Thanks for nothing, Big Brother

For all the posturing governments large and small do over their role in keeping you safe, their aim couldn’t be worse.

Consider, for instance, the newest annoyance to motorists in the name of traffic safety: Ohio legislators recently decreed that you must turn on your headlights whenever you use windshield wipers.

Now you don’t have to determine that you’re not safe, even though there may be plenty of daylight. Columbus rulers have made that decision for you.

There, Bunky. Feel better, now that Big Brother has given lawmen yet one more excuse to arrest you?

Never mind that Ohio still doesn't outlaw cellphones in the hands of drivers, and lawmen refuse to seriously patrol for tailgating - surely the two most dangerous and stupid of driver addictions.

The lights-on law is every bit as worthless to traffic safety as the ticketing machines in Heath - a city I’ve visited only three times since Reflex cameras began making Australians richer.

There are stores similar to Heath’s in many other nearby places and I’m using them. Heath, I’ve learned, is an easy habit to break.

Government greed, intrusion, and profiteering at drivers’ expense operate behind a smoke screen sold as “safety.” So far it’s worked in Heath and Columbus, but that may change. Big Brother, I hope, has misjudged the degree to which drivers want to be “protected.”