Posted on 06/23/2003 6:26:17 PM PDT by Clive
On the bizarre "sport" of dwarf-tossing that Liberal MPP Sandra Pupatello wants banned, an editorial in the Windsor Star had the most persuasive reaction: "Dwarf-tossing is a repugnant and silly act, but ultimately it is a private act between consenting adults."
Pupatello must be starved for issues to champion if she resorts to a private member's bill at Queen's Park to impose a $5,000 fine and six months in jail for dwarf-tossing -- a penalty more severe than that meted out for skinning a cat alive.
Distressingly, Tory Safety and Security Minister Bob Runciman seems to agree with Pupatello -- "Nanny Pupatello," to quote the Windsor Star. He calls it "taking advantage of less fortunate people for profit."
C'mon down to earth, Bobby! Fine for Puppy and Liberals to interfere with the "harmless free will of people" because that's their style. But surely not the bluest of blue Tory ministers.
The 4-foot-8 dwarf who calls himself "Tripod" and whose profession is getting tossed by customers at a Windsor strip club angrily said he is doing what he does by choice: "I'm an adult and can make my own decisions. I don't need people telling me what I can and can't do."
Precisely.
If Puppy and others are truly concerned about lives that are demeaned, the Windsor Star suggests an investigation into whether "free will" is really being exercised by prostitutes who are hooked on drugs and controlled by pimps.
Humiliating stunts
Or schizophrenics who refuse medication and wander the streets. Or addicted gamblers who destroy the lives and incomes of their families.
The Sun also editorially thinks Puppy is meddling in areas where politicians have no business and points to TV shows like Fear Factor and Survivor where people do dangerous and humiliating stunts and eat nauseating food in hopes of winning money.
In 1859, in his book On Liberty, the classic liberal philosopher John Stuart Mill wrote that people should be free to do as they choose, up to the point of harm to others. But that's not our Big Liberal way.
Big Liberals like dictating to others, imposing rules, deciding what we, the people, can and cannot do, even when it's none of their business and harms no one.
Pupatello's view of dwarfs who earn income by wearing a helmet and being tossed to the hoots and hollers of patrons who go in for this sort of thing is condescending.
It's her attitude that is demeaning, not the people being tossed five or six feet. Otherwise she'd grant them the dignity of choosing for themselves.
Puppy's attitude is a warning against electing Liberal governments in Ontario -- which may be why voters have instinctively avoided electing Liberal governments in every provincial election except one since 1937.
None of Liberals' business
The message seems clear: Elect the Liberals of Dalton McGuinty and MPPs like Puppy will start dabbling in areas that are none of government's business, and making decisions they think are the best for the rest of us, and to hell with individualism and free choice.
Of course, dwarf-tossing is low-class and offensive to many. (Thank the Australians for this art form!) Most people don't want to be either tossers or the tossed.
But little guys who earn a living being hurled seem to enjoy curious celebrity status, are treated decently and with some respect. Surely that's what's important, not what Nanny Pupatello thinks is acceptable.
Puppy represents Windsor West, and it's fair to suppose she won't be on the Windsor Star's slate in the next election. And I bet dwarfs whose job preference is to be tossed won't be voting Liberal either.
And who can blame them?
Too right!
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