patrick.net

Brakes and seatbelts alone cost consumers $44 billion per year, in terms of added price to the car, ongoing maintenance, and added fuel costs due to extra weight.

A government strong enough to require brakes and seatbelts is also strong enough to ban them.

I never use my brakes anyway.

Whining aside, has anyone else noticed how much easier parallel parking is with a backup camera?

It increases the number of spots you can easily slide into by around 30-40%: spots which used to look hopeless are a breeze.

You can back to within 2.2 inches of the bumper behind you - no contact, that's the whole game.

Backup cameras have revolutionized parallel parking in the same way Benghazi revolutionized our whole concept of outrage.

It won't make your Dodge Ram park like a '74 Honda CVCC, but you will now see creative possibilities in parking that you never believed possible.

Life-changing!

curious2 says

SUVs became the most popular category of new vehicle in 1998, after they were exempted from federal efficiency standards

They were even pretty popular before that because they were exempted from certain safety standards, as they were considered trucks.

Big and cheap: Americans just couldn't say no.

I was convinced by 1994 that the SUV fad was on the way out.

I was definitively, absolutely, resoundingly, galactically wrong.

Good Lord - it's 1800 square feet and has 5 bedrooms and 2 baths. Some place they are scrimping for space; and it was built in 1956. In Texas it sells for under $150K and it's barely worth that.

Call it Crazy says

Plus, it makes it a dream backing up and hooking up my boat, I can see the hitch all of the way in...

The rear camera seriously saves me 5-15 seconds each time I leave a parking space.

I never imagined what a joy it would be to know exactly where my rear bumper is, and who is near it.

I want one on the front. Then I'd be a warrior, a king, a god!

Iosef V HydroCabron says

Call it Crazy says

Plus, it makes it a dream backing up and hooking up my boat, I can see the hitch all of the way in...

The rear camera seriously saves me 5-15 seconds each time I leave a parking space.

I never imagined what a joy it would be to know exactly where my rear bumper is, and who is near it.

I want one on the front. Then I'd be a warrior, a king, a god!

Just because you having the driving skills of an aged chinese woman with new jersey plates, don't go projecting that on to the rest of us.

I wish there was a way to disable the back up cam, its just yet another distraction in my line of sight when backing up. It makes those goofy noises too, like I didn't know there's a car behind me

"Roi would rather pay the penalty, which is $95 the first year or one percent of a person’s taxable income, whichever is greater. In his case, it comes out to $350 for 2014."

Roi sure know show to under report his income if $350 is 1% of his annual income. Either way being forced into insurance sold by private sector is a raw deal for a lot of folks. This is a bad idea.

Right sells us to military, left sells us to health insurance. What is wrong with our nation!

Isn't the program designed to be dependent and supported by the majority of working people enrolling? Who will make up these lost enrollments?

Surely this program is a disaster.

It will collapse of its own weight. What a travesty of socialism and blind bureaucratic stupidity.

Iosef V HydroCabron says

Surely this program is a disaster.

It will collapse of its own weight. What a travesty of socialism and blind bureaucratic stupidity.

Somehow the government gets a pass when they screw something up. The idea was fine, in the private industry a great idea has to be followed up by execution. They go hand in hand..........

Dan8267 says

hrhjuliet says

Maybe $2 a year to join and look at stuff.

Why should it costs $2 a year to look at ads? If I have to put up with all the damn ads constantly thrown at me from T.V., radio, billboards, bulletin boards, junk mail, junk email, web pages, tablet apps, bumper stickers, teenagers throwing signs in the air on street corners, at the movie theater after I paid $10 to $15 for a ticket, at concerts, and everywhere else, then the damn ads I actually want to see had better be free.

Good point. It could easily be free and paid for by advertising.

Call it Crazy says

mmmarvel says

Good Lord - it's 1800 square feet and has 5 bedrooms and 2 baths. Some place they are scrimping for space; and it was built in 1956. In Texas it sells for under $150K and it's barely worth that.

Built in 1956... a nice old gem...

Plus, where's the pool??? Paying around 1M and no pool in CA???

