RedJen's Rearview Mirror

Evidently when you update your index files and force a rebuild, it helps if you've actually posted in the last week...

For those aware, I made it to Ohio and only almost got run off the road twice in the process. My brother and sister-in-law have left my nephew here at our parents house for some quality time. He's a trip and it gives my mom someone to play with.

I guess technically I'll be on the road later this morning. I think the best part of this trip was the time I didn't plan on taking with my friends. There is something to be said for people who are just glad to see you and happy to have you around.

I'm back home, the plants have survived so far. I'll be attempting to spruce up the lawn this weekend. I made a trip to Home Depot after work on Thursday to get a real shovel. Hopefully I won't kill what little lawn I have in the process.

Why is it that whenever things are not exactly “right”, rather than look at what is wrong, people want to chuck the whole thing and start from the beginning? The whole world seems to have forgotten the adage, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.” This loosely paraphrased means, just because something is involved in your target mess, does not mean that it is waste.

Let’s look at my 3 favorite common sense lacking topics.

Immigration – The definition of an illegal alien has been on the books for many years now. The penalties for employing these people are not new. Funny thing is we only really see any action when someone is aspiring for a higher political office has employed an illegal alien in some form or fashion. If illegal aliens are not worried that by working within government circles they put themselves at higher risk of being discovered, punished and deported, then either the consequences of such action is laughable or the law is not being enforced.

I’m not saying all laws are good laws, but if the actual laws on the books were enforced, then we would see exactly what was ludicrous and what was not. Unfortunately, law enforcement agencies have been painted as villains to the point where they are viewed by large segments of the population as being out to get people. Guess what, in the case of the INS, they are supposed to be out to get people. You stand in line or you go to the back of the line. We learned this early in school. If everyone wants a drink of water and only one person can drink at time, get in line and wait your turn. If you try to jump to the head of the line you not only lose your place in line, but you get to go to the back of the line.

Hate Crime – The person who decided that we needed a special way to deal with hate crimes is not someone I want working in government. In my opinion, the concept of a hate crime is political correctness gone so far bad that it is time to let it go, label it as a failed attempt and get on with our lives. For every crime that can be also labeled as a hate crime, there is already an existing penalty and the penalty is pretty strict. A hate crime murder is still a murder. Why the hell do we need an extra set of parameters to determine whether or not the person who committed the murder was motivated by hate?

We have laws prohibiting discrimination, violent acts against others, theft and crossing intersections at night without the use of a lantern. All of these laws have a defined penalty. Either enforce the existing rules or get rid of them. The last things we need in our legal system are more loopholes. Every time our legislature attempts to add a fix on top of an existing set of fixes, the whole just gets more jumbled and less cohesive.

Legislation of Ideas – You cannot legislate what goes on inside people’s heads. When crimes involving hate start getting different penalties than those not labeled as hate crimes, people are saying that it is bad to kill someone, but worse to kill someone you hate. Would someone else like to invite in the psychopaths now? In order to have the Freedom of Speech, people must also have the Freedom of Thought. Freedom of expression is a two way street and until everyone is allowed on it, this is only a joke.

Until the day comes where all our thoughts are monitored, the only things that can be measured against our laws are the actions people take. It is not illegal to hate a group of people for being different from you, but it is generally seen as close-minded and not encouraged. If I want to have a violent fantasy in a daydream, but never act upon it, there shouldn’t be a penalty for that.

Once upon a time, there was a land known as Uncommon Reason. Actually at one point, the land was called Common Sense, but with the decline in the commonality of Common Sense, the few people still possessing the ability to reason decided that the rest of the population wouldn’t notice the name change as long as it was done as part of Hair Fish Day. What pray tell is Hair Fish Day? It just happens to be the important of holidays. Everyone knows about Hair Fish Day and celebrates it without question on the second blue Tuesday each year. Because the first blue Tuesday tends to be very close to a certain NFL game played on a Super Sunday and as more holidays make for happier people, it is on the second blue Tuesday that Hair Fish Day is celebrated.

The rules in Uncommon Reason were rather simple. Most people laughed at the silly nature of the rules. Everyone learned the rules before they went to school and even when they didn’t always want to, people knew they had to play nice.

Actual comment overheard – “It looks like they shoved raccoons on their feet.”

In the absence of snow, fur footwear has no purpose.

I found out why the builder I bought my house from had an ancient water heater. There are installation permits to replace it and they aren't cheap. Not to mention the required over-flow tank and a few other fees to boot.

By the time I left Sears, I'd spent as much on fees/taxes as I had on the water heater. God forbid I decide to replace my heating/air conditioning system. Apparently those have a another huge set of county fees and permits on them too.

I'm okay with having fees for something that actually requires paperwork or needs tracking (car tags, driver's liscencses or new construction), but if I already have something and I'm just replacing it, give me a break. I have a water heater, I'm replacing it with the same type of water heater, what about this requries a permit?

Apparently if I decide to replace any of the board in my deck, I'll have another set of permits to figure out.