Althouse: "Pedal misapplications."

February 10, 2011

"Pedal misapplications."

"Now there's a euphemism for the bureaucratic ages."

33 comments:

A.Worthing said...: i heard one better. in a contract dispute regarding a company hired to fix the Y2K bug, they called the 2yk problem a "chronological ambiguity." lol; 2/10/11, 8:52 AM
rhhardin said...: It's actually pedalphilia.; 2/10/11, 8:52 AM
The Dude said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/10/11, 8:53 AM
chickelit said...: Politicians pedaling lies...

wv = oblyd

oblyde, oblyda, life goes on..; 2/10/11, 8:55 AM
Scott M said...: So just when the story gets good (ie, testy) I have to log in or subscribe. Ugh. Readmeat Interruptus.; 2/10/11, 8:57 AM
rhhardin said...: one cannot help but eye with caution the potentially calamitous distance of only 93 million miles that our entire human population resides from this unpredictable stellar inferno

- science writer; 2/10/11, 8:58 AM
Original Mike said...: Pedal misapplication. It's nicer than saying "dumb fuck".; 2/10/11, 8:58 AM
Rumpletweezer said...: Typical political theater: Demand that Toyota immediately fix a problem where none exists. What do you do if you're Toyota?; 2/10/11, 8:59 AM
Richard Dolan said...: It stands out only because it is a remarkably lame exercise in governmental obfuscation intended to hide the truth. As with most governmental efforts, it achieved the opposite of its intended goal.

It would be a teachable moment if it were possible for gov't bureaucrats ever to learn not to take their fellow citizens (to say nothing of Congress-types) for imbeciles. But that's not in the cards.; 2/10/11, 9:02 AM
Scott M said...: What do you do if you're Toyota?

Kowtow to the once-great economic superpower in the short term while realizing they are on a fast log flume to hell financially. You make a mental note not to give such gravity to American congressional demands in the future and start ramping up your cultivation of the Indian and Chinese markets.; 2/10/11, 9:02 AM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: @Rumpletweezer

Answer: Act like there really is a problem and that you've spent millions to fix it. You have no choice. That's how anti-capitalist blackmail works.; 2/10/11, 9:03 AM
Hagar said...: I doubt that there is such a thing as a "run-away engine," but if there is and it happens to you, hit the clutch on a manual transmission, or slap it into neutral with an automatic, and then turn the key to "off."
This would seem to be the reasonable thing to do; I just do not understand the video they show with this story with the driver and passengers screaming, "Oh, my God!," etc., as they go speeding toward the crash.; 2/10/11, 9:03 AM
Wince said...: "Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood couldn't bring himself to say 'driver error'..."

Okay, that covers the drivers. But what about the Obama administration?

Could LaHood bring himself to say "shake-down"?; 2/10/11, 9:07 AM
Hagar said...: Remember that Victor Borge routine about a car crash as depicted in an opera?; 2/10/11, 9:08 AM
Fred4Pres said...: I have Toyotas. Rarely, and only if I have boots on, I can get a little bit of "pedal misapplication." You just shift your foot slightly and it is gone.

But I could see some older driver panicing as if the vehicle was possessed.; 2/10/11, 9:09 AM
Calypso Facto said...: As my pre-nationalization, pre-Janesville WI-plant-closing Chevy approaches 200,000 miles and I begin to look around for a replacement, I'm warming to the idea of my first Texas-assembled of US engine and tranny, non-union made, Obama admin-targeted, Toyota truck purchase.

Seems like I can check a lot of consumer/voter opinion blocks with that one decision.; 2/10/11, 9:10 AM
Hagar said...: I am also of "a certain age" and wear size 12 extra wides, so yes, it happens. Sloppy driving, and I mentally kick myself and tell myself to pay attention and quit goofing off while driving.; 2/10/11, 9:18 AM
Scott M said...: I mentally kick myself and tell myself to pay attention and quit goofing off while driving.

