It is estimated that cell phone distracted drivers are four times more likely to be in a car wreck according to www.car_Accidents.com.
 
In 2007, driver distractions such as cell phones or text messaging contributed to nearly 1,000 crashes involving 16- and 17-year olds according to Edgar Snyder’s & Associates attorney website.

Travel and transportation have never been without some level of risk, whether it is by horse and carriage or plane, train and automobile. 
 
However it seems to me that the streets are becoming more and more risky with each passing year. Cars become larger, drivers become increasingly more distracted and the roads through Prescott have never been very large.

I like to day dream. Unfortunately day dreaming costs me more than I would like to admit, for instance it has taken me 20 minutes to write this sentence and I know that the rest of this column is going to follow suit.

I’m three and half hours into a four hour hike.  Miles ago, I left behind any traces of concrete corners and signage.  It took a great deal of effort and an early start, but I am finally walking in Thoreau’s America.

“When your name can also be used as a verb that means ‘driving a hook through your head’ [fish-ing], it’s time for a serious image makeover. And who could possibly want to put a hook through a sea kitten?” says People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in its mission statement on peta.org concerning the future safety of fish the world over.

International travel is becoming increasingly complicated, creating much more of a hassle for everyone wanting to visit or inhabit countries besides his/her own. 
 
Even just the cost has gone up. Most tickets cost many times more than they used to, thanks in part to added fees outside airline control like the “September 11 Security Fee” (which must go towards funding the occasionally ridiculous heightened security measures).

   There has always been controversy surrounding the various media ratings systems. There are plenty of people doling out official ratings from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) for movies to the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) for video games, along with a plethora of people complaining about the flaws of the ratings they assign.

Every December 24, people around the world lure their children to bed with tales of magic and wonder, filling their hearts and heads with visions of sugar plums, little men in funny clothes and best of all, presents.

It seems that there is a negative societal outlook on healthy living.
Why is this? Has the media created it? Surely not; with so many images in the media of people who are fit and healthy. Is it just a general human laziness that gives us a lack of motivation to do anything that is good for us?

Americans like choices.
We seem to be unsatisfied with anything less than about 250 TV channels. A jaunt down the pain reliever aisle of any drug store is testament to our apparent need to choose even our cough syrups from a dizzying array of options. We are, sadly, a culture of people who now even choose our mates from a shopping list of online portraits and profiles.