I guess you were asleep when they showed that "how a bill becomes law" video. The California state legislature hasn't even voted on this, and I doubt that it ever will. Like it says in TFA, this is a proposal by a one particular member, and will never be more than that unless he gets a lot of other assemblymen and state senators to back it.

Exactly. California is ungovernable and run buy a bunch of tax and waste (it's a stretch to call it tax and spend) idiots. We lived there for 20+ years and got out 5 years ago due to the financial insanity of trying to make ends meet. I can honestly say the only things I miss are some of the radio stations (which I now get on the net) and Disneyland. Everything else is rubbish as compared to the asking price of living and doing business there. California is becoming a place for the rich and the poor. The rich can afford it, and the state pays* for everything if you're poor. If you're middle class they bend you over and pound you in the ass. With sand.

* with borrowed money

I think we all would at times. There are some homemade examples of this on youtube. Do note, however, that this is a direct violation of the law in many places and would fall under more general reckless driving laws in the rest.

Rule of thumb: moving/changing signs are not allowed on cars.

Also for those who don't know; The California state legislature throws stupid stuff like this around all the time. It never goes anywhere. They don't do it because they want to pass the law. They do it because there is some wealthy business behind it. This is clearly a crappy ad for some crappy ad manufacturer.

It's California. The state legislature is the biggest circle-jerk in the world--it's in the Guinness Book of Records.

Already done.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/car/d138/ [thinkgeek.com]

I guess you were asleep when they showed that "how a bill becomes law" video. The California state legislature hasn't even voted on this, and I doubt that it ever will. Like it says in TFA, this is a proposal by a one particular member, and will never be more than that unless he gets a lot of other assemblymen and state senators to back it.

I guess you fell asleep before reading the sentence in TFA that says the bill "passed unanimously through the Senate last month"? The Senate is part of the Legislature, you know.

I'm quite familiar with the difference between bullets, shot, primers, wads, powder, shotshells and pistol and rifle casings. I'm a longtime shooter. I specifically used the language used in the article to avoid any confusion.

Well actually it's spend and don't tax. In that sense, it's a model Republican state.

Lest we forget Prop 13 that essentially froze property tax income at 1970s values, it's constitution that makes initiatives sacrosanct, the constitutional amendment that requires a 2/3s supermajority to raise (but not lower) taxes, and a 2/3s supermajority to balance a budget, and a marginalized set of political extremists that just happen to hold 2 seats over the 1/3 minority in both houses. (Yes, slashdoters, 2 people hold the entire state hostage.)

God I wished Repair California [repaircalifornia.org] actually had their act together.

Fuck the initiative process. Fuck the 2/3s supermajorites. Grow the fuck up.

The refrain that taxes are "too high" has no basis on reality. Taxes are at a 50 year low nationwide, and taxes haven't been able to be raised in California for since the 1970s. Nationwide, the US is significantly below the OECD average at 28%. (The OECD average 36%.)

If I was King of California, I'd know what I'd do solve the budget problems of California. I'd raise taxes.

Yes, it's safe to ignore those cautionary signs, most of the time. But, you should always be aware of them. Dead Man's Curve on I-90 in Cleveland Ohio pretty much means what it says. The Indian Stairway in Oklahoma says 25 mph on every curve, and you can do 35 on most of them, but two of those curves mean exactly what they say. There are a lot more.

And, if you're driving a truck or a camper, you had better pay attention too. We have a curve three miles north of my house in Arkansas, with warning signs that say "35 MPH". I can do ~65 in any of my kid's sports cars - but big trucks and campers alike have gone off that curve while doing ~40 - 45 MPH.

My own personal rule of thumb, is to slow to within 15 MPH of what the sign says BEFORE getting to the curve, then adjust as I see fit as I actually enter the curve.

I've found a few curves in W. Virginia and N. Carolina that scared the crap out of me, too. My rule of thumb was dangerously to fast for them! It sucks to get into the curve, then realize that it gets sharper before it straightens out!

So what is the point of posting it?

