The Tennessee legislature is at it again with its annual consideration of a bill removing the helmet requirement for motorcyclists.
Although I generally favor granting individuals as much personal freedom as possible, I think I lean the other way on this one. I balance the competing interests, and this seems to weigh in favor of safety: the public cost for this elective risk is significant, given what I consider to be the relatively minor nuisance of wearing a helmet.
As the article points out, the $10,000 insurance requirement is a joke; motorcycle crash victims with head injuries typically face hospitalization bills well above $10,000.
At any rate, there’s a Darwinian element to this whole debate. For my part, I’d hate to risk bouncing my unprotected noggin on the road while chugging away on a bike going 18 mph, much less cruising around at 65+ mph.

Because some stupidity is worth repeating to expose it:

Federal judges are a more serious threat to America than Al Qaeda and the Sept. 11 terrorists, the Rev. Pat Robertson claimed yesterday.
“Over 100 years, I think the gradual erosion of the consensus that’s held our country together is probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings,” Robertson said on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”
“I think we have controlled Al Qaeda,” the 700 Club host said, but warned of “erosion at home” and said judges were creating a “tyranny of oligarchy.”
Confronted by Stephanopoulos on his claims that an out-of-control liberal judiciary is the worst threat America has faced in 400 years – worse than Nazi Germany, Japan and the Civil War – Robertson didn’t back down.
“Yes, I really believe that,” he said. “I think they are destroying the fabric that holds our nation together.”

Kind of comical until it hits you: who do these people continue to get national air time?
Via Eschaton.
UPDATE: Apparently there’s something even worse than liberal judge: a liberal Muslim judge.

Every now and then we get letters. And sometimes I actually read them. From the mail bag:
Les Jones sends this link on The Barkley Marathons. Wow. I thought my half marathon was bad.
Robin e-mails on Watching America. Want to know what people in Istanbul think about the runaway bride? Me neither. But you might be able to find out here. The site purports to link to “news about the U.S. written outside the U.S.”
jeff-perado points out the enlightenment going on at Janicek Online. An example:

The unintended side-effect of this mass illegal immigration is the fact that so many of them refuse to assimilate to our culture, i.e., refusing to learn and speak our language.
Of course this is also a bigoted statement. I have no right to expect that if someone wants to illegally invade my country, they should at least have the courtesy to learn my language. Though, it would be nice to be able to order a Big Mac without having to bring an interpreter.
I also have no right to expect English to be spoken in an English speaking country. Think about that for a minute: we can no longer expect immigrants to speak English in America without being branded a racist. That�s what “progressivism” has given us.

Michael Savage couldn’t have said it better himself!
If we want to create an incentive for immigrants to learn English, I’ve got a simple solution; no constitutional amendments needed. Just force them to listen to me attempt to speak Spanish; that should prompt them to want to figure out English real fast.

This is a neat concept for a child’s first bike; don’t know how well it actually performs.
When I was little I don’t think I had the best experience with training wheels. They may not have been properly configured. It seemed to take me longer than usual to get the hang of riding and lose the trainers. Either that or I had a bad sense of balance and want to blame it on the training wheels. Ha. Anyway, I seem to have overcome the slow start.

Meet the Press funny:

MR. RUSSERT: Do you believe your Republican colleagues will support 40-percent reduction for retirees who make $90,000?
SEN. ALLEN: I haven’t done a wimp check. I don’t know. All I can do is speak for myself. And if we could work…

Heh. I have run a quick check, and turned up with one from the Tennessee delegation. Should be whip; a Freudian slip in the transcript.
But here’s some intentional humor:

MR. RUSSERT: Let me turn to federal judges. Court of Appeals: Bill Clinton nominated 51 people to the Court of Appeals. Thirty-five were confirmed. Sixteen were blocked by the Republicans by not giving hearings or not allowed out of committee. George Bush nominated 52. Thirty-five were confirmed because the Democrats threatened filibuster. They don’t run the committees, so they can’t block it in committee. What’s the difference?
SEN. ALLEN: I think you’ll find on the Circuit Court judges that President Bush has the lowest percentage of Circuit Court judges…
MR. RUSSERT: I just gave you the numbers. Clinton nominated 51; 35 were confirmed. Bush nominated 52; 35 were confirmed. Those are the numbers.
SEN. ALLEN: Well, I have different numbers than that. The reality is that some of President Clinton’s nominees were blocked in committee. They did not–and a lot of them were also brought up at the very end of his term.

End of his term? That justifies it?
It was pretty comical watching Allen squirm in the face of his own hypocrisy.