Check out the ad below, which is to air (supposedly) during the Super Bowl. Isn't this the beauty of capitalism? Complete strangers - the investors, the managers, the contractors, the labor, and more - toil to give me "everything I could possibly want" in a car. I don't even know these people. A tear rolls down my cheek.
Watch the video below. (Caution: Language) It looks like a couple of joy riders or some suicidal person with a death wish. I'll say more after the video jump.
Apparently it's a woman who suffered problems with a diabetic attack. Now, had she ventured onto oncoming traffic and killed someone, would she suffer civil lebal liability? It depends.
Had she struggled with this problem in the past, it was then a foreseeable hazard for her to be driving. If, however, this was a first occurrence, and more importantly if she didn't even know she had diabetes, then the potential for accident was not foreseeable and she would likely not be held liable. That may be a tough burden to prove in either direction.
In the end, some enterprising lawyer would have devised some reason to sue the car company and the state for not removing snow from the median. Fortunately, she did not hit anyone.
At least we live in a semi-sane society where, for the time being, the government is constrained from a) acting without due process, and b) imposing cruel and unusual punishment.
The economic reasons for why we in civilized countries don't permit government from meting out justice like that depicted in the video below is that the social loss of the car destroyed is far greater than the perverted glee enjoyed by the mayor of Vilnius from destroying it. Sorry, it isn't funny. But for him, he received much publicity to promote his next campaign. Let's hope he loses big.
Notice how the streets in this major city are totally empty? As much as I believe rules and legislation should normally be obeyed, there appeared to be no cost to residents of and visitors to Vilnius from the illegally parked cars.
A bareheaded motorcyclist participating in a ride to protest mandatory helmet laws was killed when he was thrown over the handlebars in Onondaga, New York.
State police say evidence at the scene plus information from the attending medical expert indicated Contos would have survived had he been wearing a helmet as required by state law.
And then this:
Another New Yorker who has been a motorcyclist for over 50 years, Joseph Costantini, said, "I would never ride without a helmet -- even in a state that says you don't have to. I understand where the protesters are coming from because ultimately it's a matter of choice.
An electric car owner would have to drive at least 129,000km before producing a net saving in CO2. Many electric cars will not travel that far in their lifetime because they typically have a range of less than 145km on a single charge and are unsuitable for long trips. Even those driven 160,000km would save only about a tonne of CO2 over their lifetimes.
