"Passing through a U.S. airport is an immersion in a merciless river of words. They are intended to be helpful, but clearly they flow from an assumption that increasingly animates our government in its transactions with us. The assumption is that we are all infants or imbeciles in need of constant, kindly supervision and nudging, lest we allow ourselves to be flung off a moving walkway and over the edge of the world.

In Denver, underground trains take passengers to and from the ticketing area and departure concourses. As a train arrives, an announcement slightly louder than the noise of the arriving train says: “A train is arriving.” Do tell."

I would require the reading of Will's essay with the watching of the Milton Friedman video I linked to yesterday.  It is a recurring theme at this site that we have deadened citizens to warnings and laws and regulations. . .and words.  We have deadened citizens with overuse.  There are caution signs everywhere so we seldom notice real danger.  Everything is regulated so we don't understand real restraint.  There are so many laws that every person can violate one of them; does this make us "criminals"?  Does this make us respect the rule of law more or less?  This is the problem with our nanny state.

Charles Murray wrote of a thought experiment years ago.  A frustrated wife walks into the living room to confront her lazy husband.  "Are you going to mow that lawn or am I going to have to do it for you again?"  The husband shrugs as the wife storms out to mow the lawn.  The same is true with our government:  "Are you going to earn a living and raise and feed your children or am I going to have to do that for you?"  And we wonder about the result..

Thanks, David.