You may already have heard that Gov. Mark Sanford doesn’t like the stronger seat-belt bill that recently passed the S.C. Senate.

Sanford said he didn’t like the specifics of the bill, but if you listened closely, he didn’t sound excited about giving law enforcement the ability to make people buckle up as a primary offense either.

On a personal level, Talk thinks everyone should strap in as a way to save lives. But after hearing the governor’s reasoning, we have to admit that he may be on to something.

First of all, he stated it’s not government’s role “to criminalize poor individual choices or the self-inflicted wounds that accompany them.”

That’s a good point. We certainly wouldn’t want to get penalized for any of our poor individual choices. It goes without saying that we’ve made plenty of them. (That ugly incident in the Beef Jerky aisle of the 7-Eleven back in 1978 comes to mind.)

But the governor takes this reasoning even further. Let’s see what else the head guy has to say:

“Bad choices — whether getting too much sun, eating too much of the wrong things or smoking — cause people to hurt themselves. ... Ultimately, though, in a free world I believe people should be able to do things that are both stupid and inherently self-destructive provided the harm only comes to them — and they are not directly harming another person.”

Hear, hear!

Finally, we have a top official who is willing to stand up for the rights of stupid people. For too long in our state’s history, stupid people with self-destructive tendencies have had no advocate in the upper echelon of government. But now, thanks to the liberating lines of our libertarian-like leader, clueless citizens have their champion.

This is like an Emancipation Proclamation for stupid people.

Why, it makes us want to sunbathe in our Speedo in 98-degree weather slathered in non-protective coconut oil. It makes us want to eat six Angus-beef Thickburgers every day for lunch. It makes us want to smoke three packs of Lucky Strikes for breakfast every day. Most of all, it makes us want to climb in the car and carom down the highway with no seat belt. If we happen to hit a telephone poll and hurtle through the air, so be it. No harm, no foul. (Just as long nobody else is harmed, right?)

The governor’s acceptance of dim-bulb behavior just might be the single greatest accomplishment of his administration to date. But it’s also pretty darned shrewd politically.

Let’s face it, stupid people generally don’t bother to vote. (They don’t know who’s running, they can’t find the polling places, etc.) But now that they have a candidate in their corner — one who completely supports their inalienable right to be moronic — they should flock to the polls in 2006 to re-elect their man.

Talk also has to tell you that having the full backing of the governor’s office to act like a dolt is invigorating. Like many stupid people around the state, Talk is going to figure out as many self-destructive activities to do as we possibly can, as long as they don’t hurt anybody else, of course.

Here’s our working list:

• Bungee-jump off the top of the State House

• Take a daily jog in the nude around the Governor’s Mansion

• Drag-race Andre Bauer from stoplight to stoplight on Assembly Street

Sure, these may seem like poor individual choices to some of you. But there’s no need to criminalize this behavior. Who else are we hurting by doing these things?

Standing up for stupidity might be the smartest thing any governor has ever done.

(And it also might explain why he wants to drain resources from our public schools. Hey, kids, stupidity is cool.)

From here on out, Talk is with the governor. We’ll stupidly follow him anywhere. However, if we do go along for the ride, we’re still going to buckle up.

Even we’re not that stupid.