Freedom? What about the Freedom to sleep? The Freedom to minimize damage to your ears? The Freedom to have a conversation with someone and have them actually hear you? The Freedom to listen to your own radio/music and not have it drowned out? The Freedom to let your baby have a decent nap?

The truth is that loud exhaust systems, loud cars, loud stereos that boom, really do hurt a lot of people. People continuously exposed to noise experience elevated stress levels, mood swings, hypertension, depression, lost sleep and productivity.

I live in a neighborhood that has several individuals with extremely loud cars and motorcycles. I have called Law Enforcement on over a dozen occasions and they have been ticketed, but they just pay the fine and don't care. These vehicles are loud enough to be heard over a mile away, as I have heard my neighbor leave his house (its hard to miss, since it rattles my walls) and, while inside my house, I can hear him make the turn at the four way stop a half mile away, and then proceed to the stoplight another half mile, and then gun it on the county road. If I go outside I can hear him for a minute or so after that.

The noise wakes my husband and I up numerous times at night as they leave and return. It keeps our baby from having an uninterrupted nap throughout the day or night, and it really sucks that I can't hear my husband across the table at dinner because our neighbor is letting his car idle.

This is especially true for cars with loud bass systems, that shake a house and rattle the windows.

I see that there are some here that are responsible and only have moderately loud systems, but I just wanted to say that obscenely loud systems do negatively affect a lot of people, and it is NOT a minor annoyance.

I guess I should have the freedom to setup a train horn and point it at your house and set it to go off at odd hours during the night or day for minutes on end? Would you be so enthusiastic then?

Be considerate to your neighbors and those around you.