I live in Texas and seatbelt laws are strongly enforced here with stiff penalties. I know this from personal experience. A few years ago a State Trooper stopped me for not wearing mine and gave me a ticket. Being originally from Missouri where you cannot be stopped for not wearing a seat-belt or at least you couldn’t when I lived there, I was annoyed about being stopped but when I looked at the back of the ticket and saw that the fine was $140….! I was beside myself and I still haven’t gotten over it.
The Nanny State is the Anti-Liberty State
Every day, if I want to listen to my radio, I am subjected to advertisements (at the tax payers expense I’m certain) on why I should be wearing my seatbelt and how that “the State” is only looking out for my best interest by having such a law and that the stiff penalties inflicted upon the citizens who disregard this law are fully justified because “the State” is only trying to keep you and me from causing our family and friends the grief they would have to endure should we be seriously injured or even die because we weren’t wearing our seatbelt.
So my question is this. If it is “the States” JOB to protect me from my own stupidity then where does it stop? Why not outlaw PB&J? After all I’m sure peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches are no doubt bad for my health and will ultimately lead to my premature death which, would of course cause my family and friends a great deal of grief and perhaps even hardship.
I have to be honest here. Every time I hear the ads come on I turn my radio off because it just absolutely infuriates me. Am I the only one or does everyone else in the world like being told what they can and can’t do with regards to their own person. I own myself and “the State” has no right to tell me how to take care of my own body — period!
The same logic applies when it comes to drug laws. I don’t use drugs and I think people who do are falling into a deep pit but it is not the state’s job to use tax payer money to persecute people who use or sell drugs for the same reason as they don’t have a right to tell us we can’t eat peanut-butter and jelly or drive our vehicle without wearing a seatbelt. (Texas has no helmet laws by the way for motorcycle riders. Talk about hypocrisy) It’s the pinnacle of the “Nanny State”.
The only laws they should make and enforce are laws with regards to one person(s) violating the property, person or rights of another which, is the same standard that the state itself should be held to.
The state is using violence or the threat of it to enforce laws against people who are not committing violence against anyone else’ person, property or rights. The state has no right to control what people choose to put into their own bodies and or how they choose to use their own bodies no matter how detrimental it may be to that person . If a person is under the influence of a narcotic or alcohol and commits an act of violence against another that is when a real crime is committed and when laws would be enforced.
Do we not realize that by allowing “the State” to make laws with regards to our own bodies we have given up ownership of ourselves? “But it saves lives” they say. I don’t care. This whole idea of preemptive everything is ludicrous and immoral and absolutely crushes the whole concept of liberty. It’s the same immoral imperative they use to justify the multiple wars the U.S. is currently engaged in and it’s wrong.
I didn’t ask for their protection from myself and I don’t want it and it darn sure shouldn’t be forced down my throat with the threat of violence. So is it unrealistic to think that they will outlaw peanut-butter and jelly? After all it’s their job to take care of the village idiots to make sure there are no undue burdens put upon society. They would say: “We must consider the needs of the nation above the needs of the individual.” Hitler said the same thing and Hilary Clinton has said basically the same thing as well. So say good-bye to peanut butter jelly sandwiches because it won’t be long now.