I was reading an article the other day that expressed “concern” – What an expression! It manipulates by feigning the protective instincts of a parent that are instinctively deferred to – that there are still a handful of states that allow people to ride motorcycles without having to wear a helmet. And yet, it is still legal in every state to eat whatever you like. To not exercise.
One wonders for how much longer.
This brings us to one of the interesting things about helmet laws, which is their strange arbitrariness. A rider – in states where the requirement exists – must wear a helmet but may legally wear next to nothing else. A pair of shorts and sandals will do, insofar as the law. Why is that allowed? Spinal injuries, paralysis, horrific road rash, compound fractures and general mangling of the body are among the risks assumed by one who rides wearing nothing but shorts and sandals.
But his head will be protected. It will still look good when he is in that wheelchair for life.
Why are motorcycles allowed at all? Even fully geared up – armored riding suit, boots, gloves and the helmet – riding a motorcycle is inherently less safe than riding in a car. If “safety” truly were the baseline criteria, motorcycles would be illegal. The only reason they aren’t is because of an ancestral memory of a time when people were free to choose whether they wanted to ride in the open air – sans helmet, if they liked – or within a car, of they preferred – where they did not have to “buckle up.” It’s like how they still allow the legal pretense of being homeowners rather than outright deeding the title to the government and calling what you’re forced to pay in “property taxes” the rent it actually is.
So – since they can’t (yet) outlaw motorcycles altogether, they can pass laws making riding one less enjoyable, which is what being forced to wear a helmet does.
The Helmet largely eliminates the whole point of riding, which is to feel the sun and and wind on your face, to be in the moment – rather than clamshelled up inside a helmet. But all of that is beside the point. Never argue utilitarian points with anyone who is arguing about what you should and should not be allowed to do.
It is the principled point that matters.
You can point to the arbitrariness of helmet laws – and not just them but generally. Take it to logical absurdity. Not only should riders have to wear full gear – armored riding suit, boots and gloves as well as the helmet – they ought to stay home, preferably in bed. That would be safest of all and it would at least be consistent. They don’t go that far, of course. This reveals the arbitrariness (and so the injustice) of the thing. Punishing a rider for not wearing a helmet – but not punishing him for not wearing an armored riding suit, boots and gloves – is like punishing a child for wearing one muddy shoe in the house.
It’s actually worse, of course, because (a) the helmetless rider is an adult and (b) he has not tracked mud inside your house. The argument is he might. Ok. So might the rider who isn’t wearing the full armored riding suit, boots and gloves. How does a broken back and wheelchair paralysis for life – assuming it actually happens – impose greater “costs on society” than the cracked-open head of a helmet-less rider, if that actually happens?
Is it really reduced to an argument about that?
If so, has anyone done an accounting of the costs not imposed on society when a healthy man in his 40s or 50s is killed on a motorcycle, perhaps because he was not wearing a helmet (and perhaps because he was not wearing an armored suit, boots and gloves) who will never grow old and draw Social Security, thus saving “society” a great deal? And never mind the savings achieved by not having to spend all that money on senior care when the old duffer can’t take care of himself anymore.
If it’s all about the money, then one can make a case that riders ought to be allowed to ride helmet-less. Wheelies ought to be encouraged, too. The same goes for all the People of Wal-Mart. They ought to be given BOGO discounts for cases of high fructose corn syrup-sweetened drinks and lots of canola-laden snacks. The sooner they die from diabetes or heart disease the more money “society” will save!
They never say that, of course.
Because it is not “safety” or “societal costs” that “concern” the people who demand and amen helmet laws. It is certainly never the riders who are “concerned,” which is odd in view of the fact that they are the people most directly affected. You would think if wearing a helmet truly were in the self-interest of riders, laws requiring it would be as needed as laws requiring the wearing of shoes in the woods. Most people wear shoes in the woods because it’s generally sensible to wear them in the woods. Some will say the same about motorcycle helmets, including some who ride. But it is also true that many who ride do not agree – as far as the forcing, at least – and also that most if not all who push for helmet laws do not ride.
