"That’s true, but there a number of people from our particular generations who aren’t able to speak in this forum because they sustained severe brain injuries"
True but doubting it was due to a lack of airbags or child restraint seats.
“No fooling. So, you can do anything you want, including breaking any law you want, just so long as you don’t think it hurts anyone? I don’t think so.”
Then you are not “Free”…Americans are free only if their behavior complies to a very rigid set of rules dictated by our Government…Stray outside those boundaries very far and your “freedom” evaporates quickly…
Millions of people drive everyday without bothering with a drivers license or liability insurance. They risk their physical freedom by doing so, but they do it anyway…They reject your “driving is a privilege” argument. To them, driving is a necessity worth taking considerable risk for…
India has a much higher accident rate than we do. Also, the cars there are in general much smaller than ours.
And if “extra precaution” means honking at every single car, truck, bike, scooter, pedestrian, animal, or leaf within a 10-foot radius (as opposed to 20 on the highway), then I will give you that.
Plus, roads aren’t safe not because of cellphone yakkers. In fact, drivers actually PULL OVER and talk on their phones. They are unsafe because people don’t know how to drive.
disagree: have you tried finding, opening, dialing, and trying to have a conversation while trying to keep ALL your concentration on the road, traveling through downtown, stoplights and all, at 35 MPH.
another thing is texting. you have a tiny keyboard, and you have to push the buttons in the right order. have you seen traffic cams, with people having both elbows on the wheel, with these tiny screens in front of their faces, not looking at the road.
this is even more dangerous when people think “I know how to drive, I’m an expert. dont you tell ME how to drive!”
I’m sorry, but I havent seen one car pulled over on their phone.
I would suspect a motorcyliest puts himself in more danger then those in back of that pickup. So lets ban everything that has risk, such as skateboard, bicycles skies, snowboards, etc… Lets all live in a glass bouble.
Well its time to ban fast food drive thru’s too then. The issue is not that you have to do things with your hands - its about where your concentration and attention are.
But I’ll agree that the real issue IS that people don’t know how to drive - cell phones are a convenient thing to point a finger at. The fact that many people can’t drive while using the cell phone doesn’t mean that its because of the phone. Take the phone away and they still can’t drive.
“Millions of people drive everyday without bothering with a drivers license or liability insurance. They risk their physical freedom by doing so, but they do it anyway…They reject your “driving is a privilege” argument. To them, driving is a necessity worth taking considerable risk for.”
Millions? Really? I doubt it. In any case, they are all criminals. And I’ll bet that they don’t consider the philosophical aspects of the issue before they drive illegally.
It has been written, not sure word for word, that those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. We are repeating the lessons of history as you speak. Good job.
All through history it has been true that as a nation becomes wealthier, it loses its determination and ambition, becomes spoiled and narcissistic, then finally becomes willing to give up all personal freedom in the belief they will be safer with the government telling them every detail of their lives.
Worse, they also demand everyone else give up their personal freedoms as well, and believe it is for the best.
Then, once all their freedoms are gone, and they are ‘safe’, one of two things happen. First, and speaking sarcastically, the ‘Huns’ come in and wipe them out. The good news is this is usually easy, because they have lost their ability to resist anything that might hurt.
The second possibility is the government itself starts wiping them out in large numbers.
We already have the highest percentage of our citizens in prison of any nation in the world, often for things that other nations understand is not the business of the government. Still not enough for most of you, right? Gotta’ put everyone in prison, then will we be safe enough for you?
That is, the ‘safer’ you become, the greater your danger.
My generation survived not having car seats. We survived riding in the back of pickups. We survived fireworks that went BANG.
So, just how many kids a year died from not having car seats? I bet you don’t know, do you? You heard the bogus figures, but in reality how many were dying? Not very many. The number of lives actually saved is very small, but parents can lose their kids to the State for not having them in car seats.
Now, comes the interesting fact. At least in Texas, and I suspect it is true in every state, the rate of death and injury of kids in state custody is much higher than in parental custody. Not to even mention the incidence of sexual abuse and other sundry bad things that happen to kids when the state takes over.
That is the real reason all juvenile matters are top secret, not to protect the kids.
There may be cases where the danger to kids is so high they must be taken away. But, to do it for improper car seating, or someone smoking in the house, or spanking a kid, is tossing the kid from the frying pan to the fire.
I am retired, and having watched the collapse of the American Empire for 40 years, I am not there any more. And, it is true. Here in Mexico they do ride large numbers of people in the back of pickups, because they don’t have a choice. Rich nations can specify each child shall have its own car seat, which means a lot of cars are needed. Poor nations simply can’t do it.
However, in most cases where people are riding in the back of pickups they have a cage of steel pipe. If they have a big wreck or roll over that won’t help much, but they are not going to fall out easily.
