You can't make this stuff up!!
It is Saturday morning, clear, crisp, spring morning and so I decided that a cup of hot apple cider would be perfect. I walked into the Java Coffee and Cafe across the way and picked myself up a cup. After returning home I came upstairs, set the cup down, fired up my computer and sat down. As I did so the way in which I placed the cup allowed for the perfect viewing of CAUTION: HOT COFFEE IS HOT!
This goes back to the McDonald's woman that spilled her coffee in the drive-thru years ago and not only sued McDonald's for the fact that their coffee was hot, how dare they, but somehow actually won!! Thus forcing McDonald's, at the urging of their lawyers I am sure, to put the caution on their cups.
I cannot say for certain that this is in fact the first time such an absurd warning was placed on a coffee cup, but I can tell you this is the most public occurrence that I can remember.
Now, we have all done this at some point or another, go through a drive-thru, get some stuff to munch on while heading down the road, start driving before getting "organized" for the trip and the meal, and next thing you know you are wearing your Big Mac, or Whopper, or you have Coke all over the front seat of your car. I was going to call this woman an idiot for being dumb enough to spill her coffee on herself in the first place, but accidents do happen. However, they are accidents, and they are usually caused by a lack of concentration, or at the very least some distractions related to driving, eating, drinking and perhaps being a mom all at the same time.
The part that to me is far too prevalent these days, or maybe two parts, are one, suing anyone and everyone because we can, or as some people would say because it is our right. Horse shit!! Or as Colonel Potter would say on MASH, horse hockey!! I realize we live in a free country and we have the right to express ourselves in any way we see fit, and we have the right to face our accuser and all sorts of other happy horse shit, but to my second point, we do not have the right to blame everyone else on the planet for our problems. That is what this woman did in suing McDonalds for selling her hot coffee in the drive-thru, and that is what so many on this planet do day in and day out. No one wants to take responsibility for their own mess, mistakes, problems.
Accountability and responsibility. This is what is missing today, in the world of leave no student behind, and all of that. I am a sensitive person, and most would say that I am too sensitive, but I think that we have gone way too far in this country to the point where no one wants to take any responsibility and everyone is looking for somewhere to blame for their situations except themselves.
Coffee is hot, get over it. If you don't like your coffee hot then order iced coffee, or maybe drink water since caffeine seems to be causing you a problem anyway. Live and let live and stop blaming the world for not living up to your own potential, and for being too stupid to realize that coffee is hot without some telling you it is.
Thank you again for getting this far with me.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Black and White
If you take black paint and white paint and you pour them into a bucket in equal portions you will get gray, perfect gray. No I am not sure there is such a thing as perfect gray, but since I just used the phrase I am going to say there is. If you pour black and white paint in a bucket and you pour more white than black you will get a lighter shade of gray, still gray, but lighter. More black, darker grey. I could keep going, but I am sure you get the point.
The expression about there being a million shades of grey, or gray, I will come back to this in a minute, is not entirely accurate. If you were really bored and wanted to have some fun you could continue my logic from above, continue to look at a little more white then black then white then black, and what you would discover is that no matter how much lighter, or how much darker, the grey became, you would never get back to either pure white, or total black because you are in fact repeating the exercise from early algebra, I think, where infinity is defined, and the explanation we were given back then is that if you moved closer to the wall, each time cutting the distance in half, you could essentially do this forever. The same would be true of the mixing and thus there are not millions of shades of gray, but in fact there are an infinite number of shades.
Here is the catch, life is not paint, and while there are many different views on many different subjects there are not an infinite number of views, and in fact there is a very finite number. In a city like New York City you could easily find millions of opinions on all sorts of topics, but what tends to happen is that you get millions on one side of a debate, millions on the other and a whole bunch of folks in between. Does it really matter how far in between? Not typically, unless we are talking abut elections because then how far to one side you are or the other of the middle may, and most often does, move your vote to one pile or the other. I guess this just brought us back to black and white again did it not. In fact, this past presidential election was very much black and white, and black won...or was that gray??
It is actually quite simple, there is black and there is white in this world, and although there are lots of folks who may be inclined to argue both sides of an argument, or have trouble making up there mind, when it comes down to it there is black and white, right and wrong.
Murder, wrong. Helping an older woman with her groceries, right. Stealing, wrong. Making time for your kids baseball game, right. Adultery, wrong. Helping a friend in need, no matter who that friend is, or what people think, right.
Again, I could go on with this forever, but I am sure you see where I am going here. I guess I simply believe in the "Houseian" theory of ethics and morals, there are absolute rights, and absolute wrongs, and no amount of rationalization or justification can change those facts. If you do something that is legally within your rights by the US Constitution, but morally and/or ethically wrong, it is still wrong. Everything from using cell phones while in the movie theatre to sleeping with your best friends wife. Different shades of wrong? sure, but wrong nonetheless? without question.
To me right and wrong are like pregnant and not!! You cannot be a little pregnant, you either are or you are not. Just because someone's moral compass was never completed, or was issued with readings missing doesn't make things magically ok, it just means that for some people right and wrong, especially wrong, just does not register as it should. Sure makes life tough for the rest of the planet.
