THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

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.