Belmont Club

By Richard Fernandez

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Sitting in judgment

August 18, 2009 - 4:31 pm - by Richard Fernandez
Whitehall
2009-08-19 08:37:22

Three issues:

1) So will “community organizations” also monitor Viagra use?

Will they be empowered to insist on a man using it as a form of exercise or ration it to limit “sexual obsessions”?

2) The argument that motorcycle helmets must be worn since riders too often scramble their brains and have to have them reinserted at government expense prevailed in California. I think this is a non-trivial argument but I understand Florida had a bit better take on the problem by requiring people holding licenses to drive motorcycles to carry medical insurance. That’s a centralist compromise.

3) There are two types of “voluntary” programs. One is “opt-out” where you’re signed up unless YOU take the action to cancel. The second is “opt-in” where YOU have to take self-initiated action to join up. The opt-out plans can be very close to mandatory with limited public knowledge of how to opt-out and difficult procedures to do so. Keep this in mind for any government program, be it medical monitoring or remote control thermostats.