Ferrari Mailing List: NYTimes, Toilets and Ferraris

[ken rentiers (rentiers]

Dan:

Thanks for the NYT piece. That article is pretty funny - full of the  
usual dire predictions of mass carnage from raising the TX state  
speed limit 5 mph to 80 all along the I-10 corridor west of San  
Antonio. The truth is TX has long had an "observed 85th percentile  
law" for setting speed limits. The State Senator who pushed this  
through was just disemboweling some of the more egregious speed traps  
out there in small towns like Fort Hancock and East Jesus that make  
their annual operating budget by extending city limits to encompass a  
mile or so of the Interstate and then fleecing passing motorists.

The French AutoRoutes are all posted 130 kph/81 mph in much more  
densely populated areas.  I drove them extensively and never saw huge  
piles of dead bodies along the roadside in France despite all the  
little 2 cylinder Renault Twingos buzzing by absolutely flat-out at 85.

The predictions of imminent doom are the same ones that were voiced  
when the 55 mph NMSL was lifted a decade ago following  22 years of  
'prohibition'. When death rates/100.000 miles on affected highways  
continued their decades-long drop crusaders and nay-sayers finally  
gave up and went off to attack other impending causes of human  
extinction like cigars, decently large toilet bowls and cooking with  
trans fats (the tasty stuff)....

NEW YORK (AP) -- Three years after the city banned smoking in  
restaurants, health officials are talking about prohibiting something  
they say is almost as bad: artificial trans fatty acids.

The city health department unveiled a proposal Tuesday that would bar  
cooks at any of the city's 24,600 food service establishments from  
using ingredients that contain the artery-clogging substance,  
commonly listed on food labels as partially hydrogenated oil.

Artificial trans fats are found in some shortenings, margarine and  
frying oils and turn up in foods from pie crusts to french fries to  
doughnuts.



May God save us from those who would impose their will upon us in the  
name of 'public good'. To me it is a small miracle that it is still  
legal to sell Ferraris in this country. Or smoke cigars. Or buy  
single malt scotch, pate foi gras or long sharp chef's knives. Or  
stay up all night or even to entertain improper thoughts about  
certain odious politicians.



Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.
                                                        - H. L. Mencken

-ken-
http://www.jonathangullible.com/mmedia/PhilosophyOfLiberty- 
english_music.swf