The Irony is simply delicious!

Gotta say that I agree with every word. This country has deviated from dealing with personal responsibiltiy to being a nanny state - somebody gets injured or killed, even while doing stupid things, and somebody will scream 'There should be a law!', and the elected leaders will do anything to do nothing positive yet get good publicity, will enact a law. Motorcycle helemt laws, for example; anybody who thinks that a brain bucket will keep somebody injury-free at 60+ MPH is full of it. Yep, the person may still be alive, but they WILL have some brain injuries and they WILL have lots of other injuries - I'd rather be killed instantly than be a para or quad for the rest of my life.

I have a friend who was driving home from a bar one night, and she was giving a friend a ride to keep him from driving drunk; she got pulled over for a burned out brake light; she let the police run her tag and her drivers license - she was clean; her passenger ran and the cops caught him; he had some crack on him and outstanding warrents - her car was impounded, confisticated and sold at public auction, even though she committed no crime, she broke no laws and was co-operative with the police. The reason given was that she had a passenger that had drugs on his person and was in her car, so she was guilty of transporting drugs. She was never charge, she was never tried, but she still lost her car, and to add insult to injury, she had to pay for SR-22 insurance for the confistication. All for doing a good deed.

A classic, and it speaks for itself. I'll give him this, he did walk the walk, for whatever it was worth. And the story -is- just plain sad.

I won't enter the debate of right / wrong / cost to me vs. cost to you except to state the simple fact that "no man is an island".

Here's another one for you-

An amateur racer and lifelong auto enthusiast was waist-down paralyzed when he spun his highly modified Firebird into a wall on a decreasing-radius, (becoming) off-camber highway ramp at high speed. He recovered, began driving again, then soon yearned to drive a performance car again. He enlisted the service of a car builder and racer to help him.

The builder put together the exact same spec, year and color car the man had wrecked (automatic of course) with sophisticated, specially designed, fine-tunable hand controls, and had begun testing it out. When he was confident the car was ready for delivery, he took it out for a last shake-down drive, and wrecked the car at the exact same spot in the exact same manner as the racer had, and was likewise paralyzed. The gouge marks from the last violent wreck were literally overlain by the next.

Oooh... that would be enough to drive you out of your mind, I'd expect.

I'm not making this up, either. I read it in a car mag, either C&D or R&T, about a dozen or more years ago.

Makes me wonder if that ramp were ever fixed...

Have fun

David M wrote:

What a pathetic, lonely, and sad thing to say. I hope you don't have any family or friends to inflict with your feeble and sorrowful outlook.

Jim S. '92 LX Coupe

This is the war on drugs er bill of rights. The government gets around the bill of rights by charging the car or whatever it is they wish to seize with the crime. The car has no rights. The owner, to fight it has to go through a lengthy and expensive process called the court system.

Also, say you're carrying a wad of cash to buy that 427 crate motor that's just been found in a back corner of someone's garage untouched for ~40 years... you get pulled over because well you were doing the speed limit and nobody else was and you fit the profile of a drug courier. Well that cash you have? It's automatically assumed to be drug money and it gets confiscated by the cops. It's all "legal". You have to then prove, at your expense, that the money did not come from drugs. They don't have to charge you, they only need to think the money is from the drug trade.

It's tyranny. But most everyone thinks it just happens to the other guy.

Both garbage stories of urban legends.. Please call me, I would be happy to defend either of these parties. Item 1. The drugs WERE NOT in her control. She would not lose her car (or liberty). Item 2. You would not lose your money. Another urban legend.

Or both parties lied... She HAD drugs elsewhere in her control....and you had drug related items in the car.

The supposed "war on drugs" has made many underserved victims, but you won't help with the fantasy tales.

It is certainly possible that the police could lie in either case and/or plant evidence. But, as you two have described the scenerio it's bogus.

The bad thing about a free representive democracy, is that we get exactly what we deserve.

Jim