AVOIDING HEADLINES IS THE KEY TO TYRANNY AND UNHAPPINESS

AVOIDING HEADLINES IS THE KEY TO TYRANNY AND UNHAPPINESS | 2006-09-24

In the 1960s President Johnson heard about a friend of his whose child had gone to the emergency room because the child had swallowed some pills. So President Johnson ordered that ALL medicines and potentially dangerous containers have Child Proof Caps.

There were to be NO exceptions. So millions of older people with arthritis found it almost impossible to open their medicines. But that didn't matter. The news was that several hundred childrens' lives were probably saved.

But if people were given the CHOICE to buy childproof caps, people who were NEAR children, those who are not would be spared all that pain. But their pain makes no headlines.

Today millions of airline passengers have to take off their shoes and their belts before boarding. That is because on Arab put exploosives in his shoe once, and it hit the headlines.

I remember when the "assault weapons" ban was lifted, and one liberal said, "Well, gun control is unpopular now, but there will be another headline gun rampage, and it will come back." Only recently has the media given up its annual celebration of the Columbine killings. I doubt anybody will ever be allowed to board a plane again without undressing.

In the midest of all this, it is no surprise that nonwhites kill whites wholesale and it is never mentioned in the news. But when whites kill a nonwhite, it is on the front page.

I am absolutely certain that many people who were innocent of a particular murder have been executed, but that does not affect my views on capital punishment. If you are a prison guard in a state where there is no capital punishment, you will wish there was.

And this preference is not limited to prison guards. Many a criminal who is facing the decades in prison if he violates parole goes ahead and commits murder to avoid being caught.

Rule by headline is the worst possible way to run a country. I was listening to a commentary on traffic safety. It reported that a single person driving 55 MPH and blocking up the passing lane on a major highway could delay ten thousand people for fifteen minutes or more, tired people who want to get home.

Let me add that getting home quickly is the reason they PAY for the highway.

So what did the commentary conclude? It said that the police were dealing with this. They were dealing with it by arresting people who became impatient. They were dealing with it by arresting "aggfressive drivers" who kept changing lanes.

I seem to be the ONLY person who was thinking, "Why don't they arrest the bastard who is blocking traffic in the first place?" We all know the reason. The guy who is blocking raffic is not breaking the law. The guy who is blocking traffic is not the one who hits the headlines. So it never OCUURS to anybody to blame HIM.

He makes ten thousand people unhappy, but that is not a headline. He causes hundreds of tired people to get desperate, but THEY are the ones who make the headlines.

Rule by headlines is the worst possible way to run a country.

COMMENTS (3)

#1 Mark | 2006-09-25 09:10

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"They were dealing with it by arresting "aggressive drivers" who kept changing lanes."

In Colorado while on vacation I noticed signs on the interstate readgin: REPORT AGGRESSIVE DRIVERS, followed by a telephone number to the police. I'm sure a person would be prosecuted by the Colorado State Patrol on the "testimony" of other drivers, provided the guilty party wasn't an illegal alien, in which case, said illegal would be given a Get Out of Jail Free pass.

#2 Pain | 2006-09-27 13:35

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I know a very large number of school teachers personally. Typically since it is very easy to become a teacher, there are ten times as many teachers as there are open jobs. Yet school districts across the country insist to the public that there is a teacher shortage and this allows them to hire people who haven't even bothered to get the very easy bare minimum requirements to teach.

School districts exist by headlines. The average administrator lasts at any one school just a few years and the average teacher about a year and a half. It is next to impossible to expel a student, and in the very rare times that it happens, the student is simply sent off to a neighboring public school. But every time there is a headline about some sick man or woman who does something seriously wrong, an incorrigible child sees it on TV and learns from it. A student can make an anonymous accusation and have a teacher fired and her career ruined, no matter how notorious the student's reputation.

The more ridiculous and outrageous the story, the quicker the poor lady will disappear. The teacher will not be told who made the accusation. She will not be given any details.

The net result is that the average IQ of teachers today is very low and that of administrators even lower. They are also too frightened to veer from the official neo-Marxism by one jot or tittle. They are completely controlled, completely obedient, and they will probably be fired anyway.

#3 Pain | 2006-09-27 13:54

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I have never seen any real "aggressive driver" pulled over: aggressive people can cut anyone off, tailgate, flip you off and do whatever else they want. Politicians have noticed that headlines can raise more funds whenever they want them and their position means that their press releases will be heeded.

Out West, a wild brush fire that clears the land regularly precedes a planned development, especially if there is an ancient woodland that some old fogies who have lived in the area since 1854 want to keep.

Likewise, "aggressive driver" campaigns always seem to follow in the wake of a county or legislature wanting more funds, but not brave enough to "raise taxes." So someone makes a press release describing the sins of "aggressive drivers." Then a series of traps are set up for speeders -- not aggressive drivers. Of course as any sane person knows, you don't need to speed to get a speeding ticket. You just need to be driving through the wrong place at the wrong time. Most people can't be sure exactly how fast they were driving every second. So when they are surprised by being pulled over, they think just maybe they were speeding.

But even people who know they weren't speeding cave in. It's amazing to watch. At first they will tell you they know they weren't speeding at all. But when they realize it is futile to fight a ticket, they feel the need to rationalize to themselves that maybe they were speeding after all.

Too many people would rather pay $200 than admit they live in a tyranny. And the government takes your money.