Wednesday, June 13, 2012
The Freedom to be Stupid, and then Dead
I was listening to Tom Sullivan the other day for some reason I can't quite explain, even to myself. Tom Sullivan is one of those bags of rocks who have nationally syndicated talk radio shows. There are about 1500 of them, by my own rough count.
Anyway Tom- who is not very bright, even when compared to his fellow right wing yakkers, decided to go on a little rant about how he always buckles his seat belts, and thinks it's stupid that some people don't buckle their seat belts. Because Sullivan must interject a level of Libertarianism into every show, he went on to argue that there should not be any LAWS concerning the buckling of seat belts- "if people don't want to buckle up, they shouldn't have to- if they get hurt, they have only themselves to blame," blah blah blah.
Of course, if you buckle up and you hit a car carrying someone who ISN'T buckled up, maybe that other guy suffers massive injuries which could have been avoided but will now cost an insurance company millions- the bill for which will be passed on to that company's other customers. And if wearing a seat belt is NOT the law, every insurance company in the country will jack up the rates in preparation for the inflated medical bills incurred by the morons who insist on refusing to wear them. Same goes with driving a motorcycle with a helmet. Which Tom Sullivan is also against requiring by law.
All the anti-seat belts, anti-helmet, anti-nutrition labels, anti-High Fructose Corn Syrup hyper-masculine wannabees always come back to something they call the "Nanny State." They think that whenever the government requires us to do things wear helmets, buckle up, stop at red lights, drive less than 95 on the turnpike, etc. it's treating us like an overprotective, tax-sucking parent, depriving us of our God-given right to die in our choice of many, many stupid ways. Same goes for Evil Overbearing Regulations which prevent the Most Productive from creating jobs by requiring Union-Mandated Luxuries like fire escapes, minimum wages, and machines NOT made entirely out of whirling razor blades. Damn Unions.
All this being sad, I think the world would be better off- and quite a bit smarter- if we just let dopey gasbags like Tom Sullivan drive as fast as they want to with no seat belts, while holding a beer in one hand and texting with the other. If we could just be assured that they would only smash into each other, I'd sign on to that deal in a heartbeat.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
He reminds me of a fake ad I'd heard on a comedy show a looong time ago. It was sponsored by a federal agency that was tired that nobody seemed to listen it so encouraged people to drive drunk and kill themselves. Once the weekend was over, the rest of us would, after having the corpses and wreckage hauled away, be able to drive safely.
ReplyDeleteWhat we need are vehicles that require all seats with people in them have the seatbelt engaged before the car will start. There would need to be something that could tell if you just buckled it in around the seat and sat in front of the belt, rather than having it over your chest and lap. A penalty on the insurance front would also be great. Less or no coverage of medical bills for those determined not to have been wearing their belts correctly. That would end up biting innocents in the butt, so maybe that wouldn't work, but, in theory, I like it.
ReplyDeletePublic embarassment for those caught texting while driving should be mandatory. Make the person stand in a busy area with a sandwich board telling the world they caused an accident because they were texting while driving. That's on top of any jail time and/or fines.
I think anyone who causes an accident because they were texting should be forbidden to own a cell phone with texting for at least several years. Maybe one of those Jitterbug phones they make for the elderly. Anyone who hurts someone with their car while texting should lose their license for a good length of time. And I totally agree with the humiliation option.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. There are way too many non-violent "criminals" in jail now, principally for the benefit of the privatized incarceration industry. Let them all out, starting with the people who committed the horrible crime of wanting to smoke a plant they grew in their back yard.
ReplyDelete