rant is where the heart is

diaryland: sirilyan.diaryland.com: entry for 2001-05-11 (00:21:00)
In which our plucky young hero does, indeed, feel overgoverned.

I guess that police have conversations like this all the time in the world some people want:

"Hey, look. That guy's driving the wrong way up a one-way street, with a newspaper in one hand and a coffee mug in the other, steering with his knees."

"No, no, see how his feet are sticking out the passenger side window? He's not steering at all."

"My God! If only there was some sort of... law... or maybe a regulation that would let us pull him over and give him a fine."

"Indeed. Look, he just ran over a nun. Too bad he hasn't done anything illegal."

"Who cares? Look over there, someone's driving the speed limit and keeping at least two car lengths of space while talking on a cell phone!"

"Dammit, that's worse than Hitler! Hit the siren, Joe."

I've mentioned this before, but it's worth mentioning again: there's this shocking concept in jurisprudence called "innocent until proven guilty", not "innocent until doing something you find annoying" or "innocent until you buy something that some asshole considers a toy". It's an interesting idea. People should consider it, sometime.

Unfortunately for those of us who actually like not being turned into criminals overnight by parliamentary fiat, it's always easier to make new, overly specific, discriminatory laws than enforce the ones already on the books. Who cares if it's already illegal to endanger other people on the road, if it's already okay to throw someone out of your movie theater if they're ruining it for everyone else? Ban this! $500 fine for that! What, someone's driving with their feet while wearing a bondage hood? No problem, as long as they don't have a cell phone!

Christ, it's almost enough to make me a libertarian.

(Don't worry, I said "almost".) (Browse: previous or next. Notes: post or read.)

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