From: cdhart@laurie.net (Carolyn Hart)
Subject: SNET: [piml] [Fwd: March 19 column -- young drivers]
Date: 19 Mar 1999 06:13:55 -0500
To: piml@egroups.com


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Vin Suprynowicz wrote:
> 
>     FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA
>     FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED MARCH 19, 1999
>     THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz
>     Honest, officer, she's my sister!
> 
>     In the latest attempt to impose on Nevadans another level of
> California-inspired mommification, state Sen. Bill O'Donnell and
> Assemblywoman Barbara Cegavske, both R-Las Vegas, posed to have their
> pictures taken in front of a wrecked automobile in Carson City March 16,
> lending some visual verisimilitude to their call for a whole new raft of
> restrictions on Nevada drivers aged 16 to 18 - just like in California.
> 
>   Assembly Bill 552 would forbid young Nevada drivers to be on the roads
> after 10 p.m.  except in cases of travel to work or school events, or
> medical emergencies or "family necessity." Young drivers would be forbidden
> for a time to carry any passenger age 20 or younger, except for family
> members. Under the proposals, police would supposedly be banned from
> pulling over young drivers because their passengers look too young, though
> the drivers could be cited (facing a fine and eight to 16 hours of slave
> labor for some left-wing, do-gooder cause) if police claim to have pulled
> them over for a cracked taillight, and then accidentally (start
> ital)discover(end ital) a passenger is under 20.
> 
>   Yeah, right.
> 
>   Based on current practice involving youngish-looking customers for beer
> or cigarettes, this means cops would now be allowed to pull over and "card"
> at will any nighttime driver under 35, "on suspicion." And how exactly are
> the officers supposed to determine whether young drivers are coming from a
> "school event"? Are they now responsible to read and verify "notes from
> mom"? First thing I would do, were I a modern young man off to consummate a
> midnight drug deal, would be to always don an authentic-looking letter
> sweater, and make sure my lady of the evening carries a set of pom-poms in
> appropriate school colors. Would that suffice?
> 
>   Why exempt "family members," for heaven's sake? It's OK for junior to
> kill his 12-year-old kid sister, but not his 17-year-old date? Or is this
> really a birth control measure, masquerading as something else entirely?
> 
>   And who says kids get into more accidents after 10 p.m., anyway? What
> makes them so much safer at 4 in the afternoon, when there's a lot more
> confusing traffic on our streets?
> 
>   The mincing meddlers justify all this with statistics that show
> 16-year-olds are more likely to get into accidents than 18-year-olds.  Sure
> they are. And 18-year-olds are far more likely to get into accidents than
> 36-year-olds. So why not place these same restrictions on all drivers under
> 35, "if it would save a single life"?
> 
>   For that matter, drivers over 75 are involved in more accidents than the
> norm. Shall we also restrict the hours these geezers can be out, and the
> passengers they're allowed to carry? How about diabetics, epileptics, and
> those who wear hearing aids? Maybe we should only let them drive golf carts
> that go 20 miles per hour, with big red flags on top. Soon the do-gooders
> will be arguing that males cause more accidents than females, and therefore
> all men should be driven to work -- and then straight home -- by their
> wives or moms. Shall we check the statistics?
> 
>   Many drivers under 18 drive cars that belong to their parents, who are
> free to set restrictions on hours and activities, and often should.
> Otherwise, the states (justifying it as a simple certification that a
> driver can handle the machine safely) have already used this "licensing"
> scam to impose what amounts to a system of national "travel papers" on a
> once free nation, accustoming us to far more "papers, please" police
> oversight than should probably be tolerated by any free people.
> 
>   (If it's only proof that I know how to drive, why do I have to renew my
> "license" every couple of years, and inform them when I move across town?
> Do people forget how to drive when they change addresses? My high school
> diploma doesn't "expire" if I fail to pay a "renewal fee." And if it's only
> about driving, why do I have to show it to board an airliner? To register
> to vote? To cash a check? The bank says I'm only required to show a "valid
> photo ID," but when I offer them my laminated health club membership card
> -- complete with photo -- the teller blithely informs me "No, it means your
> driver's license." So I can't get the money out of my own account if it
> turns out I flunked my parallel parking test?)
> 
>   Enough. If lawmakers still have time to dream up and promote this kind of
> convoluted nanny-state nonsense, even after Nevadans went to the polls last
> year and limited our (blessedly) every-other-year legislative sessions to a
> maximum of 120 days ... well, maybe next time we'll just have to limit them
> to six weeks.
> 
> Vin Suprynowicz is the assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas
> Review-Journal. His new book, "Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the
> Freedom Movement, 1993-1998," is available at $21.95 plus $3 shipping ($6
> UPS; $2 each additional copy) through Mountain Media, P.O. Box 4422, Las
> Vegas, Nev. 89127-4422. The 500-page trade paperback may also be ordered
> via web site http://www.thespiritof76.com/wacokillers.html, or at
> 1-800-244-2224.
> 
> ***
> 
> Vin Suprynowicz,   vin@lvrj.com
> 
> The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it. -- John
> Hay, 1872
> 
> The most difficult struggle of all is the one within ourselves. Let us not
> get accustomed and adjusted to these conditions. The one who adjusts ceases
> to discriminate between good and evil.  He becomes a slave in body and
> soul. Whatever may happen to you, remember always: Don't adjust! Revolt
> against the reality! -- Mordechai Anielewicz, Warsaw, 1943
> 
> * * *

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