I broke off two lug bolts when later trying to remove the nuts. The waiver you have to sign for these mandatory inspections waives the mechanic of any responsibility for breaking stuff on your car, so I was out of luck in having him pay for some new bolts. They’re easy enough to replace, but take a bunch of time to do, and I’d rather be doing something for myself rather than fixing the inspector’s error. I work on my own cars and they’re always 100% safe or I don’t drive them, so this inspection actually did harm. Those bolts could have snapped due to the out of spec torque.
Growing up, I’d take my car to the local gas station for it’s mandatory inspection. The station only got a few dollars for this “service” (most of the fee went to the state, of course), so to pad the bill to make it worth their time, they would adjust my headlight aiming. 2 turns to the left on the adjusting screw, 2 turns to the right, and now my headlights were aimed correctly (again). And I was $3 poorer.
Exactly the same thing in Tx. This stupid dolt a 3 years younger than me had his inspection permit and an old station. My headlights were fine but he had to readjust them and charge me. After I got home I noticed my light was out of whack. He’d broken the damned screw off, ruined the housing and then declared it fixed. But he got fifty cents or so from me. Hell, I’d have given him a couple dollars just to leave everything alone.
Those sill-ass headlamp readers they rolled back and forth, what a joke. I have a failsafe headlight adjustment method. Set your car back say 10 feet from a wall, measure off the distance between your headlights and their distance off the ground and mark it on the wall. You can bring the left one in some if you think you need to(only if others blink at you)or aim them down a bit(same reason). Without some front end collision though, headlights will remain where the manufacturer set them forever taking spring fatigue into account.(rear or front) A year or two old car shouldn’t need any adjustment. The wife’s Cutlass has levels in the headlight housing so you can adjust them yourself to a high degree of accuracy. Uh-oh, GM wasn’t thinking about the handout crowd on this one.
To set headlamps I’d find hardpack )macadam is prferred) that is flat and level. Toss a jacket over one lamp, stand a couple feet in front of the other, mark the centre of the bright spot, (or the top of the cut-off with European bulb-and-reflector systems). plant your finger on your leg at that spot. hold it there, pace off 25 meters (my normal stride is exactly one meter) and check to see where the same part of the beam now hits relative to your finger (you DID hold it there all this time, didn’t you?) Note how far above/below the spot moved…. it should beabout an inch and a half lower at the 25 m distance. Eyeball the side variation. that’s not as critical.
“At the moment, a majority of states have done away with these – or never had them.”
Actually, the feds used to sorta require it of all states, in that they threatened to yank highway dollars away if the state didn’t have it, so everyone complied. Then the requirement was ended, but quite a few states kept right on forcing people to put up with this crony capitalism, including my allegedly sorta free state of residence, Tejas.
How many Inspection Station ‘wrench monkeys’ even know about installing/tightening alternate (every other) lugs on a 5-lug wheel? My dad taught me that before I was strong enough to handle a lug wrench. And I figured out on my own that doing every 3rd one on an 8-bolt hub had a similar effect.
So far in The People’s Republic of Maryland, ‘safety’ inspection is required only on transfer of title, not annually. And that can be waived if the transfer is to an immediate family member.
Of course we do have mandatory licensing for ‘Home Improvement Contractors.’ The testing consists of knowing when and how much sales tax to charge the customer. And the license offers immunity against suit for shoddy/incompetent work, even if in violation of ‘the code,’ which they are not required to study.
But Maryland tries to make up for this infrequency by having the toughest inspection standards in the country. New cars sometimes fail the inspection.
“New cars sometimes fail the inspection.”
That’s because we have high standards in the PRM, and our shit don’t stink.
Last year Tx. doubled down on this. Now you’re required to get an inspection certificate you hand in to the tax office to get your sticker and tags at one time. But no sticker required for big rigs, just an inspection you keep with your paperwork. This way any yahoo can legally stop a commercial vehicle since they display no inspection sticker. Neato.
I recently got my DL renewed. It came time to get my electronic thumbprints. I said “Well, since the DPS illegally took my entire fingerprints last time I guess thumbs are good enough now”. The woman said “yes, thumbs only”. Now just look at the birdie and I’ll get a facial recognition software pic of you. Thanks a bunch, that’ll be multiples for me…..and my fingerprints.
