Who Are They?

Who do these people think they are, that like to tell us what to do?

I read two unrelated stories today, on first site they could not be more different. One is about American school children cycling the other about customer reviews of British prostitutes. The common link is that both have regard to officials telling others what to do, when rightly it is none of their damned business, and in both cases they are seeking to act beyond their rightful authority.

Both the Saratoga Springs School Board and Harriet ‘the Harridan’ Harman have decided what is good for other people’s safety, and demands that those people fall into line with those decisions, regardless of their own judgement.

Just as without the School Board’s ruling parents would not be forced to send children to school by cycle or foot, no prostitute on the Punternet website is forced into her profession. Note that the website has prominent information for reporting suspected child prostitutes or forced/trafficked girls.

Why does the Saratoga Springs School board have jurisdiction over how a child is brought to school by his parents? Why did a state trooper attend the school to enforce this ban? Why does Harriet Harman think that she has jurisdiction over a website hosted in California, where not even the State Governor or the President has authority to control web content?

Thanks to The Bleat and Man Widdicombe, via Muffled Vociferation for today’s helping of bemusing officialdom.