Dear God.... It's me, PP.
Please save us from the do gooders...
They're back at it again. The do gooders who are going to save us from ourselves. What am I talking about? House Bill 1134 - a measure to put everyone in Booster seats until they are age 8.
With this, I'd have kids in three child seats (instead of one), down to two next month, and by this summer I'd be back up to three. This is beyond silliness.
At what point are we allowed to be responsible for ourselves? Has personal responsibility gone out the window? In my car, I make sure my kids are strapped in safely and appropriately. No one is jumping around, and all are adequately safe.
But this bill seems to insist that, "no, that's not good enough." And so, the nanny state must come into play. What a load of crap. Are we so lost in the wilderness that we have to have state mandates telling us when to do everything? What's next, no-trans fats, and mandating when we have to go to the bathroom?
I suspect that if this passes, we can expect that next year the measure will raise the booster seat age to 14. What's after that? Any legislation thereafter will require that everyone be wrapped in bubble wrap until we hit age 21. (Although, if we say the bubble wrap is like a big condom, we might get the measure killed at that point.)
I can understand the Democrats on this measure, but a good conservative like Senator Gant? (Say it ain't so, Jason).
Please, please. Can we recover some sanity in the process? Take this legislation out and give it a Russian execution behind the Capitol building.
We need less government regulation in our lives, not more.
Any operator of a passenger vehicle operated on a public street or highway in this state transporting a passenger who is at least five andRead all of this ridiculous measure here.underless than eight years of age or less than fifty-two inches in height shall assure that the passenger is seated in a booster seat properly secured by a lap and shoulder belt system. Any operator of a passenger vehicle operated on a public street or highway in this state transporting a passenger who is at least eight years of age or at least fifty-two inches in height and less than eighteen years of age shall assure that the passenger is wearing a properly adjusted and fastened safety seat belt system...
With this, I'd have kids in three child seats (instead of one), down to two next month, and by this summer I'd be back up to three. This is beyond silliness.
At what point are we allowed to be responsible for ourselves? Has personal responsibility gone out the window? In my car, I make sure my kids are strapped in safely and appropriately. No one is jumping around, and all are adequately safe.
But this bill seems to insist that, "no, that's not good enough." And so, the nanny state must come into play. What a load of crap. Are we so lost in the wilderness that we have to have state mandates telling us when to do everything? What's next, no-trans fats, and mandating when we have to go to the bathroom?
I suspect that if this passes, we can expect that next year the measure will raise the booster seat age to 14. What's after that? Any legislation thereafter will require that everyone be wrapped in bubble wrap until we hit age 21. (Although, if we say the bubble wrap is like a big condom, we might get the measure killed at that point.)
I can understand the Democrats on this measure, but a good conservative like Senator Gant? (Say it ain't so, Jason).
Please, please. Can we recover some sanity in the process? Take this legislation out and give it a Russian execution behind the Capitol building.
We need less government regulation in our lives, not more.
Comments
Democrats trying to legislate the behavior of moron parents, who shouldn't be parents. No piece of legislation is going to make up for the lack of intelligence.
Reason we can't fix the schools...we can't fix the parents, but let's throw some more money at education to fix the schools.
Have tests shown that children that size should be in booster seats in order to be safer in case of an accident? If not, then you have a valid gripe. But if tests have proven that, why wouldn't you want your kids to be as safe as possible?
Or is it because you won't be able to fit everyone into your already crowded Suburban if you use the booster seats?
Newland, of course, is correct. Both represent needless, unnecessary, and unwarranted governmental meddling in private affairs.
The sad thing is that PP opposes this only because it affects him directly. He's got a dog in the fight. Rather, 7 of them. But with no personal stake in medical marijuana, he staunchly opposes its legalization.
I give it 15 minutes, tops, until PP deletes this comment.
PP: "We need less government regulation in our lives, not more."
The legislature could and should pass some meaningful legislation by enacting a medical marijuana law that protects sick persons from using the medicine that works best for them.
The nonsense legislation coming out of Pierre is beyond laughable. Honestly, pass something meaningful to peoples lives.
Medical marijuana smokers aren't criminals people.
And, PP, medical marijuana is less government, more common sense.
Driving is a licensed privilege not a divine right. Society has a legitimate interest in protecting children from the behavior of parents who let ideology trump good sense just as society has a legitimate reason to keep drunken drivers off highways.
I am biased because I worked in highway safety many years ago. Seat belts cost us nearly nothing extra and probably save as many lives as converting about 3,000 miles of SD 2-lane into interstate standard highways.
There is almost no government action with the bang for the buck that comes from common sense seat belt laws and child restraint systems
As for California's spanking law..it may be step too far, but for a reason not mentioned here. I can see messy divorces where a husband or wife charges that spouse to be divorced spanked a child. This opens a lot of room for legal abuse.
I don't really remember spanking our children, but we were pretty lucky in the child lottery game. Some kids turn out pretty well without much help from their parents. Others may need constant reining in demanding a lot of attention getting.
I do hope that we can put more emphasis in SD on good child-rearing techniques. Some parents have zero idea of how to do it and teachers and society suffer for it year after year..generation after generation and the prison industry keeps running like the Everready Rabbit.
Gad, I better quit before I sound like Bill Janklow attacking parents as the cause for all SD juvenile delinquency.
In the case of our children, keeping them safe is the only choice. And no law - be it one that keeps them buckled in or one that keeps the killing of our unborn children legal - is above that choice, the one true choice we are all born with.
The Republican Party in South Dakota used to understand this - but they are compromising their soul to the devil of pragmatism.
As for seat belts and laws. Yes more people are saved using them and YES some people DIE because they used them. I can understand the height listing due to the fact that the belts lay wrong on some people. Heck most people wear the lap part wrong!
It is all abut common sense and yes some don't have it. I say leave the law alone. The state will get its federal highway money.
Next class potty training 101, what the refelctor is used for.
now i will stop or i will keep going on and on. but i think you get my point.
hmmmmm
In the best of all possible worlds, only the best of all parents would have the best of all children and do every thing right.
This is not the best of all worlds. If it were we would not need legislators, governors, attorney generals, cops, sheriffs, or whatever.
In the real world it makes sense to pass laws that protect children from the stupidity and ignorance of their parents. There are people unable to comprehend statistics who can fully understand the long arm of the law.
Highways are a special area that is not the same as your bedroom in regard to privacy, rights or freedoms.
There are so many anonymous posters here that it is hard to tell what is being referred to.
I see one anonymous who thinks moron parents should not be having children. What does that mean? Does that anonymous support mandatory sterilization? Compulsory condom wearing? Sex Education?
Intelligence tests required before procreation?
How do parents get fixed? One generation at a time. Commercial TV is a terrible teacher of parents one generation after another.
Good schools can generate good parents one generation at a time. If there is another solution to "fix" parents, what is it?
I thought midwest states had more common sense in their government and a more 'hands off' approach, but guess not.
This is hypocrisy at its finest.
If I were a serial killer I would seek employment at an abortion office.