Coffee Break?

I’m thinking he should find a new job or go back to the one he had.  What’s with this Bill he wants passed for spaying and neutering of all pets to be mandatory??  And how/when would it be enforced if it is?  We have laws governing licencing of dogs and cats, laws preventing dog fighting for sport/money and while our laws pertaining to cruelty to animals are too weak, how often do any of them get enforced and how stringent are the consequences/penalties?  Pretty poor if you ask me.  But here he is looking to have yet another ‘ineffective’ law passed and left just sitting on the books, a bunch of black letters on a white foolscap meaning nothing.

I’m aware of his love of and caring for animals, I understand and agree with his reasoning (we have five dogs, four cats and had every one of them spayed or neutered)…but government getting in my face is becoming constant and extremely annoying.  Seatbelts, smoking, child-rearing, airbags, trans-fats forbidden (not yet nationwide but…wait!) and that’s only to name a very few.  Sure, most would argue that seatlbelts and airbags have been a good thing and maybe they have…for whom?  Not necessarily me although I will admit that hasn’t been proven yet…I just hope in my case they are never called into use.  I’m short…short enough that I figure in an accident a seatbelt will either decapitate me or, being a woman, provide an instant, unwanted and unnecessary mastectomy.  At better than middle-age what do I do…get a booster seat?  Airbags…I drive a compact vehicle (and now the sub-compact) and only a few inches prevents me from having the steering wheel branded on my torso.  Bad enough in my Corolla with just front airbags.  In the Smart I’m surrounded by them…great concept but should I live through their activation can I sue for assault and battery?  ”They” say sit with ten inches between steering wheel and breastbone.  Okay…but they didn’t tell me where I could buy a pair of platform-soled shoes with which to do this.  Pedal extensions?  I’ve had pedal extensions put on a van I once owned…the van was a necessity in my life at the time hence no choice but pedal extensions.  They worked well…except when, every once in a while driving down the road one of them would loosen (usually the brake pedal) and fall off.  Scary experience.  Short people are at high risk of fatality or serious injury with airbags in particularl but can we disable them?  Well, yes…and void my insurance.  Rock and hard place.

Child-rearing….were I to be raising a child now I’d be an automatic criminal for I believe a well-placed, one shot whack on the rear end (and rear-end ONLY) serves a very good purpose.  The law doesn’t think so…nor do nosey neighbours.  Or, come to think of it, shoppers who are already irate with a screaming, misbehaving child but have no problem reporting someone for taking matters in hand and a mom then being accused of child abuse.  And the child grows, gets older, non-manageable at home or school, then what?  Taken into govt. care…or custody…and the same nosey neighbours whisper “I blame the parents…they let them just do what they liked…”     

Trans-fats…not good, I’m the first to agree and if I put them in my mouth it’s very, very rare but to make a law restaurants are banned from employing their use?  So people who indulge in such foods are not stupid…they are making their own choice which they, surely, have every right to do.  Someone who owns a restaurant surely has every right to have the kind of restaurant he or she wants and if that means using trans-fats what right does anyone have of telling them they can’t?  A bit like the smoking bans…people decide where they want to eat or drink and they decide for a myriad of reasons.  They are at just as much liberty to choose NOT to patronize an establishment if it isn’t to their OWN liking or needs…not big brother to be an equalizer.

And now the cats and dogs.  Yes, great concept and even better if everyone had access to either free or very low cost spaying/neutering services but it’s NOT anyone else’s business to decide that for them and their animals.  It’s NOT anyone’s business to demand that I…or anyone…do this to our pets.  We did…for puppy control and health reasons as the dogs age and become prone to illnesses specifically affecting those organs.  We advocate doing so…key word being advocate   but a law requiring it?  Wonder if, lo those many years ago, when Mr. Barker was breeding dogs himself, he would have agreed to such a law affecting his right to make such decisions?   And the best of British luck to anyone trying to enforce this.

We aren’t quite living “1984″…yet.  Won’t be too long, though.