Independence from Laws = Independence from Common Sense?

Many of us think the government has gotten too big and that it is far too intrusive in our every day lives. For the most part I would agree with this. We have laws to dictate everything now it seems -from noise ordinances telling you how loud you can have your radio to building codes to set safety standards for new construction to the recent laws banning transfats.

My question is: Would any of these type of laws be necessary if people exercised even just a modicum of intelligence, common courtesy, and common sense? Have we become a society that is so legislated to death that we figure that anything that there is no law against is OK? There are actually warning labels on plastic RubberMaid (TM) storage bins now warning that they should not be used to store... PEOPLE... I mean seriously, WTF?!? If you honestly need a warning label to tell you that you should not hop into a small airtight plastic container and have someone seal the lid... Well, all I can say is that it makes a pretty good case for Darwinism.

Unfortunately, the gene pool these days seems to be getting more and more shallow. Those at the higher end of the IQ spectrum seem to be throwing their energies into financially rewarding endeavors such as law, research & development, selling their blackened souls into politics, etc. while those who are somewhat less than fortunate in area of gray matter seem to be reproducing like rabbits. That is not to say that every family that has lots of kids falls into this category, but as a whole it is those with lower IQ and/or not so good education that are making more babies.

This should be cause for some concern. I mean... Do you think that the founding forefathers and their families were the type of people that needed to be told not to stick hot coals in their rectums to avoid serious injury or death? Somehow, I really just can't imagine that being the case. Yet today we have idiots walking around that would definitely try something like this if not for the warning labels and some that would try it even despite the warning labels.

Another thing is common F'ing courtesy and common F'ing sense. People need to get some. This applies to people of all IQ's I suppose. It is just that many people have become so indifferent to rules of common decency that it is ridiculous. It shouldn't take a brain surgeon or a public ordinance for someone to realize that riding through a residential area at 2AM with SnoopyDoggyDog (C)rap music blaring out your open windows loud enough to rattle the glass in people's storm door is something you shouldn't do. I was just reading a story about how an off-duty veteran firefighter with a spotless record shot and killed three 20-somethings and wounded two others because their loud 4th of July party (complete with illegal fireworks) carried on past midnight.

Now obviously the firefighter shouldn't have done what he did, but it could have all been avoided if this bunch of selfish drunken brats hadn't completely disregarded the fact that, despite the fact that it is summer vacation for them, some people actually do have to get up for work and don't particularly appreciate loud parties and explosives being detonated 15 feet outside their window when they are trying to get some sleep.

I didn't see all the details of the story, but I think it is likely that the neighbor let it be known that the party was bothering him, and had his complaints summarily ignored by the obnoxious revelers, before he came over and started shooting. Even if that wasn't the case, isn't it common sense that having a large loud gathering and detonating explosive past midnight is probably a very rude thing to do? I'm not saying that these 'young adults' got what they deserved, but I think that if people started paying a little more attention to how what they are doing affects others around them, this sort of thing would be far less likely to happen.