That house would be at best $250K around here in NJ...

Pools are a wash price wise here in CA. The electricity and water bills'll kill ya!

Call it Crazy says

A fool and his money are soon parted (if you live in CA that is!!)

Ha ha ha
The last "fool" purchased it for $925,000 7 months ago.
Easy $200,000+ profit.
Wish I was that fool - don't you?

jazz music says

It feels like we are all too busy trying to keep up with the bills to address non-immediate concerns no matter how important the impact.

Let us pretend sociopaths are in power for a moment. With that in mind, is it possible that the average citizen is too busy to do what they know is right on purpose?

This is a good one.

It's pretty dangerous for toddlers and children out there. Cars are very large these days, trucks, vans, suv's... you name it. But there is no way a driver can see a child in their rear view without a camera.

We have kids get hit all the time when someone is backing up right into them. I've never seen a fatality, it's always just hurt feelings and a few bruises. But I'm sure worse happens.

Is this article suggesting price would stabilize? IMHO, is a good thing. The "ceiling" cited by the article is more like "floor" since if prices fall below, Blackstone Group would buy.

CaptainShuddup says

Well wait a minute... (counting fingers and toes) if we're paying more, and
the doctors and hospitals are getting less... (and carry the zillion)

Then were is the money going! HUH! Where's the Money Barry!!!

This is an excellent point.

One must assume either:
1. The money is stolen by Obama (in the form of commissions of buying through the exchange)
OR:
2. Premiums have not increased for 75%.
OR:
3. Doctors and hospitals are not getting less.

Lets assume that 1. is not true. There will be audits, and any swipe by the government will be known. If even the possibility of this existed, Fox news would have been all over it years ago.

That means hospitals and health insurance companies are lying about either 2. or 3. The law mandated that 80/85 percent of premiums must go to care. That leaves 15/20% for overhead and profit. If overhead/proft exceed 15/20%, the balance must be returned to the premium payer.

If a hosital collects x now for care provided - and due to this law they now get y=.95x as he says - and the insurance company cannot keep this as profit as required by law, then premiums will fall too. Premiums can be no more than 1.25y. If x falls 5%, premiums fall to 1.1875x, by math.

Therefore, 2. and 3. cannot both be true. Shocking that a hospital CEO is lying about revenue for services or health insurance premiums.

Yes cameras in the back, can't see out the 13 inch by 28 inch back window, and the windshield posts are so thick from the side curtain airbags, that they obscure about 25 yards, of T-Bone intersection traffic, but HEY!! the cars have side curtain airbags, adding about 4 grand to the cost of the vehicle, and because of the MPG requirements cars bodies are constructed of plastic and syrofoan, the trunk lining is no thicker than the plastic security wrap, that retail items are encased in. And sitting right under that, is a Gas tank.
BUT HEY!!!!

More distracting screens in the car to take your eyes off the road, when you're backing out of the drive way so you can be broadsided in your plastic polyurethane tomb.

Where in the FUCK is Ralph Nader when you need him?

They should have installed cardio machines in every american living room and provided an electornic dog collar for every man and woman. The collar would sense if the workout was adequate and if not would detonate around the neck. Now that would have been real reform instead of this bastardly mincemeat of fake compassion.

CaptainShuddup says

Yes cameras in the back, can't see out the 13 inch by 28 inch back window, and the windshield posts obscure about 25 yards

I've seen a few of those. On top of that these kinds of vehicles are always driven by women, making an already dangerous position, far worse.

All pilots should be fired and planes need to be self flying - we cannot afford another disgruntled political activist behind plane controls to pull of another MH370 "accident."

"she's s beast, i call her karma, she'll eat your heart out like jeffrey dahmer."

Iosef V HydroCabron says

Call it Crazy says

Plus, it makes it a dream backing up and hooking up my boat, I can see the hitch all of the way in...

The rear camera seriously saves me 5-15 seconds each time I leave a parking space.

I never imagined what a joy it would be to know exactly where my rear bumper is, and who is near it.

I want one on the front. Then I'd be a warrior, a king, a god!

