Flap Your Lips Friday
Posted by Michelle Moquin on June 17th, 2011
Good morning!
Well the women in Saudi took to the road yesterday, and defied the rules banning women from driving…the only country that has such a ridiculous rule.
Women2Drive is a Facebook page that is in support of the Saudi Women. I gave it my thumbs up in support. Those that oppose had their own FaceBook too, only they weren’t exactly just stating that women shouldn’t drive, which is absurd to begin with. No, they were promoting violence…calling on people to beat up anyone woman they see driving. Can you imagine…a call to beat up women just because they are getting behind the wheel?(!)
So…Girls: How did it go? From what I have read, pretty smoothly. A few of you were followed by police but there were no arrests. If you can blog me, I’d love to hear about your experiences. I HOPE that this will inspire more women to drive and the ban will end. You know that you have my support.
Saudi women defy ban to take driver’s seat
A number of Saudi women have defied a ban on driving by getting behind the wheel in the conservative kingdom.
Friday’s show of defiance came in response to calls on social networking sites to defy the ban that prohibits women from driving in the kingdom.
“We’ve just returned from the supermarket. My wife decided to start the day by driving to the store and back,” said columnist Tawfiq Alsaif on his Twitter page on Friday.
“I took King Fahd Road [Riyadh artery] and then Olaya Street, along with my husband, I decided that the car for today is mine,” local resident Maha al-Qahtani tweeted.
She also told the AFP news agency that driving is “a right for women that no law or religion bans … I went out to get my right, so that it would be up to me to drive or not”.
Her husband Mohammed al-Qahtani tweeted that she carried her necessary belongings “ready to go to prison without fear”.
The en masse action was the first since November 1990, when a group of 47 Saudi women stunned men by driving around Riyadh in 15 cars before being arrested.
‘Mutiny against male-only rules’
Activists had not appealed for mass protests in any specific sites, but had urged Saudi women to begin a mutiny against the male-only driving rules.
Women who had driving licences obtained abroad were urged to run their errands themselves without relying on male drivers.
She had posted internet clips of herself driving in 2008.”We want women from today to begin exercising their rights,” Wajeha al-Huwaidar, a Saudi women’s rights activist, said.
“Today on the roads is just the opening in a long campaign,” she said. “We will not go back.”
Friday is the climax of a two-month online campaign riding the winds of the so-called Arab spring, which has spread mass revolts across the region and toppled two regimes.
The main Facebook page campaign, dubbed Women2Drive, says the action will keep going “until a royal decree allowing women to drive is issued”.
Women in Saudi Arabia face an array of constraints, ranging from having to cover from head to toe in public and needing authorisation from a male guardian to travel, to having restricted access to jobs due to strict rules of segregation.
The driving campaign follows the 10-day detention last month of 32-year-old Manal al-Sherif, after she posted video of herself driving.
She was released after reportedly signing a pledge that she would not drive again or speak publicly.
Her case, however, sparked an outcry from international rights groups and brought direct appeals to Saudi’s rulers to lift the driving ban on women – the only such countrywide rule in the world.
Earlier this week, a group of women drove around the Saudi embassy in Washington to protest the kingdom’s ban on female drivers. Similar convoys converged on Saudi diplomatic missions in other cities around the world.
Difficult choices
Calls for an ongoing road rebellion could push Western-backed Saudi authorities into difficult choices: either launching a crackdown and facing international pressure or giving way to the demands and angering traditional-minded clerics and other groups opposing reforms.
The men-only driving system is supported by clerics backing austere interpretations of Islam and enforced by powerful morality squads.
The last en masse protest against the ban on female drivers was held in November 1990 when a group of women stunned Saudi men by driving around Riyadh in 15 cars before being arrested.
There is no written Saudi law barring women from driving - only fatwas, or religious edicts, by senior clerics following a strict brand of Islam known as Wahhabism.
They claim the driving ban protects against the spread of vice and temptation because women drivers would be free to leave home alone and interact with male strangers. The prohibition forces families to hire live-in drivers or rely on male relatives to drive.
