Surreal America

by Joe?Pulcinella

You don't have to go far to find evidence that America's DUI laws are brutal on individual liberty. But this Cato article freaked me out on many different levels. Check out this stuff:

When Pennsylvanian Keith Emerich went to the hospital recently for an irregular heartbeat, he told his doctor he was a heavy drinker: a six-pack per day. Later, Pennsylvania's Department of Transportation sent Emerich a letter. His driver's license had been revoked. If Emerich wanted it back, he'd need to prove to Pennsylvania authorities that he was competent to drive. His doctor had turned him in, as required by state law.

Scary stuff, eh? This is a huge reason to be against any sort of socialized medicine (any more socialized than it already is). Doctors will become state functionaries and everything they do will be part of a national database. But wait, there's more lunacy ahead!

New Mexico's state legislature nearly passed a law that would mandate ignition interlock devices on every car sold in the state beginning in 2008, regardless of the buyer's driving record. Drivers would have been required to pass a breath test to start the car, then again every 10 minutes while driving.

Uh, 'scuse me but are they assuming that if I pass my little test once I'm likely to start drinking behind the wheel? I can't imagine the mess I'd cause leaning over to take a breathalizer test while on the Schuykhill Expressway.

Posted 7/27/2004 2:41:26 PM by Joe ?Pulcinella

I don't think the proponents of a nationalized single-payer health system realize the implications of instituting such a system over 300 million people. The centralization of information alone will be ripe for staggering amounts of abuse. More profoundly, the advocates of a single-payer nationalized system are fond of declaring that the US is the "only industrialized nation without national health insurance" or some such, implying that our economic development has been somehow retarded. This displays a fundamental ignorance of the history of industrialization itself, specifically that the early years of industrial development in the US differed radically from those of europe, and have ever since. The two aren't really comparable, despite superficial resemblances.

Posted 7/28/2004 2:00:26 PM by Vince Daliessio

Believe it. Tax-exempt groups like the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation use billions in untaxable cash to influence your friendly neighborhood representatives to vote their way on such things. The way Campaign Finance Reform is set up, they are guaranteed a spot at the table when it comes to liberty. You, however, are not.

Posted 7/27/2004 2:52:45 PM by Vince Daliessio