Some might call you crazy, or a blithering idiot, for treating helmet laws like a Soviet Invasion. I say this nation needs more freedom fighters of your caliber!
Friday, February 23, 2007
Done It To Annoy Andrew Coyne?
Andrew, who has blogging extensively on the topic in recent weeks, seems to think that every time a kid gets killed on the snow its just an excuse for politicians to try and ram Commie-style helmet laws down his democracy-loving throat. Sorry, Andy, but you're being called to the ramparts yet again.
Some might call you crazy, or a blithering idiot, for treating helmet laws like a Soviet Invasion. I say this nation needs more freedom fighters of your caliber!
Some might call you crazy, or a blithering idiot, for treating helmet laws like a Soviet Invasion. I say this nation needs more freedom fighters of your caliber!
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18 comments:
Yep, the nanny-state mentality is at it again. There is NO rare, freak accidental death that they will NOT legislate against, in the attempt to save every child from everything, and then some. Car accidents? No, that's too common, so ignore those. FOCUS on the freaky, the rare, the one-in-a-million type accident. HEADLINE those ones. Drowning deaths? Booooring. But let's MAKE SURE nobody hangs themselves in a hand towel dispenser, put safety rails on that cushion, and round off the sharp edges on that cracker.
"Is it a hidden agenda of the CPC to kill children? We don't know; Stephen Harper won't say."
You'll have to excuse me while I go teach my kids to juggle running chainsaws and loaded handguns while standing on the roof of a car driven by a blindfolded 8-year old.
You'll have to excuse me while I go teach my kids to juggle running chainsaws and loaded handguns while standing on the roof of a car driven by a blindfolded 8-year old.
Knock yourself out. Just don't try to teach your kids how to deploy elementary logic. You clearly have no relevant skills to impart.
So--when did the Soviet-style nanny-state's assault on democracy begin? With mandatory seat belts? Speeding limits? Do tell, Spartacus.
"So--when did the Soviet-style nanny-state's assault on democracy begin? With mandatory seat belts? Speeding limits?"
No, dipstick, with the inane regulations. The above are EFFECTIVE safety precautions. How do you win arguments by making irrelevant statement?
No, it's the 'kiddy-proofing' of the entire world that people attempt to do to save one life every 10 years, when many, many more lives are lost because people are focusing on the rare event instead. But those deaths don't get headlines, so people overlook them. Where are the most deaths? Cars, drowning, etc. Spend time and effort attacking the most COMMON causes of death, not the least.
The more you make things appear to be 'safer', the less risk-assessing children will do for themselves. They think 'everything' is safe, and so no longer think for themselves - "Is this risky behaviour?" "Should I do this?" "Will I hurt myself?"
Is that clear enough for you now?
BCL --
Little off topic, but.....
You may want to check out the latest at my place.
I have, apparently, heard from Kim Bolan, the author of the original Bains/Saini - Connection piece in the Vancouver Sun.
.
.
I don't know, anonymous 1:33. Don't you think that if there had been helmet laws back when you were a kid, you wouldn't have suffered that terrible head injury, the manifestations of which are glaringly apparent now?
Or is it the FAS? I'll have to ask your mother the next time I see her...if you know what I mean.
Typical liberal responses; if you're losing the argument, switch to personal attacks instead. Am I too mean-spirited and harsh? Go cry to your mama, or whatever village raised you.
Whooee! Well, I ain't fer a nanny state but there's a good excuse fer legislatin' safety. We got universal healthcare provided through our taxes. When sum dumbass rides a toboggan w/o helmet an' gets his semi-brainless skull cracked an' needs brain surgery, guess who foots the bill?
Now, if I'm footin' the surgeon's bills, I wanna be able t' try makin' sure we don't have unnecessary healthcare costs. Besides, some pore sumbitch who got run over by toboggan boy might hafta wait in line while they're puttin' the vinegar an' brown paper on the dumbass sledder.
If Andy Coyne wants t' run full speed an' crash his stoopid head against a wall, I say we gotta try an' stop him. It's only human decency.
