big brother

I was reading an article a few days ago on the BBC (click on 'big brother' above) about how Apple has introduced a feature in its iPods that will allow parents to control the maximum setting that a person can listen to. One of the reasons that they are doing so is because of a potential lawsuit from an American as well as US politicians who are calling for congressional investigation about hearing loss. After reading all of this, I have decided that its time for another rant.

First of all, let me go off on the frivolous lawsuit that John Kiel Patterson is bringing against Apple. He is suing because his iPod is capable of producing a sound level of 115 db (the pain threshold for humans is 120-130 db) and that prolonged use can cause damage. He bought an iPod last year and isn't sure if he has suffered hearing loss as a result of using this product. His lawsuit is focusing on the potential of iPods to cause permanent hearing loss.

Lemme get this straight. A guy buys a product, frequently sticks it in his ear and cranks up the volume to the point of causing pain. Now he wants to sue the people because he is such a dumbass that he didn't bother to turn down the volume. This John Kiel Patterson (and his lawyers) is such an amazingly stupid person that he should have his reproductive organs removed so that he can't spread his idiocy to future generations. Seriously, if you can't figure out to turn down the volume when your ears experience a painful blast of music, you shouldn't be allowed to operate a reproductive organ.

My second point is about the fact that there are 2 US Congressmen that are calling for an investigation into the matter. Edward Markey (D-Mass) and Mike Ferguson (R-NJ) are wanting the National Institutes of Health to look into this 'new' problem that Americans are having with hearing due to media players. Statistics from the American Speech-Language-Hearing (ASHA) estimate that 10 million Americans suffer from hearing loss or impairment due to the portable media players. Markey and Ferguson rely heavily on the ASHA statistics as a reasoning for a formal investigation.

I will come out and say this - I am a conservative liberal. I believe in the idea that the government should do certain things to improve our country but also believe that they should keep their nose outta my business as much as possible. Democrats are often considered to be pro "big government" while Republicans were also thought of to be pro "minimalist government". But now we have government permeating every part of my life and now even the minimalist politicans are wanting to check to see how my hearing is after listening to an iPod. GET THE HELL OUTTA MY PERSONAL LIFE. IF I WANNA LISTEN TO AN IPOD AT 150 DB AND BE DEAF WITHIN A YEAR, THEN LET ME DO IT. Stop wasting money on stupid shit like a multi-million dollar investigation that is going to tell you that hearing loss can occur from listening to music at high volumes. We've known that since rock and roll started over 50 years ago. Why not spend that money on something a bit more important - like finding an alternative energy source to oil.

Thirdly, Apple. Apple came out during the SuperBowl in 1984 with their fancy commercial about big brother watching you and how should break out of the mold and buy their product. What a total bunch of hypocrites! Apple itself has turned into big brother through all their products. For example -

Mac OSX - despite the fact that Windoze (any version from 3.1 thru Vista) can be a total pain, it will allow you to do almost anything you like. If you want to erase files that are essential to your OS, it will let you. Whatever you want to screw with, Windoze will gladly oblige and let you nuke your OS into oblivion. Mac OS doesn't let you do that. It treats you like a kid and won't let you do anything too destructive (well, at least as destructive as Windoze). You are only given certain options and can only change certain parameters. Ever tried to change a registry on a Mac?

iTunes - how much more big brother can you get than that? The new version has a Music Store that will track what you are listening to and 'suggest' other artists that you might want to try. How on earth do they know what is good? Easy, they keep track of what you are listening to and what others are listening to. The software is built on the premise of watching everything you do. And limiting the number of computers I can listen to my songs on? While I understand that piracy is an issue, don't limit me on where I can listen to my purchased music. I paid for it, I should get to listen to it on 1 or 1000 different computers.

iPod - the final straw. Now there is a limit to the volume that I can listen to my Science Friday podcast that I listen to because some idiot (see above) can't figure out what relationship the volume control and the bleeding in his ears have. Granted this feature has to be activated but why is it even there to begin with? We've had "portable media players" around since Sony introduced the Walkman back the early 1980s. But now Apple has decided to be cautious for all of us and install a way to limit my listening experience.


Why this rant? I want a few things to start happening in my native land; being an American can be somewhat embarrasing at times. First - pull your heads outta your ass and stop blaming others for your incompetence. If you are such a boob that you f**k up your hearing, then I guess you learned a lesson the hard way. Second - fix what needs fixing in the US and stop wasting money. Why does the government need to spend money on a research project that we already know the answer to? It has more pressing concerns than hearing loss from earbuds. Thirdly - let me have my freedoms - life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Stop worrying about how I'm gonna hurt myself and let me ride my bike without a helmet. Sometimes I need to crash and smack myself good to learn my lesson. If you keep trying to protect me from all the "bad" things in the world, I'll never know how to make a decision when I need to because I've always been sheltered. Stop being my parent and make actual parents do that job (a topic for yet another rant). Let me be my own best advocate.