Something That Is Making Me Angry

[Dover78]

Has anyone else read the articles about the new energy drink that's coming out called "Cocaine"? The drink isn't whats making me angry, not even the name of it; in fact I find it very funny. What is making me angry is the scores of politicians and news agencys and anti-drug groups out there that are chastising the company that produces "Cocaine" for naming their drink after a drug.

The first thing I have to say about it is this: Lighten Up. These organizations are griping that it is irresponsible to name this drink after a drug, and that people will inevitably link the two together. This irks me more than anything else. How can we expect the youth of this country to learn to look out for themselves, to protect themselves, when they have so many organizations, and political groups trying to do it all for them.

Every day you see on the news some intellectual athlete has gone and surpassed the already lofty bar of stupidity. Then they have the nerve to try to sue someone over it, like they didn't know eating a 2000 calorie, albeit delicious, hamburger for lunch every day for eight years was going to pack them on a pound or two. Or maybe the guy who tries to put out an electrical fire with lacquer thinner because it wasn't sold in a flourescent red container with the word FLAMMABLE printed on it in size 72 print with a cap that takes a team of NASA engineers two weeks to take off.

It's idiots like these, who refuse to take responsibility for their actions, and learn from them, that make it harder to live in America these days. I'll give you two examples. Some of you older folks may remember wood burning kits. That little rod that heated up to ten-thousand degrees Celsius so you could burn little designs in a peice of Bulsa wood. Those didn't have warning labels on them (atleast the one my father had when he was little didn't). People were just brought up well enough to know that you really shouldn't touch the red-hot end. Heres the beauty part: if they didn't know that, THEY LEARNED. How'd they learn you ask? Trial and error. Trial: Touch the red-hot end of the wood-burning rod. Error: Burn yourself. Lesson: Don't touch hot things. See how easy that was, and now that person not only knows not to touch the wood burner, but an abundance of hot things. A little pain now to save alot of pain later.

The second example involves me. When I was 5 my parents took me and my sisters to a Mexican food restraunt. My father, being the spicy food aficionado that he was, ordered one of those dishes that is served to the table on a sizzling skillet. Being five and overly curious, I immediatly set about grabbing the skillet. My father grabbed my hand before I could touch it and said "Hot." That was my one and only warning. Needless to say I did not take heed of his warning and proceeded to grab the skillet heavy-handed and was rewarded with a less than pleasant burn to my palm. But guess what folks, I learned, and to this day have never burnt myself again on something I knew to be hot.

It's this mentality that we have to live in a bubble-wrapped world that really makes me angry. I believe in doing things the hard way whenever possible. It makes you stronger, is inevitably better than the easy way, and when the time comes to do something the easy way, it's that much easier for you, having done it the hard way first.

I'll end this already long-winded topic with something my father always used to tell me whenever I wanted to take the easy way out of something. To keep the world running, there is an exact amount of work that must be done. If you do your share, and so does everyone else, everything runs smooth. If you do a little extra, thats just less work that has to be done later. But if you don't do your share, someone else has to pick up your slack.

[RiversideParish]

That little rod that heated up to ten-thousand degrees Celsius
That will melt trough ANYTHING... 18,032 degrees F with burn the skin off of you from a foot away.

Heck, the sun ain't even that hot, AFAIK. I think you screwsed up.

[74runner]

That will melt trough ANYTHING... 18,032 degrees F with burn the skin off of you from a foot away.

Heck, the sun ain't even that hot, AFAIK. I think you screwsed up.
it was a hyperbole

and I agree with you Dover, its stupid that you can sue because you don't have common sence. everybody is sooooooo sheltered and protected growing up that I am not really surprised that there is a whole generation of retards growing up. as far as the cocaine drink.....sounds like somethin to put vodka in and have some fun:D , PC groups are sheep all they say is "baaaaaaaaaaaaad" we are human beings the smartest animal on earth we can think for ourselves.

one thing I have to add to the list of things that piss me off is the little lippy kids who think that they can say and do anything to anybody and have no concequences. there was a time you could take those punks out and lay into them. BUT NOT NOW.........its almost impossable to teach anyone a lesson without getting an assult charge. I HATE SKATER PUNK LITTLE BRATS!!!!!!!!!!