Do you avoid farmer's markets on general principle?; 2/10/11, 9:22 AM
traditionalguy said...: Ah ha. The Toyota guys admitted that they made the pedals, so they bear the causation responsibility here that mandates intense Regulation from a currently underfunded Agency.; 2/10/11, 9:37 AM
Unknown said...: This reminds me of Ray Donovan (Reagan's Secy of Labor), following his public excoriation in a mob-related allegation in the 1980s.

If you're Toyota, to which office do you now go to get your reputation back?

Or do you get the opportunity to publicly "out" many of the plaintiffs in lawsuits over the purported electronic glitch as being idiots who can't (or won't) tell one pedal from the other?; 2/10/11, 9:39 AM
Phil 314 said...: The customer is ALWAYS right; 2/10/11, 9:40 AM
Unknown said...: EDH said...

"Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood couldn't bring himself to say 'driver error'..."

Okay, that covers the drivers. But what about the Obama administration?

Could LaHood bring himself to say "shake-down"?

More like smear campaign, but you have the idea.; 2/10/11, 9:41 AM
SteveR said...: Adding to the government's poor reaction to those incidents (surprise surprise) was that the media pretty much took it in, hook line and sinker, without the type of objective scrutiny needed.

As Hagar stated, the answer to that situation, were it really to happen, is straightforward, but the wailing and gnashing of teeth about the fall of the great Toyota and the fate of poor little old ladies driving Camrys, was too easy for the six o'clock news to resist.; 2/10/11, 9:43 AM
traditionalguy said...: The 24 hr news cycle is always ready to lynch scapegoats on accusations only. Three things sell airtime: 1)fear,2) Sex, and 3) bad guys caught in a scandal.; 2/10/11, 9:51 AM
bagoh20 said...: Backpedaling is appropriate after mispedaling. I doubt a single claimant will change their story.

This is why I drive a large pickup truck. Any misapplications become the concerns of others.; 2/10/11, 10:22 AM
Jeff Gee said...: @ Scott M.

You can reach virtually all WSJ articles via Google. Just highlight the opening sentence, Google it, and there you go. Murdock is talking about shutting this back door, but for now it's wide open.; 2/10/11, 10:24 AM
bagoh20 said...: Do you see the problem here. There really is just one that permits this travesty. It has something to do with this blog.; 2/10/11, 10:24 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: Let's apply this to other things.

rape = genital misapplication
robbery = property mis-allocation
incompetence = limited ability allotment
government = hubristic surplus

The list could go on and on.; 2/10/11, 12:00 PM
Toad Trend said...: I sated elsewhere on this blog that the cause of the 'runaway' Prius was a loose nut between the seat and the steering wheel.

I apologize to anyone who thought I was joking.

wv - humizat

My fridge hums, I have to find where the humizat.; 2/10/11, 12:27 PM
Toad Trend said...: stated; 2/10/11, 12:27 PM
Smilin' Jack said...: Then the NHTSA functionary gave me an explanation--the second most disheartening thing I ever heard in Washington--of why the DOT had to commission a multi-million-dollar study to prove that there is no such thing as sudden acceleration even though he and everyone else at DOT knew sudden-acceleration incidents didn't exist: SAIs would be reported to NHTSA. NHTSA would investigate them thoroughly. NHTSA would say they were caused by human error. And no one believed NHTSA.

The public would say, "Who me? Make a mistake? Me, the VOTER?"

P. J. O'Rourke, Parliament of Whores, 1991.

The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.; 2/10/11, 1:04 PM
Peter Hoh said...: I heard an engineer describe a better pedal system that would eliminate these kinds of driver errors, but it's unlikely that it would be adopted.

Like the qwerty keyboard, the side by side pedals are here to stay.; 2/10/11, 5:28 PM
Martin L. Shoemaker said...: Smilin' Jack said...

The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.

You, sir, are profound.; 2/10/11, 5:30 PM