To Catch An Idiot

Me and my husband usually catch the "To Catch A Predator" episodes on Dateline NBC. They might as well be subtitled "To Catch An Idiot." Because most of them are.

For anybody that hasn't seen it, pedophiles contact people posing to be minors on the internet and have graphic chats with them about sexual things that they want to do with them. Eventually they set up a date, and when they show up at the house, the police nab them and they get carted off to jail.

Many of them come up with the excuse "I wasn't going to do anything!" They expect the police to believe that, when they talked to this person (often for a period of days or even a month ahead of time) graphically about sex with them, that they weren't going to do anything? Sure. There were two people on tonight's show that might get off because they seemed to have changed their mind ahead of time... one old guy said that he talked to his lawyer ahead of time and found out that he couldn't do anything sexual (duh) and another guy indicated that he didn't bring condoms because he wanted to get to know her better first. They might get off, but most of them clearly didn't show any second thoughts until they got caught.

One pedophile remarked "I wanted to make a friend!" Well, that is a noble and good thing, but it doesn't hold any water. If this person truly wanted to make a friend, they would not have been talking to the teenager graphically about sex before meeting them. If this person really wanted to make a friend, there are other ways to go about it. Schools can always use people that are willing to volunteer their time. There are groups out there where adults to volunteer to be mentors to teenagers. For the religious person, you could volunteer for the church youth group. At any rate, for someone really looking for a teenage friend, there are opportunities... but it's preferred that if you are a pedophile you don't apply.

Another stupid criminal out there is Lindsey Lohan. Either that, or she thinks that the judge in the courtroom is stupid. Does she really expect us to believe that the cocaine found in her pocket was not hers? I won't believe it unless I'm stupid. If it truly wasn't hers, then she is the stupid one. You would have to lack intelligence to hold on to someone else's cocaine when you were just 10 days out of rehab.

One argument against evolution is that people do not seem to be getting smarter. They seem to be getting dumber by the year. I saw an 8th grade exit exam from the 1890s or so... it was tough! Many college students today would find it challenging. I thiink a common misperception is that people of ancient times were stupid... I believe that to be completely untrue. Socrates, Plato, and the like could really write well, and most of them knew several languages. There's a show on the History Channel called Ancient Discoveries that talks about some amazing inventions that they had centuries ago. It's amazing. And although I don't know Sanscrit, I heard that it was a very complicated language. Even the way Shakespeare wrote was more complicated than what we are used to today. Today we have "Lite" salad dressing and people purposely butchering grammar so they can fit in.

I saw a digg.com article today where 23% of parents had trouble reading bedtime stories to their children. Perhaps the article was skewed, I don't know. Some children's stories could be challenging... I found The Hobbit to be a challenge, not necessarily to read but more along the lines of comprehending and remembering. I could even understand having difficulty reading The Chronicles of Narnia, although I didn't find it difficult. More likely, they were probably talking about stories like The Three Bears or Little Red Riding Hood.

Unfortunately, I don't see the schools getting better any time soon. Therefore, the criminals are probably not going to get much smarter either. Maybe that is the one good side... it's easier to catch an idiot than it is to catch a genius.