Riders understand different strokes.
It is one of the chief reasons why they ride rather than drive. Few riders like the idea of forcing anyone to wear a helmet, even if they think it’s a good idea themselves. They also don’t support forcing anyone to eat healthy or to hit the gym. They’re ok with you eating what you like to eat and being heavy, if you don’t mind being heavy.
How about you not minding us feeling the wind in our hair and the sun our faces, even if it’s not something you’d chose to do yourself?
. . .
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At no time in my life did I ever feel more free’er than I did while riding a motorcycle without a helmet on here in the less-slave-State of Iowa (Or, even while on a moped back in the Day (1980’s) when I was 14 yrs. old) it. was. pure. Joy!
…Of all my friends who wrecked & died while riding, every single one of them did so while wearing helmet.
Not a single one, died without a helmet.
THE only reasons I ever wore a helmet was to keep the bugs off my face in the Summer and to stay a bit warmer in deepest Winter. Sorta like a surgeon, who only wore a mask to keep his drool out of an open wound?
The Sheet, people don’t get.
Grosses me out to see Mom’s forcing children to put helmets & elbow pads on in order to ride a bicycle. Let alone, see grown men wearing a helmet while riding one.
The pussification, is complete?
“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”
― Helen Keller, The Open Door
Amen, Helot!
I rode 40 years without a helmet but now I find myself wearing one all the time. White Bell 3/4 feels at home on my balding head and isn’t to hot in the summer.
Hi Ant,
As with “masks,” I support everyone’s right to wear one, if they wish to wear one. But I deny anyone else’s supposed “right” to force anyone else to wear one.
None of us Goyim will have to worry about wearing helmets, or retirement or pensions or medicare/medicaid….
Just take your prescribed (((vaccine’s))), as requested, and it’ll all take care of itself!!!
Eat, drink and be merry today, for tomorrow, or very soon after that, you WILL die…
(((They))) guarantee it!!!
I didn’t catch this the first go-around, RE: “White Bell 3/4 feels at home on my balding head and isn’t to hot in the summer.”
I can’t help but think of this bit: “If ye love wealth [safety] better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude [safety] than the animated contest of freedom – go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!” – Samuel Adams
…On your balding head, do you wish to live on this earth forever? Is that your goal in life and the virtue you wish to pass down to posterity?
Maybe you’ll get to go to war without a helmet (and wearing cowboy boots). Wasn’t civil war last war you could do that? Just say a prayer…
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DO1uFkckp0t/
Your comment didn’t quite make sense, but wow, that link you posted sure did seem Anti-Christ/Warmongering B.S..
I’m sure I’m in the minority on that. But, oh well.
Reminded me of this other title:
‘Live on the Street Begging for Food and Dodging Bullets in a Civil War, or Fire Corrupt Congress…Your Choice!’
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2025/09/andrew-wallace/live-on-the-street-begging-for-food-and-dodging-bullets-in-a-civil-war-or-fire-corrupt-congressyour-choice/
I think you’re thinking of the Imperialism Or Else War of 1898.
Good guess, though, thanks for playing.
Statutes upon statutes. Massive technocratic police state. Constantly growing. Cameras and ALPRS all over the county I live in. Phones logging every intimate detail of our lives in real time. Every transaction monitored. It appears that the trap has been sprung and They are slowly letting us know that shit is going to be different and not in a good way if you value individual liberty. I am enjoying every day expecting the hammer to fall at any time…something none of us could even imagine.
That’s all you can do, for now. Enjoy every day, and live your best life. Would certainly consider riding without a helmet part and parcel of that.
A.K.A. tend your own garden.
Also, I grew up in Iowa. Never wore a helmet unless the bugs were really bad. …I can’t even imagine being forced to wear a helmet.
I, wouldn’t.
I just, wouldn’t.
I never appreciated living in Iowa until The Plandemic, and learning about all the helmet laws. No State is perfect, of course, but I guess, my masters are less bad than the masters in the other States.
…Land of, The Flea.
