"speed kills" ... oh really?

The amorphous sense that bullshit is mounting and gnawing and cutting off the oxygen to a saner lifestyle has many examples, not least the congressional gridlock being played out in Washington lately. It's enough to make you want to slap someone's face, but, in a country founded in representative governing, finding a representative to slap is impossible. Representatives are prone to the Miss Piggy response when anyone asks them to take responsibility: "Moi?!" they ask incredulously. It's confounding.

But it's not just the big stuff that can make people want to scream, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more!" It's the little stuff as well -- the conveniently restructured rip-offs that bear little or no relation to scientific fact... stuff that conveniences some at the expense of the many. It seems to be an immutable law ... the nitwits will invariably float to the surface.

Take the highway mantram "speed kills." Why it is that someone has to waste time deconstructing this money-maker beats me, but at least someone has given it a shot. The following video, passed along in email, does not posit that crazy speeders don't exist or should somehow be given free rein. It simply collects the data -- with considerable wit -- that show speed limits and speeding are over-hyped for reasons that have little to do with roadway safety. The likelihood that anyone will pay attention or take the time to consider the matter is pretty small. Once enthroned, nitwits are pretty protective of their turf.