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[Phil LaDue]

'Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:

Knowing when to come in out of the rain; why the early bird gets the worm; Life isn't always fair; and maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.

Common Sense declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an Aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims. Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents Truth and Trust, his wife Discretion, his daughter Responsibility and his son, Reason.


He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers;

I Know My Rights

I Want It Now

Someone Else Is To Blame

I'm A Victim

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If you still remember him, pass this on. If not, join the majority and do nothing.

[Kristian Johnsen]

Good one, Phil.

My roomates are both teachers.  We're seeing the same trend here

[Milt Hathaway]

Phil LaDue wrote on Sun, 26 October 2008 01:11

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Very insightful, until it beat on that dead horse.

http://www.caoc.com/CA/index.cfm?event=showPage&pg=facts

[Andy Zimmerman]

Milt Hathaway wrote on Sun, 26 October 2008 08:12

Phil LaDue wrote on Sun, 26 October 2008 01:11 Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement. Very insightful, until it beat on that dead horse.  http://www.caoc.com/CA/index.cfm?event=showPage&pg=facts

Thanks for throwing that up. For me, that is one strong indicator of the death of common sense - in this "information age", when people have easy and instant access to such a wealth of information, they don't take advantage of it and instead insist on spreading half-truths or complete lies.
No offense intended, Phil. Good article. My point is more specifically to the endless email forwards I receive which could so very easily be stopped in their tracks by going to snopes.com (or a similar site). Then to make it more interesting, people get pissed when you call them on the bullshit and point to the snopes article.

[John Roberts {JR}]

I don't know that common sense is any more or less prevalent today as in any other age. What is different today is more opportunity for those lacking in common sense to create mischief, and show their ass to the world, via the WWW. One could argue that those who believe campaign promises are likewise lacking in common sense, but that too is not new.

The only things different about the present financial situation are things like the stronger connectedness of the world economies. We catch the sniffles and the world gets a cold. It used to happen over months, now it occurs overnight on foreign stock exchanges.

We have already beat to death the need for modern regulation and ratings agencies to keep up with new obscure derivative instruments. I strongly believe we need a throttling back of the overreaching in congress. While some of their goals are altruistic, their approach was naive and we are now dealing with the painful results of their excessive stimulation in the housing market. I am apprehensive that they will not be throttled but encouraged by this election cycle.

Interesting times ahead. Buckle up your seat belts, and put a hand on your wallet.

JR

[A Man]

DUE TO BUDGETARY CONSTRAINTS AND THE RISING COST OF FUEL, THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL HAS BEEN SHUT OFF.

We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

[John Roberts {JR}]

Gas prices here have been dropping,,, I even found some without corn juice in it, for <$3.

But I am an insufferable optimist...

JR

[Caleb Dick]

$2.39/gal here now, with or without corn syrup.

They can afford to keep the light at the end of the tunnel burning little longer!

I wouldn't say most people are dumb or smart overall, but rather how they respond to fact and rational thought.  

Caleb

[Riley Casey]

I think our common sense level looks pretty good compared to some of those good old days - like when we used to burn people at the stake for witchcraft or catagorize some people as not fully human because they were not of Northern European descent. But I digress.

We in the US are way past normal political grumbling.  We are a nation of whiners. We have the best government that money can buy and we have it because we can't be bothered to pay sufficient time and attention to having the best government that can be elected from among the best and brightest that our country can still bring to the fore.  We waste time and attention on nonsense like establishing an ' official language ' and protecting our flag and completely ignore the fact that flags and languages are essentially intellectual and social commodities  - if they have value they will be treated as valuable items.  We give them value with the way we use them - not with laws giving them artificial protections.  We natter on about high taxes without any serious attention given to what the taxes are used for.  Talk about common sense?  What ever happened to get what you pay for and pay for what you get?  We spend more on the military as a percentage of our budget than any other single category  ( yes that means adding DOD & " the war on terror ' , a war's a war ) yet I was brought up to see a profound difference between America's citizen soldiers and  mercenary armies of the European history that our's was contrasted with.  A ' contractor ' with an M16 and body armor is a mercenary in my book.

If thine congress person offend thee then pluck it out - but jeezus guys lets stop acting like it's someone else's fault.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ef/Fy2008spending bycategory.png

John Roberts  {JR} wrote on Sun, 26 October 2008 12:38

We have already beat to death the need for modern regulation and ratings agencies to keep up with new obscure derivative instruments. I strongly believe we need a throttling back of the overreaching in congress. While some of their goals are altruistic, their approach was naive and we are now dealing with the painful results of their excessive stimulation in the housing market. I am apprehensive that they will not be throttled but encouraged by this election cycle. JR

[Mike Butler (media)]

Andy Zimmerman wrote on Sun, 26 October 2008 09:40

Milt Hathaway wrote on Sun, 26 October 2008 08:12 Phil LaDue wrote on Sun, 26 October 2008 01:11 Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement. Very insightful, until it beat on that dead horse.   http://www.caoc.com/CA/index.cfm?event=showPage&pg=facts Thanks for throwing that up. For me, that is one strong indicator of the death of common sense - in this "information age", when people have easy and instant access to such a wealth of information, they don't take advantage of it and instead insist on spreading half-truths or complete lies. No offense intended, Phil. Good article. My point is more specifically to the endless email forwards I receive which could so very easily be stopped in their tracks by going to snopes.com (or a similar site). Then to make it more interesting, people get pissed when you call them on the bullshit and point to the snopes article.