What is the point of posting a speed limit at a limit that is already natural to 85% of people on that road? WHY POST IT?

There is no need to set a speed limit at all, unless there is some unnatural thing happening around a zone, like a school zone where the speed limit is not due to the road conditions but is there because some kids are dumb and/or inattentive, while others just don't understand the danger yet due to lack of experience?

There is no need to post a speed limit on a road that has no obstacles of the kind described above.

I am driving in Germany for the past half a year, and there is nothing special about the Autobahn that makes it so much different from most US/Canadian highways, in fact Autobahn is much more narrow than many highways that I normally drive in Canada on.

I drive at my normal speed of 160 to 210 Km/m here on the highway but in the city I am within 10 km of the posted limit. As I am driving the Accura MDX we brought here, many cars zoom by at probably 1.5 times my speed and those are not only BMWs, Mercedes and Audis. People go fast in everything, from VWs to Peugeots and so what?

The system here makes perfect sense and a system that you are proposing is nonsense - limiting people artificially on a road to a speed they already have chosen?

Except California already has the highest sales tax (when local taxes are added). [wikipedia.org] Not to mention one of the highest costs of living in the country. I would say that's a pretty good indication that our problem is related more to our spending than our taxing.

Driving up the cost of living and the cost of doing business can cause plenty of negative side effects, so just raising taxes isn't a fix-all for California's budget problems.

That's just outright wrong. For the past year we've been paying an extra 1% sales tax [ca.gov] and local taxes have certainly gone up. LA county went up half a percent at the same time.

And if you're talking about property taxes not going up the value of the property is still assessed when the property changes ownership. Even if the percentage of the property value paid doesn't change it's still a lot more for the state government than it was in the 70s since home prices have gone up quite a bit faster than inflation.

I suppose speed limits of 30 mph in a residential area is purely motivated towards speeding tickets income and nothing to do with the 20% fatality at 30mph vs 40 mph where its 90% fatality rate. Seems like this are speed limits imposed by engineers. Of course now they are pushing for 20mph in residential areas which decreases the chance of death to around 2.5%. Of course you could argue its political when over 3 thousand people in the UK alone are killed on roads each year. You can throw out whatever excuse for driving irresponsibly, but don't think your fooling everyone.

figures from Sunday Times which may or may not be 100% accurate but they paint a decent picture. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/transport/article3941769.ece [timesonline.co.uk]

Here's a very edifying collection of those statistics. The "libertarians" amongst us are actually receiving the most benefit from our socialist policies, while the "socialists" amongst us are actually those that are quite self sufficient.

http://www.good.is/post/the-anti-tax-states-get-a-great-deal-on-taxes/ [www.good.is]

It's way worse than that. The state was New Hampshire and the slogan that was taped over was "LIVE FREE OR DIE".

http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=15440 [freedomforum.org]

Eventually, the case was heard by the Supreme Court of the Unites States. New Hampshire lost 6-3 on First Amendment -- Freedom of Speech grounds. The defendant was eventually awarded legal fees which New Hampshire refused to pay until a marshall walked into a state liquor store with a writ and demanded $21,000.

The irony of course is that the guy who received the citation still doesn't understand the First Amendment:

His faith causes him to question whether the First Amendment has been extended too far in certain circumstances. He says that the First Amendment should not protect immorality. "I think that freedom should protect the right principles of morality," he says.

"I think the ACLU does a good job for good things and I think they do a good job for bad things, such as protecting pornography and homosexuality -- things that conflict with the teachings of the Bible," Maynard says.

"But they did right by me in my case and I still appreciate that."

Some men you just can't reach...

Also for those who don't know; The California state legislature throws stupid stuff like this around all the time. It never goes anywhere.

Like any legislative body, the California state legislature has lots of bills introduced, byt most of the more off-the-wall ones never get significant support and don't pass out of committee, much less out of the first house.

OTOH, this particular measure passed out of the California State Senate without objection and is now being heard by an Assembly committee, so I'm not sure its as unlikely to become law as you suggest.