Deaf in Different Ways
Well, considering how much noise pollution there is these days, I'm not too surprised that the issue has finally popped up in court. Of course, I would have imagined it'd be something like a case related to airports, rock concerts, annoying neighbors with enough ammo to total the 'hood; that kind of thing.
Instead, it's one of my readers' favorite companies getting sued over potential deafness from iPods. Personally, I thought that perhaps it'd be some cell phone company being sued by someone who has to crank up the volume on their precious mode of communication they can't live without, so that they can hear whomever over the traffic and hubbub of daily life. I also imagined the plaintiff in such a case would be an Angeleno; seems like every other person in this town has a phone glued to their ear, 24/7.
Nope, the person taking this case to court hails from Louisiana, and has filed a class-action suit, so this could potentially be a Big Thing if it gets as far as going to trial. Yet I have a feeling this fella may be shit outta luck. My father gave my mother an iPod for Christmas, and among the instructions there is a warning from the company: "[P]ermanent hearing loss may occur if earphones or headphones are used at high volume.'' No duh! You blast over 100 decibels at close range into your ear, you can expect to join the ranks of the hard-of-hearing before long. Given the numbers of people who insist on destroying their hearing, I'm surprised we deaf haven't gotten more of a groundswell of support for captioning in all manners of media and environments. Actually, that just might explain why I don't see hearing folks dashing out of open-captioned movie showings: perhaps they secretly welcome it!
So based on common sense and the company's warning message, I don't see this suit going very far. But then, again, We Shall See.
Some folks in this country are going deaf due to lack of self-control with technological devices; but some are morally and ethically deaf (and blind). Let's consider the instance of our dear "leader," Smirk. He has set forth his budget for FY2007, and oh, my. Crummy and his boys over at DOD (that's Department of Defense for those of you not fluent in Washingtonese) get a whopping $439 billion, an almost 5% increase over last year. The wars we have going on get another $120 billion to hand over to the folks at Halliburton and other corporations with no-bid contracts. Of course, handing over a chunk of change like that means we have to come up with the money from somewhere, right? Taxes? Nope, Smirk is still on course as wanting his tax cuts for his pals made permanent-- the total will be $1.4 billion over ten years. There's also the humonguous deficit to deal with as well, and in order for that to be reduced, there's gotta be some source of revenue or way to reduce costs. Hmm. The only other alternative is to cut programs. So far Smirk's hit list hasn't emerged, but I'm sure in the coming days we'll find out exactly what goes. I figure Smirk must have some hearing loss from his days as a daring young pilot in the wartime skies over Texas (or the bars of New Orleans, or the coast of Maine, or wherever he was actually serving); when he was proclaiming himself a "compassionate conservative" and touting his faith in Jesus, he must have missed stuff like the Sermon on the Mount, turning the other cheek, doing as much as possible for the least among us... For all the talk about following the Prince of Peace, Smirk's budget is more geared towards a Lord of War.
Instead, it's one of my readers' favorite companies getting sued over potential deafness from iPods. Personally, I thought that perhaps it'd be some cell phone company being sued by someone who has to crank up the volume on their precious mode of communication they can't live without, so that they can hear whomever over the traffic and hubbub of daily life. I also imagined the plaintiff in such a case would be an Angeleno; seems like every other person in this town has a phone glued to their ear, 24/7.
Nope, the person taking this case to court hails from Louisiana, and has filed a class-action suit, so this could potentially be a Big Thing if it gets as far as going to trial. Yet I have a feeling this fella may be shit outta luck. My father gave my mother an iPod for Christmas, and among the instructions there is a warning from the company: "[P]ermanent hearing loss may occur if earphones or headphones are used at high volume.'' No duh! You blast over 100 decibels at close range into your ear, you can expect to join the ranks of the hard-of-hearing before long. Given the numbers of people who insist on destroying their hearing, I'm surprised we deaf haven't gotten more of a groundswell of support for captioning in all manners of media and environments. Actually, that just might explain why I don't see hearing folks dashing out of open-captioned movie showings: perhaps they secretly welcome it!
So based on common sense and the company's warning message, I don't see this suit going very far. But then, again, We Shall See.
Some folks in this country are going deaf due to lack of self-control with technological devices; but some are morally and ethically deaf (and blind). Let's consider the instance of our dear "leader," Smirk. He has set forth his budget for FY2007, and oh, my. Crummy and his boys over at DOD (that's Department of Defense for those of you not fluent in Washingtonese) get a whopping $439 billion, an almost 5% increase over last year. The wars we have going on get another $120 billion to hand over to the folks at Halliburton and other corporations with no-bid contracts. Of course, handing over a chunk of change like that means we have to come up with the money from somewhere, right? Taxes? Nope, Smirk is still on course as wanting his tax cuts for his pals made permanent-- the total will be $1.4 billion over ten years. There's also the humonguous deficit to deal with as well, and in order for that to be reduced, there's gotta be some source of revenue or way to reduce costs. Hmm. The only other alternative is to cut programs. So far Smirk's hit list hasn't emerged, but I'm sure in the coming days we'll find out exactly what goes. I figure Smirk must have some hearing loss from his days as a daring young pilot in the wartime skies over Texas (or the bars of New Orleans, or the coast of Maine, or wherever he was actually serving); when he was proclaiming himself a "compassionate conservative" and touting his faith in Jesus, he must have missed stuff like the Sermon on the Mount, turning the other cheek, doing as much as possible for the least among us... For all the talk about following the Prince of Peace, Smirk's budget is more geared towards a Lord of War.
posted by Mr. Sandman | 4:50 PM
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