Government

May HR 6068 Die In Committee

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Surely, surely if government has any role in inspecting hotel rooms for bed bug infestations it is a local role.
representative butterfield, d-North Carolina, introduced legislation to authorize grants to states to fund bed bug inspections: the Don’t Let the Bed Bugs Bite Act of 2008.
I checked, the bill was introduced on on May 15 not April 1 and:

The bill would create a grant program in the Department of Commerce and authorize $50,000,000 in each of fiscal years 2009 through 2012 for giving these grants to states.

Interestingly it appears that a number of the findings listed in this bill may have been taken from Wikipedia…with a little laxity. For example;

  • Bill: in a study of 700 hotel rooms between 2002 and 2006, 25 percent of hotels were found to be in need of bedbug treatment
  • Wikipedia: The Steritech Group, a pest-management company based in Charlotte, North Carolina, claimed that 25% of the 700 hotels they surveyed between 2002 and 2006 needed bedbug treatment.
  • Bill: bed bugs possess all of the necessary prerequisites for being capable of passing diseases from one host to another.
  • Wikipedia: Bed bugs seem to possess all of the necessary prerequisites for being capable of passing diseases from one host to another, but there have been no known cases of bed bugs passing disease from host to host.

There’s more if you are interested. I wonder which pest control company wrote this up for the good representative who is surely more capable than this…
Yea, bed bugs appear to be nasty little creatures but it strikes me that a few more well publicized damage awards to folks who get bit in hotel rooms would be a lot more effective than blowing away $50,000,000/year which, yes, the gov doesn’t have anyway.

Via The Agitator.

Oxymoron of the Day

This entry was posted in Democracy Government on by

In the best of all possible worlds, a wise Congress would figure out just which technologies will work best, and how they can be implemented most efficiently. (Ed: emphasis mine)
The Greenback Affect, Bill Mckibbon, Mother Jones, May/June 2008

It’s an article that just keeps on giving and perhaps I’ll come back to it over the next week or so either in part or at length.

Do you think this guy might be a big fan of a centrally planned society of robots…?

Will the New Cell Phone Laws Increase Danger on the Road?

This entry was posted in Government Law Regulation on by

New laws requiring that cell phone use in moving vehicles be handsfree are going into effect in many states this week. For instance, Washington and California. In California:

The law requires use of a hands-free device by drivers over 18 except in a medical or traffic emergency. Text-messaging is not specifically banned for adults, but the California Highway Patrol said they can be cited for negligence under existing laws.
A second law that took effect Tuesday bars drivers under age 18 from using a wireless telephone, pager, laptop or any other electronic communication or mobile service device while driving. The ban extends to hands-free usage and text-messaging.

All these laws make me wonder whether our fine legislators have any kind of clue at all.
If it is really about holding something in your hand shouldn’t the thousands of espresso shops be required to provide your drink in a hands free cup?
The problem, though, is not just that you are holding something in your hand. It is that you are carrying on a conversation. This creates a bit of a diversionary problem when your conversation partner is in the car. It is magnified when they are on the other end of the phone. You have to focus attention both on what you are say and on understanding what the other person is saying which will often include creating a mental image of their facial expressions and body language. Neither your driving or your conversation partner get full attention.
You don’t agree? Do the experiment yourself. Go do an honest comparison of your focus while driving: a) driving with no distractions; b) driving with music playing; c) driving while listening to your favorite talk radio show; d) driving while talking to some in the front seat; e) driving while talking to someone in the back seat and f) driving while talking to some one via a cellphone. Make sure the conversations are realistic. I’d be interested in your results.
Forcing folks to go hands-free also compounds the problem for other drivers. When talkers were holding their phones it was relatively easy to attribute their poor driving to cell phone use as opposed to, say, being drunk. You would probably compensate a little differently and probably did not call 911.
Now that the talkers are being forced to speakerphones and earpieces it will not be easy, if even possible, to determine whether the fool weaving back and forth or crawling along in the left lane is cell phone disabled or something worse.
If you are driving you really should not be talking on your phone at the same time. Pull over.

I encourage everyone to call 911 anytime they see reckless or impeding traffic. No excuses for why it is happening.