It's Getting Ridiculous

At what point (if any) do we say, “Time out, America will no longer sit by and tolerate really ridiculous behavior, ridiculous sales pitches, and ridiculous statements by serious politicians”?  We could start by not reacting to the outrageous advertising claims, by refusing to reelect judges who take seriously outrageous lawsuits and by ignoring the pandering politicians trying to buy votes to secure their own jobs rather than making the best long-term decisions for the country.  Here are a few more examples.

The food paranoia featured on February 7 apparently goes beyond food.  Printed on a seed packet for flower seeds is the following statement:  “All our seeds are untreated, no GMOs.”  Even if there were some unknown danger to eating GMO foods, it wouldn’t matter in the case of these seeds.  They are sold for planting in the garden and beautifying the area, not for eating.  It’s labeling for image, purely for marketing purposes, to appease and sell to people with the extreme stance of GMO=bad, non-GMO=good.  They are treating us like fools and we are letting them.

The headline reads:  “'Psychic' who fleeced millions from clients sentenced to 10 years in prison."  A 62-year-old Florida woman was convicted of “defrauding clients of her family's fortune-telling businesses out of more than $17.8 million.”  Details of the article include:  “Victims testified that she convinced them she could swap people's souls between bodies, prevent a woman from conceiving via in vitro fertilization and even use her psychic powers to prevent the Internal Revenue Service from going after them for taxes.”  These people are more victims of their own gullibility – the opposite of critical thinking – than of a so-called psychic who makes such outlandish promises.  For future reference, there is no case on record of proven psychic powers.  The reason that more are not convicted of fraud is probably that the losses are small or the "victims" are too embarrassed to come forward.

Finally, a Colorado man is suing rescuers, who saved his life, because they didn’t rescue him fast enough.  When a road washed out, he ended up submerged in his car.  Miraculously he survived in a small air pocket but he was not visible from outside the car.  Now he is suing the county for not posting that the road was closed and the divers who pulled him out of the car and got him to the hospital.  His lawyer contends that any mistake is negligence.  So many of these cases are settled before going to court out of fear that sympathetic jurors will decide that someone suffered and deserves something and insurance will pay for it without considering the ramifications of future restrictions and higher premiums for everyone.  We also reelect judges who allow these ridiculous accusations to get a hearing.

When will we Americans stop falling for it, stop putting up with it?