Brickbat: Now, Hear This

A new ordinance passed by the Minneapolis City Council requires night clubs and other businesses featuring loud music to provide ear plugs to patrons. Council members say they want to help people protect their hearing.
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I have a crazy Idea. If you don't like loud music, bring your own damn ear plugs or don't go to a freaking night club.
According to the article, some affected businesses are opposed because they sell earplugs already.
Think of all of the deprived 99.99% who cannot afford ear plugs (but who can still afford the cover charge).
Hey man, keep your second-hand noise out of my body!
Sorry, what did you say?
He said, "the Sheriff requires you to plug your" *BONNNGGGG*
Someone's in the pocket of Big Plug.
"I mean, young people are *going* to go to nightclubs, that's just a given, so we should make sure their experience is as safe as possible by protecting them from hearing the music they went to hear."
Comprehensive night-club education!
Comprehensive Common Sense night-club education legislation!
For You, I Fixed it?
Comprehensive Common Sense night-club education legislation!
For You, I Fixed it?
Squirrelz!!!
Maybe they can make strip clubs provide free blindfolds.
I'm telling you, they even made me go see many doctors, but I'm telling you, we're not far from being mandated to wear helmets during sex.
These people could have used helmets.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....stone.html
wait...there's music in nightclubs? Next thing you'll tell me that bars allow smoking.
They do? I thought they were banned from allowing smoking.
I'm surprised they're not forced to hand out contraception and condoms.
In NYC, a great number of bars and clubs do give away the free "NYC condoms", although I don't think they're forced to.
When I go to certain shows I always bring plugs. They aren't always necessary but they're great to have when you need them. However, this ridiculous nanny-state bullshit is just a symptom of a city council with fucked priorities. This must mean everything else is perfect in Minneapolis, right?
Whenever I'm at the 40 Watt, I like to stand at the side of the stage past the end of the bar, so I'm both behind the house mains and I can hear the monitor mix. I still enjoy good hearing despite many years of making industrial music.
The big controversy isn't the availability of ear plugs. It's that they're apparently supposed to be complimentary now. A lot of clubs made a bit of money by selling them for a dollar a pair. Some clubs did offer them for free. They should be available on site, that's a reasonable requirement. I don't care if they cost a dollar.
I've only been to one show where I felt the need to pop in some ear plugs (Queensryche - they were the opening act, I took the plugs back out when Iron Maiden took the stage), and fortunately they were available for free from concert security.
The notion of personal agency has to stomped out, for the good of the collective.
Here in Athens, venues are voluntarily providing free earplugs because it's good business, and sometimes you just don't know how loud a show will get if you've just been in there for happy hour or whatever, so that helps placate customers that might have been lost otherwise. It's not something that the county has tried to coerce businesses into doing.