A device similar to the one police can put on your car, whenever they want, without a warrant

The Washington Post recently had an article about police using GPS tracking devices on citizens cars without warrants. Apparently, it’s a lot more common than you may think.

I’m a proud member of the National Motorists Association, and if you agree with some of my past articles (Red-Light Cameras, National Speed Limits), you may want to join too. They’ve been working for the rights of motorists since 1982.

Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin With Her 73 Ford Mustang Grande

I’m willing to bet the more we find out about Sarah Palin, the more we’ll discover that she’s a true gearhead. I mean, it’s a short step from this:

Maine has joined California, Arkansas, and Louisiana in an unholy foursome of freedom hating legislative nonsensery. Starting tomorrow, it will be illegal to smoke in your car while anyone under the age of 16 is present. That’s right, Maine has banned smoking in your own car.

I don’t smoke, in fact I actually think that people who smoke around their kids are terrible parents, but making a law against it? Absurd. It’s just one more step towards the ultimate nanny state. Don’t like something? BAN IT! Thomas Jefferson is no doubt spinning wildly in his grave. I can’t wait for the day when he returns to the land of the living with zombie Ben Franklin and sets today’s lawmakers straight.

Fed up with traffic congestion, seemingly endless construction, and poor quality roads? Why not take David Friedman’s advice and sell the streets as he says in his book The Machinery of Freedom?

Privatization of the streets isn’t such a crazy idea. A company that owns a road wants to make a profit and please his customers. That company has more incentive to eliminate gridlock than any urban planner.

Red-light cameras are designed to take a picture of a car’s license plate if the driver runs a red light. These cameras are popping up in city after city as officials theorize that if drivers know they’re being watched, they’ll be less likely to run the lights. But do they work? Or is it just another way to increase city revenue from traffic tickets.

Oil, it’s the lifeblood of our society. It’s given us the freedom and wealth we have today. It’s given us automobiles and machinery and greased the wheels of the industrial revolution. It made old Jed a millionaire. But oil’s in trouble, the price is up and everyone thinks they understand it. But what if the price of oil wasn’t really up? What if it were just an illusion?

With the most important election of our lives closing in quickly, we have to take time to reflect on the facts, to set aside the emotions and rhetoric, and get to the very core of the issues. The most important issue of all, obviously, being what cars these men of power choose to drive.

A note: I despise politicians to my very core. Politics is a game of pandering and lying and using the resources stolen from the many to help the very few who can afford lobbyists. It’s disgusting, but you have to vote for one of the major candidates, right? You wouldn’t want to throw your vote away, right? Ugh.

Anyway, let’s get this over with, here are the cars that these plastic ambition-bots drive:

Two days ago, in the capital city of Thailand, a disturbed teenager named Polwat Chinno stabbed a taxi driver to death and took his money. Chinno later told police he was trying to recreate a scene from Grand Theft Auto IV. As a result, the distributor of the games in Asia, New Era Interactive Media, said it would stop selling the game in Thailand. And Thai authorities banned Grand Theft Auto from sale in the country. Any game seller found stocking the game could be sentenced to three years in prison and a fine up to 6,000 baht (180 dollars); and even stricter penalties are in place for online sellers who could receive five years imprisonment and a 100,000 baht (3,000 dollars) fine.

Ladda Thangsupachai, director of the Thailand’s Ministry of Culture, told Reuters “This time-bomb has already exploded and the situation could get worse. Today it is a cab driver, but tomorrow it could be a video game shop owner.”
What an awkward quote, am I right?

Suzanne just wrote about the new Minnesota ban on texting while driving, and that reminded me of economics paper I recently read.
Two University of California, Berkeley graduate student economists did what’s called a natural experiment about cell phone usage and auto accidents, which means they used observations in the real world instead of in a controlled laboratory. Saurabh Bargrava and Vikram Pathania came to the conclusion that the quick rise in cell phone usage in recent years is not matched by an increase in fatal or non-fatal car crashes. This goes against everything you’ve probably heard, but they back it up with some very awesome facts. And a 54 page economics paper.