So anyone that has known me for more than a few seconds knows I am
prone to odd thoughts about even odder subjects and usually with very
little if any prompting. My mind tends to ramble off without telling
me and then come stumbling back a few hours later smelling of donuts
and hot cocoa with a “You won't believe the Shift I have been
thinking!” look on its nonexistent face. I have learned to take
these times of confuzzlement and insanity with all of the grace of a
grumpy hippo and moved on with my life. The following thoughts
struck me about a day or so ago and I decided to share them with my
readers since you all seem to really enjoy it when I lose my mind.
The words and ideas portrayed are not a direct commentary on anyone,
anything or any place even though I am sure some of you may take
them that way.
Okay so what prompted this odd chain of thought was a “conversation”
I read on a friend's Facebook page where they were talking about some
of the “self drive” vehicle systems being tested in various
places where the car is controlled from a computer that regulates
speed, lane change etc while it is guided to your destination. One
commentator made the suggestion that the speed regulating system
could be installed in future vehicles to prevent people from
speeding.
Now overlooking the enormous technical difficulties of the “Self
Drive” systems are still facing and the incredible programming
issues involved in making sure the auto drive functions could deal
with problems such as accidents and weather conditions, the idea of
an outside computer system keeping cars within the federally mandated
speed limits seems like a good idea. I mean, how many times have you
been buzzed by someone doing 85 in a 65 zone? People drive like bats
out of heck and most really don't seem to care about other people on
the road.
However, that wasn't what prompted my thoughts. What prompted it all
was one person's reaction of “They can never do with that. That'd
be infringing on my rights!” Huh, what right is that? The “right”
to break the law just because you are in a hurry? The “right” to
endanger the lives of others just because you don't feel like doing
the speed limit? Cause that is the only “right” speed regulators
would be breaking.
Course Americans love making arguments like this. We have heard
similar ones where Speed Camera and Red Light Cameras are involved.
People get honked off when they get a letter with a ticket and a
picture showing them breaking the warp barrier or when they failed to
time that yellow light just right and got caught halfway under the
Red Light.
The latter one is the one that amuses me the most because people cry
that the lights were rigged to change faster so they were caught
unfairly. This argument completely ignores the fact that the yellow
caution light was intended to give you warning that the light is
about to change so that you can stop in time, Not so that you can
floor the gas to try and get under the light before it changes.
The simple fact is that People seem to think that certain laws and
such don't apply to them or that they aren't absolute. They whine
that they got a speeding ticket even though they weren't really
speeding because everyone knows that you can go 5-10 miles over the
speed limit before you are really breaking the law. They see
anything (Red Light Cameras, Speed limiters etc) that keeps them from
breaking the law as an infringement on their rights. When they are
caught, it is everything else at fault but never them. Well, I got
news for you. If you get a ticket for doing 57 MPH in a 55 MPH zone,
you broke the law and you deserve it. If you get a picture because
you ran a red light in the middle of the night and a camera caught
you, then you deserved it. Your rights have not been infringed upon
in any way. You broke the law and you were punished.
End of Rant
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