Random Politics & Religion #00

Hells to the YEAH! drunk drive on down!

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

Texas DUI laws are very strict. And it compounds on any other laws you may have broken along with DUI.

So, if you get in a wreck while drunk, that's DUI plus reckless endangerment plus property damage (if property was damaged).

This claim is also associated with a few bizarre "debt elimination" scams which hold that if somebody files all the right paperwork with the government declaring themselves a sovereign citizen, they then have access to unlimited funds from the U.S. Treasury to pay off all their mortgages and other debts, similar to the theories of the redemption movement. The gist of the argument is that the Social Security Act established accounts at the U.S. Treasury for every American citizen and that declaring oneself a "sovereign citizen" gives one the legal right to issue "sight drafts" or "bills of exchange" which draw on your personal U.S. Treasury Account to pay off debts. This is not true, and those who have fallen for this scam have found the only person who gained access to any funds as a result was the scammer who charged them money to learn about this bizarre debt elimination method at his seminar.
An indication of the intellectual limitations for many members of the movement is indicated by the response of a Texas motorist to a December 4, 2008 traffic stop. "I am Texas Republican sovereignty. I do not recognize this as a legal traffic stop."[3]

But you can still suck on beer while driving right?

Holy ***, lmao.

But you can still suck on beer while driving right?

The opening credits of "Urban Cowboy" were supposed to be pure Texas: John Travolta, guiding his pickup past the Houston skyline with the steering wheel in one hand and a longneck beer in the other.

The actor, the city and the times have changed mightily in the ensuing two decades, but that beer remained legal until midnight Friday.

After more than a decade of legislative bickering, Texas has acceded to the threat of losing more federal highway construction dollars and joined most other states in banning open alcohol containers within reach of a vehicle's occupants.

"I know why they're doing it. Money talks," Houstonian Tom Hurst said. "But I think the people they want to eliminate are not going to pay any more attention to it than the man in the moon."

Hurst, 53, remembers growing up outside of San Antonio and the icehouse drive-thrus, where beer by the drink was as convenient as a Big Mac is today. While he supports many alcohol-related traffic law changes, including the tougher .08 percent blood alcohol limit, Hurst says the Legislature crossed the line this time.

"I drive a Suburban. So when we're going to a football game, it means (the law) applies to everyone in the car," Hurst said. "I totally disagree with it. It's just symbolic."

The new law makes knowingly possessing open containers in moving vehicles a misdemeanor punishable by a $500 fine. For vehicles without trunks, such as pickups, station wagons and SUVs, an open container must either be in a locked glove box or out of reach behind the last passenger seat.

Under the old law, a driver cannot be charged unless seen consuming its contents.

"It's against the law if you get caught," Bill Lewis, spokesman for the state chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said about the old law.

According to 1999 federal figures, Texas led the nation with 1,734 alcohol-related traffic deaths, comprising about half the state's total fatalities. The rate of alcohol-related deaths for the rest of the country was 32 percent.

Wendy Hamilton, vice president of MADD nationally, said 30 states have passed federally approved open-container laws while new statutes in Texas, Georgia and New Mexico are pending approval.

"The importance is the safety of everybody, not just the driver, but the passengers in the vehicle and everyone else on the road," Hamilton said from her office in Maryland, among 17 states that still allows open containers. "We need to ensure nobody has alcohol to make sure everybody is safe."

Hamilton noted that Texas already is among the states that have lowered the maximum allowable blood-alcohol level for drivers to .08 percent. Others, including New York, have not lowered it yet.

Lewis said that language that would have nullified the law if federal funding requirements are lifted was stricken, meaning it's probably on the books to stay. Now, he said, a mindset in Texas and elsewhere must change.

"I once heard someone from New Mexico call a drive to Texas a two-sixpack trip," said Lewis, who hopes young drivers hear the message early enough so their cupholders remain booze-free.

The federal threat had minimal impact on passage of the law, Lewis said. Fred Hill, the Republican who has pushed the law for a decade, disagreed.

"I believe the bill probably would not have passed if not for the fact that $80 million in highway construction funds was going to be (diverted) if it had not passed," Hill said.

While several states lagged Texas in banning open containers, Hill said it was "ridiculous" the state leading the nation in alcohol-related traffic deaths took so long to act.

"This law begins to finally say Texas has had enough," Hill said.

At The Strip in Lubbock, the closest row of liquor stores to the partially dry city, 45-year-old Charles Dement said Texans who carried open containers in their vehicles this week will do it next week, too.

"If people want to do it, they're going to do it regardless of the law," Dement said before driving off, a 12-pack at his side.

Well, haven't studies found texting and driving to be as bad or worse (idk, but I'm sure someone does) than drunk driving?

I don't wanna take a cab to text!

Text at a red light,

That says you can't be intoxicated and does not answer the question.

You used to be able to drink a beer while driving in Texas. That one on the road was called a roadie. I remember a campagin to try to get rid of it. It was defeated. The theme song for the opposition was "Please don't take my roadie away" to the tune of "Please don't take my sunshine away."

I think it was in the 1980s. I can find no reference to the campagin, the song, or that use of the word with a quick search.

Sec. 49.031. POSSESSION OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE IN MOTOR VEHICLE. (a) In this section:
(1) "Open container" means a bottle, can, or other receptacle that contains any amount of alcoholic beverage and that is open, that has been opened, that has a broken seal, or the contents of which are partially removed.
(2) "Passenger area of a motor vehicle" means the area of a motor vehicle designed for the seating of the operator and passengers of the vehicle. The term does not include:
(A) a glove compartment or similar storage container that is locked;
(B) the trunk of a vehicle; or
(C) the area behind the last upright seat of the vehicle, if the vehicle does not have a trunk.
(3) "Public highway" means the entire width between and immediately adjacent to the boundary lines of any public road, street, highway, interstate, or other publicly maintained way if any part is open for public use for the purpose of motor vehicle travel. The term includes the right-of-way of a public highway.
(b) A person commits an offense if the person knowingly possesses an open container in a passenger area of a motor vehicle that is located on a public highway, regardless of whether the vehicle is being operated or is stopped or parked. Possession by a person of one or more open containers in a single criminal episode is a single offense.
(c) It is an exception to the application of Subsection (b) that at the time of the offense the defendant was a passenger in:
(1) the passenger area of a motor vehicle designed, maintained, or used primarily for the transportation of persons for compensation, including a bus, taxicab, or limousine; or
(2) the living quarters of a motorized house coach or motorized house trailer, including a self-contained camper, a motor home, or a recreational vehicle.
(d) An offense under this section is a Class C misdemeanor.
(e) A peace officer charging a person with an offense under this section, instead of taking the person before a magistrate, shall issue to the person a written citation and notice to appear that contains the time and place the person must appear before a magistrate, the name and address of the person charged, and the offense charged. If the person makes a written promise to appear before the magistrate by signing in duplicate the citation and notice to appear issued by the officer, the officer shall release the person.

Added by Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 969, Sec. 2, eff. Sept. 1, 2001.

If you absolutely HAVE to text for some reason when you're in a car, do it at a red light so you don't kill sometime

is what I meant

No, you can't have an open container of alcohol in your car.

some dude was trying to convince me that it was legal to kill a guy that is bumping uglies with your wife, as long as it's your house, in tejas. I laughed.