our Nanny States of America

[cluebyfour]

Clearly, this kid doesn't know what he's talking about:

"Are you kidding? This is silly," says Zack Bartell, 12, who was taking a dirt-bike riding lesson at School for Dirt's track next to Kawasaki Motors' U.S. headquarters here. "There's no way I'm going to stick a motorcycle part in my mouth."
Shut up, Zack.  You're just some stupid kid.  Listen

Comments

[dragon_smoke]

Libraries are freaking out over this law too.

http://www.ncnewspress.com/articles/2009/02/20/news/doc499ed094480fd323904423.txt

The article above shows a knee-jerk panic reaction I think, but there have been some crazy emails flying in library-land as everyone tries to figure out how we can still circulate books intended for children under 12, or hand out prizes for summer reading programs, etc.

This law was so poorly thought out, the unintended consequences are going to be ginormous. Already independent toy shops are having to close because they sell hand-crafted, unique items and can not afford the testing required.

Grrrrrr.

[rockyspaw]

Jeez.

[_luaineach]

Arg.

[noisyparker]

When it seemed like every. single. debate. during the Presidential primaries included some earnest mom asking the candidates "How will you guarantee my child's safety?", I knew the gov't was being handed a big, fat "Do something stupid" certificate. But then nothing happened for a while and the omgleadfromchina mania ran out it 15 minutes of news fame, and I hoped against hope that the pols had somehow decided to just ride that one out. Then that ridiculous law comes out.

I thought, "wow... they have even exceeded the offer that was in that large Do Something Stupid certificate" but there are actually people who downplayed its obvious negatives, so wheeee. I would have thought this was long overdue for a recall so it could be replaced with 'something that is also wrong, but not -that- wrong' but I think what I may ne seeing here is that I have somehow traded my cynicism for cock-eyed optimism at some point. :/