Sueing to Save a Pervert

Chances are you've heard of this one and already have your own opinion but I'm gonna share mine with you. For those of you that haven't heard about it I'm speaking of the recent tragedy that occured on To Catch a Predator. The show is about perverts that are online trying to solicet sex from minors. The perverts are attracted online to a decoy they believe to be a young child, usualy around 12 or 13 years old. They set up a date with the minor and are given the address of what turns out to be a house lined with cameras and police officers hiding. Once they get to the house and begin engaging with the minor Chris Hanson, the host of the show, appears and informs the pervert that they are on the television show and confronts them about what they've done. 98% of the time the pervert tries to deny being there to have sex with the underage child and then attempts to leave the house. They are then arrested and begin going through the court system. On the recent episode however, one of the perverts that they caught took drastic measures. Once he realized that he was on To Catch a Predator he ran to his car, grabbed a firearm, and proceeded to commit suicide. Speaking ill of the dead is normally a terrible thing to do, but in this case it is hard to feel bad for someone that was attempting to endanger the welfare of a child. Needless to say the lose of this man was not one that would be normally mourned by the greater society. But the story here is not about a man taking his own life when confronted by his demons, no the story is about what his family has done afterwards.
After these shocking events most familys would mourn their dead relative and then hide from the shame that had been brought upon them by learning that their relative was a pedofile. Instead the sister of the deceased man is sueing NBC for what happened. In her claim she states that they are responsible for the death of her brother because they drove him to commit suicide. I sure hope that I'm not the only one that thinks this is one of the most rediculous lawsuits to ever come across the American court system. How can anyone feel that a TV show protecting children should have to pay 105 million dollars to the family of a pervert that was attempting to molest a child. I can't even begin to imagine the justifications that anyone would make for this lawsuit. I would love to have someone tell me. Feel free to let me know, because personally I think that perverts don't deserve the same rights as normal human beings and certainly don't deserve 105 million dollars when they kill themselves out of shame. Thats just COMMON SENSE to me.

If you can afford a Mazda RX-8..

I went to the grocery store this afternoon to get some lunch. When I came in I noticed a brand new Mazda RX-8 sitting in the parking lot. Now I drive an older model Mazda RX-8 so i happen to be a fan of this particular car. I stopped to have a look and admire all the bellls and whisles that the new models have to offer. Once I had my fill I went in and began my hunt for the right lunch food. Having finally found it I went to the only line that was open at the checkout. As I set my items up on the counter I couldn't help but notice that this other patron was purchasing very expensive items such as lobster and steak. I didn't think to much about it and continued waiting in line. When the clerk had finished ringing up her order she reached for what i presumed was a credit card out of her bag and swiped it. The clerk asked her if it was debit or credit, and her answer caught both the clerk and myself offguard. Her card was neither credit or debit, no her card was EBT. For those of you that are not familiar with EBT it is the means through which welfare is distributed. I stood there for a second stumped, hardly able to believe that this women was using government food stamps to pay for high end foods that normal working people like you or I rarely treat ourselfs to. Still in disbelieve of what I had just seen I walked out to my car only to get another shock. The women that had just used government food stamps to pay for her grocieres was getting into the brand new Mazda RX-8 that I had seen before entering the store. Now I don't know if the readers are familar with the Mazda RX-8, but a brand new model with all of the premium features usually runs for roughly $30,000. So do the math here. This women is so "poor" that she needs assitance from the government for food, but is somehow able to afford a brand new sports car that cost more than a large percentage of Americans make in a year. I would sure like to say that this is an isolated incident but it isn't. When I was in high school I worked in a grocery store and saw this kind of event transpire. Now the liberal side of the political alignment says that these are rare cases and that the welfare system is a very helpful entity. The conservatives are always in favor of reforming the policy but rarely do anything to actually chagne these kinds of problems. The true of the matter is that just like the immigration system there are far too many people using the welfare system for problems like this one to be caught all the time. So instead of reforming the entire system why hasn't anyone thought of a simple solution. I've got one how about tracking assets of people that are granted welfare and tracking the items purchased on the food stamps card that they issue to people in need of assitance. Doesn't seem like an unfair or unreasonable solution. In fact the only people that would be oppose to these changes would be the people that are abusing the system. If this simple change were made fraud and abuse would be curbed and more money would be available for people who actually need it. The simple fact here is that if you can afford to own and operate a brand new Mazda RX-8 then you do not need my tax dollars to pay for your steak and lobster, and that is just Common Sense.

