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New York To Ban iPods While Crossing Street?
An anonymous reader writes to mention Reuters is reporting that 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. "Tech-consuming New Yorkers trudge to work on sidewalks and subways like an army of drones, appearing to talk to themselves on wireless devices or swaying to seemingly silent tunes. 'I'm not trying to intrude on that,' Kruger said. 'But what's happening is when they're tuning into their iPod or Blackberry or cell phone or video game, they're walking into speeding buses and moving automobiles. It's becoming a nationwide problem.'"
But this is natural selection at work. If you're too stupid to pause your music/chat/game while you're crossing through traffic, you should be removed from the gene pool, and a city bus going 30+ mph is a capable tool for that extraction.
It's just like the government to try to make laws to keep stupid people from killing themselves. How else are we going to evolve as a species if the government tries to legislate out of existence those activities that get people into the Darwin Awards?
It's arguments like this that make fundamentalist Christians think the theory of evolution is a satanic plot to corrupt our children and turn them into terrorists.
And even if that's not really why, this kind of thinking certainly doesn't help the theory's public image.
-Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
"I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
Libertarians love to say "If X happens to you, it's your own damn fault!"
What blissful ignorance.
Yes, if someone is listening to their MP3 player while crossing the street it's their own damn fault. However there are consequences to the rest of us when that happens: the ER gets tied up, there's cost to the medical care, friends and relatives are affected, etc.
No man is an island, no matter how much the Libertarian ethos would wish it.
You wanna be an island, fine. Go live on one.
There's a fallacy: somehow deaths can be prevented.
Welcome to the goals of big government liberalism. "If it can save just one life..."
Well, lets ban:
Guns (already in progress)
Cars
Planes
Bathtubs
Stairs
Electricity
The wheel
Mathematics (led to Hiroshima)
Ahh, but you'll say "but for this list, the good vastly outways the potential for death." How about big govt liberals stop meddling in our lives, and remove the roadblocks to our safety.
Here's new stories that will horrify and anger you (if the husband only had a gun...).
Husband made to witness wife shot in head