Don't do that

There are a number of things that common sense should tell a person not to do. We would expect that people wouldn't drink paint, no matter what California said about it. We would hope that you wouldn't wear a suit made out of bacon when visiting an attack dog school. And we certainly hope that nobody would try and laugh at anything Carrot Top's done in the past few years.

As for some other things that people shouldn't do, we only have to look into the news to find some glaring examples. First, there's the guy who decided to grow pot. Not a horrible idea, really, as plenty of people have made quite a bit of money out of such a scheme. But this guy grew it around his driveway. In his defense, he was doing it to save money, and he also knew that the police were coming "sooner or later". However, since he was aware that they'd eventually show up (after all, cops are not bound to continue ignoring the tires full of pot for long), we're a little surprised that he didn't at least move the plants into his garage.

A second example of poor decision making comes in the form of a man who decided that he wanted to harass some of the bikini-clad baristas at a coffee shop in Parkland, Washington. Why did this go badly, aside from his choice to wear women's underwear and expose himself? Well, let's just say that baristas tend to have access to scalding hot liquids. And one might throw one of those to get the guy to go away. Of course, for any guy willing to change into that many different styles and colors of women's underwear, boiling water might just get him a little, um, hot.

A final example of poor choices? How about lumping liberal bloggers (and we mean the ones who make FOXNews actually look balanced, albeit from the opposite perspective) with Dungeons and Dragons players? And then making the connection to mom's basements? After all, when you're one of the spokespeople for John McGranddaddyCain, that might be par for the course. But here's the thing. Not all D&D players support Obama. Not all of them live in their mother's basements (for example, our mom doesn't even have a basement, thankyouverymuch). And certainly not all of them are the type to disparage the recollections of someone who fought for their country and was tortured for it. Heck, while the stereotypical gamer wouldn't be able to complete a day of basic training, there are others who are just as fit, if not more so, than the average Marine. And, we're fairly certain, a fair number of gamers HAVE spent time in combat, and not just the type that require dice rolls.

Here's the deal. Sure, bloggers at DailyKOS got up in arms about the similarities in story between the Republican candidate and a former Russian POW. And sure, it's entirely likely that it's just a striking coincidence. But we seem to recall a little Swift-boating being done of another former war hero four years ago, and the solution offered was basically for Dems to toughen up and show a little class. We suggest the same to the GOP in this instance.

In the meantime, we wouldn't be surprised to see plenty of gamers start showing proud support for the campaign that hasn't bashed them (yet). And if we see Mountain Dew and Tostitos on the Obama campaign trail, we'll know that he got some sort of a message.

Either that, or he stumbled across a random encounter.