Engineering

» JohnCrandall - What do you think?

In response to What do you think? posted by NaomiRG:

Yes, the transfat thing is definitely a travesty. Is "Big Brother" flexing his totalitarian muscles? Hamburgers are not a healthy food, should we outlaw them? Pizza with a lot of meats? If the government makes even one such decision for us we become liars if we call ourselves a free society, and the precedents are set for total control of our every thought and action.

So I say, "I think hamburgers and french fries are delicious, and I want to sell this delicious food to other people who like it."

The police come and say, "You can't serve hamburgers and french fries.", and they write me a citation, or cuff me and take me to jail.

Thats not liberty, freedom, free market, democratic, or anything else our country usually claims to be. It is just like Hitler's making decisions about the value of Jews for a whole country. It is totalitarianism although maybe just in its birth stages. Today it's hamburgers, in the future it may be internet writers writing about bad laws, people with a certain heritage, or people who like lasagna with a lot of parmesain (I'm guilty of liking lasagna, cuff me, how utterly ridiculous).

The Right to Liberty surely covers hamburgers and french fries, and if legislatures or City Councils can take that precious right, then the 1st Amendment won't protect us from the CIA acting under the Patriot Act if they decide writing about seatbelts and french fries is "terrorism". That law states no habeas corpus or right to a jury, and trail by a military court with sentences including death for "terrorists" which is a word dangerously lacking a solid definition in the legislation. The Jacobins had good intentions at one point as well,but that didn't prevent the Reign of Terror as events unfolded.

I'm still considering your question about infant car seats. I'll get back to you on that. . .

-- posted by JohnCrandall

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» JohnCrandall - What do you think?

In response to What do you think? posted by JohnCrandall:

Here's what I think about the infant car seats. I think it is a somewhat more justifiable law than the seatbelt laws because it protects helpless babies without much decision making capability. However, the babies still have a right to freedom, and so do their parents. That's where it gets a little sticky, because courts used to regularly uphold parents rights to make decisions for their children. Like so many other issues the modern trend is away from the older precedents, and parents today do not seem to be able to claim their rights as easily as they once did. I would say that the frequency of divorce and child custody fights is partially to blame for this trend. A house divided against itself cannot stand, or protect its rights. And so although I would personally support the parents rights in most cases, I don't think they are as clearcut, obviously indefeasable, and Constitutionally guaranteed as the rights of the individual.

-- posted by JohnCrandall

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» locke53 - What do you think?

In response to What do you think? posted by JohnCrandall:

Hello John,
I have been surfing the net for comments, opinions and data on this daunting phenomona.
I must say that your comments have really nailed it.
For years I have told myself that if I ever received a ticket for this I would fight it tooth and claw. The time has arrived.
I refuse to wear a seatbelt. I personally feel they do nothing for my safety.
I am certain they inhibit my ability to drive properly and to react sharply if an emergency presents itself before me on the road. I feel restrained by one because that is precisely what they are; restraints, in more ways than one.

Even though I work more than 80 hours per week (partially to support this so-called war on terrorism that Uncle Sam keeps extracting money from me for) I have been spending my "spare" time collecting data for my court case on 1/31/07.
There are reams of data that resist the notion that "seat belts save lives".
I am sure that they have on occasion but certainly not enough to evolve this slogan as the mantra for the insurance lobbyists and legislatures to deprive us from our essential liberties.
Most people hear this mantra (Seat belts save lives)and are mesmerized into accepting it as fact.
for an example read this thread of otherwise intelligent people (my comment is the 1/22/07):
http://www.talkleft.com/story/2006/05/24...
I am truly scared that it is too late for us. That big brother has his grip on the plaintive collective intellect of america and we will go wherever they wish to usher us.
Give me some hope.
Locke

-- posted by locke53

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» pink101 - Jim Robbins

In response to What do you think? posted by JohnCrandall:
.
Seatbelt laws are very curious--in a way.
.
I remember when seat belts first came into use. Seat belts didn't catch on right away. It took a few years. They were sold in hardware stores and in parts deparments in car dealerships. If memory serves, the man who made them popular was Jim Robbins. He died in an airplace crash.
.
Once the auto manufacturers caught on to the idea that installing seat belts on an automobile was an easy way to make more money, it soon was a law that they be an automatic accessory on every new car. When was that, in the 1960s? Later it became a law that the driver and passengers had to be buckeled up.
.
It seems to me that I remember complaints from people who claimed seat belt laws were unconstitutional laws that restrained incividuals. They sure do save a lot of lives. I always wear mine.
.

