Well the idiots in the state government are at it again, attempting to regulate every tiny detail of life in the name of public safety. This newest effort comes from New York State Sen. Carl Kruger. In a wonderfuly idiotic effort to protect people from their own stupidity he is introducing legislation that would ban the use of electronic devices while crossing the street. That’s right, if you cross the street while cranking up the volume on your iPod you could be subject to 100$ fine. His motivation for this? Well his publically stated motivation is that three people in his district have been killed while stepping in to traffic while using some electronic device. Think about it, these people walked in to traffic – I don’t care what they were doing at the time, if you don’t have enough common sense to look both ways before walking out in to the middle of the street then you’re just proving natural selection is hard at work.
His real motivations, one would assume, are like that of most politicians these days: an attempt to justify their seat in office. They can’t find ways to help battle unemployment, homelessness, rampant drug abuse, or violent crimes, so they rally around some stupidly short sighted and moronic piece of legislation while touting how they are going to help save lives. The fact that our legislative body is going to waste its time over such legislation, taking away from any chance they might focus on an issue that really matters, is a crime against the citizenry of this state. Perhaps the greater crime is we keep electing these officials in to office. We don’t smack them on the wrists and tell them no like a grabby child in a candy store. Instead we spoil them by letting them get away with such assinine measures.
As for the people who are walking in to traffic – again, if you don’t have the common sense that tells you walking in to a street without looking first isn’t a good idea then there are far deeper problems here than the fact you were gazing longingly at your phone waiting for that next text message. While the loss of life is always tragic, I am constantly amazed how much could be prevented by common sense. If someone is not self-aware enough topractice common safety measures then all the legislation in the world isn’t going to save them.
Hopefully this piece of legislation will never see the light of day – though in todays fear mongering climate I have no doubt it’ll find its way in to law.
Just a Man with a Mash Paddle 