California Politician Discovers That You Can't Ban Specific Type Of Music; Admits 'I Didn't Know What Was Going On'
from the no-pacifiers! dept
Sinan Unur points us to a story about California Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, who last year totally and completely overreacted to the news that a teenager died at a rave, by introducing legislation that tried to completely ban raves. After finding fierce opposition to the law (leading another politician to talk about the power of the "rave lobby"), Ma changed her legislation and somewhat candidly admits that she only learned after she introduced the bill that the government isn't allowed to ban types of music:"We found out later on that, Constitutionally, you can not ban a type of music," said Ma. "Plus, I, like my opponents said, I didn't really know what was going on."It's really quite incredible to see a politician admit such a thing.
Ma admits that she finally went to a rave herself, and it wasn't that bad. However, she still felt the need to "do something!!!!" and ended up getting a bizarre law passed in California that bans certain events on state property... but part of that is that it bans things that she saw at a rave, and assumes are associated with raves: gloves with lights on them, walking around with stuffed animals, and most bizarre: no pacifiers. You see her talk about this -- and she seems really proud of the pacifier bit -- at 4:20 in the video above. The statement there is so bizarre, and so out of touch, it's really funny. She gets all worked up about how a rave must be just like an old fashioned concert, in the most condescending tone possible. Here's the quote, but honestly, you have to see her say it to really do it justice:
"You can't wear gloves with lights. You can't walk around with stuffed animals. All the things with rave culture... the promoters have tried to break down, and make it more like a concert, where people go to a concert to enjoy themselves. And not have things that traditionally, in the past, are associated with raves. No pacifiers! Nobody was allowed to have... um... pacifiers in their mouths."Of course, we can add this to the long line of ridiculous moral panics from clueless politicians. In the future, perhaps people will include Ma's ridiculous quotes, along with the warnings about the evils of the waltz:
The indecent foreign dance called the Waltz was introduced ... at the English Court on Friday last ... It is quite sufficient to cast one's eyes on the voluptuous intertwining of the limbs, and close compressure of the bodies ... to see that it is far indeed removed from the modest reserve which has hitherto been considered distinctive of English females. So long as this obscene display was confined to prostitutes and adulteresses, we did not think it deserving of notice; but now that it is ... forced on the respectable classes of society by the evil example of their superiors, we feel it a duty to warn every parent against exposing his daughter to so fatal a contagion.And remember, no pacifiers!
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Filed Under: fiona ma, moral panic, music, pacifiers, raves
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And remember, no pacifiers!
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Raves?
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Re: Raves?
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Re: Raves?
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Re: Raves?
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Re: Raves?
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Re: Raves?
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_Justice_and_Public_Order_Act_1994
I can happily conclude that this ended all raves and similar events in the UK and successfully outlawed any related types of music. Every type of behaviour associated with raves, ranging from glowsticks to ecstasy to furry boots and flashing dummies (pacifiers, if you must) disappeared the moment the law was passed.
/sarc
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Uhhhhhh
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Re: Uhhhhhh
It's moronic. It's overbearing, and it accomplishes nothing. The good news is that Susan Ma admitted on camera she didn't "know what was going on" when she legislated something, which is excellent fodder for attack ads against her, so we can hope her political carrier comes to a grinding halt.
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Re: Uhhhhhh
Obviously you are not part of the music industry, otherwise this would be clear to you. If you start making some types of music illegal then you cut into industry profits and available campaign funding. In that case it is legitimate to appeal to constitutional issues. If something only involves personal expression then you are just a whining pirate. /sarcasm
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Re: Uhhhhhh
So, yeah it performed its job admirably. It got those damn ravers out of her town/state for a while.
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Re: Uhhhhhh
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Admitting mistakes and trying to learn from them is better than believing you can do no wrong and lashing out at anyone who tries to prove otherwise.
If more elected officials had that seemingly basic ability, Bradley Manning would be a free man today.
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I do not really know what was going on, so disregard this post or make a law based on it.
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Banning them makes no sense sense there are people that do LED glove weaving professionally for music video's and such. It has become much an art form in its own right.