The $5.00 Hamburger

By now even those of you reading this blog that don't watch the news should now that in the near future the federal minimal wage is going to be raised. Soon minimal wage employees will be making $7.25 per hour. Now other than some four letter words directed at the television set when I first heard of this brilliant piece of garage the liberal majority cooked up I hadn't given the idea much thought. It wasn't until this afternoon when I went to a local fast food restaurant for lunch that I realized the implications of this new legislation. Thirty minutes after I placed my order I finally got the hamburger and fries that I had ordered. Now I'm sure the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear that it took that long is that the restaurant was really busy. Well what would be your next thought if I were to tell you that only one other persons order was being prepared while I was waiting? By now I'm sure you've come to the conclusion that the only other reason why the food could have taken that long is the people that were preparing, and if you have come to this conclusion you would be correct. In fact while waiting for my food I learned that clerk A thinks clerk B should break up with her boyfriend because hes no good for her, and that clerk c was going to the club later in the day. Now this is nothing new with getting poor service at a fast food restaurant. The part of this story that is new, is that these people are going to be paid $7.25 to give me poor service. Now you might think that this isn't really a problem, and on its own it doesn't really seem like one. But have you stopped to think about the implications of the raise in the minimal wage. Assume that the restaurant has 5 minimal wage employees that work 40 hours a week. The minimal wage is increasing roughly $2 an hour. So in one week the employer is having to pay out an extra $400. Now multiply that number by 52 weeks. That's $20,800 per year that the employer is going to have to pay out. So where is the extra money going to come from? There are only two ways that an employer can compensate for the extra overhead. They can either absorb the costs, or they can raise the price of the goods that they are selling. The value meal that I ordered in this situation already costs $5.15. How much do you think this combo will cost when the increase takes affect? $6 or $7 perhaps? Could it become even more than that? And if the level of service that I received at this restaurant continues to be poor, the customer base is sure to diminish with the price increase. And what do employers do when they aren't getting as much business as they were before? They fire employees to lower their costs. This cause and effect will not only be seen in the restaurant business. Its simple economics, if the price of a good increases, the demand for that product will decrease. So if this cause and effect occurs then the unemployment rate will rise and those that manage to keep their jobs with the new wages will in the end spend their increased income on the same products they purchased before at the new higher rates. On paper the democrats will be able to say that they've helped the lowest end of America, and on paper out country will look better than it did before, but in fact we all lose because of this legislation. High minimal wages are bad for us all, and that folks is just Common Sense.

The First of Many

Welcome to the first post of Common Sense, a blog dedicated to bringing a little common sense to the world we live in. Everyday I turn on the TV and watch the major news networks and everyday I turn off the TV upset. There is one issue lately that has really been bothering me. Early this month demonstrations were organized to protest the governments treatment of illegal immigrants in the United States. From New York to Los Angeles, illegals and illegal supporters gathered in the streets in protest demanding that the United States government stop raids and deportations of illegals. In response to criticisms Congress is in the process of passing legislation that will give these aliens more rights and privileges than they are already stealing from Americans. Before I make anymore comments on the government let me make one thing clear, I am not a Bush basher. I support my president and most of the decisions that he has made in the last 7 years. On this issue however I strongly feel that the president has let us down. The only part of the proposed legislation that is helping the problem is set not to do something about the 12 million illegal immigrants already here, but to keep more from coming in. Unfortunately there are so many here that securing the border is only part of solving the immigration problem. On that regard this legislation does the job, but on the problem of the illegals already here the proposed legislation drops the ball. Instead of doing what is obviously the right thing, this legislation aims to allow the illegal aliens to stay in our country and begin receiving even more benefits then they are already stealing from the American people. With that in mind I would like to propose a question to any illegal alien or illegal alien supporter that has managed to continue reading this far. If I were to break into your home and steal your things wouldn't you want me to be arrested? If I receiving social benefits that I wasn't entitled to and because of it you couldn't get aid to feed your family wouldn't you want me stopped? If I was bring drugs and crime to your neighborhood wouldn't you want me arrested to clean up your neighborhood? And even worse, if I were on television not only announcing that I had committed these crimes but wanting you to give me more rights because of it wouldn't you be angry?
Here are the facts, illegal aliens are not just harmless people looking for work in a better country. It has been document that crime rates have risen drastically in areas with large amounts of illegal aliens. In fact the recent terror attempt on our fighting men and women was being orchestrated by people would came to this country illegally. Allowing people to come into this country undocumented is a true threat to National Security. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that every person that has illegally immigrated is a terrorist. That would be a bigoted assumption that just isn't true. However, all illegal immigrants do share one common trait that can not be denied, justified, are written off as the rantings of a right wing nut job. The one thing that all illegal immigrants have in common is simple, they've committed a crime against the United State. United States law prevents anyone from coming into this country with out being documented. There is a reason for this contrary to some peoples belief. Forcing immigrants to be documented allows the United States to find out about the persons past and whether or not they could pose a threat to our country. These people chose not to do that and instead committed a felony. I guarantee anyone who is reading this that if you or I committed a felony we would be in jail by now. So whats the real problem here. These people have committed a felony and are out in the streets announcing the fact that they are here illegally and want rights that they don't deserve. This one is simple, they committed a crime and should be arrested. And that ladies and gentlemen is just Common Sense.