the power of government

There is a famous quote that states : "The only power a government really has is to crack down on criminals. So if it feels it needs more power, it will make more things a crime ..."

Our beloved Belgian government knows this very well and abuses the legitimate concerns of people to get more power. Just in the last couple of weeks we had :
- A proposition to make smoking in your own home illegal (near children)
- A proposition to make wearing an mp3-player in traffic illegal for pedestrians and
cyclists.
- ...

Smoking is bad for your health. Smoking near children is bad for their health too. Let's educate people about this instead of telling them what to do in their own homes and installing Big Brother devices. Let's see ... would the mandatory smoke detector (under the cover of a mandatory fire-security action for insurance) be the first step in this ?

Hearing oncoming traffic is just as important as looking left-right (right-left in the UK and others) before crossing the street. Let's educate people about this instead of cracking down on the evil mp3-player-wearers. Today you can easily unplug one ear, hear the traffic and still hear the music. The people proposing this today are the same ones that wore a walkman with fixed headsets not so long ago.

Yes, I feel sorry too for every child, every person that dies in traffic. Don't get me wrong about that. And losing a child must be horrible. But over-protection will not make them stronger and safer. It will make them weaker. Education will make them stronger.