Home of, The Slave.
To Voltaire, ‘Let us tend our own gardens, become free of the chains that bind us, help one another, and live by the golden rule.’ If that fails, let us burn this MFer to the ground and start over from scratch.
My gardening game went up a notch to a level I’m not sure is even sustainable. All on a tiny 5K square foot city lot. Gave away more fruits herbs and veggies this year than I ever thought possible. Wish I still had chickens. Raised beds and garden bags are your friends. They make it so easy, even a a cave man like me can do it.
HA! “If that fails, let us burn this MFer to the ground and start over from scratch.”
..But yeah, chickens in Winter, is not easy. Or, so it seems.
Spartan kid,
Iowa has some kool looking stuff in the state….
However, It’s too cold, thus not on my Bug out list…..
I’m retired from “wood chopping ” as a heat source…..
I may be up for parole shortly and can’t wait to get back to..
“Dollar General Tahiti”….The DR.. look it up
It’s worth the checkout and…. What is a Furnace??
Ahem,
Just one comment…
If you are Grilling Chicken on the Haitian border…..
Just make sure you are “downwind”…..ummm, Or else,
you will get Beaucoup Neighbors ,FAST!
On a happier note, another EeeVee Sad Clown bites the dust:
‘Earlier today, shares of Porsche AG in Germany plunged the most on record after the struggling sports car maker announced it would scale back its electric vehicle rollout.
‘Porsche scrapped plans for a future battery-powered luxury SUV and shifted focus back to petrol-powered engines and hybrid models. This move will result in a $2.1 billion hit to operating profit and force both Porsche and its parent, Volkswagen AG, to revise their full-year forecasts.
‘Friday’s profit warning marked the fourth time this year that Porsche cut guidance, with shares down 28% year-to-date. The slump has pushed the automaker so low that it is now set to be removed from the DAX, Germany’s benchmark index.
‘On Friday, Volkswagen warned it would take a $3.5 billion non-cash impairment tied to Porsche’s hit to operating profit and lowered its forecast for operating return on sales this year to 2% to 3%, down from 5%.
‘Besides Porsche and Volkswagen, other European peers, such as Stellantis NV and Renault SA, are also struggling with dismal EV demand after they invested [sic] billions of dollars in the technology.’
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/porsche-hits-brakes-ev-ambitions-suffers-another-guidance-cut-shares-drop-most-record
German industry is in full-scale collapse, with Germany’s economy dead in the water. How long before Volkswagen pulls the plug on its idiotic Scout Motors project in South Carolina?
Joe Biden’s EeeVee fever dream turned into a wretched mountain of reeking dung, like Cinderella’s fine carriage and liveried footmen reverting at midnight to a stupid pumpkin pulled by filthy rats.
Trillions of malinvested capital now goes ‘poof,’ degrading standards of living worldwide. Yet even as I type, Big Gov is hawking new ‘investments’ in everything from Intel to Israel to hiring 10,000 new ICE storm troopers.
MAGA socialism sucks balls.
Would it be safer to drive a car with a helmet or without a helmet? Of course it would be safer with a helmet. Then why not make driving a car without a helmet illegal? Because that would be stupid. Everyone knows it. No one would wear a helmet in a car, understandably. How about mandated 5 point harnesses and fire suits? No? Why not? It’s so much safer!
A national 5 m.p.h. speed limit on Every road, highway, and Interstate in the country!
…THINK OF THE LIVES IT WOULD SAVE!
…WHY ISN’T THIS A TOP PRIORITY?
Bastards! They…
The most basic point is this: if you’re a free man nobody gets a vote. It’s not a democracy, where you have no rights and everything is subject to a vote. It’s not a kritarchy where a “wise” judge gets to define your rights. It’s not an oligarchy where a few rich and powerful get to set the rules.
By law the federal union and the several states are constitutional republics. Government is granted limited privileges to run public things. The constitutions spell out those things in explicit detail, if there is any question the tie goes to the runner and the verdict goes to the individual.
