Shouldn't Auto Racing Be Banned ?

No, I'd say that would be unacceptable and irresponsible for me, as a protectionist, to accept something so harmful just to please a selfish liberty-freak like you and your ilk.
Got any more liberties you'd like to be legal ? How about robbery, rape, arson, fraud ? Wouldn't want to impinge on your liberties now, would we ?

 

Where did I drop the "government needs to protect us from ourselves" ?
I don't drop that. Sure, the government (we the people that is) needs to do that. As for "consenting adults being handcuffed and caged for taking a risk they decide to take", that happens every day - to drunk drivers, speeders, users of heroin and cocaine, etc.

Car accidents is an invalid analogy. Normal driving is a necessity. Auto racing isn't.

"...children are the responsibility of the parents, not the charismatic politicians."

That's real courageous of you, hiding behind the public's disdain for politicians with their low approval rates. I don't think I'll let you get away with that.
My answer is > however we may dislike our illustrious members of Congress and other politicians, we still do live in a democratic republic, and the politicians are there because we put them there. The government is us. And children are NOT the responsibility of the parents ALONE, they are the responsibility of the parents AND the charismatic politicians, AND the laws they make, thank goodness. If we were to leave responsibilty for children solely up to their parents, God help those poor kids.

 

For those wishing to close their minds to what they prefer. Never a good idea.

 

Yeah ? And exactly why should they do that ?

 

The guitarists weren't begging for money. They were working for it. And they did a very pleasing, highly-skilled work.

 

FALSE ! That was NOT the rationale (notice the spelling correction). This was the rationale > "is really an acceptable way for people to enage in spectator sports, or is this just too (*)(*)(*)(*) dangerous." The comparison to major league baseball is just an added, relevant way of looking at it.

So what's the matter, you can't handle "authoritarian restrictions on adults" ? What are you some kind of ultra liberty-freako ? Got any more liberties you'd like to be legal ? How about robbery, rape, arson, fraud ? Wouldn't want to impinge on your liberties now, would we ?

 

Idiotic straw man.

All liberties should be legal as long as they do not affect or infringe on the liberties of others. Obviously, this would exclude the ridiculous examples you have provided.

 

The same rationale could be applied to ban all unnecessary travel. Or vacations. Or any sports, since athletes consume unnecessary levels of resources to prepare themselves for sport.

Sorry, too tenuous. The key to a free society is having a government that prohibits behaviors which cause a direct, tangible, harm to others who did not consent to that behavior, and allows all other behaviors.

 

What part of consenting are you finding difficult to comprehend?

 

I've heard it said that motor racing and boxing are the only true sports, because they involve a risk of death - the rest are just games.

If you're going to outlaw automobile racing because of the risk of death, then I presume that you'll include hydroplane racing, and aircraft racing as well. Remember the tragic accident at the air race in Reno just a few weeks ago?

Two questions -- What other sports/games are you going to outlaw? Parachute jumping? Ballooning? Swimming? Football? Baseball? Hockey? Horse racing? Scuba diving?

Secondly, why do you feel the need to protect me from myself? If I choose to voluntarily participate in an activity, knowing that there's a risk - however small - that I may be killed, don't I have that right?

Isn't that the essence of liberty?

 

No, you specifically said that until auto racing had as few deaths as major league baseball for the last 90 years, that auto racing was not acceptable. You established your baseline right there- that unless auto racing had zero deaths it wasn't acceptable to you.

Of course most spectator sports dont' have 'zero' participant or spectator deaths. You have never explained why you single out auto racing, nor have you explained why you feel that 'any deaths' in auto racing makes it unacceptable.

I tend towards libertarianism on personal liberties.

But since you cannot tell the difference between government imposing laws to protect adults not only from themselves, but prohibiting an activity that enjoys tremendous popular support(auto racing), and government enacting laws to protect people from violence or theft from other people(robbery, rape, arson, fraud), then you simply do not understand what 'authoritarian' means.

