US calls for ban on in-car phone use ... even with Bluetooth

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Conservatives can read by the time they get to kindergarten.

Why? Because their parents (a mom AND a dad) taught them to. They don't need the government to handle basic things like ABCs and lunch.

Conservatism is a matter of maturity. If you are young, and not an optimist, you have no heart. If you are old, and not a pessimist, you are a fool. The same applies to politics.

[Captain Oates 911]

Conservatives can read by the time they get to kindergarten.

Why? Because their parents (a mom AND a dad) taught them to. They don't need the government to handle basic things like ABCs and lunch.

I know conservatives can count up to 30 coz that's the capacity of an AR-15 magazine.

It's the two stage thing they seem to fail on

The church (they all go to church) tells them its better to give, than to receive, and that what you give out comes back to you 10 ten times over

They nod and the preacher tells them to give him a thousand dollars and god will make sure they get ten thousand back

They understand that

Then the government says give up a bit of your freedom to do any evil thing that enters your mind, and you will be rewarded will a better, safer, cleaner life for you and your family

They shake their heads and reject the idea

The government then says - lets all go to middle east and kill people because I say so.

Oh they are all for THAT government idea even though they end up back here unemployed, psychotic, on drugs and with PTSD and a missing leg and eye

Getting them to stitch all these concepts together and see the contradictions is impossible

[MyLittlePony 340]

The jobless and the illegals have free cell phones how they can afford it while collecting unemployment checks.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

I believe in all that #######, and more. I also believe that everything has a spirit and is alive. I work on mechanical stuff all day long, and every contraption has a personality. Has else can you explain when some complicated piece of ####### throws a temper tantrum until I get there, and then it starts working fine the minute I get there, and generally stays working fine until long after I leave.

It's those little green elves that can be invisible when they choose to be.

[Captain Oates 911]

It's those little green elves that can be invisible when they choose to be.

I think I must be a devil worshiper without knowing it, because I lead a charmed life and everything works out for me even though I am non believer - and all the christians I know are having it tough

I can't account for it any other way, so it must be true

I could be the real anti-christ while Barry is performing a diversion

hope the faithful don't trace my IP address because christians all have guns as demanded by jesus who had a full auto 12 gauge with drum magazine

Edited December 15, 2011 by Ashud Cocoa

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

I think I must be a devil worshiper without knowing it, because I lead a charmed life and everything works out for me even though I am non believer - and all the christians I know are having it tough

I can't account for it any other way, so it must be true

I could be the real anti-christ while Barry is performing a diversion

hope the faithful don't trace my IP address because christians all have guns as demanded by jesus who had a full auto 12 gauge with drum magazine

Alaska has as many churches as bars, yet it's not the peeps who choose to go the bar and not church that are trying to make new laws up here in regards to morality and how they see fit to how we should lead our lives. Most of us would rather not deal with anything...it's just more to think about, and their trying to get rid of smoking, porn, gambling, you name it. It's like #######? I mean we were hear first, and the church goers came afterwards yet their telling us were doing it all wrong.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

I think I must be a devil worshiper without knowing it, because I lead a charmed life and everything works out for me even though I am non believer - and all the christians I know are having it tough

I can't account for it any other way, so it must be true

I could be the real anti-christ while Barry is performing a diversion

hope the faithful don't trace my IP address because christians all have guns as demanded by jesus who had a full auto 12 gauge with drum magazine

God is a strange bird. He likes sinners, and people that talk to him without asking for stuff. He also is a practical joker, and He cheats at Solitaire. Mostly, He is bored. He is a He, and hates all this politically correct #######. Like a typical male, He is confused by women. Even though He made Lilith to share Creation with Adam, neither God, nor Adam was happy with the design. So, He came up with a more subservient model, Eve, but that didn't work out either, so He ceased trying to tweak things any longer.

[Captain Oates 911]

Alaska has as many churches as bars, yet it's not the peeps who choose to go the bar and not church that are trying to make new laws up here in regards to morality and how they see fit to how we should lead our lives. Most of us would rather not deal with anything...it's just more to think about, and their trying to get rid of smoking, porn, gambling, you name it. It's like #######? I mean we were hear first, and the church goers came afterwards yet their telling us were doing it all wrong.

They are on a mission - all TRUE lovers of liberty should turn their attention towards the religions worldwide because THEY are the ones who want to tell you what you can and can't do.

