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From: kirkg@uw-june (Kirk Glerum)
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: mandatory seatbelt laws
Message-ID: <895@uw-june>
Date: Thu, 19-Jan-84 17:47:52 EST
Article-I.D.: uw-june.895
Posted: Thu Jan 19 17:47:52 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 21-Jan-84 23:13:31 EST
Organization: U. Washington, Computer Sci
Lines: 17


  If think that both mandatory seat belt and motorcycle helmet laws are
terrible ideas.  In a free country, like this one, I should be able to go out
and risk my life by doing such incredibly stupid things like driving my car
without using my seat belt, or riding my motorcycle without my helmet.  If I
succeed in killing myself, so be it.  It is none of your business to try to
protect me from my own stupidity.  It is a different matter regarding child
restraint device laws; should society tell parents how to protect their
children?  It is also a different matter regarding legislation on, say, 
requiring hood ornaments to bounce back from the hood of the car, since it's
somebody besides the owner of the car who would be skewered by the thing.
  It is not the proper function of government to protect individuals from their
own stupidity.  I think that it is *against the law* to climb a step ladder
above the second step from the top.  

Kirk Glerum
    ...decvax!microsoft!uw-beaver!uw-june!kirkg