Yep: The “Headlight Adjustment” is notorious. I had a friend (in Metro DC) who moved from VA to MD with his brand new car. MD insp flunked due to headlight adjustment and labor to fix. He said, “thank you very much” and took it to a dealer, since it was still under warranty, and had them inspect the car.
There’s no “merchant class”. There are productive entrepreneurs and political entrepreneurs. The former benefit society and produce things which we want, while the latter try to extract rents from society. The productive people need to be encouraged and supported politically, while the political parasites need to be stopped.
“The productive people need to be encouraged and supported politically, while the political parasites need to be
stoppedexecuted.”Fixed it for ya…. 😉
It’s wrong to kill humans who aren’t an immediate threat to your life, but resistance to their bullshit is great. The problem is that we live under the tyranny of the majority, and the people in charge have convinced the voting sheeple that they’re necessary for the world to function, and fundamentally, that’s what you’re going up against, the subservient attitude of your neighbors.
Imagine if a whole state was populated by nothing but people reflecting the attitudes on this site, proposals to mandate inspections would be laughed out of town.
This kind of bullshit can only continue with the support of the people, and most people are somewhere between apathy and elementary school versions of how politics and governments work.
“This kind of bullshit can only continue with the support of the people,” aka ‘the consent of the governed.’ Doesn’t matter whether you or I consent, enough of the sheeple do to make the point moot.
We actually live under the tyranny of a minority of bureaucratic wannabes. These folks are not elected, they are salaried government employees and live off taxes, fees, and penalties. Getting more regulations to strangle the public is their focus and use the elected to get these actions in place.
Think EPA.
“It’s wrong to kill humans who aren’t an immediate threat to your life…”
No, it’s not. Period, full goddamn stop.
Examples are easy: the thief who takes your wallet, is then a threat to your family. This, BTW, includes the police – who can easily keep a record of who you are and where you live.
Someone who has threatened you once and gotten away with it? They are an ongoing threat. As far as I’m concerned, hunting them is OK at that point. The “civilization” game only works when everyone is playing the same game. That’s WHY their bullshit flies so often – apathy, stupidity, willful ignorance, and many people unwilling to “break the peace” to do what’s RIGHT.
There was a fairly recent example in Texas, IIRC. Man was threatened, credible threat. Man found the person who had made such credible threat later, and killed him with his pistol, IIRC. Not guilty of murder: He was still defending himself, even if it wasn’t an immediate threat.
In other words, the tax collector got shot after saying, “You’ll pay.”
Principles, man. Think through the details. Do we have to wait until we’ve been fired upon to shoot back? WTF good is that, we’re already bleeding out! Man has a gun, he’s showing it off, aggressive towards us… We need to wait until he’s drawn and sighted in on us before we respond? this is illogical and stupid – and indicative of a certain mental malaise.
The bullshit survives by intent, though. G00gle Hegellian Dialectic and “Consensus Building.” These techniques are being used on us daily – the propaganda is ubiquitous, from the “See something, say something” posters at bus and train stations, to the placement and content of pictures on newspapers and magazines. Most humans are herd animals, even the best of us, and we follow others rather than build everything ourselves. This allows parasites to “manage” our expectations / direction in life unless we are VERY careful to understand what we are following, and why we chose to follow. We can’t all be expert nutritionists, experts with firearms, expert carpenters, expert mechanics, electronics experts, etc, etc, etc. So we introduce specialization, leveraging money (money = a store of value.) I’m an expert in computers, like a neurosurgeon is an expert specialist in medicine. Neurosurgeon isn’t best choice for a foot problem, though…. So he pays someone else to diagnose his foot problems.
The problem arises from the idiot who goes to the neurosurgeon for a foot problem, and holds that neurosurgeon responsible for mis-diagnosing something. Then the idiot sues. (actual fault is irrelevant, not sure you knew that.) The Rent-Seekers – Lawyers, Legislators, Judges in this case – then create more business for themselves, by making new laws “so this tragedy never happens again…!” and fleecing people who had nothing to do with this obscure minutiae that only 1% of doctors have HEARD of.
