Posted on 05/05/2007 1:42:10 PM PDT by Graybeard58
Apparently trying to demonstrate Connecticut doesn't have a monopoly on loopy lawmakers: Massachusetts Rep. Martin Walsh, D-Dorchester, is writing a bill that would require dogs to buckle up when riding in a car. Yes, it's another case of monkey-see, monkey-legislate. Rep. Walsh saw a dog roaming freely in a moving car and instantly thought there ought to be a law against it.
Of course, dogs have been doing that since the days of Henry Ford, and the number of accidents they caused has been so small that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration doesn't even keep statistics. But Rep. Walsh is desperate to scratch his legislating itch. If this becomes law, expect Rep. Walsh to get extra-large contributions from companies that make Rover restraints and emergency-room doctors and plastic surgeons who will be a lot busier as more and more dogs bite the hands and faces of owners who buckle them.
The Canadian Parliament is considering a petition from 500 Albertans to make Bigfoot, aka Sasquatch, an endangered species. Their "thinking" goes like this: The large hairy bipedal hominoid of lore is not shy, but rare, thus on the brink of extinction, thus endangered, thus eligible for government protection (with all its attendant unreasonable restrictions on private property).
A similar petition has been filed with the U.S. Congress, which to its credit first wants proof Bigfoots (Bigfeet?) exist. Bigfoot researcher Todd Standing says he has that all the evidence anyone would ever need, but he won't "take this out of the realm of mythology" until he gets "species protection to them nationwide."
A textbook example of how lunacy sometimes requires no commentary.
Ping to a Republican-American Editorial.
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Ping to a Republican-American Editorial.
If you want on or off this ping list, let me know.
STATE REPRESENTATIVE MARTIN J. WALSH State House District Office Room 540 12 Tuttle Street State House Dorchester, MA 02125 Boston, MA 02133 Telephone: 617-722-2090 617-825-4916 E-Mail: Rep.MartinWalsh@hou.state.ma.us
Let my people go! ping.
-—the “there oughtta be a law” dimwits way outnumber those of us who remember the phrase “it’s a free country”—
Do they make one of those that fit politicians and liberals?
One law I would like to see enacted is for lawmakers to have a minimum IQ equal to, or greater than, that of a monkey. I’m amazed at how really dumb these politicians seem to be.
I once saw a lawmaker roaming freely and instantly thought there ought to be a law against it.
The most dangerous phrase in the English language: “There oughtta be a law...”
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
They're bright enough to get elected!
The thing that concerns me is that there is no penalty for passing laws that don't work or, worse, that are counterproductive. (The obvious penalty would be exacted by the electorate, who isn't paying attention.) The result is that way too often they simply do not think it through.
I regularly read through bills filed in my state and provide an analysis when I see something wrong. I don't know that I can claim responsibility, but usually those particular bills die. Pretty much the rest of the time they get rewritten to cure the defect.
"Thinking it through"... two or three years ago I saw a bill that would have actually done exactly the opposite of its declared intent. I wrote the committee reviewing it about the problem, laying out my analysis. The author of the bill, the chair of the committee, agreed and killed his bill in his own committee. I got a very nice handwritten thank-you from him for that.
But I gotta admit that the only thing worse than some nitwit in a SUV yakking on a cell phone in traffic is one with two dustmop dogs bouncing in and out of their lap at the same time.
No wonder she ran the red light. (Thank God I saw her coming--and yep, she was blonde.)
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