MADD about you...

Wow.

Just got a mailing from Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

They want us to sign a petition. Ignition interlocks, in all our cars.

Some points:

1. Drunk driving is already illegal.
2. Driving without a license is illegal.
3. Interlock systems are expensive and cumbersome.
4. On the other hand, interlock systems are easy to defeat.

Do you really think that the sort of person who drives with a suspended license, on probation, and stone drunk is going to obey THIS law?

It would just impose huge costs on the rest of us.

From the mailing:

"Right now there is legislation pending in 30 states to require alcohol ignition interlocks on the vehicles of either repeat or first-time DWI offenders!"

Really? First time offenders? So if I am considering driving drunk the first time, a nice policeman will come install an interlock system?

Presumably, they meant possible SECOND time offenders, or people who have been convicted once.

But this is just a short jump to the full, "interlock for all cars" system.

Why do I have to pay, and be inconvenienced, for the tiny proportion of people who can't control themselves?

All we would need to do to solve the drunk driving problem is have real civil penalties, large fines and compensation laws. And people who can't pay can work off the debt in prison. No parole, no privileges.

Instead, we fill our prisons with folks whose only crime is to use harmless drugs in the privacy of their own homes! The prisons are full of people who have hurt no one, so we cut loose the drunken killers who endanger us all.

My answer? Simple.

1. Legalize, or at a minimum decriminalize, possession of all substances, so long as they don't harm anyone else.
2. Punish, and fine, anyone whose use of a substance, or need to purchase a substance, results in damage to someone else.

Incredible that you can go to jail for LONGER for possessing marijuana inside your house than for killing someone with your car while you are driving drunk.

Punish HARM, and the use of FORCE, not violations of some made up moral code.

MADD should be focusing on real jail terms, and real solutions, not some techy thing that will just make money for corporations and bureaucrats.

North Carolina finds yet another way to persecute the poor

As WRAL is reporting

the NC state House passed a bill Wednesday that calls for abandoned vehicles on the shoulder of highway to be removed within 24 hours.

Under current law, abandoned cars can legally sit on the roadside for two days.

Now obviously it goes without saying that the working poor are the ones most likely to be driving an undependable vehicle, and to find themselves forced to abandon their vehicle on the side of the road temporarily. Concordantly, these folks need *more* time, not less, to make the necessary arrangements to have their vehicles towed and repaired. It's not uncommon for someone who is living week to week to literally have to wait until payday in order to afford something like that. And now the State wants to add an additional, unwarranted tow-bill to their burden.

I know from experience, having grown up just about dirt-poor, what kind of impact something like this can have. A $100.00+ tow-bill and impound recovery fee can all but break the back of someone earning minimum wage and already struggling to survive.

Is anybody surprised by this action though? Does anybody really believe that the self-appointed elites serving in the legislature give a damn about regular folks? This action is absurd, unconscionable, and amounts to an extra tax on the people least able to afford it.

Barry Saunders: "Tiger + Michael = Timid" -- No Barry, Not Likely

Barry Saunders, Staff Writer for The News and Observer, criticizes Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods for not doing what he’d like to see them do. I think he misses the point of the facts he cites; that is, these two sports heroes know how to say no to people who want to use their celebrity status for their own purposes.

Saunders is still hung up because Jordan declined to endorse Harvey Gantt in his run for U.S. Senate in the 90’s. He also insults Jordan by criticizing his preferences about making charitable contributions. If it's his money, then it's his choice, Barry, not yours!

Saunders also has the nerve to criticize Tiger Woods for declining an invitation because he was tired. Hey, everyone gets tired now and then. Who can’t understand that?

Saunders should acknowledge that Jordan and Woods have the right to say no any way they like, just like anyone else.

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I may disagree with Saunders' negative opinion in this case, but I don't take positivity nearly as serious as the Russian News Service. According to a recent NY Times article:

From now on, at least 50 per cent of reports about Russia must be "positive".

This new desire for positivity doesn't extend to opposition leaders or the US, unfortunately:

Journalists working for the Russian News Service were told by the new managers, allies of the Kremlin, that opposition leaders could not be mentioned and the US was to be portrayed as an enemy.

It's going to be tricky for reporters:

How would they know what constituted positive news? "When we talk of death, violence or poverty, for example, this is not positive," said one editor who did not want to be identified for fear of retribution.

The press in Russia is now a mix of government-controlled and private:

The three national television networks are already state-controlled, though small-circulation newspapers generally remain independent.

But freedom of the press and political speech is quickly being restricted:

This month alone, a bank loyal to President Vladimir Putin tightened its control of an independent television station, Parliament passed a measure banning "extremism" in politics and prosecutors have gone after individuals who post critical comments on web chat sites.

Sadly, the list of media restrictions and censorship in Russia grows longer as authoritarianism rears its ugly head again there.

At least in the US, most of us still believe in a free press, at least up until 60 days before an election and except for those who support the misnamed Fairness Doctrine. Hopefully, conservatives are overly worried because of the Imus firing as Alex Koppelman suggests, but the US has also been downgraded in the Reporters without Borders Press Freedom Index, as pointed out back in January by Dave Nalle, one of the “superior writers” of Blogcritics Magazine.

Smoking Ban Update

A rare victory for freedom, ladies and gentlemen! The smoking ban did not pass!

"The state House voted this afternoon to defeat an effort to ban smoking in public places such as restaurants.
The bill, pushed by House Majority Leader Hugh Holliman in an effort to combat second-hand smoke, was defeated 55-61 following about two hours of debate.

Opponents of the measure argued it would intrude on the rights of business owners and penalize them rather than smokers."

http://www.newsobserver.com/114/story/569990.html