$5,000 black box...um, no thanks!

Recently, congress has been up in arms about "safety" and how creating "safer" cars is "what consumers want." The newest idea? More robust black box technology, you know, because recording what happens for 75-seconds before and after a crash could somehow save lives... or, realistically, just leads to more lawsuits and money grabbing. Yeah, this sounds like a great idea already.

Oh, I forgot to mention the worst part - these new black boxes could cost up to 5,000-dollars and they might take up an area the size of a shoebox! You know, since they have to be fire and water safe, even though less than 1-percent of all 5-million crashes each year result in a fire.

Oh, what's that? You just wanted a smaller, more affordable, lightweight car that gets decent gas mileage but is still fun to drive?? No - that can't be right...

According to congress, you want a car that gets 35.5-mpg, with a top speed of 65, that weighs 8,000-lbs and records everything you do. Oh and you also want brake over-ride technology (which is going to be mandatory) since you're too stupid to put a car in neutral if it started speeding out of control.

Seriously, how did we get into this mess?!

Sorry, I feel better now...