Tag Archives: Yale Law

Book Sense and Common Sense

When I was in the military, we had a saying about many officers and it was, ‘lots of book sense and no common sense’. This also applies to some NCOs as well. Not all of them were like that but there were plenty to go around. These people stayed in some sort of school, always into their books but when it came to thinking outside of the box, what is not found in a book, they were lost or would do or say something crazy.

               There are a lot of people in Congress, state and local government that run in the same pact. They can say what you need to hear or want to hear but never enacted what they have said. They are good at telling you what need to be done or tell you what to do but have never done it themselves nor realize what the outcome will be. Every situation is different with all sorts of variables which mean there must be some sort of fine tuning to complete the task.

               There are many people that cannot think beyond the box and have been put into a position due to who they know or who they owe, etc. but they do not have the knowledge, expertise, or anything that qualify them for the position. I have seen a lot of them when I was in the military. There is one in Congress (there may be others that made it in because of this situation) that was elected because her opponent had to drop out for personal reasons, and she ran unopposed. If the opponent had not dropped out, she would have never won the election. Now the state and the country are stuck with this unqualified person.

               Then you have those that get into politics to gain wealth. All they want to do is make money anyway they can. They will say and do anything. They will take money to say and do certain things as long as they can climb up the ladder a little further. In the meanwhile, we the people suffer for the wrongs that are being perpetrated by these people. They do not care if the law that they want enacted helps the constituents or not as long as they get theirs. If they can garner a fan base, all the better because that will ensure they can stay in place and make more money.

               There is a Congresswoman that constantly break the rules and is fined for them. Now she is complaining she don’t have money because her pay is going toward paying off the fines imposed on her. Common sense tells anyone not to break the rules that carry a fine in which you will not get paid on payday.

               Thinking about book sense and common sense; there is a leader of a violent group from the right that is a Yale Law graduate but is now considered a jailbird because of his and his group’s actions. He has plenty of book sense, but I don’t think he ever had enough common sense to stay out of jail and to keep those radical views out of his head.

               I’ve always said that knowing the book is good but common sense is better. First, the book may not tell you everything. And second, is the book telling the truth? A mix of book and common sense go hand in hand to make a better person and a lot of Congresspeople need to make that change. There is a lot of stupid out there, even in those that elect these stupid people and keep them in office.