Well, Andy, now that you have opened that Pandora's box by snopesing the Mickey D Coffee Lawsuit, let me throw another bucket of cold water (or cup of hot coffee) on this thread. This entire article is a bit of an Internet shaggy dog.

Firstly, not to sound pedantic, but "London Times" is incorrect. It is "The Times" or "The Times" of London for clarity. This is what tipped me off that maybe I needed to take your advice about "when people have easy and instant access to such a wealth of information, they don't take advantage of it and instead insist on spreading half-truths or complete lies," and do a little online research myself.

The "obituary" was originally written by Lori Borgman:

Quote:

Note from Lori Borgman: This piece was first published March 15, 1998 in the Indianapolis Star. It has been "modified" and "edited" by others and circulated on the Internet, even sent to me several times. Imagine my surprise to see it attributed to some guy named Anonymous. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I take having my work circulated on the web as a compliment.

http://infohost.nmt.edu/~armiller/commonsen.htm

The article cited by Phil is one of those "edited" derivatives.

Now, back to the original post:
The Medical Examiner's Office has ruled C.S.'s death a homicide, and authorities are seeking to bring in C.S.'s arch-nemesis Political Correctness (P.C.) for questioning.
P.C. has been implicated in the suspicious deaths of several traditions including the School Halloween Party (S.H.P.) and Valentines Day Treats (V.D.T.) across the U.S.A.

[John Roberts {JR}]

The congress people I would like to "pluck" out, do not come from my district, state, or even region of the country... I'm not going to move to California or the northeast just to vote against those turkeys. That would not display much common sense. That doesn't mean I can't point out that they are worthless sacks of atoms and molecules...

My concern is that not enough people connect the cause to effect of so many modern situations.

I don't know that belief in witchcraft and prejudices are a matter of common sense or just being better informed by modern discoveries. I think people could be even better informed about racial prejudices if they understood how little the genome varies between all humans.  

JR

[Dave Rickard]

Andy Zimmerman wrote on Sun, 26 October 2008 07:40

My point is more specifically to the endless email forwards I receive which could so very easily be stopped in their tracks by going to snopes.com (or a similar site). Then to make it more interesting, people get pissed when you call them on the bullshit and point to the snopes article.

Thanks for posting that Andy.  

It's good to know there's another "snopes.com whistle-blower" getting hammered for redirecting inattentive email forwarders!

P.S. They get even hotter if you hit "reply all" with the correction and link.

[Bennett Prescott]

One person's "common sense" is another's "crazy". I find myself disagreeing with something that seems to be "common sense" here in the northeast nearly every day, but I like the area. Besides, we could use one more person to vote against the lovey-dovey "let's use government coercion to force compassion" types.

John Roberts  {JR} wrote on Sun, 26 October 2008 21:12

I think people could be even better informed about racial prejudices if they understood how little the genome varies between all humans.

Somehow I doubt that throwing more rationality at an irrational problem will solve it.

To quote Avenue Q: "Everyone's a little bit racist". Some people are just proud of it.

[Mike Butler (media)]

Dave Rickard wrote on Mon, 27 October 2008 00:00

Andy Zimmerman wrote on Sun, 26 October 2008 07:40  My point is more specifically to the endless email forwards I receive which could so very easily be stopped in their tracks by going to snopes.com (or a similar site). Then to make it more interesting, people get pissed when you call them on the bullshit and point to the snopes article. Thanks for posting that Andy.   It's good to know there's another "snopes.com whistle-blower" getting hammered for redirecting inattentive email forwarders! P.S. They get even hotter if you hit "reply all" with the correction and link.

I did exactly that to a friend who kept sending me these bu11$h!+ forwards almost daily. He eventually got the hint.

[John Roberts {JR}]

I've had to tell people not to send me anything they didn't type themselves... If I wanted to search the internet for nonsense I can do that myself.

JR

[Tate_Tullis]

Phil LaDue wrote on Sun, 26 October 2008 01:11

'Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as: Knowing when to come in out of the rain; why the early bird gets the worm; Life isn't always fair; and maybe it was my fault. Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge). His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition. Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. Common Sense declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an Aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion. Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims. Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault. Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement. Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents Truth and Trust, his wife Discretion, his daughter Responsibility and his son, Reason. He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers; I Know My Rights I Want It Now Someone Else Is To Blame I'm A Victim Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If you still remember him, pass this on. If not, join the majority and do nothing.

amen to that. Good one Phil. So true these days.

[Alex Schultz]

John Roberts  {JR} wrote on Mon, 27 October 2008 08:49

I've had to tell people not to send me anything they didn't type themselves... If I wanted to search the internet for nonsense I can do that myself. JR

Too funny........ Do we have some of the same friends?