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CRIME AGAINST NATURE

When eco-criminals attack:

In California, hybrid vehicles can use the carpool lane even if there’s only one person in the car. All you have to do is send in a form and $8 to the Department of Motor Vehicles, and it sends you the proper stickers for your car ...

Problem is, the program is cut off at 85,000 cars - a limit that must have been reached, if what happened to my Prius is any indication.

Recently, somebody stole our stickers. And, since the stickers are useful only to hybrid owners, it could mean only one thing: we were the victims of liberal-on-liberal crime.

The next development: liberal-on-liberal vigilante justice.

(Via Chris S.)

UPDATE. On other criminal matters, Skeeter emails:

As a 72-year-old, I enjoyed this account of wrinklies dealing with muggers at Limon, Costa Rica.

After killing one of the muggers, and scaring the other two off, the wrinklies were allowed by police to return to their ship and continue on their cruise.

What would have happened to the aged self-defenders if it had happened in Oz?

Good question.

Posted by Tim B. on 02/24/2007 at 02:47 AM
  1. Liberal-on-liberal vigilante justice?  Would that be a strongly worded letter to the editor?

    We the undersigned condemn in the strongest possible terms the “borrowing” of hybrid stickers. . .

    Posted by tabitharuth on 2007 02 24 at 03:02 AM • permalink

  2. They’ll send them to the Gulags. But with Warmening, the gulags will have become gluglags.

    Posted by blogstrop on 2007 02 24 at 03:02 AM • permalink

  3. Nothing makes sense like letting a car that gets *worse* mileage at high speeds into the fast lane.

    I live in a retarded state

    Posted by Kevin on 2007 02 24 at 03:17 AM • permalink

  4. Damn, looks like more criminals without scruples!  Is this a trend?

    Posted by Steve Skubinna on 2007 02 24 at 03:18 AM • permalink

  5. And, since the stickers are useful only to hybrid owners, it could mean only one thing: we were the victims of liberal-on-liberal crime.

    Actually, the stickers allow the CHP to quickly identify a vehicle in the HOV lane as being a hybrid.  They are big, reflective, yellow and come in threes.  I’d love to get them for my non-hybrid, saves the worry of getting a $300+ if I get caught in the HOV lane solo.

    Posted by profeti on 2007 02 24 at 03:19 AM • permalink

  6. You just cannot make this stuff up…

    They let a badly built dodgy third rate car with a pissy little 80HP engine into the FAST lane? Only way to be fast in a Prius is to be into recreational chemicals.

    MarkL
    canberra

    Posted by MarkL on 2007 02 24 at 03:21 AM • permalink

  7. Nothing makes sense like letting a car that gets *worse* mileage at high speeds into the fast lane.

    I live in a retarded state

    Not a problem since the bastards never go over 50MPH.

    Retarded is:
    * Closing down a lane to 90% of traffic, during rush hour.
    * That lane being the fast lane

    If I ever find out who is responsible for inventing HOV lanes… May God have mercy on them and their progeny.  I sure as hell won’t.

    Posted by profeti on 2007 02 24 at 03:37 AM • permalink

  8. Liberal on Liberal. Is that like ‘girl on girl’? Probably not.

    Posted by Nic on 2007 02 24 at 04:11 AM • permalink

  9. HOV lane.

    High Occupancy Vehicle lane.

    Thank you Mr Google.

    Serves us right for talking about cricket, I suppose.

    Posted by Pedro the Ignorant on 2007 02 24 at 04:14 AM • permalink

  10. But how do you steal a sticker once it’s stuck?

    Is this proof that liberals lick windows?

    Posted by RexW on 2007 02 24 at 04:49 AM • permalink

  11. Wouldn’t bumper-stickers adversely affect the drag coefficient?  There might be some eco-purpose to this vandalism…

    Posted by anthony_r on 2007 02 24 at 05:08 AM • permalink

  12. Profeti:

    If I ever find out who is responsible for inventing HOV lanes… May God have mercy on them and their progeny.  I sure as hell won’t.

    Needless to say, I feel your pain.