You are absolutely right

Keep arms in case the church gets on your case because they will do it long before the government does.

My mother was a typical christian. My daughter got pregnant while she was engaged - not married yet

My mother said to her:

" What are you doing out in the daylight - in my day girls like you would be kept in a cellar or put in an asylum"

They did as well in her day. A real christian. A typical christian.

That is what the world will look like if the religious nuts are not bottled up and kept in their place. It did look like that in the early 1900's

It's ironic that the USA was set up as the one place in the world where one could be safe from them, and yet it is one of the main places in the world where religious nuts are as common as gay priests and out to change the laws everywhere in the country - to the detriment of people who don't share their faith

It isn't the government - its the god nuts. Pat Robertson, Osama, Rick Perry - THERE is the danger

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

Purely in theory, Libertarianism sounds every bit as wonderful as communism and almost as fantastic as Plato's Republic, my absolute personal favorite kind of government. Unfortunately, in real life this is spoiled because of the ever-declining gene pool and common sense.

In fact, if all the people had common sense and decent ethics, we didn't even need the most basic laws!

Would you go and shoot somebody dead, because he looked at your girlfriend? Probably not, and it's not because the law forbids it.

Would you rob a bank? Probably not, and it's also not because the law says don't do it.

Would you rape a 10 year-old girl? Probably not, and you don't need no stinkin' law to tell you that it's wrong.

All of these things are inplanted in you by your creator, enforced by your social surroundings and your ability to comprehend.

Yet people do these things. Just for these people we need laws that prohibit murder, bank robbery, and rape of a minor!

Let's scale it down one notch without violating the principle, shall we?

Would you decide to keep your children at home, not to send them to school and not home-school them either, as you need them on the farm instead? Probably not.

Would you dump a gallon of used motor oil into the water drain? Probably not.

Would you circumcise your little girl in the name of Allah? Probably not.

But people do this if they believe they can get away with it. They do it because they are lacking a component that makes them aware that what they are doing is wrong. Wrong in the eyes of their peers.

Which is why as little as possible government is a pipe dream. Yes, make it as little as necessary, but if we don't make certain things law and regulate others, the bad guys will take advantage of this. No child protection, no work protection, no fire protection unless you signed up with the local fire department, no health care unless you are willing to sign what they want you to sign. Ron Paul wants to get rid of the Department of Education. Makes sense, 'cause when the government -- oh, no, my mistake, the government does nothing -- so when the illegal aliens self-deport, we need work slaves. No minimum wage (another government intervention) means $4.50 per hour (don't like it? #### off, loser!) and dumb people make better slaves. That's why we didn't educate the blacks way back when; in fact, it was prohibited to teach one of them Negroes how to read for a long time.

Let everybody live their lives as they see fit and you'll have chaos. Survival of the fittest. Crumbling buildings, thanks to no evil government-imposed building codes and inspections. Just don't drive into a big sink hole when you use one of those government-installed freeways and surface streets.

The more humanity slides down the drain, the more irresponsible people get, the more they text and shave their private parts and do their foot nails -- Snooky style -- while operating a motor vehicle, the more intervention and regulation we need from our government. The people with common sense don't need it, but the retards do. And they get more and more and more every day, not the least due to religion that prohibits the poorest of the poor who have no means to raise and educate a child properly to use birth control.

[Captain Oates 911]

Interesting

I have concluded recently that talk of sociopaths is overdone because 'normal' people can and do behave like them

That's why a lot of soldiers returning home won't talk about the war - because they have done things when they were 'different people' being driven by forces outside of themselves

A lot of religious people act in ways that are inexplicably bad - in Africa they will burn people alive

We nonreligious people can be bad too - but we are not fueled by a holy command - just by the wish to drive home drunk etc. The imperative is not the same, and so its easier to be good because we haven't got some pastor driving us on by holy command

Shooting abortion doctors or politicians is always incited by someone else, even if the shooter is a lone wolf. That someone else is either a religious organization or a political organization which has morphed into a semi-religious organization with deep mantras and repetitions - eg the tea party

There is no doubt that the US Constitution has become as holy and as revered and as sacred as any religious object.

At that point it morphs from a really worthwhile statement of intent and guidance, to a weapon of extremists and an anchor to an outdated past and a barrier to progress

I really like the constitution, but when it turns into the equivalent of the saint's finger bones, I think it can get in the way of progress

The founding fathers were just men after all - not cosmic gods sent to give us the commandments for all time which is how a lot of Americans revere them. They put their pants on one leg at a time too.

