Free Republic

If it is indeed true, as George Bernard Shaw commented, that democracy ensures we get the government we deserve, then I have little sympathy for my neighbors who whine about the smoking ban as they puff their Camel filters in the parking lot outside the bowling alley in the freezing February rain. Besides -- I like to point out -- we voted for the shysters and party hacks who passed the ban. Or -- more likely -- we failed to vote at all. I then call attention to the fact that right next door in Missouri, where the Republican Party...

COTTONWOOD, Minn. — Authorities say four students have been killed in a school bus crash in southwestern Minnesota. Minnesota State Patrol Lieutenant Mark Peterson says the students died when their Lakeview School bus was hit by a van this afternoon on a highway near Cottonwood, about 2 hours southwest of Minneapolis. The bus then collided with a pickup and tipped on its side. • Click here for photos. The victims weren't immediately identified, and their ages weren't immediately given. At least 14 people were hurt. The school bus was carrying 40 people at the time. The Marshall Independent reported that...

TRENTON, N.J. — It will be agonizing, emotional and draining. Most of all, it will be painful. New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine faces months of intensive therapy to recover from serious injuries suffered in an April 12 crash on the Garden State Parkway. "It is a grueling course that he's going to go through," said Kathleen O'Donnell, an inpatient rehabilitation manager at Atlantic Health, which operates several northern New Jersey health facilities. "My heart goes out to him." Corzine has been in intensive care since breaking 11 ribs, his sternum, a leg, his collarbone and a vertebra in the...

(AP) CAMDEN, N.J. -- Gov. Jon S. Corzine was in too much pain to breathe without a ventilator, doctors said Wednesday, as he approached a week in an intensive care unit following an April 12 car crash. An anesthesiologist at Cooper University Hospital inserted catheters near Corzine's 11 broken ribs Wednesday to give him a different type of pain treatment in the hope that would help him breathe completely on his own sooner. When doctors described that procedure Wednesday, it seemed clear that Corzine, a one-time Marine they described as a "pretty tough guy," was not likely have a miraculously...

TRENTON, N.J. - Last year, New Jersey law officers ticketed 271,182 people for not wearing seat belts in violation of state law. This year, one will stand out: Gov. Jon S. Corzine, who was critically injured in an automobile accident last week. David Wald, spokesman for state Attorney General Stuart Rabner, wouldn't say why state police assigned to protect the governor didn't insist Corzine obey the seat belt law. "As always, we urge all drivers and passengers to wear seat belts," Wald said. Corzine, 60, broke multiple bones in the wreck and remains hospitalized in intensive care, breathing with the...

New Jersey's Governor Remains in Critical Condition and Scheduled to Undergo More Surgery CAMDEN, N.J. Apr 16, 2007 (AP)— Gov. Jon S. Corzine faces more surgery on his broken leg, the third operation he's needed since an auto crash left him in critical condition. Doctors at Cooper University Hospital said the surgery scheduled for Monday will be similar to one they performed Saturday, when they cleaned a 6-inch wound in his left thigh. On Sunday, he underwent a procedure to remove fluid that had collected outside his left lung. The procedure, which lasted less than 15 minutes, is common for...

Never mind the War on Terror, Crime, Corruption, or anything else ! The Governor of NJ didn't fasten his seatbelt !!!

GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP, N.J. - April 13, 2007 - Gov. Jon S. Corzine was apparently not wearing his seat belt as required by law when his official SUV crashed into a guard rail, leaving the governor hospitalized in critical condition, two spokesmen said Friday. A state trooper was at the wheel and the governor was sitting as usual in the front passenger seat when the SUV slammed into a guard rail Thursday night, authorities said. Corzine broke a leg, his breastbone, 12 ribs and a vertebra. Corzine, 60, was sedated and on a breathing tube, and a doctor who helped treat...

News tips & feedbackHouse passes seatbelt bill By TOM FAHEY State House Bureau Chief Friday, Apr. 6, 2007 CONCORD – The New Hampshire House yesterday passed a mandatory seatbelt bill, requiring anyone in a moving car to be belted. The bill, which passed 153-140, would allow a police officer to stop and ticket anyone for driving without a seatbelt, or for having an unbelted passenger. The offense carries a $50 fine for a first offense, $100 for a second offense. New Hampshire is the last in the country without a law requiring all adults to wear a seatbelt. It also...

> Freep Friends > > Saturdayday morning, circa 1000 hours, I received a call from a stranger > informing me that my #3 daughter was involved in a "very serious > accident". > > My world exploded! > > Turns out my daughter was struck by another driver as she crossed a > major suburban parkway. The other driver ran a red-light and struck my > daughter. > > She was driving our family SUV (Saturn Vue) and was struck on the > driver side, right between the doors ("on the pillar"). The car that > struck her was traveling...

