Doubleplusundead links to this astounding editorial in defense of Big Brother… err.. Big Daddy, and comes up with a few additional suggestions for things Daddy should take away from the writer, Mary, since she’s evidently in favor of lots of governmental supervision. She writes:
It whimpered about our police cameras, our tax on bottled water, our high cigarette and alcohol taxes, and, in the way of many a 10-year-old, seemed to equate the fact that we can’t have whatever fun we want whenever we want it with an assault on our basic freedom. But where some people see paternalism, we weirdos believe that most of Chicago’s rules help turn unruly city dwellers into civilized citizens. Big cities are like big families—put a lot of people into a small space and somebody has to be charged with the power to say “Stop it.”
So after the derogatory “where some people see paternalism,” Mary states that “Big cities are like big families… somebody has to be charged with the power to say ‘Stop it.’” In Mary’s universe that’s not paternalism? She then offers her own ideas for additional regulation, including:
A ban on operating heavy construction machines on Saturdays. A triple fine for violating the ban on Saturday mornings in summer. No exemptions for the megamansion builders accustomed to buying their way out of rules.
The fine on violators would be donated to repair the hearing and sanity of neighbors whose summer tranquility has been sacrificed to bulldozers.
Imagine, if you will, a Christian who demanded that heavy construction or other business activity be banned on Sundays because it violated the sanctity of the sabbath – much like it was when I was a kid. SCOTUS ruled in McGowan vs. Maryland that blue laws are a-okay if you phrase them correctly. So how about it, Mary? Still want to restrict business activity for moral reasons? Pat Robertson is eagerly awaiting your phone call.
Some of us grew up and became adults, able to regulate ourselves with minimum governmental interference. I regret that Mary has not. Perhaps she should join some kind of commune/enclosed society where she can be regulated to her heart’s content without bothering the rest of us. Sadly, a fair number of the commenters on her original article agreed with her and offered further suggestions on how the government should restrict us. Far too few responses employed adjectives like “totalitarian” and “collectivist.”
In any event, thanks to Mary and doubleplusundead, I now have an excuse to link to this classic video – enjoy!