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When was she born? year 1300-something?
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Re: The Pacifier
BUT. The pacifier serves a purpose. A purpose not unlike it's intended purpose: to give the mouth something to do.
Sucking on a pacifier is presumably awesome when on Ecstasy. (I say "presumably" because I've never tried either.) Of course, lots of things are awesome on Ecstasy. Like curling up in the bassbin. Or trying to figure out where your ride went.
But back to the original point: when on Ecstasy, your mouth needs something to do. The Brits have a great word for it. "Gurning."
Because of the amphetamine content in most, if not all, Ecstasy (it's a cheap cutting agent), the user's jaw tends to clench up and without the use of a pacifier (or gum, another popular, but more internal, pacifier), much gnashing of teeth would ensue.
So, much like everything else at a rave, including the LED gloves, the pacifier is a tool, for lack of a better word. (The LED lights allow you to amuse yourself and others for hours on end, depending on battery life.)
Additional fun fact: because speed was used to cut Ecstasy, the amped-up club kids began demanding faster and faster beats, which lead to the breakneck breakbeats of the early 90's, as heard in action on (most prominently) Prodigy's "Music for a Jilted Generation." The older, more sedate beats just couldn't keep up with this blend of hallucinogens and amphetamines.
Additional not so fun fact: Ecstasy also makes you incredibly dehydrated, which is why you'll see many ravers drinking nothing but water all night long. Unscrupulous promoters and club owners have been known to shut of the water in the restrooms in order to force their E'ed-up patrons to buy $6 bottles of water. People like this should be given a guidebook entitled "How to See the Sahara on $6 a Day" and dropped off in the dead center.
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Re: Re: The Pacifier
(From someone who has done E, but not in years)
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Viral marketing?
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Re: Police Whistles
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My opinion of these video among others linked: fucking awesome. Your opinion might differ but they predate what most Americans call "techno" at least, for the most part...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avj9V-fU4mY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=bCXOBIH6fOw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpQ_ZtngcdA&feature=re lated
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No I don't cause in Germany it started in the 90s and unfortunately still is still alive.
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Even old hands of the genre in Germany such as Sven Vath started making it in the 80s... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrica_Salsa
Maybe you're referring to something belonging to a more specific subgenre, or completely misnaming something?
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It wouldn't be the first time politicians have campaigned against some non-existent moral threat, such as Sharia law in America, as if 2% of the population can somehow force their religion upon the rest of us.
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void Print(string name_of_politician, string reason_for_cluelessness){
cout << name_of_politician & " is clueless because " & reason_for_cluelessness;
}
To build your own list simply pass the name of any given politician for the name_of_politician argument and bang your head on the keyboard for the reason_for_cluelessness argument.
Honestly, I find it hard not to think of most politicians as clueless. Sure, there are a few great people trying to do good for those they represent. But, they are far and few between the execrable corpuscles I see spewing bilious fodder between grandstanding gestures of grandeur these days.
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That was nearly ten years ago. Now I see the pacifier thing every where. Even when I take my kids roller skating, the rink concession stand sells blinking LED pacifiers. My kids wanted them because they looked "cool" and the other kids had them. Sorry, but you aren't allowed to have a new binky until you are addicted to drugs! Of course I don't allow my kids to wear their pants below their asses either, at least not until they are in prison and can advertise the need for anal sex in the proper environment. I know, I know, I'm a horrible parent.
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Pssst
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Re: Pssst
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Perhaps then you might might understand why people get concerned.
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I mean, I know babies that have pacifiers and hold stuffed animals. The only thing missing are the gloves.
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Ahem...
I'm OK. Call it what you want http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dohzrXT09w
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It might have something to do with the fact that when it was becoming popular here in the Colonies back in the mid 1980's the popular street name was simply X, and I have seen it spelled Xtasy or even eXtasy clearly emphasizing the "X".
Now back to your beans and toast you Limey!
