Cell Phone Disconnected

I haven't ranted about my hatred for cell phone driving in quite some time. You better get your hard hat. Today I will "discuss" that subject for a few paragraphs. What motivates me is that my state legislature again refused to ban cell phone use while operating a vehicle and, believe it or not, voted down a proposal to make it illegal (the fine was to be $175 and up to 30 days in jail) to talk on a cell phone while driving in a school zone. A school zone!!!
It's crazy. Kids are walking across the street and on sidewalks near schools, yet a driver can operate his or her car with one hand on the wheel and one on the precious cell phone. Though we have stiff penalties for driving with a drink in the hand (alcohol or non alcohol) and many other "distracted" driving laws, we have none banning the dangerous cell phone driving. You see, cell phones are the sacred adult toys.
Among the excuses the legislators the other day used for not banning the use of cell phones while driving in school zones is that "It's a government intrusion into personal freedoms". Haha What a lie that one is. Laws are not intrusions of freedom, they are rules designed to insure public safety, and those legislators know that. They pass such "intrusions by government on freedom" on a score of other matters, but not when cell phones are the subject..
Another legislator made a rambling, incoherent speech against banning cell driving saying that cell driving stops road rage because "both hands are in use when talking on a cell phone and driving". Still another claimed there is "no evidence cell driving causes accidents". I guess he has been away from the planet the past 20 years.
But the most ridiculous lie used to vote against the ban was from a representative who insisted cell drivers need more, not fewer rights. "If you see somebody hit a small child and use your cell phone to call the police, will you be arrested," he asked the legislature?
Sigh....I suggest he be arrested right now for stupidity.
Of course the bill should have passed, and the real reason it didn't has nothing to do with the lies legislators tell to justify their irrationality. They voted no because they personally drive and chat on their phones and do not wish to give up that privilege. Safety of kids be damned! They are addicted to their phones and will not relinquish them even when a child's safety is at risk. When it comes to the subjects of reason and cell phones it is clear the two just don't seem to coexist. Watch out kids!!
From the Most Careless or Just Plain Stupid Criminal department comes word of a McMinnville, Tennessee thief who ..uh....needs to practice his stealing a little more. Police say a man named Christopher Hasty, 22., is suspected of burglarizing several vehicles left a key piece of evidence at the scene of the alleged crimes- his wallet, with identification and his parole card.
The hasty Hasty, was arrested after he was pointed out by apartment complex residents who said they saw him flee a car in the parking lot. Several cars had been burglarized in the lot where officers found the wallet. Residents said they saw the suspect's baggy pants fall down as he was running away, apparently the impetus for his loss of his wallet. Police found him inside a nearby apartment. A trail of footprints led from the door to woods where some of the items stolen from the cars were stashed.
Hasty Hasty faces auto burglary, theft charges and probably a tailor to fix his pants.....