Regulate Safety?

[winsor 192]

'Nanny government' tells you what to do
March 22, 2007


ASSOCIATED PRESS
You're not eating that! Put the phone down! Pull those earbuds out! And put down that bat; you'll hurt someone!
Lawmakers around the country are passing or proposing laws to regulate the grease your doughnuts are fried in, the calls you make from the road, what you listen to when you cross the street, even the bat your child hits a baseball with.
The ideas are offered with the best intentions -- usually to minimize a newly recognized danger or to encourage healthy behavior. Lawmakers worry, for example, that text-messaging while driving can be deadly, and that foods fried in trans fats promote heart disease.
Critics counter that regulating french fries and BlackBerries infringes on personal liberties. "Nanny government" some critics call it, and they point to a playpen full of behavior-related bills before city councils and state legislatures.
"If we were really at war, if we were in a depression, people wouldn't be wasting their time with this stuff," said David Boaz, executive vice president of the libertarian Cato Institute, "but because we're not, you know, it's easy to look at every little thing that bothers you."
Attempts by the government to modify public behavior have a long history, from Prohibition in the '20s to safety-belt laws in the '80s and smoking bans in the '90s. In recent years, lawmakers have increasingly focused on food.
The big action this year involves trans fats, or partially hydrogenated vegetable oils used for deep frying and baking.
In December, New York City imposed the nation's first ban on the use of trans fats in restaurants. The idea has spread like greased lightning since then, with bans or warnings introduced in at least 18 states. Philadelphia recently approved a ban, and one was even discussed in Buffalo, N.Y., birthplace of the chicken wing.
New York's City Council recently called on residents to voluntarily stop using the n-word and approved a ban on metal baseball bats in high school games, because of fears that youngsters will get killed by balls rocketing off the bats. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has yet to take action on the bat ban.
New York in 2001 became the first state to make it illegal for drivers to talk on cell phones unless they have a hands-free set. And last month a state legislator proposed $100 fines for people who listen to IPods, talk on cell phones or text-message in New York City crosswalks.
Connecticut, New Jersey and the District, also have hand-held-while-driving bans. And 35 states have before them "distracted driver" bills aimed at activities like cell-phone use, text-messaging, DVD watching, reading, writing, grooming, even playing a musical instrument, said Matt Sundeen of the National Conference of State Legislatures.
California's cell-phone driving ban goes into effect next year. In the meantime, lawmakers there are being asked to consider a ban on smoking in cars if there are children in the vehicle. A bill that would make spanking a crime was withdrawn.
Two states, Arkansas and Louisiana, already ban smoking in cars if there is a passenger in a child seat, according to Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights. That is in addition to 21 states that ban smoking in bars or restaurants or workplaces or all three, according to the advocacy group.

[VincentVL. 0]

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Two states, Arkansas and Louisiana, already ban smoking in cars if there is a passenger in a child seat

This is regulating safety when the lives of other people are in danger. This is a good thing.

It only becomes annoying when they want to regulate your personal safety. Examples (good ideas or not): seatbelts, softdrugs, etc.

[Dumpster 0]

It should be common sense not to smoke in a car when kids are present. Jeez.

Easy Does It

[nathaniel 0]

I think after food they should start regulating exercise.

Maybe put a little tv in every house with a webcam on it so they can wake us up in the morning with an exercise program and check up on us make sure we are healthy and doing our jumping jacks.

My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

[lawrocket 3]

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It should be common sense not to smoke in a car when kids are present. Jeez.

Yes, common sense, but not law.

The problem is, people with no common sense used to kill themselves off until safety regulations made that more difficult for these people to kill themselves, and common sense is becoming far less common.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[okalb 79]

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people with no common sense used to kill themselves off until safety regulations made that more difficult for these people to kill themselves

You say that like it's a bad thing. I am really starting to agree with the people that say the best thing we can do for society is to remove all warning labels from everything. If you are too stupid to realize that you shouldn't use the hair dryer while in the bathtub maybe you deserve what you get. Are we messing with the laws of natural selection by overly protecting the stupid?

I am kidding to some extent, but in some ways it actually makes sense. The only problem is that the warning labels are not usually there to prevent people from doing things, they are really there to protect the companies from that lawsuits that would naturally follow when someone does something stupid.

Time flies like an arrow....fruit flies like a banana

[akarunway 1]

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I think after food they should start regulating exercise.

Maybe put a little tv in every house with a webcam on it so they can wake us up in the morning with an exercise program and check up on us make sure we are healthy and doing our jumping jacks.

I work heavy const. and a lot of companies are already doing this. 50 yr old const workers at 6 in the morning having to do exercises including a sobriety check . Standing on one leg. This shit is getting outta hand. Here's a good one>http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?articleId=f822935c-e2e5-420d-a188-58ca84ce7db2&headline=It%27s+%24250+a+pop+for+a+balloon+on+the+loose

I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

[Gene03 0]

Rereading George Orwell's 1984 are we?

“The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all is the person who argues with him.

Stanislaw Jerzy Lec quotes (Polish writer, poet and satirist 1906-1966)

[Gene03 0]

And thus is the crux of the hypotanuse.

“The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all is the person who argues with him.

Stanislaw Jerzy Lec quotes (Polish writer, poet and satirist 1906-1966)