Monthly Archives: December 2011

From Bill Turner comes this about this link I posted…

Back on Dec. 27 you posted a link to a blog posting arguing against any ban on using a cell phone while driving. The major point of that post was that it dismissed the case against it as based solely on anecdotes. To be fair, you might want to include a link to this article talking about the suppression of the very real evidence of how harmful this is. And if you spend a minute looking, you'll also find plenty of scientific research on "multitasking" with the vast preponderance of the evidence showing that people don't really multitask, we switch back and forth among tasks with considerable loss of efficiency (and that's brain processing efficiency) when doing so.

I find the anti-cell-phone-ban arguments to be strikingly like the anti-global warming arguments: if it would mean I can't do something I want to do, I won't look at your evidence no matter what, you're just wrong, that's all, because obviously the world was designed for my personal convenience or profit. It's much easier to assert that the "evidence" is false, anecdotal, a conspiracy, whatever, than to admit that I'm doing something harmful to others.

In fact, the comments on the article I gave the link to are pretty much all of this nature. Mostly people either want no ban, or a ban against everything except what they personally do, because what they do is safe/necessary/economically important/whatever.

I don't doubt that cell phone usage makes auto accidents more likely and I'd like to know more about "how likely" and how it's determined that a given crash was caused by someone being on their phone. While I didn't go through every line of the 266 page report listed, it does make the point repeatedly that any driver distraction increases the likelihood of a collision and I'd like to know more about how cell phone usage stacks up against distractions like listening to the radio, talking to a passenger and eating the fries you bought at the In-N-Out drive-thru.

The report also suggests that drivers not use cell phones except in an emergency and that strikes me as a pretty useless way to discuss the topic. If we pass a law that says you can only use a cell phone in case of an emergency, we're going to have to define what constitutes an emergency. Being lost? Being late? How about if I need to call Sergio and tell him to send me some info I need right away or Groo may be a day late? Is that an emergency?

I'm not trying to be evasive here. Yeah, cell phones make driving more dangerous. And since we've all had a taste of how convenient they can be in normal life, you're not going to ban them unless a pretty strong case can be made that they're worse than a lot of things, like listening to audio books, that no one wants to ban. I'd also love to hear how such a ban could be enforced. What do the countries that do have such a ban do? Do they prohibit other distractions? I don't think this report should have been suppressed. It should have been taken seriously and triggered more research. But a proper case for a ban has not yet been made.

You may be familiar with David Feldman, who does a very funny podcast that's also heard on some N.P.R. channels. If you're not familiar with him, here's a good time to start. His New Year's Eve program features Laraine Newman, June Foray, Paul F. Tompkins, Paul Dooley, Rick Overton, Frank Conniff, Mark Thompson, Will Ryan and Chris Pina. Some very funny sketches in there.

That version includes a truncated version of the conversation with June Foray. He's also posted the whole interview and it's quite good.

I don't care much about the Iowa Caucus and three or four days after it's over, no one else is likely to care much about it. But after I posted the previous message, I got this from my pal Vince Waldron…

On the other hand, I think Obama's surprising showing in Iowa in 2008 was the single most important turn in his candidacy. As I recall, the sentiment before then, even among black voters, was that a black candidate didn't have a chance so why even bother campaigning for the guy. Obama's upset in Iowa definitely cost Hillary momentum in the subsequent primaries, when his grasp of the democratic spot was secured.

He's right…and I suppose if Rick Santorum won next week in a landslide, that would turn him into the frontrunner, at least until the next primary-type event. But four years ago, it was genuine news that a black guy could do so well in Iowa. It's not going to be the same kind of news that any of the Republican contenders score well…and the winner is not going to win with 37% like Obama did. It'll be more like 25%.

I actually would be curious about any polling on the enthusiasm of the G.O.P. voters for the candidates. I sure get the sense that most of them are going "eenie meenie mitey mitt" and that the Newt backers of this week are the Perry voters of next week and vice-versa. They're just waiting for one contender to break away from the herd and then they'll all fall in line behind that person…and then their enthusiasm for that person will have everything to do with how likely the polls say it is that that person can beat Obama. There are Republicans who don't trust Mormons or think a given candidate is soft on Immigration or something…but when it comes time for the real vote, electability will trump (no pun intended) all other concerns for most of them. The one exception is that I don't think most of those supporting Ron Paul will think that one of the others is an acceptable substitute. A lot of them would rather lose with Paul than win with Mitt or Newt.

And let me share this e-mail from Dennis Lynch, who lives in Iowa…

As a resident of Iowa, I can tell you exactly what the important outcomes of the caucus will be: The temporary abatement of local political advertising (at least 10 for each 30 minute show), an end to robocalls, polls and political activists, and a break from coming up with new cuss words. You can only scream "liar" and "Shithead" so often.

I suspect this election will prove there is no limit.

There's late breaking news in the mystery surrounding the death of the chimpanzee alleged to be Cheetah from the Tarzan movies. Film at eleven.

A lot of guys my age were influenced to get involved in cars and/or cartooning by the work of the late Ed "Big Daddy" Roth. I wasn't one of them but there was a time back in school when I was asked by about half the campus to draw Roth's signature character, Rat Fink, on their book covers. Now that I think of it, I'm surprised no one has really merchandised the heck out of that weird-looking rodent. Anyway, it's been ten years since "Big Daddy" left us and his son has some nice remembrances.