Saudi King Abdullah has promised some social reforms, but he depends on the clerics to support his ruling family and is unlikely to take steps that would bring backlash from the religious establishment.
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Howie: You’re welcome. Yes, pure food and water should be a given. It used to be before greed started growing, and the love of money grew stronger than the love of people.
Carol: Because the words, “responsibility” and “accountability”, aren’t in their vocabulary, nor do they care to learn them.
Doug: Great video. A must watch. We stated off with perfect pure food. The gods created earth perfectly. We are fucking it up badly.
Readers: It’s Friday…you know what to do. Blog me.
Peace & Love & Pure Food: “Live it, Give it, Eat it”
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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June 17th, 2011 at 10:24 am
WHAT YOUR BODY LANGUAGE SAYS…
Isn’t it funny — we all have bodies… we all look at each others’ bodies all day long… and yet most of us aren’t really very good at understanding what other people’s bodies can tell us.
Oh, sure, we can spot the obvious signals such as arms folded tightly over the chest — communicating annoyance or displeasure — but there are many other more subtle ways that people communicate their real feelings if you know what to look for.
By learning a bit more about body language, not only can you communicate more effectively and enhance the impression that you make on others, but you can also spot untruths, anxiety, boredom or genuine enthusiasm and confidence in the person you are talking to!
To learn more about decoding body language, I called Janine Driver, president of the Body Language Institute in Alexandria, Virginia.
Driver worked for more than 10 years at the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, where she learned from research-based techniques to decipher body language signals as part of criminal investigations before writing her book, You Say More Than You Think. She shared some of her most useful “secrets”…
“EYE” WITNESSES
Research from around the world has demonstrated that no matter where or how people live, whether in primitive tribal villages or multimillion-dollar mansions, our eyes reveal our emotions the same way.
Driver told me, for instance, that police detectives are trained to look for a universal “burst of fear” signal, which is a dead giveaway that a person feels guilt — and it’s easy to spot once you know to look for it.
Guilty feelings cause your eyebrows to shoot straight up while remaining horizontal, while the eyes widen so much you can see the “three whites,” i.e., the white around the top of the eyeball and on both sides.
This is an example of a “micro expression” — a facial change that happens in a fraction of a second, so quickly that if you didn’t know to look for it (or blinked), you would miss it.
On a happier note, Driver shared how to identify genuine surprise — so you can tell, for instance, whether your friend really had no clue about that surprise party you planned for her.
When a person is truly surprised, the eyes widen (though not as much as for guilt — you won’t see the three whites) and the brows go up suddenly but retain their curved shape.
And here’s another crucial clue: If the feeling is genuine, the surprise response won’t last longer than three seconds — it then merges into another layer of emotion, such as happiness or dismay. If the guest of honor retains the “I’m so surprised” look longer than that, somebody told.
TILT YOUR HEAD… OR NOT
The way a person tilts his/her head speaks volumes. Holding your head level communicates that you have authority and certainty about what you are saying — you’re “level-headed” and trustworthy.
Therefore, Driver advises against tilting your head to the left or the right when you are speaking.
But, she said, it’s another matter altogether when you are listening.
Tilting your head to the right stacks the odds that a person will think you look attractive — useful on a blind date, for instance…
while tilting slightly to the left makes you look more intelligent — helpful at a job interview.
This phenomenon is independent of right- or left-handedness and, as peculiar as it sounds (which it does), you’ll see that it works by testing it yourself in a mirror or by taking tilting-head photos of yourself.
Driver says there are theories about why this works having to do with the different functions of the right and left sides of the brain, but no one really knows for sure.
RISE TO THE OCCASION
Have you noticed that some people — probably even you, at times — seem to spontaneously rise onto their tiptoes, and not because something is blocking their view?
This might happen, for example when you receive an unexpected phone call from a new love…or get the lowball price you have been negotiating on a new car.
According to Driver, this is a sign of capability and enthusiasm. She calls it “defying gravity,” surmising that people do this when they feel the earth is not strong enough to hold them down. “It is great to see this,” she says. “It shows this is a happy, confident person.”
