USA Today Article on Lowering All New SUV's in 2008

[Navigator]

Check out this article in USA Today http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2003-09-08-crash2_x.htm does anyone recall voting on this issue?

[paultvx]

There was never a vote. What we think doesn't count... because mother (gov.) knows best.

This is just plain dumb. More dummying down of America. Thanks to all the people who drive SUVs and really shouldn't be driving them... or just shouldn't be driving period. Can't tell you how many times I've had close calls with people on the phones. Near head-on collision, cut-off, tailgating in heavy traffic... you name it. Just last week one of these almost hit my VX with her Suburban (transporting no one but herself). And get this... my VX was parked on the side of my condo's semi-private driveway (I was washing it.) Takes talent to hit a parked car. :rolleyes:

[AlaskaVX]

Automakers are considering lowering SUVs to make them less lethal in crashes with smaller vehicles. What do you think?

28.14%
The changes might help and wouldn't hurt much.
26.88%
I disagree. I bought my SUV for the bird's-eye view.
23.32%
Why don't they just make cars sturdier?
18.47%
Ban all SUVs.
3.2%
Adding side-curtain airbags is enough.

I can't believe how many people are willing for this to happen! I guess the people who like lowering their SUV's will save some $ :rollg: Maybe if they stopped making those little death traps (Mazda Miata for example) people might live. I'm real sick of this anti-SUV crap!

[Joe_Black]

Humanity as a whole is fighting tenaciously against the process of natural selection at every turn. The coddling of those without enough sense to care for themselves, let alone those around them, is adding even more unrealistic beliefs in an entitlement-driven, litiginous society. Believe me, I'm all for cutting any and all funding to search for any Near Earth Objects 'cause we certainly deserve a good smack from a large asteroid. Reducing the planetary populace by a huge chunk and going into survival mode may just wake up whoever is left.

[Heraclid]

There's something really screwy and backward going on when they talk about placing these types of restrictions on our SAFEST vehicles and not our UNSAFEST ones. We all know that the occupants of SUVs are more likely to survive many types of accidents, and these stinking liberals (and that's who they are) actually want to make them less survivable to make it "fair"? What a load of BS! So now these idiots want both parties in the accident to be more likely to be severely injured or killed? That's nucking futs. And if you're a politician and you really wanted to have less traffic fatalities and you don't let a little thing like personal freedom get in the way, wouldn't it make a helluva lot more sense to mandate SUV ownership or ban Mini-Coopers, Miatas, and motorcycles? Why not RAISE the standards, not LOWER them? How ridiculous! Makes me want to go out and get a lift kit right now. These are the same liberal nuts who probably have wet dreams about all of us making the same flat wage regardless of education, initiative, or experience (and certainly not enough to be able to live without a bunch of government assistance programs to keep you in their pockets). Personal achievement and individual excellence are these vampires' garlic sprig and wooden stake.

[Dallas4u]

You know what drives me insane? Political talk.

[Joe_Black]

Yeah, it's that nasty little soapbox I dance around until something peeves me enough to take a step up. I'd run for president if it wouldn't get me killed!

[Dallas4u]

Doesn't only cost something like $35 to enter the race for Governer of California?

[Heraclid]

Sorry if it drives anyone insane, but the inmates are running the asylum folks, and that's why it has to be addressed and dealt with. Far too many people know far too little to fix this thing and that needs to change. Most people would swear up and down that this nation was founded as a democracy, for instance. People HAVE to speak up some or the whole thing's going to hell in a handbasket. Proactive beats reacting with too little too late. And this anti-SUV movement springs DIRECTLY from it all. Politics DOES affect YOU, and you DO have a stake in it, so for cryin' out loud get off the sidelines.

[paultvx]

Originally posted by Heraclid
...and these stinking liberals (and that's who they are)

Yup... that's right. Name calling will make your point more convincing and win you respect. C'mon. What is this? The third grade?

