Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Hey, they still let us drive
The New York Post ^ | December 16, 2011 | Frank J. Fleming

Posted on 12/16/2011 11:28:37 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

The National Transportation Safety Board wants a complete ban on cellphone use while driving, even on hands-free calls. Some will protest this as yet another government encroachment on freedom, but we should think twice before rocking the boat here.

After all, have you considered how lucky we are that the government lets us drive cars at all?

Imagine if cars hadn’t been around for a century, but instead were just invented today. Is there any way they’d be approved for individual use? It’s an era of bans on incandescent bulbs; if you suggested putting millions of internal-combustion engines out there, you’d get looks like you were Hitler proposing the Final Solution.

Even aside from pollution, the government wouldn’t allow the risks to safety.

“So you’re proposing that people speed around in tons of metal? You must mean only really smart, well-trained people?”

“No. Everyone. Even stupid people.”

“Won’t millions be killed?”

“Oh, no. Not that many. Just a little more than 40,000 a year.”

“And injuries?”

“Oh . . . millions.”

There’s no way that would get approved today.

Driving is basically a grandfathered freedom from back when people cared less about pollution and danger and valued progress and liberty over safety. They had different equations related to human life then: We could lose 10,000 men in a single battle in a war and call it a victory....

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: automobiles; cellphones; formom; government; lping
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-51 next last
Sadly true.
1 posted on 12/16/2011 11:28:39 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

2d, I have to laugh to avoid being so furious my head explodes.

The Feral bureaucracy has to go.

They’re so stupid really, thinking they can stop or control anything. When governments do that, throughout history (oh, I guess they’d have to have honestly studied it to know), everything just goes underground. Everything.


2 posted on 12/16/2011 11:35:07 PM PST by PieterCasparzen (We have to fix things ourselves.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Hey... ban smoking,city bus fumes, ban kitchen knives, gasoline and lawn mowers, swimming pools and diving from rocks.

Eff a nanny state.


3 posted on 12/16/2011 11:39:21 PM PST by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PieterCasparzen
Exactly.. They drive things underground
4 posted on 12/16/2011 11:43:56 PM PST by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: mylife
Read this and weep.

A surprising number of FReepers were on board for an FCC mandate controlling the volume of commercials. As I recall, you're a ham. The power of the FCC should be limited to the very narrow area of ensuring that harmful interference doesn't occur between operators. Period. Dictating content in any way is far beyond the scope of why the commission exists.

5 posted on 12/16/2011 11:54:13 PM PST by re_nortex (DP...that's what I like about Texas.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
C.S. Lewis

“I just wish the government would stop trying to save my life. I don't want to live forever!” Jim from C-town

6 posted on 12/16/2011 11:55:39 PM PST by Jim from C-Town (The government is rarely benevolent, often malevolent and never benign!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

The long-term goal of the left is to outlaw the automobile and force people onto various mass-transit systems. Buses, subways, high-speed rail, etc., all of which can be used to control free movement.


7 posted on 12/16/2011 11:59:38 PM PST by PLMerite (Shut the Beyotch Down! Burn, baby, burn!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: re_nortex

All one need do is build a simple limiting amp that cuts off the commercials should they hit a certain decibel.

BTW I was listening to WBCQ tonight on short wave and apparently there are like 750,000 HAM operators in the US today.

The numbers are on the rise, rather than the wane.

People want autonomy.


8 posted on 12/17/2011 12:00:34 AM PST by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: re_nortex

The right thing is watch less TV or cancel.

If we had actual competition, we’d have other TV options where the volume was not increased.

Try reading the Executive Summary of the FCC budget.

JOKE. COMPLETE FARCE. The biggest reasons they were claiming for their existence (budget), i.e., things that they actually DO - ..... “modernize their technology”.

If the Executive summary sounds like my 9th grade paper where I just put in fluff - how fluffy are the details behind the summary ?

It’s really stealing from the taxpayer and laughing in the taxpayer’s face. Disgusting.


9 posted on 12/17/2011 12:01:34 AM PST by PieterCasparzen (We have to fix things ourselves.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: PLMerite

You are correct, it’s all social engineering.


10 posted on 12/17/2011 12:02:55 AM PST by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: re_nortex

You know what the monkey said that got his tail caught in the lawnmower?

