As IF Times

link Sen. Kruger Wants To Ban Chatting On Cell Phones While Crossing StreetCBS New York.

Of course it’s New York, nanny state central, home  of salt control in restaurants,  and of course the proposed legislation is being brought up by a Democrat.  The growth of bizarre laws continues at an unfettered  pace as politicians struggle for relevance.  I say there should be a movement to allow nature to take its normal path.  You can easily argue that all kinds of rules and laws that ‘protect’ people from their own stupidity weakens the herd and pushes against the principle of survival of the fittest.  Instead, what is happening  is that we are cultivating survival of the most useless.  

Recently, as we all know by now, a woman who was so engrossed in texting someone, failed to notice a large reflecting pool while walking in a mall.  The woman fell into the pool and was distressed enough about the incident that she is now attempting to sue the mall.  In the New York city story above, the forces of nature are pushing for the addle minded to cull themselves from normal society by making them oblivious to the perils of tons of fast moving steel and glass in favour of texting LOL to their facebook pals.   These are people so absorbed in their virtual life that they blithely ignore their real one.  OMG and ROTFL.

Predictably, a politician finds it necessary to protect people against their own stupidity.  Like many other inane laws on the books today, the privileges and freedoms of the many are overrun by the desire to protect the few.  Few people realize just what a vicious cycle this has become.  As more laws are enacted to protect people from every imaginable vicissitude of life, there will be the commensurate expectation of protection  from all things  by the public.  As these expectations are ramped up, so will be the implied need for politicians to enact more and more legislation and so on and so on.   In the not too distant future, helmets will be mandated for bathing because someone, somewhere fell in the tub and hit his head, subsequently suing the tub maker for millions. 

In the New York city example cited above,  the citizens will feel safer knowing that New York’s finest will be on the lookout for murderers, rapists, gangsters as well as cell phone texters.  An entire new crop of criminals will emerge as scofflaws text in public anyway in defiance of the law.  Courts will be clogged with ticketees who want to contest their fines.   No one ever seems to want the simple solution; let Darwinism work.  Eventually, there will be no texter/walkers.

link My Way News – Asian-American lawmakers demand Limbaugh apology.

Demand apology to whom?  Who is this guy, Leland Yee, the Chinese Al Sharpton? If he feels offended, ask the fat guy for an apology for himself.  No one made him the spokesman for Chinese people.  It’s unlikely that every Chinese person in the U.S. is all in a knot because Limbaugh made some childish remark.  While I can agree that Limbaugh didn’t demonstrate the height of intellect in mocking the Chinese language, it’s likely he did more harm to his own credibility than offend the population of Asians.   Was I offended? Not really.  Would I feel better if he apologized?  Again, not really. 

Thus far, Chinese Americans have stayed above the PC cesspool of institutionalized victimhood and exaggerated hurt feelings.  A guy like Limbaugh certainly has a large audience and one can argue that what he says carries influence.  Maybe, but I think most people can discern political rhetoric from sophomoric jokes.  Certainly this attempt at lowbrow humor would be more expected by a  Howard Stern than a Limbaugh and so it damages Limbaugh much more.    Years ago, Andy Kaufmann portrayed an immigrant named Latka Gravis on the TV series Taxi, who spoke with a vague Eastern European accent that was very funny.  I don’t recall Eastern Europeans wailing on soapboxes asking for apologies at that time.  To the untrained ear, all foreign accents sound funny.  Lighten up. 

Let’s not politicize every slight, real or imagined for some cheap political gain.  So Limbaugh’s remarks were juvenile.  Call him a fat loudmouth.  It’s even.  Besides, there’s a good chance that one day Rush will visit a Chinese restaurant…then he takes his chances.