Teen drivers have lately been in the crosshairs of ranting moms and rat-faced politicians looking for an easy issue to ride into office on. There’s some legitimacy to it, admittedly. Teen drivers are inexperienced and often (but not always) immature. That can and does result in mistakes behind the wheel. But the same is...
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In the ’80s, it was tinny electronic recordings advising you that “the door is ajar.” In the ’90s, it was auto-strangulating seatbelts that assaulted you as soon as you closed the door. But is anything more cement-headed than the current obsession with overlarge wheels – “rims” (ree-uhms, if pronounced in High Ebonics)? The sight...
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You can avoid being felt-up or scanned (for now) if you avoid flying, but that doesn’t mean you’re not subject to similarly random – and just as intimidating – random stops out on the road. As the holidays approach, your local police will likely be stepping up the use of “sobriety checkpoints” – and...
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I guess the terrorists like us now. I mean, we were told after 9/11 that they attacked because they “hate us for our freedoms.” Remember that? Well, since we’re not very free these days, the terrorists must not have a bone to pick anymore. Right? Consider: * Our calls and e-mails and web browsing...
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A few years ago I decided to get a concealed-carry permit so that (among other things) I can keep a loaded handgun with me in my car. Part of the application process included a state-mandated gun safety course – and a talk by a Va. state trooper about legal and other issues related to...
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A hallmark of a totalitarian (or at least, authoritarian) country is the legal impossibility of anonymous, unhassled travel. “Your papers, please” was synonymous – once upon a time – with countries like NS Germany and, of course, the old Soviet Union. Not America. As recently as the late 1980s, one could walk right up...
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A reader wrote in response to an article I did recently on the tyranny of mandatory insurance laws. He had been hit while on his motorcycle – and crippled for life – by an oblivious driver who ran a light. He told me he believes that not only should insurance be mandatory but that...
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As we watch the slow-motion train wreck that is the dying U.S. automotive industry, it’s easy to blame the economic situation for the debacle. And it’s certainly a contributing factor. Or more precisely, an accelerating factor. It has made matters worse – and faster. But there has been little discussion of the overcapacity issue...
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I don’t “support the troops.” But of course it’s not really the troops we’re constantly pressured to express unconditional, unquestioning – even fawning – support for at nearly every turn. “The troops” really means, America’s wars; the “defense” establishment and all that profits from it – a conceptual bait and switch worthy of Dr....
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Here are a few current laws that ought to be on the other end of a piece of payin’ paper for a change: * No right on red - This is a form of idiot-proofing designed to protect over-cautious, under-skilled drivers with poor vision and a weak sense of spatial relationships – the kind...
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