SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
This year, due to concerns about COVID-19, all of the cities in my region canceled their usual professional airborne fireworks displays. Which would've been fine...except most of them also thought it'd be a great time to ban the use of the "safe & sane" street fireworks we've been restricted to for the last few decades, partly out of a paternal fear people will injure themselves, partly from the fear that setting off ground-based safe fireworks in really wide suburban streets far from anything flammable could cause massive fires.
Apparently they thought that meant everyone would obediently have a quiet evening at home...just like banning all recreational drugs instead of regulating or restricting them means nobody uses them. You know, especially when people have been been under varying degrees of lockdown for 3½ months.
So, instead of driving across town and fighting traffic to watch the city's official 20-minute display as I normally do, I stayed home and (as anyone with an ounce of foresight could predict) got to watch about two hours of almost-equally-good fireworks overhead being shot off from people's backyards.
Today's regional papers, not shockingly, had headlines indicating that illegal fireworks set hundreds of fires across the Bay Area; my county's paper said that the FDs here had more than double the normal number of calls.
I'd say that it'll be fun to see whether "safe & sane" fireworks are banned next year or whether city councils will rethink their approach, but to be honest, I don't think that local politicians are bright enough to put cause and effect together enough to do that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @02:21AM (15 children)
Just because one increased when the other decreased does not mean one caused the other. Around here, we still had the fireworks by major cities and businesses and we also had a drastic increase in fires yesterday. Besides, a surprisingly large percentage of fires are actually caused by sparklers and not the exploding airborne kind.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @02:27AM (13 children)
Somebody in my neighborhood was launching some big mortars. I don't mean the kiddie mortars anybody can get these days. They just weren't getting enough altitude. I saw embers land on my shed. A few sat glowing on the roof for about 4 or 5 seconds. It's been very dry and hot here too. Thankfully nothing of mine went up in smoke, and eventually after about 10 or 15 shells they figured out how to get them up to what seemed like a safe altitude at least.
It's like living around 60 year old teenagers who think that some anarchists being idiots somewhere justifies a total disregard on their part for life and property.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday July 06 2020, @03:34AM (12 children)
Fair's fair, if one group of assholes can set shit on fire with no repercussions, so can the rest of us.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @03:38AM
The good ole' "Celebrate the independence of your nation by blowing up a small part of it."
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @03:49AM
Yeah that about proves my point.
(Score: 4, Funny) by catholocism on Monday July 06 2020, @05:07AM (8 children)
Just to be intellectually honest here, you do recognize a difference between burning businesses and burning homes right?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday July 06 2020, @10:19AM
I find it remarkable that someone would ask that question non-sarcastically. I get that businesses and homes aren't the same, but I also get that I just described the difference.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday July 06 2020, @01:45PM (3 children)
Yup, businesses are far more crucial. Unemployment is far worse than having to find a new place to live.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @10:11PM (2 children)
So edgy. Such troll.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday July 07 2020, @01:31PM (1 child)
Nice rebuttal.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 08 2020, @03:17AM
Wow.
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Monday July 06 2020, @05:39PM (2 children)
Burning one negates my ability to have a place to sleep at night, burning the other negates my ability to eat.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @07:23PM
Actually, you'd probably get a bag nasty and a concrete slab (no three hots and no cot, cuz covid).
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday July 07 2020, @01:33PM
Burning one negates your ability to sleep in the same place as you did last night. Home is not the only option for a place to sleep, especially if you had insurance. They don't make "some shithead burned down the place I work" insurance though unless you own the place.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Monday July 06 2020, @05:46AM
Shirley, oh Minority Report Buzztard, you refer to California Utilities, or Alt-right Racists with Tiki-torches? Be careful, Polynesians will ultimately rule the world. Have you ever attended a Samoan peace ceremony? Do you know what the "other white meat" is, in Fiji? And have you ever heard of the "Law of the Splintered Paddle"? Of course not, the southeastern tribes were bamboozled by Trump the First, Andrew Jackson, and sent to Oklahoma, where they lost their culture, and some of them became libertarians. Sad, really. But you get the entitlement completely wrong.
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Monday July 06 2020, @03:39AM
You also need a falsifiable model, like the one in the journal about more people setting off their own fireworks when authorities don't.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @06:41AM
My neighbors don't care if it's a holiday, or even if it's nice out. Gotta launch those fireworks, for no fucking reason, every other fucking day of the year.