The inevitable stuck pixel, in this case, is Attorney General Michael Atkinson of South Australia. AG Atkinson wrote a letter recently to Grow Up Australia (Via GamePolitics) explaining why he wouldn’t vote aye for an R18+ classification to be added to the system for games. It reads, in very small part: “I cannot fathom what State-enforced safeguards could exist to prevent R.18+ games being bought by households with children and how children can be stopped from using these games once the games are in the home. If adult gamers are so keen to have R.18+ games, I expect children would be just as keen.”

Well, Mr. Atkinson, that’s none of the State’s gorram business, is it? I can see how an official from a government with State-enforced firearm safety checks would think that censorship and “saving the children” is part of its mission, but you are wrong. Let me put it plainly: how your citizens choose to entertain themselves is none of your concern until they start hurting each other. Without mutual consent.

The Government has no such restriction. It can offer its services seemingly below cost because its expenses are subsidized by the taxes paid by every working American. What will happen when private insurers have to compete against an entity that can sell its coverage below cost? The proponent of Obamacare might say that the private companies will be forced to cut costs and cut their rates, but the simple fact is that private insurers will never be able to compete with the Government. How can they, when their competitor is selling insurance at rates impossible to match? The Democrats may not be pushing for single-payer health care in name, but make no mistake, single-payer health care is exactly what we’re going to get.

And, many folks may reason, why shouldn’t we? Anyone with private insurance will be paying twice for their health care; once with their taxes and again with their disposable income. It’s not as though there will be an opt-out where you pay for your own care and pay nothing into the Government system.

Unless we stop these bills, private health care will go the same way in the US that it did in Canada: something that only the wealthiest among us can afford. The premium for quality health care will put private care out of reach of increasing numbers of Americans and more and more of us will end up on the Government program as private insurers either raise their rates to prohibitive levels or drop out of the game entirely.

They will be monitored to ensure that children attend school, go to bed on time and eat proper meals.

The families are part of a program called the Family Intervention Project, which, as far as I can tell, aims to get the parents of unruly yobs more involved in their children’s lives. And by “parents,” I mean “Big Brother.” No word yet on whether they must also participate in mandatory calisthenics or the Two Minutes Hate. I presume that comes later.

But wait! There’s more (this time from Wired):

It gets worse. The government is also maintaining a private army, incredibly not called “Thought Police”, which will “be sent round to carry out home checks,” according to the Sunday Express. And in a scheme which firmly cements the nation’s reputation as a “nanny state”, the kids and their families will be forced to sign “behavior contracts” which will “set out parents’ duties to ensure children behave and do their homework.”

That would be a security group separate from the usual police force. Coming soon to a police state near you!

A comment on the Express article by CloverGirl asks, “Why are people not up in arms about this?” Well, that would be partly because they have no arms to be up in. Don’t think it couldn’t happen here.

Eastcoastsurfer: This bill should really be called “A Tax Increase For All Americans.” The estimated tax revenue the government expects to extract from the population from the passage of this bill is huge.

goldspider: This can’t be true. Obama promised that taxes would not go up for 95% of Americans.

AlexDV: He told the truth. Taxes will go up for 100% of Americans.

Heh.

Even if they were not recording video, any such system could easily be used to surreptitiously spy on citizens. While they are not currently used for such, the company which provides and maintains the cameras (Redflex) claims that they could be used to scan licence plates and thus to track the movements of any cars which pass the cameras. In Arizona! We’re supposed to be a free(er) state! There are a few bills in the state legislature this season which limit or outright remove the cameras from state highways. I got the following list from the Arizona Citizens Defense League website. If you live or drive in Arizona, it’s a good idea to write your state representatives about these. It is not a complete list of speed camera-related bills (which can be found at AzCDL).

House Bills:

• HB 2106 kills the camera program altogether
• HB 2124 restricts the use of the photo radar system to enforcing only a few specific sections of ARS.
• HB 2168 mandates a study to determine the necessity of photo radar cameras before AZ DPS and DOT can enter into or renew a contract for speed cameras.
• HB 2494 creates a statutory limit for photo radar violations of 11 miles above the speed limit. The threshold for triggering speed cameras is currently decided by the police jurisdiction which controls the cameras.

Senate Bills:

• SB 1291 allows the courts to share photo enforcement violation records with ADOT.
• SB 1355 removes the cameras from state highways.

If you are attending the 2A Blog Bash and driving, be aware of these damn things and drive the speed limit.