Forwarding warnings

Why do I bother?

Someone sent me one of those round robins. You know the sort don't take the third exit of a roundabout on Friday the 13th as that's where the gangs lurk to kill you.

So I sent back a really nice reply politely saying that it wasn't a good idea to forward warnings like that without checking them out, and links to a few sites to do so.

What was the reaction "Oops sorry, thanks for the help and advice" ?

No. Is it ever?

I'll never understand how people can treat being helped out as a personal affront.

It isn't rude to correct someone when they do something wrong- quite the opposite in fact it is rude to withhold help just because the person you are talking to may be the sort of bullying type who takes offense.

Just for once it would be nice for someone to say "Oh really? Sorry, I didn't know that. Thanks for letting me know."

Health and Safety

Another urban myth- you can't do anything these days because of "Heath and Safety" laws. Largely false. Many people just make something restrictive things up rather than try and understand the world out there

So false the HSE have a page on H&S myths.
Go and read it

It's like political correctness gone fictional

One thing that annoys me more than someone moaning about "Political Correctness", is someone moaning about an aspect of political correctness that doesn't exist, or is passed on by whispers and rumour.

At this time of year, the more extreme end of the Press try and rile their readership with half stories of how Christmas and our Christian culture is under threat.

Much as I think this country has gained from Christianity, with only 2% of the population attending church I think it is a bit rich that people who only go to Church for "christenings" and weddings shriek "But this is a Christian Country" when they hear distorted stories of isolated well meaning but wrong-headed people doing something to avoid offending minority religions. Fact is that the people who get most offended by overt Christianity are militant atheists, who are by and large not "immigrants" but very much part of the "indigenous population".

If Christmas is in anyway under threat, it is from those who celebrate it, or actually fail to celebrate it. Those that moan about the PC brigade threatening their traditions probably ought to be looking at how little.

But I digress. The fact is there is not a wide spread war against Christmas. Sure in a country of 60 million people, if you dig hard enough you will find a story that if you report some of the key details will annoy a significant number of people. But these stories are isolated, and few and far between.

Another urban myth is the offensiveness of the term "Brainstorming". Epileptics do not find the term offensive, unless it is used to describe a seizure. Not sure where this myth came from but I'll bet some belligerent "it's PC gone mad" type sarcastically said once "I bet you can't even say brainstorming any more because it's offensive to epileptics", and caused a self fulfilling prophesy.

The myth was disproved back in 2005, a study was carried out and the term was found to be non-offensive. Yet even still people will trot out "Oh you can't say brainstorming, it's got to be thought shower." In fact I have been more upset by someone not trusting me as a knowledgable person on this and continuing with the thoughtshower line, than anyone was ever upset by the term brainstorming.

So today's message: Christmas is not being banned and you can have a brainstorming session. Unless you're having a fit, then it's called a seizure.