Saving citizens from themselves
Bookworm on Aug 06 2009 at 4:24 pm | Filed under: Uncategorized
A nanny state with government health care has a vested interested in protecting its citizens from the physical injuries that can happen in ordinary life. Denmark has a plan to require people on the street to wear helmets. Mind you, that plan is not aimed at bicyclists or motorcyclists on the street. It’s just aimed at ordinary people, walking around.
If that Danish helmet plan works at reducing pedestrian cranial injuries, and if we get Obama Care, I promise you that these are soon going to become mandatory street wear in America.
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8 Responses to “Saving citizens from themselves”
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Is this Holland’s attempt at Hijab Helmets – a social equalizer. EVERYBODY, cover your head.
Can you just imagine identifying someone.
No Officer, I am not sure if it was a man or a woman s/he was wearing a helmet.
No Officer, I don’t know what color hair the ruffians had, they all wore helmets.
and with your link…
Officer: Can you describe the assailant.
Victim: Of course, s/he was tan, round like Humpty Dumpty and wore a helmet and walked with a funny gait.
Greetings:
I grew up in the Bronx, in a neighborhood of mostly five- or six-story apartment buildings. We had what was referred to as “alternate side of the street parking” which required that, each weekday, there would be no lawful automobile parking on one side of the street so the street-sweeping machines could clean. To inform motorists, there were signs on each side of the street mounted on poles which were really just 3-inch diameter steel pipes.
Well, one day I was walking down one side of the street while an attractive young lady I was interested in, in the Biblical sense, was walking in the opposite direction on the other side of the street. As I finished enjoying my eyefuls, I turned my head back into my direction of travel and walked smack into one of the parking sign poles. It took about fifteen seconds for a 1×2 inch egg to swell up in the middle of my forehead. Some people just learn different.
Also from the other side of the pond, I saw an article somewhere about the British government wanting or studying or wanting to study putting padding, like on our football goalposts, on sidewalk obstructions to help prevent the “walking while texting” crew from injuring themselves. Hell, at least I injured myself in a good cause.
I didn’t think Wall-E was that good a film, but it’s clear we’re going to end up looking like the residents of that space ship.
Have you seen Gattaca yet, Book?
As people run out of real work to do, and seek to justify their jobs they start rationalizing that any risk can be mitigated.
I encountered this in the AF, although I believe things have improved as the military has been more fully employed the last few years.
On every investigation (accident, lost equipment, security violation) a recommendation for preventative action was required. When I recommended that current procedures be followed, and current policies be enforced, my findings were always rejected. I was required to come up with new preventative measure, or at least a novel sounding ones.
I also learned how to obfuscate using large volumes of meaningless detail, when I had no idea what happened to obsolete equipment lost the year before and 10,000 miles away.
Rationalization, pointless action, unnecessary regulation, obfuscation, meaningless detail churned out in ignorance of the facts…..If I had any abilities in sales, I would be in Congress by now.
>>I also learned how to obfuscate using large volumes of meaningless detail, when I had no idea what happened to obsolete equipment lost the year before and 10,000 miles away.>>
My Dad was assigned to the Budget and Fiscal Management (or something like that) office at Wright Patterson AFB many years ago. Congress was investigating why there had been a surplus of some 5 _miles_ of chain link fence purchased for the initial enclosure of the base (which was actually two air fields – Wright and Patterson…duh!) when it was combined and control was assumed by the Air Force from the Army Air Corp. He had nothing to do with the purchase. He ended up flying from Dayton Ohio to Washington DC so often that he had his regular barber there. My mother warned us not to bring up the subject of “chain link fencing”…as if it came up in everyday conversation!
I also vaguely remember a joke from the old Reader’s Digest (Military humor page) when some young Navy Supply Lieutenant was tasked with making a list of items that were unaccounted for since he had held that office. He sweated over how he’d account for a PT 36 (or whatever number) as he had financial liability for the stuff he’d “lost”. He included it as “Boat, PT 36″ right after Boat, gravy. I don’t remember the end of the tale…but the creativeness of “losing a book in a library” made the story memorable.
Jose
If you are still looking for a congressional seat, just go with the old favorite…
It works, at least for 4 years and if you are really good at it … political tenure.
Book – I actually enjoyed the movie Wall-E; I read a review online (after seeing the movie) in which the makers of the film said that they were trying to make all the people on the spaceship seem like infants. Whoa, that is not how they came across. They came across as fat and lazy something that will happen
ifwhen we let others take over our responsibilities.As for this walking helmet thing – I do so hope that is a joke!