The Nanny State Is At It Again
In recent weeks we have seen several nanny state measures passing through our legislature. Another sure sign that the Democrats are in control. A while back, they upped the aged of children who must be in a car seat to something preposterous like 8 years old. I can show you more than a couple of 8-year-olds who would do pretty well playing middle linebacker on any high school football team. Democrat legislators seem to be preternaturally stupid. But I digress...
A bill to restrict use of ATVs to certain age limits and engine sizes has passed the senate. ATVs can be dangerous when operated improperly. I don't think anyone will argue that point. However, the real problem is parents who let their children ride these things without supervision, or worse yet, under the supervision of potential Darwin Award winners. Of course, being Democrats and liberals, these legislators are too dim to understand the ATV is an inanimate object and cannot be at fault for anything. They are also too dim to understand that the faults of several double-digit IQ types are not sufficient reason for the government to intrude on the recreational time of everyone else.
Additionally, the deaths and injuries of small children on ATVs are salaciously sensational and sell lots of toothpaste and soap, so the media waste no opportunity to report on each and every one in intimate detail, throwing in various hints and pointers along the way. Our local media has managed to include in every report the fact that North Carolina is one of the few states without ATV regulations like this. No one seems to have offered up the obvious solution: hold parents accountable when they kill their children on an ATV. Throw them in jail forever and take away their remaining children. I would advocate involuntary sterilization to prevent further contamination of the gene pool, but that would bring all sorts of howls of protest, so I won't. If the child's death can be proved to be the result of a long-term pattern of behavior, invoke first degree homicide charges with their attendant penalties, including capital penalties.
Then we have the cell phone bill...
I have mixed feelings about this bill. Driving is a privilege, not a right. You have the right to go anywhere you want, as long as you honor the principles of private property. You have the right to get there in pretty much any way you please, as long as you honor the principles of private property and every other person's right not to get run over by you.
The issue is not whether the government should protect us from ourselves, but how does it go about protecting us from idiots who can't walk and chew gum at the same time. Once again, and typical of our slacker society, our so-called leaders want to blame an inanimate object and release the real problem, stupid people, from responsibility for their actions.
If you prove that you can't function within the norms of the driving population as a whole, then you should be removed from that population, simple as that. It's a basic concept of civilized behavior that goes back millennia. If you can't play nice, you have to go away. If you have three at-fault wrecks, then you are obviously unable to grasp the basic concepts of driving and its rules. We don't need you operating a two ton, death-dealing hunk of iron. You should lose your license permanently after your third at-fault wreck. I also think people should lose their license permanently on their first DWI and their first at-fault traffic fatality. And I favor capital punishment for vehicular homicide.
It would be one thing if stupid driving merely resulted in a pruning of the gene pool. Unfortunately, the people who most often get hurt by stupid driving are not the stupid drivers themselves.
If you want to fix a problem, don't address the symptom, address the problem, and that is stupid people doing stupid things. Hold them accountable in consistent and public ways and the problem will solve itself.
A bill to restrict use of ATVs to certain age limits and engine sizes has passed the senate. ATVs can be dangerous when operated improperly. I don't think anyone will argue that point. However, the real problem is parents who let their children ride these things without supervision, or worse yet, under the supervision of potential Darwin Award winners. Of course, being Democrats and liberals, these legislators are too dim to understand the ATV is an inanimate object and cannot be at fault for anything. They are also too dim to understand that the faults of several double-digit IQ types are not sufficient reason for the government to intrude on the recreational time of everyone else.
Additionally, the deaths and injuries of small children on ATVs are salaciously sensational and sell lots of toothpaste and soap, so the media waste no opportunity to report on each and every one in intimate detail, throwing in various hints and pointers along the way. Our local media has managed to include in every report the fact that North Carolina is one of the few states without ATV regulations like this. No one seems to have offered up the obvious solution: hold parents accountable when they kill their children on an ATV. Throw them in jail forever and take away their remaining children. I would advocate involuntary sterilization to prevent further contamination of the gene pool, but that would bring all sorts of howls of protest, so I won't. If the child's death can be proved to be the result of a long-term pattern of behavior, invoke first degree homicide charges with their attendant penalties, including capital penalties.
Then we have the cell phone bill...
I have mixed feelings about this bill. Driving is a privilege, not a right. You have the right to go anywhere you want, as long as you honor the principles of private property. You have the right to get there in pretty much any way you please, as long as you honor the principles of private property and every other person's right not to get run over by you.
The issue is not whether the government should protect us from ourselves, but how does it go about protecting us from idiots who can't walk and chew gum at the same time. Once again, and typical of our slacker society, our so-called leaders want to blame an inanimate object and release the real problem, stupid people, from responsibility for their actions.
If you prove that you can't function within the norms of the driving population as a whole, then you should be removed from that population, simple as that. It's a basic concept of civilized behavior that goes back millennia. If you can't play nice, you have to go away. If you have three at-fault wrecks, then you are obviously unable to grasp the basic concepts of driving and its rules. We don't need you operating a two ton, death-dealing hunk of iron. You should lose your license permanently after your third at-fault wreck. I also think people should lose their license permanently on their first DWI and their first at-fault traffic fatality. And I favor capital punishment for vehicular homicide.
It would be one thing if stupid driving merely resulted in a pruning of the gene pool. Unfortunately, the people who most often get hurt by stupid driving are not the stupid drivers themselves.
If you want to fix a problem, don't address the symptom, address the problem, and that is stupid people doing stupid things. Hold them accountable in consistent and public ways and the problem will solve itself.
posted by Anonymous | 8:23 AM
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