Busted

This week I became an offender of one of my biggest pet peeves: turning on the mouth and not the brain.

I understand that this is a broad statement that results in lots of actions that are, shall we say, not our best work. Within this category, I am specifically intolerant of people to pass along outrageous tales as truth without even thinking to check, "is this true?"

It's happened to most of us. Someone posts a story or sends an email and you instantly think, "No way! The rest of the world must know about this immediately." All I ask is that you do us a favor and take 2 minutes to figure out if there is even a chance it could be true before you go running around town telling everyone. I mean, you were shocked, were you not? Put it into Google and if Snopes is on the first page, consider putting the megaphone away.

Lets think of some examples, shall we?

The president is secretly a gangster. It's a good thing he BFFs with Kat Von D so he can get a discount on all of that tattoo concealer.

Women are not only going to be allowed in combat soon, but they will be required to take their babies into the battlefield with them so their intuition will be on high alert.

Next,  I have to apologize for subjecting all of you to a political rant. To be fair, it seems that I was not the only one who was duped, but I did get publicly hot and bothered about it before doing my homework.

In short, this was about a statement Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan made while hearing a case about California's Proposition 8. I read a news blog that said Kagan suggested marriage licences be offered to same-sex couples after their childbearing years. To me, that sounded like the most ridiculous solution, regardless of what side you're on - and that was precisely her point. In addition, the original story I read misrepresented what she said.

Fortunately, I have friends that pay more attention to politics than I do and pointed out that it was highly unlikely that this particular justice would suggest such a thing. It took no more than 5 minutes to discover the context of the discussion and realize that "If she could have added 'you dumbass!' she probably would have."

Touche my friend. Touche.