I love the Brits. I most admire them for their World War II toughness & fierce determination and can-do attitude against seemingly overwhelming odds. There is also something to be said for their "properness" and manners. Britain, a tiny island once held the mightiest navy in all the world and explored and colonized much of the world spreading for better or worse the English language and culture. Britain gave this world some of its greatest free-spirited explorers.With this in mind, I never would think of the British as the type of people that sues McDonald's for spilling hot coffee like America's over-litigious society nor would I expect them to be granted a free government hand-out. But it appears Britain has lost much of that free spirit. Like the rest of Europe they have become more socialist than capitalist. Whether you agree or disagree in nationalized health care, we can all agree that Britain's nationalized health care system is a disaster.
So perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised that the British government has now issued an order to wrap their lampposts in padding because the Brits were walking into lampposts while texting. No doubt some probably sued and won millions complaining there was no radar-induced audible alert that they were about to bash their forehead into the post. Oy!
Let's assume there are 1 million lampposts in Britain and the padding costs $100 + $50 labor to install. That's $150 million to pad lampposts to protect someone from getting a bump on their head? C'mon! What a waste of British taxpayer money. Even if it isn't that much money, I still say Survival of the fittest. Let the dumb ones who walk into lampposts fall backwards onto a busy street and be weaned out of the human gene pool. Ok, that was a little harsh. Well, perhaps they can just fall all on their arse and it'll knock them sense into them to not text while walking or at least look up every few seconds.
Where have the Brits I have come to admire and love gone?
[via Yahoo!]
