Posted on 06/01/2009 3:15:15 PM PDT by GraceG
Imagine you're having a backyard barbeque. A cop walks in and announces, "This is a random health and safety check to see whether you've removed the skin from the chicken before you served it." Though delicious in taste, we all know that chicken skin contains considerable unhealthy fat. If you're caught serving chicken skin, the cop gets your ID and issues you a $50 ticket.
If something like this were to occur, most Americans -- I hope -- would see such an action as ludicrous, offensive and a gross violation of our liberties. But not so fast. Let's think about it. Each year, obesity claims the lives of 300,000 Americans and adds over $100 billion to health-care costs. Doesn't that give government the right to dictate what we eat? If you're the least offended by the notion of government dictating our diets, pray tell me how it differs in principle from seatbelt laws and especially the new federal enforcement program called "Click It or Ticket."
Under the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, the federal government is spending $500 million to aggressively enforce seatbelt laws. According to a July Consumers Research article written by Eric Peters titled "The Federal Government Wants You to Buckle Up," about 11,000 law enforcement agencies across the country have set up random checkpoints and have issued hundreds of thousands of tickets to unbelted drivers and passengers.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
Yep, this came up the last time I talked to my cousin, a highway patrolman here in Texas, and he said the seatbelt laws are really nothing more doorways giving probable cause to pull over someone. If the person acts nervous, upset, shows any emotion, THAT can be called probable cause to search the vehicle. I was nervous as hell the night when I got pulled over for having my taillights out due to a blown fuse, and while I wasn’t doing nor had anything illegal with me, he could have searched the whole truck for any minor infraction!
Trading liberty for security...
Health, Safety and the Pursuit of Idle Pastimes.......
The mantra of the “Modern American”.
Sad really
I'll say. They're even running them here in Arizona where we don't have a Primary Hose Your Employer (Seat Belt) Law. They say that if you don't wear a belt "You will get a ticket". That's not even technically a true statement in a state with a Primary Hose Your Employer Law, and certainly not in a state without one. Why are these people not in prison for fraud?
Freedom Ping!
But it's OUR FOOKING MONEY! If we'd never sent it to them in the first place, and they never sent [some of] it back, we'd have the money to pay for our own head injuries. That's why I think federal grants based on certain behavior by the states should be illegal. Freepmail me if you want a really really long winded explanation of how I feel on this issue.
We agree on the basic premise; it's our money. but in reality it only empowers them and weakens us. This is not something that is going to be easily overcome, and not in the short term. I have long felt that it is going to take some cataclysmic event(s) to get us back on track. However, now with the election of Obama, the cataclysmic events are cascading into our future and we are now rapidly approaching the need for an all our revolution.
We agree on the basic premise; it's our money. but in reality it only empowers them and weakens us. This is not something that is going to be easily overcome, and not in the short term. I have long felt that it is going to take some cataclysmic event(s) to get us back on track. However, now with the election of Obama, the cataclysmic events are cascading into our future and we are now rapidly approaching the need for an all our revolution.
It’s about making money for the state and making money for the insurance companies. Government and corporations worked together to craft the plan. It’s fascism, basically.
Alright. I’ve made a couple posts on it before, but I’m closing in on 10,000 posts here so trying to find them would probably be futile, and I was just typing as fast as I could think, doing as much venting as reasoning probably. But sometime in the next couple days I’ll sit down and write something coherent and logical, and keep a copy locally that I can repost when warranted. With all the current interest in resurrecting the 10th amendment, I could probably even get away with starting a thread.
By the way, how did you manage to double post 23 minutes apart?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.