Thursday, January 27, 2011
Illegal Multi-tasking
We surrender certain rights in exchange for the privilege to fly. We prove a level of competence for a license to drive. Up until now we've gotten walking for free, but some state law makers are looking to change that. Specifically they want to instate fines for crossing the street with headphones on. New York State Senator Carl Kruger summarizes the reasoning, "We’re taught from knee-high to look in both directions, wait, listen and then cross. You can perform none of those functions if you are engaged in some kind of wired activity." Not true. Through the magical power of "pause" I performed those exact functions while listening to an audio book yesterday. Yet here we are with the skills of the few determining the laws for the many. Oh Big Brother. . . I liked you better back when you were Uncle Sam.
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Our police should have better things to do than chase around j-walkers wearing headphones. This is only going to distract them from the more heinous crimes going on. On a more positive note, It'll give the Provo popo's something to do :)
ReplyDeleteDid the senator realize that headphones do not impair the ability to "look in both directions"?
ReplyDeleteApparently someone wearing earphones was hit by a crashing helicopters and multiple train-earphone accidents have occurred. While you're blasting music in your car you can still hear sirens and horns so a good invention would be pedestrian earphones that allow more sound through (c) by Me... Next time that helicopter won't be a surprise :).
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ReplyDeleteTacitus -- a senator and historian in the Roman Empire who lived from AD 56 to AD 117 -- said:
ReplyDeleteThe more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws.
It's not the existence of the laws that make a community corrupt. It's the simple fact that they NEEDED those laws. I can understand making a law to fix a problem if sufficient people are being ridiculous with their headphones and getting in accidents. But the problem isn't that we allow headphones on pedestrians. It's that we allow headphones on idiots. Now, if we can simply pass a law against idiots doing anything ever, we could easily get rid of at least half of the personal safety laws on the books, I'd estimate.
Re. Garlonuss' comment: The sad thing is, idiots look just like everybody else. Sometimes they look like you, sometimes they look like me. Sometimes they are you, sometimes they are me.
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