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United States News Title: Buckle Up . . . Your Gym Bag The late great comedian Sam Kineson had a routine describing the peace of death. At last, no more worries. Hes lying on the slab . . . when all of a sudden he feels the embalmer climbing on top of him. It never ends! Sam would scream in his inimitable way. The same goes for government busybodyism. It never ends. These people never fail to find a new way to pester us and cost us. The latest way being a call from them to be imposed on us that all new cars to be equipped with seat belt buzzers for the back seats. For saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety! They really mean something else. The backseats are were the last redoubt of freedom from proctoring in a modern car. The only place where you could sit down without being harassed by the car. And where the driver (and passengers) could put things without being pestered by the car. One of the most noisome aspects of buckle up technology beyond the fact that its forced on us is that it cant tell the difference between a person and a bag of groceries. Or a laptop. Or a hoagie, for that matter. Hypersensitive weight sensors are built into the seats these sensors being necessary because of another busybody mandate (the air bag mandate) which resulted in people being killed by too-forceful air bag deployments. Whoops. The sensors are supposed to feed data about the weight of the person occupying the seat and that data is used to adjust the force of air bag deployment in a crash . The idea being to (hopefully) not kill babies, little kids and little old ladies. But the sensors are special in the short-bus sense. They register the weight of practically anything as a person your laptop, bookbag or foot-long hoagie, even. And if the seatbelt isnt buckled, the buzzer erupts. These buzzers are piercing and relentless; they are more like claxons and most dont turn themselves off after a moment or even minutes. They stay on until you buckle up. This includes buckling up your laptop thats riding shotgun. Almost any pressure on the sensors will trigger the buzzers. This is not anecdotal it is experiential. Your Libertarian Car Guy test drives brand-new cars every week and I can personally vouch for the fact that backpacks, laptops and hoagies trigger the buzzers. Its enraging. The buzzers are styled reminders but after say a minute of ear-splitting racket, its probably a safe assumption that the driver is aware of the situation. But the seat belt harasser wont quit causing an unsafe distraction until the driver cant stand it anymore, gives up and reaches over to buckles up his laptop or whatever else is riding shotgun. Not very . . . saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafe if the car is moving. Nevermind. If NHTSA the federal busybody agency that somehow became the proctor of Our Safety gets its way, drivers will soon have to reach behind them to try to grab and buckle-up their stuff in order to get the got-damned buzzers to shut the fuck up. NHTSA says it is calling for rear-seat buzzers, because only three quarters of rearseat passengers buckle up. Perhaps because they dont want to? Never mind. It cannot be abided. So in addition to people in the back seat being proctored and pestered the driver will also have to remember to buckle up the groceries, gym bags or whatever else gets tossed onto the rear seats. Where, of course, the driver cant reach the got-damned seat belt to buckle them up, if he forgot to in order to get the got-damned buzzer to shut up. One more aggravation and expense we didnt call for. No one ever asks about this. Whether the sensors add $100 or $1 to the price of the car isnt the point. Maybe rearseat buzzers are something people want. Why not find out? By crazy idea letting people decide for themselves whether they want them and are willing to pay for them? Heaven forfend. The real reason these things have to called for that is, mandated by the busybodies is precisely because most people dont want them. If that werent the case, the mandate wouldnt be necessary. QED. See also: Air bags and electric cars. The busybodies like mandates because they give them power. And the car industry for the most part likes the mandates because it gives them money. A mandated safety feature is no different than mandated leather seats or AC. They all cost extra but you used to be able to skip things you didnt want to pay extra for. Now we all pay more for less freedom. Thats a pretty crappy offer and its one were not allowed to refuse. . . . Got a question about cars, Libertarian politics or anything else? Click on the ask Eric link and send em in! Subscribe to *Cars and Automotive* Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top Page Up Full Thread Page Down Bottom/Latest
#1. To: Deckard (#0)
No. We are all paying more for your increased personal freedom. You see, when when when you don't wear your seatbelt and get in an accident, inevitably WE end up paying your hospital bill because you want your freedom without taking responsibility. All we're trying to do is minimize our costs.
Its not my fault that you voted to pay the bill. Besides, WE ALL pay the cost, not just you. If we really want to save money, how about mandate death for all born with birth defects, and death after the first serious illness or retirement, whichever comes first? Talk about an incentive for living right, exercising and working until you drop.
THIS IS A TAG LINE...Exercising rights is only radical to two people, Tyrants and Slaves. Which are YOU? Our ignorance has driven us into slavery and we do not recognize it.
I said we.
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