Reason Breaks Out in North America

In the U.S. today, reason broke out when the Texas Appellate Court ordered the Child Protective Services Agency to return all 454 children of the Mormon-offshoot-polygamy bunch to their parents. The reason: there was no evidence that these children were in imminent danger and thus the Agency had no legal justification for removing them from their homes on their own initiative (as opposed to having a court approve the action). Further, the phone caller who triggered the raid, allegedly a young sexually-abused female resident, has never been identified and the call may have been a hoax. B.C.’s Minister of Justice may find his polygamist problem a little easier to deal with today.

In other instances of reason prevailing today, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled on a case involving a dead fly in a bottle of drinking water. Several years ago, a gentleman had drinking water dispensers installed in his home. Subsequently, he found a fly, presumably dead, sealed inside one of these dispensers. It made him feel very, very bad. He sued the water company for the ill effects that this experience inflicted upon him and was awarded a judgment of $300,000. Today, the Supreme Court offered its opinion: We don’t think so, said the Justices. The judgment was undone and, in essence, the fellow was urged to develop a little more stoicism. Good advice for us all.