Wednesday 9 May 2007

Cripple, cripple, cripple

What's more politically incorrect than attacking cripples? Answer, Penn & Teller, especially when it's them doing the attacking.

In their latest episode, Penn & Teller's 'Bullshit' show takes on all those government mandated cripple parks, cripple ramps and pro-cripple employment quotas which in the US all come under the rubric of the Americans With Disabilities Act. As they explain, the Act is yet another example of the unintended consequences of government action; as one disabled American against the Americans With Disabilities Act explains, far from making people more likely to help out those how need help, the effect has been the reverse -- it makes cripples walking lawsuits (or rolling lawsuits, if you will), an outreach arm of bigger government, and less well off than before:
Disability is not a civil rights issue .. nothing the government can do can make me equal to you in any way...

It teaches people they don't have to help others who need help...

Coercion never produces compassion...

This law they say will produce a more compassionate America -- I say it does exactly the opposite...
You can watch this hilarious and insightful episode in three parts on YouTube, here, here and here. [Hat tip Julian D.]

And check out too this clip of Penn and Teller on 'West Wing,' burning (or not) the American flag in the White House. If 'West Wing' was all this good, maybe I should have been watching it?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

PC said...
If 'West Wing' was all this good, maybe I should have been watching it?

Considering that the Libertarianz is a North Wing party, according to your 2D map which depicts the location of where each political party sits. National is Right Wing while Labour is Left Wing and the Green Party does actually occupy the West Wing of the diagram. I am sure that you don't want to watch propaganda from the Greenies (West Wing)?

Anonymous said...

Tee hee, FF. :)

PC, you ignored my advice to your detriment, silly boy. In spite of my often calling it 'The Left Wing', TWW was the smartest TV drama I have ever seen.

The research involved never ceased to amaze me right throughout its seven (?) seasons.

Even the Libertarians got the odd mention, ye Gods. And P&T's episode (as themselves) remains one of the greatest lessons on liberty ever seen - even if it was just television drama.

And TVNZ screened it Fridays after 11pm. Well, you wouldn't want anything to interfere with unreality trash, eh.

Greg said...

Speaking of unintended consequences, I heard a lawyer talking on 9 to noon today about giving animals such as primates and cetaceans (whales etc) the same rights as humans (dead serious, check the website!).
He is in cahoots with Peter Singer and the ALF crowd.

Apparently he is bringing a case to the UN (or somewhere) and hopes to obtain protection for these animals similar to that given a 4 year old human.

So the dolphin gets rights but will he be held responsible for his crimes, such as, um, overfishing.

Would it make Moby Dick a murderer?

Who will pay for the maternity leave for animals that gestate over a year??

Peter Cresswell said...

Sus, you said, "PC, you ignored my advice to your detriment, silly boy. In spite of my often calling it 'The Left Wing', TWW was the smartest TV drama I have ever seen."

Ah well. In my defence, the piece I praised had the inestimable virtue that Martin Shit-Eating Sheen failed to appear in a single frame.

Can the rest of the series boast that? :-)

Greg said...

Steven Wise for animal=human rights

Anonymous said...

In the political sense we don’t *Have to* help others!
In the spiritual sense we *ought to* help others in context of certain other moral/ economic considerations.