score one for the nanny state

Seattle, the town--er, city--that voted to move cannabis lower on the police priority list, has gone off in the other direction: now cops will start targeting non-helmet-wearing bicyclists, giving them warnings (before June 15) or a $30 fine (after June 15).

Other than the obvious fact that it takes police resources away from more dangerous and salient concerns, there simply isn't a good reason to have the law in the first place. Parents, not Ma State, ought to be the ones getting their tykes to "helmet up."

Health officials say only 60 percent of kids in the county are wearing bike helmets. By the time they become teens, only 30 percent are using them.

If the system were set up so that unhelmeted bike riders had to forgo insurance and legal protection, that might actually be a strong disincentive to go helmetless.

Heck, even a fine with some bite--$100 or more--would actually make the extra police effort financially, if not philosophically, attractive.