THERE OUGHTA BE A LAW

"No one pretends that actions should be as free as opinions."
-- John Stuart Mill

We need a law requiring continuous sidewalks on both sides of every street, road, and highway, even the interstates, and marked crosswalks or overpasses in all directions at all intersections. Part of every trip involves walking, and the more convenient we can make walking the more we all can walk instead of drive. The benefits to both health and traffic congestion are, I think, obvious.

When it snows, priority should be given to shovelling sidewalks before plowing the streets. Walking is safer than driving in slippery weather and should be favored.

All drugs should be totally legalized. It's a waste of my good tax money to try to throw stupid fools into jail for contaminating nobody's bodies but their own with damaging materials.

Laws against public nudity and "indecent exposure" should be abolished. Very few folks ever want to run around naked anyway, and I really don't want to see their private parts, but if they do expose themselves they're certainly not hurting me in any meaningful way. Children often see themselves (and occasionally their playmates) naked, so I can't see how they would be traumatized unless their parents have already preconditioned them to become traumatized.

Speed limits on the open highway, especially interstates, should be abolished. Let the police concentrate their efforts in town and in congested areas where speed limits ought to be very low and rigidly enforced.

We ought to prohibit drive-in windows at banks, fast food joints, and other places of business. They're a waste of fuel in idling engines, a waste of time because it's quicker to do business inside at the counter, and a waste of real estate to accommodate long lines of vehicles.

All motor vehicles should be required to have pedestrian escorts in congested areas and residential neighborhoods to keep speeds down, and on narrow bridges that don't have walkways to make them more conveniently negotiable for bicycles and pedestrians. This also ought to be good for high school track team members in training who'd like to pick up an extra buck or two by escorting needy motorists while training up for their next track meet.

All legal definition of "religion" should be abolished. No special benefits (tax breaks or otherwise) should be conferred nor special penalties assessed upon any group based upon whether they are a "religion" or not. Our government should treat a group that meets weekly to salute a basket of belly button lint exactly the same as it treats the Episcopal church or any other well-known religion.