Oooh, mean article about those not buckling up...

joolsplus3

Admin - CPS Technician
http://starbulletin.com/2007/05/20/features/memminger.html

(note...Honolulu to Pearlridge is like 5 miles of 4 lane freeway)

Honolulu Lite
Charles Memminger
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Some drivers won’t buckle to survival sense

No one wants a fellow human being to abruptly and unpleasantly cease to live but some people apparently have such a blithe disregard for their own mortality that it's almost pointless to try to help them to muddle through yet another day on this planet.

I say this in light of the much-ballyhooed and increasingly annoying "Click It or Ticket" national campaign to force clueless imbeciles to use seat belts in moving vehicles. Any enterprise that comes to be described by such an archaic word as "ballyhooed" is bound to be irksome. And the "Click It or Ticket" project is irksome and then some. Not because it is not a good idea for people to wear seat belts, but because there cannot be anyone who doesn't understand that the mere act of using a seat belt might save their life in a crash.
Those souls who do not wish to employ this rather simple form of self-preservation are really beyond help. I mean, at some point, you have to consider that you might be setting back evolution or lowering the intelligence quotient of the gene pool by forcing people without the most basic survival instinct to continue to draw a breath and, more alarming, create offspring.
Yet, on a drive from Honolulu to Pearlridge, I saw no fewer than five huge flashing highway signs announcing "Click It or Ticket" and threatening a $90 fine for those not buckled up. I suspect that anyone with such disdain for life is not going to be swayed by a $90 fine. Intentional and flagrant ignorance knows no bounds and recognizes no currency.
WHY THE government feels compelled to address just this one narrow example of human stupidity, I don't know. People can be stupid on so many levels. Failing to wear a seat belt is just one of many dangerous activities stupid people engage in. Is government to protect them from every dumb thing they do? If so, we're going to need a lot more of those big flashing signs.
Not wearing a seat belt isn't even the most stupid motor vehicle-related thing those lacking a zest for life do. At least half of the people on the roads shouldn't even be allowed to drive cars at all. You've seen these geniuses. They can't even tell the difference between a car and their office or bathroom. I was stuck behind a SUV stopped at a GREEN light by a driver who apparently was discussing her stock options with a broker on a cellular phone and scribbling on a note pad. She thought she was sitting in her office, not behind the wheel of a 5,000 pound, gas-propelled, metal-sheathed, 250 horsepower instrument of death.
Where's the national "Hang Up or Lockup" anti-cellphone campaign? Or the Yammer and Slammer" effort? For those who don't realize that putting on makeup while driving is not just stupid but suicidal, how about the "Lip Gloss and License Loss" program? I jest. We can't bribe or threaten people to want to scratch out a few more days on this globe. When it comes to life it's not "Click It or Ticket," it's "Live It or Lose It."
 
ADS

Wineaux

New member
I absolutely LOVE that article! He thinks a lot like I do IMHO. I have always been rather happy to let Darwin work his magic and weed the stupid people out of the population via attrition. Unfortunately, said morons tend to breed at an inverse proportion to their being removed from the gene pool due to their own stupidity, and so it is THEIR children whom we must work the hardest to protect from their halfwit parents.

If you haven't noticed, I've not been in a rather PC sort of mood lately...
 

joolsplus3

Admin - CPS Technician
And here's an article the same guy did 5 years ago after the booster law was first vetoed... Fun-Ny...(and so true...I'm very big on protecting innocent children...)
Honolulu Lite


CHARLES MEMMINGER
Monday, May 21, 2001


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Gov needs to become
a car seat booster
THE main argument against the proposed "mandatory booster seat" bill in the state legislature seems to be families with a lot of kids couldn't afford them, even if all the seats could fit in their cars.
They have a point. If you have 12 children under the age of eight, or under 80 pounds, which the law would concern, you'd need a school bus to haul them around in.

Gov. Ben Cayetano said he's received a number of calls and e-mails from people who have scads of children who are worried about the cost of complying with such a law. Foster parents told the governor that they have seven or eight kids who would be required under the proposed law to sit in booster seats and urged him to veto the bill.

This is a tough call, especially considering that it's illegal for kids to ride around in the back of a pickup truck. And let's not forget that it also is illegal for you to haul your dog around in the back of a pickup truck unless he is restrained. And, by the way, you are not allowed to carry a load of lawn cuttings unless they is restrained by a tarp or some such.

So, here we are. Dogs are protected. Lawn clippings are protected. And children under 12 are protected at least regarding riding in pickup trucks. Right now kids under 4 years old are required to be in child seats, or booster seats, but 5 year olds, who are just about the same size as 4 year olds are not.

