Carlson's Daily Caller debuts with casual joke about rape
January 11, 2010 2:54 pm ET by Media Matters staff
In a January 11 column titled "Ask Matt Labash" posted on Tucker Carlson's newly launched website, The Daily Caller, Labash compares automatic speeding tickets to legalized rape, complete with a reference to Rohypnol. In response to a submitted question "Pick three government programs you would eliminate. Why?", Labash writes:
Legalized rape. What's that you say? Rape isn't sanctioned in this country? Then you must not live in a city with red-light or speed cameras, where it happens every day. Forget for a second that in one-fourth of all automated ticket cases, the ticketed car owner wasn't the one actually driving the vehicle at the time of the infraction (what other crime-fighting technology do we consider reliable that nabs the wrong person 25 percent of the time?) Just as heinous is that every year, more and more municipal governments pretend that they plant these all-seeing menaces in the interest of "safety." Yet every year, their revenues tend to increase from the very same technology. Meaning that the only deterrent effect the technology has is deterring your government from being honest about raping its own citizenry. If you're going to slide me a roofie, Government, at least take me to dinner and a movie first.
Doesn't Labash know about Carlson's own false-accusation nightmare? I don't think I'd have any sense of humor about it if I'd been through that.
I made this as a reply because you're right; the best way to avoid tickets is to comply with traffic laws. I thought this was the law-and-order, tough-on-crime party?
So if you let someone use your car and they run a red light you deserved the ticket?
Personally, i really think all ticketing should start with an actual officer. There was study done a while back that showed interaction with a cop changes most persons driving habits for up to six months after the interaction.
If you are asking whether it is fair to get a ticket for speeding, when you weren't driving, I think most people would agree with you but; point out that it is a specious aurgument. If you don't want to pay speeding tickets, because of someone else, don't lend out your car.
The law isn't supposed to be used in a lot of ways that it is, doesn't change what happens in real life.
I don't like forfeiture laws, because I believe that instead of helping to stop crime, they have become an asset realization tool for law enforcement.
If it's someone you trust, and they get a ticket for running a red light, wouldn't you trust them to do the right thing and pay for it?
If you don't have enough faith in someone's integrity to do that, then you probably shouldn't be loaning them your car...
The fact is that these red-light cameras reduce traffic violations and accidents, and I think that's a good thing. The speeding vans, I disagree with, because (at least in my city) it is a private company contracted by the government, and the motivation is not safety but money. And they haven't been proven as effective. But the red-light cameras I'm all for.
Traffic cams do not reduce accidents. A longer delay between light changes does, but doesn’t produce revenue. So guess which one gets used.
My main point is that in criminal cases the burden of proof is on the state. When you use a traffic cam you are shifting that burden to the citizen. Not being able the driver is well within the reasonable doubt standards set by our courts.
Traffic cams do not reduce accidents. A longer delay between light changes does, but doesn’t produce revenue. So guess which one gets used.
My main point is that in criminal cases the burden of proof is on the state. When you use a traffic cam you are shifting that burden to the citizen. Not being able the driver is well within the reasonable doubt standards set by our courts.
Rape is just like losing a game.
Rape is just like any other minor inconvenience, and perfectly okie dokie if you paid for it in advance with dinner and a movie.
Do you think it odd that the peeps who spout this propaganda line are those who have very little chance of experiencing what they joke about?
I do not.
Hell, we finance an entire justice system that sends the wrong person to the death chamber 25% of the time. Paying a fine is minor league by comparison.