I really don't like the nationwide Click It or Ticket campaign. Mostly, my safety is my business and not a police matter. Also, as police matters go, I prefer to have all the murders, rapes, and other violent crimes solved before police officers are directed to stand at the roadside to see if motorists are wearing seat belts.
Here's a great perspective on it from Walter Williams:
If we accept the notion that government ought to protect us from ourselves, we're on a steep slippery slope. Obesity is a major contributor to hypertension, coronary disease and diabetes, and leads not only to many premature deaths but billions of dollars in health-care costs. Should government enforce, depending on a person's height, sex and age, a daily 1,400 to 2,000-calorie intake limit? There's absolutely no dietary reason to add salt to our meals. High salt consumption can lead to high blood pressure, which can then lead to stroke, heart attack, osteoporosis and asthma. Should government outlaw adding salt to meals? While you might think that these government mandates would never happen, be advised that there are busybody groups currently pushing for government mandates on how much and what we can eat.I love salt, and I can eat all I want. I have low blood pressure. I eat 3,000 calories a day and at 37, I'm rather trim. One-size-fits-all laws just don't fit.
Mandates on food were laughed at as absurd by the people pushing smoking bans just two years ago. Within the last month, soft drink vendors pulled some offerings from school vending machines, seeing the writing on the wall. It's come further in a short time than I would have ever dreamed.
Look- I don't smoke, I drink rarely, I generally avoid fried food, I never use drugs. I even rarely use aspirin when I have a headache. I wear my seat belt, and I try to get regular exercise. I do none of these things because of any law or warning label. I do these things because they make sense to do them.
Culturally, there are good reasons to be concerned. Just wait until you see your restaurant menus after food gets worked over by snobbish health nannies who expect it only to hit McDonald's and other fast food joints. Ever taken a look at the calorie and fat numbers on Kobe steak or your brie? The entire menu of the average Mexican or Indian restaurant would be banned.
Life is full of choices- or should be. Sometimes, we like to enjoy things that we know aren't good for us. These things give us pleasure. At the rate the busybodies are going, life in America is going to go from the vibrant cornucopia of cultural opportunities to a gray, bland, but safe stale humdrum.
I find it very interesting and curious to learn who today's puritans are. It's time to step back and see what we are doing to our culture. What's the big deal about seat belts? To get it, ask a biker about lid laws, or ask a French chef what he thinks about doing without butter or cream. It's losing liberty and losing joy, bit by little bit.
5 comments:
Does anyone know if the you have to wear the saetbelt when driving a pick up truck?
Indiana's seatbelt law is not applicable to pickup trucks or other vehicles with "truck plates"
The worse part of this entire campaign is that it continues to blur the line between local police and federal police. The funding for this travesty comes from the feds, as does the entire program. Cops are supposedly local entities yet they are working on for the feds everytime they accept a single dollar of the funding.
Combine this with the propoganda for CIoTI and you have a furtherance of the police state growth. I can't wait to hear a politician tell the feds "No Thanks" to this one...of course they'll have to be a Libertarian, no Republicrats are ever going to assert state sovereignty.
Michael- You touched on something I overlooked with this post. Increasingly, the federal government is holding funding over state and local governments as the means to manipulate them. The threats of withheld highway funds are attached to resisting implementation of Click It or Ticket, as well as to speed limits.
I believe it was Utah that told the feds to keep their money, that they would do the speed limits their way. As a percentage of the states, though, it's pretty weak.
I haven't been able to find the costs of the program but it is funded entirely by the Feds (according to the ICJI).
I am quite certain, tho that the amounts tendered to Indiana and the other states involved in this are well above what would be required for pay and expenses.
I can't help but wonder how much of this funding the police and state pocket? I have heard from some cops that they look forward to the extra pay they receive from this program. No doubt it blurs their perceptions even further as to who their masters are...it's certain they no longer serve the citizenry. Combine this federalisation with the continued militarization of the police and we have a cause for worry.
The only state not participating in this is New Hampshire, as I recall. Utah may well be there, too. It's highly unlikely that Indiana will ever go that route, tho. Not until we have an LP governor to start severing the ties that Daniels has made.
Post a Comment