Truly, I don’t know how any of us survived prior to the nanny state protecting us from ourselves.  When I was a kid, before car seats and seatbelt laws, I actually lived through vacations where my folks drove us all up and down the west coast. I am scarred by the ordeal, but with a little bit of therapy I’ve made it to adulthood as a fairly balanced individual. But thank God California has finally come to the rescue of six and seven year olds all over this fair land (we know, what starts in CA eventually makes its way to the other 49 states—or is it 56).

Under California law starting Jan. 1, children must use car seats until they are 8 years old or 4-feet-9 inches tall, up from the current requirement of 6 years or 60 pounds. . . .

Parents face a squirm-inducing dilemma across the nation’s most-populous state. Under California’s old law, many 6- and 7-year-olds—there are nearly 1.1 million of them in the state—proudly graduated out of car seats to big-kid status on their sixth birthdays. Getting those wannabe tweens back into kiddie seats is inspiring tantrums.

Some parents are invoking threats, asking kids if they want to see Mom and Dad hauled off for breaking the law. (In truth, noncompliance can mean a fine of more than $475 and a point on a driving record, but no prison.)

At least we can be thankful parents won’t be hauled away in cuffs for so egregiously putting their kids at risk. I was born and raised in southern California, and still in my heart it is home (especially watching the Rose Bowl start yesterday in Pasadena with 82 degree temperatures, while it’s low 20s where I am stuck living), but the liberalism run amuck there is just getting to be too much. The people of California have voted for Democrat leadership for the better part of a decade now, so they get what they deserve. Maybe in due course with the loss of their liberties and loss of economic dynamism (current unemployment rate of 11.3%) the people of that fair state will wake up. It won’t be too soon.