Not the content which with Ruben Bolling is always interesting and thought provoking but to my European eyes, seeing a child in a moving car without a seatbelt or child seat is very worrying. I looked at this for a while before I worked out why it seemed so worying to me.

...the soul of the joke! The deal is that the kid is worrying about all sorts of things unlikely to happen, while observing a car accident, but he's not wearing a seat belt! get it?!

I spent so much time pondering an America with Gran'Pa McCain and Trailer Trash Sarah leading the country...

There can be nothing left unpoliced.

to go unbelted in the back seat on trips, ride her bike without a helment, play in the creek, drive my mower, stay out after dark, make a mess in the kitchen, and sleep on the couch on the weekend. Sometimes you have to let children be chidren.

It took me a second, but the fact that Louis is unbuckled is absolutely hilarious.

I hope you'll reconsider the unbelted bit. There are just too many variables and things outside your control when you're moving in a group of vehicles, each weighing tons and being driven independently at high speed by imperfect - and sometimes very distracted or tired - human beings.

I'm not saying we should live our lives in fear, but we really should respect reality and the laws of physics.

(I'm sure you think it's none of my business and I'm a holier-than-thou jerk sticking my nose in where it doesn't belong. Let's say that's true. So what? That doesn't mean I'm wrong.)

Well over 40,000 Americans die in cars every year.

In many (most?) places, seatbelts are the law.

*You're being irresponsible by not seatbelting your kid.*

And also not getting the kid to wear a helmet, for that matter.

Adults do these things - wear helmets and seatbelts - why shouldn't kids? What are they learning? "My parents don't care if I'm injured or killed." "Taking pointless risks is acceptable."

I very much feel that kids today are overprotected and should be allowed to take risks like walking to school, using powertools and the like - because these are risks they will learn from.

Being irresponsible teaches them nothing.

Maybe his mom ducked into a crack house real quick and left him locked inside with the windows rolled up.

I think 63debra is joking.

The point here is people want to control unexpected situations and believe tragedy can be prevented by worrying about it a head of time. I know people who are literally convinced because they worry about . . . .oh, meteor showers destroying the house. . . . .such incidents will never happen. These are people who are educated, literate, emotionally stable and clear-thinking (most of the time).

People want control. Like Adam, if we name it (the unknown, impending tragedy) we control it. We can make it stay away if we can name it. The trick is to name everything possible. We should recite the "Serenity Prayer" instead.

I understand everybody thinking seat belts and that you should wear them all the time.

But if I wore a seat belt all the time I personally would be DEAD and writing you this message from my COFFIN!

I was in a serious car accident a few years ago. The guy came flying through a stop sign without even slowing down. Rammed my door. Completely crushed the side of my car. My face bounced off the windshield and my whole body was thrown into the empty passenger seat. Thank god I wasn't wearing a seat belt! There was literally no driver's seat anymore. You wouldn't even be able to fit an adult-sized leg in the airspace that was left between all that twisted jagged metal to the left of the transmission hump, never mind a living human body. The cops said I was lucky to be breaking that law.

So there you have it. It's like Brian Lupani said, "There are just too many variables and things outside your control when you're moving in a group of vehicles." Who's to say you're going to be hit in a way that a seat belt protects rather than kills you?

And why don't they have seat belts on buses? School buses even?

Then he grew into pubescent fears of growing hairy palms and ultimately into the full-fledged paranoid delusional that's made him the success he is today! So remember kids, it's never too soon to start being terrified.

The very first panel with Louis looking out the window shows that the car is moving. See those, uh, moving lines? But good thought nonetheless.

Or a tornado this being twister season.

When I was a kid in the sixties and seventies, no one wore seat belts then. All of Louis's back seat positions looked very familiar to me-- as well as the obsessive worrying about things that might happen to you that you have no control over.