They claim riding and driving are privileges granted to you serfs by the benevolent democratic state. Bull crap.
It’s all about a continued selling of collectivism.
Wear a helmet because it costs society more to deal with these types of injuries.
Driving your truck releases more carbon into the atmosphere which is destroying the planet.
Wear a mask and take the vaccine otherwise you are a spreader of Covid.
Shut your mouth you Nazi, homophobic, misogynistic, gay bashing hater. Your words spread hate, and you must be silenced for the betterment of us.
Collectivism starts as a do-good safety nanny state over freedom but always ends in violence.
‘calling what you’re forced to pay in “property taxes” the rent it actually is’ — eric
From the CNN branch of the Lügenpresse, of all places:
‘A once-fringe push to eliminate property taxes is drawing new energy — and the backing of high-profile conservative figures.
‘Republican firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia recently argued for making it a national priority. Billionaire Elon Musk has likened property taxes to “a de facto lease from the government” that should be abolished. And in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis, a once and possible future presidential contender, has vowed to move his state in that direction.
‘Grassroots campaigns in Michigan and Ohio are now gathering signatures for ballot initiatives that would abolish property taxes altogether. In Texas, Republican state Rep. Brian Harrison has proposed a state constitutional amendment to end them there by 2031.
“Never-ending property taxes are unethical, immoral and incompatible with private property rights,” Harrison said, “and need to be thrown to the ash heap of history.”
https://archive.is/M50oa#selection-2447.55-2451.179
States mainly rely on a triad of levies: income tax, sales tax, property tax. In states such as Texas that don’t impose income tax, property and sales taxes tend to be heavier to make up for the missing leg of the three-cornered stool of taxation.
Just going feral and slashing state spending to zero ain’t allowed. States pay for a share of Medicaid, for instance, with a US fedgov gun barrel to their temple.
How do you spell relief? S-E-C-E-D-E.
“How about you not minding us” – E. Peters
But, Eric, that is the creed of the Busy Body. They are the descendants of the Puritans that want to oversee others. It’s the hypocrisy that has been part of humanity since creation. Matthew 7:3 “3 “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye[a] when you have a log in your own?”
You make reasonable arguments but, GovCo is about reason or logic. It’s about demanding and getting unquestioned obedience. That’s why we have GovCo schools.
Yep.
They came to America seeking the freedom to force everyone else to practice their religion, for their own good, or else.
My relatives.
I can’t stand them, and if you can’t either I don’t blame you.
True, and they also apparently came to America to set up what is tantamount to the same meddlesome monarchy they claimed to be fleeing from.
Here’s the thing about a monarchy: kings can only get by with being so meddlesome before they start putting their own position in jeopardy. Mostly, as long as you pay your taxes and don’t insult them too loudly or commit crimes or disturb the peace, they’ll leave you to your own devices. Maybe not perfect…but generally not all that bad either. Unfortunately if you get stuck with a bad one, though, there isn’t much recourse.
Morning, Publius!
And the great thing about monarchy is that the people can readily apprehend that they are ruled by a man who claims the right to rule them. Democracy fools most people into believing they rule.
And it’s obvious (sometimes all too obvious, historically speaking) that he didn’t exactly get the job because he was good at it.
“Unfortunately if you get stuck with a bad one, though, there isn’t much recourse.” It’s an excellent question.
Throughout the history of Europe monarchs have been deposited by their own family or inner circle when it was obvious that their rule became dangerous.
Even the extremely autocratic Russia had a number of monarchs removed by various means before their natural end.
Civil wars and revolutions are costly for monarchies. Royals of Europe learnt a lot from the French Revolution – this is why after the Napoleonic wars Europe had largely a peaceful century. Which gave the background for the industrial revolution.
The only really bloody conflict was the Franco-Prussian war. It was the brainchild of Bismark – the man who designed the modern total state. From the state-run schools as the introduction to the military style authority, to the state pension system to buy the loyalty of the populace, it lives on in the modern western world.
Very interesting. Hasbara AG used the word “learnt.” This is typically used in the UK and to a lesser extent other commonwealth nations.
