I raise my glass to the inevitable and pending death of freedom. I toast the idea that people should be free of the chains their own neighbors would have them wear if not for this incredible experiment in self-government and self-determination. I toast the more than 240 years we made it before it came grinding to an end. But sadly I raise my glass today in remembrance of liberty and it’s passing into the books of history.

I begin with Utah, where the Governor has signed into law a bill reducing the legal blood alcohol level to .05. That makes it the only state in the Union with a BAC level that low. Trial lawyers are quietly cheering because it will mean a lot more business from Provo to Salt Lake City. The municipalities that have mired their citizens in unsustainable debt will rejoice at a new stream of cash they can squander from the unfortunate souls that had as little as one drink, maybe less on a Friday night before being jammed up in the pokey. City managers and county clerks will find a way to spend the extra money created at the expense of many good and decent people.

I feel sorry for the restaurant owners and bar keepers that will see their slice of the American Dream blown up by Preliminary Breath Test machines. I will invest in the stocks of companies that find innovative ways to put ignition lock systems into place on more and more cars. What a convenient way to keep track of ever more citizens.

We might as well remove the 4th Amendment to the Constitution, as it doesn’t mean anything to anyone anymore anyway. What right to reasonable search and seizure? That was something that made sense 200 years ago but the Founding Fathers clearly didn’t understand that we would have motor vehicles some day and obviously would have understood the need to roll back such a needless protection.

It is hard to understand a BAC of .05 becoming the law of the land in Deseret, especially after learning that even Mothers Against Drunk Drivers didn’t support the measure. Maybe the next step will be to declare anyone that has a BAC of .10 (the previous maximum allowed) as Super-Drunk and charge even more fines, court costs and ad ons.

Millions of adult women in America who weigh less than 140 pounds would be legally intoxicated with a single cocktail and deemed a criminal in the eyes of Utah state law. And you can be sure that every other state in the nation is now looking at the idea and licking their chops at the idea of more money by way of fining it’s otherwise law abiding citizens.

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Before you start penning an ugly letter to call me out for supporting drunk driving, I don’t but I do believe there is a point when the government simply goes too far. This is one of those times. I got one of those nasty-grams from a police officer friend of mine after I talked about this story on my program. He said he had to wait and calm down before he could send the note. I wrote back that he should not be so upset about me being right. He didn’t see the humor in that either but so it goes.

What about the golf course that is 5 miles outside of town? What about the quaint little Italian joint that you love a couple of towns over? Well they won’t be getting your business anymore. Let’s be honest this kind of legislation will kill the eateries, bars and hangouts that didn’t get crushed by lowering the limit from .10 to .08. Some otherwise pretty good people will get swept up in the mess. Their names will be in the paper, they will be shamed in front of people they know.

That still won’t be enough for some however. They will demand ignition lock systems on every single car manufactured or worse the removal of people from the driver’s seat altogether. ‘Saving lives’ will be one of the rallying cries for those extolling the virtues of driverless autonomous vehicles. Of course they will be able to save the planet by reducing carbon footprints by saying no when you just want to go for a drive and so forth. Make no mistake that day is coming but it will all be for your good and of course ‘for the children’ because isn’t it always?

I thought liberty and freedom was for the children and their children and their children too. What the hell do I know, I was born in The United States of America back when it was still a free country.