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'8THEIST' license plate in NJ: Why states can't rein in the vanity plate monster

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  • '8THEIST' license plate in NJ: Why states can't rein in the vanity plate monster




    If you can get a New Jersey vanity license plate that reads “BAPTIST,” why not one that reads “8THEIST”?

    That’s the question Shannon Morgan, a self-describe atheist, is asking in a lawsuit after the New Jersey department of motor vehicles denied her vanity plate application.

    Her main complaint is a bureaucracy deeming that “8THEIST” has connotations that offend “good taste and decency,” the bar which the state uses to judge the suitability of personalized plate messages. She also wants the state to adopt a more “viewpoint-neutral” vanity plate approval policy, since when she typed “BAPTIST” into the DMV application it was accepted.

    Given that a joke is judged by the chuckle of the beholder, states have struggled in recent years to balance the innocent against the indecent when it comes to personal exhortations on state-owned license plates.

    Plates such as “BAD HASS,” “MERLOT,” “MPEACHW,” “GOES211”and “ISNOGOD” have all been rescinded by various state DMVs after complaints were filed. Meanwhile, “AAAGH,” “K BYE” and “TIKL ME” are all fine. Americans take to vanity plates like flies to molasses, with some 10 million in circulation, meaning millions in extra revenue for the state. Ronald Reagan had his own California plate: “GIPPER.”

    [....]

    An informal poll by a New Jersey newspaper suggested that Morgan has the people’s support, with three out of four respondents saying New Jersey should just give her a plate. (If not, as one commenter noted, Morgan should try to get one that says “JRZ SKS.”)
    Never thought I'd find myself typing this, but I agree with the majority of the people in New Jersey. Restrictions on both "8THEIST" and "BAPTIST" are wrong for a vanity plate. If someone wants to declare that they're an atheist on the ass-end of their car, then that's their right as much as it is anyone else's right to declare that they're a golfer or great in bed or happy or Christian or anything else. Pay the fee for the custom plate, get your say. Easy-peasy. The restrictions need to be limited to genuinely offensive plates. "4GIVEN" is not offensive. "FUK U 2" is. It does not take a genius to figure this stuff out.
    It's been ten years since that lonely day I left you
    In the morning rain, smoking gun in hand
    Ten lonely years but how my heart, it still remembers
    Pray for me, momma, I'm a gypsy now

  • #2
    If it were up to me, I'd remove all restrictions on vanity plates. Anything goes. If you're the type of person that wants to have a "FUCK YOU" sign attached to your car, then your punishment is that you get to drive around town in a car that says "FUCK YOU" on the plate. I'm sure the people pushing shopping carts past your bumper in the parking lot will get your message loud and clear.
    Enjoy.

    Comment


    • #3
      Baptist is permitted. 8theist is not. That's a lot of bullshit. I'm not certain who would find 8theist offensive. I certainly don't. I'm also not certain why anyone would want that as a vanity plate. Then again, I never understood vanity plates. If you are fleeing the scene of a crime the last thing you want is an easily remembered license plate.
      Not where I breathe, but where I love, I live...
      Robert Southwell, S.J.

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by phillygirl View Post
        I'm not certain who would find 8theist offensive.
        A theist who doesn't want to be eaten?
        Enjoy.

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by Norm dePlume View Post
          If it were up to me, I'd remove all restrictions on vanity plates. Anything goes. If you're the type of person that wants to have a "FUCK YOU" sign attached to your car, then your punishment is that you get to drive around town in a car that says "FUCK YOU" on the plate. I'm sure the people pushing shopping carts past your bumper in the parking lot will get your message loud and clear.
          I agree and I think the same way about those Kerry '04 and Bush Cheney 2000 stickers.
          "Faith is nothing but a firm assent of the mind : which, if it be regulated, as is our duty, cannot be afforded to anything but upon good reason, and so cannot be opposite to it."
          -John Locke

          "It's all been melded together into one giant, authoritarian, leftist scream."
          -Newman

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by scott View Post
            I agree and I think the same way about those Kerry '04 and Bush Cheney 2000 stickers.
            It's entirely possible that those were on the car when the guy bought it and the owner just doesn't really care.
            Enjoy.

