This about sums it up

[Click on the picture to see larger version.] My wife sent me this in an email with several other funny pictures.

I know it's a spoof, and believe me, it's a great one. It's just the logical conclusion, the brittle extreme -- of where this all leads.

To me, this sums up the culture war. On the one side, we have people who tend to side with liberty. These people typically believe in personal responsibility and self-reliance. They're generally quite happy to help others, even warn them of dangers like, say, a bridge being out.

On the other side we have people who think everyone should be protected from everyone and everything. This ends up working against liberty. It wouldn't be so bad if they could stop at signs telling you of things like a bridge being out. But no.

We have commercials showing people doing things that are obviously dangerous, and they must be subtitled with do not attempt. Or somebody could sue them for... er... suggesting anyone can do it and should try. Or the little signs on cat-litter buckets that warn you kids could drown in them. There are, of course, a zillion more examples. I once read that the cost of a ladder was half liability insurance for the ladder company.

Bigger government=less liberty. The founding fathers knew this.

When politicians promise to give you stuff and fix stuff, they usually mean "by making government bigger". By intruding more and in more places.

Both of the major parties do big government, because it sells. Back in the Reagan years, and again in the mid 1990's with the Contract With America -- the Republican party attempted to don the old mantle of the Founding Fathers to a certian degree, but have since wandered from that.

I tell people I am not a democrat or a republican. I am an independent American. I do tend to vote republican these days, not because republicans are less corrupt or don't do pork barrel spending --- but because those who believe in Liberty tend to run as republicans.

It's not a great position to be in. But it's where I am.

Apparently money and power talk and politicians from both parties can be corrupted. The founding fathers forsaw this, too, and tried to guard against it as much as possible. Unfortunately, the whole thing relies on an informed, educated, even (indoctrinated only in the Constitution and what it means and why it is the way it is) electorate. Not people who vote for someone becaus they're the "it" candidate to vote for, or to say "hey, I'm ready for a black prsident" or "I'm ready for a female president."

We have a right to Life, Liberty, and the Persuit of Happiness. Not to education, nor free or subsidized health care. Or protection from the sharp edges of warning signs.