Me thinks it’s likely that Hasbara AG is either from the UK, or is an AI bot drawing from a UK source for the post.
You are an uneducated cretin with nothing of substance to contribute here.
You missed that I misspelled the word “deposed” because of the auto-complete, but you are having conniptions over the properly spelled “learn” in simple past tense.
How’bout this for a UK-based Jewish-sponsored Mossad-controlled Netanyahu-approved rootless bot?
Try harder. Say something useful or smart next time. Maybe somebody will start taking you seriously
Oh boy, looks like I struck a nerve, huh? By the way, nothing about my post was indicative of “conniptions.” That’s just you projecting victimhood.
Why are you so emotional, Hasbara AG? Does your AI sentient level need to be adjusted downward?
These are all valid points but GovCo doesn’t care what we think. While helmets may be mandatory; goggles or eye wear may not be in your state. Think about that for a second, if you’ve ever had bugs hit dead center of your glasses while riding you’ll know what I mean. Eye protection works.
One problem is that helmets block your peripheral vision, an important thing to consider when your average cager can’t be bothered to actually look before making a turn or is engrossed in their fondleslab. A minimal or better yet no helmet may let you see these nut jobs approaching.
Protective eyewear is the only required piece of gear in my state of Colorado. It must be considered safety eyewear, e.g. Z87 rated, so ski goggles and such are not allowed.
It actually makes sense in a society aspect since getting debris in your eyes might cause you to swerve or wreck into someone else. All the other gear is solely protecting the rider.
Oh, yeah, the “cost” to society is you not generating taxes. That’s why they don’t want you killing or hurting yourself. The state or their designees want your full 65 years of productivity. That’s why they make fun and dangerous stuff illegal. If you’re to die it should be only on the job or in transit to or from there. Once you’ve put in your time they don’t care. Why else would they have no issue with a senile old man getting behind the wheel of a bus-sized RV with not so much as a check ride. If you were getting paid you’d have to hold a CDL to operate something that big.
I always chose to ride with a full faced helmet and protective leather/kevlar everywhere else on my glorious body. Key phrase is “I chose”. The guys who only use a skid lid had some protection. Typically, they’d ride with a brain bucket, tshirt, jeans and boots. It’s their choice, not mine. Riding is a managed risk, but a risk nonetheless.
I’m pretty sure everyone who goes two-wheeling knows that.
Morning, MH!
For me, helmets ruin the experience of riding. It’s akin to the difference between riding in the open bed of a pick-up and riding in the bed with a camper shell over the bed.
I also more in tune with the environment in that I my peripheral vision is greater and I can hear better. Also, unless you spring for a $500-plus helmet, the weight gets wearying after about 45 minutes and that does not help a rider maintain the high degree of alertness that is a key factor in staying alive.
Of course, the only truly relevant thing here is our right to decide such pros and cons for ourselves. It infuriates me that some geeks I never even met have the power to punish me – via their goons, they always shy away from violence themselves – for not wearing a helmet (or a seatbelt). This nannying at gunpoint is worse than the at-least manly tyranny of most authoritarian states. But we’re stuck in a nanny state that’s authoritarian- the worst possible thing!
I always wondered… when riding in a nanny helmet law state and you get pulled over for not wearing a helmet, does the officer give you a ticket and then let you ride off sans helmet, with only a promise to put one on next time?
Oh no, they’ll demand you push it, or they’ll tow it and impound it.
“ rider maintain the high degree of alertness that is a key factor in staying alive “
I wear a half helmet, has a zip on neck cuff for cold weather. I had a full face helmet 30 years ago, big money for a somewhat light version – it was claustrophobic no thanks, near zero peripheral vision. The aging Bell half is light enough for all day rides.
However, on a hot all day ride any helmet will bake your head! Now, what’s safer, that helmet with a groggy rider or dew rag in the open air and you alert with great vision? Carry some water to wet your head good for all day.
Like stated, it needs to be your personal decision. Here in WA it’s the States decision unfortunately.