OK to warn of speed traps ahead?

Headline: “D.C. man fights citation for warning other drivers.” So it’s unlawful in Maryland to flash your headlights to signal oncoming motorists of a speed trap. But relax, you can do it here.

Nevertheless, the headline awakened fond memories long dormant...
It’s a bright Sunday morning on a Maryland road nearly devoid of traffic. All of a sudden a state trooper pulls me over. Sternly he informs me I had been speeding in a 55 mph zone. I was clocked going 58. Suppressing a giggle, I accepted his warning ticket quietly.


That was about the only time radar ever got me ticketed for “speeding.” Which reminds me: Back in those awful days when double-nickel was the national speed limit, I drove the family to Chicago going quite a bit faster, thanks to a CB radio that I kept on until it drove my wife to distraction with its blaring of truckers’ rowdy conversations.

And many thanks, by the way, to one particular trucker while I was on another trip. On an Interstate in western Illinois, my Ford Falcon station wagon was whizzing along, packed with family and luggage. I was starting to pass a big rig on the left when its driver waved me back. In about 90 seconds I saw why. Smokies had their radar out, and the trucker undoubtedly had his CB ears up at the time.

My appreciation for such warnings helps explain why I occasionally flash my headlights at approaching cars. It’s no longer to get them only to dim their brights, since it’s hard to tell when some cars, with their new-style headlights, have them on. Rather, especially in my Aquia Harbour community, it’s just the neighborly thing to do.

But, what if I get caught, like the guy did in the news story? Not to worry. It’s true that our community’s police officers do the radar thing sometimes, but according to Harbour chief Trish Harman, my warning flash is OK. She adds that it would really be neat to flash at an oncoming vehicle that’s obviously speeding, to get it to slow down.

Bill Kennedy in the Stafford Sheriff’s office agrees, noting that a momentary flash of lights for whatever reason is lawful in Stafford. State troopers abide by that policy too, he adds.
　
Of course, with radar detectors officially banned statewide, how can a driver stay alert to the various radars and stationary cameras nowadays? Well, check out Speedtrap.org, which shows where you’re most likely to get nabbed, electronically or otherwise. Examples: Northbound U.S. 1 south of the Stafford Courthouse, and Hope Road during morning rush hour.

Also on the market now is PhantomAlert, a device marketed for motorists who want to know where police often encamp with radar guns and where speed and red-light cameras are located. In the District and nearby Maryland, they’re thick as fleas, raising gobs of money from fines.
Will Virginia legislators also outlaw these new alert gadgets, just like they did with radar detectors? Stay tuned.
　
　

"Something's happening

"Round 2 of Tea Party protests: A political powerhouse in the making?”.--Christian Science Monitor

They threw Stafford County’s first Tea Party at noon on Independence Day. A grass-roots effort with no apparent political sponsorship and hardly any advance publicity produced an enthusiastic noontime crowd that overflowed the grounds of the Courthouse--a historic structure on U.S. 1 that's 40 miles south of and oh so different than the District of Columbia.

Why the large turnout? Certainly not the entertainment, which involved only speeches. Rather, as Aquia Harbour resident Jerry Cunningham, a Vietnam War veteran, explained, “I’m here because I’m just tired of Congress being a profession.”

The Tea Party’s organizer, Vince Ellis, whose family lives near Seven Lakes, was delighted with the crowd.

“When it was over, 490 had registered with us,” he said. The Stafford government center’s large parking lot was comfortably full at noon.

A civilian engineer, Ellis said he took it on himself to do something to generate this local TEA (taxed enough already) Party.

The event had no official support of any organization, political or otherwise, he said. Other similar grass-roots efforts, initially centered on April 15, had yielded some 2,500 Tea Parties involving up to 500,000 participants. Numerous July 4 Tea Parties were also held in other Virginia localities such as Prince William County and Front Royal. The national tally was said to exceed 1,400 events.

Several invited speakers included Va. Delegate Mark Cole, R-88th District; and Greg Riddlemoser, a military veteran who lives near Mountain View High School. They focused on celebrating our nation’s flag on Independence Day and our country’s greatness while protesting Washington’s “irresponsible fiscal policies and increasingly intrusive government.”

However, “Most of these people don’t want to be connected to any one group,” said Adam Bitely with Americans for Limited Government, in a Washington Times article about the typical attendees at Tea Party events.

Local volunteers staffed registration signup desks at the Stafford Courthouse. Participants waited in lines to get their names included. A separate booth was run independently by Virginia Citizens Defense League, a gun-rights group.

Many passing motorists on U.S. 1 in front of the Courthouse honked in support of the typically anti-government signs many participants waved.

Know anyone who might be able to capitalize politically on these burgeoning Tea Party supporters nationally?

Beyond the land of the free

So we’re again celebrating Independence Day. Hooray for the U.S. of A !

America still shines as freedom’s home. At least we know our government in Washington, growing like a weed, operates more freely than ever.

So I’ll dress funny and wave my flag as Aquia Harbour’s best kids parade past. Yes, I’m still proud as punch to be an American and a Stafford County booster.
But as for the citizen’s independence nowadays, my cheers catch in my throat.

Take flying. Once you could stroll up to the ticket counter and then to the gate and then get right on the plane. Those happy days ended with the shoe bomber. I’m grateful he didn’t plant that bomb in his shorts instead.

And surely you’ve seen how filing your income tax return has become such a festering indignity. I stopped doing my own Form 1040 when IRS made Schedule D impossible to understand.
Now it seems I’ll never be permitted to sell my home unless some bureaucrat certifies it is indeed energy efficient. Gee, once there was just a termite inspection.

Yes, the good old days are history (according to humorist P.J. O’Rourke), due to people who “go around saying how unsafe this fun thing is and how unheal thy that fun thing is and how unfair, unjust, uncaring, insensitive....every thing that fun is.”

Loads of things I grew up with were fun. “Free, white and 21” was an expression of pride. Got my drivers license at 14. Drove without seatbelts, bought smokes for two bits a pack and a gallon of gas for little more. We were invincible. We had the atom bomb and had won the war. Much later, burning leaves was a happy ritual each fall.

Then came the professional scaredy-cats. They warned that the world would soon get too cold and we’d starve. Not. The book “Silent Spring” made lots of gullible people worry too much about the food we eat and how malaria-destroying DDT might hurt birds. So we saved the birds, killed the African kids. Folks began hating pesticides. PETA nutcases started burning down labs that used rats. The silly organic food movement grew beyond belief.

So it’s unfair to blame it all on Obama. He inherited the mess, you see. If you had to deal with the likes of Pelosi, Rev. Wright and even Joe Biden every day, think you could get anything done? Whatever.

The recession is bad pain, no gain. But having weathered others, I claim that an occasional bad dip is part of our capitalistic society.

Will this be the last one? I mean, our society, not the recession. I hate the thought. So I’m going to do something: Cheer for local champion Paul Milde in his campaign to unleash Stafford’s small businesses from the looming BPOL tax, and for Bill Howell and Bob McDonnell. They’ll help save us from (gasp!) socialism.

Who knows? It won’t be long before Barney Frank and his ilk are bounced, BPOL killed, and Obama’s era fades.Just like Sarah Palin’s.
Wave that flag!