Liberals want to put governors on cars to limits speeds to 75

I'm not kidding. Mark Hemingway at the Corner reports ("Liberals Want to Neuter Your Cars"):

I don't know what Matt Yglesias has against cars, but they seem to be a major impediment to creating his nanny state utopia:

As you've probably noticed, there's just about nowhere in the United States where you're allowed to drive faster than 80 miles per hour. And yet cars can drive much faster than this.

And of course the reason you're not allowed to go super-fast is that it isn't safe. A large proportion of car accidents are related to people driving too quickly. Thus, via Ezra Klein comes Kent Sepkowitz's suggestion that we design cars so as to make it impossible for them to drive over, say, 75 miles per hour. This seems reasonably sensible to me.

This seems reasonably sensible to no one, once you've thought about it for more than a few seconds. If you're going to allow cars to drive at 60-70 miles an hour, you probably need to allow for the fact that there are innumerable situations where safety dictates you depend on reserve power to drive faster than the prevailing speed...

Matt Yglesias (no relation to Julio, I presume) is full of crap. I drive a fast car. Car and Driver says it tops out at about 155 MPH. However, I never drive it over 95 90 85 80. But I constantly find myself behind a Prius (bad), Subaru (worse), Cadillac (worser), or Lexus 400h hybrid SUV (worstest).

These holier-than-thou asshats inevitably drive in the left lane of the expressway, intentionally limiting speeds to ensure their little section of the highway ain't excessively polluting. What magic dipstick slapped them in the forehead and turned them into Vice President Gore?

The biggest portion of car accidents are caused by the numbskulls who don't know the rule Left Lane Is For Passing Only.

If I were in state government, I'd require anyone convicted of this offense to have the phrase branded into their dashboard. And on a second offense, branded into their hood. Third offense? Don't go there.

Hat tip: Larwyn