Too Many Regulations

My Extra work is over for that film and I was very busy on the set today. In fact, I was with other extra's all day shooting background and crowd shots, some of which included close-ups of me. It is probable none of those will be in the final cut of the film, as the two days shooting I participated in will provide a total of about 5 minutes of the film's action, and there were many scenes shot for that five minutes.
I must commend the crew and al the actors for their professionalism and friendliness. The "stars" often engaged us in conversation and one, Tom Arnold, even bought $200 of free "snowballs" for the extras when we bumped into him at the snowball outlet adjacent to the set. I'll see this film when it is released because of my familiarity with the company, performers and my personal involvement in it.
I know the world is getting more and more complicated for we estranged humans, but do you also think we might be attempting to over-regulate our lives with formal rules and laws? In particular, are governments trying to regulate our daily lives too much? Maybe so. At home and everywhere I travel I see more and more government controls, mostly in the name of "public safety".
In many cases the rules are stupid or unnecessary, but give the government greater information about and control over our activities. And that is the reason I think we are rule driven in society today. Need examples? Ok..How about the Norwegian town of Fjell that because of barking dogs has passed a curfew law forbidding noisy animals from leaving their homes late at night? Crazy rule, I think.
Dogs are supposed to bark and putting curfews on animals is a little silly. What do they want to do next, make the dogs wear pajamas at bed time? I know barking dogs are annoying, but do we need to pass a law every time we see annoying behavior? Hmmmmm I bet the legislators who made that law annoy everyone when gabbing on their cell phones in public. But even I don't propose to make cell phone talk illegal.
Another example of over-regulation is what has happened right here in my own state. It's a law that prohibits anyone from smoking a cigarette in a car if there are passengers under 8 years of age. Duh...Is it necessary to make a smoke protection law for the below 8 age group but not for the above 8 passengers? Isn't it just as unhealthy for the big humans as for the little ones? Why should there be legislation regulating smoking if the assumption is that all smoking is unhealthy? Why not just ban smoking on the grounds that it is a cancer agent, and stop making silly laws that dance around the issue. Either cigarettes are poison for everyone or none. Why can't those idiots who make our laws acknowledge that.
In short, too many rules and laws regulating common sense, non injurious behavior is not a good thing. Over- regulating our lives could turn every country into a....well...a Singapore. And that would be too awful to bear. Why, there a ought to be a law against that! How much should a tourist pay for a beer? How about $1251? The price sounds a little stiff, huh.
Well, it's one of those stiff the tourist tales that happens to be a true one un identified Hong Kong tourist who got thirsty in Rome, stopped by a bar and ordered a single beer at a venice establishment. It seems the fellow was traveling alone and was invited into the bar by someone working the scam with the bar owner. When he was served the beer and told it would cost 99 euros ($1,251) the travelers thirst vanished and outraged ensued. "When the bill arrived," he told police, "I thought it was safer to pay it. I was scared something could happen to me if I didn't pay."
Police are investigating that guy's complaint but Italy is notorious for such tales, most often of taxi drivers who charge ten times or more the normal fare for trips from the airport and then dump those who refuse to be cheated by paying. I guess the lesson is to not get thirsty and walk a lot when in Italy.