Do you even know what liberalism is? It's free thinking. You and those who think alike sound as if you think free thinking is wrong. Where is the freedom in a nation where free thinking is deemed inappropriate? Is that a patriotic sentiment given our national image as the "land of the free"?

Please use a little bit of your own brain power before repeating political rhetoric. You have your own mind and you have your own will... refuse to let someone else decide what you should think or say.

If conservatism had its way throughout US histroy, we'd all still be living under the Queen of England and paying taxes to her.

Liberals are people too... they have good ideas and they have bad ideas. They are no different than yourself and those who think like you. No one is perfect. Demonization of one group against another will never solve problems. It'd only create hate, chaos, and bloodshed. Do you mean to tell me that those things are the very things conservatism would like to advocate and encrouage?

We must learn from history: Romans vs. Christians, Nazis vs. Jews, Israelis vs. Palestinians, Whites vs. Blacks... We must learn from the past lest we repeat the same mistakes/tragedies.

[Dallas4u]

Originally posted by Heraclid
so for cryin' out loud get off the sidelines.

I don't vote down party lines. I tend to be more liberal, only because I have happened (in the past and present) to agree with many issues that they are pushing... of course, that doesn't mean I don't also agree with many issues the conservatives are pushing as well. See... I can decide for myself!

[Joe_Black]

I'm having a strange sensation of posting deja vu...:rotate:

[Heraclid]

Dallas4U, I want to say a lot here but I'll be brief. I can decide for myself too. Everyone told me Isuzus were heaps of junk ya know. Same thing here... the truth is not always as it seems, my friend. And no, that avatar won't get you anywhere... I am unhypnotizable. :-)

[technocoy]

thats one of the best things i've heard you say!

:D

[Heraclid]

Hey paultvx,

True, liberalism in its essence and by definition isn't bad. But what the word has come to represent now is. Even the liberals don't want to be called liberal anymore - it has developed an undesirable connotation.

BTW, liberalism is generosity, and what it has come to represent is nothing of the sort. Taking from others what is not yours to take and giving it to others to keep them under your thumb and begging for the scraps from your table isn't real noble. Not demonization - just fair criticism.

It was in fact sensible, courageous people who threw off the yoke of King George. Just look at today's liberals who would have us do nothing but appease our enemies when 3,000 of our countrymen are slain. They are WAY naive and spineless. They talk the talk but the conservatives tend to get the job done.

Dude, I bear you no ill will and don't want this to go further so I won't go into the namecalling comment like I could.

Now say something about VXs... heck, tell me mine sucks, I don't care. :-)

[paultvx]

Originally posted by Heraclid
It was in fact sensible, courageous people who threw off the yoke of King George.

Exactly. Today when sensible courageous people chose to exercise their freedom to speak out, they are given a childish lable and are cohersed/intimidated into conforming to the status quo. Like that fiasco the Dixie Chicks went through when they voiced their opinion about the war. Another country singer went through the same thing... along with a dozen other celebrities who voiced their opinion. I'm in the middle and it looks to me it is the "conservatives" who have forgotten the most about what this country is all about: freedom. I'm sorry, but your comments gives the same impression. Poeple who speak out, liberals or not, are just as patriotic as you are. They would not have chosen to speak out if they did not love their country. Yet, it's always the "conservatives" in media who question someone else's patriotism.


ust look at today's liberals who would have us do nothing but appease our enemies when 3,000 of our countrymen are slain. They are WAY naive and spineless.

Who? Who's been appeasing the enemies? You sound like a tape loop of Fox News. I am not a Clinton fan, yet I hear the so called "conservatives" repeating over and over that Clinton didn't do anything on terrorism. Have they not read the newspapers? Or do they just remember what they'd rather remember (anything and everything bad about the other camp)? Did they forget the missle strike Clinton ordered? Did they forget his administration's recommendation to the current one during the transition (which the current one ignored and may have had an impact on 9/11?)

