Via Instapundit (in sort of a round-about way), found this post titled "Nanny State Nonsense" over at Tomfoolery of the Highest Order.
In her years in city government, Council Member Gale Brewer has sat through plenty of interminable hearings and tedious debates. When she goes to the movies, though, the Upper West Side Democrat wishes she didn't have to endure the preliminaries.And from the original New York Sun article:
That's why Ms. Brewer introduced a bill yesterday that would require movie theaters to advertise the actual start time of a movie, rather than the time the previews are supposed to begin.
A representative in Connecticut's state legislature, Andrew Fleischmann, introduced a similar bill in Hartford last month. His bill would require theaters to include two times: one when the trailers begin, and one when the movie starts. He calls it a matter of truth in advertising....Well, gosh, if people are annoyed, we better pass a law. You know, sometimes my husband annoys me, when he says he's about to leave work to come home for dinner but then he stops at Home Depot or Menards and shows up two hours later. I'm annoyed! That's not truth in advertising!
"Look," Mr. Fleischmann said yesterday during a brief phone interview, "I'm the chair of the education committee and there are far weightier issues that come before government. But I have never introduced a bill that has touched such a nerve. People go to the movies for a few hours of escapism and they are annoyed."
Council Member Brewer said she was open to negotiation on her idea. She conceded that she did not know how much revenues theaters receive from what Loews called the "pre-feature content," and she said she assumed the theater-owners would cry financial ruin. As written, the proposed law designates fines of between $500 and $1,000 for each violation. It was unclear yesterday exactly how violations would be tallied.I think I'll contact my local legislators to see if I can slap a fine on my husband for each incident.
Really, this is ridiculous. Have people lost all ability to think for themselves? Wouldn't it be possible for people annoyed by commercials to just, say, show up a few minutes late? Or how about show up on time, put your coat on a seat, and wander to the lobby until the ads are over? Do we really need a law?
When we took our Fabulous Driving Vacation to New York and D.C. last summer, we noticed that the further east we drove, the worse the Nanny State became.
They had million-dollar electronic billboards flashing really important messages like "Drive Carefully!"
Or, "Buckle Up!" And "No Tailgating!"
Really? I thought I could defy all common sense and traffic laws and drive like a maniac however I wanted. Thank God those billboards set me straight. What a fantastic use of taxpayer dollars.
We figured sooner or later we'd see signs admonishing us to "Cover your mouth when you cough!" and "Don't Forget to Floss!"
I am so glad I live in the Midwest.
UPDATE: My husband has a rebuttal below! I am so glad I married him; he makes me laugh far more often than he annoys me. Now if we can just find a 12-Step Program for his hardware addiction...
5 comments:
I, too, was glad to be living in the Midwest until this post came along and tipped me off to your plan to have the state crack down on me with fines, all because of my "hardware-jones". Wait that's it, you can't prosecute me for those stops at Menard's and Home D-POT because I'm addicted and that makes me a victim. I should be protected, there ought to be a law!! Yeah, and a 12 foot electronic sign warning you NOT to give me grief for stopping to get PVC fittings!
TJS
PS. It starts out innocently enough, a few PVC fittings and a 1/2" compression fitting... next thing you know I'm on the street trying to score some pine door casings and a chrome 1.25" P-trap!
Hmm. Well, I get annoyed by those people who show up late to a show, robbing me of my enjoyment of the beginning of a movie. So why not pass another law requiring theaters to advertise the times as 10 minutes earlier than they really are? Then everyone has their anti-irritation laws, and nothing changes. :-)
More proof that polititians have nothing better to do than sit around and think up stupid legislation in a feeble attempt to justify their existence.
pmm
The trailers are usually better than the movies.
And about faking the start times, my grandmother was notorious in my family for being late when you picked her up. My mother started telling her she would arrive to pick up my grandmother at 2:00 when she actually planned to arrive at 2:30. One day, my mother arrived a little before 2:30 and found my grandmother semi-dressed and sipping a cup of tea. My mother was flabbergasted. My grandmother's response was that my mother always was a half hour later than she said she would be.
Look, if you get annoyed because you have to sit through a few minutes of movie trailers and ads before a movie begins then I think we need to examine a few other areas where that same person should be annoyed. I would think they would find it annoying waiting in line at the DMV but so far as I know, no laws have been enacted to fix that. I would also think these people would find it annoying calling just about any company and sifting through a flow chart makers dream of options and sub menus only to get to a point, you realize, that you have to call back and start over because you entered something and can't return to a previous menu. I tend to believe these annoyed people would find it irritating waiting in line at a drive-thru. By definition, aren't you suppose to be able to DRIVE-THRU to get your curly fries??? I'm sure I've missed a plenty of annoying things but I do have a suggestion for these annoyed movie-goers and it is this, rent a video from Blockbuster, you can start it anytime you like.
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