News You Can't Use: Seattle Dive Bar Becomes First to Ban Google Glass

Technology! It pretty much solved all our problems, which is why we have a national budget surplus, young people are reserved and well-behaved and you can't leave the house without being offered jobs. Despite this conquest of the mundane, the future looks even brighter, complete with special "augmented reality" glasses that create an electronic wonder world that a decade ago could only be approximated by putting a sack over your head and then smashing a hammer into your forehead repeatedly. This exciting new alienation advance is worth pretty much all the money I have. Seriously, just take it all.

Not everyone's happy about this, if you can believe that. There is one natural enemy of hands-free internet and the high-tech lotus-eating it implies and that enemy is, of course, the "dive bar." The lines are being drawn for the coming battle between what is actually hip and who was doing what prior to it gaining mass acceptance.

He had won the battle against himself. He loved Big Google.

The 5 Point, a self-described dive bar in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood, posted a notice to its Facebook page this week telling Glass Explorers looking to grab a pint that they will need to remove their $1,500 spectacles. The story was noted today on GeekWire.

"We are aware of the irony of using the internet to denounce the internet, so don't bother pointing it out." I was also very disappointed to learn that "GeekWire" wasn't about carnival freaks. The $1,500 price tag for these wonderful glasses insures that the initial audience will be an even mix of the idle rich, CEO-types that see the benefit in early adaptation and total and complete suckers.

And not a single stereotype was defied on that day.

"For the record, The 5 Point is the first Seattle business to ban in advance Google Glasses," the post reads. "And ass kickings will be encouraged for violators."

Aw, yeah it's clobbering time! Prepare to be physically censored you Google-loving bastard! Eat this fist! 

Bombastic language aside you could almost argue that is some lame publicity stunt. No, can't be. "The 5 Point" loves you and would never sink to such a level for evil "profits." This is nothing but purity and sincerity, a line drawn in the sand against the evil-doers looking to steal our privacy and God-given right to go creepin' in some dank hole.

Meinert admitted he was having a bit of fun: "Part of this is a joke, to be funny on Facebook, and get reaction."

You can read the original story here, but I don't really recommend it because your computer will be assaulted with a million ads and other assorted b.s. Following the sad defeat of the "dive bar," the last bastion holding out against the dominance of internet commercialization, we can only expect more of this is in the bleak future that awaits.

Also, I hope none of these "Google Glass" users drive cars. Just sayin'.


Aaron Zehner's first novel The Foolchild Invention is available in e-book format at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.