January 4th, 2001- Stupid New Years Laws
Well, here comes the new year and with it, comes a more useless laws. More ways for the government to harass us. More freedoms taken away from the citizens.
What am I talking about? Well, I live in Illinois and a mongst a bunch of other useless laws that went into effect the beginning of this year, we now have a law against talking on a cell phone while driving. This state really sucks. Seriously. Last year stats like Minnesota and California were giving excess money back to the tax payer or using the excess funds to preserve more forests and stuff. Illinois passed an 11 Billion (yes, 11 BILLION!) tax increase. The cost of a license plate for a car went from $48 to $78 dollars. The usual suspects like cigaretts, gasoline, and alcohol got taxed as well. My monthy property tax is as much as others peoples mortgage in other states. Our property tax in this state is absurd. Why do we have all these excess taxes? Well, obviously to pay all these bribe taking, sneaky, underhanded politicians to make useless rules. This cell phone rule is totally stupid. They made this rule because they think (bullshit man, they have never thought in their life) talking on a cell phone in the car is distracting. Shit......... Trying to figure out how to work the heater controls, the radio, the seat heaters, or the power mirrors in my new car more of a hassle or distraction than dialing a phone.
What about these dipshits on the road who do shit like, put on makeup or read the paper while driving? You have seen them. Some guy cruising down the expressway at 50 Mph, and trying to read the paper. Or, what I like, is the woman who has her rear view mirror pointing right back at her. She startes into it putting on lipstick or eye liner and not only can't see see where she is going because she is staring into the rear view mirror, she can't see what is behind her because the mirror is pointed at her face. Just tonight I saw some woman sending a message with one of those little "blackberry" two way text messaging devices. Like, that has to be hard to use while driving. I mean, dialing a phone number is at worst 10 digits and a SEND button. Typing out a text message surely has to be more keystrokes than dialing a phone number.
This is just another eample of our wonderful government taking another freedom away from us. We already have the seatbest law here, where you are forced by law to wear a seatbelt. I feel that if I want to risk my life and not wear one, that is my right. I mean, who am I going to hurt by not wearing a seatbelt? Will my body fly out of the car and slam into some innocent bystander if I am not belted in while my car is in an accident? I myself feel safer without a seatbelt. I have a fairly big and heavy car. It has a curb weight of about 4800 lbs. Add in gas, antifreeze, a few people and you are over 5000lbs. I could probably ram into a geo and not even feel it. Someone I know in a Chevy Suburban was hit by a person in a honda, broadside into the front fender. The Honda was going like 30 Mph and the Suburban was leaving a stopsign at like 3 mph. My friend in the suburban was not injured. The car was barely even affected. The Honda on the other hand, was destroyed and the driver was hurt.
See, it's all Momentum. P=MV. P is the momentum, M = the Mass and V= the Velocity. There is a basic law of physics called the conservation of momentum. So, my 5000lb car doing 40 Mph has twice as much momentum as a 2500lb car going the same speed. Ever see a car hit a freight train? The car is demolished and the train does not even slow down? Why, because the train weighs thousands of times more, so, to equal the momentum of the train, that car has to hit it going really fast. The insurance company un-wittingly agrees with this fairly well known fact that you are safer in a heavier vehicle. How do they do this? Well, as an owner of a heavier vehicle, my rates are up because my vehicle will cause more injury to those in smaller ones. Eventhought my larger vehicle is rated as being safer, the fact i do more damage in an accident makes me pay more. I am sort of off the subject here but, if I got a small car, then I guess I would feel safer wearing a seatbelt. But, I have a larger, heavier, taller vehicle so, i don't think I should have to wear myseatbelt if I don't want to. Plus, again, as I said before. If I want risk my own life, I should be entitled to. And speaking of safety, I live in a state that took bribes from unqualified truck drivers so they could get their license. A few years ago, a minivan full of people died when their car burst into flames and because one of these truckers who bribed an illinois state official for his license, screwed up. Lets not try to spend any of this tax money on catching the people selling the licenses. Lets make more dumb ass laws to make all of us feel "safer".
Well, I guess that is it for now. I am not wearing my seatbelt and I will talk on the phone when and where I feel like it. The seatbelt law is barely enforced in this state and I feel the cell phone law will be the same. Imagine a cop saying this to you: Sorry I can not go find who murdered your husband right now. I have to waste valuable dollars and time to write this person a ticket for talking on his cell phone."