There is a world of difference between acting and acting wisely. I'm not even going to spend time on the validity of the war with Iraq. But, both Afghanistan and Iraq could've been dealt with without resorting to ineffective and costly large scale conventional war. Any special forces operator would probably say they could've done it with results.


They talk the talk but the conservatives tend to get the job done.

You've got to be kidding. Look at the mess we're in?! Is the war over? is the job done? where's Bin Laden? where's the WMD? where's the immanent danger? where's Hussein? Heck, where's Waldo?? Bush's speach avoided all of the big issues. Instead he repeated the words "terror", "terrorism", and "terrorists" over two dozen times... playing on our paranoia.

Speaking of immanent danger, I'd say we are in more danger of being attacked now than ever. Instead of stationing troops in one Arab country, we are now stationed in two (Saudi Arabia & Kuwait) and occupying a third, Iraq. If you were Al Quaeda... what would you think about that? Worldly affairs take years to cultivate. It's utterly absurd and naive to take the magic wand approach. There is no such thing! Our fathers' sins are passed onto us... and our sins are passed onto our children. If you care about your family, you should care that much more about what our leaders are doing in our name... it's not a game of sing-along. It's serious stuff!

Facing a bleak job market and seeing the nation heading well over $480 BILLION deep into the red for the year to come... I don't feel the warm fuzzies you feel. Ask the hundreds of thousands of people who have lost their livelihoods in the past two years. Talk to the kids who have seen their school programs cut and class size increased. Think about what $87 Billion can do for them. It doesn't take party lines to know that there is something not quite right here.

We, as a nation, have to learn to work together, find the middle ground to move forward. Factionalism will only make us weak and tear the country apart (don't forget the civil war and the thousands that died in it). The parties, the liberals, and the conservatives have got to tone down their rhetoric against one another because in the end, we are all Americans. Blaming everything on the Liberals isn't going to solve anything. That's called escapism and denial.


Dude, I bear you no ill will and don't want this to go further so I won't go into the namecalling comment like I could.

I don't either but I just can't stand it when intelligent people willingly distribute someone else's unintelligent BS without processing it first.

[WyrreJ]

This is America and if you don't like the right to freedom of speech then you can get the hell out!;Dr;

[Heraclid]

Hey paultvx, I don't get paid to teach history or maybe I'd have time to help. That post would take a while. Whew. Where to begin? Shows what ya know, that's for sure. I may PM ya or something later but I'm done with it here. These are the same old tired, baseless arguments I've heard over and over again that you're throwing at me, but... oh well. And to think you actually lived through this stuff and can still say all that.

[MZ-N10]

After they lower the SUVs they should make all speed limit to 1 mph, to make it fair for peds. Wait the peds could still die from that...so to make it fair the car should just blow up....making it fair for everyone, everyone dies.
________
Nasty_Mistress live (http://camslivesexy.com/cam/Nasty_Mistress)

[paultvx]

Maybe there should be a law that makes dying illegal... and another to outlaw accidents.

[SGT.BATGUANO]

I just hope that the "Great and Powerful" Dubya doesn't leave the whole country in the same financial, educational. etc. conditions as he left Texas.

Now he's got the Veterans AND active duty military p.o.'ed.

Does that negate the Bechtel/ Worldcom lovefest over in Iraq?

Just saw a special biography on Bernie Evers. Why is that guy still walking around as a free man?

Enron?:mad:

[Dallas4u]

Originally posted by SGT.BATGUANO
I just hope that the "Great and Powerful" Dubya doesn't leave the whole country in the same financial, educational. etc. conditions as he left Texas.


Um, I lived in Texas for 27 years, before moving to Oregon almost a year ago... and I can tell you that Dallas, Houston, Austin, and pretty much the entire state is in better financial and employment standing than the state of Oregon!

[AREA 51]

I too, thought I read somewhere that Bush left the state on the verge of bankruptcy and with one of the lowest national education rankings, when he left the governors office.