Water Cooler Welcome! You must be a registered Inmate to post in this Asylum.

---

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Water Cooler ] [ Return to Search Results ]

---

[ Alert Moderator ]

---

"Ah, an intellectual conservative response" - You're forgetting many, many, many conservative intellectuals !

Posted by Bambi B (A) on September 8, 2009 at 09:38:00

In Reply to: Ah, an intellectual conservative response. posted by Wendell Narrod on September 8, 2009 at 07:45:55:

Wendell Narrod,

To be fair, there were and are many, many, many conservative intellectuals- William F. Buckley, Jr. used a very large vocabulary- a veritable dextrorotatory lexiconigraphical cornucopia- and then there was that German guy- old Whozzits- that said a lot of obscure and complicated things that generally said that the strongest should always have all the power.

In my view of the history of intellectualism in politics, ordinarily, people who think for themselves- that is, analyze politics and develop informed insight instead of parroting ideology of social rigidity out of fear of change, become liberals as they can imagine social progress and design. Of course, liberalism is by nature, necessarily experimental and even radical- the Founding Fathers of the US did advocate the overthrow of the government by force. They were, every one of them students of the French Enlightmenment- intellectuals.

But, as intellectuals are too often associated with this kind of freedom of thought and tend to question authority, standards have dropped considerably and Sarah "Quittermoron" Palin, Rush "Oxycontin/Oxymoron" Limbaugh and Glenn "Ravinfuckinnutjobmoron" Beck seems to be the Conservative reference points these days. Palin's comment the other day that we should allow have exploration of space as, "Rockets are always pointy on the front and might poke black holes in the fabric of space and let all our air out! But isn't that just like Precedence Obama to force climate change and wish everyone except himself- it's always all about him- to die? But, I never talk about myself." Then there's Limbaugh's idea that Obama making everyone Congress come in just to hear about the suspension of the Constitution and the fascist-socialist-racist-liberal-communist regime of investment bankers, unions, and gunless NAZI-Zionist intellectuals starting next Thursday. Rove's unfinished fetus head has been nearly invisible lately and that means he's probably slithering around in some basement cooking up health care stew. Beck also has a unique and effective style of combining every political label together in subtle ways such that they can bear a negative coonatation. This way, the audience can recognize and repeat the name of these labels of these simplications of the original misreading of the concepts.

In the case of the attempt at satire of safety gear, what our conservative friend in his zeal to someday develop a sense of humour has ignored, is that cars already do have substantial required safety features- and these rules for car safety fill thousands of pages and car buyer paid far more for them than a helmet, gloves, and leathers. Many people may remember seat belts, headrests, airbags and 5MPH bumpers, 85MPH speedometers and that their use is mandated by Federal law.

However, the poster's suggestion that motorcyclists wear helmets, gloves, and leathers is that- a suggestion. Current law is such that there are only 4 states that do require helmet use. In fact the law in complicated:

US HELMET LAWS

Of the fifty states, only 4 are 100% helmet law free!: Colorado, Illinois, Iowa and New Hampshire

Of the other 46 states, 20 have full helmet laws for all motorcycle riders: Alabama, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia.

19 States have helmet laws that exempt adult riders, riders over the age of majority -- 18 years old and over. Those states are: Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

There are 7 states that discriminate against adult bikers between the ages of 18 and 20:

Arkansas , Florida, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Texas.

My last ride on a motorcycle was in London W1 < that's a heavy traffice area, in 1979. I should say, "started" as a motorcycle ride, as it ended as my only ambulance ride. BY the way, the bill for the fantastic ride including siren and all the excellent work and drugs, and follow ups and physical therapy- interested viewers may pop round to see the three lovely scars on my legs- was £0.00.

I understand South Carolina has hired a conservative intellectual who proposes to mandate that all motorcyclists anywhere in the World all free to ride without a helmet as long as they are carrying a firearm of at least 5.56mm and are well trained to shoot abortion doctors at a distance while moving.

If out friend would stop and think about it, while there is a sacrifice of personal freedom and expense in mandating helmet laws, think of the incredible benefit to insurance companies, whose profits can never be decreased- only increased by public policy. Interesting the way conservatives will never discuss the similarity of insurance profits- especially health insurance- to taxes. Whenever you must have goods or services it's equivalent to a tax. Notice how during the Bush years, all the absolute must haves of life doubled or trebled in cost: housing, health care, food, fuel and energy? These are what I call "free market taxes"- the price of price-fixing. Meanwhile, the conservatives have (decreasing) millions of the fearful, middle screaming and voting against their own interests to protect insurance and pharaceutical profits. God apparently has decread to some intellectual conservative minister in Florida that competition from a Govermnment plan would cut those profits and Obama shoulddie!

Do you want to continue to have a profit motivated corporation between you and your doctor denying the coverage and subsequent cancellation- or a law mandated coverage and continuation of coverage?



Cheers,

Bambi B

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Kimber Kable

---

[ Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]

---

[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]

---