vintage computers and lead poisoning?

From: R. D. Davis <rdd_at_rddavis.org>
Date: Thu Jun 3 22:43:25 2004

Quothe Brian Mahoney, from writings of Thu, Jun 03, 2004 at 09:46:47PM -0400:
> Depends on who is paying the hospital bills. If it's the state, as in
> Canadian taxes, then I'm for helmets and belts. (Belts are now enforced in

Yet another reason as to why socialized medicine is a bad thing. It's
bad enough to have to pay the expensive insurance premiums for an
indemnity policy (and if everyone bought these instead of using those
damned HMOs, most people would be paying into such policies and then
most people would have much better health insurance for a reasonable
cost, which existed before the blasted HMOs came into existence,
ruined an excellent health-care system, making health insurance
extremely inexpensive for young and healthy people while making it
vastly more expensive for others as they got older, etc.), but worse
yet to have the government pay and have even more control over
people's lives.

Who in their right mind wants more government control over everything?
Next, you won't be allowed to work on electrical circuits because it's
dangerous and the government pays for your health insurance... not that
such insurance up there in Canada is worth much anyway, considering
the number of people who come to the U.S. from Canada, paying their
own way to be admitted to U.S. hospitals for surgery, etc. if they can
afford to. Government paid health care is usually poor quality health
care; surely people in countries such as England, and other parts of
the U.K., can attest to that. It's just a bad idea that doesn't work
right due to the bureaucracy and cost-cutting measures that don't take
the patient's health into consideration (like a huge HMO, only worse
since a government runs it).

> all 50 states aren't they?) There used to be a campaign here, started by a

Damned nuisances; got caught twice by cops already for those seat-belt
laws which have no right to exist in a free society.

> But I think in the States, if you fall off your bike and crack your own
> skull you can sue the pavement people for making it too hard. That makes
> more sense than forcing people to wear helmets and do up seatbelts.
> Absolutely no one should be able to force common sense on us.

Well, helmets can cause injuries as well. I stopped wearing a riding
helmet on horseback, since it limits vision to some extent---which
negates safety benefits; there's no such thing as a guarantee of
safety around horses, so, wearing a helmet just eliminates a very few,
out of many, risks. Almost had a helmet caught in a tree branch while
blazing a trail through thickish woods, which could have darned near
pulled my head off my neck! When I was younger, I did a lot of
bicycle riding, and never wore a helmet; wouldn't have enjoyed
bicycling at all with one of those blasted annoyances on my head and
would have refused to wear one.

...and would bicycle helmets have protected the bicycle riders that my
horse could have easily kicked in the face when they came up too fast
behind us on a trail, and then shouted loudly as they approached from
several feet away? Naturally, she kicked out at them, barely missing
them (darn!), and could have thrown me off as a result of their
stupidity if I'd lost my balance. Remember this: helmets don't save
stupid people from their own stupidity.

Taking this topic back to classic computers, consider this: needlessly
extreme safety precautions forced upon idiots, such as a government
would institute, taken during the troubleshooting of power supplies
and other circuits with lethal current levels, wouldn't save idiots
from their own stupidity. Can't you see it now, laws such as "only
stand on government approved rubber mats while working on electrical
equipment" or "high-voltage probes not meeting standard X23124Y534Z5
are considered illegal devices, and anyone found possessing one will be
prosecuted to the full extent of the law."

-- 
Copyright (C) 2004 R. D. Davis The difference between humans & other animals: 
All Rights Reserved            an unnatural belief that we're above Nature & 
                               her other creatures, using dogma to justify such
www.rddavis.org 410-744-4900   beliefs and to justify much human cruelty.
Received on Thu Jun 03 2004 - 22:43:25 BST

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