In Britain, the Government has developed a shatterproof pub glass. Why? They want to lower healthcare costs by creating a pint glass that can't be broken and used as a weapon.
"There are about 87,000 alcohol-related glass attacks each year, with many resulting in hospital visits, Home Secretary Alan Johnson said."
Think about that for a second. Violent attacks with glassware are enough of an issue that they have to ban glass and come up with a shatterproof alternative. They banned glass pints because drinkers were breaking them and assaulting one another with them. Also, given what we know of the UK that 87,000 figure is most likely vastly understated.
Hmmm, that sounds like a country with a serious cultural problem, one where wanton, predatory violence is a culturally acceptable norm. Here in America we can carry guns & knives into bars and yet we don't see that kind of violence. Hell, I carry a knife virtually everywhere and have often carried a Sig into bars.
Any society that adopts predatory violence as an acceptable behavioral norm while criminalizing protective violence is one that is destined for failure. We see it in the UK and we see it in inner city America. Once that cultural shift has occurred everyone who accepts and acts upon that new behavioral norm is dangerous. When predatory violence is the acceptable, even preferred means of interpersonal interaction no amount of hardware fixes are going to revive the fatally damaged software.
It's the culture stupid! (and it's not the drinking) The Brits have identified the wrong problem and they keep throwing bandaids on it while ignoring the puss-filled, festering wound that's staring them in the face.
Britain gets more and more insane daily. I wouldn't even mention it, except that the Liberals in this country espouse the same viewpoints and the same "solutions" while failing to acknowledge the failure of those solutions across the pond.
Via Bruce, who describes the problem as,
"the runaway nanny state culture of a government that treats its subjects like children incapable of making their own behavioral choices, and then feigns surprise when they act as, well, children incapable of making their own behavioral choices."
Those in power act like idiotic children. Why should they expect their subjects to act any more responsibly?
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4 comments:
If you treat the subjects like children, they'll act like children. Begin holding the criminals responsible for their actions and stop doing crazy things like coming down hard on people who are merely defending themselves against these thugs (news stories from the other side o' the pond about innocent homeowners being charged with crimes for defending themselves do, sadly, reach our side).
W/V: scario. I am not making that up.
The unfortunate news is that the bandaids will not hold for ever, and they will not always be able to solve the problem. Eventually, the whole kit and kaboodle will come unglued, and the country is going to go straight to gos-se -and not just in the piecemeal idiocy you see now, but full-on cultural dissolution.
I almost feel bad for the residents of that country, and I would... except they brought it on themselves, each and every one of them. They wanted the government to take care of them, they wanted the government to solve their problems, they wanted the government to make the hard choices, they wanted the government to wach over them... Well, they got it.
As usual, though, humans have no idea what they want, but they are going to have to live with the consequences and repercussions of their decisions.
I don't drink or go to bars, so maybe I'm wrong on this... but don't most people in the US drink (especially beer) from glasses that do not have handles? The typical beer glass that I've seen isn't nearly as good a choice for a weapon as a beer mug where you can get a good grip on the handle.
See, they just need to make everyone use non-handled beer glasses!
Still a hardware solution to a software problem, though.
And the Brady Bunch thinks we are a violent bunch. I've been known to have a beer while carrying and NEVER felt like I wanted to wantonly shoot someone because I just couldn't hold myself together. I've only seen one bar fight in my 38 years and I've been all over the Country.
Good post Mike
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