Obit. from The Times Feb. 7th '12
Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend,Common Sense, who has been with us for many years.
No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.
He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:
- Knowing when to come in out of the rain;
- Why the early bird gets the worm;
- Life isn't always fair;
- And maybe it was my fault.
Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and
reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).
His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations
were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate;
teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for
reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.
Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they
themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.
It declined even further when schools were required to
get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student;
but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.
Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches and Bhora laders became businesses;
and criminals received better treatment than their victims.
Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your
own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.
Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a
steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, launched a lawsuit and
was promptly awarded a huge settlement.
Common Sense was preceded in death,
-by his parents, Truth and Trust,
-by his wife, Discretion,
-by his daughter, Responsibility,
-and by his son, Reason.
He is survived by his 5 stepbrothers;
- I Know My Rights
- I Want It Now
- Someone Else Is To Blame
- I'm A Victim
- Pay me for Doing Nothing
Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.
= new reply since forum marked as read
I wish people knew the real details of this incident.
When I first heard about it when when the case originally happened, I was like most people: 
But that response was based on the shallow, misleading, and sensationalistic reporting that made it seem like the world's gone crazy because here we are awarding some klutzy woman a huge cash settlement for spilling coffee on herself.
As you say, the woman suffered third degree burns; that's the real right there. And if I recall correctly, there was also a history of complaints about the coffee being extremely hot from other customers and the management chose to do nothing about it.
Both the severity of the burns and the history of complaint with no action from management is what resulted in the successful lawsuit.
But never let facts get in the way of a good right-wing meme.
I did miss this earlier story.
