Clarion Content

Deep in the Clarion Content's not so bleeding libertarian heart we are fired up about the possibility that the balloon kid's family perpetrated a hoax. The Larimer County Sheriff is preparing to file charges against the kid's father as evidence mounts that the family knew that the kid was hiding in the attic all along.

The Clarion Content believes that if that turns out to be the case; the family put the six year old up to it, and they knew that they were bamboozling the authorities all along, the State has a right and even a duty to sue them to recover the costs of the expedition that was put together to rescue the child. The Clarion Content strongly believes in the culture of personal responsibility. The State does not owe the stupid or reckless individual extra consideration as part of the social contract.

The balloon family, if they perpetrated a hoax, owes restitution for the costs to the State of the aborted rescue. It is analogous to skiers who are helicoptered into an otherwise unreachable spot, only to trapped by an avalanche or beset by other tragedy. The Clarion Content is not sending in the State's emergency response crews to save them, until said skiers open up their checkbooks and prove that they can and will pay for their pick-up.

The same applies to health insurance for smokers. Assume a proven risk to your health like smoking, pay for it yourself, not out of the health insurance pool of everyone else who was wise enough not to smoke. The same goes for folks who re-build weather destroyed houses in flood plains, areas prone to mudslides or barrier islands that are regularly whipped by hurricanes. You want to do that, buy your own private homeowner's insurance. The State should not be subsidizing your stupid decision at the expense of all other citizens who were smart enough not to build their homes in a disaster prone areas.

Growing up means taking responsibility for one's actions. If the Heene balloon boy family perpetrated a hoax, they should be made to assume the fiscal costs to the State of it.

Labels: Politics, Pop Culture