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by Norm dePlume View Post
              It's entirely possible that those were on the car when the guy bought it and the owner just doesn't really care.
              Bumper stickers don't last that long without effort.
              "Faith is nothing but a firm assent of the mind : which, if it be regulated, as is our duty, cannot be afforded to anything but upon good reason, and so cannot be opposite to it."
              -John Locke

              "It's all been melded together into one giant, authoritarian, leftist scream."
              -Newman

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by scott View Post
                Bumper stickers don't last that long without effort.
                My Greenpeace "Wage Peace" bumper sticker was on my 1979 AMC Spirit when it died. It was fitting.
                Not where I breathe, but where I love, I live...
                Robert Southwell, S.J.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by phillygirl View Post
                  My Greenpeace "Wage Peace" bumper sticker was on my 1979 AMC Spirit when it died. It was fitting.
                  For a '79 AMC, a more appropriate bumper sticker probably should have been "wage towtruck."
                  It's been ten years since that lonely day I left you
                  In the morning rain, smoking gun in hand
                  Ten lonely years but how my heart, it still remembers
                  Pray for me, momma, I'm a gypsy now

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Adam View Post
                    For a '79 AMC, a more appropriate bumper sticker probably should have been "wage towtruck."
                    1991. That is when it died. In a toll booth lane in New Jersey on Labor Day. I signed the title over to the toll booth operator and handed him the keys. My grandfather wanted to kill me for that. Apparently I should have taken the tags off of it.
                    Not where I breathe, but where I love, I live...
                    Robert Southwell, S.J.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by phillygirl View Post
                      1991. That is when it died. In a toll booth lane in New Jersey on Labor Day. I signed the title over to the toll booth operator and handed him the keys.
                      That is a level of awesome rarely matched by mortals.
                      “Thus it is that no cruelty whatsoever passes by without impact. Thus it is that we always pay dearly for chasing after what is cheap.”

                      ~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by phillygirl View Post
                        1991. That is when it died. In a toll booth lane in New Jersey on Labor Day. I signed the title over to the toll booth operator and handed him the keys. My grandfather wanted to kill me for that. Apparently I should have taken the tags off of it.
                        Little did you know that the young Mr. Christopher Christie in the car behind you would be inspired to take up a political career.
                        Enjoy.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Billy Jingo View Post
                          That is a level of awesome rarely matched by mortals.
                          And I just realized I was wrong. It was 1989. For some reason that car seemed so much older than that. Probably because of the numerous times it was on life support before I finally had to pull the plug.
                          Not where I breathe, but where I love, I live...
                          Robert Southwell, S.J.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by phillygirl View Post
                            Baptist is permitted. 8theist is not. That's a lot of bullshit. I'm not certain who would find 8theist offensive. I certainly don't. I'm also not certain why anyone would want that as a vanity plate. Then again, I never understood vanity plates. If you are fleeing the scene of a crime the last thing you want is an easily remembered license plate.
                            Even if you're not, whose plate are the victims going to remember, the actual hit/run car's or the distinctive vanity plate of the innocent driver who had the misfortune to pass by as the victim looks up?
                            "Since the historic ruling, the Lovings have become icons for equality. Mildred released a statement on the 40th anniversary of the ruling in 2007: 'I am proud that Richard’s and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, Black or white, young or old, gay or straight, seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That’s what Loving, and loving, are all about.'." - Mildred Loving (Loving v. Virginia)

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Celeste Chalfonte View Post
                              Even if you're not, whose plate are the victims going to remember, the actual hit/run car's or the distinctive vanity plate of the innocent driver who had the misfortune to pass by as the victim looks up?
                              That's why you should always have an exceptionally unusual car. People may remember your "8THEIST" plate inaccurately, but they will never forget the blaze orange AMC Gremlin that was NOT involved in the hit-and-run.


                              That having been joked, I love the idea of both vanity and "special" plates. It's a double-dip on what is arguably a "perfect" tax: people willingly line up to pay extra for something that they otherwise would grumble about, plus it saves the state because for every vanity plate and every special plate out there, that is one less permutation that is getting used up in a plate's useable lifetime before the whole thing has to be scrapped and re-started, as each state has to do every few years.

                              Let's face it: no one goes down to the IRS office and joyfully files their taxes because they get a "special" 1040 form or whatever. But license plates? People will knock over old ladies in line to give their money to the city/state to get special plates and registrations.





                              You can't really say that about almost any other tax or use fee, with the possible exception of hunting licenses, and in the US, those types of revenue circumstances are pretty damned rare. In Frosty's world, where people bid (to me) absurd sums of money to be one of ten people to get the chance to hunt a lion or whatever, or where there is a lottery to win the opportunity to pay a pretty large sum of money to hunt a bear domestically, that's somewhat common. But out here in the rest of the country, that's not common at all. Anyone and everyone can pay $16 to hunt dove on Labor Day weekend or whatever around here and pretty much the entire rest of the lower 48.

                              So as far as tax revenue is concerned, I'm all for that which is willingly, even enthusiastically, handed over. That this also ultimately saves the taxpayers money is all the better.
                              It's been ten years since that lonely day I left you
                              In the morning rain, smoking gun in hand
                              Ten lonely years but how my heart, it still remembers
                              Pray for me, momma, I'm a gypsy now

                              Comment

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