I was admiring a restored '72 GTO. What really amazed me was the lack of "Safety" gear in the goat. Seat belts I'll buy. But $2000 worth of airbags? And a switch to turn them off? Traction control? Anti-lock brakes? Where's the fun in that?

When I lived in Wyoming, I took my new car out onto an icy parking lot at 4 in the morning. I'd practice putting it into a drift, then pulling it out. Tested the braking distances, and ultimate traction in turns. Cop pulls up, asks what I'm doing. I told him. He insisted on a Breathalyzer test. When I passed, he drove away shaking his head, muttering something about "crazy people..."

Instead of insisting on better driving skills, American's insist on crash worthy tanks. Nothing scares me more than some soccer mom, talking on the cell phone, and yelling at the kids (over a DVD soundtrack) in the back seat of her 4 ton SuburbaSaur hurtling down the interstate at 70 mph. Hell with all the bags belts and computers-she'll kill us, but she'll walk away. Well maybe a liquored up 20 something in a jacked up pickup is scarier --but not by much.

Want to save lives? Replace the airbag on the steering wheel with a nice stainless steel spike. Maybe a piece of piano wire around the neck tied to the seatbelt anchor? That ought to keep the driver's attention. Now when you screw up and run into someone because you were distracted, you die first. Perfect for the shortage of donated organs!

On a more practical note, maybe we should all have to demonstrate that we can actually drive the car with enough skill to avoid an accident -- before we get a license. Never happen though, too many government officials might fail.