Making our own choices

Sow the wind, reap a whirlwind.

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lorexxx "building codes" had to be made to protect the consumer from fraudulent contractors from ripping off the public and also to prevent deaths from electrocution and fires. If we didn't have crooked general contractors we wouldn't have to put all these rules into place. The actions of a few causes the loss of freedoms for many!

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Tryng to abolish government politically, by violent revolution or peaceful legal euthanasia, would mean doing away with the personal security that the rule of law provides at one stroke, with no guarantees of when, or even if, a new rule of law will emerge. The best that political action can be expected to achieve is one under which anarchy may emerge by market action.

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Amanda, I think you'll find that this is just the beginning.

We have allowed the Federal government to incrementally expand it's power in broad terms since the 1930s, and more specifically in healthcare since at least the 1960s, culminating in the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which itself is just a stepping stone to a single-payers system (what the left really wants). Obamacare mandates compliance by the States, and while some States are challenging specific mandates in court, the net effect is that bureaucrats at both the Federal and State level will decide for you the kind of healthcare you will be paying for and the kind of services you'll be receiving.

But it goes beyond that. With a government at the Federal and State levels involved in your personal healthcare choices, there is no end to the intrusions into your personal life they will attempt to justify. Your personal choices become everybody's business.

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Amanda, I think you'll find that this is just the beginning.

We have allowed the Federal government to incrementally expand it's power in broad terms since the 1930s, and more specifically in healthcare since at least the 1960s, culminating in the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which itself is just a stepping stone to a single-payers system (what the left really wants). Obamacare mandates compliance by the States, and while some States are challenging specific mandates in court, the net effect is that bureaucrats at both the Federal and State level will decide for you the kind of healthcare you will be paying for and the kind of services you'll be receiving.

But it goes beyond that. With a government at the Federal and State levels involved in your personal healthcare choices, there is no end to the intrusions into your personal life they will attempt to justify. Your personal choices become everybody's business.

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Using your example of the large Soda ban in New York City. That was a local decision, right? The Federal government certainly had no part in that. And the most recent smoking ban here in North Dakota... that was a statewide ballot initiative. How much more democratic can we get?

If you think that was really about second-hand smoke, you would be sadly mistaken. It was about control, and for evedence on that, you need to look no further than the BreatheND website. They were co-sponsors of the initiative with other anti-smoking groups, and their job is not done yet by a longshot. The upshot is this: people are not smart enough to decide for themselves what is good for them, so the state (little s) must make these decisions for us.

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um... evedence = evidence

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Good point lore...

Building codes have been around for a long time, and are largely decided by local officials, so very few people these days even consider them as intrusions of public policy.

That is until you have to comply with them. Most people, aside from builders and contractors, don't have to consider them because they are moving into residences or commercial facilities that were already constructed.

Then along comes the flood and the average person has to deal with acquiring permits, scheduling the inspections, etc., and the mask is peeled away.

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Newsflash: some new construction in NW ND isn't being built according to code, local or not.

We've heard instances of some off-the-wall practices, especially for NoDak weather, and the out-of-state contractors say "we don't do it like that back home."

Earth to Sherlock: you're not home now. If we NoDaks have to live by our "wonderful" building code, so should you, even if you don't plan to be here permanently.

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WA, I understand that you and your lefty buddies have trouble with this concept, but we right-wingers do not want to abolish government.

That "rule of law" you seem to be so concerned about is necessary to create the framework by which we all play by the same rules - what should be a very limited set of rules that do no more than ensure individual rights and rights of property ownership. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But in that pursuit I cannot take from you what is yours. I cannot use force or coercion to take property away from you. That the civil society. That is the rule of law.

But the rule of law doesn't guarantee outcome. It doesn't guarantee success, and this is something the left never gets. You cannot change the rules of the game to ensure an equitable outcome. It never works.

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angeR69: "But the rule of law doesn't guarantee outcome. It doesn't guarantee success, and this is something the left never gets. You cannot change the rules of the game to ensure an equitable outcome. It never works."

Spot on! Another way of saying this is, Life ain't fair.

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lorexx;

The difference between a pump type or gravity type septic system can determine whether someone's raw sewage effluent is going into soil where it is treated or going into groundwater where it flows along to someones well where they can drink it. Yes, they both drain into the ground, but do you want to drink someone else's liquid waste? Septic system regulations is one of the examples of the government protecting all of the public by not allowing individuals to do things that they would most likely do if left on their own.

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I feel that it is only right to eliminate bovine flatulence from polluting the air we breathe and we should all be required to be vegetarians and thus eliminate those worthless cattle anyway. They too urinate and those pies aren’t for eating either. Bye–bye Burger King.

And just who knows what’s in that bottled water we drink contained in those plastic bottles that fill up our landfills. One thousand years to disintegrate. That water per gallon costs more than the gallon of gas you buy at Cenex.

Too many cows and people populate the Earth, especially people. Planned Parenthood is working to solve that one too.

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Another gun nut is dead in Alabama! 5yr. old is safe!

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I'm going to (slightly) edit Worried's post.

"Another...nut is dead in Alabama! 5yr. old is safe!"

People have kidnapped others without the use of a gun, Worried. No, really. Remember Dru Sjodin? I'd say her murderer qualified as a nut, to say the least.

This phrase "gun nut" seems to have started by the lefties. Do they think it gives their position some weight?

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I am having trouble tonight with my self-censoring.

Sorry, "...seems to have been started by..."

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loco, just another knee JERK reaction by the master of the two step. This kidnapper was a loner and a real threat long before this happened...even beat a neighbor's dog to death with a club. Worried feeds on sick act of sick people.

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we have the most smartest, handsome-est, best-est man EVER as president. why do we need freedom when it's sooo much easier to see what obama,reid,pelosi,bloomberg, and the other looney tune characters have decided "we" need. now hush up and quit clinging to your guns and religion.

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He was (was) anti-govt gun-toting gun nut who has shot as his neighbors and viewed the bus driver as a gov't official and killed him with a gun!!

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He was also a legal gun owner and a Vietnam veteran.

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In Texas a war hero sniper and another veteran were shot and killed at a gun range by another veteran!

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worried should become Obama’s mental health czar as it would become his lasting legacy. “THINK ABOUT ALL THE JOBS AND MENTAL HEALTH INSTITUTIONS WE CAN BUILD”, worried was heard saying, AND I CAN QUIT THIS ROTTEN JOB I HAVE HERE AT THE MINOT DAILY.

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What about the gun nuts RIGHT here in Minot shooting going down broadway? 4 idiots in a pickup truck shooting at another idiot over a drug deal!

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Federal tax dollars make up fully a third of North Dakota's budget.

The rest of America is paying Amanda's way through life -- and all she can do is complain.

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another gun nut arrested and charged with terrorizing in a Minot bar!

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