Safe Speed Forums

Imagine telling somebody twenty years ago that by 2007, it would be illegal to smoke in a pub or bus shelter or your own vehicle or that there would be £80 fines for dropping cigarette butts, or that the words "tequila slammer" would be illegal or the government would mandate what angle a drinker's head in an advertisement may be tipped at, or that it would be illegal to criticise religions or homosexuality, or rewire your own house, or that having sex after a few drinks would be classed as rape or that the State would be confiscating children for being overweight.

Imagine telling somebody twenty years ago that by 2007, it would be....

In this new age we are all enjoined to live as long as possible, regardless of quality of life. This is strange in a place like Blair’s Britain, where old age is something to be anticipated with dread. The lucky ones are merely neglected, while the state strips them of their property and savings. Before the coming of the zealots, people were entitled to choose their own life styles and accept the consequences. Not so now! Conformity is the keyword. Behaviour of which the new elite disapproves is artificially medicalised and the epidemiologists are on hand to “prove” that all politically incorrect activity causes mortal disease. A short life and a merry one, no more: by decree, life has to be long and grim.

Compulsory longevity was a boon to the new authoritarians. They merely had to establish a link (sometimes real, usually imaginary) between politically incorrect behaviour and increased mortality to provide a launch pad for a campaign of fearmongering and control.

Stage two is the publication of limits recommended by the Government. These are invariably plucked out of the air with no evidence of reasoning.

or the government would mandate what angle a drinker's head in an advertisement may be tipped at

Yeah, not sure where that one came from. Maybe some obscure law in one of the "bible belt" states, I don't know.

Do you ever hear George Monbiot saying "Yes, I don't agree with Viscount Monckton, but I have to admit he's a very clever fellow and many of his arguments have some merit"? Do we ever read on Brake's so-called "road safety" website about the vast majority of drivers who go about their business calmly, considerately and safely?

Do the soi-disant "experts" who advise the government on health issues ever come clean and admit that the majority of fat people are healthy, active and lead long and happy lives? Will any of them admit that they have yet to find a single, solitary properly-documented case of someone dying from passive smoking? Or that children brought up in the 1950s when buses, trains and cinemas reeked with cigarette smoke and the atmosphere outside was heavy with pollution from coal-fires, industry and steam trains, had a far lower incidence of asthma than today's coddled infants?

Imagine telling somebody twenty years ago that by 2007, it would be illegal to smoke in a pub or bus shelter or your own vehicle

or that there would be £80 fines for dropping cigarette butts

or that the words "tequila slammer" would be illegal

or the government would mandate what angle a drinker's head in an advertisement may be tipped at, or that it would be illegal to criticise religions or homosexuality, or rewire your own house, or that having sex after a few drinks would be classed as rape or that the State would be confiscating children for being overweight.

Now of course, such machines were duely banned on "Health" grounds but I cannot help feeling that if these machines were really a problem then there would be a load of people out there in their 50's and upwards developing bizarre "Foot Cancers"!

As far as I am aware, no such epidemic exists.

Despite these relatively high exposures, there were no reported injuries to shoe store customers. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the operators of these machines. Many shoe salespersons put their hands into the x-ray beam to squeeze the shoe during the fitting. As a result, one saleswoman who had operated a shoe fitting fluoroscope 10 to 20 times each day over a ten year period developed dermatitis of the hands. One of the more serious injuries linked to the operation of these machines involved a shoe model who received such a serious radiation burn that her leg had to be amputated (Bavley 1950).

Well, of course that is true. And we probabally are better off using less invasive methods for determining whether or not shoes fit.

Having said that, the argument (operator protection) is the same argument used for the smoking ban. Its not to protect the person traveling on the bus, going to the cinema or popping in for a drink. Its there to protect the people who work there and are exposed to high levels of smoke all, each, and every day!

(PS I actually have an interst in "Radiation Hormosis" It may well be that although the operators high doses were damaging, perhaps the low doses that the users were exposed to have actually protected them from Foot Cancer!?! )

Apparently, sex toys are illegal in some bible belt states such as Texas. Seems funny that a state like Texas would ban dildoes. After all, there's enough of 'em living there.