I don’t consider yesterday’s post to be a real post, just a few questions for the world. Feel free to keep responding to it, but I’m going to go on with a more typical post.
So my grandfather does not wear a seat belt in a vehicle. This is something that drives me crazy. When my dad was driving the van from Oak Island down to Myrtle Beach one day during our vacation, my grandfather was in the passenger seat with no seat belt, while we were going down Highway 17 at 60+ miles per hour. I’m not sure why he does this. I’ve been told something about needing to be able to get out of the car if there is an accident. I’m not really sure if that’s true or not though. But then I got to thinking—why is it illegal to not wear a seat belt? I mean, the government can require that cars have seat belts, and it can make sure that people are educated about them. Buy why is it the government’s responsibility to make sure that we use them? If I don’t use a seat belt, I am not harming anyone else. I mean, there is no law requiring that I eat three servings of fruits and vegetables a day, although that probably has a similar statistical effect on my life expectancy. All that being said, I still don’t understand why anyone would opt to not use a seat belt, and I would probably use much harsher words to describe such a person were I not closely related to one.
I just learned something about human behavior while exploring this topic: there is a phenomenon called risk compensation, which was “discovered” when researchers were trying to figure out why laws requiring seat belts to be worn didn’t reduce the injury or fatality rates from traffic accidents. It seems that if you give people a safety feature—say, seat belts, air bags, or anti-lock breaks—they will drive more recklessly, so that the level of risk stays more or less the same. So my grandfather being in the passenger seat without a seat belt may have made the rest of my family safer, by causing my dad to drive more cautiously. And it may actually be true that you drive better after one or two beers, because you are being extra careful. However, I wouldn’t recommend explaining that to a police officer.
Stick shifts and safety belts, bucket seats have all got to go
When I’m driving in my car, it makes my baby seem so far
August 30, 2:59 pm
I certainly drive better after a couple beers for the exact reason you mentioned. I’m much more focused on driving because even though I am not drunk, the prospect of explaining to a police officer that I have had a beer (or two) does not seem like a great idea no matter what reason s/he decided to pull me over for.
By the way Kip, I found an empty Smashing Pumpkins - Gish CD case at my house recently. Might it be yours?
August 30, 9:27 pm
Yep, that must be my CD case. Hard to believe I haven’t noticed it missing in the last three years, I guess it’s because I haven’t really unpacked my CD’s since the last move out of the dorm, because I haven’t had any kind of CD rack to put them in. It’s just the case right, not the CD? Because I’ve got the CD in my car, but I couldn’t find the case just now.
August 31, 2:07 pm
Yeah, it’s just the case. Had the CD been there, you would need to refer to the 1867 Supreme Court Ruling of Finders vs. Keepers. It’s also hard to imagine that multiple people have lived in the house in the past three years, and it wasn’t found until now.