In contrast, when a person is trying to appear confident but isn’t really feeling that way, you often will see the person cross his/her ankles.
There are of course many more silent signals. Once you start looking, you’ll be surprised at how much people tell you without saying a word!
Source(s):
Janine Driver, president and CEO of the Body Language Institute, Alexandria, Virginia, and author of You Say More Than You Think (Three Rivers).
June 17th, 2011 at 10:35 am
Looks like we owe Anonz, and Robert the Prophetic Cup Award. As they predicted the Play “Book of Mormon” promoting that absurd religion is very big news.
We whites do love ourselves and the ridiculous ideas we promote to make the race look good.
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Following its Tonys domination, “Book of Mormon” set the record for highest Broadway ticket prices this week, with a prime orchestra seat costing customers a cool $487.25 per ticket (including service charges). Regular orchestra seats set another record of $165.25. The show has been receiving rave reviews and is enjoying a sold out run.
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Does this mean the religion question is over? Mitt Romney’s choice of this idiotic cult made into a mainstream religion is no longer worthy of question. Now we can all accept that some Hebrews didn’t want to be Hebrews so they sailed to the USA( to be) 600 B.C. and started a religion for whites only.
Now that would make a hit play, I’d buy a ticket. But then I’m white.
Mark
June 17th, 2011 at 10:41 am
Leave the Mormons alone. Any religion that preaches that black skin is a curse from God deserves a serious look.
Romney has my vote and he will get the votes of all God-fearing proud-to-be-white voters.
We are going to get that nigger out of the White House.
George, WN
June 17th, 2011 at 10:43 am
Book of Mormon is everything and more you would expect it to see. I bought a ticket at cost off of Craigslist a couple of months ago. A Premium ticket for just under 200. Thought it was worth it. I wouldn’t pay 487 for the same seat but I would see it again from a cheaper seat.
June 17th, 2011 at 10:47 am
The republican party is totally controlled by lobbyists. They are buying those high price tickets and giving them to the party members.
It is another bribe. They keep the sell out alive with their willingness to promote that cult as a bona fide religion.
Kikki
June 17th, 2011 at 10:49 am
The Book of Mormon taught me that Mormons believe that if a man is good as a mortal, they get exhalted and become gods of their own planet. They’re essentiall y polytheist s, but they believe all these planet-god s are part of the same god, in the way the father, son and holy ghost are the same god, so they reject that they are polytheist s.
Who knew?
June 17th, 2011 at 10:50 am
Yesterday two Mormons came to my door. Both were Vietnamese . I was an interestin g conversati on. They asked me if I new anything about LDS..
I told them yes. I know that your church is organizing against civil rights (gay marriage) in 31 States. I know that your church spent over 8 million dollars to Stop Prep 8 in California . I know that your church was sued by Gary Davis and convicted on 31 counts of interferen ce in the California election process.
They both said they did not agree with what the church was doing in regard to gay marriage.
June 17th, 2011 at 10:54 am
Well, did you ask them if they didn’t agree with the church, on its interference in politics and its stand on Gay marriage what the fuck they were doing at your door promoting that shit?
Loo
June 17th, 2011 at 11:21 am
Candidates Sought for Miss Guam World
Last Updated on Friday, 17 June 2011 12:38
Written by News Release
Friday, 17 June 2011 12:35
Guam News – Community Events
Guam – The Miss Guam World organization is seeking candidates to run for the 2011 Miss Guam World pageant. The pageant will take place, Wednesday, August 31, at University of Guam fieldhouse.
The winner will compete at the international “Miss World” pageant to be held in London on November 6, 2011.
Candidates must be a female between the ages of 17 -24, single, unmarried, U.S. citizen, and a Guam resident. The deadline to submit an application is June 30, 2011.
The theme of “Beauty With A Purpose” is at the heart of Miss World, working tirelessly to raise funds for many good causes over the years.
Funds raised will be donated to local organizations in aid of disadvantaged/disabled children to include the elderly and other charities related to the mission.
