From Alphecca : After scores of deaths, the U.S. government government is taking a closer look at off-road recreational vehicles, known as ROVs. The Consumer Product Safety Commission voted Wednesday to write mandatory rules to regulate the four-wheel vehicles, after more than 100 deaths since 2003. Riders have suffered dozens of injuries, too — some leading to amputations. The actual stats are : Since 2003, CPSC says 116 people have died, including young children, and more than 150 have been injured. Injuries have involved crushing fractures to legs, feet and arms and some riders have lost limbs. The CPSC says it cannot wait on voluntary standards and market forces: "This is an instance where the industry has not been responding quickly and effectively enough to the well-documented hazards caused by these products," said Rachel Weintraub, director of product safety and senior counsel for the Consumer Federation of America. Ms. Weintraub, however, is--wait for it, technical t...

Tyler recently posted on the Federal government's intent to withhold highway funds from States unless they pass legislation making driving while texting illegal. This is, of course, the same mechanism that the Feds used to force States to lower speed limits in the 1970s and to make failure to wear a seat belt a primary offense over the past decade. Progressives, with Dana Garrett standing in as our exemplar today, think this is exactly what government should be doing : I read that texting while driving is just as dangerous as driving while intoxicated. If the Feds said to states who had no laws against drunk driving "No bucks until you pass such laws," then I'd say Amen because those states are acting against the public interest. Therefore, if texting is just as dangerous as drving drunk, then I think the Feds making this condition is a great idea. This is my response: Let's unpack the consequences of your position, Dana. Federal highway funds pay for multiple sa...

H/t Big Bend Bikers for Freedom : Whoever thought that ordering a pizza would turn into a session of end-of-life counseling?

... you're going to have to breathe on the old biddy just to start your car, apparently. From Overlawyered : Mothers Against Drunk Driving is anything but an uncontroversial organization, as the Washington Times, Radley Balko, and our own archives make clear. Among the bad, sometimes awful ideas with which it has been identified are a reduction of the blood alcohol limit to .04 (meaning that for some adults a single drink could result in arrest), blanket police roadblocks and pullovers, the 55 mph speed limit, traffic-cams, and the imprisonment of parents who knowingly permit teen party drinking, to name but a few. Of particular interest when it comes to the policies of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) , it has backed proposed legislation demanding that costly breathalyzer-ignition interlock systems be foisted on all new cars, whether or not their drivers have ever committed a DUI offense ; it’s also lined up with the plaintiff’s bar on various dubious ef...

From the State that doesn't trust drivers to make left turns or pump their own gas, we get this : TRENTON, NJ - Things could get hairy in New Jersey this summer for women who sport revealing bikinis or a little bit less. The painful Brazilian wax and its intimate derivatives are in danger of being stripped from salon and spa menus if a recent proposal to ban genital waxing is passed by the state's Board of Cosmetology and Hairstyling. Cherry Hill salon owner Linda Orsuto said that women would "go ballistic" if the proposal passed. She said that some women would resort to waxing themselves, visiting unlicensed salons or traveling to other states, including Pennsylvania, in a quest to remain bare down there. "The clients are going to freak," said Orsuto, who owns 800 West Salon & Spa, on Route 70. "It's a hot issue, and we're going to have to do something." New Jersey statutes allow waxing of the face, neck, arms, legs and abdomen, but of...

. . . . and naturally wants to create a new bureaucracy to deal with them. Aside from the fact that you'd be hard-pressed to find an American alive who doesn't understand that cigarettes are dangerous, just think of all the costs hidden in this agenda to give the FDA power to regulate tobacco as a drug. From the Washington Post : The bill specifically states that the F.D.A.’s new powers would stop short of the ability to order the elimination of nicotine from tobacco products or place an outright ban on all tobacco products. But the agency could reduce nicotine to nonaddictive levels if it determined that doing so would benefit public health. The F.D.A. could also require changes in tobacco products, like the reduction or elimination of other harmful ingredients.... The amendments also require the F.D.A. to publish an action plan on the advertising and promotion of menthol and other cigarettes to young people, giving priority to minority communities.... If the legislation is en...

.... and why they are not a good bet, energy wise. It is a wonkish post of the kind I was one day planning to write, and now don't have to, because Coyote Blog has pretty much retired the fantasy that urban commuter light rail systems would be better than hybrids or more efficient automobiles. I particularly like his opening salvo: I generally have a bet I make for new light (and heavy) commuter rail systems. I bet that for the amount the system cost to build, every single daily rider could have instead been given a Prius to drive for the same money; and, with the operating losses and/or subsidy the system requires each year, every one of those Prius drivers could be given enough gas to make their daily commute. And still have money left over. I have tested this bet for the systems in Los Angeles and Albuquerque. Well, it turns out I left something out. Many people are interested in commuter rail because it is perceived to be greener, which nowadays generally means narrowly th...

