The Pacific Research Institute’s Washington Bulletin – accepting reluctantly that the War on Terrorism will involve restrictions on freedom, inconveniences, and outright hardship – suggests that the government offset new restrictions with the elimination of old, useless, and tiresome restrictions. Specifically, it calls for amending ridiculously low speeding laws, reducing the puritanical drinking-age laws to 18, and eliminating all anti-smoking laws that affect private places. None of these nuisance restrictions has anything to do with security. Eliminating or amending them might serve as a concrete symbol that we really are fighting for freedom rather than for a larger government.
Is anyone surprised that neither the Bush administration nor any freedom-loving congressional Republican picked up on the idea?
