I was amused and bemused when I perused some state governmental signs posted along our highways.

During this past winter, I chuckled in Florida at signs that included, “Hill May Block View,” and “Motor Vehicles Less Than 5 BHP Prohibited” and “Road Ends In Water.”

Pennsylvania has its share of “Wait. What?” signs.

One of the most ubiquitous is “Pass With Care.” Who passes “without care” ? I think “with care” is an integral part of passing the vehicle in front of me.

We all know the drill: Pull to the centerline, look ahead of that vehicle, note oncoming vehicles. hills, curves, dips, construction signs, etc., and take those into consideration when deciding whether to pass — because if I do not take those into consideration, some emergency responders are likely to take my mangled body to a hospital or to a mortuary.

Another common sign, “Bridge Freezes Before Road” does serve a useful purpose during temperature-changing seasons. I have been lulled into ignoring the bridge that I am approaching when the temperature hovers in the 30s or 40s. If I have not adjusted for cold weather, I tend to forget that prevailing winds blowing both above and below the bridge deck can cause it to freeze when the roadway on either side is still just wet from current or recent rain or snowmelt.

But “No Guide Rail” makes me do a double take.

Are there really drivers out there who are so stupid or devil-may-care that they drive differently, more recklessly, when those metal barriers we formerly called “guard rails” have been removed for repair/replacement?

“Hey, George! No guide rails here. Hold my beer while I do my Kyle Busch NASCAR driver imitation!”

I hate to wish injury or death onto anybody, but if someone were really that stupid or irresponsible, wouldn’t the gene pool be improved if those attitudes were not passed on to future generations?

I dimly recall that PennDOT had to change its signs from “guard rail” to “guide rail” some time ago because an inventive lawyer and/or a jury of dullards combined to decide that state government was promising that its roadside “guard” rails would certainly keep an errant car from flipping over an embankment — even though any damn fool can see that at high speed and most angles of impact, many cars, most pickup trucks and virtually any box trucks or tractor trailers have centers of gravity high enough to cause them to flip over the railings, rather than ride along them.

Besides — D’oh! — those roadside “guard or guide” railings do end.

One of my lifelong pet peeves has been being forced to endure extra costs, extra time or extra actions because government tries to protect us from ourselves. One or two stupid drivers (or their heirs) collected millions of dollars in damages when any jury with any common sense should have said, “If you’re too stupid to understand this, you’re too stupid to do this,” and are not entitled to compensation.

Don’t get me started again about having to push an override button before my riding mower will continue to spin its blades when I shift into reverse gear. I know how to back up. If I didn’t, I should not be using a riding mower.

Even worse is the stupidity of requiring all those “environmental safeguards” on the plastic or metal cans that contain gasoline.

Because of those stupid guards, I spill more gasoline onto the ground, and send more gasoline fumes into the air, than I did when gasoline cans had straightforward spouts.

People too dumb to pour gasoline without spilling it are too dumb to be handling gasoline cans, in my opinion. Nevertheless, government forces 350 million Americans to struggle with awkward, balky “safety” nozzles on gasoline cans because one or two bozos killed or injured themselves.

Sorry, folks. It is not government’s job to protect us from our own stupidity.

We have been protecting stupid folks for so long now that our gene pool is replicating them. So then the stupid folks invent new stupid actions. And canny lawyers and muzzy-headed juries award huge injury/death verdicts. And state or federal legislators then decree that all of us must be warned that hills block drivers’ views (Florida) or that drivers thinking about passing a vehicle in front of them should use some care in the process.

Whose fault is that? Government’s?

When we see laws, rules or regulations that clearly came about because of bozos, we need to remind ourselves that we elect and re-elect bozos.

Government should protect us from Putin, Kim and Xi, when necessary.

Protecting us from ourselves? That is our job, not government’s.

Denny Bonavita is a former editor/publisher at newspapers in DuBois, Brookville, New Bethlehem and Warren. He lives near Brookville. Email: notniceman9@gmail.com

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