Not So Common Sense

I read an article today that mentioned a woman who followed her GPS directions and ended up stranded in California's Death Valley.  (Or, as Bill Engvall calls it, it's a valley ... of death!)  I cannot understand this.  Certainly I could understand ending up on the wrong street or the wrong neighborhood, but how do you drive on the freeway with signs saying "Death Valley next exit" and think that the signs must be wrong because there's no way the GPS could be wrong?  If you were about to drive off a pier, would you refuse to believe there was water ahead of you because the GPS says there isn't?  Guess what?  You're going to get wet!

This is the lack of common sense that I constantly mourn in this world.  You see it in things large and small.

For example, an NFL player was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.  What was one of the clues the DA used to press charges?  The defendant had bought a pack of a particular kind of bubble gum, and the cops found a chewed piece of that gum at the murder scene.  Leave out the DNA testing sure to follow.  How do you spit your gum out at a murder site and not think to get rid of it?  The guy is an idiot and an evil person for committing murder, but he's a complete moron to leave that kind of evidence laying there!

Another example:  the CEO of Chik-Fil-A has made it clear that he is opposed to homosexuality.  That's his right.  But then he posts an idiotic statement on Twitter, deletes it after it is discovered(?), and then can't figure out how the news media has gotten a hold of things!  If you post something online, it's there.  It's the same thing with people who post embarrassing things on Facebook and wonder how it went viral.  Why not post your phone number and then wonder why you get crank calls?

Paula Deen wonders why she's getting flak?  Oh, I don't know... because you showed extremely racist behavior?  Westboro Baptist Church wonders why Anonymous is hacking their site after they publicly make their idiotic statements and basically dare the hackers to go after them?

The electronic age has been amazing.  But nothing is perfect, and if you start to think it is, then you're a fool.  If you don't want something out there, don't type it.  Don't photograph it.  Don't post it.  No one cares about your breakfast.  But if you're going to post a picture of yourself in a stolen car, don't be shocked if the cops find you.  If you're going to post a picture of yourself in Nazi regalia, don't be surprised if you don't get hired anywhere.

And if you see a sign that says Death Valley, don't get off the freeway if you wanted to go to San Diego.