Sundays, Harleys, Death, Whores, And Pimps

Over Christmas my Dad commented that all businesses should be closed on Sunday. "That is the way it used to be with blue laws, and we still got everything done."

I retorted that motorcycles should be outlawed. I knew my Dad was an avid rider back in the day. I also knew his dream is to buy a big Harley and ride across the country. I also knew that one of my friends from high school and my Mom's co-worker's boyfriend had just died riding motorcycles too fast. "There are just too many unnecessary deaths from motorcycles."

We argued. He claimed that all I care about was money. This is his go-to argument. When he cannot defend his position with reason, or he gets flustered, then I am a greedy bastard who only cares about money. I said in a sarcastic tone, "What about my high school buddy? Don't you care about him?" The realization that I was using my friend's death as a semi-joke during an argument scared me and offended both of us. So we shut up, and the argument ended.

GGM called me a whore to a philosophy the other day. I said that we do not need collective planning, and that property rights take care of all of the problems that planners cannot and or refuse to see. If you do not want Wal-Mart, do not shop there. Do not zone them out or make them jump through hoops. Just do not shop there. GGM reasserted his faith in the collective, democracy, precedent, and all of those other things that do not impress me.

One of my favorite rhymes is: "I feel like a whore. I cannot do anything for free anymore." That rhyme sums up the transition between youth and adulthood. Children do not worry about salaries or opportunity costs. They just play. They just act.

But somehow most children learn to be adults. They learn to face the consequences of their actions. Some learn quicker than others. Some learn the hard way. Some die. Some hurt others. Good parents help, but bad parents do not doom. And in the end, most make it.

The fact that most people make it is why I think blue laws and planning is wrongheaded and futile. The fact that prohibition had to be repealed, that people back in the day still got drunk on Sunday, and that people still speed on motorcycles show that laws will never solve the perceived wrongs of society.

So Dad and GGM, liberty, property rights, and the right to choose are my pimps, are my masters. If that makes me a whore or slave, then so be it.