JimBobby
Just a point on the article linked to. This poor boy was jumping ramps on an unsupervized hill and landed on his head and neck.
The article mentions he wasn't wearing a helmet, but if you land on your head and neck, you're gonna break your neck. Helmet, no helmet, doesn't matter.
As Andrew pointed out, when people advocate for helmet laws, they trot out all the stats for deaths from an activity, whether a helmet would have prevented the death or not. One of the two people who died tobogganing recently (what got this story going with the by-law in Vaughn which recommended to mandate helmets after two deaths so close together in the same month) DIDN'T die of head injuries. My she rest in peace, but she would have been just as dead if she'd been wearing a helmet. And of the less than ten people killed tobogganing in Canada in the last decade, several were HIT BY CARS. I don't care how good your helmet is, if you ride your toboggan into a street and get hit by a car, you're probably a goner.
I just think Andrew is worried that THIS is where we're heading.
Personally, I'm concerned that despite the fact that it is ASTRONOMICALLY more dangerous statistically, we still don't have mandatory shower helmets. Do you have any idea how many Canadians die every year when they slip in the shower?!?! It's exponentially more than those who die on the toboggan hills of the nation.
That the government of Canada allows me to continue to shower unprotected is UNCONSCIONABLE.
Won't someone please think of the children.
This article was sent to me by Nick's father, who I know. He asked me to forward it to anyone who might be interested. His team mates are asking that helmets be worn while playing hockey outside. They are ten years old, hardly political sophists.
Remembering Wheels
James Duthie
2/20/2007 11:35:56 PM
If you could watch one hockey player, past or present, play a game, who would it be?
Gretzky at 21? Orr with knees scar-free? The Rocket, at his angry, eyes blazing best? Crosby, right now?
I'm often asked that question. And I was never sure of the answer. Until now.
It is none of the above.
If I could watch one player lace up the skates and play a game, I would choose a skinny left-winger from Guelph, Ontario.
A player who moved so fast, they called him Wheels.
A terrific hockey mind who, by the age of 10, had already patented his own move: carrying the puck swiftly into the opposing zone, then spinning around and sending it back to his point man, leading to countless chances for his team.
A leader, so popular in the room, a former coach says when he walked in for practise, there would be a chorus of "Sit here! Sit next to me!"
A coach's dream, always shining his shoes to make sure he looked proper when he arrived at the rink. And so obsessed with being on time, he wore a digital watch with a face big enough to dwarf his little arms.
An offensive dynamo who scored 12 goals in one 7-game span this season, amazing considering he always preferred being a playmaker.
A natural athlete who was also a whiz at soccer, football, track, and pretty much everything he tried.
An always smiling charmer who, even when he tried to boast, couldn't help but turn it into a joke.
"I'm the best athlete in my school," he once said. "Then again, my school is really small."
A kid who lived and breathed hockey from the second he woke 'til the moment he hit the pillow, exhausted after playing hours a day.
But here's the rub.
This hockey player I'd love to see play again...
I never saw him play.
Everything I know about him comes from the stories I've been told over the past week by teammates, coaches, friends, and family.
His name was Nicholas Lambden.
Two Sundays ago, he was doing something every one of us who has played outdoor pick-up hockey has done hundreds of times: digging for a puck in the snow. A shot from a nearby game struck him in the head.
It was a freak, million to one accident. And it killed him.
Nick was 10 years-old.
10 years-old.
Last Friday, the Guelph Atom AA Junior Storm should have been excitedly preparing for the next round of their playoffs. Instead, they were walking up the aisle of a church, past the coffin with their teammate's #12 sweater draped over it, laying their sticks next to Nick's.
Later, they'd talk about how happy he'd been after scoring the tying goal late in what would be a thrilling OT win that past Saturday. His last game.
Nick loved hockey. Loved the Leafs. Worshipped Mats Sundin (Though Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin were right up there too).
He dreamed of being just like them. Of someday being talked about on TSN. Consider it done, Wheels.
