WMD - right or privilege?

Pop quiz - what is owend by most families, used almost daily and kills 40 to 50 thousand people and seriously injures several million each year?

Hopefully you got it right - WMD - that's Weapons of Mass Driving, aka America's favourite consumer toy, the automobile. Sure we can loath Saddam for taking out hundreds of thousands, if not millions (if you include those that starved to death) of his own people, but in the same twenty five year period our friendly American auto drivers crashed, smashed, and splashed their way through an an insane one million lives, not to mention over 75 million injuries.

Now what do Americans generally do with dangerous things that are killing people with reckless abandon? Yes, they roll out the cluster bombs, the precision bombs, the smart bombs, the cruise missiles and blow them to bits. So why is it we continue to put up with inherently unsafe vehicles in the hands of inherently incompetant and willfully thrill seeking drivers? Even your average driver momentarily distracted is a menance to themselves and others, if you don't believe me just try closing your eyes and taking your hands of the wheel and counting to three next time you're cruising along the freeway. Don't want to do it? I wonder why...

So when Dave over at Chicken or Beef? blogs about the teen driver black box (which was also recently test deployed in the UK by insurance companies) I'm given to say "Bring it on!". I agree with him, driving is a privilege and no gun toting libertarian is ever going to convince me that the founding fathers meant the second amendment to include the automobile as "arms" and hence they have a right to drive and mame with them. I'll give you the second amendment as written and as it has been ruled on twice in the Supreme Court: you can raise your militia if you really want (if you really wanted to go shooting and defend the country you'd all be signing up to fight in Eye-Rack right now wouldn't you?) but you're going to have to walk to drill practice if you so much as get a speeding ticket.

I've always wondered why it is that car makers are allowed to produced cars that are inherently dangerous. Yes there's always that pesky argument "look at the utility we get from cars" - I guess that's about 40 to 50 thousands peoples lives of utility. What other devices do most househoulds own one or more of, use daily and are supposedly of great utility? Yes folks, the TV.

Imagine if your TV was as inherently dangerous as the automobile - next time you have a few too many beers and flip to the wrong channel - bam, go to jail. Next time you fall asleep in front of The Late Show, bam, wake up as paraplegic. Do you think we'd put up with such a device? Hell no, sue those TV manufacturers and ban the TV just like we banned Vioxx when someone finally woke up enough to break the FDA/Merck circle of lies and deception about its 50,000+ death toll so far.

So yes, I'm completely up for having that device on my car, or more importantly everyones car - just so long as the information in it belongs to me and isn't accessible to the government when they are tracking and deporting all the non-red voters (but when they are doing that its probably time to leave anyway). Sure withholding my information to escape conviction will be an option, just as the fifth is. But what does that say about me if I choose to do that. What insurance company will take on someone who has ever withheld their driving record following an accident? And that's another thing I think all cars should do before starting - check that you have valid liability insurance. Such checks, along with the required sobriety should be mandatory in all cars.

If you can't afford liability insurance to drive then you shouldn't be allowed the privilege to drive - get the bus, train, or walk. Better still stay at home in front of the TV and stick to the shopping channel for your consumer exploits. Remember, Safeway delivers so there's really no excuse to leave your couch for Monday Night Football, pizza and beer - the true trinity of the neo-American dream. Fortunately for you TVs are virtually idiot proof and even safe for young rug crawling proto-consumers.