“It won’t be long now”


11 posted on 12/17/2011 12:23:56 AM PST by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

That is an excellent & somewhat horrifying thought experiment. Kudos!


12 posted on 12/17/2011 12:29:35 AM PST by Da Mav
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet
Hey, they still let us drive

They wouldn't if the automobile was invented now. All that personal freedom, all that individual responsibility - no way. What freedoms and control of our own lives that we still have are holdovers from the time before the American nanny state took root.
13 posted on 12/17/2011 12:41:28 AM PST by AnotherUnixGeek
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: AnotherUnixGeek
They wouldn't if the automobile was invented now.

Just saw that the article already said the same thing - that'll teach me to reply before reading the article.
14 posted on 12/17/2011 12:44:29 AM PST by AnotherUnixGeek
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: PieterCasparzen
They’re so stupid really, thinking they can stop or control anything.

So you obviously like to talk on the cell phone or text while driving?
15 posted on 12/17/2011 1:39:01 AM PST by JSteff ((((It was ALL about SCOTUS. Most forget about that and HAVE DOOMED us for a generation or more.))))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: JSteff

No, I don’t text ever, and I’m not on the phone much at all.

We should be held accountable for our own auto accidents, though, not pulled over and ticketed for talking on the phone, any more than we should be pulled over for singing while we listen to the radio, or get in an argument with a passenger.

Auto insurance removes the financial consequences of causing an accident, so many people just don’t care any more.

The law has always covered civil and criminal penalties for damages we cause.

Cell phone laws get into a new area: you haven’t swerved out of your lane, you have complete control of your car, but you have a cup of coffee in your hand, and we don’t think you can handle it, so we’re charging you with a crime.

If I’m drinking coffee or talking and I swerve out of my lane - THAT already is a crime, swerving out of my lane. Doesn’t matter why I did, I did.

Town governments love to hire more LE, though the taxpayers don’t like to pay the bill. So more traffic stops !


16 posted on 12/17/2011 3:26:32 AM PST by PieterCasparzen (We have to fix things ourselves.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Jim from C-Town
"“I just wish the government would stop trying to save my life. I don't want to live forever!” Jim from C-town"

Hey, the government will decide when you die. They will have a program, an agency, and a staff to make such decisions.

17 posted on 12/17/2011 3:31:15 AM PST by Truth29
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

I keep reading about this ban, and I have to wonder about the hands-free portion. My car has the hands-free built in. One push of a button, and the rest is voice activated. So how are they going to enforce this in this situation? I mean, I have no earpiece, so for all they know I could be singing to the radio or speaking to someone in the backseat. Am I going to get pulled over simply because I’m speaking at all? Besides, no one even bothers to enforce most of the traffic laws already in existence. I was at a light yesterday when a guy blew the red like a big dog, and there was a sheriff’s care on the other side, and he did nothing. So why even bother at this point with more arbitrary and ridiculous nanny state laws?


18 posted on 12/17/2011 3:37:14 AM PST by USMCWife6869
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet
Maybe I am a conspiracy nutjob, maybe not.

I see the cell phone restrictions as another attempt to invade the privacy of citizens, by letting LE pull you over and get their eyes (and nose) inside your vehicle on the "suspicion" that you were using the device. In order to get the necessary proof of the offense, they will then have to download all information from your phone using one of those portable devices that were in the news recently and are already being used. EVERY automobile accident will result in the phones being downloaded, to determine whether either of the parties was illegally using their phone.

...And they will download EVERYTHING.

19 posted on 12/17/2011 3:44:15 AM PST by PalmettoMason ("The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: mylife

“All one need do is build a simple limiting amp that cuts off the commercials should they hit a certain decibel.”

Limiters are the problem. The way they make the commercials louder is by pushing the tape or file harder into the limiter. TV makers today include compressors and limiters in their TV’s but they don;t really work as effectively as their audio industry counterparts. I have a cheap (250.00)limiter I run the TV audio through. I NAIL the input, as a way of overcoming the varying degrees that program producers do, then I set the output volume and forget it. It’s the only way the idea will work.


20 posted on 12/17/2011 4:14:36 AM PST by TalBlack ( Evil doesn't have a day job.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-51 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson