Comments on: Is Common Sense Common Anymore?

By: Cate from Oz

Cate from Oz — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 14:48:00 +0000

“I’m up for any ideas to getting a handle on this. What do you think? ” – Dr Phil.

Just don’t look?

By: Cate from Oz

Cate from Oz — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 14:39:04 +0000

It seems to me that the person responsible for the behaviour of Philip Markoff is Philip Markoff. If he wasn’t hunting victims through that site, he would’ve done it somewhere else. The “Craiglist” didn’t turn Markoff into a predator. The “Craiglist” is what it is but, if laws are being broken, then it’s up to the relevant authorities to enforce those laws. A sad fact about our modern society is that our lives are ruled by sex, money and avoidance of litigation. And the “law” isn’t really the “law” any more. It’s all a matter of interpration and who can tell the best story. But, I don’t see the point in being outraged about eroticism on the “Craiglist” when everything in our society and our media revolves around sex. Our society tells people that being sexy and rich is the be all and end all of existence. It’s reflected in our film, our television shows, our magazines and just about every piece of advertising that we’re brainwashed with day in and day out. It’s kind of hypocritical to then turn around and tell people that wanting sex or having sex is wrong. People, God is all very well and fine, but we have to live in the real world. And, here in the real world, the good old “moral” 50s had their fair share of sex and prostitution, they just didn’t plaster it all over the internet and it wasn’t allowed on television. (God bless freedom of speech, eh?) It seems that we don’t really care what is going on in our society as long as it’s not happening in front of us. Out of sight is out of mind. It seems to me that we want to stay in denial about the harsh realities of life and we just don’t like it being all shoved up in our faces because it shatters our illusions of the world as we’ve constructed it, in the individual little bubbles in which we choose to live. Sex and prostitution is never going to go away. There will always be people who, for whatever reason, go down that path in life. If there were no customers, there would be no prostitution. Let’s face it, that’s never gonna happen. The best we can do is raise our own children well and minimize their risks. Love them, nuture them, protect them from harm and educate them about the REAL world and the challenges that they may face. Educate them about sex (and the emotions and baggage and risks that go with it) and educate them about the dangers of predators and exploitation. Also educate them about HIV (and other sexually transmitted diseases) which are NOT just transmitted by “working women” but, potentially, by ANYONE who has unsafe sex. Let’s keep our heads out of the sand, eh?

By: Sue Weiser

Sue Weiser — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 08:08:39 +0000

One part of a response/solution to the craigslist “adult” issue: eBay owns a very similar site called kijiji (www.kijiji.com) and has very strict guidelines for the posts (as well as the intention of them) for taste, safety & legality. (I found the site by a link at the bottom of eBay – I clicked on the link because the name was catchy…)

By: AnneMae

AnneMae — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 09:54:33 +0000

Doesn’t this start much sooner than the ad on the website?

I think the first thing we have to do is teach our young girls and our young boys how to value themselves . . . that way these businesses would have no workers (at least willing ones) to exploit.

The other thing, but it’s nearly impossible right now, is to raise the minimum wage — a good majority of the girls working these jobs did poorly in school, and cannot, or do not want to do minimum-wage jobs to support themselves. Flippin’ burgers isn’t so attractive when you can make a week’s worth in one night for something you LIKE to do anyway . . . how many times have you heard the phrase, “If I’m gonna do it, I may as well get paid for it . . . ?”

Now, can we get our little ones to value themselves, their bodies, their time and their futures more than this?

By: amada

amada — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 21:28:42 +0000

I belive you are correct. There are is to much in the adult content bisness that needs to be stoped. This is shaming that we as a socity have allowed to let sex run are lives. Everyone want to support reserch to help find to cure AIDS but we are spreading it through “working weomen”. If we don’t get this under control we will have a socity with losse morals. This will be pased down like a virious or bad habits. WE NEED TO STOP THIS BEFORE IT GETS WORSE.

By: Kayla White

Kayla White — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 23:39:00 +0000

Dear Dr Phil,

This is a really difficult one and an outrage at that. I think that Marie Marino (an above comment) is right in the fact that it can’t be stopped and that it is all around us but I also disagree for I believe some how we can try to make a difference, a first step in trying to get rid of this crap and we can bloody damn well start with stampng out this ridiculous dangerous site Craiglist. How? No bloody idea. Taking it to your government I thought was a good idea. An extremely brave one at that. If only if it was as easy as deleting the site instead of having to run around with all this legal BS (excuse the language). I have no idea how all this stuff works but I’m sure we can find away. Just stick to what you believe in and remember that T.E.A.M – Together Everybody Achieves More.

