Do you see what I have to put up with?

Washington State was one of the first in the nation to mandate the wearing of seat belts. It started out as a secondary offense, meaning that they couldn’t pull you over for it, but could cite you for along with another moving violation.

Then, as nanny states do, it was moved up to a primary offense. I believe that the fine was also increased, though I am not positive of that fact.

Yesterday, (Barely) Governor Gregoire gladly announced that seat belt use was up.

And, of course, that it was all because of the government mandate.

Andrew, the barely pubescent proprietor of the Northwest Progressive Institute blog, transfigures himself into a puppy and figuratively licks the feet of Gregoire while proclaiming his happiness at this minor accomplishment

Governor Chris Gregoire announced today that Washingtonians lead the nation in buckling up when they get in their cars. A recently released study conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows that seat belt use in Washington has climbed an additional tenth of a point to 96.4%.

It’s thanks to a stronger public safety law passed by our Legislature that we are seeing these improvements.

When you have a Governor who demands tax increases so as to pay for her special programs, and who threatens to sue the federal government if Bush doesn’t sign the SCHIP bill to give free medical to illegal aliens and middle-class children whose parents can otherwise afford to pay for their health care coverage, I guess that you really have to grasp at whatever accomplishments you think you can get over people’s heads.

But that is all in a day’s work for Andrew. Like a good puppy, he’ll lap up any and all of Gregoire’s “good news” spiel. He and his NPI site are, after all, the driving force behind the group “Permanent Defense”, which has a network of people whose sole job is to harass people who aregathering signatures for conservative/right-wing Citizen Initiatives.
But then he went and concluded the above linked post with what must be the most ignorant thing I’ve read all week, if not this entire month

The libertarian right wing has and will continue to complain about the “nanny state”, but they seem to forget that a foremost responsibility of government is to provide protection, not only of our liberties but also our safety.

Emphasis his.

The fact that he recently graduated from the Washington Public School System makes me sad for the rest of his fellow recent graduates.

Does he not know that the SCOTUS has ruled multiple times that our “safety” is the least of the governments concerns and that no member of a government organization, body or group has to do so much as lift a finger to “protect” the “safety” of a citizen if they don’t feel they want to?

I would liek to know where in the Constitution he sees the proclamation that it is the government’s job to provide a constabulary, since it was nearly six decades after the it was written before NYC even started up the first organized group of police during a wave of crime crashing over the city.

The Texas Rangers weren’t even official until 1836, a decade before the Republic became a state.

About the closest thing Andrew could possibly be speaking of would be the 1789 creation of the US Marshall Service. Somebody had to enforce the decisions of the fledgling US federal judiciary. But they did not patrol, they made few arrests, and an even smaller number of those they did arrest ever faced trial.

I really just cannot see how any law, especially one madtating my use of s seatbelt makes me “safer”. It is my decision whether or not to follow the law, and the officer’s decision whether or not to pull me over and write me a ticket if I decide not to.

A piece of paper mandating seat belt use is as effective as the restraining orders I spoke of yesterday.

Andrew is delusional. Must be “smoking the pot” or something.

Or, since he promotes police state laws, maybe he just wants to live in one. How “Progressive”!