Friday, January 23, 2009

Personal responsibility

No one wants to take responsibility for their actions anymore. I guess I really shouldn't be surprised by this. After all, Adam did blame Eve when God asked him if he ate the fruit. And then Eve blamed the serpent. The only one who really took responsibility was Satan, if only by not denying he had done anything. But we in the United States have taken this to new levels. There are so many ways to get out of committing a crime that it is ridiculous.

Everyone wants someone or something else to blame. It was the way my parents raised me, the emotional tension of the moment made me do it, the voices told me to do it. Now, I will admit that some of these things are legitimate reasons for showing that one's mentality is not "normal", however, that shouldn't relieve one from being responsible. We all had something different in our upbringing. Everyone has been in emotionally stressful situations. That doesn't mean that you did not make a decision and follow through with it in committing a crime!

The biggest problem with personal responsibility, is not on the larger stage, but on the smaller one. We really need to instill this attribute in the youth. This ethic needs to occur early on so that it will stick. Once young people accept that they have a responsibility for their actions and continue to be aware and accepting of that premise, they will begin to make better choices. We as adults could benefit from this as well. Understanding that the choices you make carry responsibility with them will make you think twice before acting.

Reading the article about President Obama repealing the ban on funding to international groups that promote abortion really brought this personal responsibility thing into a clearer focus for me. Abortion is seen as a choice, a women's right to decide what to do with her body. The problem I have with that "right to decide" defense is that she already chose what to do when she had sex. People conveniently forget that a product of sex is pregnancy. This is natural. Now, pregnancy doesn't always occur when you have sex, but it is a potential consequence of your actions. So to just ignore that fact is to not accept the responsibility of your actions.

Personal responsibility would make this world a better place. Let's all try to learn that sometimes, it is our fault and we have to accept the consequences of our actions.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

American Legal System

I have a problem with the American legal system. Overall, I think this country has a good system, letting people get a fair shake. Unfortunately, it does not work as well as it could.

First off, there are way too many stupid lawsuits. Do you remember the one where the guy sued his dry cleaner for like $50 million for a pair of pants? I think everyone's time could have been spent in a much better fashion. The worst part about that whole story was that the plaintiff was a JUDGE! You would think he would know better. Talk about frivolous. Fortunately he didn't get any money.

Second, the juries are not doing their job. Remember the lady who sued McDonald's when she burned herself drinking hot coffee? She actually won a settlement. Now places are forced to put a disclaimer on their coffee cups saying that it is hot. WOW! How could a jury find McDonald's negligent for making coffee HOT???? You know she would've complained if the coffee was cold. Did you not understand that you were ordering HOT coffee? Nowadays I can maybe see that if she ordered ICE coffee, but back then, there was no such thing. But the sad part about the whole story is that the jury sided with her. Huh? I'm confused. It was like the time I was on a jury. Half the people wanted to vote for an acquittal because the guy seemed like a nice guy and they just didn't think he did it? What??? Does the evidence count? What about the testimony? In the end, he did get acquitted (the evidence didn't support the crime he was charged with) but you can't just go on a feeling or vote one way because you feel sorry for someone.

And this brings me to the final point, the system has too many ways to escape from personal responsibility. With temporary insanity, mental defect and whatever psycho babble you can come up with blaming your upbringing and parents and whatever else, there are too many ways we let people off for what they did. I have more to say about that subject, but I'll save it for another post.

So what do you think?

Tuesday, January 13, 2009


Why is it that we need so much box for so little product? This past holiday season, my kids got a bunch of stuff. Some was for Christmas, some was birthday presents, some was just stuff. Many of the gifts were packaged okay, a box for clothes or a card in an envelope. Then there were the toys. By the time I had unpacked a couple of the toys, my recycle bin was full. Do we really need all that cardboard to protect a product that is 1-inch by 1-inch?

Then there are the cereal boxes and bags of chips. You think you are getting a lot, but the box/bag is less than half full. What gives? Especially on a bag of chips. Not only do you waste all that packaging, your sleeve/arm ends up getting all messed up when you reach into the bag. And then when you want to put the bag away, you have to roll half the bag up! Talk about annoying.

Just Because

Hello all! This is my second attempt at a blog. The first attempt I never let anyone else know about and I only had one post, so it didn't really work. I wasn't sure what to do, but now I have a concept and hopefully it will work out.

This blog will be mostly about things that annoy me. I figure it would be just as good a place as any to vent. Feel free to agree or disagree with your comments, but let's keep it clean. Hopefully you can vent too and we can all feel much better.