How Stupid Is This?

[MA-Caver]

I think I'm reading the news too often. Almost everyday I read about something really stupid happening. Not funny "ha-ha" stupid but the kind that gets you to close your eyes and shake your head in disbelief and just have feelings of exasperation to sheer outrage at the stupidity of some people.
So anyway thought this might make an interesting thread for MT-ers to post and briefly comment on.
Rules: basically when you find something as in a short news article (like the one below) about something really stupid post it here, give your two bits on it and the rest of us can two-bit on it til someone else finds something similarly stupid or just as stupid. Include a few paragraphs of the story and the source url for reference and to avoid copyright infringements as stated on MT's policy.

These are things that goes on in our society (including the home society of the wonderful Brits on this forum) that makes us wonder how we'll ever make it to the next century.
Try this for example.

Toddler served margarita in a sippy cup
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070616...l_margarita;_ylt=ArEJvmCTajh7Nujn1uLzMX4Z.3QA
Sat Jun 16, 7:04 AM ET

ANTIOCH, Calif. - Kim Mayorga was confused when her 2-year-old started making funny faces and pushing away the apple juice he had ordered at Applebee's. The explanation came when she opened the lid of the sippy cup and was hit by the smell of tequila and Triple Sec.
The restaurant staff accidentally gave Julian Mayorga a margarita Monday. He grew drowsy and started vomiting a few hours later and was rushed to the hospital.
"I wasn't going to make a big deal about it," the mother told the Contra Costa Times on Thursday, "but then he got sick."
The apple juice and margarita mix were stored in identical plastic bottles, and the manager mistakenly grabbed the margarita container to pour the boy's drink, said Randy Tei, vice president for Apple Bay East Inc., which owns the franchise restaurant and nine other Applebee's in the San Francisco Bay area.
The Mayorgas will be reimbursed for their medical bills, and Tei said the franchise group's restaurants will no longer serve apple juice and margaritas in similar containers.
"We absolutely believe it was an honest mistake," Tei said.
The serving appeared to have been accidental, Antioch police Lt. Pat Welch said. Mayorga said her son is now doing fine.
She said the company has been very apologetic and offered free meals, but she added, "If they think I'm going back there, they're ridiculous."

Ok it's bad enough that the bar-tender/server made the stupid mistake of grabbing the wrong bottle without at least checking it. Working as a server/waiter I know that it can get really busy/hectic when three dozen customers come walking through the doors in the space of a half hour and then the other half hour is met by another three dozen customers. Maybe the resturant wasn't that busy at the time but the server/waiter should've known to check the contents of the bottle. Likewise the mother shouldn't have been so trusting (IMO). She should've made sure that her child was indeed just getting plain apple juice or milk or whatever. Hopefully everyone involved learns their respective lessons and that the child will be alright.

remember to :rules:RTFM:readrules

 

[Kacey]

At least that one was, apparently, a mistake. How about this one?

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- The family of a 2-month-old girl who showed up at a Colorado Springs hospital drunk told police the baby was given vodka by mistake.The family told police the baby's father had poured vodka into a water bottle, and then her mother mistakenly used that bottle to mix baby formula."It was a mistake. It was an honest mistake. I had no idea that there was alcohol in the water bottle," said mother Sarah Smith.

 

[14 Kempo]

At least that one was, apparently, a mistake. How about this one?

Pouring vodka into a water bottle? Wonder if that isn't a sign of alcoholism ... LOL ... gees, what next.

 

[MA-Caver]

Yet another sippy cup incident...

TSA video counters 'sippy cup' claim
Sun Jun 17, 6:11 AM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070617/ap_on_re_us/airport_sippy_cup
ARLINGTON, Va. - The Transportation Security Administration is denying allegations that an airport screener seized a toddler's sippy cup and mistreated his mother, taking the unusual step of posting security camera footage on its Web site.
The TSA said in a statement that the incident and the videotape demonstrate that its "officers display professionalism and concern for all passengers."
At issue is whether Monica Emmerson, a former
Secret Service officer, was improperly detained June 11 after she spilled water out of her child's sippy cup at Washington's Reagan National Airport.
TSA has banned most fluids at airport security checkpoints for nearly a year because of concern about possible liquid explosives.
"I was distraught. I opened my son's sippy cup. I twisted off the top. I wanted to drink the water. It spilled out," Emmerson said Saturday.
Emmerson said an officer threatened to arrest her after the water spilled, telling her she was "endangering the public." She said there was no place to dump the water near the security area, and that she was worried when her son started wandering away from her.
The story quickly spread on the Internet this week after blogger Bill Adler, a Washington author, saw a note Emmerson wrote on a Web site for city parents. Adler interviewed Emmerson and relayed her account.
He wrote that a TSA screener seized her 19-month-old's cup after asking if there was water in it, causing Emmerson's son to cry. Emmerson was told she would have to leave the security checkpoint and dump out the water if she wanted to keep the cup.
Emmerson said she accidentally spilled the water because she was nervous and traveling alone with a toddler.

Seeing terrorist EVERYWHERE now... even with toddlers carrying their drinks.
A reasonable concern that a radical mom could do something like this but c'mon... a quick check to see if the liquid smelled funnier than water would've taken care of it and let the lady and her son on board... geez.
Yeah, using profiling and seeing the Sippy Cup mom's picture... I'd say she's a danger to us all... NOT!

 

[jks9199]

OK...

First -- Applebee's Marg-in-a-sippycup.

Since when would a restaurant keep alcohol in the marg mix? How would they make a virgin marg? But let's assume they did... After all, it takes 3 or 4 whole seconds to pour a shot of booze into the mix... So, kid drinks a few sips. Let's go way out and say the kid drank the entire sippycup before mom found out. But the kid doesn't get sick right away... it takes a couple of hours, and the kid gets drowsy and vomits.

I think Applebee's got had. And I'd personally be sending CPS to check out mom. Because I can't believe that it would take a couple of hours; given the 20 to 50 lb bodyweight of toddler, an 8 oz sippycup full of alcohol (no mixers, pure booze) would produce life threatening BACs. Within the first hour. They'd have known almost immediately. I've responded to cases where toddlers accidentally ODed on cough syrup; it's obvious, right away.

Like I said, I think mom and dad quickly saw dollar signs on a relatively innocent mix up. And Applebee's caved because of fear of publicity, and the expense of fighting the case.

Next... Daddy's "special water."

I blame dad 100%. (OK... mom gets a little blame because I'm not sure she shouldn't have noticed the odor of the vodka. But maybe the formula covered it up as she was mixing...) I gotta suspect that dad is an alcoholic, or wanted to take booze somewhere it wasn't allowed. Hey... There's a reason I know that Gatorade is a lousy mixer for vodka... (College error... Never to be repeated!)

Finally... Reagan National sippycup incident.

Mom's got the wrong attitude, and she should know better. Instead, she figured her badge would get her special treatment. Since that didn't work... she's blaming the cops and TSA officers who had to deal with it. I've been to Reagan National quite a few times. They make the rules VERY clear. There are plenty of signs up. But, hey, TSA keeps changing the rules. I can deal with her thinking the sippycup would get through. When they said no -- that's when her attitude sank her. She tried to weasle around the rule, flashed a badge, and then created a dangerous situation rather than deal with the rules like an adult. And now she's playing the victim card...

I've got a simple question. Had she been of Middle Eastern ethnicity, with nothing else changed (still Secret Service, still just a sippy cup of water, etc.) -- how much sympathy would she be getting? Instead, she's blond and (I think) blue eyed...

SHE created the problem with the way she responded to the rules that everyone else there was following. I've got no sympathy for her.