It’s Called Natural Selection

A ranch or cabin in the middle of nowhere is really starting to look like a more attractive option than living anywhere near New York City.  From Slashdot:

New York State Senator Carl Kruger is looking to institute a $100 fine for using electronic gadgets while crossing the street. Citing three pedestrian deaths in his Brooklyn district as the main driving reason he believe Government has an obligation to protect its citizens.

That’s three people who won’t be able to pass their defective street crossing genes onto future generations.  My mother always taught me to look both ways before crossing the street.  When I was in college and commuted to school via rail, and listened to headphones, I knew to take them off and listen for the Amtrak trains that zoomed past a 100MPH before crossing the tracks.  Of course, today you can’t do that, because they put up fences to stop you.  You have to go the long way around now, whether you want to risk it or not.

I have one basic philosophy when it comes to my relationship with governemnt: leave me the hell alone.   I’ll pay my taxes, leave other people to their quiet enjoyment of life, serve in the military if called on, do jury duty, and all those things we have to do as part of a society.  But don’t start looking out after me.  I can do that just fine on my own.  If I want to cross the street while talking on a cell phone and risk getting hit by a bus, that’s my damned business.  Life is risky, and sometimes people make bad choices.  There’s nothing government can, or should, do about that.

5 thoughts on “It’s Called Natural Selection”

  1. that’s like my school getting mad at people that walk around campus with headphones on. They are worried about a few rapes/muggings that happened because students didn’t hear the person coming up behind them. I’m sorry, but common sense should prevail, not having something like that be a law. Laws shouldn’t force people to use common sense.

  2. On the bike trails I frequent, there are signs at the access points that say the use of headphones are not recommended, but you’re not going to get a ticket over it.

    People should buy those boomboxes with iPod hookups and walk around Albany, loud music a-blazing. We’ll see a law mandating headphones.

  3. One of the major reasons we see a drop in intellectual ability and the ability of the public to effectively grapple with reality is that we have so protected and insulated the populace that people who would not have lived long enough to breed when I was young, now grow up and have children just as stupid and unwary as they are.

    Call that harsh, if you must, but it is still true.

  4. Ohhhh, I like Brad’s idea. What kind of music would piss them off the most? I’ll contribute whatever I can from my collection to irritate the shit out of them.

  5. Easy answer, Bitter: William Hung.

    I also remember someone describing to me a Lou Reed album that was basically guitar feedback. That’ll do in a pinch, too.

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