From the teaching and coaching I have done the last few years I can tell you that a lot of this moral compass is missing in high school and college kids these days, but don't blame them, it is missing in their parents just as much, or more. Dartmouth College students, for example, cross the street anywhere they feel like it in Hanover, NH where the school sits, but if you are ever in town on parents weekend so do their folks. I guess they figure since they pay so much in tuition they must own the streets of Hanover. Having gone to Hanover High for a while and then having received my Masters from Dartmouth, and having paid my own tuition, I can tell you that this is not true about the owning of the streets thing, but don't tell them that their pompous little heads will explode.
I will also tell you that to use the derogatory word for a woman, or the crass word for female anatomy, that starts with a C is also wrong, even if you are all alone in the woods, let alone in the company of another person, more so in the company of a woman, or women, and especially in the company of multiple women and a 9 year old girl!! No one should have to point that out to any male over the age of five, let alone to a 22 year old and a 47 year old that happen to be father and son.
Like I said, don't blame the kids, blame their parents.
I wish I could say that although my moral compass always knows the different between black and white I always make the right choice, but that would then make me perfect, and even I am not that, actually about as far from it as possible, but at least I continue to work towards it, which I guess all we can expect from ourselves, or so I am told.
By the way, grey and gray are both correct, and thus I felt like using them interchangeably!!
Thank you for getting this far with me.
The expression about there being a million shades of grey, or gray, I will come back to this in a minute, is not entirely accurate. If you were really bored and wanted to have some fun you could continue my logic from above, continue to look at a little more white then black then white then black, and what you would discover is that no matter how much lighter, or how much darker, the grey became, you would never get back to either pure white, or total black because you are in fact repeating the exercise from early algebra, I think, where infinity is defined, and the explanation we were given back then is that if you moved closer to the wall, each time cutting the distance in half, you could essentially do this forever. The same would be true of the mixing and thus there are not millions of shades of gray, but in fact there are an infinite number of shades.
Here is the catch, life is not paint, and while there are many different views on many different subjects there are not an infinite number of views, and in fact there is a very finite number. In a city like New York City you could easily find millions of opinions on all sorts of topics, but what tends to happen is that you get millions on one side of a debate, millions on the other and a whole bunch of folks in between. Does it really matter how far in between? Not typically, unless we are talking abut elections because then how far to one side you are or the other of the middle may, and most often does, move your vote to one pile or the other. I guess this just brought us back to black and white again did it not. In fact, this past presidential election was very much black and white, and black won...or was that gray??
It is actually quite simple, there is black and there is white in this world, and although there are lots of folks who may be inclined to argue both sides of an argument, or have trouble making up there mind, when it comes down to it there is black and white, right and wrong.
Murder, wrong. Helping an older woman with her groceries, right. Stealing, wrong. Making time for your kids baseball game, right. Adultery, wrong. Helping a friend in need, no matter who that friend is, or what people think, right.
Again, I could go on with this forever, but I am sure you see where I am going here. I guess I simply believe in the "Houseian" theory of ethics and morals, there are absolute rights, and absolute wrongs, and no amount of rationalization or justification can change those facts. If you do something that is legally within your rights by the US Constitution, but morally and/or ethically wrong, it is still wrong. Everything from using cell phones while in the movie theatre to sleeping with your best friends wife. Different shades of wrong? sure, but wrong nonetheless? without question.
To me right and wrong are like pregnant and not!! You cannot be a little pregnant, you either are or you are not. Just because someone's moral compass was never completed, or was issued with readings missing doesn't make things magically ok, it just means that for some people right and wrong, especially wrong, just does not register as it should. Sure makes life tough for the rest of the planet.
From the teaching and coaching I have done the last few years I can tell you that a lot of this moral compass is missing in high school and college kids these days, but don't blame them, it is missing in their parents just as much, or more. Dartmouth College students, for example, cross the street anywhere they feel like it in Hanover, NH where the school sits, but if you are ever in town on parents weekend so do their folks. I guess they figure since they pay so much in tuition they must own the streets of Hanover. Having gone to Hanover High for a while and then having received my Masters from Dartmouth, and having paid my own tuition, I can tell you that this is not true about the owning of the streets thing, but don't tell them that their pompous little heads will explode.
I will also tell you that to use the derogatory word for a woman, or the crass word for female anatomy, that starts with a C is also wrong, even if you are all alone in the woods, let alone in the company of another person, more so in the company of a woman, or women, and especially in the company of multiple women and a 9 year old girl!! No one should have to point that out to any male over the age of five, let alone to a 22 year old and a 47 year old that happen to be father and son.
Like I said, don't blame the kids, blame their parents.
I wish I could say that although my moral compass always knows the different between black and white I always make the right choice, but that would then make me perfect, and even I am not that, actually about as far from it as possible, but at least I continue to work towards it, which I guess all we can expect from ourselves, or so I am told.
By the way, grey and gray are both correct, and thus I felt like using them interchangeably!!
Thank you for getting this far with me.
Monday, March 15, 2010
You Heard It Here First
Michigan
Chapman
Arizona State
Colorado State
BYU
Florida State
Minn-Duluth
Virginia Tech
Oregon
Florida
Cal Poly
Michigan State
Boston College
Lindenwood
Winner Texas State v Texas
Loser Texas State v Texas or Colorado
Thank you again for getting this far with me.
Chapman
Arizona State
Colorado State
BYU
Florida State
Minn-Duluth
Virginia Tech
Oregon
Florida
Cal Poly
Michigan State
Boston College
Lindenwood
Winner Texas State v Texas
Loser Texas State v Texas or Colorado
Thank you again for getting this far with me.
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