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An electronics company in SC has unveiled a new electronic license plate for your car, or an e-tag, that they say will improve traffic safety.    The plate will be hooked up to the DMV so if you've got a suspended license or if your insurance has lapsed, instead of your tag number, the plate would flash words like "SUSPENDED" or 'UNINSURED" for the whole world to see...along with the police.     DMV officials say they lose as much as 150 million dollars a year in SC alone because of people driving without insurance or with expired tags.     Also, if your car is stolen, it would alert police to that as well.     Now, many of you are thinking what I first thought: if the DMV would be able to find your tag and put out signals on it, wouldn't they be able to track your car with the same technology much like a GPS?      Well, according to the company that makes these tags, it would take court orders from 3 different agencies to be able to do that, since it's against the law.     In other words, "we COULD do it, but we can't do it legally."    Isn't that what the government told us about the warrentless wiretaps and the other NSA snooping.      They COULD listen in to any phone call or read any e-mail, but they don't.     At least they told us they don't.      

Oh, one more thing about the DMV....I had to go to the MB office a couple of weeks back to get a new tag and a new license.   In years past, that would have cost me 3-4 hours of waiting in lines and filling out all sorts of paperwork.     I was in and out in less than 12 minutes.   A couple of years ago state officials visited every DMV office in the SC and tried to come up with a more effecient way to do things.    They did!       Congrats to whoever streamlined the office.....it seems to be working!

After it came out that the NSA has been spying on us, 56% of Americans said they think it's acceptable if it fights terrorism. Well, this is one of those "let's put terrorism in perspective" statistics. So far this year, terrorists have killed four Americans - the four people who died in the Boston Marathon bombing - and when the bombers were on the run. 

Meanwhile, toddlers have killed 11 Americans this year in accidental shootings. In 2013, there have been reports of 11 fatalities in the U.S. where the shooter was between three and six years old.  And at least 10 more toddlers have shot someone but not killed them this year. Now there are some catches here. 

Maybe terrorists haven't killed as many people because we really have gotten better at stopping terrorist attacks. Also, the definition of a terrorist attack is flexible like, why don't people who go into public places and shoot a bunch of people count as terrorists? But still it's a good reminder that you should be afraid of terrorists, but you also need to be responsible when it comes to the potentially lethal things you do control, like locking up your guns or not driving drunk.

Source: http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/guns/toddlers-killed-more-americans-terrorists-did-year

...and the rest of her ain't bad either! But in all seriousness, Miss Utah had a "brain freeze" during the Miss USA competition on Sunday evening. When asked a question about fair pay for women, 21-year old Miss Utah, Marissa Powell, did what happens to so many of us in less glamorous situations. She totally blanked. She had "brain freeze".  A professor at the University of Chicago,Sian Beilock, wrote a book about the "brain freeze" phenomenon called "Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting it Right When You Have To".  Basically, she uses a metaphor to explain what happened to Miss Utah when she froze up and fell all over herself. When there are too many programs running on your computer, it becomes sluggish and confused.  Our brains work the same way, too. Miss Utah may have been thinking about how she performed on other categories or what may have been still to come later in the night.  When all eyes (or ears) are on us, it makes us stumble on our words. Please remember that the next time one of us sounds like Miss Utah......;-)