They're trying to force a helmet on your head

[Pat Kelly]

I read THIS in USA today.
I always wear a full-face helmet and I always will. I don't think they should be mandatory.
Same with seatbelts.
And most other laws.

[Parr8hed]

me thinks helmets good idea. Forcing anything on people bad idea. just like the seat belt dingy thingie in my 06 accord. If you do not put on the seat belt it dings and dings until you do. I hate it. I am all for wearing my seat belt but i want the decision for myself. If some people are not smar enough to wear their helmets I call that Darwinism. thins the herd.

[TADracer]

Here in Louisiana our past Govenor, Mike Foster, was a rider and he had the helmet law abolished during his term. Then....we were blessed with Govenor Kathleen Blankstare (oops, I mean Blanco). Yep, the same Governor we all saw in front of Congress explaining her wonderful handling of the situation down here after Katrina. Doubt Governor Bimbo (oops, I mean Blanco) has ever had her butt on a seat still, she reinstated the helmet law in Louisiana within a month of her swearing at (oops, I mean swearing in).

Helmet laws, seat belt laws, etc. are nothing more than pressure from the insurance company lobbys. I choose to wear a helmet but the key word here is CHOOSE. I am old enough and mature enough to make a decision for myself.

[81xsproject]

I used to be anti-make-me-do-anything, especially with the helmet and seatbelt laws. I figured it was a good way to do a little 'natural selection.' However, when some un-insured dude goes down and cracks his melon, and there is no one to pay, we pay. As far as helmets, I say they are a good thing, we all wear them, no biggy.

[mason79]

yeah yeah yeah, they can always wear a harley brain bucket, and get the open air feeling, if they enforce full face, then the harley game would be over...

[jeffe]

ARRRRGGG!!!! Getting up on soapbox... Does anyone realize that every time a personal freedom is taken away it makes it easier the next time the nannies want to impose their will on us. I agree, I always wear my helmet and buckle up in my car or work truck. Common sense, and the couple of times i got caught with my helmet locked up in the shop and had to ride home lid less i was so uncomfortable that i can't imagine riding with out one. I also think smoking is a bad thing, I have no problem expressing this to anyone. But when we got to vote on smoking bans here in Ohio i voted no. It should be up to a business owner to decide. Now public places where people have to go like government buildings, schools, etc should have a no smoking rule. But a bar or bowling alley, this should be decided on how the owner wants to serve his customers. His bottom line will decide.
In the condo community where I live there was a lady who wanted to ban motorcycles period. She wanted them not only banned from the community. but everywhere. She said that because they were dangerous no one should have the right to endanger themselves. She also said that bike riders were no good low lifes. I procede to tell her that I was an elder in my church, have worked for the same company, where I manage a large service department,for over 20years, and I know I have a better driving record than she does because I've seen her getting two tickets in the last year. 12 years since my last one.......Getting down of my soapbox.
Sorry for the rant but this drives my nuts.

[LoHo]

Hmmm...just read about a local 19-y-o beauty queen who was ejected from her car as it flipped. Seat belt messed up her clothes. No worries now.

That "personal freedom" argument sounds great, but all of civilization is based on exchanging personal freedom for security and order. Some would say that labor laws, age of consent, and compulsary education are violations of personal freedom...just saying.

[mason79]

how about this, since kids get hurt alot more, 1st year probationary and mandatory helmet?

[LoHo]

The ones that scare me are the 40-year-olds who buy the biggest bike the can find and try to learn to ride on it. Of course, I learned on my XS1100, when I was 37...never mind.

[Dragonrider]

Motorcycles are dangerous. Nobody should be allowed to ride 'em. There is no legitimate reason for having one.

After-all, every time one of those bozo'z gets hurt (helmet or no) and doesn't have insurance, we have to pay.

It costs American productivity, and for what? So some overgrown middle-aged kids can feel powerful and fast?

(/sarcasm)

[mason79]

when someone or some organization, refers to some habit or past time, that costs tax payers, blah blah, like katrina, blah,

let me ask those in the know, someone/body recieves those funds as that is the expense they are talking about, does that not recirculate in the economy and add to the gnp?, unless of course it's diverted to overpaid ceo's and the like, oh i forgot, seems like thats why these supposed lost in productivity figures exsists, because of the diversion

it's engineered into sociaty and exploited by careful eyes looking to exploit it, hey the smart follows the money.

[HobbyMan]

Wasn't it Benjamin Franklin who said that if we give up our personal freedoms in exchange for security, we do not deserve to be free?

Here it is, I found it:

Those willing to give up a little liberty for a little security deserve neither security nor liberty.

As you know, this aplies to more than helmets.

[HobbyMan]

I like this one to.

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.

Thomas Jefferson

[Kurt]

Motorcycles to me are a-lot like skateboarding. It takes a while to get good at it, your almost always going to get hurt at some point, and there are times when you are forced to wear things that you otherwise might not. Sure my board won't do 120, but my bike will certainly never be 11 feet in the air on a ramp either.

I agree that helmets are a great thing and I like mine a-lot. But I don't agree that anyone should have the right to tell me to wear it. In either respect. People make life taking risks every time they leave the house, yet there are no driving helmet laws, or walking helmet laws. Why just these select laws in these select areas for these select people? It surely has nothing to do with with a goverment insurance break...

Yes we all pay for it when some dingleberry does something stupid, but if freedom was really free we would all be millionaires. Wouldn't we?

[e.z.nightrider]

Yes, I wear a helmet. No I am NOT for helmet laws. The pionts being made on the erosion of personal freedoms is well taken. This is a slippery slpoe once started. Martin Niemöller said it best when commenting onthe in action of the german intellecual community under the Natzies.

They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew
Then they came for the sick, the so-called incurables, and I didn't speak up,
because I wasn't mentally ill.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

If there is something that you see as a threat to personal freedom it is not only your right but your duty to speak up.

Ed Z.