North Korea and its Propaganda.

[knapplc]

Someone got their feelings hurt, I see.

[CadensDad]

Whatever... I'm just so glad that Obama is much smarter than Bush/Chaney, their cronies and supporters.

This made me chuckle


But if you think that is true it's alarming.

[urbanbreez]

If you consider pronunciation a sign of intelligence, it's no contest. Basic words, man. He couldn't pronounce basic words.

[Madison]

Someone got their feelings hurt, I see.

Me? That's impossible on a message board.

[Madison]

At least the government is willing to admit they don't really know 100% for sure just how far North Korea can fire a missle. No sense increasing defenses if it is impossible for them to hit us.

The U.S. has increased defenses around Hawaii.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090702/ap_on_re_as/as_nkorea_missile

2 short ones fired today according to the link above.

[AussieDodger]

At least the government is willing to admit they don't really know 100% for sure just how far North Korea can fire a missle. No sense increasing defenses if it is impossible for them to hit us.

The U.S. has increased defenses around Hawaii.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090702/ap_on_re_as/as_nkorea_missile

2 short ones fired today according to the link above.

Well it's been nice knowing you guys.
If you happen to survive as fall out zombies, you can come hang down here. We'll have a BBQ.

[Tavish]

The caveat is that "can reach us" is undefined, as is "nukes." If we're talking missile-delivered ICBMs the answer is no. If we're talking suitcase-delivered dirty bombs, then the answer is yes. Since the terms are undefined we can stretch the parameters any way we wish, and it's kind of a worthless question.

They could also plant a nuke deep underground along the San Andreas faultline and when it explodes it would make the entire West Coast fall into the Pacific. From what I hear they N.Koreans have been buying all sorts of land in Arizona because they will then have beachfront property in what will soon be Luthorville and Marina Del Lex.

I say we take them out now to prevent Jimmy Olsen from falling off the Hover Dam.

[knapplc]

The caveat is that "can reach us" is undefined, as is "nukes." If we're talking missile-delivered ICBMs the answer is no. If we're talking suitcase-delivered dirty bombs, then the answer is yes. Since the terms are undefined we can stretch the parameters any way we wish, and it's kind of a worthless question.

They could also plant a nuke deep underground along the San Andreas faultline and when it explodes it would make the entire West Coast fall into the Pacific. From what I hear they N.Koreans have been buying all sorts of land in Arizona because they will then have beachfront property in what will soon be Luthorville and Marina Del Lex.

I say we take them out now to prevent Jimmy Olsen from falling off the Hover Dam.

Psssshhh. As if we couldn't just send a fast rocket out to space to spin the Earth backwards, reversing time and solving that little bugaboo. Easy fix.

[josebach]

What a shame.

I must say, I agree all of those cases are ridiculous, but they're also the rare exception which is why they made the news in the first place.

Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate;

There are probably 12 million children kissing 12 million other children every single day and we don't hear anything about it. This case is extremely rare and I feel using it to make assumptions about society in general... wait for it... isn't exactly showing common sense.

teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Depending on how they reprimand the student makes all the difference. If a teach hit my kid, you're darn right I'd want them fired. Mouthwash has a lot of alcohol in it, and if a school has a problem with students getting drunk off of mouthwash, than I could understand a rule against it. I'd have to see more specifics before making a judgement, but I certainly don't hear about these stories very often, which is kind of an indication that they're rare examples and not the norm.

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

I'm not sure exactly what you're talking about, but there isn't any doubt there are a lot of horrible parents out there. There are also a lot of good ones.

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.

Again another extremely rare example. Thousands of people burn themselves with coffee every single day and they don't win lawsuits. What made this lawsuit come about is that McDonalds had long been warned that their coffee makers produced coffee that was hotter than the industry standard, which was responsible for many emergency room visits throughout the years. Instead of replacing their coffee makers, the bean counters at McDonalds thought it was cheaper to pay for the emergency room visits. This lawsuit was a direct reflection of that.

It 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.

Considering students can be allergic to medicines or develop rashes from certain lotions, I really don't think this is unreasonable. In fact, this is actually a pretty good example of common sense. I've also not heard that it was illegal for a teacher to inform a parent that a student is pregnant. Is this a nationwide law or is this simply the policy of a single school/district?

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.

I actually agree with the church part. The tax exempt status that churches have is a giant magnet to attracting the wrong element. Unfortuantely, this element is what makes the news so often. If churches lost their tax exempt status, it would weed out the bad and would no doubt help reduce the number of church scandals.

I'm not really sure of the "criminals receiving better treatment than their victims" part because it's so vague. Our country still has an innocent until proven guilty policy, doesn't it? Of course there are some cases that are ridiculous, but again, these are the exceptions. Most criminals that are apprehended get what's coming to them. THe overpopulation problem we have in the prison system is evidence of that.

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.

You can sue anyone for anything. That's how litigious our country has become, which I also think sucks. I have two questions, though...1) How rare is this? 2) How often do they actually win? My guess is that cases like these are the extreme exception and not the general rule. If it was, we'd hear about it more often.

Are there wacked out examples of common sense being thrown out the window? Of course there are. THere are 300 million people in our country, so of course crazy stuff is going to happen. The thing is, the news media LOVES to find little tidbits like these examples you gave and turn them into National stories, where in reality, they in NO way represent the norm.

Maybe I'm just an optimist, who knows.

[bigh0rt]

It 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.

Considering students can be allergic to medicines or develop rashes from certain lotions, I really don't think this is unreasonable. In fact, this is actually a pretty good example of common sense. I've also not heard that it was illegal for a teacher to inform a parent that a student is pregnant. Is this a nationwide law or is this simply the policy of a single school/district?

There are some confidentiality agreements that exist between certain counselors, psychologists, etc. and students, but teachers are considered mandated reporters, at least in New York State, and while pregnancy may not fall under the malnourishment, abuse, neglect umbrellas that said reporting is typically covering, I'd say being pregnant and not telling anyone would likely put the child in "imminent risk of serious harm", and what I'd probably do is urge the student to tell their family themselves, give them a brief window to do so, and then call home to confirm that the news has been told by the student.