By the Book and Ignoring Common Sense

Heidy! Heidy! Ho! How the heck are you today! Glad you couple find time to click by today. Fill your mug with some Arabica juice and heft a virtual megamuffin onto your plate. Bob oh boy...sometimes you have to wonder, eh. Sure, rules are put in place for good reason, but sometimes you have to look at the reason and consider the action as well, don't you? Here are three recent cases where it was 'By the book...without regard for common sense.'

(1) Homeless man James Brady had his New Jersey state benefits cut off in October for "hiding" income. He had found $850 on a sidewalk in April and turned it in; when no one came forward, it was returned to him, though he was unaware that he needed to report it as "income." 

(2) A 16-year-old Fox Chapel, Pa., boy realized at a football game in September that he was inadvertently carrying a pocket knife and conscientiously turned it in to a security guard -- which earned him a 10-day school suspension. The school's "zero tolerance" rule, said the boy's father, "sends a message (that) you should probably lie." 

(3) Betty Green was fired as clerk at the Speedway gas station in Lexington, Ky., in November when she "just said no" to an armed robber, who smiled and walked out. Company rules require always giving up the money. Said Green, "I don't think anybody knows what you are going to do until it happens to you." [Associated Press via ABC News, 11-10-2013] [KDKA-TV (Pittsburgh), 9-16-2013] [WLEX- TV (Lexington), 11-6-2013] 

Stupid is as stupid does...and who suffers(?)...people trying to do the right thing.

See ya, eh!

Bob