Death of Common Sence

[Joonya]

Something I recieved a while ago that i have just found on my laptop - and it makes sense...

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.

He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as knowing when to come in out of the rain, why the early bird gets the worm, life isn't always fair, and maybe it was my fault. Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you earn) and reliable parenting strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a six-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job they failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer Panadol, sun lotion or a sticky plaster to a student but could not inform the parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband; churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims. Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar can sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realise that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust, his

wife, Discretion, his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason.

He is remembered only by three stepbrothers; I Know My Rights, Someone Else Is To Blame and I'm A Victim.

[CaleyD]

It died right alongside spelling  :029:

[Kingsmills]

To be fair, I assumed that it was a typo, probably as I'm guilty of so many of them myself.

[CaleyD]

The death of spelling was brought about through the birth of the typo...it's common sense if you think about it  :015:

[+Wanderer]

CaleyD, as the Lynne Truss of our forum I need some guidance. The following is from a contributor who is a serial offender of the erroneous their/there, please help me correct it:

"Seems like someone somewhere has really screwed up on this and instead of repeating names on the back the whole top portion could have been left clear and names printed on the lower portion so as everyone was just on their once and not obscured by names and numbers."

It's a big glass house we inhabit, chuck a stone at your peril...  :023:

[The Mantis]

As I understand it, you're accusing CaleyD of wearing a truss?

[+Wanderer]

:024: hmmm, perhaps, but better still I will point the finger and say "CaleyD, you are fairly intelligent"... that should do it!

[Guzz]

The 'there/their' business bugs me too, and 'too/to' :017:

[Guest donmac298]

You leave CaleyD alone you morons and ridicule the poor spelling standard of Teachers nowadays!  They should concentrate on teaching instead of sitting drinking coffee all day.

[Caley Mad In Berks]

The 'there/their' business bugs me too, and 'too/to' :017:

And I thought I was the only 'Mr. Meldrew' who was irritated by this, particularly the 'there/their' mistake.  There are several offenders. They're all oblivious to their mistakes. Still, nobody is perfect, like what I is!!!!

[tm4tj]

there their

of off

to too two

definitely definately................this one is my pet hate :008:

hear here

 

however, the typo is my excuse, because there is always dictionary.com

[Caley Mad In Berks]

there their

of off

to too two

definitely definately................this one is my pet hate :008:

hear here

Not to mention the incorrect use of 'disinterested' when they mean'uninterested', and the incorrect usage of 'imply' and 'infer'.

[Guzz]

And principle/principal

     

      weight/wait

      sure/shore

the list goes on.......... :crazy07:

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Very interesting  :024: From a psychological perspective this thread did appear at a poignant time and it could well have led to a unconscious Freudian slip by wee gringo. And then the responses were possibly also a means, both consciously and unconsciously, to divert the attention from the theme of the initial post.

The context has been the centre of psychological debate fer centuries and I love the quotes from two toher immortals - Einstein said "Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.? and Bhuddism quotes that  "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.?

But bear with me, do not ridicule, and try to undertand the menaning of the following poem.

What you get is more than what you see

Don't bite my finger, look where I am pointing

People don't want to be evil

People don't want to be neurotic

Reason and emotion aren't opposites

Reason isn't superior to emotion

Improbability isn't impossibility

The majority of a group isn't all of it

All knowledge is interconnected

Everything is a dynamical system

Order may be good or bad

Disorder may be good or bad

And of course it all leads down the path of freedom of speech.  :023:

[Caley Mad In Berks]

Come back Darshan, all is forgiven. 

[CaleyD]

Guilty as charged on the their/there issue.  Despite being perfectly aware of the correct use of each (the possessive as opposed to the introductory/placement), it's not a message that always makes a successful trip between my brain and my fingers.

[Johnboy]

We are all guilty of the occasional "faux pas", and certainly many of these are nothing more than typos...

I have to confess I find repeated errors not only irritating, but I would suggest they reflect rather badly on certain professions....  In the case of one of these professions I would have thought meticulous attention to detail was not only highly desirable but utterly essential. 

How long does it take to proof-read a post and correct a typo? On this site we even get a second chance thanks to the "Modify" button.

[Joonya]

How long does it take to proof-read a post and correct a typo? On this site we even get a second chance thanks to the "Modify" button.

True enough, very much so. I am guilty of not proof reading or correcting my typo's, but the majority of the time, i dont think about it.

[+Wanderer]

...and then there's the apostrophe...must've been the Greeks what invented that little bugger!

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

There is only one thing that I would like to provide for all the previous posters - a semi-colon.

[Johnboy]

Somehow IHE's post reminded me of this gem...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otcVrKomXbk

Classic Sunday morning entertainment..!!

[TSTtiger]

waht raelly is the piont spllenig tihngs crrocet aynawy . as lnog as the frist and lsat ltters are in the rghit palce we can raed it aynawy

[Scarlet Pimple]

Persinally speeking I always thought that spellnig was spelt spelling.

But Gringo Jnr  that was a wonderful post but you must be a little sad since hardly a soul wanted to touch it with a bargepole. What scares us about the truth ? The fact that we can't or won't try to do something about it ?

Don't think that the degeneration of the current generations  in all things of common sense is confined to theU.K. It is here in all it's glory in Canada as well.

Graffiti, vandalism, lack of respect for authority, theft  (especially cars) and so on ad infinitum--frankly I think we should be very concerned.

Back with the tawse in schools? That'a pipedream I must say  -

Our justice sytem is very imperfect with the jails overcrowded and the judges being very lenient to cut the costs of jailing too many people.Only guys like serial killer Willie Pickton down the road from me here in Maple Ridge will stay in jail for a very long time--the rest get out in about half the time or some well-placed people are even sent to a minimum security prison with a golf course nearby. Unbelievable.

Homeless people here in this area is a  big problem with drugs topping the list also. Being a Port city we can hardly avoid drugs of course but it costs the Government millions per year in cosmetic  tinkering costs .

In the old days the cops took  the miscreants up a close and gave them what-for and that was the end of it. Nowadays if they do that thay lose their jobs or get demoted if the ne'er -do -well complains to the human rights.

:029:

[Kingsmills]

I agree with TMFTJ, " here here" is my pet hate also.

[The Mantis]

Never mind spelling- what about cliches. I mean, at the end of the day, it only gets dark, basically. Hopefully people will stop saying 'hopefully' too, basically.

What about football managers/players who say 'we equipped ourselves well' because they once heard a brainy manager saying 'we acquitted ourselves well' and they want to copy him, basically.

'They set their stall out' - pure pish, basically.

'On the front foot' - more pish probably caused by somebody using it instead of 'on the back foot' for a joke, basically.

'Snatched defeat from the jaws of victory' - again, somebody once used this as a joke and thousands of dullards just repeat it without knowing what the **** they're talking about, basically.

And what about Big Brother. What's the point of using a literary reference like that for a TV show title when 98% of its viewers probably think its about incest, basically