The Case for Banning Life Jackets - a graphic

[ehrnst]

[ehrnst]

1. I've heard this argument used about first aid kits and seat belts

But this one really gets to the heart of the inconsistencies in their arguments.

[Posteritatis]

10. This really isn't talking about flotation devices. (nt)

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. This isn't about life jackets.

It's about birth control, abortion and rape. And very well done.

[randome]

30. Can also be applied to the whole idea of a social safety net.

Good post, ehrnst!

[coldbeer]

21. seat belts?

I know of three accidents where the driver
lived only because they were not wearing
seat belts. They were badly injured but lived
and cost the insurance company boo-koo
dollars. Seat belts are for minor accidents.
If they died on impact the insurance company
would have saved money. I wear my seat belt
only because it is the law and have often thought
about having in my will a stipulation to sue my
state in case I die beause I wore a seat belt.

[nichomachus]

24. Apparently, you've never seen someone ejected from a car accident

I can tell you from personal experience that it isn't pretty.

I've seen lots of car accidents and I've never seen one where a person lived because they weren't wearing a seatbelt.

If you are in a car traveling 60 mph, you are traveling 60 mph also. If the car stops suddenly, you are still traveling 60 mph. Unrestrained you become a flying object going one mile per minute. Inside or outside a vehicle, the results of that aren't very pretty.

[coldbeer]

39. I was and damned near died

long time ago. I still feel injuries forty years later.
I would not have been injured if I was buckled up.

Two accidents I am very aware of in later years
involve persons ejected from their cars and the cars
then hitting abutments (immovable objects). The cars
were destroyed. A seatbelt was useless.

Another accident was a lady lost control on an icy
road and went sideways into another vehicle. She
was pushed into the passenger door (she was hit
on the driver's door) and had she been wearing a
seat belt she would have been killed.

These accidents were all the drivers fault.

My point is making seat belts a law is hypocritical.
We should require drivers to wear helmets.

[digonswine]

25. I say BS-

How do you know? How would anyone know?
This tripe usually comes in the form where one "hears" that the cop on the scene said the person would be dead if wearing a seat belt.
I doubt this ever happened, and again, how would he know?

[Diclotican]

31. coldbeer

coldbeer

And I can tell you a story, that I personally would not be here, if it was NOT for the seatbelt - who kept my at least safest han true the wind shield when I crashed with a big ugly truck... The car was a wreck - I broke a little bone - and I could walk out of the car, more or less unharmed from that experience..

If I had not been keeping my seat belts on - I would more than possible have been in a grave, dead.. It was a nasty accident - and I could have been worse...

Diclotican

[barbtries]

32. i've never known of any accident

where not wearing a seat belt saved a life. but even if has happened, it doesn't compare to the 11,000 lives saved every year by seat belts.
http://www.nhtsa.gov/people/injury/airbags/seatbelt%20broch%20web/nonpolice.html

i never wore a seat belt until it became a law, but i was young and stupid then. now i always buckle up and make sure everyone in the car has done so as well.

[unblock]

35. good lord what hole did you crawl out of? i haven't heard this argument in decades!

if you're really, really concerned about an accident where you're in MORE danger because of getting stuck in a seat belt, just keep a pocket knife handy so you can cut the strap. the overwhelming majority of times, a seatbelt is helpful.

beyond that, airbags are designed to work with seatbelts, and your risk of spinal injury (nevermind death, of course) is increased when an airbag deploys while not wearing a seatbelt.

[slackmaster]

27. Also fire extinguishers

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/115014-extinguishers-banned-as-a-fire-safety-hazard

[Skidmore]

2. I'd use one in an emergency because I can't swim

otherwise, I try to stay away from going into water other than in my bathtub.

[ehrnst]

3. The logic used by the antis would claim that the existence of life jackets

prevented you from wanting to learn to swim.

