posted
This has to be fiction. I've always believed a newspaper (or any other medium that delivers information) has entertainment as its main focus, but this is just brilliant.
It's definitely a study in the absurd and I highly recommend reading it.
posted
I wouldn't be too sure. I think certain types of knives are already illegal in the US, and all are at schools.
This looks like the Jack Williamson story "The Humanoids." Recommended reading. To protect us in Asimov-like ways, the robots make sure we stay out of the kitchen and shut down home workshops, but provide us with play-dough so we can amuse ourselves.
posted
I have no problem believing this is real. Although there has been an increase in crimes involving firearms in the last year or two where I live, the primary weapon of choice is a knife. No registration laws or fees, easy access, no age restrictions on knife sales. While there are length and such restrictions on hunting and pocket knives, kitchen knives have no such regulations.
Why not? Why shouldn't they be monitored or regulated?
It seems a little out there in some ways, and I don't know if I would support such legislation in Canada, but it is probably an issue that should at least be addressed.
posted
Well, as someone who cooks frequently (and helps my wife), big knives DO come in handy for some things. Please note, they only interviewed 10 Chefs... and we have no idea how they phrased their questions.
Big kitchen knives are useful for some things. Do I really need to list them all out, or will you trust me?
Stupid idea for law. Won't pass. People have always been and always will be idiots. If it's not knives, it will be yo-yos next. It's not the weapon, it's the person. Period.
Unless you're talking about nukes... then it's all about the weapon.
[This message has been edited by HSO (edited May 27, 2005).]
quote:Why not? Why shouldn't they be monitored or regulated?
I guess it's just the association I have with kitchen knives. They were used often in our house and I use them all the time in my cooking now, mostly for vegetables. To have a ban on something that, for me, is in near constant use just seems absurd.
Like HSO said, anything can be a weapon. And a person who's angry enough will find something to use: a knife, a rock, an airplane (the big ones are great for smashing into buildings). Maybe one day we'll all wake up and discover hands have been banned because they're used to strangle people. In fact, that would make a neat story (I'm serious).
I'm sorry if I've offended anyone here. I'm getting off my soapbox now.
(btw, wbriggs, thanks for mentioning that story. It sounds interesting.)
[This message has been edited by Keeley (edited May 27, 2005).]
[This message has been edited by Keeley (edited May 27, 2005).]
posted
In Iceland it is illegal to carry a knife with a blade longer than two inches. My friends worried that my leatherman would get me in trouble.
Posts: 2022 | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Two inch blades are too long? Seems kinda puny. How do you eat a steak, Maryrobinette?
It won't pass, but I'm not surprised someone is calling for a ban. Might even be a good idea . . . until they come out with the intelligent knife that can tell the difference between a live human and a dead cow.
posted
I don't think it is a good idea at all. If they start introducing legislature like that, scissors will be next, followed by garden rakes and shovels, etc.
Almost anything can be a weapon. There's simply no point at all in trying to prevent people from having access to everyday items that are potentially dangerous.
Why don't we all just pad the walls of our houses and remove all items from them? Heck, even a piece of paper is dangerous. Those paper cuts can lead to gangrene.
posted
HSO is right, they shouldn't depend on just asking a few chefs. Chefs don't need large pointed kitchen knives because they don't do their own heavy meat cutting.
You take a five pound chunk of frozen ground beef, and want to remove about two pounds of it without having to thaw out the whole thing or resort to keeping a bandsaw in your kitchen. What are you going to do, particularly if you don't have me there with a chinese cleaver? Sorry, but the man says you can't have a butcher knife in your kitchen.
Ultimately, the typical physically violent criminal tends to be quite able to maim and kill the average human without resorting to a weapon at all. The entire progress of modern civilization is dependent on attenuating that linkage and giving the average abilities to fight the superior.
But no, this idea is not fundamentally more silly than most gun laws. It's a bit more newsworthy, because most people think that kitchen knives are somehow fundamentally different from guns, but the basic concept isn't any different.
posted
You can't carry a knife, which is apparently different than using one in your home or place of business. I bought a butcher knife while I was in Iceland (5 months on business) and they let me carry it back to my apartment, so I'm certain that the ins and outs of the law are more detailed than my first mention. (I did just try to go get the details to back it up, but can't read the pages with my crappy Icelandic.)
Survivor, do you cook? I mean, cook seriously? I'm a bit of a foodie and can't imagine working without my 10-inch butcher knife. This has nothing to do with butchering meat, strangely, but lots to do with chopping, dicing and mincing. Most chefs I know say that it's their favorite tool.
posted
I'm often amazed by these proposed "solutions" to problems. They worry more about how these acts of violence are committed than why.
Posts: 150 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
I prefer a chinese cleaver. I can imagine doing without it, but it's not a fond dream or anything like that.
And yes, if I were going to use a kitchen knife to inflict lethal injuries on a human aized animal, I would definitely use the cleaver. I could butcher a whale with that thing, I really could (not that I would).
There are two points here. On the one hand, there are only a few things that you really need a long, pointed knife to do around the kitchen. But on the other hand, a point is not an essential element of allowing a knife to inflict the most serious possible wounds. Removing most pointy knives would be possible, albeit horrendously expensive. But it wouldn't accomplish anything.
I say, let the market work. If points on kitchen knives were really all that useless and dangerous, they would have gone the way of points on diving knives long ago.
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here. On the one hand, there are only a few things that you really need a long, pointed knife to do around the kitchen. But on the other hand, a point is not an essential element of allowing a knife to inflict the most serious possible wounds. Removing most pointy knives would be possible, albeit horrendously expensive. But it wouldn't accomplish anything.
