Thursday, February 8, 2007

Having solved all other problems...

the NY legislature turns its parental gaze upon the issue of protecting iPod users from themselves.

Our intrepid friends over at ...Get Off My Lawn beat me to the punch on this one, but I've a few things to add:

1. State Sen. Carl Krueger (D, Brooklyn) is clearly a grandstanding attention whore who, while being an idiotic asshat, clearly realizes that this proposed legislation has no possibility of becoming law but is good for getting his name kicked around in the local and national media.

2. Presumably there are already laws which prevent: (i) pedestrians from crossing intersections against a "Don't Walk" light, and (ii) vehicles from crossing intersections against red lights. Presuming the reliability of traffic signals, only if one of these existing laws are broken could there EVER be a pedestrian/vehicle accident.

3. As CNET points out, the Sony Walkman has been in use by NY pedestrians for about 3 decades already, so this can hardly be a new "problem".

4. Someone will need to explain to me how reading an email on a blackberry differs, in any relevant way whatsoever, from reading an article in the Wall Street Journal -- an activity that I suspect has been engaged in with some regularity by pedestrians in NY for, oh, let's say the last hundred and twenty years or so.

5. State Sen. Carl Krueger (D, Brooklyn) states the following: "This electronic gadgetry is reaching the point where it's becoming not only endemic but it's creating an atmosphere where we have a major public safety crisis at hand." While I don't have enough time, in my entire life, to tell you all of the things wrong with this statement, I feel it is my duty to point out that the word "endemic" means "belonging exclusively or confined to a particular place". Umm. Far be it for me to attempt to parse this absurd statement, but it appears from the context that perhaps the word State Sen. Carl Krueger (D, Brooklyn) was actually looking for was "ubiquitous" or "pervasive", which, according to my admittedly limited research, are actually opposites of "endemic".

2 comments:

Kingfish said...

For completely unrelated pleasure reasons, I am addicted to this blog and "The White Rapper Show". But there are obvious similarities.

They are both enlightening and I never cease to find the genius of humor within each.

I just think you should start cutting some "bangers", so I could be a leech in your entourage.

Gleemonex said...

Clear points all, hhl, and unsullied by the pissed-off sputtering that is my general mode of operation. ;-)