The registration for my blue and white pickup truck was due next week. So yesterday I took it down to my local garage for the required smog check. This is bogus. It’s a ripoff of the people of California for no purpose but to generate money for the state. There is nothing that could reasonably be expected to happen to fuel injected, catalytic converter-equipped, 4 cylinder engine that justifies this. And absent reasonable suspicion that I’ve fooled with the smog system, it’s an unlawful search.

Here’s a good question for you: Why do we pay $8.95 for a “Certificate,” that’s nothing more than a number transmitted by computer from the smog station to the DMV?

So today I went online and paid my registration fee. $69. I know that seems lightweight compared to some of you driving newer cars. But it includes a $8 “weight fee.” How does the DMV know I’m overweight? Are they having me watched? Maybe there’s a sensor under the chair in the coffee shop, and some guy in a surveillance center saying, “Holy Crap!”

… And when I lose some weight, as I hope to, how do I get this charge removed? There’s nothing about it on the DMV site, but I’m gonna find out.

… Finally, I think it’s clear they can stop trying to get me to buy vanity plates.