
 |
|
Nov. 6, 2009
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How
to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Nov. 5, 2009
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking
Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker
With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater?
With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change
With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 30, 2009
Oct. 29, 2009
JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our
Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 28, 2009
JWisdom.com Why what we wear
impacts who we are
With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 27, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static
JWisdom.com The Science of Love
With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 26, 2009
JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks
With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 23, 2009
JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness
with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us
Oct. 22, 2009
JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really?
By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 21, 2009
Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies'
JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A
Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 20, 2009
Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President
JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious
By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes)
Oct. 19, 2009
JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things
By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 16, 2009
JWisdom.com Hearing Voices
By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 15, 2009
JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes)
|
| |
Jewish World Review
Dec. 16, 2005
/ 15 Kislev, 5766
Taking on the Nanny state
By
Tucker Carlson
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Of all the crackpot things I've said in public over the years, nothing has elicited more hate mail than the time I came out against seatbelts. It was about five years ago, and I was giving a ride to a reporter from People magazine. We were crossing Capitol Hill in my elderly Volvo when she remarked upon the fact I was violating the law by not wearing my seatbelt. That's right, I said, and launched into a lecture about the tyranny of the nanny state. I can't remember if I actually quoted Patrick Henry. I do remember I got pretty hot. She put it in her magazine.
Within hours of publication I had dozens of calls and e-mails from angry, self-righteous strangers demanding to know how I dared dared! say something unkind about seatbelts. They save lives! Are you against saving lives? Are you for traffic deaths? You monster!
I'm not against saving lives, of course, or even against seatbelts. I wore mine once, in a snowstorm in Connecticut in 1988. In the end I didn't crash, so the seatbelt didn't work. Plus it wrinkled my shirt. I haven't made the same mistake again.
But enough about me. The point is not that seatbelts are bad or that I don't care for them, but that seatbelt laws are insulting to the American spirit. Should the state really protect competent adults from themselves? And if so, what's the message of punishing someone for ignoring his own safety? Protect yourself or we'll kill you?
Seatbelt laws are ludicrous and infuriating, exactly the sort of thoughtless, petty harassment that got Sam Adams so worked up. Unfortunately, 230 years later, no one seems to care.
Except for Kenneth Prazak. Kenneth Prazak cares. The 53-year-old Illinois man spent two years and more than $2,000 fighting a $25 seatbelt violation. Prazak wasn't speeding or driving recklessly or endangering the lives of other motorists when he was pulled over. As he put it, "I was just minding my own business driving down the road." In the end, members of the jury didn't care. They ruled against him. Yet in the process of fighting his lost cause, Prazak made a stirring case for personal freedom.
Kenneth Prazak was a guest on the show Wednesay, and there's no doubt in my mind that a lot of viewers will hate him. Many others will write him off as a crank. They have a point. By conventional standards, Prazak is a crank. Ordinary people would rather suffer indignities at the hands of the state than be considered weird by their friends. But every generation raises up individuals willing to think for themselves, people who've decided they're not going to pay the tea tax, who've had it with sitting at the rear of the bus. Society doesn't always welcome people like this; they tend to be difficult. But history usually rewards them.
So mock Kenneth Prazak if you will. But before you do, see if you can argue with the reasoning of his closing argument: "The real issue here is, who owns your life? Is it yours or is it government's?" His conclusion: "If government makes my choice for me, I am no longer free."
Melodramatic? Sure it is. But that doesn't mean it's not true. Keep in mind, small laws add up to big tyrannies.
Tucker Carlson Archives
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
CARLSON'S LATEST
"Politicians, Partisans, and Parasites: My Adventures in Cable News.
The book is not about bashing liberals (indeed, Carlson admits that his Ober-liberal cohost James Carville is "one of my favorite people"), but about the colorful and at times irreverent people who make politics so interesting-and entertaining. The author reserves his criticism for stuffy politicians who take themselves too seriously, and he lavishes praise on those who make good on-air guests. Sales help fund JWR.
|
JWR contributor Tucker Carlson is a journalist, college instructor, public speaker. He hosts MSNBC's "The Situation with Tucker Carlson" each weeknight at 11 p.m. Comment by clicking here.
© 2005 MSNBC
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Michael Barone
Dave Barry
Tony Blankley
Andy Borowitz
David Broder
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
John Fund
Frank J. Gaffney
Lloyd Garver
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Lewis Grossberger
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Nat Hentoff
David Horowitz
Laura Ingraham
Cheri Jacobus Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ed Koch
Ch. Krauthammer
Michael Ledeen
John Leo
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Dick Morris
Bill O'Reilly
Jim Mullen
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Jonathan Rauch
Celia Rivenbark
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Pat Sajak
Debra J. Saunders
Culture Shlock
Roger Simon
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
Lisa Benson
John Branch
Gary Brookins
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holber
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Ranan R. Lurie
Jimmy Margulies
Rick McKee
Michael Ramirez
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Ed Stein
Danna Summers
John Trever
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters

How 2
Lori Borgman
The Savvy Consumer
Elder matters
Fixit
Dr. Peter Gott
GET A JOB! by Marty Nemko
Richard Lederer
Tech Maven
Every Monday Matters
Nutrition Myths
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
How Stuff Works
|