-- posted by pink101

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» JohnCrandall - Jim Robbins

In response to Jim Robbins posted by pink101:
I wouldn't disagree with you that seatbelts can potentially save lives. However, I consider the freedom/liberties supposedly gauranteed to us by our Constitution to be more important than lives. My Grandpa told me that, that was why so many Americans died in wars, to preserve those precious liberties!
I'm not trying to cheapen the value of human life. I'm trying to revive a dying spirit of freedom that says an individual has a right to choose when, how, or why he protects or risks his own safety. That's part of the original "Spirit of 1776", those fighting for independence chose to defy tyranny, and risk their lives for freedom. A freedom which they then attempted to assure to us by drafting the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights! I won't reiterate, but merely point you back to my original blog post as to how blantantly and obviously our Rights are infringed by these laws.a href="http://transportationhistory.suite101.co..."

-- posted by JohnCrandall

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» tha_rockdog - What do you think?

In response to What do you think? posted by JohnCrandall:

I too believe the seatbelt mandatory law is against our rights.
Who are they to say what we can OR cannot do to our own bodies.
I had also gotten a ticket a few years back and I too was hustled as to my date because I wanted to fight it. I ended up paying approx $200-$250 in fines, missed work, etc.
I feel as long as we are old enough to think for ourselves,
(which could be constrewed as driving or voting, or even
fighting for our country) we should be able to choose to wear
them, (seatbelts), or not.
In the area of child restraints, I believe THAt should be
mandatory due to the fact our children depend on us to keep them
safe. I'm not real sure where the age of that law should stop
though, maybe 15-16? OR maybe as soon as they get their own
drivers license.
I firmly impress on my daughter to wear hers and that is because I care, BUT if she didn't want to, the only thing it should do is upset me, NOT put her in jail.
Those are my opinions on this restrictive and rights altering law.
Thanks for this site.

-- posted by tha_rockdog

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» JohnCrandall - Seatbelt Laws

Thanks for posting, I completely agree with you.

-- posted by JohnCrandall

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» hopnmad - My story of violated rights!

-- posted by hopnmad

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» hopnmad - My story of violated rights!

I am totally against the seatbelt laws! I feel that our freedom is being slowly taken away from us while we are pompous enough to act like the world police and wage wars to gain foreign countries the same "Freedoms" that we have! These foriegn countries are moving forward while we are moving backward!
I am unable to wear a seatbelt because I suffer from claustraphobia and anxiety. People in my situation were warned that we would be required to have a Doctor's exemption in writting, in our vehicle at all times, to avoid a ticket.
I have one. No, make that three! Laminated and in every vehicle as well as in my purse.
I have been stopped numerous times and feel that I am being harrassed and unfairly targeted, over a law that violates my civil rights. The most basic right is to be the master of your own body. If we don't have that basic right, then we have no freedom at all!
The last time that I was stopped, it was by a County Sheriff.
He was very rude and hostile. I have gotten to the point that I have my Medical exemption card ready with my license, I think that made him angry.
He informed me that he could still ticket me even though I had the exemption, because Doctors have no right to exempt someone from obeying the law!
I was so angry, I called the Sheriff's office when I got home and asked them if what he said was true. They confirmed that he was right, and informed me that I could fight the ticket in court, had I gotten one. HUH!!! That is totally beside the point! Why tell people they need a medical exemption if they are not going to honor them?
But I didn't stop there, I called every branch of law enforcement that I could find to ask them the same questions.
What I found out is that the state Police do honor these cards, but the city and county police don't!
So, how are people supposed to obey laws that change from one jurisdiction to another, and may have never been made public?
This sounds like what I like to call "spite" laws, you know the laws that are never really enforced until you make a cop mad? When he really doesn't have anything cite you for, he can choose to fall back on one of these spite laws.
Years ago the police were real people, now they're devoid of emotion, perpetually suspicious to the point of paranoia, and act as if all citizens are guilty until granted innocent by themselves!
Why was the seatbelt law created in the first place? Because our government cares so much about our safety? Not when they denounce your own Doctors orders in favor of their own! And certainly not when you are treated with such hostility and disrespect from the "Best and Brightest" that they send to enforce their message of love and care!
I've done everything that has been demanded of me to be legally exempt from prosecution for a situation beyond my control, only for them to deny it's validity.
The message I'm getting... YOU WILL BUCKLE UP, OR BUCKLE UNDER!

-- posted by hopnmad

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» JohnCrandall - My story of violated rights!

In response to My story of violated rights! posted by hopnmad:

Hi,

Sorry to be a little late in responding. I have been very busy. I sympathize with you, because seatbelts also make me feel unnecessarily restrained and claustrophobic. I don't have a doctor's excuse, but I do know how I feel, and I believe with an absolute certainty that I have the inalienable right to act on how I feel in this case because nobody else's right/rights or safety is involved. It is simply a bad law. I agree it gives the police the right to stop you just for spite, and I wish somebody would successfully fight it in court. It is so hard to do, because the fines are so small, and court costs and fines if you lose are so large. The system put in place to insure citizens could be heard in cases involving their rights is not working for us here. I don't know what the answer is, but I hope one is found soon.

-- posted by JohnCrandall

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