E.G., diagnosing leprosy in the world of The Jetsons. Or malpractice for a doctor whose patient died on the table because of a reaction between his specific blood chemistry and, say, aspirin. It only happens in people who have a malformed 17-Beta receptor on Chromosome 23 when they’re also Asian decent… And it’s in 1% of the population. It was covered in the genetics magazine of the genetics industry, though, so obviously the surgeon should’ve known about it. (No joke, this sort of shit flies…)
The only way this shit actually flies is when the laws are divorced from reality, and people obey THE LAW like the Words of God borne down from heaven. (Some exceptions apply, like police, Elites, the wealthy, legislators, judges – those last two are usually in the second and third category anyway, though. Funny how that works…)
It’s the strategy of all collectivist creatures: A school of fish turns, flashing their sides, and splits; the predator gets maybe one or two, at most, and the SCHOOL survives. Not the individual.
The cops pull over a certain number of us; the rest pause, think, “Better you than me,” and go about our business…. Oblivious to the fact that next time, it may well be us. But that’s “next time…” (Cue the 70s song, “Mañana”. google it..) Don’t be limited in scope. “Them niggerz over there” is bad people; those same people see YOU as”Them niggerz over there” – aka, “Bad People” who deserve the problems you’re saddled with. the same license 8South MUST get for employment (CDL)? It’s been “dumbed down” for us – to a “class D” license, but a DRIVER isn’t the OPERATOR of the vehicle. It’s a legal distinction, foisted on us to extract more “revenue.” Someone with some effing balls back then, using my logic, and thinking instead of “going with the herd,” might’ve saved us a LOT of headaches.
A DRIVER engages in commercial driving, they are “for hire” on the roads. But incrementally require more and more fees and licensing (to the point where now, you cannot get a full driver’s license at all for multiple years after you pass the test – no driving after dark, no driving with minors in the car, no driving more than X miles – but if you enlist in the military, you’ll fly million-dollar devices, drive as far as ordered, kill who you’re told, or be shot.) So a civilian 20 year old is somehow less capable of driving than an enlisted 17 year old…
THAT is where your logic leads to. Also to idiocy like, a high school girl cannot get ASPIRIN at school without parental permission, but she can get an abortion without the parent’s knowledge. Because “Privacy.”
There’s no thought needed, just obedience… To those who wear a gun and claim they’re there to protect you, unless you break a divine edict that the enforcers themselves made up out of whole cloth…
Law Enforcement is their purpose, not even knowing the laws is important…
So, tell me again why it’s wrong to kill someone who hasn’t already tried to kill you? That’s basically the meaning of “imminent threat,” they’ve tried or have shown immediate intent to kill you. I.E., weapon drawn (felony for us), sighting in on us (second felony), and if they took your wallet already, well – “it’s only money.”
The driver’s license with your address on it, we should just let that go, right? Especially if it’s a full wallet (indicating wealth and other things to be stolen). And the picture of your family? Oh, well. They won’t be at risk…
But the badge and the annointing of the Holy State makes it all A-OK, huh?
It might help to revisit some of your threads from days gone by.
As a general rule, when each side is making assertions and blanket behavior fatwas, using Authoritarianese, nothing of consequence or future usefulness is likely to come from this.
As Eightsouthman discussed earlier as a child at a parade or whatever, being skeptical about everyone and everything, is a wise perspective for anyone who wants to live under freedome. It is definitely some sage advice, IMHO. (Please note, making an argument in authoritarianese disabusing the validity of authoritarianese is a trap that easy to fall into, but don’t do it unthinkingly.)
The NAP is something you grok and regrok only over long periods of time, and care self-observation of your behavior and assumptions.
And it might well be, that all NAP reconcile with each other, maybe you refuse to kill another animal for food or clothing, yet you do pirate new release movies off the internet.
To my eyes, killing beings with equivalent human intelligence of 3 to 8 year old people, is far more anti-NAP than, depriving people of their rightfully owed compensation and livelihood.
I hope that soon, killing fellow mammals for food and other products will become a far less prevalent practice. Most likely through some manner of technological breakthrough of some kind.
But this NAP tenet of mine is mine alone, and if you feel comfortable eating pork, that’s fine. And of course, as a man, it is biochemically imperative that you do so, or do some kind of legitimate equivalent consumption of nutrients.
