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A lot depends on which personal freedoms are most or least important to an individual. If I were going to use these ratings as a factor in deciding on a place to live, I'd want to see a lot more detail about how they came up with a city's score in each category.
You are so right! One man's "personal freedom" is another man's burden. Each of us would probably rank these in different ways, depending on what is important to us. For example, I wouldn't want to live in a city where it is difficult to get alcoholic beverages, while others may think that's a good thing. Conversely, I like the no-smoking in restaurants regulations, while others (smokers) vehemently oppose them. Same deal for cell phones when driving: I think they should be banned, but obviously others would not.
Only the extremists (the don't tell me what to do crowd) would rate a place highly because it had few or no laws regulating personal behavior.
Well, I don't think many gays feel comfortable expressing their personal freedom in Texas. I highly doubt you see many gays kissing and holding hands there. You have to think of that aspect too.
I'd like to see them do that while holding a beer and having a cig in their mouths!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ben Around
I'd like to see them do that while holding a beer and having a cig in their mouths!
lol I don't think smoking and drinking beer at the same time means expressing their freedom. I think the definition of freedom is that no one cares what type of person you are, i.e. gay.
It's all relative. The reasons why Chicago was last:
1) Tax on bottled water
2) Ban on serving alcohol at all-nude strip clubs
3) Local gun controls
4) Public smoking ban
5) Seat belt law
6) Ban on hand-held cell phone use while driving
7) Lots of red-light cameras
8) Allowing residents of city precincts to vote themselves dry
9) Providing nutritionalists and personal trainers to help overweight officers at district headquarter gyms
I agree it's bothersome to many, but personally I'm glad they're taxing people for buying dozens of throw-away plastic bottles when most of the time you could just use a re-fillable one, I think most places ban drinking at ALL nube strip-clubs, I'm all for gun laws, I'm all for smoking bans (even though I smoke), people should obviously use seat-belts, I'm glad someone isn't chatting away on their phone while I'm driving by with my family, red-light cameras are catching people....running red lights, I've NEVER had a problem finding a bar in Chicago, and if they're funding help for police in their own gyms in their district - good for them. I get those for free at the gym in my office building, and I'm not out there being a cop every day.
As far as nutritional information, etc. - I was just trying to find that today for the 7-11 down the street and got frustrated.
"After a century of Big Apple envy"????? Why does every magazine article have to be written from the New York City perspective?
Nobody in Chicago has ever envied anybody in New York. What Cub fan would rather be sitting in the bleachers of Yankee Stadium?
Don't cha know? If you got your world view solely from the media, the whole world is (or at least should be) like either New York or LA. And of course, that's where the only important things happen and important people are. Heaven forbid that it snows in New York, because then it's real news.
Back on topic--I guess the thing that these cities that ranked low on freedoms have in common is that they are trying to legislate personal behaviors in such a way as to cause a change in those behaviors. They seem to take away choice and personal responsibility. For example, smoking bans. I don't think anyone will argue that it's not bad for you, or for people around you. But, if I own a restaurant, and I want to allow smoking there, it should be my own business what I do there. If I choose to allow smoking, and most people don't like it, believe me, the market will determine whether it was a good idea for me to allow smoking or not. They'll either continue to eat there or not. The same applies if I choose to ban smoking in my place.
I know this can be argued ad nauseum. It just seems to me that we as a people either believe in personal freedoms, or we don't. It's seeming more and more like we don't.
Don't cha know? If you got your world view solely from the media, the whole world is (or at least should be) like either New York or LA. And of course, that's where the only important things happen and important people are. Heaven forbid that it snows in New York, because then it's real news.
Back on topic--I guess the thing that these cities that ranked low on freedoms have in common is that they are trying to legislate personal behaviors in such a way as to cause a change in those behaviors. They seem to take away choice and personal responsibility. For example, smoking bans. I don't think anyone will argue that it's not bad for you, or for people around you. But, if I own a restaurant, and I want to allow smoking there, it should be my own business what I do there. If I choose to allow smoking, and most people don't like it, believe me, the market will determine whether it was a good idea for me to allow smoking or not. They'll either continue to eat there or not. The same applies if I choose to ban smoking in my place.
I know this can be argued ad nauseum. It just seems to me that we as a people either believe in personal freedoms, or we don't. It's seeming more and more like we don't.
The argument we've heard against smoking in bars and restaurants here in MN is that the employees are subject to large amounts of second hand smoke, putting their health at risk. Good argument? If yes, would personal freedoms trump workers' health?
Nope. I have never seen gays kissing or holding hands. I'm not sure I have ever seen a gay person in real life, so it's not really a concern here.
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