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Response to: Anonymous Coward on Oct 25th, 2011 @ 7:34am
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Re: Response to: Anonymous Coward on Oct 25th, 2011 @ 7:34am
I'm a 22 year old Irish male, and I have never had sex, used only prescription drugs (while ill of course, but generally I hate the thought of taking any kind of medicine), never been drunk (have had about 3 cans in my entire life) and have never 'sexted'.
What's that? You think my parents must have been saints or something to get a lad this well behaved.
Ummm....no. They were complete monsters. Mother was an abusive b*tch and the father...let's just say he should be kept well away from pre-teen girls at all times.
Just thought I'd share this with the people who often shout for better parenting. In the end, its the child who makes the choice to do good or bad. In my case, you can say I was the ultimate rebel, in that I went the complete opposite of my parents.
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Re: Re: Response to: Anonymous Coward on Oct 25th, 2011 @ 7:34am
However I can see that good parenting could help someone with a natural inclination to be bad, choose to be good instead.
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Re: Re: Response to: Anonymous Coward on Oct 25th, 2011 @ 7:34am
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4:20
well, there you go then... 4:20 explains it all...
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Re: 4:20
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I suspect most TechDirt bloggers/commenters were already WELL aware of this.
Does that mean that the defacto blogger out on the intarwebz is more qualified for political office than the candidates in them now?
Yes, I do think that's the case. Day after day, we get more evidence of that, in massive supply. There is no shortage of supply of political idiocy, not even a slight one.
But I will give credit where it's due - at least one comments of hers seems to be accurate, "I didn't really know what was going on."
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And it related news...
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Just like businesses
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Let's do the math...
That even was held for 6 years.
That's the equivalent of one person spending 60,000 days (over 164 years) somewhere.
And one person died.
It seems like raves are the safest place to be.
Now, the one teenager who died had drugs in her system. I'm sure that no teenager has ever taken drugs except at a rave, right?
I'm tempted to say: If our politicians were numerically literate, we would not have to put up with this.
But, the truth is that they know exactly what the numbers are. They are not mistaken. They are not stupid. They are evil.
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Re: Let's do the math...
Oh well, another day, another knee-jerk reaction from a clueless politician.
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Re: Re: Let's do the math...
A little bit of my old British rave knowledge here, but the reason they say that is usually because the drug is rarely the primary cause of death. Most die from either heat exhaustion or water intoxication. That is, they either drank way too much water or didn't rest enough because they and/or the people around them didn't know how to use it relatively safely.
Of course, a politician would never admit that because: a) it's not as easy to push "drugs are bad" point, and b) it would reveal that education about how to deal with the effects of drugs is what's lacking, not the inherent effect of the drug itself.
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That's it
They're mostly idiots and I can't see it being too hard to compete, other than money.
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Re: That's it
I'm serious. The more people who aren't idiots in elected office, the better.
- signed, one of the people who at least THINKS he's not one of the idiots who is in elected office.
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Re: Re: That's it
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Lawmaker tells truth... isn't this one of the signs...
were the Mayans right?!
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Gotta love moronic politicians
Also, this woman is a complete idiot and should be kicked out of office. But then again I feel that way about most politicians. In the end I think we would do better without the vast majority of them (and lawyers, and lobbyists).
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I disagree. We need more people like her in politics. I don't mean the learning about the Constitution after introducing legislation part. I mean the learning about the Constitution and doing some research before voting. Yes, we would all like them to do research and think before introducing legislation, but that's not going to happen. So kudo to Ma for clearing the low bar. Most of her colleagues can't even do that.
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Congress shall not pass any law which is not demonstrated by diligent and rational examination to further a legitimate and compelling government interest.
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Note the use of the word "associated"
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Re: Note the use of the word "associated"
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Move on, nothing to see here....
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This is causing me to replace my keyboard frequently
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Spit!!!
This brings our phrase to a whole new level of wonderment LOL
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Rave Music
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Then there would be no laws, no lawmakers, and no politicians whatsoever... wait, that's a good idea.
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I do not think it means what you think it means
That doesn't sound nearly crazy enough to be a result of the political process, though, does it? Unless... maybe this is a case where the political process ... worked pretty well?
... nah.
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Clueless politicians
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