“If it’s too loud, you’re too old.” – Too many authors claiming credit
For years, I dreamed of freedom of music…in particular unrepentant rock ‘n roll with the volume cranked.
Mumsy went to Julliard. I can’t find middle C.
She swoons to Mozart, Goodman, Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and Old Blue Eyes.
Give me Mick, Keith, Robert, Jimmy, Pete and Roger…loud. (How was music even possible before the invention of electricity?).
My childhood/adolescent home was not kind and accepting to What Is and What Should Never Be (Led Zeppelin 2:2).
Now through the miracle of digital technology, all of these rockers now live within the friendly confines of my one-inch my iPod. I can play them as spirited as I want…at least for now.
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Soon after the smoke died down at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Shanksville, many become increasingly concerned about individual liberties.
Would the TSA strip-search granny? Was the Department of Justice looking over the list of our library books? Was the NSA eavesdropping on Arabic cell-phone conversations with Al-Qaeda? These concerns dovetailed with the presidency of one, George W. Bush.
Soon after a new president took office, the concern was redirected against private sector capitalists, including a particular chief executive, the one with a hoodie, Mark Zuckerberg.
Was Facebook, prepping for and executing the world’s first kicking-and-screaming IPO, profiting off our freely volunteered demographic information and thus violating our cherished privacy?
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Recently, I have been reading about the latest health concern raised by New York’s “Republican” nanny Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Fresh off his enjoined campaign targeting sodas more than 16-ounces, Hizzoner is now taking aim at loud music via ear buds. No one else hears it, but still mayor-dearest wants to intrude. For now, he is focusing on a public service campaign warning us of the auditory dangers of iPods and MP3 players.
Deep down inside, you know he wants to regulate the volume of digital music players. Is there another way the Gotham Big Brother can save New Yorkers from themselves?
This all brings up a very basic question: When does regulating on behalf of the overall “public good” cross the line and become “tyranny?” Do we believe that “tyranny” is only the province of the U.S. security apparatus and multinational corporations? Or can tyranny be disguised as “public good” by those who occupy positions of power in our ever-expanding, taxing and regulating federal, state and local governments?
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Lately, I have contemplated placing plastic supermarket bags and water bottles under my pillow. I used to take them for granted, but that is no longer the case. In a little more than six weeks, I will no longer have the liberty to carry my groceries out of a Eugene, Oregon supermarket in plastic bags, even though they are stronger and more efficient. Sniff…I am already starting to miss them because they have become symbols of a soon-to-be-lost individual freedom.
On May 1 (the same day the tanks and missiles were proudly displayed for decades under waving red banners in Moscow), the City of Eugene under party chairman…err…Mayor Kitty Piercy and her colleagues will celebrate a ban against plastic bags. We can buy renewable paper bags (the trees will give their all) from these very same stores for a nickel each, but that is not the purpose of this social-engineering exercise. Instead, this campaign is to “encourage” us to bring our own bags to the store.
What will happen to those who already proudly proclaim and pontificate far and wide about how special they are because they shop with their sustainable, renewable, organic, fair-trade, shade-grown, gluten-free hemp bags? Will they no longer be able to exalt their near-exclusive virtue? Will they smoke their bags instead, and demand that government decriminalize, regulate and tax them?
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The most sinister threat on the horizon comes in the form of domestic drones (unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs). You can already buy them on Amazon and the FAA is opening up US airspace under 400 feet for their use. UAV merchants see America’s 18,000 law enforcement agencies as potential customers. Mayor Bloomberg, the #17 ranked billionaire on the planet, could personally corner the market on domestic UAVs to make sure we are all being good. Mayor Piercy could have her own drones to make sure we are not even thinking about using plastic bags or bottles.
National Geographic reported that news agencies are potential customers for UAVs for “scoping out public events and celebrity backyards.” Hmmm…Does that mean the National Enquirer will be a potential purchaser and user of UAVs? Don’t bet against it.
And what precisely is going on in those celebrity backyards?
http://www.ydr.com/nation-world/ci_22731695/nyc-mayor-bloomberg-takes-aim-at-loud-headphones
http://news.msn.com/us/judge-invalidates-nycs-ban-on-large-sugary-drinks
http://news.msn.com/us/nyc-prepares-for-tuesdays-limit-on-size-of-sugary-drinks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bloomberg
http://rgweb-c.registerguard.com/web/news/sevendays/29466805-57/bags-plastic-ban-eugene-bag.html.csp
http://www.eugene-or.gov/index.aspx?NID=2060
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/mar/6/domestic-drones-hunt-gun-carriers-america-homeland/
http://news.msn.com/us/are-you-being-watched-the-future-of-domestic-drones
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/26/opinion/the-dawning-of-domestic-drones.html?_r=0
(Almost) DailyBrett 