More rules

My favorite part about the end of the year is all the “year in review” articles. I love those…mostly because I don’t remember ½ of them.


I also love reading about all the new laws coming up in 2012, like:

* People 18 and under in Illinois will have to wear seat belts while riding in taxis for school-related purposes, and Illinois school boards can now suspend or expel students who make explicit threats on websites against other students or school employees.

* Florida will take control of lunch and other school food programs from the federal government, allowing the state to put more Florida-grown fresh fruit and vegetables on school menus.

* A California law will add gays and lesbians and people with disabilities to the list of social and ethnic groups whose contributions must be taught in history lessons in public schools. The law also bans teaching materials that reflect poorly on gays or particular religions. (Opponents have filed five potential initiatives to repeal the requirement outright or let parents remove their children while gays' contributions are being taught.) I know a couple of gay people that I’m going to ask about this…my question would be, why does it matter that you’re gay if you’ve made some newsworthy contribution to the world? I thought you wanted to be accepted as a person? Now you want to be accepted because you’re gay? I don’t get it.

* In Arkansas, facilities that perform 10 or more nonsurgical abortions a month must be licensed by the state Health Department and be subject to inspections by the department. You mean they don’t already? Ewwwww!

* California is also addressing illegal immigration, but with a bill that allows students who entered the country illegally to receive private financial aid at public colleges

* Many laws aim to protect young people. In Colorado, coaches will be required to bench players as young as 11 when they're believed to have suffered a head injury. The young athletes will also need medical clearance to return to play. It really twirks my butt that there has to be a law to make adults responsible.

* Ohio is also one of eight states with automatic increases in the minimum wage taking effect Jan. 1. The others, with increases between 28 and 37 cents, are Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Montana, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.

And of course there will be the ongoing debate about distracted driving. All because the NSTB said over 30,000 people die every year because they are distracted while driving due to cell phones/texting/talking. Excuse me but aren’t kids in the back seat terribly distracting to a driver? What about having a conversation with someone in the passenger seat? That seems worse to me than using a Bluetooth/headset because you actually turn your head to speak to that person.

Did you know that according to the CDC, 175,000 children drown every year. Where’s the outrage over that? Shouldn’t we fill in every swimming pool and ban swimming in lakes and the ocean? Oh, and no more taking baths either. Over 400k people die every year because of smoking. More than 40,000 people die in car accidents ever year, not including distracted or drunk driving. And according to Wikipedia, 100,000 people a year die from alcohol abuse in the U.S

I will concede that 30k deaths due to using a cell phone while driving is tragic. Does it require a law to correct though? Do you need a law to tell you “don’t be so stupid”?! More rules, less freedom. Yeah, that’s what I want.

hahahaha, see how distracted I got right there? Thank heavens I wasn't in the car!