I'm with BG, Hosakwawa and others that link responsibility and freedom (aka authority for self-determination). Authority and responsibility are two sides of the same coin and cannot be logically separated in any decision making process.

I used to agree with the "no seat-belt laws crowd". It is a little galling. If the government passed a law that required us to wash our hands after using the toilet, that would really irritate people too, but it just makes sense.

In an effort to get away from whether unsecured motorists (or passengers) potentially pose a danger to others, we could purify the premise of the argument and shift it to a question of whether the government has the right, and even the obligation, to prevent suicide?

I think the arguments on the libertarian side are fundamentally flawed in one way. In framing these arguments, personal liberty & freedom is assumed to be an absolute right, or at the very least, a right of higher standing than others. But as members of a collective society, we have a responsiblity to each other as well. My freedom to harm myself ends where that harm may impact you as well.

So yes, the government has a right, and an obligation, to prevent 10's of thousands of needless deaths on the highway each year. And yes, the government has a right, and an obligation to find ways to bring down the problems with morbid obesity that the country faces. If you really feel that you have a desire to eat 4K calories a day of fat, salt, sugar and starch to get yourself to a BMI of 30+, then remove yourself from the society that will be charged with the responsiblity of taking care of you and your failed organs when diabtetes leads you to dialysis, or heart disease leads you to hover-arounds and oxygen tanks.

Maybe fatherhood has changed me more than I thought. Or maybe I need to move back to North Carolina. My God, I'm becoming a.... centrist....