RC has the full story at Big Bend Bikers for Freedom , but the gist is this: Yesterday the Grand Jury announced its indictments in the death of Rachel Hoffman, and something more: The Leon County Grand Jury returned indictments this afternoon against Andrea Green and Deneilo Bradshaw for the murder of Rachel Hoffman. The Grand Jury also said that “negligent conduct” by the Tallahassee Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Agency contributed to the death of Rachel Hoffman. If you care about casualties in the Government's War on American Citizens (supposedly for drug use), then you need to visit Big Bend Bikers for Freedom right now. If Rachel Hoffman could have been your daughter (she certainly could have been mine), then you need to visit Big Bend Bikers for Freedom right now. And we all need to realize that this insanity will not stop, the deaths will not stop, and the imprisonments will not stop, until the American people stand up and make it stop .

I love the way that Nanny State legislation works. Here's the story from AOL Auto about the increasing number of states enacting "hands-free only" cell phone laws for drivers: Law enforcement officials in six states can now give you a ticket for talking on your cell phone while driving, so that hands-free device you should be using for your cell phone is going to become your best friend. If you don't have one then you should ask yourself why and get to the store to buy one. Some important information on why and what to look for is below. The reason you may need to start wearing that dorky Bluetooth-integrated ear piece is actually quite startling and sobering. Distracted drivers cause 80 percent of all road accidents, according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. In fact, a recent study by the Public Policy Institute of California shows hands-free laws have the potential of saving 300 lives in California each year and perhaps thousands if si...

From the AP (with h/t Thoughts on Freedom ) The Los Angeles City Council has approved a one-year moratorium on new fast-food restaurants in a low-income area of the city. The moratorium unanimously approved Tuesday is a bid to attract restaurants that offer healthier food choices to residents in a 32-square-mile area of South Los Angeles. Councilwoman Jan Perry says residents at five public meetings expressed concern with the proliferation of fast-food outlets in the community plagued by above-average rates of obesity. Nearly three-quarters of the restaurants in South L.A. are fast-food outlets. That's a higher percentage than other parts of the city but the restaurant industry says the moratorium won't help bring in alternatives. So we will refuse to allow people to have access to restaurants that apparently provide the food people want to eat and can afford because Councilwoman Perry wants them to blow a month's wages at Ruth's Chris Steak House (assuming someone is...

According to the Wall Street Journal , for the second straight month the number of miles driven by Americans has declined in the face of high gas prices: 1.8% in April, 3.7% in May. That's 5.5% in two months, nationwide--in the East the cutback has actually been higher [see map]. (I believe that's also called the impact of market forces.) If you read or listen to automotive ads, they're trying to give the damn things away now. I just saw a VW Beetle on a car lot on Kirkwood Highway with a sticker in the window offering no money down and 2.9% financing for 72 months. That's six years, right? What this all means to the government, however, is less tax money for highway maintenance and mass-transit projects: "We were losing ground to these incredible increases in construction costs, but then to see the erosion in driving -- it's a double whammy," said John Horsley, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officia...

... in the legislation proposed by Illinois Republican Mark Steven Kirk that would create a Federal ban on internet access to MySpace and FaceBook in America's libraries. Here's the story from Switched : First, libraries were forced to start filtering out obscene content in 2000. Then came the Patriot Act, which granted the government the right to examine the books you checked out and the sites you visited on a library's public computers. Now, lawmakers are trying to ban children from accessing MySpace and Facebook on library PCs in order to keep the kids safe from sexual predators. The heavy-handed legislation -- a bill introduced by Representative Mark Steven Kirk of Illinois -- is, of course, being fought by the American Library Association. The library wants to protect people's privacy saying that it is essential if a community is to utilize the library for intellectual pursuits. You may remember that I took issue a week or two back with liberalgeek's belief th...

OK, let's be clear at the start of this one: my children and now my grandson have always been cared for in one of the best licensed daycare facilities in the state--Limestone Hills Day School-- because we work hard to be able to afford it . Even so, I find the organization of a self-interested PAC by licensed day-care providers with the aim of shutting down their competition, to be downright ... well, I'd use the word "scary," but scare tactics is exactly what they're about here. From an editorial in today's Snooze Journal : Would you take your child to an unlicensed pediatrician? Would you put your child on a school bus with an unlicensed driver? What about your day care provider? Would you entrust your child all day to an unlicensed, potentially hazardous provider?... There are about 1,300 independent licensed home day care providers now serving Delaware families. Licensed providers follow state regulations, take training classes and have their homes inspe...

