Why We're In This Pickle

An item from the Associated Press says it all:

"A North Carolina syringe factory linked to hundreds of sicknesses and five deaths operated for almost two years without an inspection despite a series of complaints that its needles were dirty or filled with colored particles.

"Court documents in the North Carolina case show the U.S. Food and Drug Administration only inspected the AM2PAT Inc. plant in December 2007 after an outbreak of illness was reported.
"Federal investigators contend that the company shipped syringes filled with saline and the blood-thinner heparin from a dingy facility without ensuring they were sterile.

"Authorities are now searching for the Chicago-based company's Chief Executive Dushyant Patel, who was indicted last week. They believe he fled to his native India. Prosecutors don't know if Mr. Patel still has an attorney.
"An FDA spokesman didn't have an immediate explanation for why the facility wasn't inspected for so long. But inspections at AM2PAT were frequent by FDA standards."

So whether it's highway speeders or derivatives traders or air-traffic controllers, "starve-the-beast" small government is best, especially when it comes to law-enforcement. That is, until we realize how much it costs us.

Cops On The Street

Are you as tired as I am about close calls at intersections caused by red-light or stop-sign runners and rollers?
Are you as angry as I am about drivers changing lanes without using their directional signals? (They’re not merely “turn signals” meant to be used in anticipation of actually “turning.”)

And how about speeders taking not only their lives in their hands but yours as well! And wasting gas to boot.

What is needed to enforce the law is more cops on the streets. Not cameras. Not stiffer penalties. Not more judges. Cops. Lots of cops.

This absence of law enforcers breeds disregard --or worse, contempt-- for the law.

I’ve driven in Connecticut with zero tolerance for speeders. A single mph over the limit and you forfeit your license for a year.
I've driven in Ohio were there is a 5 mph grace, and in New York State where there is a generally-acknowledged grace of 7 to 8 mph.
We need to enforce the speed limits nationwide. Now! States that let you slide by at 15 mph over the limit are a danger to us all.

Why? It’s a matter of "pay me now or pay me later."

The reality is that one can drive for 100 miles in some states and seldom see a law-enforcement officer.

Thus drivers change lanes without signaling, "nest" in the fast lane rather than obeying signs that say "slow traffic keep right,” tailgate cars that they want to pass, roll through red lights and stop signs, pass on the right and then swerve back into the left lane as they flip-off other drivers, and cruise at 15 to 20 mph above the speed limit whatever it is.

This sorry state of affairs is costing us each hard dollars in terms of high insurance premiums, road repair, hospital care and vehicle maintenance. It costs us in higher death and injury rates, with a host of other social and economic costs.

I leave it to others to do the math. But I'm willing to kick in $100 to a special fund to be created for the purpose of putting more cops on the streets and highways of the offending states, in anticipation of saving that $100 in future insurance premiums.

How about you?