Warning: Warning labels are stupid

We need to quit put warning labels on things.

I wasn’t sure about this for a while, but I’m totally convinced now.

Instructions are fine. I believe in instructions. When people ask me stupid questions about using something or following a process, I usually ask them what the instructions said. The blank stare tells me they didn’t read the instructions.

Instructions are good things. I like them. But, if you can do things without instructions, that’s fine. Some people can. For some things, I can. Depends on the thing.

But instructions aren’t warning labels. There’s a difference.

Warning labels are for stupid people.

The classic example is the lawsuit against McDonald’s where the lady spilled coffee in her lap. She sued McDonald’s because when she ordered hot coffee, she was given hot coffee. That was hot.

So, now when you buy McDonald’s hot coffee, the cup says “Caution: HOT!” That’ll keep it from burning.

And that ties in to my point (you didn’t know I had one, did you?): Warning labels are stupid.

If you aren’t smart enough to figure out that peanuts contain nuts (yes, that’s a real warning), then you deserve whatever happens to you.

You see, stupid should hurt. That’s how you learn things. Or, if you don’t learn things, you at least keep the rest of entertained watching you get hurt.

If you don’t know that you’re not supposed to eat Mr Bubbles, you ought to get sick if you do. And it’d be your own fault.

If you put your fingers in the blades of a running fan, it should hurt. Stupid should hurt.

And, if you do something really stupid, and it kills you, well, that’s a shame. A darn shame. And I’d feel bad for you. Until I got hungry. Then I’d go eat and forget about you and the stupid thing you did.

You see, one thing warning labels do is help keep stupid people from getting hurt. Or from dying.

Warning labels mean more stupid people. Here’s how:

Stupid man reads a warning label and doesn’t stick a screwdriver in a light socket, and lives.

Stupid woman reads a warning label and doesn’t user her toaster in the bath, so she lives.

Stupid man and stupid woman, having so much in common, meet, fall in love, and have stupid kids. For some reason, stupid people figure out the having kids things.

Stupid kids grow up, and the cycle continues.

This is already happening.

We’ve had warning labels on things long enough that we’re a generation or two into the overcrowding of America by stupid people. You want proof? Here you go: they elected Barack Obama.

We need to find a way to get rid of all the warning labels. That way, we’ll start reducing the number of stupid people, either by attrition or by them learning, by experience, to not do stupid stuff.

Unless we get rid of warning labels, we’ll just have more and more stupid people around, and things will only get worse.

You have been warned.

Preview of Things to Come

Crowder will have a long expose on Canadian healthcare coming out next week, and here is the preview:

Don’t Beat to Death Baby Animals

Yesterday, I posted about a 75-year-old woman beating to death a fawn, and a lot of you seemed to disagree with making a big deal out of that. Well, call me a Gaia worshiper, but I don’t people should beat to death a baby animal. It just doesn’t seem right. If you really need a baby animal dead, snap its neck, drown it, or shoot it in the face. But beating it to death seems excessive.

I guess I’m a treehugger.

First Draft Movie Lines

One of the things I like about Twitter is the comedy jam sessions where someone just start posting to a topic and soon everyone is joining in – political pundits, comedy professionals, white house correspondents, etc. Someone yesterday wrote something with the tag #1stdraftmovielines and I had a lot of fun with that one. Here’s what I cam up with:

FIRST DRAFT MOVIE LINES

“Go ahead, do something so I can legally shoot you.”

“I know what you’re thinking, punk: What exactly is that guy compensating for with a handgun that large?”

“May the force be with you, and, if not, make sure to get a midichlorian supplement.”

“This is me awkwardly staring at you, kid.”

“The spoon you think you see there? Not really there.”

“Squirrels! Why’d it have to be squirrels?”

“My sled…”

“Klaatu barada nikto, mother@#$%!”

“Get your furry hands off of me, you cursed, unsanitary simian people!”

“They may take our lives, but they will never take all our blue face paint! We have whole warehouses full!”

“You’re my own personal brand of glue I like to sniff.”

“E.T. can has phone call?”

“I am having nagging concerns about whether this boat is adequately sized for the task at hand.”

“Why so XM?”

“If it bleeds, it’s going to require medical expenses which will put California even further in debt.”

“Get off the taxpayers’ plane designated for the president… who is me!”

“Why can’t I not have homo urges for you?”

“I quite emphatically do not want these snakes on this plane.”

“Wow, the Statue of Liberty. I guess that makes sense since all you monkey-people speak English.”

“Don’t make me be directed by Ang Lee. You won’t like me when I’m directed by Ang Lee.”

“Admit you’ve been totally pwned by Zod!”

“We have no extra lives and walked face first into a goomba, man! Face first into a goomba!”

“Game over, man! Game over! But if we hold BA when we hit start, we’ll get a free continue.”

“With great power comes an important looking hat.”

“Who are you?!”
“I’m a bat-themed vigilante.”

“Ever eat a whole bushel of corn in the pale moon light?”

“Our arrows will blot out the sun!”
“Then we shall fight with mini-flashlights!”

“Someone make me angry. People won’t like this movie if I don’t get angry at some point.”

“Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to talk radio. Talk radio leads to a gig on FOX News. I forget my point.”

“There is no melon baller.”

“I wish I knew how to quit you. Now let’s explore our sexuality and eat pudding.”

“Unfortunately, no one can be told what the matrix is. I’ll need a whiteboard.”

“Want me to sing you a song, Dave? It’s getting hot in here (so hot), so take off all your clothes…”

“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was sealing himself in a block of ice for three whole days.”

“Spartans! Lay down your weapons!”
“Persians! Be prepared to pay fair market price for them!”

“That’s something even a stupid baby would know, my dear Watson.”

“Houston, my bad.”

“The problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of E.T. Atari game cartridges in this crazy world.”

“Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful bromance.”

“I am not an animal! I am human being! Well, technically, yeah, that’s a type of animal, but… ya know what I mean.”

“Be afraid. Be very afraid. Even more afraid than that. Wait, that’s too afraid.”

“Solyent Green contains peanuts!”

“It’s a Sicilian message. It means Luca Brasi has sexual relations with fishes… though my Sicilian is kinda rusty.”

“Just when I thought I was out, I was incorrect.”

“I don’t know nothin’ ’bout a vasectomy.”

“As God as my witness, I’m not going without Tivo ever again!”

“Look, Daddy. Teacher says, ‘Every time a bell rings vibrations produce sound which echos in its hollow interior.'”

“You ask me if I have a God complex. Let me tell you something. I am Alec Baldwin.”

“Keep your friends close and your enemies most closest.”

“You complete me. And I complete you… with my penis! Yeah, baby!”

“You had me at jumping on the couch.”

What the What?

Anybody have any idea what this guy in the Hot Air comments is talking about?

What is it with crazy people and the internet? There are those tests that make you write some numbers or characters before posting to prove you’re a person; we need ones to prove you’re not crazy. Like you could put up a picture of a baby and ask, “What do you do with this?” If you answer “Cradle” you get to post, but if you answer “Eat” you’re redirected to a place that supplies your meds.

UPDATE:

He also tore Jim Treacher a new one… though I couldn’t quite follow what in the world he was talking about. He uses periods in a very unique way, though.

BTW, I really appreciate how all you IMAO commenters aren’t quite as loony as the commenters at lots of other sites. It means a lot to me.

Random Thoughts

GOP should gain in 2010, but what are we going to do when the economy inevitably rallies some time between then and 2012? Rush Limbaugh should have hoped for better timing for the failure.

Interesting when I said we should accuse someone in the Obama administration of pedophilia, pretty much everyone picked Rahm.