Your life philosophy, the road you travel. Is your own, and no one elses. Its best if you stay in your lane, and leave others be as best you can. And if someone veers into whats yours and puts you in danger, do your worst to end the threat, but then quickly revert to being humble and kind as best you can.
When you start out, childhood stars shine. You go to church cause your Momma tells you to. Visit grandpa every chance you can, it wont be wasted time.
Hold the door, say please, say thank you. Don’t cheat don’t steal and don’t lie. (Unless you’re the elite authority of course, then do whats best for those who are your own property, or whatever wrings the most profit out of them as you send them through the wringer.)
Always be humble and kind – cover
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG2FTnzPZmI
Are you a NAP. A Non Assaholic Person. Well Crom bless you, I do thank you and tip my cap in wonder awe and appreciation for the existence of you.
Does the ASA or any other service group have legislation filed for a vehicle inspection. I want to get rid of the got-damned inspection in Texas, which is a yuge waste of money. As I understood it, vehicle equipment failure is responsible for less than 1% of accidents or fatalities. Therefore, eliminating the program will have little to no effect.
And if your ‘inspected’ vehicle has an accident due to equipment failure, shouldn’t it be the responsibility of whoever cleared it for use?
I used to be a pro business conservative. Now, I’ve come to hate the merchant class.
Hi Jeff,
I hate the merchant class that does not do business on a voluntary/free exchange basis….
Free market is always good, regardless of how offensive or self-destructive many of its offerings are.
Prison commissary is always bad. No matter how attractive and wholesome the offerings are.
I concur that prison merchants are among the most loathesome of beings.
They’re mercenants, actually, and if you don’t see the difference, and fight against it, you deserve your captive status.
Ford Self Driving Theater Tee Vees On Wheels
http://www.techspot.com/news/64042-ford-patents-car-movie-theater-covers-self-driving.html
Hugh Glass
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Glass
Glass was reported to have been captured by privateers under the command of the Gulf of Mexico pirate chief Jean Lafitte off the coast of Texas in 1816 and forced to become a pirate for up to two years. Glass allegedly escaped by swimming to shore near what is present-day Galveston, Texas. Hugh Glass was later rumored to have been captured by the Pawnee tribe, with whom he lived for several years. He eventually wed a Pawnee woman.
– –
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won’t answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin’ Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war
Gather round me people there’s a story I would tell
About a brave young Indian you should remember well
From the land of the Pima Indian
A proud and noble band
Who farmed the Phoenix valley in Arizona land
Down the ditches for a thousand years
The water grew Ira’s peoples’ crops
‘Till the white man stole the water rights
And the sparklin’ water stopped
Now Ira’s folks were hungry
And their land grew crops of weeds
When war came, Ira volunteered
And forgot the white man’s greed
[CHORUS:]
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won’t answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin’ Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war
There they battled up Iwo Jima’s hill,
Two hundred and fifty men
But only twenty-seven lived to walk back down again
And when the fight was over
And when Old Glory raised
Among the men who held it high
Was the Indian, Ira Hayes
[CHORUS:]
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won’t answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin’ Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war
Ira returned a hero
Celebrated through the land
He was wined and speeched and honored; Everybody shook his hand
But he was just a Pima Indian
No water, no crops, no chance
At home nobody cared what Ira’d done
And when did the Indians dance
[CHORUS:]
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won’t answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin’ Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war
Then Ira started drinkin’ hard;
Jail was often his home
They’d let him raise the flag and lower it
like you’d throw a dog a bone!
He died drunk one mornin’
Alone in the land he fought to save
Two inches of water in a lonely ditch
Was a grave for Ira Hayes
[CHORUS:]
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won’t answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin’ Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war
Yeah, call him drunken Ira Hayes
But his land is just as dry
And his ghost is lyin’ thirsty
In the ditch where Ira died
– I kinda hope the Chinese start backing the remaining native Asian Americans and provide them superior tech. Couldn’t be much worse here. Force all them privateers out of here. Let the Sino Indians again ply the waters now with their 400 mph canoes and hunt the buffalo with their new stealth ghost hunting gear like from the movie Predator.