Surrender your man card.

Call it Crazy says

But a smart person will realize that’s only one month of insurance,

Call it Crazy says

Robert Hicken, a self-employed entrepreneur, said, “I could have done it, I could have pulled the trigger, but that feeling in the back of my mind is still kind of rubbed me the wrong way that I live here in the United States of America and I’m being forced to do something.”

Analyzer says

Somehow the government gets a pass when they screw something up

Where? In America? The opposite is clearly true, as very few recount their good experiences with a government agency or programs.

FortWayne says

Roi sure know show to under report his income if $350 is 1% of his annual income.

Wouldn't he be eligible for subsidies?

Now children, stop playing with your food!

Hah, Hah, I forgot, you ARE the food!

What realtor doesn't send Christmas Cards with Hansel and Gretel menu suggestions?

Call it Crazy says

Plus, it makes it a dream backing up and hooking up my boat, I can see the hitch all of the way in...

Ah a bumper hitch. Does this device work with a gooseneck? Though you can just look out the rear window. Now if they have a device that gives you vision behind your tow vehicle that would be awesome.

Without Realtors we wouldn't have traffic problems. Why does it take 3 cars (yours, seller realtor, buyer realtor) on the road for a couple to go see an open house? You are going to the owners house FCOL. It should only be one car moving, or if you feel frisky you can walk. Realtors are the main cause of global warming!

So far looking to be 'TRUE'.

I needed to refresh my memory on serial killers so decided to do a cross reference between Jeffrey Dahmer and psychopathic realtors.

Jeffrey D. "Just after he graduated from high school, in June 1978, Dahmer picked up a hitchhiker named Steven Hicks and took him home to his parents' house, where they drank beer and had sex. When Hicks tried to leave, Dahmer killed him with a blow to the head with a barbell. He dismembered the corpse of his first victim, packed the body parts in plastic bags and buried them in the woods behind his parents' house."

Robert Durst. "According to prosecutors, he moved to Texas in 2000 and began cross-dressing to divert attention from the disappearance of McCormack"

Jeffrey D. "following his discharge, where he exhumed Hicks's remains, pulverized them with a hammer, and scattered the pieces even more widely in the woods."

Jonathan and Andrea Straub. "were caught on a security camera tossing dead animals, cutting branches off trees, and knocking over their neighbor’s “For Sale” signs, Lower Merion police say"

Jeffrey D. "Dahmer claims to have found Toumi dead beside him when he awoke. He bought a large suitcase to transport Toumi's body to his grandmother's basement, where he had sex with and masturbated on the corpse, before dismembering it and disposing of the remains in the garbage."

Mark Gregory. The entire persona. http://criminalminds.wikia.com/wiki/Mark_Gregory

Did anyone doubt the APOCALYPSEFUCK?

Call it Crazy says

lostand confused says

Ah a bumper hitch. Does this device work with a gooseneck?

Sure, mount the camera on the rear of your roof!!!

http://www.costco.com/Backup-Camera-System-For-Trailers-with-7%22-LCD-Screen-by-Rear-View-Safety.product.100082956.html

Cool, Thanks!

Those are the only people you really shouldn't be shaking down.

dublin hillz says

They should have installed cardio machines in every american living room and provided an electornic dog collar for every man and woman. The collar would sense if the workout was adequate and if not would detonate around the neck. Now that would have been real reform instead of this bastardly mincemeat of fake compassion.

You seem to be implying that fat people are fat because of lack of exercise.

This is false. Fat storage is regulated by hormones (insulin) and people with excess fat are usually insulin resistent, due to over consumption of carbohydrates.

Had the government been interested in bettering the health of the populace, they would first have to admit how terribly wrong their official nutrition advice via the food pyramid, and now Myplayte, actually is. This would inform people so that they could make better personal choices.

Its funny, how simple simon state suckling motherfuckers tend to fall in line with conventional wisdom, so long as the govt agrees.