    Posted by Ed Driscoll on 2007 02 24 at 05:55 AM • permalink

  13. Symbolism is a big part of the left’s identity and the Prius is an obvious example.

    Talking of crimes against nature, the Environmental Movement comes in at #4 on my list of 10 Institutions That Ruin The World.

    As our friend, Tim Lambert, has a view on some of these things I thought I should include a reference to him, which I’m sure he’ll be very pleased with.

    Posted by Jack Lacton on 2007 02 24 at 06:12 AM • permalink

  14. To the men who own hybrid cars, I want to ask: was it uncomfortable when both your testes retreated back through the inguinal canals and into the abdomen? Or did they never descend in the first place?

    One understands that such tragical medical mishaps can happen to anyone; there but for the grace of God go I...But to go buy a Prius. I mean, why advertise?

    Posted by Dminor on 2007 02 24 at 06:26 AM • permalink

  15. Have a gander at the rigorous road test that a Prius is subjected to by Jezza Clarkson. (link at bottom of post).

    What happens when a vegan springs another planetary saviour nocturnally swiping their HOV labels? Bean them with a nerfbat?

    Posted by Habib on 2007 02 24 at 07:01 AM • permalink

  16. Well hmmm.  I have the same warm feeling as when Iraq invaded Iran.  I think I’ll get out my trusty spatula and start prying off some HOV decals.  I’ll be sure to leave a sign that a liberal was there.  I wonder if an used paper mache puppet is too obvious.

    Posted by wronwright on 2007 02 24 at 07:22 AM • permalink

  17. Given that there are over a million of these 30 camelpower, Jekyll and Hyde, four wheeled symbols of man’s increasing cognitive dissonance one has to ask the question - has there ever been a case of a Prius being carjacked?

    Posted by Jack Lacton on 2007 02 24 at 07:23 AM • permalink

  18. So instead of Red-on-Red, would that be considered Blue-on=-Blue?

    Posted by Vexorg on 2007 02 24 at 07:41 AM • permalink

  19. #14 That’s a VERY good point, Dminor. 

    I bet there is a statistical difference between the number of children borne of between the population of Prius drivers and a similar population of SUV drivers.  I will even make it fairer and say the same socio-economic group.  The conclusion is obvious.  Prius drivers have no balls. 

    /confession: I have regularly driven a prius.  But do not own one.

    Posted by entropy on 2007 02 24 at 07:41 AM • permalink

  20. And another thing: what kind of thought process went behind the policy decision to limit the number of hybrid HOV stickers to 85,000? 

    Obviously, it was a symbolic act.  It is not designed to actually do anything but ensure as many people as possible (stuck in the slow lane as they are not HOV) get to say “What a tosser!” as a prius putters passes by blocking a convoy of kiddie filled voyagers wishing to get past it in the fast lane.

    Posted by entropy on 2007 02 24 at 07:48 AM • permalink

  21. #16- Good point- how can an eco-aware carbon tiptoer detect a potential badge burglar?

    Thet tend to

    blend in with the marxist/moonbat mileau*.

    * in more than just appearance- they share a fondness for relieving others of their hard-earned- one lot tends to be a bit more upfront about it, and less self-rightous. I think I prefer crims to the perpetually indignant.

    Posted by Habib on 2007 02 24 at 08:00 AM • permalink

  22. Considering how angry and vindictive many self-described “anti-war” activists are, liberal-on-liberal crime might not be as silly as you think!

    Posted by Jim Treacher on 2007 02 24 at 08:24 AM • permalink

  23. it could mean only one thing: we were the victims of liberal-on-liberal crime.

    Oh!  The horror .... the sheer horror of it all.

    Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2007 02 24 at 08:25 AM • permalink

  24. Let’ not get carried away by revenge scenarios.  I think it’s time to look at the ROOT CAUSES.  This theft was probably due to poverty, hopelessness and discrimination.  It may even have something to do with Bush and Israel.

    I always chuckle when black leaders in this country decry “black-on-black” crime, as if that was something worse than just “crime.”