I live by an old saying:
>pain is a teacher, scars are your diploma<

[1957Chevy]

One of the marks of an intelligent species is being able to look out for and protect the rest of the "flock." Sometime we go a little too far, I agree. But to say that all things designed to warn people of danger are bad, is to go too far.

Maybe a drink called "Cocaine" is sending the wrong message to children who are too young to decide for themselves that the drug Cocaine is bad even if the drink isn't. I know, that's the kid's parents' responsibility, but we all know that not all parents are responsible enough to teach their children right from wrong, so society steps in and makes rules in an attempt to protect those children.

I agree, adults should take responsibility for their actions, and the age at which someone arrives at the stage of "adult" is not carved in stone. Several years ago, I think it was about 21 years ago, I was talking to an 18 year old at a party who was pretty banged up from an accident. When asked how it happened he told me that he was riding his bike, according to him he was going about 25 or so miles per hour down an incline along a row of parked cars, and an "old man" opened his car door. The kid ran into the car door and flipped several times and rolled and skidded, well, you get the picture! He blamed the old man for opening his door; I blamed the kid for riding too close to the parked cars at a speed too high for him to stop or avoid the door; his mother, who was at the same party, blamed the old man, and to prove it, she threw her beer in my face when I told the kid that he should take some responsibility for the position he placed himself in; his father, who was also at the party, blamed the old man and to prove it he tried to choke me to death -- it took three guys to get him off of me! As I drove away I saw the kid playing frisbee in the yard -- slings, casts, and all! Now, there's a family that would champion a cause like the anti-cocaine issue, or swear that we need warnings on everything....what jerks!

This is a post that should start with a warning -- Warning, do not read this post if you feel that government should protect you from your own stupidity!

[72Chero]

and this is why I have the window sticker.....

"STUPIDITY SHOULD BE PAINFUL"

[THEL78ISGREAT]

Im pretty conservative, and thats just stupid. Let them name the drink whatever they want. Its theirs. Why dont they spend time doing something useful, like getting REAL crack off of the streets. Or why dont they try to change the name of the website penisland.com, a website that sells pens. Seriously, do something useful with your time.

[Dover78]

Thank you L78, you got my point. I'm not saying it's bad for these people to try to look out for us, but they should do so in a more limited capacity, and in conjunction with efforts to solve more urgent problems. These people all started out with good intentions, I'm sure, but now they've become so bent on protecting us from ourselves that the can't look at the big picture. They are aiming the fire hose at the at the lit match sitting next to the burning building. As 57 said, some warning lables are very necassary, and warn people of effects a device might have that they would have been completely unaware of otherwise. I'm talking warning labels like "Do Not Use In The Shower" on a curling iron, or "Do Not Use While Sleeping" on a blow-dryer, common-sense stuff. I'm not even talking about the complete idiocy these labels suggest. I'm angry about the fact that things like this are making common-sense obsolete. Today you can't trip on your own shoe-lace without being able to sue someone for it. Oh, yes, I almost forgot. I would like to take this chance to congratulate RiversideParish on having the ability to completely look past everything I wrote and inform me of the wood-burning kits apparent in ability to attain ten-thousand degrees Celsius. Thank Riverside, I'll call NASA and make sure they know.

[THEL78ISGREAT]

Some lady this year, seriously, sued a Winnabego (spelling?) company because while she was driving down the highway, she got up to make coffee and it ran off of the road. She won.

[75coug]

Some lady this year, seriously, sued a Winnabego (spelling?) company because while she was driving down the highway, she got up to make coffee and it ran off of the road. She won.

That one is an urban myth that has been making the rounds for decades. Sorry.

