Click it or ticket?
I've got another idea: STICK IT!!!"Big Brother" laws are unconstitutional...reminiscent of Nazism, Fascism, Socialism.
(Choose your "Ism")
Y'know, a "nanny state".
I have a (bad?) habit of flipping off those seatbelt signs, particularly when I'm riding my Harley. I'm wondering how long it will be before some "rocket scientist" figures out how to make me wear a seatbelt on my motorcycle.
Having recently returned from a vacation in New Hampshire, I thought I'd mention that according to my research they were the last holdout in the National Seatbelt Law "contest". Something consistent with their State Motto: "Live Free or Die".
(A friend of mine recently related a humorous paraphrase of that, "Live, freeze and die". Having experienced 32º Farenheit temperatures atop Mt. Washington in June, it makes sense to me. But I digress. I do that sometimes)
As for mandatory seatbelt laws, a number of people have something to say about them.
Some highlights follow...
"Click it or ticket" by Walter Williams
Virginia's secretary of transportation sent out a letter announcing the state's annual "Click It or Ticket" campaign May 22 through June 4. I responded to the secretary of transportation with my own letter that in part reads:
"Mr. Secretary: This is an example of the disgusting abuse of state power. Each of us owns himself, and it follows that we should have the liberty to take risks with our own lives but not that of others. That means it's a legitimate use of state power to mandate that cars have working brakes because if my car has poorly functioning brakes, I risk the lives of others and I have no right to do so. If I don't wear a seatbelt I risk my own life, which is well within my rights. As to your statement 'Lack of safety belt use is a growing public health issue that . . . also costs us all billions of dollars every year,' that's not a problem of liberty. It's a problem of socialism. No human should be coerced by the state to bear the medical expense, or any other expense, for his fellow man. In other words, the forcible use of one person to serve the purposes of another is morally offensive."
My letter went on to tell the secretary that I personally wear a seatbelt each time I drive; it's a good idea. However, because something is a good idea doesn't necessarily make a case for state compulsion. The justifications used for "Click It or Ticket" easily provide the template and soften us up for other forms of government control over our lives...
Read the whole article here
"Seatbelt Laws, Profiling and Restoring Liberty" by William J. Holdorf
State mandatory seatbelt harness laws are unconstitutional. They infringe on a person’s individual rights as guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, namely, the Fourth, Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments.
Such laws are an unwarranted intrusion by government into the personal lives of citizens; denies through prior restraint the right to determine a person’s own individual personal safety and health care standards for one’s own body, the ultimate private property, and forcefully, under threat, mandates the personal opinion of those in government.
Also, the use of a seatbelt is no real guarantee of safety. While some people might be saved in certain kinds of traffic accidents using a seatbelt, there is ample evidence that in other kinds of accidents some people have been more seriously injured and even killed only because of seatbelt use. Further, there is ample evidence that in certain kinds of accidents, some people have been saved from death only because a seatbelt was not used. It should be fully noted in the latter case, such a person is subject to a fine for not dying in the accident using a so-called safety device arbitrarily chosen by politicians...
Read the whole article here
Now we have advertisements, paid for by our tax dollars, informing us that our police forces will not be protecting us from or catching criminals. No. They will be on highways and byways, pulling over taxpayers to issue them another tax in the form of a ticket.
Don't you feel better now?!
My fellow Americans, we should all be up in arms over this law, as we should have been over the helmet laws for adult motorcycle riders. But keep sleeping and it will all be over soon.
LYCFYG (love your country, fear your government)
Read on...
posted by camojack | 21:14
12 Comments:
I'm with you!
In Indiana, about every third cop I pass, does NOT have his on, yet they have the commercials on constantly saying, "You WILL get a ticket!"
Kind of reminds me of the "pass" the politicians get.
One other thing is the cops that get caught drinking and driving, (at least the ones you actually hear about). MOST get a slap on the wrist, and their cruiser "take home" privledges taken away.
Let me add, I DO respect most cops, but am annoyed by the ones I afore mentioned, and the ones that let them 'slide'!
'Slide',---as in Cynthia McKinney!
Good Point! I love it.
And Happy Fathers Day!
I doesn't matter what the argument is as to whether it saves lives or not. The issue is that we are becoming the 'Nanny State" that many conservatives and libertarians fear. We don't need government to tell us this. Most poeple know it's a good idea. Get the Government off our backs or who knows what kind of law they are going to pass next. "Swearing under your breath perhaps?"
Next will be regulating more "lifestyle issues" much like smoking has already become. Some employers won't hire you if you smoke, ever, even at home. Next will be fat, you won't be able to get come jobs, won't qualify for or will be denied the benefits. Mind you I'm not fat (well, maybe not fighting weight but pretty close) but I do smoke but, the point is, these things all make sense (to someone, especially bean counters/insurance companies) so, because they have the funds to lobby, they eventually get what they want. It's the American way dang it!
So Air Bags for motorcycles would save lives... Hehehe... All the seat belt laws and the air bags are just another way for local communities to make money...
The current ad blitz for seat belts is to take attention away from the fact that todays cars are death traps at 35 miles per hour...
What burns my posterior...is a little fire about so high( Measure 2 feet) . But seriously folks, the way they sneaked the seat belt law in ,at least here in Wi and in Mo. They said, We'll have the law to get folks used to the idea ,but police are not going to be driving around peering into your car windows to see if your seatbelt is buckled. However if you are pulled over for something else or have an accident ,there would be a small fine"
Well, guess what? . The cops
do ride around peering in your car windows to see if your are buckled up . It is a lot easier and safer,than chasing crooks and they make a lot of money on the fines . The quotas ,you know.
I wear a seatbelt every time I drive. It's a holdover from when I had small children (ya just can't argue with a kid who doesn't want to wear a seatbelt or sit in a car seat/booster seat, when you aren't wearing YOUR seatbelt!).
However, I am very mush against a law mandating such a behavior. What's worse than the result of such a mandate (that you are forced to do something you don't want to, even though it harms no one but yourself), is the fact that it erodes the liberties of everyone in almost every other area of our lives. It's a slippery slope, people, and I ain't wearin' skis!
err, uh...make that "much", not "mush".
I swear I haven't had a drink all day...
In MI, they eventually changed the law to where they can (and do) pull you over just for not wearing your seatbelt. The little town near me (a noted speed trap) has overzealous cops who will pull you over for anything and everything. The more bogus the better. You see, they get paid overtime to appear in court, so if you take a day off work to fight a bogus ticket, all the better for them!
But I digress. I wear my seatbelt 95% of the time (the 5% being when I'm driving 800' down the road to the neighbor's). I probably wouldn't if it wasn't the law. But then, I grew up when dashboards were metal. ;o) Seatbelts have saved me and others I know. But I agree, it is an abuse by government.
Well, that "Big Ben"guy got charged today. I'm a total scofflaw, often winding the plastic car up to deadly high speeds.
Seat belts? I think I found one occasionally when winding a car up to 110 or so. Governmental control started about 30 years ago, when someone suggested it might be a nice idea to have a "non-smoking" table in the back of the restaurant.
JannyMae:
Child safety is a whole 'nother animal...mostly, I'm against being told what to do as an adult. Young children cannot make informed decisions regarding their own safety, and sometimes their parents don't either. In my home State, adults no longer have to wear motorcycle helmets, while children do; I have no philosophical problem with that...
Bad news, we have seatbelts laws here on the Islands. Nothing like turning cops into uniform tax collectors.
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