David Boaz discusses nannyism and texting while driving on ABC

8-5-09

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Cato
• Institute
• David
• Boaz
• Nanny
• State
• Texting
• Driving
• White
• House
• Summit
• Liberty
• Libertarian

[ForTehNguyen]

if people arent deterred from causing an accident or killing someone while celling/texting, how is a $50 fine going to deter them.

[LeGioNoFZioN]

bloody fools, really a summit on texting while driving ? overthrow your governments my yankee cousins, this is too much.

[HayateAzekura]

People still text and do phone calls. A law doesn't make a difference. it's just the government always trying to get more into our lives

[goose1077]

That's going too far.

[mikheii]

I'm a total libertarian, but there is a big difference between seat belt legislation (which I oppose) and texting laws. Just last summer, we had a helicopter land in our pasture to airlift out two motorcyclists who were run over by someone texting (and died), and our 92 year old neighbor was killed while getting her mail by someone texting while driving.

Texting is a public safety concern, and isn't nanny-ism. But yes, food laws and helmet laws and such are.

[Wormtail81]

Confronting people with a camera is probably not real journalism.

[DaveC86]

its a $500 fine now. your car doesn't even have to be running, some dude got fined because he was texting while his keys were in the ignition but the engine wasn't running.

fuck the nanny state.

[fishflaps]

Texting while driving has been illegal here in Australia here for years... If you are caught operating the phone in anyway you will be fined up to $200

[soakupthesunman]

This summit is due to the Dem habit of polling for whatever folks are buzzing about then trying to grab it for attention - and hopefully, votes.

The other extreme - when popular opinion is NOT in favor of something the admin. is doing - shows us the SouthSide of Obama. They can't make a coherent argument in favor of the laws they want - instead, they lie about the nature of their opposition. This shows their lack of respect for the electorate - especially the Dem portion.

[whoo689]

A person's totally distracted while texting, and while texting will not be totally eliminated with a law, I think it would be a good start. Of course, it should NOT be a federal law, as the federal gov't has gotten way too involved in this kinda shit as it is. The individual states or localities should figure something out for their citizens.

But a SUMMIT on texting while driving?? This is madness! The number of accidents caused by texting has got to be pretty miniscule overall.

[whoo689]

Texting and talking on the phone are not equivalent. Anyone with half a brain knows it's BS to equate the 2. If you have your phone in one hand and are good at driving with the other, and you can concentrate on the road, great! Some people can't concentrate while on the phone, and those people shouldn't drive. But to mandate banning cell phones while driving is just silly. '

I'm a little torn on texting, though. While I agree with Boaz on nannyism, there's a big safety issue, too.

[goose1077]

Where there is nobody to hit