New Years Resolution: How About More Liberty!

By, TJ Madison

My father was right.

As long as I can remember, My Dad (Pops Racer) always made sure he went to bed BEFORE midnight on New Year's eve. It was his way of letting us know that it was a waste of time to stay up, just to see the calender change to January. One could chalk it up to spite, but actually, for as long as I can remember, he's never been up past ten o'clock on any other day of the year, so why should New Years Eve be any different?

Because! It was New Years Eve! The calender is no-longer going to say 2008 anymore. It will be 2009 now! Can't you see how exiting that is?

It took me about 35 years into my life, but now I know how 'lame' those statements really are.

I think it still could be exciting for a teenager to stay up, waiting for the countdown until midnight with their siblings. It's sort of like believing in Santa Claus when you're a child. When you get in your 20's, it's just another reason to drink and be stupid. Like people in their 20's need another reason to drink and be stupid, they already have St. Patrick's Day, their birthday, all their friend's birthdays, and every Friday and Saturday night of the year.

That's at least 120 days per year to get drunk and act stupid. And if you're attending a major university, you can double that number of the times to be drunk and stupid; or as Pops Racer would say: P.U.D. (pissed-up drunk).

I'm not sure how Pops felt about New Year's resolutions, though. I imagine it would be the same as what he thought about New Year's in general. And if that is so, then he would be proud of me for not bothering with New Year's resolutions. Because when has one ever been kept? For me, never. So I stopped making them about five years ago.

I think the best I ever did was to avoid mayonnaise until the middle of February. And if you knew me, you'd realize what an accomplishment that really was. However, I've now discovered that totally depriving yourself of something you enjoy is foolish. Do I use the same amount of mayo that I used to? No. I learned to make a sandwich taste just fine with a little bit. Let's just say, that when I die, the cause of death will not be 'too much' mayonnaise!

Let me say one more thing on the subject: It's OK to have a resolution to improve your life, but why do you have to wait until the beginning of a new year? It's just as easy to start at the beginning of a week, or the first of any month. Because when your current New Year's resolution fizzles out January 22, don't wait until January 1st of 2010 to make an improvement to your life, try again February 1st.

All of that being said, I'm going to make some resolutions, not for me, but for my fellow citizens and co-workers.

Why? Because I'm sick of the 'nanny-state' politics that are devouring our precious individual liberties in every corner of this great land. For example, even smaller cities and towns are turning to more and more government intrusion on personal freedom. In big cities it has already been lost: no smoking, no trans-fats, no driving with cell phones, no driving without seat belts, random 'checkpoints' by the police for drunk drivers and so on.

I'm actually able to listen to Chicago radio stations in my small Wisconsin city, while listening to the traffic report one of the highways had a back up of a couple of miles. No big deal, right? It is Chicago after all. Well, the back up of cars was created by a police checkpoint to-- wait for this-- make sure drivers had their seat belts on!

What the bigger cities of America have succumb to, is indeed frighting, however, more scary, it's coming to our smaller towns and cities. Brought to you mainly by leftist do-gooders who can't mind their own business. I know this because, I work with people like this, and people sit on our Common Council who want this tyranny.

Now, people in our city lost the freedom to smoke in restaurants three years ago. In 2008, the local people lost the freedom to smoke in bars and taverns.

Yes, bars and taverns! Aren't bars generally 'seedy' type places where certain people can go to fulfill some of their elementary vices, such as drinking, smoking, maybe a fling with someone you just met, among other things.

So let me get this straight, you're now able to go to a bar of your choice, drink alcohol and destroy your liver, eat a cholesterol filled pizza that clogs your arteries, take a girl home (that you just met) and possibly end up with several disease's, and gamble a sizable portion of your paycheck. BUT, GOD FORBID, you should leave the establishment with a trace of 'second-hand' smoke in your system. A choice you made before going in there. (For the record: this writer thinks the affects of 'second-hand' smoke are greatly exaggerated for political purposes. And even if I'm wrong about that, nobody puts a gun to your head to go into a bar).

So in 2009, if you have any power to make laws, or persuade lawmakers, make a New Years resolution to side with individual liberty before siding with the majority that wish to take it away.

TJ Madison is a pundit living in Fond du Lac, WI. He describes his views as a libertarian-Republican who is fighting creeping socialism on a daily basis.