(Originally posted Oct 11th, 2010 – Seem relevant to re-post this given that NH HB 1117 went to executive session yesterday.)
Bloomberg reports that Transportation nanny Ray ‘Sister Mary’ LaHood believes that all cell phone use in motor-vehicles, including hands free, are distracting. Well, no kidding Mr. Einstein. Prior to the invention of the cell phone we had something similar, which sometimes still occurs in moving vehicles–it’s called talking. If Sister Mary LaHood took the time to read his own historical crash statistics he’d find that there were actually as many or more collisions and deaths as a result of just talking to another passenger in the same car (before the cell phone was invented) as we have today.
You know what else is distracting?… children, pets, cheeseburgers, hot coffee, bikini-clad girls, other people’s bad driving, being in love, fall foliage, trying to find a song on the radio that doesn’t suck, the sound of Barack Obama’s voice makes you want to drive into a ditch, the heater not coming on fast enough, even the celestial bodies of the universe are distracting. Is LaHood going to try to ban the sun next?
I’ve just about had all I can stand of these freaking liberal, pantywaist, over-intellectualized, holy crap what can I do to fix something that’s not broken busy bodies who clearly have way too much free time on their hands.
Banning hands-free, Bluetooth, and in-car smart systems only makes sense if you also ban car radios, environmental control systems (you know, heater/AC?) and passengers, as any one or combination of these things inside a vehicle is just as distracting or more so than that which he now considers banning.
Don’t think they won’t try.
So at some point in the near future, if you are caught talking in the car, even to yourself, someone from DOT or perhaps a nice police officer, might ask you to pull over so they can smack you on the back of the hand with a “ruler.” (A very small portion of the population may actually like that.)
Morons.
