Aren't You Glad We All Have Government?

Busy Protecting Ourselves From Ourselves...


This morning, for your reading enjoyment, I offer this story about a woman in England who has been told by her local officials that she needs A LIFEGUARD AND SPECIAL INSURANCE for her toddler's 2' deep wading pool:

PORTSMOUTH, England, May 27 (UPI) -- A Portsmouth, England, grandmother says her local government has ordered her to have a lifeguard on duty for the 2-foot-deep wading pool she put in her yard.

Lourdes Maxwell said she has been putting the small pool out in her yard at the start of summer for more than 20 years for her children, grandchildren and neighborhood kids to play in, The Daily Mail reported Tuesday.

However, she said the city council issued a health and safety edict ordering her to empty the pool after she wrote the council to seek permission for a larger pool outside her house. Maxwell said she contacted her member of Parliament, who convinced the city to allow Maxwell to keep the pool, provided she pays for insurance and has lifeguards watching the pool at all times.

"I asked around for insurance and they just laughed at me. No one offers insurance for paddling pools," Maxwell said. "I'm always there to supervise but they're trying to tell me I need lifeguards for a kiddies' pool as well -- it's crazy."

I'll save the blithering and let you make up your own mind here because I'm fairly certain my regular readers know where I stand on this kind of bureaucratic crappola, other than to say that you can expect this kind of "nanny state" mentality to continue to creep into your life while you're busy working to pay for your house, kids, and cars.

Next we have this story which strikes a little closer to home here in Tennessee about a rare bottle collector that had his million dollar collection of Jack Daniels bottles (full of Jack) stolen by the Government:

NASHVILLE - Prosecutors and defense attorneys are negotiating to settle the case of a Nashville-area man indicted on charges of illegally possessing up to $1 million worth of Jack Daniel's whiskey.

Randy Piper, 47, of Goodlettsville is free on $25,000 bond and is due in court in Lynchburg on Aug. 12 to have a trial date set.

But District Attorney General Charles Crawford and Raymond Fraley Jr., Piper's attorney, both said they are optimistic the case can be resolved.

Piper was indicted in Moore County last January after state liquor officials seized 2,400 bottles in October following a tip that someone was selling alcohol without a license. They raided two warehouses owned by Piper and a home in Lynchburg, the small town about 65 miles southeast of Nashville where the famous Tennessee sipping whiskey is distilled

...

Piper, a plumber, has said he's a collector of Jack Daniel's bottles, and Fraley has said his client was singled out for selling one bottle for approximately $350 and charged with illegally possessing the others.

"It's unfortunate it got this far for one bottle of whiskey," Fraley said. "They took his entire collection when there are collectors around Moore County (Lynchburg) who possess a lot of bottles of whiskey."

...

ABC officials have said the value of the seized liquor has possibly been driven up by the value of the antique bottles, which range from 3 liters to half-pints.

One seized bottle dates to 1914, with its seal unbroken. ABC agents have estimated its value at about $10,000.

Piper and his attorney have claimed that Piper was selling collectible bottles, not whiskey.

...

"The ABC (Alcoholic Beverage Commission) and my office have tried to coordinate what Mr. Piper should get back and what should be destroyed or put in a museum," Crawford said.

Can you believe this CRAP?

The government of the by-God State of Tennessee has gone out and taken a citizen's property, paid for over a lifetime with his hard earned after tax dollars, and is in the process of "collecting" the "illegal bottles" from their rightful owner considering placing them in a museum...while at the same time hiding behind "bootlegging laws" and preventing the owner of the bottles from enjoying the profit from their sale.

Either they are collectors items or they are illegal alcohol...they can't have it both ways, I believe.

If the bottles contained urine samples, ketchup, or "Dr. Rogers Funky Foot Remedy" and somehow there was a collectors market for the sealed containers everything would be hunky dorry, but because it's Tennessee's most famous liquor, produced in a county of the state where it is still illegal to sell alcohol on a retail basis in the year 2008, this poor guy has been arrested, sent to jail, and forced to post bond to gain his freedom.

Are YOU happy with the governments of the world spending YOUR tax dollars protecting you from women with unguarded, uninsured wading pools and vendors of antique liver killing fluids?

Or wouldn't you rather just go back to the idea of the government promoting your right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" and let the individual decide the meaning of same?

That will be all...for now...