Long ago the government made wearing seatbelts mandatory because a lot of people were like our esteemed UH football coach June Jones. Jones says he chooses not to wear a seatbelt because he likes to live on the edge. After falling asleep at the wheel and smashing into a wall, he nearly died. We saved his life. At least our tax money did since we pay for emergency services.

How did Jones thank us? He went right out and broke the law, going 70 miles per hour on his motorcycle then bragging that he planned to go even faster in the future.

I think if Jones loves living on the edge so much, he ought to finance his own personal emergency medical team to save his butt in the future.

But what does that have to do with kid seats?

What we are talking about here is physics. Basic stuff about the movement of objects at certain speeds and what happens when that speed is suddenly diminished. What happens is that people who are unrestrained in a crashing car go sploosh. Like coach Jones.

But he made the conscious decision to go sploosh. If he wants to think it's cool that he went sploosh and lived and is willing to go sploosh again, that's his deal. But children don't have that choice. They have to trust us.

If conventional seat belts don't keep kids from going sploosh, then we need something better, like child safety seats. If it takes eight booster seats crammed into a car, then that's what it takes. Kids need to be protected at least as well as our dogs and rubbish.
 

Cathyliz

Senior Community Member
Okay, maybe not the most politically correct article, but it certainly makes a point. Personally, I thought it was great! Then again, I tend to be a bit sarcastic anyway.:D Sometimes it takes a slap in the face to get across to some people.

Oh, I'm absolutely for a "Shut up and Drive" campaing. I HATE seeing people talking on cell phones while driving. Such a bad idea.:thumbsdown:
 

Wineaux

New member
Political Correctness is one of the worst things that has happened to our society since we attempted Prohibition.
 

joolsplus3

Admin - CPS Technician
Didn't the booster law eventually pass?

it's through 7, now, isn't it?

Yeah, took a new republican governor woman to pass it... (and I just have been reading somewhere about sanctions to states that won't pass booster bills... why does it always have to be about money to get people to do things right?)
 

murphydog77

Admin - CPST Instructor
Staff member
I like this guy! :thumbsup: I wish he wrote for my uber-conservative newspaper instead of the idiot editor who does. I still have my hackles up over the do-gooder article he wrote several years ago. Sploosh, that's one I'll have to teach my kids. Maybe they can make an impact on their friends with that one.
 

amyg530

Active member
Unfortunately, said morons tend to breed at an inverse proportion to their being removed from the gene pool due to their own stupidity, and so it is THEIR children whom we must work the hardest to protect from their halfwit parents.
.

haha, reminds me of the begining of idiocracy with luke wilson
 

mommy4girls

Senior Community Member
I just got back from a 10day trip with dh to HI. He was getting irritated with my comments about car seats there. I couldn't believeit!:eek: I understand thta with the amount of tourism there it'd be hard to enforce, but REALLY! Nearly everyone gets there by plane, so I was thinking I should work in the airport making sure people have seats for their kids before they leave. I saw kids, maybe 3 or 4 in just seatbelts:( Charles Hirata has his work out for him, I've never thought of him more than that trip:p
 

stayinhomewithmy6

Senior Community Member
I do like the article, but one of my biggest issues with people not wearing seat belts is that they become projectiles in an accident, putting everyone else in the vehicle at risk. I often think of my SIL, who is 19. She wears her seat belt (and I've been hounding her every time I see her to not put the shoulder belt under her arm), but I'm sure some of her friends that she rides with frequently do not wear their seat belts and that puts her at risk of being injured. I try to talk to her about this too, but she's 19 and just wants to be with her friends, and she thinks I'm being a little ridiculous. SO, these dumb people that the article talks about could be putting their smart friends in danger, too, which is totally unfair! :rolleyes:
This YouTube video really bothers me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWb5UhdMHvw
 
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joolsplus3

Admin - CPS Technician
Yeah, they are pretty lax over there... there's sort of a small town/country/island feeling that it's hard to shake, despite freeways being about the only way to get anywhere on the island....lots of people still riding in the backs of pickups, kids bouncing around unbuckled, etc... (but NO deaths in the 4-8 age group was probably what slowed them down on passing a booster bill... I'm sure there were loads of injuries, but people do like to concentrate on death when they pass those laws...)
 

Cathyliz

Senior Community Member
RE: youtube video stayinhome posted

Wow. Pretty strong stuff. :(

Our instructor in my CPST class said next time someone gets into your car and doesn't put their seatbelt on, ask them how much they weigh. Then have them do the math: weight X speed = force Do you want someone weighing 150lbs becoming a flying object in a crash where you're going 30mph? Let's see: 150 X 30 = 4500lbs of force flying around in the car. I don't think so.
 

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