Caddyman, you are a good man. Thanks.
I would suspect a motorcyliest puts himself in more danger then those in back of that pickup.
You would suspect wrong. It’s obvious you know nothing about what it takes to operate a motorcycle safely.
At least people who want to ride a motorcycle are encouraged, and in some states, are required to get training on riding motorcycles in order to do it legally. Who trained these children so they can avoid accidents while riding in the bed of a truck? Do you see anyone wearing a helmet in those pictures?
Discussions sometimes fail the obvious. Times change. We rode in the backs of trucks on top of hay bales. We trimmed trees after an ice storm from the bed of a moving PU on top of frozen sand pile with a chain saw. But, I saw an interstate sign and lots of traffic. Times change and the chances of the worse happening increase.
Some don’t want intrusion in their life while some actually want their life expectancy to be greater than their father’s. So, instead of saying “let me do what I want with my PU” my first thought is “where the hell is a cop when you need one”. Someone has to look out for the kids who can’t for themselves. In that respect, some of us are, heaven forbid…dependent upon the rest of society. Why the heck didn’t the person taking the pictures, report them ? Hopefully they did. Then let law enforcement decide if they were legal or not. It quacks like a duck. It’s unsafe.
BTW with all due respect… So, just how many kids a year died from not having car seats? I bet you don’t know, do you? You heard the bogus figures, but in reality how many were dying? Not very many. The number of lives actually saved is very small, but parents can lose their kids to the State for not having them in car seats.
Is the biggest unsubstantiated load of BS I’ve heard lately. Someone needs a high school physics refresher course and an observation period in the emergency room of a big city hospital. I have a different point of view.
I wasn’t talking about here in America. In India I don’t think it’s illegal to talk and drive, but people pull over and talk anyway.
The question is not how many died from not having car seats. It is how many people were saved. Even if only one kid was saved, it would mean one kid was allowed to see the world, instead of spending all of his life in a coma, or worse. I think that is worth you being less “free”. Besides, you don’t even use a car seat.
ha ha ha ha… God forbid that the parents buy them a tricycle some day, or let them walk around barefoot outside.
After reading some of the posts on here I was expecting to see 5 or 6 kids in the back, maybe standing up, or running around, one or two sitting on the tailgate, maybe even one in danger of falling out, but at the very least I expected to see a bunch of out of controll kids without parental supervision
What I see is 2 kids SITTING DOWN, in rear faceing seats, with ADULT SUPERVISION. The TAILGATE IS UP and dad is driveing in the slow lane.
I don’t see what all the FUSS is about. <---- a rhetorical statement, no need for any politically liberal hate mail 
It must have been a slow news day if this was the best the Jacksonville Confidential could come up with. Who reads those “crap rags” anyway, besides Rosie O’donell, and bored alcoholic housewives. Why don’t they report on something that is actually “newsworthy”?
I find it interesting that nobody has mentioned the UNSAFE DRIVER WHO TOOK THE PICTURE. You know, THE ONE WHO FINDS IT NECESSARY TO STICK HIS NOSE IN OTHER PEOPLES BUSINESS, the person who had to take his eyes off the road, and take a hand off the wheel to fumble around for his camera, then took his hands off the wheel and his eyes off the road again to take the picture.
it’s called “Freedom”, a concept Gringos only know in abstract terms…
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LOL yeah the politically liberal socialist gringos only know it that way, but us “FREE GRINGOS” still know what FREEDOM IS!
“…censored out of the film when it is run on television.”
Nobody is being that much of a drama queen here, are they. Back in the 1940s, what was the maximum speed of the average truck, 35 MPH?
I probably shouldn’t be the one to say it, but sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.
Based on the angle of the pictures, they look like they were taken by a passenger, not a driver. It’s pretty obvious. If the first picture had been taken by the driver, you would see some of the hood in the picture.
This isn’t really a political issue, but you seem to freely cast “liberal” labels on those who think it is a bad idea and “conservative” labels on those who think it is a good idea. If you look at the facts, you will find that when conservatives had control of both the Whitehouse and the Congress, the size of our government expanded by leaps and bounds.
What you mistakenly think is the “conservative” view of this issue isn’t conservative at all, at least the way today’s conservatives operate. What you are really promoting is the libertarian view of government, which, in practice, is nothing like what you will get with today’s so-called conservatives.
If the first picture had been taken by the driver, you would see some of the hood in the picture
…
If that’s the case, wouldn’t we also see some of the hood in the picture if the passenger took it? And if it had been taken by the passenger wouldn’t we also see the “A” piller on the side of the photo.
Liberal vs. conservative ? I have never gotten any hate mail from a conservative, so…
yeah, we like to think things through first. haha.
Why is it “liberal” to care about their safety?