Do as I Say, Not as I Do.

Wait just a goll durned minute! 

Hold yer hawses!

Whoa...!

Now ear buds?

What the hell is going on?   At what point does the government stop interfering in our lives?

I understand the need for laws and regulations.  Laws and regulations make sense in as diverse a society as ours.  We need them to keep order and to protect ourselves.

And I also understand the link between certain laws and the common interest.  If I don't wear a helmet when I'm riding my motorcycle, provided I had one which I don't, and I hit a guard rail with my head at 60 mph and I go to the hospital and need thousands of dollars of care that you have to pay for because I might not have insurance...then you have a beef with me about not wearing a helmet.

It's money out of your pocket not to mention the EMTs and the cops and the clean up crew.

But can't we find a different solution?  What about releases or waivers or opting in or out?  What about the vanishing concept of personal responsibility?

Many in this country make a lot of noise about the U.S. being a nation with a frontier mentality of self reliance and personal choice.  Some of that noise resonates here.

Some choices affect the general public and some don't.  Secondhand smoke affects those who choose not to smoke.  Drinking a gallon of soda with every meal affects no one but the drinker...and his dentist who can put kids through college with the reconstructive fees.

And please spare me the rhetoric about too much sugary soda leading to obesity.  Too many cheeseburgers, beer, candy and potato chips do too and we're not looking to limit those products any time soon.  "You want fry with that...?"

If I choose to use heroin or listen to music at 1000db or have a relationship with a member of my own sex why should you care?

If my actions have consequences on society, as a whole, then fine, but if not, then there could, and should be other remedies. 

If we legalized drugs (other than aspirin, Tylenol, Viagra, etc. which already are and represent a gabillion dollar industry, I might add...), taxed them and levied punishments on people who broke the law in the pursuit of these drugs, we could balance the budget, remove the deficit and pay off the national debt in, say, about twenty minutes, give or take.

I think very few people of my age don't smoke pot, for example.  Let the convenience store sell it and tax it like cigarettes or alcohol.  Use the tax to fund better schools, fix the infrastructure and pay for anti-abuse programs.

Use that same methodology on almost all of the other socially questionable issues of the day.

Too much sugar in our soda pop...tax it!  Too many accidents on the highway...raise the use taxes!  Too much hearing loss from our iPods?  Make them cost $1,000 a pair and see how many people buy boom boxes...

Uh, oh!  Maybe my ear bud example is a bridge too far.  Can't bring back boom boxes now can we.  Remember the character in "Do the Right Thing" with his refrigerator sized boom box?  That would be too much!  Ear buds/headphones are definitely an improvement I think we can all agree upon

But you get my point here.  Legislate when a law creates a safeguard that affects us all in meaningful and helpful ways.  Don't when it doesn't.

Leave me alone to make my own decisions please.

My choices only affect you if you let them.

So now, let's scream down the PCH at 100 on my Motoguzzi, helmetless, burning a doobie chased with a Big Gulp (and the CHP, no doubt...) listening to The Allman Brothers at Fillmore East at 120db with my flesh colored, lavender scented ear buddies!

The Allman Brothers at Fillmore East.  The absolutely, positively, totally best album ever recorded for road trips.

Or any trips for that matter...

No question...!