I thank all of his friends for sharing their memories.
But each new gut-wrenching phone call, each heart-breaking email that pops up in the inbox, makes me wish I could have met Nick, and watched him play the game he loved so much.
And makes me curse the fact I never will.
Our thoughts remain with Nicholas's mother Susan, father Andrew, and sister Madison. This week Nick's team will resume their playoffs wearing black armbands with the #12 on them. They also hope to spread the message that everyone who plays outdoor hockey should always wear a helmet. Always.
James Duthie can be reached at jduthie@tsn.ca.
Well said, Lord Kitchener.
If you want to ride your motorcycle without a helmet, I won't stop you. But don't show up asking for free healthcare to put your brains back inside your head doing something known to be so risky. If you don't think your own brain is worth protecting, who are we to argue?
Next it'll be helmets for the fans at hockey games.
Why is the Liberal answer to everything more legislation on top of more legislation? Why do you want to have such control over every miniscule aspect of everybody's lives? Can't you just let people be? Don't you believe in personal responsibility? Do you have to 'think' for everybody? Are we all wiping our arses 'the Liberal way' yet?
Am I too mean-spirited and harsh?
No, just hissy and bitchy. Take a Midol.
There are of course cases and cases. In some, regulation may not do any particular good, and in some it may. My wish is that Conservatives like Andy wouldn't, at the first word of any potential attempt to regulate anything, whip out their shotguns and watch the sky for U.N. helocopters carrying homosexual soldiers on behalf of the NWO.
Spartacus, I like that, that's very close except he failed. Louis Riel, too. One proud moment in Manitoba's history. Churchill, maybe he's the guy. Yeah, Churchill.
ti-guy, can you spare some of yours?
I hate to be mean and harsh and all, but Liberals are the masters of victim exploitation. Don't like guns? Haul out somebody who has been shot. Don't like cars? Haul out somebody who was killed by a car. Airplanes, buses, trains, knives, bathtubs, electricity, lint, etc. You can go on ad nauseum. Whatever you're trying to ban or legislate, there's a victim somewhere. And where there's a victim, there will be a Liberal there to exploit them for political gain.
The fact is it was a freak occurrence, tragic, but ultimately incredibly rare. I can't begin to know how those parents feel.
How is it that the puck from the other game hit him? Did some irresponsible knob decide to blast one over his way 'for fun'? Or was an equally freaky circumstance?
All I'm saying is step back, examine the statistical facts, and don't start adding more f#ckin' laws on the books to make people criminals for playing hockey without a helmet. Or eating a hot dog without a mandatory anti-choking monitor nearby.
If YOU think you want to wear a helmet while playing hockey, good for you, it makes a lot of sense. I'll tell my kids the same thing. More laws we don't need; just common sense, and personal and parental responsibility. What's wrong with that?
More laws we don't need; just common sense, and personal and parental responsibility. What's wrong with that?
It's all just a trick. Liberals do this to keep you all shrieking about relatively unimportant things; if you people had nothing to shriek about, Lord knows how you'd choose to vent your profound, chronic dyspepsia.
To answer your question his parents are devastated and yes some irresponsible adult knob took a slap shot in the direction of children. Why he wasn't charged with manslaughter I dont know.
The outdoor rinks in Guelph do not have boards, like they do in Montreal. They are maintained and created by community volunteers. Unfortuately with no money for boards and paid supervisiors, I would have to say that the rinks in public city owned parks should not be allowed, given the obvious dangers.
The university students who were boistrously using the rink had already been asked once by neighbors to leave, as that is not whom they make and maintain the rink for. Unfortunately, these adults using a facility made for children by neighborhood parents ended up killing a child.
We had to shut down our wading pools in Guelph parks because they were unsupervised and deemed a safety hazard and there was no money to hire lifeguards. Same for these rinks I think. Unfortunately, it is the rinks that will probably be made illegal.
I think what happened to nicky,the one in a million death by puck to the head had much to do with carma and the sheer devilish ruthlessness of this developers behavior,
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