Okay, fine!! I’ll give it to you…

Contact Info:
god@ccannizzaro.com

Are you gonna read the rest? I took the time to write all this, so if you would be so kind…

My name is Chris. Everything else about me is on a need-to-know basis. But all personal identifying information aside, this isn’t really about me. It’s about this blog, which was born out of complete and total boredom and disgust while I was at my old corporate job. So let’s get on with it…

When I first started this blog, I had no idea what to call it. So I figured an ode to Thomas Paine was fitting. And the title hasn’t changed since, whether that is due to my laziness or it being a fitting name is really up to you.

But what about the concept of Common Sense? I was in the process of starting a different website when I came to the realization that everything I was writing about were things that I considered to be common sense. But these were also things that other people might be totally unaware of. And that got me thinking about the cliché, “Common Sense isn’t so common”. Everybody says it, especially when they are confronted with demonstrations of stupidity that undoubtedly (in their minds) warrant a Darwin Award nomination.

After much pondering of the sort that can only be done when you’re alone in a room with a toilet and nothing better to do but sit on it, I came to the conclusion that common sense, for the most part, is relative. At least so far as most people define it.

I mean, yes… there are some things that virtually everyone considers to be common sense - the Moon revolves around the Earth; a hot stove will burn your hand; politicians will philander; and jumping out of a plane with no chute is generally a bad idea.

But then there are other things that you would think would be common sense that aren’t. This is where the cliché comes from, and it includes things like, murder is wrong; ‘yes, you eventually have to pay back the credit card company, honey’; ghost riding is the dumbest idea since Crystal Pepsi; and making toast while sitting in your bathtub can kill you. Warning labels and personal injury lawyers owe their existence to this category.

And common sense only becomes more and more relative from there. For example, a fitness trainer might consider it common sense that you can’t spot-reduce fat by working a certain muscle, but I’d guess that a lot of people (probably most) don’t know that; or a car enthusiast might consider it common sense that FWD cars suffer from severe understeer; or a redneck might consider it common sense that a beer and a gun are things that should be within reach at all times; or a football coach might consider it common sense that you don’t run the ball when there are more than 8 defenders in the box.

The point is, common sense is relative. Take all the things, all the little nuggets of information that you consider to be common sense and put them in a box, and I guarantee it will be different from what the next person to come along puts in that box. And that’s what I’m doing with this blog, I’m putting my nuggets of information in that proverbial box, for all to read, enjoy, get mad at, respond to, or dismiss altogether.

It will inform some and piss off others. I enjoy doing both, so happy reading!


P.S. From time to time, on this website, I will openly criticize and attack certain ideas and philosophies. Please do not equate this with an attack on a person or group of people. That means, just because I say the idea of an invisible being waiting to judge us when we die is stupid doesn’t mean that I’m automatically saying the people who believe it are stupid.

If I am attacking a person, I will literally point it out. I will have my reasons and make them known. And when possible, I will use their name immediately followed by the adjective I want use to describe them. For example, “Bill O’Reilly is an idiot and hypocrite, because he blatantly falsifies information to promote his personal agenda…”.

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