America or Eastern Block?

I know that I haven’t provided a post for your reading pleasure in a couple of weeks but I’ve been traveling and quite frankly, haven’t been pissed off about anything recently…and why post junk just for the sake of a post, right? Right. Well I found something to be pissed off about so here I am again…

This weekend I had the “privilege” of meeting a female lawyer who gave me some very shocking pieces of information. In fact, I was downright horrified at some of the things that she told me. She specializes in OVI cases (that’s operating a vehicle while impaired; formerly known as DUI or DWI). No I didn’t get a DUI this weekend. I just happened to meet this woman. Anyway, she told me that in the state of Ohio, you don’t have to be actually driving a car to get an OVI charge. You can be sitting in your car, in the passenger seat with keys in your pocket. You can be riding a bike or even a skateboard. If you are impaired, you can be charged with an OVI. They changed the wording to “impaired” because you can be impaired from fatigue, prescription medication, Nyquil, drugs or alcohol. Basically, if you’re outside of your home and you’re not 100% in your right mind, you may be charged with and convicted of an OVI. She recently defended, and LOST a case where a guy was drinking a beer in his front lawn and playing his music loudly. A neighbor called the police because the music was too loud. When the police arrived, they asked him to empty his pockets. When he did, they found his car keys in his pocket and promptly arrested him. The charge was OVI. Because his keys were in his pocket, the law says that INTENT to operate a vehicle while impaired is an infraction. Can you believe that???!!! In his own front lawn with keys in his pocket!!!

She went on to tell me that if you’re on your OWN property, driving your riding mower and you’re drinking an adult beverage, the police have a right to come on YOUR property and arrest you!!! You’re operating a vehicle and drinking…

Now, all of you who know me KNOW that I love my adult beverages so this may sound like an apologetic treatise in favor of drunk driving. Believe me, nothing could be further from the truth. My cousin was killed by a drunk driver so I’m a victim of this madness and in NO WAY condone drinking and driving. However, at what point did the police gain the right to come on an American citizen’s property and arrest him? 100 years ago, police or citizen, if you trespassed on someone’s property, you were likely to be shot! If I want to drink a brew while riding on MY riding mower, cutting MY lawn on MY property, what gives the popo the right to come on my property and arrest me?

I heard on the radio a few weeks ago that some town in Texas passed a law that people can’t smoke in their own homes if they have children in the home. Tell me, how do they intend to enforce THAT law???

In my opinion, these are violations of our most basic civil rights. I mean, what the hell is going on here? While we’re “exporting freedom” to eastern block and middle-eastern nations, we’re slowly drifting into some demented version of totalitarianism. (I’ll provide a working definition of totalitarianism so that you don’t have to look it up – “A totalitarian government, as its name implies, is characterized by its total control over all aspects of its citizens' political and economic activities”.) I say demented because our government is now expanding its control; not limiting itself to the control of only political and economic aspects of our lives.

This is NOT about being able to drink while riding a mower or smoke in front of your kids. It’s about the violation of basic civil liberties. It’s about freedom; the freedom to do whatever the hell I want to do as long I’m on my own property and not hurting anyone else.

I’ll even concede that the riding mower issue could be for the safety of the drunk’s children. Ok, a kid could run out of the house to tell daddy something. Daddy’s drunk and kills his own kid. But how many times have you heard of this happening? Ok, so pass a law that you can’t drink and ride a mower. But what about the guy who was drinking on his front porch and got arrested and subsequently charged with an OVI for having keys in his pocket?! Come on people!!! So now the only safe place to have an adult beverage is in my own home? I have an idea…why don’t they just put the Star of David on our arms, begin imposing curfews and have tanks ride up and down American streets…we seem to be heading in that direction anyway…

Just my thoughts…err ranting for today…