You know, I really don’t have time for this foolishness:
If you think the biggest problem with a camera phone is the poor quality of the photos, a member of Congress might make you think again. Earlier this month, Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) introduced a bill in the House of Representatives that would ban camera phones from having a silent mode when taking a picture.
The Camera Phone Predator Alert Act (H.R. 414) would “require any mobile phone containing a digital camera to sound a tone whenever a photograph is taken.” What’s more, the bill would prohibit such handsets from being equipped with a means of disabling or silencing the tone. Enforcement would be through the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
The text of the bill is short, and King’s office has not released any public statements. Yet, the reasoning behind the legislation is clear. The text states that “Congress finds that children and adolescents have been exploited by photographs taken in dressing rooms and public places with the use of a camera phone.”
Hey, here’s a thought: instead of punishing those who have done nothing wrong, how about we take all the child abusers, trace their own abuse backwards, and permanently sterilize absolutely everyone involved, thereby eradicating the fucked-up genes responsible for this madness in the first place.
Then, of course, make the punishment for actually abusing a child a .45 to the back of the head.
There, problem solved.
Pete King is a Republican???? Great Caesar’s ghost – the only explanation is that someone must have kidnapped him right after he got elected and replaced him with a zombie, wired directly to the DNC.
The bill has been “referred to committee” (congresstalk for “don’t call us, we’ll call you”) and there are no co-sponsors, so this most likely won’t be anything more than a black mark on his record.
More than that, his stupid bill affects only cell-phone cameras. He probably doesn’t know that ordinary digital cameras are just as small and take even better pictures.
Whatta maroon.
ZZMike
January 28th, 2009
Sorry I’ve been away. I was busy Photoshopping some stuff from my phone. What’s up?
Stephen Kruiser
January 28th, 2009
LG:”Then, of course, make the punishment for actually abusing a child a .45 to the back of the head.”
If I am hired for this job, can I make it a SILENCED .45?
B Smith
January 28th, 2009
@B Smith:
Whatever gets the job done, buddy.
Liberty Girl
January 28th, 2009
This is already the law in a few other countries. Japan, for example, where they had a big problem with unsavory types snapping shots of Japanese school girls, and such, then selling them, or putting them up on the Internet.
All cell phone cameras in Japan must make an audible shutter sound.
I’m against this kind of minutiae as a matter of course; it’s stupid – there are way bigger issues to think about and spend legislative time over. However, let’s think about this for a moment.
Unauthorized photos could well be considered an invasion of privacy. And none of us like that very much.
Imagine yourself a 14 year old Japanese school girl, do you want some lech taking a photo of you and posting it on the internet? Nevermind being a 14 yr old Japanese school girl. Do you want anyone taking an unauthorized photo of you and doing stuff with it you don’t cotton to?
Freedom ain’t free, that’s one of the prices – and I for one am willing to pay it. But it’s not entirely an outright ridiculous argument, if you look at it as an invasion of privacy.
23 Skidoo
January 31st, 2009
@23 Skidoo:
Sorry, but for me that’s the slippery slope. Give the government and inch and they will take a mile, we’ve all seen ample evidence of that.
And the quote “freedom isn’t free” doesn’t refer to the loss of same in the name of being safe from whatever makes you quiver. It means you’re willing to fight for it. Letting government legislate something this…small…just chips further away at our ability to be self-reliant human beings.
Liberty Girl
January 31st, 2009
This is yet more outrageous interference in the free market. Government has no more business mandating camera sounds than it has dictating fuel mileage.
These tyrants apparently accept no limits whatsoever to their power.
I’m very disappointed in Rep. King, because for the most part he has been a good guy. He definitely “gets it” with regard to Islamic terrorism.
rickl
February 1st, 2009
Always a backdoor approach to everything, isn’t it with these idiots. When someone kills someone with a handgun, blame the guns, ban the guns, grab the guns from the Republicans. But if one of these drunken Congressional jerks drowns a young woman in a Cadillac on a back bridge in Connecticut, they all look the other way, act like it was an accident, nothing more. None of them talk about pulling their drivers’ license and putting them in jail, or banning Cadillacs.
Always a double standard for everything. God, I hate these people in Congress…… Doc
Doc Holliday
February 3rd, 2009