OFF THE WIRE
http://www.bikernation.net/bikercivics_04_07.htm
Over the years, I've read many articles about helmet laws, listened to may so-called rights leaders tell us what it's all about, but only a select few have the gift of telling it like it really is. Splatt is one of those. Read this entertaining 2007 article about California's helmet law reinstatement and enjoy a fresh commentary on an old subject.
Biker Civics 101...
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April 2007
I
Dressed Myself Today
In 1991, the California legislature
endorsed what is, essentially, a 'dress code"
for motorcyclists. The idea was to keep people from
riding, and it worked. In 1991,
PRE-Helmet Law, there were 639,388 motorcycle
registrations in California. By 1997, there
were only 391,080 motorcycle registrations in
California. Within 6 years, California
LOST 248,308 motorcycle registrations. To put
that into perspective, California LOST
more registrations than 44 other states
had on record in 2003, the latest year I can find
complete stats for. That number would have
placed 7th in the nation for registrations in
2003. Yet, when I visit www.chp.ca.gov,
they're telling me that "the number of
motorcycle registrations has remained about the
same." Somebody flunked second grade math,
and now they're callin' the shots at CHP
headquarters.
These retreads from the Gleichschaltung
era like to
dress it up pretty as something designed to save us
from ourselves, but any second grade student doin'
an essay on the injustices of nanny-crat government
or, what I liken to Goebbels' "Big Lie
Theory", pushed by the Socialist Third
Reich, can utilize the California Highway Patrol's
very own Statewide Integrated Traffic Records
System (SWITRS) to quickly refute the lies and
misinformation our public officials hide behind to
keep YOU from dressing the way you choose.
It's clear, they want
something on your head to keep you from, ta-da;
RIDING. As to what sorta device it is they want on
your head, well, that's where it gets a bit fuzzy.
See, they tell you to wear a "safety
helmet", but they keep it vague and they don't
exactly explain what a safety helmet is. They tell
you it's gotta be DOT Approved, but the DOT doesn't
approve helmets. Ask the authorities for a
simple list of approved helmets, and they can't
provide one. Well, without the CHP's help in
navigating the narrow straits of what is and what
isn't "approved headgear", many of us
have become good stewards of the government, and
we've begun manufacturing our OWN helmets. As
clearly evident on
www.nolistnolaw.com, you can't just
"look" at a helmet and assume it's passed
DOT compliance testing.
The problem here
isn't the officers in the field, so don't take it
out on them. There are some pretty cool guys and
gals out there on the beat. The problem
is their brainwashed superiors that tell
them what to do. Moreover, it's the ones with the
cushy desk jobs, the ones with a political agenda
or some secret vendetta to further that just don't
make sense. Do a Wikipedia.com search on Goebbels, and
you tell me he doesn't have a corner office with a
window at CHP headquarters. Goebbels'
primary rules were: Never allow the public to
cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never
concede that there may be some good in your enemy;
never leave room for alternatives; never accept
blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and
blame him for everything that goes wrong; people
will believe a big lie sooner than a little one;
and if you repeat it frequently enough people will
sooner or later believe it.
But it's not only public
officials on tax paid salaries that
are divvying up the bologna slices of your
leftover rights, there are private corporations
entrenched in the battle as well. If you look at who
lobbies against freedom, it's mostly the big
insurance companies who have something to lose
that's far more valuable than your freedom; MONEY.
You might not like it, but if you're interested in
preserving the last of your essential liberties, you
might consider canceling your membership with the
American Automobile Association (AAA) who's
really in business to peddle insurance to an
unwitting public under the auspices of travel. They
were there again, this year, sticking their nose
where it doesn't belong, lobbying against
Californian rider attempts to at least partially
restore lost freedoms with our common sense
modification to the helmet law, AB 425. They were
there years ago.
I remember reading the letter
from a woman, an executive at AAA, when she
espoused the virtues of all the lives that would be
saved by an oppressive lid law. Well, with time
under the bridge we now know how wrong she was. Dead
wrong.
According to the CHP's very
own statistics, more people are dying now WITH
helmets than ever died WITHOUT helmets. Go figure.
So why would AAA be so adamant about takin' us off
the road if they didn't have a vested interest here
somewhere? Well, they do. They care about losing
money when one of their insured, Gramma Blue-Hair,
runs over one of us, and they KNOW less of us ride
when a lid law is in place. To them, it's simple
math. The more bikes you get off the road, the less
maiming they have to pay for at the wheel of their
policy holders. The bottom line is, you need to
decide which is more precious to you; free maps or
freedom of choice, because what makes you believe
they'll stop with motorcycles? If it makes money for
AAA, they're gonna buy into it. Your rights be
damned.
Look, this is simple. If you
stick a monkey on a bike, without any skills, he's
gonna crash or get run over. These people honestly
think that a monkey rides BETTER if you stick a
helmet on his head. They honestly think the helmet
will miraculously do the driving for him, and he'll
live a happy, productive life. WRONG. The monkey
still crashes, or becomes a hood ornament because he
doesn't know how to ride. People!
It's skills and training that
keep you alive. If the helmet comes into play, it
means you've already screwed the pooch.
So,
utilizing our skills and training, a little group of
us went on a ride to the state capitol
today. We were on our way to the California
Freedom Rally, and we took a scenic ride
through the Sacramento Delta to get there. It's
clear that California lawmakers want us to wear
"something" on our head, so we
did. Many of us donned what we consider to
be "street legal headgear", or, our
perception thereof, taking into account the
confusion the CHP has left us with. There were
soft helmets with straps, there were bandanas with
poke-a-dots (DOT, get it?) and then there was mine,
the self certified and to the best of my engineering
know how, "DOT compliant" soft helmet I
manufactured for myself back in 1993. We had a
wonderful ride, the authorities left us alone, and
it reminded me of the good old days back before the
oppression began. Ya know what I discovered
today? Th e state didn't need to
get out of bed to protect me from myself. I
made a choice, all by myself! I rode. I
survived. And it makes me feel like a grown-up now
to know that I dressed myself today. I'm gonna start
doing that more often.
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