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 ...
Right on! And what’s with these tyrannical drunk driving laws too? And despotic school zones? I mean, if some idiot is driving home from the bar at 7:00 in the morning and some kid’s trying to get across the street but walks in front of the drunk’s SUV and gets splattered all over the road, just prosecute the drunk for negligent homicide. Don’t restrict MY freedom just because most of my fellow citizens can’t handle theirs!
/sarc some wouldn’t even notice
Whatever happened to the notion of personal responsibility?
Dear NTSB - STFU and MYOB
“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.”
Cable around here is _effectively_ a monopoly. In return for having a monopoly (gas, electric, water, and so on) companies have for more than a century given up some of their freedoms. I might agree that this is not the FCC’s job, the local and state authorities should be empowered to do this, assuming that they haven’t been paid off, which is, of course, highly unlikely.
I find it infuriating to be blasted out of a chair at night by loud commercials. You may say “get rid of cable” but I don’t have any other choice for a similar product - and no, satellite, over the air, and the Internet are not “similar” here.
Not a Federal issue or right. However, if a state wants to outlaw cell phone use and driving - heck yes!
Put away the damn phone and drive!
May your chains rest lightly...
“Maybe I am a conspiracy nutjob, maybe not.”...
This is an interesting theory, but the problem is, that most of the information required isn’t on your phone anyway, it’s “safely” in databases at the provider’s facilities.
My car has the same. Next, they will not allow us to speak to each other in the car, as well as holler at the kids in the backseat. The radios will go next, because Limbaugh, Beck, and Hannity are a distraction. They haven't addressed women (or men) putting on make-up) or reading, eating, and everything else people have done behind the wheel the past dozen decades.
I’ve been thinking EXACTLY the same thing for years — if cars were invented today, there is NO WAY that our benevolent overseers would allow citizens to own and operate one. Never!
Aspirin would be prescription-only, public access to electricity would NEVER be allowed, aircraft would belong strictly to the military, and firearms ... HA!
This is the Nanny State in action, folks. It’s getting worse by the day and still we take no action.
That idea has been abandoned as of yesterday. I read that they woke up and realized it would be unenforceable and would tick off too many people.
When driving with passengers, should it be illegal to talk with them? Will radios be banned from cars?
Becasue after all, we as a people are just too damned stupid to figure out what is dangerous and what is not.
All about you.
I wish the government would do something about the di-hydrogen monoxide pollution. Where I am you can see it all the time.
Abandoned eh? Good because I wasn’t going to do it anyway. I was planning on talking on my phone while driving just like I always do.
Seattle is often deluged by it.
Yes me too. LOL!!!
They can still get your contacts list, call history, and browsing history (from your smartphone) right from the device, according to the articles I read a while back.
Anybody seen talking in a car alone could be pulled over. Can’t ask ON*Star about locations. Imagine paying $100,000 for a car and not being able to use the built in phone.
Why do I think this law won’t apply to government folks or celebrities?
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