Imagine a world where sugar gorgers were treated like the addicts that they are,,,,,

Reality says

Why wait for 2018? Why not now? How can an omniscient and omnipotent Government-God tolerate 4 more years of cars backing up and running over toddlers? Is it less than omniscient/omnipotent or is it evil?

Sounds like Obamacare for vehicles

Call it Crazy says

errc says

You seem to be implying that fat people are fat because of lack of exercise.

This is false. Fat storage is regulated by hormones (insulin) and people with excess fat are usually insulin resistent, due to over consumption of carbohydrates.

Gee, and all this time I thought it was because they put IN more calories then they burn OFF....

Ghee. All this time you were incorrect, and misinformed just like most all the rest of the sheeple.

Calories are not a consumable. They are a metric

Food is comprised of three components

Fat
Protein
Carbohydrates

The quantity of calories consumed is irrelevant, its only the quality that matters.

One could double their caloric intake in order to lose weight. S/he would merely have to replace carbohydrates with healthful fats and protein. Its fairly simple, once you understand the science behind how your body works

Sad how many have no clue whatsoever. Its as if you don't own your own body, when you don't understand how to fuel it or how its systems and feedbacks operate

I'll show them, I'll put an American flag sticker over the screen.

It'll go along with this other bit of civil disobedience:

Seat belts should not be factory standard, you want it you pay extra for dealer install.

hrhjuliet says

Good point. It could easily be free and paid for by advertising.

It is advertising. Sellers should simply pay $1 to list their property on the single listing and that would be more than enough to support the effort of listing all properties for sale in the world. Computers do all the damn work anyway.

You have all at least come to realize that the people in power at present are sociopaths, and that most have borderline personality disorder? I hope you see no matter how often we discuss the right the rich have to their money, we very seldom discuss the type of personality that while living in gluttony and in opulence willingly make choices that cause other humans to starve or suffer.

For example; I do believe as a supposed free society we can not always force a corporation to do right, but the fact remains that someone in those corporations is calling the shots and knows that there are children making their merchandise, that their chemicals are killing and polluting. To save money, they willingly allow the abuse of another human being in a corrupt nation and they allow and support slavery. There is no difference between Dahmer or the afore mentioned criminal real estate agents and the corporations that profit from pollution, slavery or indentured children.

The only difference is us.

We the public and society that validates their "it's only business" plea bargain daily are allowing sociopaths to commit crimes and then live in splendor. We have allowed sick people to indoctrinate us into their twisted world were money and things mean more than other human beings. It is the slave mentality, and we are not only part of the story, but a player in the problem by our daily validation of atrocities, and are unwillingness to give up our addiction to materialism.

Our cheap goods mean more to us than the lives of our fellow man. In that, we are reduced to being the pawns of sociopaths. We are truly part of the problem, and the sooner we face it, the sooner we can end the nightmare.

Dan8267 says

hrhjuliet says

Good point. It could easily be free and paid for by advertising.

It is advertising. Sellers should simply pay $1 to list their property on the single listing and that would be more than enough to support the effort of listing all properties for sale in the world. Computers do all the damn work anyway.

You are correct and have clearly thought about this. Any chance you could create a site?

hrhjuliet says

You have all at least come to realize that the people in power at present are sociopaths

That's why we have walls.

The Sirius Cybernetics Corporation is the primary manufacturer and supplier of androids, robots and autonomic assistants for the known universe. They are known for their catchy jingles and catchphrases, supplied by their Marketing Department.

They are not, however, known for the quality of their products.

The Hitchhiker's Travel Guide describes the Marketing Department of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation as:

"A bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes."

Curiously, an edition of the Encyclopedia Galactica which conveniently fell through a rift in the time-space continuum from 1000 years in the future describes the Marketing Department of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation as:

"A bunch of mindless jerks who were the first against the wall when the revolution came."

hrhjuliet says

You are correct and have clearly thought about this. Any chance you could create a site?

Easily. That's not the problem. The hard part is getting the masses to have the political will to advertise at this site. Of course, once you have a mere 25% of all listings, the rest will follow like lemmings. But getting the first 5% is nearly impossible because who wants to sign up until you are already successful?