Friday, December 3, 2010

What's so bad about big government???

Great Article...

"“Big” isn’t usually a pejorative. There is nothing wrong with big airplanes, which can carry more people more safely and economically than can small airplanes. There is nothing wrong with a big serve in tennis, although I don’t like to see one coming at me. But there is no “right” size for airplanes or “right” speed for tennis serves, so we have no grounds for calling them “too big.” There is, however, a “right” size for government. The right size relates not to its budget or number of employees, but rather to its functions."

A must read!

What happened to the Thanksgiving Protest that never was??

"The TSA backed down on the day before Thanksgiving by roping off most of the scanners and ceasing the pat-downs in order to thwart the passenger backlog that National Opt-Out Day would have caused. TSA denied it of course, but passengers noticed the scanners were out of commission, and long lines never materialized because passengers had nothing to opt out of."

More here...

Is flying a right?

"Scanner proponents of all persuasions claim that "there is no right to fly" and sniff, "if you don't like it, don't fly." This argument self-collapses. If flying is not a right, then there is no derivative right to security-vetted airline travel. An appeal to principle--the argument that there is an obligation to save every life regardless of practical considerations--puts them on opponents' ground. The principle of individual rights should not be abrogated by any consideration of consequences, and national security does not justify the sexual violation of citizens, even if it were effective.
In order to exercise your rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, you must be free to act on your own judgment in accordance with your own values. The right to pursue happiness necessarily includes the right to pursue personal or professional goals. These goals may require you to travel to another location to obtain them. Flying may be your only economically feasible means to do so.
The right to liberty includes your right to physically move about in the world in pursuit of your goals. In order to live, you must work. For many people, work requires travel by means of flying. The rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness therefore include the right to be free of interference with flying.
It is not the case that the enhanced measures do interfere with the freedom to fly. Thoughts and values belong to the individual and cannot be imposed or changed by the fiat of society. Forcibly laying a breach between one set of a person's values and another is preventing that person from pursuing his goals, because it is preventing the person from acting on the entirety of his values and judgment. You cannot reach your flight destination if you are sitting in jail or prevented from flying, and being offered an alternative that you cannot accept because it goes against your values is not a "choice," but coercion."

On the first page of this article, the author demostrates the chances of being killed in a terrorist attack in the air... Take your chances of being struck by lightening and divide them in half.

More here...