Well, I guess later was sooner than I thought.

I repeat for emphasis (including obligatory whiz bang): Shop goggles?!

I always knew (well, as long as I've known him, which is getting to be a disturbingly long time) that Instapundit was a geek, but I never realized he was such a girlie boy.

Heh. I lived most of my young life in states where there were real fireworks. Dad would buy several hundred bottle rockets, we would also have all sorts of roman candles, firecrackers, skyrockets, and other interesting bits. One thing we didn't have: fountains.

I could light them up too, but there was one absolute rule: Be Careful. If you were caught being stupid, that was it, no more playing with fireworks for you! You can watch for the rest of the holiday. Very effective technique ... I wasn't hurt once. And, of course, I had my experiments, I just was careful about them ...

I absolutely couldn't believe it when we came out to California, and the only thing they had were these pathetic fizzleworks. Even most of the fountains don't compare - real fountains wouldn't be safe enough. I flat out couldn't comprehend the "safety" arguments. What was supposed to be so dangerous, unless you were being stupid? MOST things are dangerous if you are being stupid.

I can understand bottle rockets - California is dry in the summer, and those are a great way to start fires. But the laws have little to do with that. They are about protecting people from themselves, whether they want to be or not. Classic nannystate attitude.

California is in the process of outlawing all fun.

I think more of the burden of fire protection needs to be on the property owner. Sure, you should be liable if you do something stupid and start a fire, but at some point a reasonable person needs to expect that an ignition source will reach their property.

I figure if you build your house in the middle of a forest, you shouldn't expect ME (i.e. the taxpayer) to foot the bill if the place burns down, or not to set off fireworks in my own front yard because it might burn up your pristine unmanaged (or poorly managed) forest.

Of course, Kalifornia doesn't really have any property rights anyway, so it's not too surprising that they have laws against ignition sources rather than against stockpiling fuel.