{"id":942,"date":"2010-10-01T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-10-01T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=942"},"modified":"2016-05-11T12:27:57","modified_gmt":"2016-05-11T16:27:57","slug":"today-begins-the-first-step","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=942","title":{"rendered":"Today Begins the First Step"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_yytsDp42pSs\/TKXgCi4TWmI\/AAAAAAAACkI\/5xsxNUwv1IY\/s1600\/texting.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_yytsDp42pSs\/TKXgCi4TWmI\/AAAAAAAACkI\/5xsxNUwv1IY\/s200\/texting.jpg?resize=197%2C200\" width=\"197\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;\">Today, October 1, my home state of Maryland <u>finally<\/u> begins moving in the right direction by having a law take effect that prohibits talking on a hand-held cell phone while driving.&nbsp; You&#8217;d think this is a no-brainer, and the law would have passed long ago.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;\">The new law is weak and requires much work.&nbsp; For example, unlike in California, a cop can&#8217;t stop someone just for yakking on a cell phone.&nbsp; He\/she has to see the driver commit another infraction and stop them for that before a citation for a meager $40 is given for the yakking infraction.&nbsp; Further, the penalty is way too low.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_yytsDp42pSs\/TKXgFlYIzFI\/AAAAAAAACkM\/RLxSnSw_BEI\/s1600\/no-cell-phone-sign.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_yytsDp42pSs\/TKXgFlYIzFI\/AAAAAAAACkM\/RLxSnSw_BEI\/s200\/no-cell-phone-sign.jpg?resize=149%2C200\" width=\"149\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;\">Texting while driving has been against the law in my home state for over a year, yet I haven&#8217;t seen it enforced nor make any difference.&nbsp; I see people texting while driving all the time.&nbsp; Scary!&nbsp; Us motorcyclists have enough to worry about ignorant drivers who don&#8217;t see us anyway than to worry about their distractions causing them not to see us.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;\">What is it that talking on a phone all the time is so critical?&nbsp; I promise you, the world will NOT end if you let a call go to voice mail, or if you have to take a few minutes to pull over to a parking lot to place a call that is important to you at the time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;\">I am <a href=\"http:\/\/bootedharleydude.blogspot.com\/2009\/04\/missing-my-riding-buddy.html\">remembering my friend who died<\/a> while out riding his motorcycle and was creamed by a cell-phone-yakking yuppie.&nbsp; His children and all of his friends and family still miss him very much. &nbsp; <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;\">Life is short:&nbsp; hang up and drive!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today, October 1, my home state of Maryland finally begins moving in the right direction by having a law take effect that prohibits talking on a hand-held cell phone while driving.&nbsp; You&#8217;d think this is a no-brainer, and the law &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=942\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home-life"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}