Actually, as I mentioned earlier, a lot of trivial freedoms have been taken away, and the right to not wear a seatbelt is one that I think is completely foolish. I wear my seatbelt, not only do I wear it, but I love it. Some people refuse to wear them, and they get pulled over and fined for it. Who's came up with that one? Seatbelt laws were not made to save lives, they were made to collect money; if someone is too stupid to wear their seatbelt, do you really acre that much? Call me insensitive, but all of these safety measures that the country puts into action for us are just making money for the government and preventing survival of the fittest.

I would rather insurance companies say "If you're in an accident and didn't have your seatbelt on, our contract is void."

But again, I love my seatbelt.

As for non-smoking laws, that's a highly debatable subject, and does lean in the favor of not allowing it in public places. However, I'm not a smoker, but I do feel that restaurant owners and the like should have the right to allow smoking in their bars and what-have-you. It's not like they lock the door behind you when you walk into a bar, you can walk right out if you don't like the smoke. Again, this promotes survival of the fittest. If it becomes unpopular to smoke and a restaurant owner is permitting his 3 smoking customers to smoke, and his 40 non smoking customers go somewhere else, he'll reconsider the policies of his establishment.

Oh, and drunk driving is a no-brainer. Restrictions here are completely legitimate in my opinion, as you can't say "Oh, look, that guy is obviously driving drunk, I think I'll just leave this road."

Health standards, this is a tricky one in my opinion. There are basic standards that should be set, like a clean work environment and fit conditions for people to spend their work day in. However, there are some regulations that I think are just a little over the top, and this brings me back to liking dogs when I go someplace like a small-town tavern. The question is then raised: "Are dogs sanitary, or unsanitary?" The answer is pretty simple, if you don't get all tied up in logistics. A clean, healthy, well-fed, friendly dog is really no threat to the cleanliness of a work place; neglected dogs, such as dogs who are underfed and are unhealthy because of it, or dogs that are vicious and bite, are obviously jeopardizing the cleanliness and safety of anywhere they go, public or private.

So the laws made in response to Upton Sinclair's 'The Jungle' are great, they keep large businesses from killing and injuring people who are thrust into shitty jobs because they have no where else to go. On the other hand, laws that keep lovable dogs out of restaurants because some insane mother was worried her child might die from being near a dog in public. (Okay, so that's probably not how anti-dog-restaurant laws came to be, but you get my point...)

[Linked Image from zandadev.com]