Back to the car seat thing a moment... The actual law here reads 9 years old or 4\'9\" tall. Not to many 9 year olds are 4\'9\" tall (I was but I was a freak in height as a kid, though still only made 6\'). The really fun part is ignoring the 9yr part and telling my mom (a 65 yr old lady) she needs to be in a car seat as she is only about 4\'7\".
As for these \"Big Brother\" laws as someone mentioned... Fact is I believe people should be able to make their own decisions as long as they arn\'t hurting someone else. A big part of the problem in the world today (violence, crime, vandalism, etc...) I blame on the world being to safe. Everything is so \'safe\' and regulated that the youths have to get their jollies off somehow so they find an alternate outlet. Mind you I do blame two other factors about as equally... Parents not raising their own children anymore (therefore strangers instilling values of \'the system\' on young children) and lax punishments in the legal system.
In Canada we have the young offenders act (big joke) where if you commit a crime under 18 you can\'t be tried as an adult, your name can\'t be posted, and your record gets wiped clean when you do become an adult), frig, if your not going to get punished they why the frig not do the crime. Oh yeah, also if your going to get close to the same punishment for fist fighting as for stabbing someone they why not stab someone (or even shoot them as the case may be).
Back to the \'Big Brother\' thing again... I\'m certainly more capable of making decisions in raising my family then the freaking government. We already know what kind of a fine job they do when in control.
OK, one last rant (one sure to draw flaming but oh-well, this is a rant after-all). What\'s up with all these people protesting war in Iraq and Afghanistan? So what if our governments really are just sending troops over to protect our oil supplies (or whatever other reason)? Certainly wars have been fought for much less over the years, and maintaining our way of life sounds like a pretty good reason to me to be at war not that I actually believe that this is the only or even prime reason we are there but even if it is... so?