I mention this because the whole 1776 thing even gets into conversations about cell phones

[Darnell 8,478]

i say some special dispensation for travelling salesmen and route delivery drivers - they have to buy a special piece of paper, carry it in the car, show it when they are pulled over.

more $$ revenue for the county, you betcha !

you need to take a closer look at congress.

Charles, that was f'ing funny. I'm impressed. You rock, and stuff.

Warmest Regards..

[james&olya 1,121]

Not really.

Talking on a cell phone, adjusting the radio, switching from bright to dim, there are many types of multitasking which a driver will either choose to do (adjust the radio or talk on a cell,) or needs to do (dim or brighten the headlights, operate turn signals, adjust wipers.) A good driver is multitasking anyway, looking ahead, behind, left, right, maintaining lane position and proper speed for conditions.

A drink with your dinner won't impair your ability to drive unless you have something physically wrong with you. Raging alcoholics may be an exception to your "one or two" drinks with dinner rule.

Talking, merely talking, on your cell phone vs talking to your passenger, talking to your kids in the back seat, is not something which a decent driver should have trouble doing.

My guess would be they posted the photos of persons running red lights on their cells, it would be very doubtful that talking on cell phones is the primary cause of red light running. Are you suggesting nobody ever ran a red light before cell phones were invented?

Texting on your cell is a whole other animal, and yes I could see where it compares to impaired driving such as under the effect of alcohol in sufficient quantity to cause impairment.

The reality is that ANYTHING that interferes with our ability to focus our attention on the task of driving safely increases the risk of an accident. That applies to EVERYBODY, regardless of your skill or experience in multi-tasking. Add to that the great variability in innate driving skills, ability to make accurate and rapid speed/distance judgments, visual abilities, etc, etc. So maybe there is some theoretical, arbitrary threshold of safety that we all should meet that is the sum of all these skills/distractions/impairments. There are at least a couple of problems with this rationale. One is how do you possibly set this threshold and then measure accurately all the variables involved? The second is do you really want a scenario where everybody is allowed to be just barely over some cumulative minimum standard? Society can and should identify risks that are significant and enforceable to make our roads and highways safe.

[Leatherneck 693]

I know conservatives can count up to 30 coz that's the capacity of an AR-15 magazine.

It's the two stage thing they seem to fail on

The church (they all go to church) tells them its better to give, than to receive, and that what you give out comes back to you 10 ten times over

They nod and the preacher tells them to give him a thousand dollars and god will make sure they get ten thousand back

They understand that

Then the government says give up a bit of your freedom to do any evil thing that enters your mind, and you will be rewarded will a better, safer, cleaner life for you and your family

They shake their heads and reject the idea

The government then says - lets all go to middle east and kill people because I say so.

Oh they are all for THAT government idea even though they end up back here unemployed, psychotic, on drugs and with PTSD and a missing leg and eye

Getting them to stitch all these concepts together and see the contradictions is impossible

Have you every read some of the drivel you post? According to you, people that want small, less intrusive government are the equivelant to knuckle-dragging neanderthals. And you, (genious of course) and other left wing, liberty-hating, foaming at the mouth liberals are mental giants with all of the answers to make the world a better place... if only the gun toting, freedom loving, God loving conservatives would just get out of your enlightened way.

:wacko:

[james&olya 1,121]

Don't we already have a system in place?

Why not simply add "cell phone usage resulting in an accident" as one of the offenses that gives a driver six or eight points, similar to vehicular assault or OVI. It wouldn't outright ban cell phone usage, however, usage resulting in an accident would be an offense. That way, folks who are good drivers and capable of doing simple tasks without killing people can continue to do so. Those who can't will be stripped of the privilege of driving an automobile.

Why not do that with all traffic violations? Until you kill somebody you get to drive drunk if you feel like it, drive 150mph, etc? Is the standard of 'I haven't killed anybody YET' good enough?

[james&olya 1,121]

Then how come we have vehicular homicide and assault laws? There's no way to check for those. They're only applied AFTER they happen. Same could be done for cellphones.

Because not every criminally stupid and irresponsible thing can ever be specifically legislatively identified and proscribed. To the extent something is considered an unreasonable risk to the public at large and is a behavior that can be easily identified (making a law enforceable) it may make sense to regulate or ban it. My right to be safe may trump your right to be stupid!