Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
Ninety-seven percent think so.
I didn’t think 97 percent of Americans were in agreement about anything, but apparently they are about texting while driving: They think it should be illegal. A mere 3 percent don’t care, or didn’t answer cause they were busy texting.
And half think it should have the same penalty as drunk driving. Steeeep.
One of those rare situations in which I’m in the majority.
However, I do not agree with what comes next…
What’s fascinating is that while 80 percent think phones should be a no-no, they deem it kosher if you’re going hands-free. Newsflash, morons, a bunch of studies show it’s just as distracting if you’re using a Bluetooth headset.
How droll. You said “newsflash morons.” What a clever little dipshit you are.
It should come as no surprise whatsoever to anyone capable of passing the eighth grade, that anytime you hear a “bunch of studies” have found something it usually turns out to be a bunch of horse shit, and this is no exception. Over three years ago I exposed the plain fact that this “bunch of studies” was nothing of the kind. It is, to the contrary, a steady trickle of studies that are put out by not an overwhelming number of researchers, but three. Frank Drews, David Strayer, and William Johnson.
I don’t know how these three plan to make money off of this. But anyone who’s ever driven a humble-sized car like mine, and passed someone on the left who was driving something more halftrack-sized…that someone holding a flip phone up to her left ear, thereby making it an impossibility to even think of checking the blind spot…will immediately understand this to be some of the purest nonsense.
Anyway, if you click open the link you’ll find the pattern continues. David Strayer, the second of the three, is putting his name at the top of this codswallop. But to be fair to Dr. Strayer, it seems his point isn’t quite so much to let the hold-phone-up-to-ear motorists off the hook, it’s that the conversation is inherently distracting…which is a slightly different message. And he’s comparing it to chatty passengers, favoring the latter since they might possibly alert the driver to upcoming conditions and situations. I’m skeptical of that too, but that’s a whole different subject.
But it’s pretty clear these three researchers have an agenda of some kind. So I have a big problem with it when I hear about this “bunch of studies” — especially when the people authoring them probably don’t see the drivers I see every day.
Hands-free devices are not just as unsafe. They cannot be. Well I suppose they could be…could be…if, and only if, you’re already in the habit of using the “braille” method of moving into the lane to your left. Just hope for the best, and if you don’t hear a crunching sound you’re probably alright. Yes, in that scenario, you’re probably just as dangerous if you’re using a hands-free device.
But most of us check. We’re supposed to. And people who hold bricks up to their ears are physically incapable of checking. So there. Go research that, then get back to me.
Driving while texting though? Eh…I’m wondering what in the world the three percent are thinking. It’s not a freedom guaranteed in the Constitution, it’s not why Paul Revere made his midnight ride. Put the goddamn thing down and do yer drivin’.
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One thing I noticed in San Francisco in the early ’90s was that the sudden influx of mobile phones coincided with the practice of people ignoring red lights.
I told a friend who was at that time a Liberal that this amounted to the erosion of the Social Contract, and boded ill for us all. He has since had the grace to remind me of this, 20 years later, and admit that I was right.
Shut Up And Drive.
- rob | 11/03/2009 @ 10:20Bluetooth is more dangerous than the hand-held phone to the perp’s left ear who then cannot see Morgan passing, because with a visible phone Morgan can see who the perp is.
- xlibrl | 11/04/2009 @ 22:43[…] thinking no. I was big enough to admit, before, that in its nanny way it was doing something I liked…and I supported it then. I ended up burned on […]
- House of Eratosthenes | 10/01/2010 @ 05:22