“I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”
-Thomas Jefferson
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves” -W. Shakespeare, Julius Caesar (I, ii, 140-141)
For the past few years I am beginning to feel like the TV Anchorman Howard Beale played brilliantly by acting great Peter Finch in the classic 1976 movie “Network”. In the movie he loses his sanity on a live news broadcast and urges every American to get out of his chair, open a window and shout: “I am mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore!” As I keep hearing of new ways progressives in government (Federal, State & Local) Try to control us in the guise of acting like our parents, I want to shout and tell them this “One son of the Republic” is all grown up now and doesn’t need mothering from you.
All this of course is done with the best of intentions, The state must protect you, after all you don’t know any better, and yeah right. Its really all about control, taxation , erosion and forfeiture of your basic individual rights under our constitution.
On the Federal Level, A draft of a bill was released Thursday that will require a more intrusive “Black Box” be installed on new cars by one of the House committees investigating Toyota’s massive recalls. The draft bill was released Thursday by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the committee that overseas the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration), and Sen. John D. Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), chair of the Senate commerce committee. The propose stated by them is to insure future recalls be handled quickly. The bill will include a Vehicle Safety fee that would be paid by the car manufacturers.
My question to the good congressmen is this: If this is to solely to insure future prompt recalls of defective vehicles then why include gathering of personal data such as miles and speed driven. Hmmm this is interesting since this comes after an earlier idea floated last year by some states and the Federal Government that gasoline taxes be assessed per mile driven instead of per gallon purchased to influence our driving behavior.
Another intrusion is the recent commerce dept. regulation regulating the sale of children’s toys at a residential yard & garage sales. Better be careful you can be fined for selling that old train set or that 1970’s Susie Homemaker Oven you found in your attic gathering dust that doesn’t comply with 21st century child safety regulations even if you sell it to an adult. Tell me how does a private sale that is not sold over state lines fall into the Federal Governments responsibility under the commerce clause? After all we are all children to Uncle Sam. This is just a few federal examples among many but the states are also getting into the act .
Santa Clara CA is banning McDonalds from giving free “Happy Meal” toys with the purchase of their hamburgers. How is a free promotional item given and accepted freely; a toy a concern of any level of government? The reason of course is for the good of the children. The town fathers of Santa Clara must think the parents are incapable of raising their children since they are the ones buying these meals for their kids. After all Hillary Clinton says “it takes a village”. I guess parents are now considered the “village idiots” incapable of saying a simple NO to their children .
This absurdity and curtailing of freedom and the government socializing individual responsibility is not just limited to the “Left Coast” or to food aimed at our children, its spread to the northeast and to us adults. A Bill introduced by New York Assemblyman Felix Ortiz, D-Brooklyn, on March 5th would ban the use of salt in New York restaurant cooking, ,” the bill, A. 10129, states in part.: “No owner or operator of a restaurant in this state shall use salt in any form in the preparation of any food for consumption by customers of such restaurant, including food prepared to be consumed on the premises of such restaurant or off of such premises”
The legislation, which, would fine restaurants $1,000 for each violation. Hmmm I wonder if this also will apply to the Manhattan street vendors who sell those great extra salty warm pretzels? I guess the state must protect us from our personal palette also.
Maybe when we leave this mortal coil we will be left alone, but not even physical death seems to stop the progressives from telling us what to do even with our mortal remains. New York State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky introduced a new bill in Albany that would enroll all New Yorkers as an organ donor, unless they actually opt out of organ donation. To be fair to Assemblyman Brodsky on his intensions, he almost lost his daughter to the lack of available kidneys but should that “justify” the disregarding of The 5th amendment. Are we not adult enough to “Opt In” instead of the state making these decisions for us? After all the Progressives have been saying for the last 40 years that woman can terminate a pregnancy (In my mind end a human life) for any reason because its her body, with that same reasoning shouldn’t we have the same rights with out bodies after we die without having to “Opt Out”?
The rise of the “Nanny State” in America is not only an affront to our dignity and freedom to choose as individuals but is often corrupted by the government to try to control our behavior, when is it going to get to the point for instance that certain unpopular speech be considered harmful to us, one just has to look at the beginnings of this in Canada and in some countries in Europe.
Where does this all end, I hope it will when we return to the principles of our founding Fathers and the constitution. Until then all freedom sons & daughters of the republic Should remain vigilant, peacefully fight and not accept the progressive agenda. We should take Howard Beale’s advice and shout from one end of the country to the other: : “I am mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore!”
Just my Opinion, D.B.