Posted on January 1st 1988
"Dangerous" Ads
By Alex Linder
[ The following is from a forum thread posting. ]
[see the start of my baiting, "far be it from" oh no, it be not far at all, it be very close to heart. have to understand these pieces are written amid huge academic workload, with leftist eyes everywhere over your shoulder over your head under your nuts...this is a quick flip off. but then again, this was the only stuff i put real effort into and genuinely cared about, 100x more than my academic work, which was recycling unrecylcables ]
[opinion published in Pomona College's The Student Life ???]
Will Porsche GO Cigarette Route?
"Dangerous" Ads
By Alex Linder
Sometimes it's the little things that make you stand up and shout "What the hell's going on?" Little things that seem merely quirky until your mind extracts the general from the particular. Listen to a little story from the hinterlands of Massachusetts.
Now far be it from me to question the latest political wisdom from the Bay State. From O'Neill to Kennedy to Studds, Massachusetts has an august legislative history a peon like me would never deign [sic - dare] demean. Nevertheless, let me suggest that this time one honorable East Coaster has advanced an idea truly beyond the pale of civilized discourse, as William F. Buckley might say.
Her name is Mary Jeanette Murray. She is a representative from Cohasset. And she's got a hang-up about cars. Well, car commercials anyway.
You see, in their attempts to get people to buy their product, car producers show cars doing all sorts of nasty things. Oh, you know. Going fast. Making sharp turns. Racing along mountain roads. Mary can't stand this. I mean, what about the minds of the kiddies?
So Mary is out to save them. She's sponsoring a bill that would forbid the airing of any commercial that would "glorify the speed, maneuverability, and performance of a motor vehicle," in order to "protect young people against the wrong impressions." And they say Utah is backward because you can't talk about sex-ed!
Oh, and one other thing. Mary thinks her idea is so great that she wants to spread it. Yeah, that's right. She's encouraged the Massachusetts legislature to press Congress to enact similar bans. So one day your state might be the beneficiary of Mary's pearl of wisdom. Something to look forward to in these times of woe!
But it makes you wonder. Whatever happened to America -- the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave? Now it's the Home of the Wimp and the Land of the Free to Drive under Fifty-Six. For Chrissakes, even in Germany, a welfare state if there ever was one, you can drive as fast as you want.
America is supposed to be a wild, adventurous place - the place where a person can go to do what s/he wants. America is free spirited. America is where explorers explored, pioneers moved West, and you could say whatever you wanted to whomever you wanted because you had the same rights as everybody else. America is not a place where well-meaning state legislators tell us what's good for us. We're adults and we'll do what we want - would-be Big Sisters be damned.
Mary-Jeanette Murray may have been born here, but she sure ain't an American.
[opinion published in Pomona College's The Student Life ???]
Will Porsche GO Cigarette Route?
"Dangerous" Ads
By Alex Linder
Sometimes it's the little things that make you stand up and shout "What the hell's going on?" Little things that seem merely quirky until your mind extracts the general from the particular. Listen to a little story from the hinterlands of Massachusetts.
Now far be it from me to question the latest political wisdom from the Bay State. From O'Neill to Kennedy to Studds, Massachusetts has an august legislative history a peon like me would never deign [sic - dare] demean. Nevertheless, let me suggest that this time one honorable East Coaster has advanced an idea truly beyond the pale of civilized discourse, as William F. Buckley might say.
Her name is Mary Jeanette Murray. She is a representative from Cohasset. And she's got a hang-up about cars. Well, car commercials anyway.
You see, in their attempts to get people to buy their product, car producers show cars doing all sorts of nasty things. Oh, you know. Going fast. Making sharp turns. Racing along mountain roads. Mary can't stand this. I mean, what about the minds of the kiddies?
So Mary is out to save them. She's sponsoring a bill that would forbid the airing of any commercial that would "glorify the speed, maneuverability, and performance of a motor vehicle," in order to "protect young people against the wrong impressions." And they say Utah is backward because you can't talk about sex-ed!
Oh, and one other thing. Mary thinks her idea is so great that she wants to spread it. Yeah, that's right. She's encouraged the Massachusetts legislature to press Congress to enact similar bans. So one day your state might be the beneficiary of Mary's pearl of wisdom. Something to look forward to in these times of woe!
But it makes you wonder. Whatever happened to America -- the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave? Now it's the Home of the Wimp and the Land of the Free to Drive under Fifty-Six. For Chrissakes, even in Germany, a welfare state if there ever was one, you can drive as fast as you want.
America is supposed to be a wild, adventurous place - the place where a person can go to do what s/he wants. America is free spirited. America is where explorers explored, pioneers moved West, and you could say whatever you wanted to whomever you wanted because you had the same rights as everybody else. America is not a place where well-meaning state legislators tell us what's good for us. We're adults and we'll do what we want - would-be Big Sisters be damned.
Mary-Jeanette Murray may have been born here, but she sure ain't an American.