{"id":8862,"date":"2010-05-19T11:13:08","date_gmt":"2010-05-19T18:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/?p=8862"},"modified":"2019-12-23T15:01:15","modified_gmt":"2019-12-23T23:01:15","slug":"driving-is-a-privilege-not-a-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2010\/05\/19\/driving-is-a-privilege-not-a-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Driving is a Privilege, Not a Right"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:3392,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.digitaljournal.com\\\/article\\\/288870&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20201109004203\\\/http:\\\/\\\/www.digitaljournal.com\\\/article\\\/288870&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-06 19:38:41&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-06 19:38:41&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:3393,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/keysnews.com\\\/node\\\/21349&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.keysnews.com\\\/node\\\/21349\\\/&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:3394,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.digitaljournal.com\\\/article\\\/288935&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>I had multiple, successive mind-blown moments reading through a story from last March that just popped up on my Facebook feed.<\/p>\n<p>First: A woman in Florida, driving to meet her boyfriend, decides she wants to make sure she&#8217;s ready for their tryst by touching up her bikini line. So, doing what any normal, reasonable person would do, she has her ex-husband, sitting in the passenger seat, reach over and take the wheel to steer so she can <a href=\"http:\/\/www.digitaljournal.com\/article\/288870\" title=\"Digital Journal: Female driver shaving genitals causes accident in Florida\"><em>shave her genitals<\/em> as she drives down the road<\/a>. In what I&#8217;m sure was a totally unexpected result, she ends up rear-ending someone.<\/p>\n<p>Second: The resulting charges include reckless driving, driving with no insurance, leaving the scene of a wreck with injuries, and driving with a revoked license. It turns out that last charge is a result of a conviction <em>the day before<\/em> of <a href=\"http:\/\/keysnews.com\/node\/21349\" title=\"Florida Keys News: FHP: Driver lacked razor-sharp focus\">a DUI with a prior and driving with a suspended license<\/a>. Her license had been suspended for five years, and the car she was driving at the time of the shaving-induced crash was supposed to have been impounded.<\/p>\n<p>Third: The &#8220;with a prior&#8221; part of the &#8220;DUI with a prior&#8221; conviction <a href=\"http:\/\/www.digitaljournal.com\/article\/288935\" title=\"Digital Journal: Woman who shaved genitals while driving has history of offenses\">apparently comes from one or more earlier incidents<\/a>, including failing to stop and remain at a crash involving an injury, a misdemeanor count of driving with a suspended license, and a felony hit-and-run.<\/p>\n<p>But what <em>really<\/em> got me was this fourth bit, from the end of that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.digitaljournal.com\/article\/288935\" title=\"Digital Journal: Woman who shaved genitals while driving has history of offenses\">last link<\/a> (the added emphasis is mine):<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n  <em>When she starts driving again<\/em>, Barnes must have a breathalyzer ignition interlock device installed on any vehicle she drives.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>When she starts driving again&#8253;<\/em> Hopefully this language is just a holdover from the conviction when her license was suspended for five years. I find it absolutely mindboggling that there would be <em>any<\/em> way this woman would <em>ever<\/em> be legally allowed to drive again. This twit has repeatedly shown that she cannot be trusted behind the wheel of a car, why in the world should she ever have the chance to regain a driver&#8217;s license?<\/p>\n<p>We as a society are <em>far<\/em> too lenient when it comes to giving people the legal ability to drive. I&#8217;m strongly of the opinion that DUIs should be a single-strike offense: you drive drunk, you lose your license, and that&#8217;s it. No suspensions, no slaps on the wrist, no car-mounted breathalyzers. Once someone&#8217;s proven that they cannot be trusted to drive responsibly, that they&#8217;re more concerned about their own personal world than other people&#8217;s safety and lives, then that&#8217;s it for them. Get rides, take public transportation, buy a bicycle, or walk more than the twenty steps from the couch to the fridge. But driving is out. Period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I had multiple, successive mind-blown moments reading through a story from last March that just popped up on my Facebook feed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2043],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-8862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","tag-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8862\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}