The Nanny State's Omnipresent Gaze

I wrote this post on Wednesday regarding New York as a classical Nanny State.

Thanks to my Sitemeter information, I can now tell you that the folks running the Empire Nanny State are also behaving like Big Brother, watching every little opinion expressed about them.

For example, by Wednesday afternoon, I had five visits, nearly half of the day's blog traffic, from New York state employees in Averill Park and Bear Mountain State Park.

Empire State employees spent a total of roughly 35 minutes reading 18 pages of my blog.

I guess my little expose of how draconian New York State is in its control of who uses its recreational waterways, and how, aroused the curiosity, and maybe fear, of the state's bureaucrats.

As usual, I have the visiting computers' IP addresses. So, theoretically, one could identify the people in New York who were wasting taxpayer time and money on my article. But I'm not going to invade their privacy by publishing the addresses.

Do you think their webcrawler will find this post, too? And waste even more time worrying about my blog, and my ability to identify the involved public sector employees?

Maybe it's a good thing that I live in New Jersey.

Tales From The Nanny State

Here's a sad tale of the loss of liberty under the Nanny State.

Last weekend, a friend and I planned to spend a day kayaking.

She already has a boat, and I found it incredibly easy- and cheap- to rent one. I called a local outdoors store, reserved a large flatwater kayak and paddle. If I so chose, they'd have also provided straps for securing the kayak to my roof rack.

Having secured both boats to my Thule rack, I asked my friend, "where to?"

She replied with several attractive options in New York State....then frowned.

It seems that in New York, you can't float anything in the water without a permit. And the permit requires things like a whistle, PFD, and God knows what else.

Okay, I said, so we go to a lake, like Greenwood, and buy permits, then put in?

No way Jose.

My friend informed me that New York State sees fit to have only one (downstate? I don't know...hard to believe it's the only office in the entire Empire State) permitting office, located in Bear Mountain State Park. It seems there's woman in that office whose full-time job is selling permits to put vessels in to New York waters.

But I still lacked the whistle, and had forgotten my paddle jacket/PFD at home. So, no New York lakes for us. I don't even want to think about the fine or jail time I'd probably receive if I were stopped and found to be lacking the permit and other required accessories.

So my friend and I drove up the NY Thruway, turned left and kayaked at Monksville Reservoir. About a mile short of NY's Greenwood Lake, safely in NJ.

The put-in was a snap. Large parking lot, portable sanitary facility, and a superb concrete ramp.

Needless to say, we enjoyed a wonderful afternoon of paddling on a superb day. Sunny, hot and calm. Both of us being experienced kayakers, we never were in the slightest danger.

Isn't it sad that in New York State, you can't just wake up one morning, decide to paddle your boat, canoe or kayak on a lake, toss said craft on your car and go paddle? And, if a usage permit were required, that you can't go online to buy and download said permit?

No, you have to find your way to a single office in a state park, hope it's open, and then hope you qualify to get the damn permit.

That, my friends, is the Nanny State at work.

Happy paddling in NJ!

American Healthcare, Liberty, and the Liberal Democrats

A few weeks ago, in its weekend edition, The Wall Street Journal printed an article discussing an oft-overlooked aspect of many, if not all, of the current crop of "universal healthcare" schemes being floated by various Presidential candidates.

The key question is, as the article is entitled,

"Should Insurance Be Mandatory?"

At issue is a fundamental question of personal liberty which struck me because I spent the past week with my father. He contended, from when I was quite young, that Americans would most likely lose their liberties slowly, in small increments.

Universal healthcare is such an increment. Essentially, the proposition is that all Americans should be forced to buy into one grand health insurance scheme. No exceptions. Then we all pay, it is argued, for caring for the poor, sick, etc.

Sounds fine in principle, eh? A large risk pool over which to spread expensive societal healthcare expenses?

But, wait. What about the large component of individual health that is volitional, and individually determined? Why should I pay for your smoking, drinking, poor diet, and lack of exercise?

It's all well and good to focus on diseases or conditions which may be present from birth, and may be nobody's "fault." However, that does not mean we must subsidize those who, when relieved of the burden of paying, literally, the price for insuring their very unhealthy lifestyle, logically consume more of the free good that is low-priced healthcare coverage for their very healthcare-intensive lifestyle.

Why not simply let the market solve most of this problem? Let those who choose to live medically-expensive lives pay for that privilege, while those who do not, pay less. The truly indigent or those with medical conditions from birth can be included in Medicare or Medicaid.

What troubles me most about the recent frenzy over universal healthcare is that all candidates seem bent on taking one liberty away- the freedom to say "no" to mandatory, or any, healthcare coverage.

Little by little, if this mandatory coverage is extended, our lives will become drab and managed by the state.

First smoking will be simply prohibited, because it costs us too much in healthcare dollars. Next will be alcohol. Then expect certain foods with high fat content to be prohibited, or rationed.

I'm not kidding. When mediocre, small-minded politicians and bureaucrats get it into their pointy little heads that life now exists to be lived at the least expensive total US healthcare system costs, watch your lifestyle freedoms begin to be taken, tiny step by tiny step.

One day, you'll wake up and find that what you eat and do for recreation are regulated in the name of lower universal healthcare premiums.

Socialistic schemes such as mandatory universal healthcare will only remove more of our liberties, without truly improving our health, or healthcare.