No patience for stupidity

I have no patience or sympathy for stupidity and the consequences that can come as a result.

Perhaps as an aging Baby Boomer, someone who's been around the block once or twice (three times and four times) I'm getting less patient.

I've always considered myself as being pretty laid back and tolerant. Make love, not war. Live and let live. Boys will be boys.

But I find myself not suffering stupid very well any more.

My measure of stupid is anyone doing anything they know is wrong or foolish but they do it anyway as a path toward self promotion.

It is especially endemic these days because that self-promotion is so easy on the internet. It's easy to be a fool -- and an internet sensation -- on YouTube.

So I don't feel bad that 17-year-old Steve Consalvi who ran onto the field in Philadelphia during a Phillies-Cardinals earlier this week and was brought down with a cop using a Taser.

The father, who described his son to the Philadelphia Inquirer as a "real good student, heading to Penn State," referred to the incident as "teenagers having fun."

"He wasn't drinking. He was not on drugs," he said. "I don't recommend running on the field, but I don't think they should have Tased him at all".

But if the kid is as responsible as the dad says he is, then he would have known there would be consequences for knowing breaking the law and running on the field. And I suspect he did it because of the instant fame it would give him.

I did a search involving "taser" and "phillies" for YouTube and came up with more than 300 videos. The incident was a hot topic on TV and sports radio talk shows.

He deserved it, I say.

I side with Forrest Gump on this one: "Stupid is as stupid does."