The seat belt law drives me crazy. It bothers me more than any other law.  It is the simple audacity of its message:  Government can make me do whatever it wants. It can reach into my car and force me to do something that at the end of the day is optional.  Where in the Constitution does it say that government can do anything remotely likely that?  And if it can get away with forcing me to wear a seat belt, what can’t it get away with?

What bugs me even more about the law, though, is that I would wear a seat belt anyway, so I have no means of protest.  I know it makes sense to wear a seat belt, especially as a father, so I wear one.  My only recourse is to flip a middle finger remonstratively at “Buckle-Up; It’s-the-Law” signs on highways, which is downright pathetic.  If our forefathers had that kind of spirit, we’d all be bellowing “God Save the Queen” tonight.

Philip A. Contos, a 55-year old Empire State motorcycle rider didn’t go down so easily. He died today fighting another over-reaching New York State Law, the helmet law.  He joined 550 riders in a protest ride outside of Syracuse.  In a tragic irony, he lost control of his bike and died of injuries.  And, yes, those injuries were to his head.

Police spokesmen are seizing upon that irony to show how wrong Mr. Contos was to go helmetless and how right New York State is to require helmets on riders.  That is a  shame.  Because Mr. Contos died — on Independence Day — arguing a much larger and quintessentially American point:  Individuals are supposed to be in charge of their own destinies on these shores, not government.  It is what our revolution 235 years ago was all about. Mr. Contos, in death, needs to get credit for that.

RIP.

Spent an evening on Liberty Island last night as part of Statue Cruise’s new summer night tours (my company does work for them.)  I haven’t been on Liberty Island in more than 40 years, and the experience was even more memorable this time than the first time I saw the statue up close.   The number of people allowed on the island at night is limited and our group had free rein to explore. My wife and I spent the evening chasing our four-year-old daughter, but also marveling close-up at this grand international landmark. At dusk, Lady Liberty is breathtaking.  The camera-phone photo above does not begin to do her justice at that hour of the day.

There are eight more summer night tour dates available this year.  I would highly recommend taking one if you are in the New York area.

Add one more to the burgeoning Republican presidential field.

Five-term Michigan congressman Thaddeus McCotter — or T-Mac as comedian Dennis Miller calls him — is throwing his hat in the ring for the nation’s highest office.

The former “New Flying Squirrels” band member and pro-labor union congressman is not expected to churn the field much.  But hey, you never know. They said that about Illinois Rep. Phil Crain in 1980.

The requirements to run for President are clear.  One must:

Welcome aboard, congressman.

Who knows how the Dominique Strauss Kahn sexual assault case will turn out.  But the story looks very different today than it did a day ago.  Strauss Kahn, according to reports, was just released on his own recognizance because his accuser’s story has become so suspect.

This case — and again, we don’t know how it ultimately will turn out — reminds me of how fallible we are as humans. I would have strung up Strauss-Kahn on Monday.  I didn’t think he was guilty; I knew he was.  I could see it in his eyes. I was the proverbial neighbor to the mass murderer “who always knew there was something funny about the guy.”

What’s worse, even if Strauss Kahn is proved innocent, I will always view him in a suspicious light. The same thing goes for those kids who were wrongly accused in the Central Park jogger rape case. I suppose that’s just the way the human mind works.

Thank God for our judicial system, however flawed it is.