Because You Can’t Spell Nanny State Without N.Y.
Posted by MichaelGroff on January 10, 2013 | Filed under Podcasts
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Add pain-killers to the increasingly lengthy list of items that New York City and mayor Michael Bloomberg wish to further regulate. From the city that has banned trans-fats, limited soft-drink serving sizes and even increased toll costs at specific times of the day. Get ready for the next round of nanny-statism as the mayor is telling individuals the dosage and quantity of pain medications they’re allowed to have even in hospitals.
The justification to the radical idea is two pronged; first Bloomberg cites the ever increasing prescription pain-killer addiction that he apparently perceives as totally out of control as well as hoping to cut crime by making medications harder to attain. If history has shown us one thing it is that when something is harder to acquire the violent crime surrounding that product/service certainly goes down and ultimately helps society, right? In case the obvious sarcasm wasn’t apparent enough the truth that Mayor Bloomberg is oblivious to is that crime goes up the more difficult something is to acquire. Particular something that many people actually require as part of their treatment such as pain medications. If you thought prohibition brought about a dangerous marketplace then just wait until your latest bright idea is fully implemented.
To paraphrase Bloomberg’s other argument, “won’t someone please think of the children?” The mayor states that it’s dangerous for people to have unused medications around the house and is very tempting for children to get ahold of and abuse. Isn’t this about the part where responsible parenting should come into play? But in the universe of people such as Bloomberg who needs parenting when you have the government.
Also on This Episode
– Straight out of the 9th century: A 90 year-old Saudi Arabian man wants his wife to come home and their marriage to be consummated, seems somewhat reasonable until you discover that his wife is a 15 year old girl. The eldery gentlemen paid a $17,500 dowry to the teen girl’s family and they agreed to allow their daughter to be married. Predictably, the teenager wasn’t so enthusiastic about the marriage and comedy gold followed.
– That went well: Britney Spears is already out of a job at “The X Factor”. She didn’t bring in the ratings that everyone expected, obviously the coveted ‘crazy, has been, borderline redneck’ demographic isn’t quite as lucrative as one would have expected.
While We’re on the Subject of Firings…
Rob Parket at ESPN finds himself out of a job as well. The commentator from ESPN’s show “First take” drew criticism last month following his comments regarding Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III. In the rant, Parker referred to the QB as a “cornball brother” and said that he seemed to “not be down with the cause”. Griffin, who is black, seemed to strike Parker as someone that wasn’t part of the black community even noting that he has a “white girlfriend” and that he “is a Republican”.
Far be it for me to criticize someone for making foolish statements, but sometimes someone is so stupid that they simply need to be fired on principle. Nevertheless, ESPN doesn’t get to totally skate on this issue themselves. The network re-aired the comments that were supposedly so offensive and according to Parker they knew what he was going to say beforehand. This account sounds reasonably believable as ESPN has always encouraged their commentators to push the envelope, but the network is also very quick to distance themselves from those same individuals after the envelope has been pushed.
– Michael Groff Show Flashback: An unfortunate story about a deaf woman being hit by a train because she was busy text messaging and not paying attention to where she was going got a listener rather upset… at me? (From August 2007)
January 14, 2013 at 4:37 pm
In regards to the chick who called you to abuse you about the train story.
1. You’re right, if you get hit by a train, especially when being careless while missing a sense you’re dumb (no pun intended)
2. That phone call is hilarious.
3. She sounds hot. I hope you called her back and invited her over for Chinese food and to watch Under Siege 2.
– Ollie
August 22, 2015 at 1:51 pm
American Idol was no longer fun to watch after Simon Cowell left.
X-Factor is okay but I don’t really watch much TV.
Controlling Pain Killers in a Hospital is a joke. I can’t believe some of the stuff that guy drums up. What a Dummkopf!
The Flashback: Wow, Honestly who would walk along train tracks with their head down, reading text or sending text and not paying attention? No one in their right mind would do that. Plus on top of it, you can’t hear a train coming to move out of the way in time. Why on earth would you do that? That’s if you even have the time to move because of the speed of the train and the fact that trains can literately pull you in and under. I just don’t get humans sometimes.
Sigh
another good episode :) <3