Passing laws for things that annoy us

So I read in the news today that there are politicians out there putting together a bill that would make it illegal to Photoshop a picture used in an advertisement. Apparently they’re specifically concerned with airbrushed and otherwise altered magazine models pushing make-up, clothes, etc.

Really? There are people out there that think we need a law against that?

It reminded me of an article I caught a couple months back wherein a law was proposed to make it illegal to talk on your cell phone on an airplane while the plane is in flight. Apparently the technology is coming that will allow passengers to use their cell phones on commercial flights and they want to “get a jump” on preventing that from happening, since it is so annoying.

So apparently we pass laws now for things that annoy us?

Don’t get me wrong folks, I find people talking on their cell phones in restaurants and other enclosed spaces to be in extremely poor taste. Drives me nuts. I get images in my head of shoving their phone into the same place they keep their head.

And I have been known, if the offender is being particularly loud or obnoxious, to begin conversing back to the bonehead as if I was the person on the other end of the line. Usually does the trick.

But never, ever would it occur to me to pass a law against it. If a business wants to make a rule, policy or whatever…fine. All for it. But a law? Where do we go from there? Pass a law making it illegal to slurp your spaghetti? Not cover your mouth when you yawn? Fart in a library?

I think what really gets me is that society has reached a point where this would even be considered. I have no doubt that there are people who read the above and think, “Gosh, I think that’s a great idea! I hate those things, too, and we need more and more laws to prevent all those thinks I don’t like!”

If you happen to be one of them, allow me to directly say, “You scare me”. Because it’s folks like you, who freely and openly embrace totalitarianism, that are tending the coal on this fast-train to hell that this country seems to be riding.

If a government that has laws dictating each and every small detail of our lives sounds wonderful to you, by all means, pack up and head to North Korea. You’ll love it there. Your paradise waits.

But sadly, no, you want to bring that here. Better to just run the USA into the dirt with overbearing government and call it “progress”.

I blame that element of our culture for our politicians having an ever-easier time lying their pants off to us. Nobody fact-checks, nobody looks anything up anymore.

And when you combine that with a growing notion that a nanny-state massive government is “good for us” – well, look around. Politicians know it, like it and take advantage of it.

They know they are free to say anything they want and people will just sit there glazed-eyed, naïve, gullible and eat it up. You can spoon-feed them excrement so long as you tell them its sugar and they’ll smile and ask for seconds.

Take the roller-coaster ride regarding “assault weapons” for example. I still say “assault” is a behavior, not an object, since I can “assault” somebody with a rock. (Hey…maybe we should ban assault rocks?)

But back to my point. Some politicians like to toss out that phrase “assault rifle” and intentionally keep it vague. And it amazes me how many people let that sail right over their heads. They miss it. They don’t see where they’re getting suckered.

When a politician says “assault rifle,” people instantly get an image in their heads of what that means and assume that is exactly what the dolt doing the press conference is talking about, too. And those politicians count on that.

Because if they can pass it, then they get to run around defining and re-defining what constitutes an “assault rifle” until your kid’s BB gun makes the list. (Heck, if you ask some schools they’ll tell you a 1-inch long Star Wars action figure laser pistol or a cookie eaten into the shape of an “L” fits the definition of a “gun”.)

Another intentionally vague term: “the wealthy”. You know, those evil people that had the audacity to get a good education, work their tails off, perhaps open their own business and hopefully provide us with jobs.

Man do we hate those terrible, horrible people. They are inherently evil for not forking over what they have worked hard for to the rest of us.

But when I see people bobbing their heads, bleating “Yes, yes” when some blowhard is up there scapegoating “the wealthy” for the entire nation’s problems, I think the same thing as before – what exactly defines “the wealthy”?

For me, that means X amount of dollars per year. Doubt my number is the same as yours. And it certainly isn’t the same as some politicians who decided “the wealthy” was anybody earning $38,500 per year or more.

No, I didn’t forget a zero in that number. And, yes, that was actually considered by some to be the magic earnings amount for “the wealthy”. Because people earning that are just loaded, don’t you know?

I think the worst example I’ve seen of politicians taking advantage of big-government loving types was this “war on women” nonsense that keeps getting dragged out, dusted off and put on display every time we get close to an election, which is all coincidence, I’m sure. It’s tantamount to putting a Snickers wrapper on those things my dog deposits in the yard and calling it a candy bar. Oh sure, it might look lovely on the outside, but if you bother to look at what’s on the inside, different story.

The bill is intentionally crafted so as to have no hope of passing. The whole idea is that nobody in their right mind would ever pass it. They don’t want it passed. They pile on billions in unrelated and irresponsible spending that has absolutely nothing to do with women’s health, go through the motions of “submitting it”, put on an Oscar award-winning performance of being “outraged” when it doesn’t, and then race to the podium to spew forth the rehearsed garbage to the waiting press, point fingers and generate votes.

It’s all an act. And so many people fall for it. And they know it. And they exploit it.

Massive government with volumes and volumes of laws telling us how to think, speak and act. Ridiculous government representatives that pull our strings while we smile and dance accordingly.

I guess it’s true; people really do get the government they deserve.

Ben Compton is a Palmer resident and publishes his column as “Compton’s Corner,” the same title used by his grandmother, Phyllis Compton, a longtime Frontiersman columnist. Contact him at bcompton1971@yahoo.com.