Have we reached the point of Absurdity?
Posted By Kathleen David on August 4, 2012
The city of Tampa is trying to ban political puppets during the Republican convention. They are doing this by banning the following items from the convention zone, string, sticks and masks.
Well that’s that for FedEx UPS and the USPS, they must hand over all their string to safeguard the delegates.
And no sticks in the convention zone, which, if I am reading this correctly, means no sticks or stick like objects in the convention hall or those people will be in violation of the ordinance and will probably be arrested for possession of those dangerous objects.
Oh and those streamers and balloons that they drop? Well they use string/rope to do so. I guess the celebration will be muted a bit.
This just seems so ludicrous to me on so many levels.
The reasons are even jaw dropping. Apparently the “concern” is that puppet heads can conceal things like weapons and “fecal matter”.
Now, if one has a carry permit, one may have one’s gun(s) in the convention zone without fear of arrest. Which just jumps the absurdity to another level of WTF.
If I see pictures of things that show sticks and string in side the convention center, I am sending it to the Tampa Police so that they can enforce the ordinance because this in no way could be only one way could it?
In the interest of full disclosure, I am a proud puppeteer and wiggle dolls for fun and profit.
My challenge to the puppeteers down in Tampa is to build puppets that don’t violate the ordinance and bring ‘em on down.
So Power to the Puppets!
I am grateful that I know people already thinking their way around the rules as set by Tampa.
So they’re banning string, but not a rock to wind the string around? I hear everybody wants that.
Wow … that’s really ridiculous, even for Florida. Yeesh.
Very strange law. No sticks means no campaign signs! No strings means no helium balloons (maybe they use ribbon?) As for no puppets, a typical muppet type puppet uses no strings, and uses metal rods, right? Very, very silly!
Tim,
Yep, but do prosthetic foreheads on their real head qualify as masks?
I’ll point out something even more absurd. How are they going to have all those signs that people hold up with Romney’s name or various political slogans on them without the sticks that people hold them by? A national party convention without signs is an interesting thought.
Not that I expect to see that lack for two very important reasons.
1. The ordinance will be enforced only to restrict puppets.
2. I’m not going to watch the Republican Convention.
No masks, no strings, no sticks ?
Well, there’s a solution to that: hand puppets, or sock puppets.