It’s actually the technocratic mind that thinks, “I need to come up with a dumb pun to get those idiots I rule over to pay attention to my important life-saving message.” The important life-saving message is, invariably, something everybody already knows, like “Wear your seatbelt” or “Don’t drive drunk.”

I hope the FHWA also bans the practice of using these signs to display the total number of highway deaths so far that year. That’s not useful information to drivers, and the mere distraction of the sign might cause more accidents.

[Well, maybe. But no one seems to be all that distracted by the other messaging on these signs, such as Amber Alerts (and Silver Alerts here in Texas), weather, seatbelt lectures without humor, and so on. Nor do we see the feds intervening to end video billboards, which are far more distracting. Maybe humor doesn’t belong on these message boards, but the federal government doesn’t belong in this conversation either. Let each state decide for itself. — Ed]