Opuscula Are we getting STUPIDER?

WE HAVE A NEW HIGH-SPEED train in my area. So far it only travels at 112 kph (70 mph ), but the speed is expected to double in less populated areas.

The train has only been running a little more than two weeks and already two people have been killed and a third injured.

Why?

They thought they could beat the train at a grade crossing.

Now, the train makes a lot of noise, and the guard rails are down and the lights are flashing. The train company promises even more safety features, but it won’t stop the STUPIDS. The Feds have stepped in with their two cents.

The local, often equally stupid, media note that the passenger train goes faster than the freight trains with which it shares the rails. (The freight trains were here first.)

WHAT DIFFERENCE DOE IT MAKE? When the gates are down and the lights flashing, it’s just plain STUPID to walk or bike or drive around the gates.

Granted, few want to wait as a 200-car train goes by, but the passenger trains are only five or six cars and an engine. (I don’t mind waiting for a long freight train. I just turn off the engine and listen to the radio.)

No matter how many safety devices are installed or how many laws are passed, STUPIDITY will prevail.

Kids’ doctor for Medicare patient?

I’m a “senior.” My insurance is Medicare.

In order to be eligible for Medicare, a person normally has to be at least 65 years old.

My Medicare insurer this year lists multiple dentists as “pedodontist “

I suspect the specialty should read “periodontist.”

There is a difference.

According to several web sites I checked, a PEDODONTIST¹ specializes in children’s teeth. On the other hand, a PERIODONTIST specializes in gum disease and implants².

The clue is in the first letters of the PEDonontist. “Ped” as in “pediatrics” (but not “ped” as in pedal, as in what a foot is placed on).

Then there is the battle between “dentist” and “periodontist”³.

I actually sent my insurer an email noting what I perceive to be a “got’cha,” but the insurer did not deign to respond.

Red light cameras

Here in south Florida many communities had “red light cameras’ that snapped photos of scoff-laws running red lights.

Thanks to lawyers and other do-gooders, the cameras are mostly history.

Never mind that they DID reduce the amount of drivers running the lights and getting into accidents.

Somehow, the red light cameras infringed on the scoff-law’s privacy; it is in the “greater public good” to protect the scoff-law than to protect others on the road at the same time.

As a young reporter, I covered enough fatalities, leaving me to believe that removing the red light cameras is STUPID, as well as dangerous.

Women’s rights

There is nothing stupid about women’s rights and their demand to be treated better.

However . . .

Women in the U.S. are far better off than women in, say, the Middle East. Murder of an unfaithful wife may happen in the U.S., but it is not – as it is elsewhere – government sanctioned.

I am amazed than the liberated American woman hits the streets against “oppressed women” in Israel while turning a blind eye to oppression of women in the Muslim world. Actually, Arab women enjoy greater freedom in Israel than anywhere else in the region.

I was watching an old movie the other night when a male called a female “honey.” That was when “honey” was OK. If the film were made today, the actor (and the script writer) would find themselves in court for sexual harassment. “Honey” and similar “intended to be harmless” terms are no longer “PC” and are the makings of civil and criminal action. Rather than the offended woman telling the man to stop, she immediately heads to her on-standby lawyer.

Now that is STUPID.

And then there are the politicians

I’ve been around a fairly long time; the first presidential election I remember was between Harry S Truman and Dwight (Ike) Eisenhower.

I cannot recall any election that continues to divide the country as the Trump-Clinton election.

Trump certainly can be faulted for his tweets and thoughtless remarks, but Clinton is at least as bad if not worse. Congress – both houses – are painfully partisan at the expense of the Republic.

It seems John and Jane Public have decided to behave as their congressional representatives, preferring to hate and denigrate everything and anyone not sharing their agenda.

My way of the highway.

STUPID.

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1. Pedodontist: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/pedodontist
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pedodontist
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/pedodontist

2: Periodontist:
https://www.perio.org/consumer/what-is-a-periodontist
http://www.mouthhealthy.org/en/az-topics/p/periodoncia
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/periodontics

3. Dentist vs. Periodontist: https://patch.com/new-jersey/howell/bp--what-is-the-difference-between-a-dentist-and-a-periodontist
http://www.rdhmag.com/articles/print/volume-27/issue-1/feature/the-feud-between-dentists-and-periodontists.html
http://work.chron.com/dentist-vs-periodontist-20482.html

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

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