2005-11-15 - 10:04 p.m.
The national booster seat organization (www.boosterseat.gov) recommends that all kids 4�9� and under sit in booster seats in cars.
Isn�t that like 10 years old for most kids? I know some adults that aren�t much taller than that. Just struck me as a bit over protective. I mean if we all wore crash helmets in our cars I�m sure head injuries would plummet as well.
There is probably nothing too this, I don�t have kids myself, and I grew up in the lawn dart years so my view of kids safety is a bit skewed. We got things like bows and arrows and guns for Christmas.
I just know that being 10 was tough enough without having to sit in a car seat.
My bigger problem with things like this is that they often go from government �Recommendations� to government �Law�
I have a natural aversion to any law that is imposed to protect me from myself. I know that the whole booster seat thing doesn�t even fall in this category, but I�m on a roll.
Seatbelt laws and Motorcycle Helmet laws especially drive me crazy.
It is funny because I would wear my seatbelt and my helmet* whether it was legislated or not, but the fact that I�m required by law to do so drives me nuts. If I choose to be stupid and get killed of seriously injured in a crash because I didn�t wear my seatbelt shame on me, but what is it to you?
*Most of the time
Seat belts save lives!
I know that, but what really drives these things is that:
Seat belts save money!
If you press the issue with public safety advocates, once you get past the general busy body nature of this argument, is that drivers who don�t wear seat belts cost the state money and help keep insurance rates and health care costs high. I don�t really buy that but I do buy this:
Mandatory seat belt laws are a very effective way for a state to raise a little extra cash.
�State Patrol Chief Lowell Porter said the seat belt law saves more than 65 lives a year. Troopers stopped nearly 105,000 motorists last year for not wearing seat belts and ticketed about 82,000, he said.�
That is from a study that Washington State put out this year, (could not find a NC report)
The fine for not wearing a seat belt in Washington is $101.00 per person not wearing a restraint.
That is $8,282,000.00, plus the standard court fees ect.
That is also one year, in a state that has the highest compliance rate in the country.
I know that 8.2 million is not a lot of cash when it comes to a state budget, but it is also free money in the bank, and to me anyway, it is absolute B.S.
Look,
Speeding kills other people
Driving drunk kills other people
Driving aggressively kills other people
Driving while talking on a cell phone kills people
Driving without a seatbelt kills� you.
See where I�m going here?
Anyway, when it comes down to it I�m not anti seat belt or helmet or life preserver or any of that stuff, I am anti �keep me from hurting myself law�
Bonus word definition:
From urbandictionary.com
African-American:
1: The current, acceptable, yuppie certified, politically correct way to refer to anyone of even distant African descent. Designed to eliminate any unintended racial tension in this hypersensitive, perpetually offended society we've become where people just can't lighten the f*ck up anymore.
�That's not a poor black guy dressed up as Santa Claus, that's an economically disadvantaged African American exercising the right to achieve monetary compensation by commercially benefiting from the Euro centrically imposed midwinter festival"
The true definition:
1. A person, born on the continent of Africa, who becomes a naturalized citizen of the United States of America.
2. A very commonly misused term, (albeit one deemed politically correct by people afraid to use the word "black") describing the black population of the United States of America.
�While Taneisha thought she was African-American, she was born right here in Lower Alabama.�
Look I�ll refer to people however they want to be referred to, but I feel more and more that this whole �African-American� thing is a �European-American� driven inability to discus race in a frank and open manner.
So who is the most famous �African-American� you know?
Probably Dave Matthews.
-Justus
