Anyone who turns on their TV these days is soon inundated with hearing a detailed and seemingly never-ending list of the nauseating side effects of advertised prescription drugs. This is supposedly due to the FDA's truth-in-advertising requirements to present a balanced picture of the proffered product. Behind the scenes of course are the rapacious trial lawyers who hope to capitalize on some missed symptom or legal detail to sue the hell out of the drug manufacturers. Then of course we have all sorts of reality shows from The Dog Whisperer to Dual Survival with their "don't try this at home" or "without the help of a professional" warnings to protect them from those human sharks known as trial lawyers.
What this really amounts to is a farce and paying homage to nanny state rules instead of using common sense. Of course if one sees a drug advertised on TV, one has to ask one's doctor for a prescription, and that is where one should learn about side effects. Every medicine and drug that ever existed has side effects, what is the big deal? As far as adventure or reality shows demonstrating some obviously dangerous stunt or ordeal, no one with half a brain can claim they did not realize the activity was dangerous, and yes, kiddies, life itself is dangerous, let's just use some common sense and get on with it.
There is a website that satirizes this sort of side effect descriptions here. Another site that specializes in listing outrageous nanny state policies such as San Francisco's ban of free McDonald's Happy Meal toys, is here. Another list is here. I'm afraid we may be headed the way of Great? Britain where the right of self defense has evaporated in the rush to protect the criminals from bodily harm when they are in the act of committing a crime. Here is one example of what has transpired there. Apparently things have gone so far in the nutty nanny state direction that some legal authorities are trying to return to a reasonable interpretation of the law.
The riots that England experienced a while back were out of control because everyone except a few Turk or Pakistani immigrants knew it was against the law to offer resistance to people who entered their neighborhoods to break, steal and set fire to everything. In fact in one instance when a policeman took action during a melee it was to attempt to arrest an immigrant who had successfully beaten off some rioters in his street. Luckily he was pulled away from the cop by his friends. Meanwhile it was normal for other cops to just look on at the rioters without moving a muscle. You can't even defend yourself with a letter opener or brandish anything that could be used as a weapon to ward off would-be thieves or assailants.
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