 

This......cannot be repeated too often.

 

No it can't.

If 2 consenting adults want to play William Tell and one takes an arrow through the face, too bad.


Here in Australia, I think in the state of Queensland, a guy at a party was offered 5 bucks if he let a chick punch him in the face. He agreed, took the punch, collected his 5 bucks and fell over dead.

The police, the courts, etc are now trying to decide if what the girl did was illegal or not. In my opinion it's sad but too bad as he constented.

 

As a former race car driver, I can say that this is one of most idiotic threads I have ever seen. I drove local dirt tracks for several years before it got to expensive to continue. EVERY driver and his family know, and accept the fact that any time you go out on a race track you face the possibility of not coming back. I keep track of the safety innovations on race cars simply because I love the sport. today's race cars are safer than anything found on the road today, the addition of the SAFER barriers at most tracks have made racing much safer than it was when Dale Earnhardt died. You are more likely to die on your local commute than you are in a race car. What happened to Weldon was a tragic and totally unforeseeable series of events. Indy Car will examine the "black boxes" on the car, which BTW, are more sophisticated than those on modern jetliners, and make whatever changes they deem necessary to ensure the safety of the drivers.
And before you start on the "dirt racing isn't the same" or "local tracks aren't as dangerous" I have lost friends on a 1/2 mile dirt track. I was involved in one of those accidents.

 

As a former race car driver, I can say that this is one of most idiotic threads I have ever seen. I drove local dirt tracks for several years before it got to expensive to continue. EVERY driver and his family know, and accept the fact that any time you go out on a race track you face the possibility of not coming back. I keep track of the safety innovations on race cars simply because I love the sport. today's race cars are safer than anything found on the road today, the addition of the SAFER barriers at most tracks have made racing much safer than it was when Dale Earnhardt died. You are more likely to die on your local commute than you are in a race car. What happened to Weldon was a tragic and totally unforeseeable series of events. Indy Car will examine the "black boxes" on the car, which BTW, are more sophisticated than those on modern jetliners, and make whatever changes they deem necessary to ensure the safety of the drivers.
And before you start on the "dirt racing isn't the same" or "local tracks aren't as dangerous" I have lost friends on a 1/2 mile dirt track. I was involved in one of those accidents.
__________________

 

So you would legalize shooting heroin, cocaine, and methedrine then ?

 

The statistical record refutes you. Hundreds of deaths in this "sport" compared to none in other sports. It's too dangerous and your involvement in it disqualifies you from being an objective. impartial spokesman.

 

Whether it's harmful to others or to oneself only, government should ban what is harmful (to anyone). Harmful to anyone. And auto racing isn't just harmful to the driver, as I already stated numerous times earlier in the thread.

 

Let them experience the "fun" of a year in the slammer. With books to read about the people who got killed because the same idiocy they were engaging in.
PS - the faster they were going, the longer the sentence.

 

i know this is fu*)in ridiculous, but could you please help me to start a thread? i cannot figure out how.
i just donated to this forum because love it so much, but I am lost......

 

I don't want to live where people are free to harm themselves if they're stupid and harm others. Both auto racing and cigarette smoking do that.

 

I never said anything about the observers. also there have been intersection panhandlers where I live for the past 3 years (every day). I haven't heard of a single one being killed or even injured.

 

You're still not getting it. All your words are in the context of Dan Wheldon and his decision. The point I made had nothing to do with that. The point is about his sons and their NON-decision. Get it ?

In your last paragraph you spoke the word "I" 6 times. Not once did you say he or she or they (others whom your decisions would affect).

 

No it's a stupid point that's already been refuted in this thread. And saying racers are safer than you are while driving down the highway is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard in a computer forum in 5 years.

Compare the statistics. LOL. Are you retarded, man ? The racers are in a miniscule number of times driving, compared to all the driving done on highways. Sure you can compare the statistics. And you'll see that proportionally (taking into account the total amount of driving going on in both types), auto racing deaths are astronomical compared to street driving.