This year, one lucky contestant who raises the most money for charity will be honored with the 2011 Humanitarian Award at the UOG fieldhouse.
International Miss World organizations have done so much to raise money and influence programs to help people in need. They bring happiness to the less fortunate people of other countries”.
However, “Beauty With A Purpose” does not stop with just the titleholder. National representatives and license holders are actively encouraged to support worthy projects in their own countries.
Part of the brief to contenders in each country is that they volunteer their time or fundraise for projects in their own countries.
The “Beauty With A Purpose” award singles out and recognizes the Miss World contestant who is shown to have made a real difference to people in need in her homeland.
For more information please contact Pinki Lujan, Pageant Director at 688-3281 or 788-3856 or e-mail missguamworld@msn.com Visit our website at http://www.missguamworld.org
June 17th, 2011 at 12:39 pm
Michelle, the Saudis went behind close doors and threatened the families of the women who were going to protest.
The males were threatened with everything from lost of jobs, promotions, society fief, imprisonment and death if they did not control their females.
The americans were there to advise the Saudi Arabia government not to shut down the protest all together so that some women with a male relative along would be allowed to “protest.”
The americans told them it would make the rest of the world think they were being tolerant but with this technique they could prolong inevitably every allowing women to drive. The americans proudly presented this idea as one they used for more than 100 years to keep their OTWs in their place.
What the americans didn’t know was that after they left the arab men made certain to give an extra large donation to the various terrorists organizations that target american interest because they said they were certain that Arab men were included in that OTW spiel by the white americans.
Inas
June 17th, 2011 at 12:46 pm
Michelle: We were allowed to drive with our husbands or some other male relative in the vehicle with us.
Still I had fun. Thanks for all your support.
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I am sending this link so that you can see what we are forced to where in a country where the heat can reach 102 by 11 am.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/17/saudi-arabia-women-drivers-protest
It is shameful that men can force women to be so uncomfortable to keep other men from lusting after their property.
It is more shameful that men from other countries look the other way while human beings(yes, we women are human beings) are treated as livestock to be used as they please and bought and sold with impunity.
Najat
June 17th, 2011 at 12:58 pm
Michelle, Women in Saudi Arabia are also banned from voting or from leaving home without a male guardian.
We can do nothing without our handlers. Animals in Saudi Arabia have more freedom than a woman in this land of pedophiles.
I have witnessed young girls and babies from all over the world who have been kidnapped and brought to the bazaar or private auctions to be sold to the highest bidder.
The women are sexually abused until they reach the age of non interest and then they are kicked out, sold, or put into a burlap sack alive and thrown into the sea to drown.
Some rich make a sport of it. They season the water with the hearts and blood of chickens and fish. When the sharks are swimming madly about they toss the girls into the water. They flail madly for a few seconds before they are bitten and dragged under. Some of the very unfortunate are bitten repeatedly before they die.
The men scurry about the boat laughing and pointing at this one or that as they try to escape the fury of the sharks.Many pull us up to watch and admonish us what our faith will be if we disobey or embarrass the family.
Life is hell
Ahd
June 17th, 2011 at 1:02 pm
Michelle:
My brother has a huge piranha tank. When he is not entertaining friends by tossing small animals into it, he tosses one of his sex slaves he no longer wants into it and they bet on how long she will survive before she dies.
My younger brother films it and he show them to me and says if we attempt to drive, we will be next.
Areebah
June 17th, 2011 at 1:09 pm
Michelle, I am 14. I have been raped so many times by my uncles, I can not count. I can tell no one or I will be killed. I pray after every attack that I will not get pregnant or I will be killed. Please let me be a girlz or kill me quickly.
If I get pregnant they will torture me like they did my sister when she told on the same uncles who accused her or seducing them. She was 13 when she was stripped and dipped into a hot vat of oil and hung up by hooks put into her ankles. It took her 4 days to die.
I still hear her screams in my sleep.
