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Last week's column about the coming shift to tax-by-the-mile devices in automobiles brought many interesting letters. One writer says he was working on this project way back in the 1980s when he was building special Buicks that would run on methanol for the Department of Energy, with on-board computers to control the car's operation. By 1993, test cars in Colorado were controlled from Pontiac, Michigan. The popular "OnStar," system, promoted by Government Motors, is an outgrowth of this work.

Another writer listed 15 different possible applications, such as shutting down the vehicle when its allotted emissions cap had been reached. Why not? The current cap-and-trade bill would limit industrial emissions and force each business to pay an extra tax for the privilege of emitting additional carbon dioxide. Why not arbitrarily assign a weekly or monthly cap on auto emissions, and shut down the vehicle when that limit is reached? The new Global Positioning Satellite device would have that capability.

Every American ought to be outraged that such a system is even contemplated. This system is the tool that makes slaves of every person who depends upon a vehicle. Every person should consider just how his life would be changed if he were required to get approval from the federal government to start his car.

Another writer argues that the government has the authority and the right to impose whatever conditions it wishes, since driving on public roads is a privilege, not an individual right. His argument says the government may impose any condition it wishes on the license to use public roads.

This argument completely ignores the 4th Amendment guarantee of the right to be secure from government intrusion without probable cause and due process. Does the government's right to tax trump the constitutional right to individual privacy?

The proposed GPS road tax system could easily be programmed to listen to and record conversations inside any vehicle. It could stop a vehicle, lock the occupants inside, and notify the "jack boots" that the occupants were en route to a "Tea Party."

We would hope that the federal government would never sink to the level of paranoia that gripped Nazi Germany. But then, we also hoped that the federal government would never sink to the level of labeling legal, peaceful assemblies, such as the recent "Tea Parties," as gatherings of potential terrorists.

Who would have believed, even five years ago, that the federal government would take over GM, much of the banking industry, and appoint more than 30 "Czars" to administer government without congressional oversight? Who would have believed that Congress could be bullied into adopting a cap-and-trade program that deliberately increases the cost of energy for every American, with absolutely no offsetting benefit -- except increased government control over the life of every citizen?

Who would have believed that Congress would even consider allowing the government to take over the health care industry and create a system that allows government to ration health care and make life-and-death decisions for individual citizens?

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