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TERRY’S TIDBITS

By Terry Gray

HELMET LAWS

I used to ride motorcycles; I don’t anymore.  There is no particular reason, I just don’t.  I also used to wear a helmet.  I would have worn a helmet even if I hadn’t been forced to do so because I typically use the tools available to me to protect my own skin.  However, the operative three words here are, “My own skin!”  Let those who ride decide.

In TERRY’S TIDBITS last Monday I wrote about seat belts.  I said, “Mandatory seatbelt laws are a form of preemptive punishment and punishment for no wrong that I can see.  Has the lack of a seatbelt ever caused an accident?  Does it cause one to speed, run stop signs, or drive drunk?  A seatbelt is personal protection and should remain personal.”  Ditto for motorcycle helmets.

Sunday’s Louisville Courier-Journal ran a statistic past us that is typical of a one-sided Liberal argument.  They said that between 1995 and 2000 there were 339 motorcycle riders treated at University Trauma Center.  Of those 339, 153 reported not wearing a helmet.  Of those 153, 74 were uninsured or had only government-subsidized health insurance.  They accrued more than $1.97 million in hospital charges for that time frame.

Terrible, absolutely terrible.  Now where’s the other side of the coin?  Of the 153 riders that weren’t wearing a helmet, 79 were insured.  Of the 158 that were wearing a helmet, how many had private health insurance?  How many were uninsured or had government-subsidized insurance?  (28 didn’t say whether they were wearing a helmet or not).  Now throw all of those figures in the garbage and look at the bottom line:  Out of 339 riders treated at the trauma center, 153 weren’t wearing helmets and 158 were wearing helmets.  If you want to throw logic at me then cover your bases.  I look at the raw data and logically deduce that more riders wearing helmets required treatment at the hospital. 

Want to see some real statistics?  I found these figures on the Internet and thought they were very interesting though 10 years old.  Sorry, I couldn’t find any stats that were newer.

Mandatory helmet law states account for sixty-one percent (61 %) of total motorcycle registrations. They account for sixty-four percent (64%) of the accidents and sixty-five percent (65%) of the fatalities.

Or how about this one?

* Mandatory Helmet law.

Illinois, Iowa, Ohio and Wisconsin were selected for this comparison for three reasons. None have a mandatory helmet law. Their latitude is similar to Pennsylvania's, thus controlling for length of riding season. And the number of registered motorcycles within each state is somewhat comparable to those registered in Pennsylvania.

Mandatory helmet law states account for sixty-one percent (61 %) of total motorcycle registrations. They account for sixty-four percent (64%) of the accidents and sixty-five percent (65%) of the fatalities.

Ho hum.  I guess we can all support our claims with statistics huh?  Well, Indiana’s mandatory helmet law was struck down as unconstitutional.  The fourteenth amendment was the culprit.  Are you gonna discredit that too?

VOTING

A letter writer in Sunday’s Courier-Journal says that when it comes to voting, none-of-the-above is no option.  Cool, it’s good to know that we must vote for whatever is stuck in front of us.  The letter writer wants to know who will lead should no one get elected.  I don’t know but we seem to do just fine conducting ourselves in our everyday lives without big brother giving us CPR.  Besides, someone will get elected.  It may boil down to the candidate with the largest number of family members of voting age.

 I know, let’s meet somewhere letter-writer and do some business.  I have two products for sale, neither of which will serve you very well but you must buy one.  None-of-the-above is not an option.

TAX CUTS

Where do all the tax cuts go?  (To the tune of, “Where Have All The Flowers Gone.”)?  I don’t get it.  Let’s not even talk about any tax cuts prior to 1981. 

The tax cut of 1981 was deemed the biggest tax cut ever.  It trimmed 750 billion dollars from our taxes.  It was also offset in 1982 and 1984 in an attempt to raise 265 billion dollars.

In 1986 there was a corporate tax increase of 120 billion that was to go hand-in-hand with a corresponding individual tax decrease spread out over 5 years.

There was a tax cut in 1990.  There was a 152 billion dollar tax cut in 1997.  There was tax relief in 2001.

Why are there so many tax cuts?  How can we keep cutting taxes and stay in business?  Shouldn’t the government be paying us at this point?  How many of us actually see our taxes go down?

IT IS A SCAM FOLKS.  There aren’t any tax cuts.  There might be tax shifts but there are no TAX CUTS.  You pay less here but more there.  Your neighbors make up for your other neighbors.  This goes down and this goes up.  The parts that go up go up more than the parts that go down.

