I would be amazed to hear all my compatriots on the left praise Mike Bloomberg for his brave move to limit the size of sodas, except that I've heard it before.
Seat belt laws were possibly the first invasive moves heralded to protect us from ourselves. Random stops, barely rationalized for drunk driving, were now being permitted to assure seat belt compliance.
What I never got was why the law had the right to peer into my car to make sure I was buckled, when motorcyclists were out there big as day and unbuckled.
What I did get, though, was that seat belt laws were the darlings of the insurance industry, who presumably saved great amounts of money when the law "saved lives".
This need to protect us from ourselves, when pushed to the extreme, has gotten and will continue to get, ridiculous.
If you want to protect us from ourselves then you also need to make laws preventing:
-- Bicyclists from riding on roads with 50 mph speed limits;
-- All you can eat buffets;
-- High school sports.
I could go on and on, because basically, we all do things that are potentially dangerous. I am amazed when I am barreling down the highway that there are not more accidents, yet we continue to drive legal speeds that could kill us (even with seat belts).
Mountain climbing, water sports, even tennis has become brutal and unsafe.
So why stop at seat belts and Big Gulps?
Because we should be defending the freedom to make our own decisions about the risks we take, and the accessibility of information allowing us the ability to make educated choices.
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