Good luck Dr. Phil. Like I said I’m sure there is something that can be done. We can’t just let this crap keep happening. The world is a dangerous place as it is and it is up to us to try and keep it safe to a certain point for not only ourselves and the people around us but our children and the future generations. You’ve gotta start some where and we can start with destroying Craiglist. Do what it takes. We can’t continue to live in a world like this. If we don’t destroy what is harming us first then it will surely further destory humanity… to a point where we cannot rebuild ourselves. Dramatic perhaps but I think I can safely say that it already has began… it began hundreds of years ago and it’s only getting worse. We may not see the effects as severe in this day and age but when science can no longer protect us, our government, even you Dr Phil… then what? We will almost be sent back in time when it began only it’s our own blood and flesh that has to suffer and are we just gonna sit by and let that happen? I don’t think so.

By: Marie Marino

Marie Marino — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 06:18:39 +0000

People eating cheese burgers do not harm the health of people around them. CIGARET SMOKE, harms every one around it. Thast is why the government should intervene and ban the d— things permanently, and force tobaco farms into corn fileds or wind energy making acres.. This is my answer to a previous blogger who thinks that the individual should have the last say on cigarets… THE HONOR SYSTEM TO DO THE RIGHT THING WHEN IT COMES TO CIGARETS AND THEIR EFFECT ON OTHERS, FALLS ON DEAF EARS AND BLIND EYES.. THAT IS WHY GOVERNMENT SHOULD PROTECT IT’S CITIZENS FROM SELF CENTERED BIRD BRAINED SMOKERS.,

By: Marie Marino

Marie Marino — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 03:10:12 +0000

Dr Phil,
You strike out at only the tip of te sex fun and games creeps. How about the topless bars, the stripper clubs, phony sex experts with their so called clinics,the girls gone wild tv trash and while you’re at it how about the 900 call me ads on television.You might suggest clean ups on daytime soaps with the torrid love scenes??? .Let’s call a spade a spade, If we didn’t have sick sexual attachments pasted on everything in our country from auto sales to toothpaste and call it window dressing to attract,aqnd sell, then how can you ever hope to change anything. We have become a culture of sex driven fog brained jombies. Everything is geared towards sexual tittilation in marketing , everything. It’s everywhere , attached to everything. So my dear Dr Phil , me thinks tis a struggle in futility. You can’t change a society that doesn’t want to change. If they didn’t want the madness then they wouldn’t buy it. That goes for Craig’s List and E harmony, Lonely Hearts club and all the rest of the meet me, date me, try me ads. They just can’t be stopped.

By: Sue F

Sue F — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:04:24 +0000

Some people are very angry about the things they can not control (as in Hez Walker’s comment). Prostitution has always been around, abuse of children has always been around, drugs have always been around. It would be wonderful if none of this existed, but it does and has for a long time. For people to tell themselves that this is NEW or “Today’s Society”, they’re kidding themselves. I agree with and support Mel’s comment, posted on September 13th, and believe Hez Walker needs to be medicated.

By: Sue

Sue — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:36:03 +0000

Look, first of all, Craigslist is free. Nobody’s making piles of money. It’s free.
Second, Craigslist is what society is. There are religious blogspots in it and hooker ads on it. It’s all mixed together, just like we are.
Third, if you want to talk about common sense, you have to talk about the short thinking process that goes into the lack of it. Just look at the posters on this website, and every other one. They could be (and are) convinced of all kinds of wierd stuff. They’re desperate people who feel they’re under attack already, but who don’t see spending some time thinking of a solution as a solution. They glom onto the first person who says, “You’re under attack!”, thinking, “Exactly! Finally someone noticed!”. The people who spend big money to sway public opinion know this, so their pitches all start out saying, “You’re under attack!, but I have the solution…”
The question is not why this worked, it’s why people think it’s OK not to think.
Lately, Dr. Phil, you have often gone for the easy audience, and I realize what business you’re in and how tough it is. That said, you’re not exactly being Phil Donahue, here. In East St. Louis, a man from Florissant, Mo. picked up something like forty hookers and tortured them to death in his basement with his wife present, several years ago. He somehow managed to hand himself in prison with his hands tied behind his back. His wife was never charged and the ones we know about totalled something like forty. Maybe there are two hundred more, who know? Being a hooker is a tough, dangerous business. One hooker killed off of Craigslist, white and middle-class-looking, though she was, isn’t a shock. The only shock is that it was ONLY one.