Alhena
June 17th, 2011 at 2:06 pm
Mark #2:
The Republican Powers that be in America have chosen Mitt Romney as a candidate for the next Presidential election. Anything “Mormon” is cool at the moment, including The Broadway play.
I pray this is just a passing fad. Anyone with any intelligence can research the true start and spread of the Mormons and their Church of Later Day Saints. It is definitely a Cult. They were chased out several states starting out in the Midwest and winding up in the dessert of Utah where no one cared what they practiced. Polygamy attracted many white men. They could now remain Christians and have many wives.
In reality Most White Men cannot treat a single Woman with respect and equality, they were able to have control over many. That was a real ego booster for those interested in their so-called religion.
The Broadway play is more malignant than it seems. It is promoting acceptance of Mormon beliefs, which are totally archaic and therefore dangerous. They promote the inequality of OTW’s and Women.
The Mormons want to be accepted as a mainstream religion so their candidate Romney will generate more votes at election time.
I hope Americans can see through this attempt at promoting Mitt Romney, a very poor choice for President. Research the “Mormons” and open your eyes.
HOWIE
June 17th, 2011 at 4:26 pm
Tomorrow, Saturday, June 18th, is this campaign’s first national day of action.
Thousands of volunteers have already signed up in San Francisco and beyond to register voters and collect “I’m in” cards from new supporters.
Can you make it? Here are the details:
What: 2012 Day of Action
Where: On Fillmore St. between O’Farrell and Geary
San Francisco, CA 94115
When: Saturday, June 18th
11:00 am
You should come out — it’s sure to be a fun and inspiring day:
June 17th, 2011 at 4:34 pm
There is a line in the movie “Alien”, where Ripley says, “…nuke the place for morbid, it’s the only way to be sure.” When I read Areebah and Alhena’s comments, that is all I could think of… I am sorry for what you go through, and the thousands of others like you. Alhena and Areebah, I wish I had a solution.
June 17th, 2011 at 4:35 pm
…and Ahd…
June 17th, 2011 at 4:58 pm
Najat, Ahd, Areebah, and Alhena:
My heart goes out to you. I agree with Doug the Main Dude. I wish I had a solution.
No Woman should have to put up with men who treat them worse than they would an animal, to control and hurt as they wish. No animal should be mistreated in such a cruel and painful manner either.
Perhaps one day these sick Men will be taught a lesson and be on the receiving end. They are psychopaths.
HOWIE
June 17th, 2011 at 4:59 pm
Can we give a second Prophetic Award to Anonz. He predicted that the Republicans would renegotiate the troop movement deals to give some of their backers a shot at some of the graft.
How’s this for being on the money. – Committee chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) and ranking Republican John McCain (R-AZ), along with Jim Webb (D-VA), called for an entirely new plan for basing U.S. troops in East Asia on May 11, arguing that the current plans were no longer feasible or cost effective.
They proposed halting the realignment of U.S. troops in South Korea, scaling back the plan to drastically increase the U.S. military presence on Guam, and changing the plan to relocate the controversial Futenma Air Base on Okinawa to a new facility elsewhere on the island.
June 17th, 2011 at 5:10 pm
How to Comfort a Bereaved Friend or Relative
Fran Dorf
Thirty years after her son’s death, my friend still smarts when she remembers all the people who pointed out how lucky she was to have two other children.
Another friend, whose brother recently died, grumbles that everyone keeps telling her it will get better with time.
Having received my share of insensitive, even hurtful, comments after my son, Michael, died 13 years ago, I certainly understand. Even people with good intentions often say and do the wrong thing.
If you want to comfort a grieving friend or relative, your primary task is to validate his/her feelings. Don’t say anything that minimizes those feelings — which, in effect, “de-legitimizes” them.
WHAT NOT TO DO
I’ve found that “de-legitimizers” can be divided into six categories…
Babblers. These people chatter on about the weather, a friend who had a heart attack and so on. But ignoring the elephant in the room just makes it bigger.
Advice-givers. People often give advice, such as, “Start dating again”… “take a long vacation”… “concentrate on your other children”… “it’s time to get over it”… “remember the good times.”
