Spark of danger
They look like toy cars, cellphones, fire extinguishers, Magic Markers, even doll accessories. One is a model of a Christmas tree, complete with flashing lights and holiday music, and another looks like a rubber ducky and quacks if you squeeze it.
But they are not toys; they are cigarette lighters. And soon they will be illegal in Massachusetts.
Yes, you read that correctly. MA is in the process of banning novelty lighters. Apparently all of the other societal, economical, and legislative problems have been solved in Massachusetts, and the state's lawmakers have free reign to turn their attention to the ridiculous. Once again we address the tool rather than the hand misusing the tool. Once again we ignore the elephant in the room - ignorance - and spin our wheels trying to hold back human nature. Once again we try our damnedest to avoid blaming a person and confer magic abilities on an inanimate object. IOW, it's MA being MA.
I doubt anyone wants kids dying in fires. You see, that's the flip side to this law - if you're against it, well, obviously you want to see little Jimmy burned to death because his mommy had a Santa Claus lighter. Now, a couple things here. I smoked for like 14 years. In all that time, I think I had maybe one or two "novelty" lighters, and they were shaped like guns* (go figure). Not once did a child rip the lighter out of my hands to go immolate their siblings. I'm curious what the percentages are here - how many fires are started by young kids (or at least claimed to be started by little kids)? I suspect you'll find that our legislators are drafting legislation that will address a very small portion of a very small percentage of fires.
Secondly, thirteen states already have laws like these on the books? Huh? I mean, yeah, CA/NY/IL I expect to have similar nanny state laws, but there's ten more? The article doesn't list the other states, but it sounds like this may not be limited to the bluest of the blue states - we're simply not safe from the ever-increasing intrusion of the nanny state camel's nose in our personal liberty tent. If state legislators have the time to dream up, draft, sponsor, and vote for idiotic "feel good" bills like this one that will accomplish nothing except to chink away at our freedom, then they need to go home.
Ideally covered in avian flight devices and polyaromatic hydrocarbon-based road surface material.
That is all.
*Side note: with the gun-shaped lighters, the flame almost always came out of the barrel, meaning that you would need to point the light right at your face to light your smoke. Not the brightest of ideas, but then again, neither is deliberately incinerating and inhaling carcinogens...
9 comments:
What I am noticing is that the comments section over at the Glob is fairly negative as far as these type of stories and ones the pertain to our fearl.... errr leader.
Clueless leader, Pissed, clueless.
Yeah, this is more nanny state silliness here in the PRM. OTOH, while the idjits in the legislature are distracted by the bright, shiny, object of novelty lighters, they aren't screwing with serious issues.
They're probably afraid we'll use 'em to light the fire under a kettle of tar.
How else do you get it to that nice, politician-sticking consistency?
Oil. We need lighters to get the oil boiling.
Rendered politician. Smells just like rendered hog...
Burn Jimmy! BURN! Bwahahahaha!
So, you have a parent that leaves a novelty lighter for little Jimmy. A little Jimmy with no more sense than to start a fire and kill himself in the process. A government with no more sense than to pass a law to try to keep little Jimmy alive.
Darwin will win in the end. Jimmy will just play with kitchen matches, or the flames on the stove.
"obviously you want to see little Jimmy burned to death because his mommy had a Santa Claus lighter."
....Ummmm ....err... Actually, little Jimmy will be dead of smoke inhalation/asphyxia longe before he actually *burns*.... I just wish he would not try to "hide from the fire" under the bed, so we can find him before the place burns down.
More Darwin Frustrating Legislatin'
....I blame bicycle helmets.
Nanny state is alive and well... again
You know, the more people who vote with their feet, the less tax revenue the Pols can steal. I am hoping that one day enough people leave these Nanny States that the Pols wake up and find half of them are gone because there is not enough Population to support these cretins, and what little people are left CAN'T be Taxed because they are ALL on the Dole. New Jersey is realizing that, and California is going to have a rude awakening soon.
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