Let's see--Governor Ruth Ann and the General Assembly couldn't manage to do eminent domain reform, and decided to balance the budget by cutting summer school funding for kids who couldn't pass the DSTP. But--on the plus side, apparently-- they came together to outlaw copycat bands . And another victimless crime hits the books, much to the bemusement of club owners throughout the state: Vicky Walls, who oversees booking national bands for the Bottle & Cork in Dewey Beach, said she has never heard of an instance when a band claimed to be an act it was not. Walls said in addition to the real acts, the popular beach establishment sometimes has cover bands and tribute bands perform. "Everyone knows that's not Fall Out Boy on the stage because the next song is a Duran Duran song and the next song is someone else," Walls said. Walls said if bands seriously tried to impersonate famous acts, most people would think they were crazy. "People know that the Beatle...

As I was traveling through the George Bush International Airport at Houston (which George is not always clear) last week, I had the occasion to stand in the security line and take off my shoes. There was one of those canned recordings playing that usually reminds you not to leave your luggage unattended or take materials from anybody with an Al Qaeda T-shirt. In this case, however, it advised me that "inappropriate jokes or language" during the screening process would render me subject to arrest. Being too damn curious for my own good, I ventured a conversation with the bored TSA agent who had just used his decoder ring to discern that my driver's license carried the Ovaltine seal of approval, asking him what exactly constituted "inappropriate language." (I knew that "inappropriate jokes" would revolve around box cutters and bombs in my luggage--I'm not a complete freaking idiot.) He looked at me, apparently examining my chin for moron drool, and...

. . . as hard as that may be for some of you to believe. Check out When You Need Revenue, Just Turn Up the Screws . I'm not posting this to accomplish some sort of cheap shot against Dana Garrett, who's a social democrat and favors universal health care via single-payer and other publicly funded solutions with which I vehemently disagree. I'm posting it because it raises the point that we often forget in America: that we are a complex people, with beliefs that do not rigidly hew any particular ideological line in the face of things like, say, clear conflict of interest or casual abridging of the due process of law. Unfortunately, we spend far too much time in name-calling and sound-bites to remember that the commonalities that unite us are more significant than the political opinions that divide us .

Over at Delawareliberal they've declared it game, set, and match on the Constitution with the release of the Yoo memo on torture (excuse me, I mean "the not-polite questioning of human garbage that deserves to die"). . . . Kind of makes me wonder how they missed. . . . The institution of Soviet-style internal passports with the Real ID Act . The American Empire's massive empire of hundreds of military bases spanning the planet . Police in Boston and Washington DC conducting warrantless searches to confiscate legally owned property from citizens who are not even suspected of any crime . The TSA Gestapo forcing a woman to remove her nipple rings with a pair of pliers for their vicarious entertainment, followed by a bureaucratic pronouncement that they had followed policy in doing so . The continuing 4th Amendment violations in the so-called War on Drugs that have been occurring for more than thirty years . A mother arrested because she has, in the opinion of a police ...

. . . at least in theaters or other public events. According to Liberty for All, Move over, Miss Manners, politicians want to start correcting people’s rude behavior - at least when it comes to talking on a cell phone. In New York, the City Council is considering the nation’s first law banning cell phone calls during indoor performances such as movies, concerts and Broadway plays. Call it cell phone etiquette for the chattering class. The measure, expected to be approved in December, would impose a $50 fine on anyone who uses a cell phone - or fails to turn off the ringer. Can you picture it? Imagine every movie theater equipped with phone fighters who dash down the aisle every time a ringer goes off - flashlight in hand - then demand a drivers license from the offender and issue a ticket. With an army of cell phone cops disturbing the peace, patrons would long for the days when a cell phone ringer was their greatest annoyance. Another consequence: Diverting officers to “phone patrol” ...

. . . which I do--nonetheless, this from Nanny Knows Best shows us just how bad the mania for social control, masquerading as concern for security can go: When Terminal 5 at Heathrow opens on 27th March, all passengers passing through its portals (including British citizens flying on domestic flights) will be fingerprinted and photographed. Don't kid yourself: Michael Jerk-off and our own security mavens are watching this to see if the UK government gets away with it. And they will.

I always have to restrain myself from running every new post on Nanny Knows Best (like the recent one on town governments in Great Britain that have actually banned fire extinguishers) because, well, you know--it's not here. But then, from Cao's Blog there's this one from Illinois during last Christmas season : Coyne, 36, was arrested Dec. 8 outside a Crestwood Wal-Mart after a police officer found her 2-year-old daughter Phoebe asleep in her locked station wagon. While Phoebe slept, Coyne took her two other daughters and a friend to donate change to the Salvation Army bell ringer outside the store. Surveillance video showed she was away from the car less than four minutes and never went in the store. The car was always in her sight. A Crestwood police officer arrested her, cuffing her and placing her in the back of a squad car while the three older children stood under a Wal-Mart awning, confused and crying during a sleet storm. Eventually, the charges were dropped, but ...