    Posted by Mystery Meat on 2007 02 24 at 09:22 AM • permalink

  25. Of course it is- black on white crime is merely balancing past injustices, and equitably redistributing the wealth and resources stolen by those cracker honky muthafuckas.

    A cap in the ass is to good for them.

    Posted by Habib on 2007 02 24 at 09:35 AM • permalink

  26. The next development: liberal-on-liberal vigilante justice.

    Handbags at 10 paces!

    Nice article, though.  A “progressive” with an actual sense of humor:  you don’t see that everywhere.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2007 02 24 at 10:32 AM • permalink

  27. The next development: liberal-on-liberal vigilante justice.

    What a wonderful idea. Arm Them. I have an acquaintance who is a licensed arms dealer.

    Posted by El Cid on 2007 02 24 at 10:35 AM • permalink

  28. In fact, Tim, this is such a grand idea, I think (with your permission of course) I’ll start the USA Branch.

    Posted by El Cid on 2007 02 24 at 10:37 AM • permalink

  29. A RINO is a liberal who’s been mugged by another liberal?

    Re. the Prius et al.
    http://tinyurl.com/3a44or

    New fuel-economy ratings that will take effect in 2008 will lower miles per gallon estimates for certain hybrid cars by 10 to 20 percent, according to USA Today.

    (Via News Busters that’s been on a roll lately with links to other sites rather than just their own opinion pieces on the latest examples of U.S. MSM liberal bias.)

    Posted by andycanuck on 2007 02 24 at 11:02 AM • permalink

  30. Aside from the fact that the Prius is anything but a high speed car, there’s another reason not to allow them into the HOV lanes.

    The original idea of the HOV lane (as silly as it seems) was to encourage car pooling.  That’s why it’s called the high occupancy vehicle lane.

    Allowing a Prius with one person to use he HOV lane means less space for the actual car poolers.  This effectively punishes the car poolers for not buying a Prius.  That 85,000 sticker limit?  Puh-leeeeeeeze! On crowded highways, this comes very close to being a priority pass:  “All youse non-hybrids!  Outta my way!  I gots a sticker!!!!” Not quite, but close.

    And, oh by the way, as a motivation for buying a hybrid, the sticker system makes no sense.  Why limit the number? 

    As for the HOV lane concept......yep, it’s fairly silly.  Small cab pick up trucks, for example, get away with two passengers (it’s full!).  Some enterprising people get around the system by placing dummies in the other seats.  Inflatable dolls have become dual purpose, or so I’m told.  ;-P

    Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 02 24 at 11:23 AM • permalink

  31. Also, this “liberal-on-liberal” crime is a pretty funny concept.....I need to put pro-military stickers on my truck, and keep them libruls away from my property!

    PS to Habib.....thanks for the link to Billy Bob.  I like the way he deals with the Prius; that’s no red-on-red incident there, no sir!

    Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 02 24 at 11:50 AM • permalink

  32. And maybe a gun rack as well.  I’d love to mount a turret on my cover, sans armanent, just to make a social statement, but my budget won’t allow that, alas.

    Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 02 24 at 11:51 AM • permalink

  33. Jeff S.
    What’s even sillier is the idea that a parent and their infant (riding in a car-seat) are also authorized to drive in the HOV lane where I live (Washington state).  Our HOV lanes are for two people or more.  I guess without that HOV lane both the parent and the infant would each be driving their own cars.

    Posted by David Crawford on 2007 02 24 at 12:31 PM • permalink

  34. Some enterprising people get around the system by placing dummies in the other seats.
    As compared to the Pius, where the dummies are placed in the driver’s seat.
    Posted by triticale on 2007 02 24 at 12:38 PM • permalink

  35. The next development: liberal-on-liberal vigilante justice.

    “The People’s Court sentences you to tilt by the head until dead, dead, dead...”

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2007 02 24 at 01:10 PM • permalink

  36. There’s also this example of the elderly successfully defending themselves from thugs.

    Posted by rightwingprof on 2007 02 24 at 01:11 PM • permalink

  37. Re: #3, heh, David, I live in Washington State as well (down past the Tri-Cities area), and I’m sure that you are referring to the HOV lanes in the Seattle area.  What a joke those are!  I’m not even sure that the HOV standards are enforced, since I’ve driven in them....alone.  Are those standards enforced?

    Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 02 24 at 01:19 PM • permalink

  38. what kind of thought process went behind the policy decision to limit the number of hybrid HOV stickers to 85,000?

    They’ve learned from the problems of the European Carbon Trading Scheme.

    Posted by PW on 2007 02 24 at 01:38 PM • permalink

  39. "Wrinklie??” What the hell is a “wrinklie?” I’m assuming it is slang for an elderly person, but where are the roots of such a word?  Oh yes......

    Posted by Kathy from Austin on 2007 02 24 at 02:11 PM • permalink

  40. That doesn’t seem very p.c. to me.

    Posted by Kathy from Austin on 2007 02 24 at 02:12 PM • permalink

  41. What would have happened to the aged self-defenders if it had happened in Oz?

    or Europe Gaia forbid. Some Spanish judge would have issued a warrant for the poor old retired military geezer as a Rumsfeld/Pinochet associate!

    Posted by Vanguard of the Commentariat on 2007 02 24 at 02:23 PM • permalink

  42. eco-crite alert

    Posted by Arty on 2007 02 24 at 02:37 PM • permalink

  43. liberal-on-liberal crime

    He misspelled ‘flagellant’.

    Posted by Crispytoast on 2007 02 24 at 03:39 PM • permalink

  44. I just hope that when I’m a 70 year old geezer, I get to beat some young criminal punk to death. That would be so balls!

    Posted by Shaky Barnes on 2007 02 24 at 04:05 PM • permalink

  45. #7 profeti -

    “If I ever find out who is responsible for inventing HOV lanes…”

    Part of the reason for setting up HOV (also called diamond) lanes in California was to make driving more inconvenient, hopefully to induce more people to take mass transit. This was explicitly stated by one of the members of one of the initial committees set up by the state to study the notion.

    And it partly works; it’s certainly inconvenient. It’s not clear at all that very many people have abandoned their cars and switched to mass transit.

    Mostly because mass transit out here doesn’t work all that well. (He says, having tried pretty much all the alternatives here in the SF Bay area over the past 30 years. Telecommuting works the best, so far.)

    Posted by steveH on 2007 02 24 at 06:37 PM • permalink

  46. 10.

    But how do you steal a sticker once it’s stuck?

    I won’t tell you how it’s done, but it’s a technique well-known in the demi-monde to get the yearly registration tabs off licence plates.

    Posted by Harry Bergeron on 2007 02 24 at 07:26 PM • permalink

  47. I didnt read through all the comments because It hurts my feelers to see y’all good folk trashin my state, even if it tends toward the extreme of idiocy and approches moronism as a state mandated religion.

    Just incase no one else covered it:

    A habit many have is to place such stickers on their plates or bumpers as required and then slash the hell out of them with a good sharp razor. The object is to slash them up and down and side to side and back and forth, etc, enough so that they cant be easily peeled off your car and if they are peeled off they’re useless because they cant be reassembled.
    The trick is to not slash them so much that they’re no longer readable and look like they were peeled off someone else’s car and sloppily reassembled on yours.

    It’s all in the ballance.

    Also, on “tags” that go on the plate themselves, it’s always best to scrape the old tags off, down to metal before applying new tags. This makes it that much harder to peel the new tags.

    Posted by Grimmy on 2007 02 24 at 11:05 PM • permalink

  48. From another thread: saw a Prius tailgating another small hatch of same colour (on the highway coming in the opposite direction & doing the metric ton) so closely that I thought I had double vision - obviously clueless driving style as well as choice.

    How many cheap Prius’ will be flooding the market in 5 years time, when the owners have to cough up @AUD$4k for a new set of batteries?

    Posted by egg_ on 2007 02 25 at 12:04 AM • permalink

  49. #48 What I want to know is who’s in the barrel for disposing of the old batteries.

