When kids get cell phones, some of them know how to use them right, but there are some kids who will do what Bart Simpson did and either crank call people or try to call Australia just to see if the water goes clockwise down the toilet.
If parents don't want phone bills with massive long distance charges from who-knows-where, they should wait a while before giving the kid a cell phone.
As for that couple who left their baby in the car...I hope the judge threw the book at 'em. It's just a sadness beyond words when someone does something like that. It's the same thing for pets. People do that to their dogs, unfortunately. Their lives are worth something, too!
I can only hope the baby went quietly and painlessly.
What is wrong with some people? That's a big question. I've lived in a lot of places and each place, some people do things that shock and horrify me.
I can give you one example. I used to live in a town that had a lot of problems with its school system. Among many many problems, this school turned a blind eye towards the use of corporal punishment. Yes, kids from junior high on up in this town got harmed physically (as well as verbally).
We're not talking about paddling or a simple (literal) slap on the wrist. We're talking about punching and hitting. You read that right...teachers punching and hitting students.
One teacher got away with this for 31 years before he retired. One time, the student showed his bruises to his parents (and their lawyer) and still the teacher weaseled his way out of getting fired. (How, I don't know).
Another teacher had a different signature move. One student came to class a minute late. The teacher took two fingers and jammed them into the student's collarbone, making him sink to the floor in pain. The teacher didn't say a word. He just stood there, expressionless, like Lurch from "The Addams Family" and continued to press his fingers in.
Oh yes, this guy was also the vice principal...who got away with it for about 30 years before he retired.
Why didn't he get the axe? Well, he was also a coach, a status which made him very popular in that town. See, the town advertised itself through sports. The coach/vice principal had a lot of victory games during his career. The coach coached the althletes, which made the school look good which made the town look good.
Another teacher (yet another coach) got away with a lot of physical and verbal abuse as well... He had even more pull than the vice principal and what happened? The high school tore down and rebuilt the gym and dedicated it to him. He was (and still is) hailed a hero. The town refuses to see that the emperor has no clothes. Speaking of emperor, the man was very much a "Senator Palpatine". The scene in "Revenge of the Sith" where the entire Senate cheers him as the Galactic Empire is born? It was the same thing with this guy and the gym dedication.
Why haven't the police done anything? Well, the rumblings were that the vice principal (plus others) was good friends with the cops...plus the cops were a mixture of Chief Wiggums and Barney Fifes who are too busy with something else: enforcing the curfew. Yes, this town had (maybe still has) an 11PM curfew for anyone under 21.
See, the town is mainly run by a lot of senior citizens who basically see younger people (teenagers in particular) as vermin. Instead of looking for drunk drivers/concentrating on crime, the cops cruise the streets constantly, looking for anyone under 21 to scrutinize.
One day, an old woman was out driving in this town, jumped the curb and rammed into a "No Parking" sign, bending it over. She was parked...two wheels on the curb, two off. No one mentioned a thing about it.
A couple nights later, a teenage girl (in the same town) was going home after work. It was 11:05PM. On the way home, the cops pulled over and she got a fine...for being outside of her home after curfew. Her crime? Going home after work. There was no bus in that town and she didn't have a car. She had to walk home.
There's an old bum who has lived in the town for about 50 years who rides his bicycle right down the middle of the street, looking for soda cans to put in his basket. he has no concept of left or right. To him, the street is the street. He's oblivious to the traffic that has narrowly missed him for years. It's dangerous both to him and the drivers. He wanted breakfast one morning, so he wandered into someone's home and just started eating the food out of some couple's fridge.
Have the cops done anything about him? Nope.
Meanwhile, a coffee house/internet cafe opened, then was quickly shut down because it didn't appeal to the senior citizens. According to them, it just "wasn't necessary". The real reason it shut down is that it was something for the teenagers to do...which was frowned upon.
That's just a mere sample of what I could really tell.
That's why I really appreciate people who actually have a brain in their head and see things for how they really are. I appreciate those even more who don't get bogged down by all the negativity in the world and can do something positive. That's one of the big reasons I admire Jim so much. It gave me hope that there were people out there in the world with the same type of attitude as him...a light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak.
Convincing John