[THEL78ISGREAT]

That one is an urban myth that has been making the rounds for decades. Sorry.
Could be, but there was a pretty big report on it

[74runner]

Some lady this year, seriously, sued a Winnabego (spelling?) company because while she was driving down the highway, she got up to make coffee and it ran off of the road. She won.
something happened like that up here, except she was in the back cooking and her husband was driving and hit a bump and she got sprayed with grease. it was thrown out of court though.

[1957Chevy]

I asked a very, very conservative friend of mine who is the mother of three young children -- she thinks there's nothing wrong with the name of the drink but she does think it's irresponsible for a company to give it that name because, are you ready?

BECAUSE IT'S NOT COCAINE!

I guess she's more upset about the false advertising than anything else!

[74runner]

o god:rolleyes:

well maybe they should put some blow into the drink and hake everyone happy:)

[Dover78]

Alright, I think this thread has run it's course.

Here's the line, where we should have stopped.

----------------------------------------

O--------------Heres where we are.

[1957Chevy]

Why? Discussions like this can be entertaining for a long time..................

[72Chero]

he's not getting any where. Fact is....the only way to stop the madness is to stop purchasing the stuff. Buy what you want and need. Leave it at that. I've learned don't engage in what you don't believe in.

[dseale4888]

There is no way to protect people from themselves. Unfortunately the more education they get the less common sense they have.
Dave

[Dover78]

All I'm saying is that common sense is becoming endangered. If it isn't printed in flourescent pink letters on a gigantic warning label, no one worries about it. If we had the power to instantly remove all warning labels from all products tommorrow there would be mayhem in the streets. People taking their toasters in the shower, drinking paint and anti-freeze, changing light-bulbs with water on their hands, lighting cigarrettes with sticks of dynamite while filling styrofoam coolers with gasoline. The whole world would degenerate into mass, stupidity-induced hysteria. People would run through the streets swearing at animals and small children and hitting eachother with sticks. Policemen would shoot themselves because they forgot which way to point the gun. Cats would chase dogs, birds would attack cats, deer would run over cars on quiet country roads. Luckily the military would come along to fix everything by launching our entire nuclear arsenal. Unforutanately we launched them all at ourselves and our allies overseas. In retaliation Winston Churchill would send us an angry letter, then get drunk and trip and fall on a nuclear warhead destroying the rest of the world. And all that would be left is the little warning label that was tucked neatly in the mountains of Canada that said "Warning: Do Not Allow Planet To Become Infested With Stupid People." It would be about that time that everyone would understand what I'm trying to say.

[72Chero]

As my subaru so elloquantly states....

''STUPIDITY SHOULD BE PAINFUL"

[Mongoose]

A smart man (my dad) once told me to not be angry at someone who calls you ignorant. Ignorance is merely a lack of information. Ignorance can be fixed by gathering information.

The bottom line was this: "Ignorance is temporary, stupid is permanent."

Ya can't fix stupid.

[1957Chevy]

If we can't help those who can't help themselves, then what good are we? If we buy into the 'survival of the fittest' lock stock and barrel, then we're just as stupid at those who need warning labels. A civilized society will work toward personal freedoms and balance that with protecting the less fortunate from the perils thrust upon them by those who know how to take advantage of them. We can't let a few warning labels cause us to believe that the world has gone to hell, but we should strive for a balance between being utterly ridiculous and being helpful and understanding of other people's shortcomings or frailties. It seems to me that the pendulum has swung too far toward the 'help others' side and has in turn caused us to place burdens or restrictions on our personal freedoms. However, it's hard to push the pendulum back the other way -- where do we start? Do we let little kids drink poison or put their hands on a hot stove? Do we take all 'child-proof' caps off medicines so we can open them easily? Do we take those labels off the sunvisors and maybe put a child in peril of being injured or killed by airbags? Where do we start? Should be boycott products who treat us all like we're stupid or do we buy those products exclusively because they are trying to help the unfortunate? I don't know the answer, and neither does anyone here, but it's a good discussion none-the-less!