    After all, once they’re removed from the flimsy assemblage of tinfoil and styrene they were sold in and placed in the solid-steel back of a truck, they become “hazardous waste” to be dealt with pretty much like the detritus of nuclear reactions, complete with mounds of paperwork and a man on a horse with red flag and lantern to go before… if an EMT gets across the poles of a charged one, or a firefighter gets splashed with acid after a crash, well, that’s just the breaks, but if one is found in the back of a 6x6 without the proper paperwork it’s an ENVIRONMENTAL EMERGENCY CRISIS requiring the attention of at least three Federal departments. Are the suckers moonbats sorry bastards ballless doofuses existing owners going to have to pay for that? It is to laugh.

    Regards,
    Ric

    Posted by Ric Locke on 2007 02 25 at 01:13 AM • permalink

  50. #48… I wonder if you can remove the (what 250kg?) set of batteries and make the thing a go a bit better (there’s probably 50kg of electronics and wiring can be taken out of it, too).

    No doubt all those touchy-feely local councils will be ditching their clutches of tax-free Prii well before the batteries go kaput.

    Nothing like dumping 100kg of toxic battery waste into the environment every few years.

    (*) is that the correct collective noun

    Posted by duncanm on 2007 02 25 at 01:17 AM • permalink

  51. #49 "What I want to know is who’s in the barrel for disposing of the old batteries."

    The aftermarket is already tooling up to rebuild the rather special batteries, or provide new lithium-ion replacements. The value of the old case may make them worth recycling even if the lead does not. I foresee tweaked electronics to allow home recharging, too.

    Most first responders in Grimmy’s home state have already taken training (at his expense) in dealing with accidents to hybrids.

    It’s already against the law to move more than three lead-acid batteries, IIRC, in CA without special permit.

    It’s getting sticky here.

    Posted by Harry Bergeron on 2007 02 25 at 01:35 AM • permalink

  52. My bad.. there’s actually only about 60kg of NiMH batteries in a Prius.

    Posted by duncanm on 2007 02 25 at 01:44 AM • permalink

  53. #37:  I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t get you much more than a stern talking to unless you were a pretty egregious offender (for example, people have been caught using mannequins and things like that.  Actually, they now open up the HOV lanes to all traffic after 7pm on some roads (I-405 through Renton/Bellevue/Kirkland/Bothell, and SR 520 between Redmond and the 405 Interchange are the two I know of) although by the time they do it traffic is generally light enough to make it irrelevant.

    Posted by Vexorg on 2007 02 25 at 02:47 AM • permalink

  54. #39 Kathy;

    "Wrinklie??” What the hell is a “wrinklie?” I’m assuming it is slang for an elderly person...

    In fact, we folks in our 70s have probably passed the wrinklie stage and many of us have deteriorated to the stage where we are called crumblies. Get through that stage OK and you become a dustie.
    My advice to anyone who complains about getting old is: Consider the alternative.

    Posted by Skeeter on 2007 02 25 at 05:14 AM • permalink

  55. Grimmy: when I had a car after I pasted the registration sticker I’d slice it up a few times with a razor blade to prevent sticker thievery, which was not unknown in the wilds of Miami.

    Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2007 02 25 at 08:59 AM • permalink

  56. The American, who is about 70 years old and retired from the military, put the 20-year-old in a head lock and broke his clavicle...I love it! Wrinklies. That’s a new one on me. How old do you need to be to qualify as a “wrinkly”?

    If I ever find out who is responsible for inventing HOV lanes…

    You and me both. How dare they make a segment of our public, collectively owned roadways off limits to a segment of that public. In newer freeway construction in California, carpool lanes frequently have their own overpasses and on/off ramps. Adds millions to construction costs. And for what? Because it makes some people “feel good”?

    In my opinion, we need more liberal-on-liberal crime. A lot more.

    Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2007 02 25 at 12:55 PM • permalink

  57. Ed Driscoll:  Excellent article.

    Kyda:  Yeah, don’t even get me started on the HOV exits and overpasses… Tree of liberty, blood of tyrants and all that.

    Posted by profeti on 2007 02 25 at 06:12 PM • permalink

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