[freshwest]

7. Good point and love your signature line.

[tridim]

4. Or just get rid of all the water. Easy peasy.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

15. Luckily, the water is rising. Soon we can swim in the NY subways.

Think of the fun that the third rail can offer!

[Sekhmets Daughter]

23. I just read

something about NYC already beginning work on the subway system so it won't flood when the oceans rise.

[barbtries]

33. sadly here in NC

the republicans have simply outlawed global warming, or at any rate a reasonable and realistic approach to it.
http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2012/06/legislating-sea-level-rise.html

[mindwalker_i]

5. If you use a life jacket, you're going against God's will

Maybe the Allmighty (tm) had plans for you, and you fucked them up. Nice going!

[justabob]

18. reminds me of an old joke

This isn't the one I remember, but it is very close:

A religious man is on top of a roof during a great flood. A man comes by in a boat and says "get in, get in!" The religous man replies, " no I have faith in God, he will grant me a miracle."

Later the water is up to his waist and another boat comes by and the guy tells him to get in again. He responds that he has faith in god and god will give him a miracle. With the water at about chest high, another boat comes to rescue him, but he turns down the offer again cause "God will grant him a miracle."

With the water at chin high, a helicopter throws down a ladder and they tell him to get in, mumbling with the water in his mouth, he again turns down the request for help for the faith of God. He arrives at the gates of heaven with broken faith and says to Peter, I thought God would grand me a miracle and I have been let down." St. Peter chuckles and responds, "I don't know what you're complaining about, we sent you three boats and a helicopter."

The one I am thinking of was a boating accident with a survivor clinging to debris waiting for a miracle and instead of a helo with a ladder, it is a coast guard cutter.

[gollygee]

6. Add a few nasty names to call people who like swimming and boating

and it's right there.

[rhett o rick]

8. Great, but too subtle for the gullibles. nm

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

12. Yup, even here. It's *not* about flotation devices, folks...

[Ineeda]

22. Amazing, isn't it? N/T

[KauaiK]

9. BRAVO!!! Applause Applause

This is brilliant It should be made into a televised ad.

[lunatica]

13. Yup. Makes just as much sense as banning birth control

[EvolveOrConvolve]

14. Bravo!

[heaven05]

16. this

made me LOL!

[defacto7]

17. lol

[AlbertCat]

19. The only thing is....

.... when it comes to swimming/ boating..... you don't have millions of years of evolution and raging hormones telling you to go boating.

[unblock]

36. well, i know more than a few boaters who really do seem to have some primal urge to sail....

[ehrnst]

38. Yes, however, in evolutionary terms

no one needs to go into water over your head in order to continue the existence of the species.

[obxhead]

20. Rec 100

I hope you get another 1000 of them for this posting.

[patrice]

26. K&R = Girl howdy! isn't THAT the truth in so many many more ways than just one!!!

[markpkessinger]

28. Yup. "Moral Hazard" and all that. n/t

[WinstonSmith4740]

29. I'm teaching Health this year.

This poster will be going up in my classroom.

It's been a while since I've been at the front of a Health class, and Sex Ed is required. Our curriculum is abstinence based, but we will be covering effective means of birth control. When we had our Open House, I explained this to the parents. The way I covered the issue was like this. "Sex Education is not teaching your kids how to have sex; they already know how. But ask yourself this. We all know that teen-agers want to drive. They're going to learn about it somehow. Would you rather your kids learn how to drive from their 16 year old friends, or from you and me?" So far, I haven't had one parent tell me they don't want their kid getting this information.

Parents aren't the ones standing in the way of their kids' education in this subject. They know ideally they should be doing it, but most parents can't broach the subject comfortably, so they're pretty grateful their kids will get the right info. The RW crazies are the only ones who think the proper answer to this question is ignorance.

[ehrnst]

37. As Surgeon General Satcher said about sex ed:

" We tell kids, "Don't drink. But if you do drink, don't drink and drive."

[TeamPooka]

34. k+r!

[Liberal_in_LA]

40. wow. that's powerful.