Safety First!

Despite America being a pretty litigious place, it's still 'cowboy country' compared to overly-regulated, Nanny-state Britain. You can own guns, you can have bull-bars on your truck and even Mini Militant's ride-on quad doesn't come with an extra safety button like the (almost) identical models in the UK.

But while this freedom is refreshing, it's not without cost. One of the reasons that Britain has become a 'nanny state' is because some people need 'nannying.' We have exactly the same problem in America - some people are just idiots - but we prefer to leave them be. There's a philosophy of 'personal responsibility' that's uniquely American - plus the unspoken opinion that if somebody kills themselves doing something 'dumbass stupid' than maybe they're doing the gene pool a favor.

Take this gentleman, for instance. While you have to applaud him for finding a way to avoid the 'home delivery' charges at Home Depot, you do wonder if he needs some safety signs to warn other drivers of his idiocy.



Likewise, repairing a petrol pump with a lit cigarette in your mouth is an admirable bit of multi-tasking, but some safety glasses might be in order to protect your eyebrows from being scorched off when the pump (and the gasoline reservoir below) explodes in your face.

Finally, this gentleman's doing sterling work proving that you don't need wishy-washing, girly safety equipment like 'ropes' to transport an oversized bed in the back of your pick-up. All you need is a friend willing to weigh them down. I don't see any problem at all with this scenario - although he might want to invest in a pair of safety boots before they hit highway speed.

The problem with people, as these pictures demonstrate, is that they're flippin' idiots. Countries like Britain are forced to adopt 'nanny' regulations to protect these evolutionary throwbacks from themselves. People are pushing for the same sort of regulations to be put in place in America - so far we've resisted (as the rising cost of health insurance is evidence of.)