State legislators have gone home. That's a good thing.The session began in May with much hope that with better economic times, lawmakers would seize the opportunity to give taxpayers a much-needed break and repeal the "temporary" taxes enacted during the 2001 recession. Many hoped that the General Assembly would also seize the opportunity to adopt a constitutional amendment protecting property owners from eminent domain abuse. Instead, the General Assembly made half-hearted attempts to appease taxpayers and property owners. Lawmakers trimmed back those tax increases, but wouldn't eliminate them altogether. As far as protecting property, the General Assembly repealed legislation that...

Virginia's secretary of transportation sent out a letter announcing the state's annual "Click It or Ticket" campaign May 22 through June 4. I responded to the secretary of transportation with my own letter that in part reads: "Mr. Secretary: This is an example of the disgusting abuse of state power. Each of us owns himself, and it follows that we should have the liberty to take risks with our own lives but not that of others. That means it's a legitimate use of state power to mandate that cars have working brakes because if my car has poorly functioning brakes,...

Seat belt use is reaching record levels, so just who are the holdouts who fail to buckle up? Often they are young men who live in rural areas and drive pickups, the government says. About 48 million people do not regularly put on seat belts when they are on the road, a figure the government's highway safety agency hopes to lower with an annual public education campaign ahead of the summer driving season. The "Click It or Ticket" campaign involves checkpoints, patrols and advertisements to help enforce seat belt laws. It runs from May 22 through June 4. The latest...

It appears the new seat belt bill will be signed into law. It would allow officers to pull you over and ticket you, simply for not being buckled up. Governor Haley Barbour announced today he will sign the bill. The penalty is a maximum fine of 25 dollars. It applies to both front seat passengers and children between 4 and 8 years old, sitting anywhere in the car. The bill was introduced in the house. The senate passed it on friday

Carol Johns of Pascagoula says she doesn't need a state law to make her wear a seat belt. But, she acknowledges a law might have helped persuade her to buckle up years ago when she was a teenager learning to drive. "Whether we realize it or not, young people have a lot of respect for what the law says,'' said Johns, who's 55 and says she has only been wearing a seat belt regularly for three years. Mississippi could be on the verge of strengthening its seat belt law from a secondary offense to a primary one, meaning a law...

The number of people who have died on South Carolina roads so far this year hit 1,011 as of late Thursday. But today, the state’s primary seat belt law goes into effect. Officials hope it will lead to a reduction in the number of road deaths and injuries. “In this troop alone, we have had a total of 95 fatalities,” said Capt. C. N. Williamson of South Carolina Highway Patrol Troop 7, which includes Orangeburg County. “Sixty-five of the 95 were not wearing a seat belt. At least half would have lived if they had of worn their seat belts.”...

SPRINGFIELD — Illinois drivers will have a variety of new rules to follow in 2006 from stricter seat belt regulations for teenagers to fewer chances to keep moving violations off driving records. As of Jan. 1, all minors riding with a motorist under 19 years of age will have to wear safety belts. The proposal is aimed at reducing fatal accidents among teenage drivers, who are more likely to be involved in collisions. “It’s to protect the lives of young people,” said Illinois State Police spokesman Rick Hector. “Teens are more likely to die in car crashes.” Hector said that...

State trooper or panhandler? Drivers fooled By Jennifer Sullivan Seattle Times staff reporter In the three years since state lawmakers gave cops the go-ahead to pull over people for not wearing seat belts, the State Patrol has become creative about spotting scofflaws. But one new approach has raised a few eyebrows — while providing results troopers call impressive. On Saturday, a trooper stood on a street corner in Spanaway, Pierce County, and helped bust 30 people for not wearing their seat belts. The trooper, wearing plain clothes and a cardboard sign around his neck that read "Happy Holidays Buckle Up,"...

The title is, of course, an ancient joke from the vaudeville circuit. It’s an appropriate way to praise, rather than attack, one particular article – and in the process to attack ten thousand others. Here is the lede from “Show Me the Risk!” by Deroy Murdock in NRO (National Review Online) on 19 October 2005: “According to The Archives of Internal Medicine, pharmaceutical companies market a drug that kills some 7,000 Americans annually. These people don’t die instantly, but instead expire after slowly suffering gastrointestinal bleeding. Oddly enough, TV-news producers are ho-hum about this deadly medicine. The Food and Drug...

1929 Duesenberg Crashes Near Ann Arbor, Killing 3POSTED: 9:16 am EDT July 31, 2005 UPDATED: 11:14 am EDT July 31, 2005 SUPERIOR TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- A driver apparently ran a stop sign at an intersection near Ann Arbor and collided with a classic car carrying a family of five, killing two parents and a child, authorities said. The other two children in the 1929 Duesenberg convertible were injured in crash, which happened about 8:10 p.m. Saturday, the Washtenaw County sheriff's office said in a statement Sunday. All five from the Superior Township family were thrown from the Duesenberg, which didn't...