In March of this year, a Federal judge in Las Vegas stopped the sale of the book, “The Federal Mafia:  How it Illegally Imposes and Unlawfully Collects Income Taxes,” by Irwin Schiff.  Boy, he must have struck a nerve.  How can our feds crap on our Bill of Rights?

Let’s stop being lied to and ripped off okay.  Let’s hold these political scoundrels accountable.  After all, we hired them.

JESSE VENTURA

I was watching Jay Leno last night and Jesse Ventura was a guest.  I like him.  He was promoting his new show but touched on some politics too.  He specifically mentioned Homeland Security as a means of robbing us of our freedoms.  One may not immediately put book banning and Homeland Security in the same hat, but both are crimes against our Constitution and Bill of Rights.  Jesse went on to say what I, and many others have been saying, don’t give up one iota of your freedom.  It is practically impossible to get it back.

NATIONAL PARKS

Our National Parks are going broke.  Leave it to the government to commercialize a natural wonder that has been in existence forever and lose money on it.  I went on a tirade about this with my wife.  Not at her but with her.  We want to preserve our natural resources, but we go into a national forest, build roads and “nature” paths, control the wildlife and sell souvenirs.  My wife, being the consummate social worker, wanted to know my stand on the access to wilderness areas by the handicapped.  I was aghast that she would even toss something like that at me.  I do not like being forced to pay for someone to visit a wilderness area when that person has to have my help through tax dollars.  IT IS A WILDERNESS.  Go somewhere else and quit expecting me to pay for your recreation.

That sounded hard-core didn’t it?  It would leave one to believe that I don’t have a heart.  I do.  I’ll be the first to turn loose of my money to help a cause, but I do it voluntarily.  The first time someone tells me I must, my hand clenches my dollars.

I’d like to leave this story on a light note.  Did anyone read about or hear about the bears in Yellowstone and their obvious distaste of tourists?  One stop on the motorized tour turned ugly a few months back when bears attacked the tourists.  The first image that comes to mind is a bear or two attacking with claws and fangs the people that have come to visit them.  Wrong!  The bears would wait at the top of a hill above the scheduled sightseeing stop and roll boulders down on the gawkers.  Maybe a bus full of politicians should investigate.

WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

We know that Russia and China have WMD, but how many others do?  We don’t know.  We are now pretty sure that Iraq doesn’t, or didn’t.  Should we invade all suspected countries and make sure that they don’t?  How about starting with the ones that we know possess them?  Russia, China, and the USA.  Did I include the USA?  Okay, I erred.  Invade all of those countries with WMD who are not known liberators, AKA, the good guys.  The good guys can be trusted.

PREREQUISITE FOR WAR:  Nuclear and other WMD.

MOTIVATION FOR ACTION:  Daddy’s embarrassment.

SECONDARY MOTIVATION:  We’ll think of something.

FLAG BURNING

Jay Leno asked Jesse Ventura what he thought of a proposal to make a Constitutional amendment banning flag burning.  Jesse called flag burning, “despicable” but he supported the right to do so.  He went on to say that we should not give the government any more power.  Besides, when someone expresses his right to burn a flag, one can expect 5 drunk bikers to express their right to kick the flag burner’s ass.  That poses an interesting thought:  A person may demonstrate an unpatriotic but legal stance when he burns a flag, but kicking his ass in a demonstration of patriotism is illegal.  A patriot can especially complicate his criminal actions by calling the victim racial or gender based names. 

FAT TAX AND VIDEO GAMES

Felix Ortiz, a very articulate lawyer with a very thick Latin accent wants to tax Twinkies and Game Boys.  Once again we have a Liberal attitude bordering on Socialism attempting to infringe upon my right to eat Twinkies.  He uses all of the politically correct Demon-cratic spins but really puts emphasis on, “It’s for the children.”  I don’t have any minor kids.  I’m not responsible for anyone else’s kids.  When I eat a Twinkie I want to do it without paying extra for the privilege.

Why ban snack foods AND video games?  Because it is believed that fat kids sit in front of the television playing games and munching.  Ortiz wants the government in our living rooms.  What should be in our living rooms is a mad mother kicking the lazy kid’s ass off the television and ripping the Twinkie out of the brat’s mouth.  Better still, DON’T BUY TWINKIES FOR YOUR FAT KIDS.

From Mr. Ortiz’s accent, I guess that he hasn’t been in this country long.  Jumped right on the good old American “sue to make a buck kick”, didn’t you Mr. Ortiz?  You could have accomplished more in this country if you had jumped on the good old American “support our Constitution and Bill of Rights” side of doing things.

Terry Gray 

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