I spoke up on talking on the phone while driving once before, and purposely linked to a CNN article so tongue-clucking admirers of Our Betters would come say obnoxious things. Mission accomplished. Heh.
To summarize, my take is that if you are too dumb to know when and how to talk on the telephone while driving, then by all means, hang up and drive. Use common sense. We don’t need a federal law. (See also about eleventy zillion skillion other things for which we already have one.)
Yet sometimes, I think that if a federal law is the only thing that will keep people like the stupid, distracted bitch (whose sterilization would be mandatory in Bozekistan, though I believe she might have been past child-bearing age; nothing like damage already done) in a white first-generation Toyota Avalon who pulled out in front of me without even a glance while on the telephone at Palmer Park in Madison, Alabama at exactly 1:19 pm today from talking while driving, then we might need one.
I see these people, and I drive for both of us. It’s like I’m suddenly riding a motorcycle (I am invisible, and I never have the right of way). If I’d been doing what she’d been doing (which I’m sure seemed totally reasonable to her at the time), we’d have had a wreck.
Folks, you have to know when to talk, and you have to know how to talk when you do so. I know how to do this, so I do. If you do, then do. If you don’t, then don’t. I’m good at it, and you suck at it. Got it? (By the way, if you’re not sure, then it may safely be assumed you suck at it.)
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I’ve yet to meet an incompetent driver who knows they’re incompetent. That’s the problem…
A serious, tiered, federal driver license system is one of the only things about which you’ll ever hear me wish for more law.
For example, in Bozekistan, only top-tier licensed drivers in vehicles that receive meaningful annual inspections are permitted on rural interstates. (Oh, and there’s no speed limit, but enforcement for other violations has teeth, and citations are expensive.)
I’m a big proponent of making stupidity painful.
You should read the “SuperFreakonomics” chapter on incentive. Summary execution for moving violations is discussed. Levitt is a madman 🙂
You’d like the chapter on Global Warming also.
I read Freakonomics, but haven’t caught the sequel. I’ll do that.
Why isn’t there a law against the assholes that drive on I-565 in the morning, doing 75-80 mph, and putting on mascara in their driver’s sunvisor mirror? Hell, I can’t put on mascara in my own freaking bathroom. It’s amazing to see and truly scary.