Posted on 03/31/2011 10:16:13 PM PDT by quantim
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Highway deaths have plummeted to their lowest levels in more than 60 years, helped by more people wearing seat belts, better safety equipment in cars and efforts to curb drunken driving.
The Transportation Department estimated Friday that 32,788 people were killed on U.S. roads in 2010, a decrease of about 3 percent from 2009.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
(sniff!), (sniff!)......hmmmmmm.....
If you don’t like paying tolls and taxes for asphalting roads every few years concrete is the way to go. CT had some concrete highways put in during the Depression that were still holding up well in the ‘80s. Don’t know if they’re still there though.
You make an excellent point about the kids. Yet, it all boils down to whether or not you want the government to be the parent.
Right, but you typically don’t drive on sidewalks. It doesn’t seem like a practical solution in a cold climate.
I sense a government worker/union mentality of “don’t kill the job” being in play.
With the higher price of gas more people will start riding motorcycles.
I know I will, my new cruiser I bought several years ago has been mostly for recreational riding but with its 50 mpg capability I will be riding it more often.
“Yet, it all boils down to whether or not you want the government to be the parent.”
There is a continuum, there.
Do I want the government to tell me whether my kids can have mac and cheese, study Spanish instead of German, cut their hair or let it grow?
No.
Do I want the government to tell me I can’t abuse my kids, terrorize them, take them with me climbing Mt. Everest as infants, send them on solo sailing trips when they are ten?
Yes.
Because children are people, are citizens, and have a right to life; and because parents have the obligation to provide for and protect them to a certain degree;
the government has a role.
The debate is, how much of a role? I am a supporter of parental rights, but I do think the state has some responsibility to protect children from neglect and abuse.
I agree about the child abuse thing but even that gets into grey areas of government abuse. I am not for anarchy but I think sometimes government assumes too much authority and we allow them to because it sounds like a good thing. As my tagline says, not everything that needs, or should be done, should be done by the government. Most of the time personal responsibility is the answer. Yet, let one person fail in that responsibility and the temptation is to bring Big Brother in to police everybody.
I think we are in agreement on that. It is a tough judgement call. I think personal responsibility is paramount; however, minor children must be reasonably protected.
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