But when we hear this advice, we may interpret it as, “What’s wrong with you? If only you would take my wise counsel, you’d feel better.”
I remember that people advised me to take a sedative, but somehow I knew that I needed to shed a certain number of tears (more than I could ever have imagined) and that it would be counterproductive to try to mask my pain with medication.
Platitude-offerers. When you spout clichés, such as, “God must have wanted him… he’s in a better place,” the bereaved may feel offended.
You may prefer to believe God must have wanted him, but the bereaved person may hate God at the moment and thus feel de-legitimized for feeling what he feels.
Pseudo-empathizers. It’s particularly distressing for those experiencing “high grief” — for example, from the loss of a child — to hear, “I know just how you feel.” If you haven’t experienced the same loss, you have no idea how a person feels — and maybe not even then.
Lesson-learners. There may be profound lessons to be learned from tragedy, but it’s best to let others learn them in their own time and ways.
Don’t say, “Everything happens for a reason”… “We must learn to appreciate our lives”… or “Life is short.”
Abandoners. Whatever the conscious or unconscious rationalizations — such as fear of saying the wrong thing or feeling uncomfortable in the face of grief — if you walk away from a friend who needs you, you’re probably walking away from the friendship permanently.
HOW TO HELP
Take your cues from the bereaved person. If he’s sitting quietly, sit quietly beside him. If he’s using humor to cope, laugh a little.
Let the grieving person tell his/her story in as much detail as he chooses to, even if he repeats it and it’s hard to hear. It helps the bereaved to tell and retell the story. If you’re not sure how to respond, try simply, “I’m so sorry” or even, “I don’t know what to say.”
Read a book on grief. You honor your bereaved friend by learning all you can. Good books include A Good Friend for Bad Times (Augsburg Fortress) by Deborah Bowen and Susan Strickler, and I Wasn’t Ready to Say Goodbye (Sourcebooks) by Pamela Blair and Brook Noel. Or search on-line for information about grief under “grief” or “bereavement.”
Acknowledge the deceased person. Tell a wonderful anecdote about him. Even now, I am grateful when someone mentions my son, Michael. Just saying his name aloud brings him back into the world.
Contact the bereaved on significant days — birthdays, death days, anniversaries. These are difficult, especially “firsts.” Don’t avoid, ignore or forget them.
Offer practical and specific support. Pick up the kids from school… cook a meal… mow the lawn. Don’t say, “Is there anything I can do?” or “Call me if you need me.” Decide what you can do, and then do it.
Stay in touch. Remember that when the formal mourning period is over and the last casserole is gone, the bereaved is still grieving. Continue to call and get together.
Banish the word “closure” from your vocabulary. There is no such thing, and who would want it anyway? We incorporate our losses into our lives.
Psychologists have proposed many ways to describe how we find a way to live with loss, but the one I find most useful is that we must “reinvest” in a new reality.
In memory of my son, I eventually wrote a novel. Also, my husband and I established an educational program for toddlers with special needs. But reinvestment can be private, too, revealed in a change in priorities, attitudes, interests or goals.
Meet us where we are. Don’t have expectations. Don’t compare one grief to another. Remember that grief may take years to work through. Be prepared for tears, moaning, sighing, wailing, trembling, even screaming.
Don’t take anger personally. Psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s classic five stages of grief — denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance — come not in stages but in circles and waves like a roller coaster.
The best definition of compassion I’ve ever found is a Buddhist one — “Compassion is willingness to be close to suffering.”
Grief support takes work, stamina and commitment. Be present. Be humble. Be patient. Observe. Reflect. Allow silence. Don’t judge. Accept. Listen.
Personal interviewed Fran Dorf, author of the novels Saving Elijah (Putnam), inspired by the loss of her son, Michael, and Flight (Vivisphere).
She holds a master’s degree in psychology and conducts “writing for healing” workshops to help people cope with their losses, Stamford, Connecticut. http://www.frandorf.com.
