Mind if I Breath?
Arkansas finally enacted the law allowing officers to stop motorists for not wearing a seatbelt. It would be disingenuous to argue that seatbelts do not save lives. They do. Maybe not all the time, but enough to argue that it is probably, usually, a good idea to click it. And, yes, there is some cost to the State for people who are thrown out of their seats during wrecks. And, yes, there is probably some societal cost, families are left father-/mother-less, etc., etc., ad nauseum.
But so does breathing. In fact, poor Mrs. The Practicalist, has been suffering with a bronchial infection for the last month or so. She may have caught it from me, having lived in the same house as me for some 12 years. It comes and goes with me. We also catch colds, usually from one of the kids, who brings it home from school. The flu seems to make its rounds in similar fashion. There are annual numbers, usually in the ten's of thousands, of flu related deaths. The effect of these problems on the health care industry, the costs to the government and society are astronomical! And yet, we are still permitted to walk around breathing.
Interestingly, the effects of breathing are far more extreme than those of unbelted car wrecks. Once the car wrecks, it usually stops running. The person is ejected, which means he is no longer able to stand on the accelerator. The vehicle is no longer contributing to global warming. And if he is no longer breathing, then he, too, has ceased polluting our air. Unfortunately, we who remain alive, continue to exhale dangerous CO2. This is illegal, unless we have purchased our share of emission credits.
Understanding that the government has not yet figured out how to issue licenses for breathers; it does regulate our freedoms to drive. This is why it can so easily permit officers to stop motorists for not wearing seatbelts. They should also use this opportunity, once stopped, to see if we are breathing while driving, and, if so, fine the he!! out of that dirty, liberty-assertive breather!
