Today in the news...

Two articles today caught my eye.  OK well more than that but two in particular and they both made me mad.

The first one was about a woman and her boyfriend in Florida who's 8 year old got in trouble for cussing at them.  http://www.clickorlando.com/news/21271665/detail.html 

Her punishment?  Soap in her mouth.  But apparently they made her actually eat it for about 10 minutes... and it caused her to have an allergic reaction.  So the boyfriend took her to the hospital, but only after the mother made the girl clean up the mess.  The hospital apparently called the police, the boyfriend didn't want to deal with it so he took the girl home.

So it got me thinking about how when I was a kid, I had a couple occasions to, well not eat but have my mouth washed out with soap.  In the movie "A Christmas Story" (a classic, my favourite)... the mother just puts a bar of soap in Ralphie's mouth.  My mother actually lathered up and indeed, washed my mouth out.  I'm totally cool with either, to be honest.  Kids really don't show any respect any more.  Shit I sound old... but its true.  And no one is accountable anyway, so just imagine these brat kids growing up?  Sorry but this country is going to hell with all this PC, hands-off, etc bullshit.  I do think though, that making that kid actually EAT the soap was going too far.  And that she had an allergic reaction that included pain?  Yeah... too much.  I bet it wouldn't have been so bad on the adults had the guy stuck around for the cops, explained the sitch, called the mother in.  Now I wonder if there isn't something more in this family's life.  Well, we'll have to see what happens.

The other story is about a woman in Columbus, OH who rented a limo, went to Burlington Coat Factory... told the manager she'd won the lottery and would buy $500 worth of stuff for each person in the store.  Well... times are tough and who wouldn't want to take advantage of that right?  Well... not only everyone in the store, but all the people those people called to come down.

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/10/15/COATFACTORY.ART_ART_10-15-09_B3_EKFCJAP.html?sid=101

As it turns out though, the woman was lying, she didn't win the lottery and didn't have the money to buy all that stuff.  So what do all the people in the story who'd been busy grabbing everything they could and all the people outside trying to get in do?  Nope, they did not say oh what a psycho, put the stuff back, and leave.  Instead, people started looting, rioting, stealing, going nuts, etc.  The store had to call in the cops to handle the crowds.

The daughter of this woman says she is mentally ill and off her meds.  She said that the woman has a tendency of doing "extravagant things" when like that.  The cops apparently agree that the woman has problems.  So if that is the case, I'm not mad at her.

I AM mad at the people in the store.  Seriously?  You looted and rioted a store because some woman reniged on a good Samaritan type offer that turned out to be a lie?  You take it out on the store because of someone not even connected to the store?  WHAT THE HELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Although I never, ever condone stealing, rioting, looting, whatever... if it had been the actual store that said, oh we'll give you this and that, then turned around and said, nevermind that was a lie, I MIGHT be able to say, well ok that would piss me off too.  But this woman was just some random woman who showed up in a limo and made this offer.  Yeah, it sucks it wasn't true, but don't go looting the store.  Come on people!