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- Path: sparky!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!biosci!agate!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!cleveland.Freenet.Edu!cs737
- From: cs737@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (John B. Baron)
- Newsgroups: alt.privacy
- Subject: Re: Op-ed piece on telephone Caller ID
- Message-ID: <1jr6ilINNej1@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu>
- Date: 23 Jan 93 10:27:33 GMT
- Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
- Lines: 44
- NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu
-
-
- rjwade@rainbow.ecn.purdue.edu (Robert J. Wade)
-
- has read:
-
- > How do you feel about being forced to have a license plate on
- > any motor vehicle you drive? I don't view it is an act of
- > Big Brother looking down on us. I just see it as a necessary
- > thing which serves to protect all of us.
- >
-
- and says in response:
-
- >> huh...how does a license plate protect us? i think the
- >> purpose of plates is to get money...period! what if the gov
- >> required you to wear a plate around your neck when you walked
- >> in public so they could...uh...protect us all??
-
- and now for clarification I reply:
-
- Let's say you get run over by a white Honda Accord and the
- driver doesn't stop, but thankfully you'll live to post again.
- Could you identify which of the zillions of white Honda Accords
- plowed into you? If you saw the license plate, the government
- can hopefully find the inconsiderate driver that did the
- hit-and-run so your lawyer can get you $12.8 million over your
- lifetime. :-)
-
- Now if I just stole from you the $100 that your lawyer let you
- keep (sorry, law people, just a joke) because I need to buy
- lots of caffeine tablets to stay up late at night posting to
- this fine group, you could probably identify me, assuming there
- aren't lots of other people with the good or bad luck of
- looking just like me. !8-\
-
- Summary: license plates protect us by allowing us to identify
- those who might do us harm with their vehicles. Unlike
- people on foot, cars tend to look a lot more alike, and
- with the possible exception of my car, they can run
- away a lot faster. :-(
-
- Thanks for the question.
-
- John
-