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No joke: Feds are banning humorous electronic messages on highways
- ceejayoz 3y agoI think this is silly. That said... > “Why are you trying to have the federal government come in and tell us what we can do in our own state? Prime example that the federal government is not focusing on what they need to be.” My guy, you're welcome to decline Federal highway funding.
- prometheus76 3y agoMy guy, this is called extortion.
- ceejayoz 3y agoThere's extensive legal jurisprudence saying otherwise, including in the specific case of interstate highway funding. (As pointed out elsewhere in the comments; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Minimum_Drinking_Age_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Minimum_Drinking_Age_... / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Dakota_v._Dole https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Dakota_v._Dole)
- tshaddox 3y agoI don’t really see how “I’ll give you money to build roads as long as you don’t put silly signs on those roads” counts as extortion.
- ed312 3y agoIn practical terms this is like saying "you're welcome to decline food". Part of the argument for limiting federal government in the first place is to prevent this kind of arm twisting.
- ceejayoz 3y ago> In practical terms this is like saying "you're welcome to decline food". And that's true. Federal road funding for highways comes with some specific regulations and conditions, on signage, minimum bridge heights, etc. To extend the food analogy, if someone's gifting you free food, it's probably a bit rude to complain you don't like the parsley garnish.
- Spivak 3y agoThis misses the point, you can't actually decline this funding. The federal government taxes it out of your state and then gives it back to you with conditions sidestepping the fact it would be brazenly unconstitutional for the federal government to institute these rules directly. Trump poked the bear with this one by trying to withhold unrelated federal funding to sanctuary cities and Obama got made folks really mad when he tried it with the ACA.
- ceejayoz 3y agoYou absolutely can. States did exactly that with Medicaid expansion funding; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicaid_coverage_gap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicaid_coverage_gap This would be an even bigger waste than that, given the relatively small condition being applied, but opting out for ideological reasons is clearly doable.
- Spivak 3y agoYou're making a thing that's grey out to be black and white. You can impose conditions on money that is deemed by a court to actually be feasible to decline which is why medicaid expansion was ruled constitutional but tying those conditions to medicaid funding in its entirety would have likely been slapped down based on the opinions after the case. And with this court who has an axe to grind with expansion of federal power I expect the bar is much lower now.
- toomuchtodo 3y agoThere is value in discussing when the federal government is potentially overstepping.
- ceejayoz 3y agoI'm very curious about whether this new rule stems from accident data near the funny signs, and I wish the article had dug into that question a bit.
- toomuchtodo 3y agoFOIA request? :) https://www.muckrock.com/ https://www.muckrock.com/ Enable crowdfund mode for the request and I'll pay the $5.
- calvinmorrison 3y agoPaid for by citizens in your state. My guy you're free to decline conscription and impressment and the draft. You'll just end up dead or in jail!
- ceejayoz 3y agoNo, you're not free to decline conscription. You'd go to jail. Similarly, "free speech" doesn't mean you can't be fired for it, but it does mean you can't be criminally punished for it. Nothing in the Constitution requires the Federal government to pay for a state's highways.
- calvinmorrison 3y agoThe federal government doesn't pay for anything, the citizens do
- ceejayoz 3y agoIf you're going to take that approach, said citizens elected successive governments that set up and sustained the regulatory regime that leads us right back to this point.
- calvinmorrison 3y agoThe gun points one way
- acadapter 3y agoWhich is paid for by an outflow of money in the form of taxes (of various types)
- mschuster91 3y ago> My guy, you're welcome to decline Federal highway funding. Everyone keeps blathering about "states rights"... but these have been moot ever since the Minimum Drinking Age Act, in which the federal government got its way by what is essentially extortion [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Minimum_Drinking_Age_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Minimum_Drinking_Age_...
- m348e912 3y ago>My guy, you're welcome to decline Federal highway funding. Wait until you see what happens if universal basic income becomes a thing.
- ceejayoz 3y agoSome states declined the ACA's Medicaid expansion, at great cost to their citizens. I'd fully expect some to do the same with UBI if administered in similarly state-managed but Federally-funded fashion.
- lukas099 3y agoI agree, and there is great value in standardizing traffic control devices across state lines.
- tomohawk 3y agoThey ought to ban overly long messages that require being broken up into multiple flashing parts, or any other flashing of the signs, or any overly bright luminence of the signs. I've seen so many traffic jams caused by flashing signs, overly bright signs that get too much attention, or multi part messages that people get distracted by.
- lukas099 3y agoYeah, the worst it’s when you see the message change and have to wait for it to change back. Takes a lot of brain cycles away from driving.
- __s 3y ago"hands on the wheel, not your meal" is concise & slogans have a ring to them, there's a reason political campaigns want simple slogans to stick in someone's mind
- jawns 3y agoIt's about time! I have been a curmudgeon about this ever since I saw my first "To the left, to the left / Passing only in the lane to the left." Not only are these signs not that funny, but they're likely to be confusing to lots of people -- immigrants, the elderly, those who aren't up on pop culture and have no idea that it's a nod to a Beyoncé song. Road signs should be clear and direct. Traffic officials should save their lame attempts at humor for their social media accounts.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- nomilk 3y ago> those who aren’t up on pop culture Same reason I dislike google doodles; not only am I not up on pop culture, I very much don’t want to be.
- lukas099 3y agoAt least you can click on a doodle and get the context
- itsoktocry 3y ago>Same reason I dislike google doodles; not only am I not up on pop culture, I very much don’t want to be. "I don't own a TV" Google doodles are hardly "pop culture"; they often honour scientists, artists etc. The point is to raise awareness. Seems like a strange thing to outwardly "dislike".
- nomilk 3y agoAn interest in science and art is not something most of us need to be reminded about; it’s the default. At best doodles are mildly informative, but mostly they’re patronising distractions.
- ceejayoz 3y ago> An interest in science and art is not something most of us need to be reminded about; it’s the default. It really isn't.