It's not "much like" childish defiance. It IS. *NM*
eucatastrophe Send a noteboard - 06/07/2011 11:45:05 PM
He understood the safety issue. He would not wear a seatbelt or a helmet, just to protest nanny state laws. I basically told him to grow up. He desrved every ticket he got. There shouldn't be a law for adults but there is. All these arguments for rights in those two cases have a little bit of merit but seem very whiney and childish. This incident just proved the point even more so.
See link below. A biker protesting a new helmet law crashed during the protest and died from head trauma. Doctors said wearing a helmet would have saved his life...
*disclaimer* i had a nasty bike accident when i was 9, i was not wearing a helmet and i was badly concussed for several days. thankfully it happened in a forest and not on the road. so people not wearing a helmet while cycling or motor cycling really piss me off *end*
my mind really boggles when it comes to people like this, would that guy have driven a car with no seat belts or a ship with no lifeboats in to an ice field?
a helmet isn't like a water bottle holder or an ashtray, if you don't have a proper helmet you shouldn't bother sitting on a bike, with or without a motor.
If I rode a motorcycle (which I wouldn't, on a bet) I'd wear a helmet, but deeply resent being forced to do so on a bicycle. Given how many fiercely independent bikers I've known I think my resentment of helmet laws only a pale shadow of theirs. If people cycling without a helmet really piss you off I offer the same advice I give people who get really pissed off at women killing fetuses because they don't want to bear a child: Don't let them tell you what to do with your own body, and grant them the same courtesy.
Maybe he would've driven a car without seatbelts; probably, if it were legal. I certainly would, and as a backseat passenger strongly preferred it in the days when my "safety belt" did little more than make me likely to be trapped in a burning vehicle or have my organs crushed or sliced when thrown against a lap belt. My body, my life, my choice; it's called "freedom". The trouble with people applauding govenment dictates on what people do or don't do with their own bodies is that they've forgotten there's no guarantee said government will always issue dictates of which they approve. Civilized governments don't allow incidental majorities to tell minorities what they must believe to save their souls or do to save their babies so it seems a little bizarre when they let majorities tell minorities what they must do to save their lives. In a country that just recently celebrated a government founded on majority rule IN CONJUNCTION WITH minority rights it's also rather hypocritical.
You can't make this stuff up: Helmet law protester dies in crash
05/07/2011 08:47:14 PM
- 871 Views
Kinda undermines his protest *NM*
05/07/2011 09:01:50 PM
- 255 Views
How so? He wasn't demanding the right to survive crashes when only a helmet makes that possible.
05/07/2011 11:06:44 PM
- 542 Views
New York feels that people should have to wear helmets for their own safety
05/07/2011 11:20:36 PM
- 515 Views
He felt his own safety was his own concern.
06/07/2011 12:07:05 AM
- 456 Views
Who do you think would have ended up paying for his care for the rest of his life if the accident
06/07/2011 01:08:49 AM
- 600 Views
The same people who pay for everyone else whose actions render them vegetables.
06/07/2011 01:50:20 AM
- 711 Views
Maybe a more effective argument you could use against me would be pointing out
06/07/2011 02:33:21 AM
- 504 Views
what a fricking idiot
05/07/2011 10:02:17 PM
- 683 Views
That's your opinion to which you're entitled.
05/07/2011 11:19:36 PM
- 924 Views
Anarchy, baby! *NM*
06/07/2011 12:58:23 AM
- 463 Views
Sorry, as an advocate of civil rights (which especially includes minorities) I oppose anarchy.
06/07/2011 01:18:19 AM
- 583 Views
The public's nose is on the line here too.
06/07/2011 01:47:08 AM
- 641 Views
So my increased ease of hearing/seeing vehicles and other hazards isn't worth $1200.
06/07/2011 02:25:53 AM
- 647 Views
I understand the pov, I had a BF who felt that same way. It's still much like childish defiance.
06/07/2011 01:26:15 AM
- 745 Views
In part it's a matter of principle, but if we really want to analyze it there's some deeper validity
06/07/2011 02:13:05 AM
- 610 Views
you keep spreading falsehoods, stop it please
06/07/2011 02:49:01 AM
- 783 Views
Sounds like your real argument is with the other bikers; I'm just reiterating their arguments.
06/07/2011 03:38:39 AM
- 710 Views
It's not "much like" childish defiance. It IS. *NM*
06/07/2011 11:45:05 PM
- 415 Views
Uh Joel...
06/07/2011 03:38:24 AM
- 540 Views
Agreed, having others in the car does make a difference.
06/07/2011 03:47:53 AM
- 623 Views
Hence why your "I wouldn't wear a seatbelt in the back seat" comment didn't make a lot of sense
06/07/2011 07:38:50 PM
- 587 Views
Depends on whether the driver, rather than the law, is the one insisting.
06/07/2011 08:06:24 PM
- 456 Views
You'd place your own comfort over other people's safety?
06/07/2011 11:37:00 PM
- 493 Views
It's more a comfort issue than anything else; it's not solely one.
06/07/2011 11:56:28 PM
- 971 Views
Hold the phone here...
06/07/2011 07:49:10 PM
- 871 Views
+1 *NM*
06/07/2011 08:42:14 PM
- 321 Views
You agree with him that the abortion debate is about a mothers convenience versus the babys life?
06/07/2011 10:48:52 PM
- 610 Views
im not bringing abortion into this, its a separate issue *NM*
06/07/2011 10:56:17 PM
- 307 Views
It's really not.
07/07/2011 12:20:10 AM
- 643 Views
i'm really not
07/07/2011 03:34:23 PM
- 714 Views
Fine as far as it goes, but public/private only matters to the extent others are affected.
09/07/2011 11:15:33 AM
- 678 Views
Holding the phone here might be good, yes....
06/07/2011 10:33:46 PM
- 698 Views
See...that's the difference between you and me
06/07/2011 10:56:53 PM
- 801 Views
Apparently so; "completely anarchy as long as its regulated to one's body" sounds nonsensical to me.
06/07/2011 11:44:50 PM
- 804 Views
I'm with Joel. I always buckle up/helmet up, but I think such laws are asinine
06/07/2011 02:30:04 AM
- 467 Views
why not just ban motorcycles all together, they are much more dangerous than cars
06/07/2011 05:39:51 PM
- 481 Views
Helmets help save lives. 'Onest.
07/07/2011 04:40:42 PM
- 645 Views
So do not smoking, eating right and regular exercise, but we haven't made them mandatory.
09/07/2011 11:04:58 AM
- 652 Views