The law must be different in Canada.
In the U.S., there is no requirement that there be a victim for one to obey the law. Use of the roads as a driver is a matter of license in this country. A driver's obligations on the road goes beyond just safety. We have strong environmental requirements for vehicles, for example. In this country, driving an unregistered, uninsured vehicle may in fact be safe. But motorists face legal obligations in those areas nonetheless..
But even more important, the US treasures its rule of law. Here, even presidents bow down to the law. Because of the rule of law, no one from the government can simply take us away in the middle of the night. It's what gives us our most basic protections. So for Americans, the duty to follow the law - whether on the roads or elsewhere - is not so much for safety or anything as it is to butture us that nobody ... not the president, the cop, the judge, the millionaire, the TV star, nor the biggest guy or the smallest guy can take away our basic freedoms. It's kind of ironic in a way - we see laws as limiting our freedoms while at the same time as guaranteeing our freedoms.
Does Texas use the pointsystemI'm a Texas cop, I'll see if I can answer your questions... We have many slang terms that other states don't use... :o) Texas does not use a point system, but they will...
The other ironic thing is that the judicial branch in this country doesn't have the guns or army or nuclear weapons of the executive branch. Its only power is derived from our willingness to accept the bang of the gavel, to accept the necessity that we acquiesce to the rules that we set for ourselves as a society, even though no one agrees with every one of them all of the time. And it's for one very good reason above all else: The law can't guarantee our freedom if we take the position that we don't have to abide by any rule we don't agree with. When a cop pulls us over for speeding, he is not only enforcing someone idea's of safety (or as some say here, raising revenue), he is, most important, saying that the respect for the law is the crucial thing. He is saying that for the same reason you can't drive 80 in a 55, I can't take out my gun and shoot you because I don't like your skin color or religion or because I'm simply wearing a badge. Our willingness to accept this system - even if it means that we have to drive a little slower or pay taxes we don't like - is what makes the U.S. great. I thought is was pretty much the same thing in Canada.
-- Regards, Anthony Giorgianni
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