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Personal choice

  • No Trans Fat in NYC
    Article: NYC health board bans trans fats at restaurants

    That's all well and good, but I have to wonder at something. What ever happened to personal responsibility? There was a day when we looked at ourselves and said, "I'm fat and unhealthy because I made me this way." And now we're stuck in the age of blame everyone else but...

    We're trapped in a generation that expects government to care for us in every single way instead of taking care of ourselves and keeping government out of all of that.

    I'm one of those people. You know the ones. The type of person that believes that you have choices to make in every second of your life, and whether you realize it or not, those choices are going to effect you in many ways. Do you smoke or not? Do you eat healthy food or not? Or do you exercise or not? Whatever those choices are for you, they are your choices. It's like the gun argument. "We're going to take your guns because guns kill children and we're going to protect your kids like they are our own!" Good! Take care of your own children instead of demanding the government do it for you! There are those who want the government to take care of their children and those who teach their children gun safety. This is more of the same. Teach your child to make healthy food choices and don't toss him a piece of candy every time he does something good, like he's a puppy in training.

    I know the arguments, smoking is bad, trans fats are bad, cars are bad, guns are bad, this is bad, that is bad. And that's all fine and dandy. But let's look at the big picture.

    NYC is taking away the choices of people!

    Healthy or not, it isn't the government's place to make those choices for people. And I could give a rat's ass what your argument is about whether these laws are good or bad. There is something happening here that is far bigger than smoking and getting fat. Something people overlook all the time.

    1. The desire for power is getting out of control. You are perfectly capable of making the choice to have one of those three layer, four different cheese hamburgers with fries and a three gallon coke or to have a salad with baked chips on the side and a glass of water. But the government is now telling you that you can't make that choice, that they have to make it for you. Some will always choose that burger. But many choose the healthy alternatives. Same with anything else. Some smoke, some don't. Some people teach their kids about guns, and some just tell their kids that guns will jump up and go on random killing sprees all by themselves and figure that's that.

    2. We are getting closer and closer to losing our rights. There wasn't a lot of outcry when the Supreme Court decided that the government could come in take your private property for the "greater good." Which means if someone wants to build a mini mall they can petition the government who can now come in and take your land for that mini mall. And no, payment to the land owner is not required! And this has already been used.

    I overheard a conversation the other day about gun rights. One guy said that if guns are banned in the USA he's going to jump ship and leave the country. The other person said, "I wouldn't leave the country because this is still the best place in the world to be." And normally I would agree. However, we forget to look at something. Take a housing subdivision. Rules are in place. Let's say one rule is that you can't work on your car in the driveway of your house. You can do so in the garage, but not right out there in the driveway. Ok, so someone does it anyway. No one complains. He/she keeps doing it. Still no one complains.

    Now, I live in a housing subdivision. At the bottom of the rules it states that if one rule is broken and no one complains or stops it.... all the rules are null and void. Not just that one, all of them! Why? Because it is going to be hard to enforce the "no piles of trash on the front lawn" rule when no one enforced the "cars in the driveway" rule. Both are listed in the same set of rules, so why is one good and not the other?

    Think of that in terms of the Constitution. You ban guns. What comes next? Don't kid yourself into thinking it will end there, because it won't. Before we all know it, we'll be thrown in jail for not agreeing with the President. So everyone who is against the war in Iraq (ironically, most of them also want guns taken away) will find themselves in prison for treason. Not a Christian? Go right to jail. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.

    And this smoking thing and trans fat thing is only a small portion. It is testing the waters. It is seeing what the people will put up with. How will you rationalize these as being good things, being "for the common good," so that you don't have to get up off your ass and miss the newest episode of Jerry Springer or Survival to do something about it? And with the way this generation is going, most of you will rationalize it all the way up until you have to call your Senator and ask permission before you can take a leak in your own house! And when the cops are coming in and taking whatever they feel like from your house with no reason to do so; when someone calls the cops and says they saw you beat someone to death and you are sentenced to life in prison (or death) without so much as a trial or any show of proof like, say, a body; when you find yourself being arrested because you don't have any religious beliefs or, worse, the wrong beliefs; when you open the newspaper and there isn't so much as an editorial that says something bad about the government and it's policies but a lot of Baghdad Bob kind of crap...

    You can thank the founding fathers for making the Constitution while you sit around trying to find anyone but yourself to blame for it being burned...

    And please keep this in mind. Hillary Clinton is making a run for the Presidency in 2008. I hate to admit this, seeing as how I am a female, but I fear she will get the female vote based completely on the fact that she's a female and wouldn't it be cool to finally have a woman in the White House? No, it wouldn't, not if it means Mrs. Clinton. Wait for a more desirable woman to come along, and I don't mean looks wise. There are plenty of women out there who don't want to rule the world. Sadly, Mrs. Clinton does. She wants to tell you what is best for you, what she is going to do for the common good, because she knows what is in your best interest.



    "Wait, what do you mean, what are you talking about, we decided!?
    My best interest?! How can you know what's my best interest is?
    How can you say what my best interest is? What are you trying to say, I'm crazy?
    When I went to your schools, I went to your churches,
    I went to your institutional learning facilities?! So how can you say I'm crazy."

    - Suicidal Tendencies "Institutionalized"
    Voted for by Taur-amandil.
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