On Sat, 12 Nov 2005 21:32:38 GMT, Ba r r y
wrote:

On 12 Nov 2005 02:20:17 -0800, "Charlie Self"
wrote:

Gotta love 'em. I hear NY has done one thing right: made yakking on
cells illegal while driving.

So did CT. 6 weeks after the law took effect, it's back on the phone.
The law will probably be as effective as laws pertaining to fart
exhausts, car boom-box stereos, pedestrians in crosswalks having the
right of way, and municipal 25 and 35 MPH speed limits. Totally
unenforced...


which touches on a weakness of our legal system- it's a lot easier to
get bad laws passed than to get them removed... so we have so many
laws that it takes specialists with decades of intensive training to
understand them.

banning of cel phones is bad law because it imposes a penalty
disproportionate to risk. smoking, eating and adjusting the radio
cause a lot more accidents than cel phones, but banning phones appeals
to a vocal constituency. so we have another bad bit of law that will
be largely ignored, except when some racist beat cop decides he needs
an excuse to pull over another young black guy...