June 18th, 2011 at 9:59 am
AARP has not changed its position on Social Security – period.
In fact, we’re fighting right now to stop Congress from cutting your Social Security and Medicare benefits as part of a deal to pay the nation’s bills. Instead of cutting the benefits you’ve earned, Congress should be cutting waste and closing tax loopholes.
We will be counting on activists like you to join us in sending a message to Congress: “Cut waste, not the Medicare and Social Security we’ve earned.”
Thank you for continuing to stand with us in our fight to stop Congress from making a political deal that could cut your Social Security and Medicare benefits.
For more information about how AARP wants to strengthen Social Security for future generations, see our press release below.
Sincerely,
Fred Griesbach
AARP Campaigns
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June 19th, 2011 at 9:10 pm
As you may know, Virginia is the only state that bans the use and sale of radar detectors. There is no evidence that the radar detector ban increases highway safety. Our nation’s fatality rates have fallen consistently for almost two decades. Virginia’s fatality rate has also fallen, but not any more dramatically than it has nationwide. Research has even shown that radar detector owners have a lower accident rate than motorists who do not own a detector.
Maintaining the ban is not in the best interest of Virginians or visitors to the state. I know and know of people that will not drive in Virginia due to this ban. Unjust enforcement practices are not unheard of, and radar detectors can keep safe motorists from being exploited by abusive speed traps. Likewise, the ban has a negative impact on Virginia’s business community. Electronic distributors lose business to neighboring states and Virginia misses out on valuable sales tax revenue.
Radar detector bans do not work. Research and experience show that radar detector bans do not result in lower accident rates, improved speed-limit compliance or reduce auto insurance expenditures.
• The Virginia radar detector ban is difficult and expensive to enforce. The Virginia ban diverts precious law enforcement resources from more important duties and this ban may be ILLEGAL.
• Radar detectors are legal in the rest of the nation, in all 49 other states. In fact, the first state to test a radar detector ban, Connecticut, repealed the law – it ruled the law was ineffective and unfair. It is time for our Virginia to join the rest of the nation.
• It has never been shown that radar detectors cause accidents or even encourage motorists to drive faster than they would otherwise. The Yankelovich – Clancy – Shulman Radar Detector Study conducted in 1987, showed that radar detector users drove an average of 34% further between accidents (233,933 miles versus 174,554 miles) than non radar detector users. The study also showed that they have much higher seat belt use compliance. If drivers with radar detectors have fewer accidents, it follows that they have reduced insurance costs – it is counterproductive to ban radar detectors.
• In a similar study performed in Great Britain by MORI in 2001 the summary reports that “Users (of radar detectors) appear to travel 50% further between accidents than non-users. In this survey the users interviewed traveling on average 217,353 miles between accidents compared to 143,401 miles between accidents of those non-users randomly drawn from the general public.” The MORI study also reported “Three quarters agree, perhaps unsurprisingly, that since purchasing a radar detector they have become more conscious about keeping to the speed limit…” and “Three in five detector users claim to have become a safer driver since purchasing a detector.”
• Modern radar detectors play a significant role in preventing accidents and laying the technology foundation for the Safety Warning System® (SWS). Radar detectors with SWS alert motorists to oncoming emergency vehicles, potential road hazards, and unusual traffic conditions. There are more than 10 million radar detectors with SWS in use nationwide. The federal government has earmarked $2.1 million for further study of the SWS over a three-year period of time. The U.S. Department of Transportation is administering grants to state and local governments to purchase the SWS system and study its effectiveness (for example, in the form of SWS transmitters for school buses and emergency vehicles). The drivers of Virginia deserve the right to the important safety benefits that SWS delivers.
Please sign this petition and help to repeal this ban and give drivers in Virginia the freedom to know if they are under surveillance and to use their property legally:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/repeal-the-virginia-radar-detector-ban
Tell Friends and Family about this.
November 7th, 2011 at 12:21 am
Celebrity Gossips Online…
[...]Michelle Moquin's "A day in the life of…" » Blog Archive » Flap Your Lips Friday[...]…