Ken is 81 and his wife Ev is 76. They entered a contest where the grand prize was a trip to Puerto Vallarta worth $5,000. They gave their ages as being in their late 60s.
They won the contest. But the contest people learned that Ken is 80 and Ev is 76, and they said "No one under 19 or over 69 was eligible to win, so you are disqualified."
I ASSUME they lied about their ages BECAUSE they knew they weren't eligible. I'm not perfectly sure WHY they lied, but I know they did and my vast reasoning powers lead me to suspect they lied because they knew the contest was open only to people between 19 and 69.
They protested. They protested on this ground: "Asking for our ages is an invasion of privacy. That's why we put our ages as we did." Now, to me this is absolute BS. They weren't asked to enter the contest, no one forced them to enter it AND THEY LIED ABOUT THEIR AGES.
It's not an invasion of privacy, for pete's sake. If you don't want to answer the question, don't enter the bloody contest.However, they got a cash payout of $3,000 from the contest people.
My son Rob shrugs and says, "The age thing was illegal, it's age discrimination" and I say, "That's a separate issue and you know it. They LIED deliberately in order to evade the contest rules. Two wrongs don't make a right."
The thing about this that is particularly galling to me is that these people are my youngest sister's in-laws. Ken is a retired railroad cop and a more hardline rightwing guy you are NEVER going to meet. He would make Rush Limbaugh look like a Leftie. Had my Tay or my niece Hayley entered this contest and lied about being 19 he would have demanded they be tarred and feathered and we would have had to endure a five hour lecture on the declining morals of Canadian youth and how if they brought back the strap in schools and the noose for murder, why Canada would return to its glory days. (Yeah, the glory days when railroad bulls like Ken used to beat people like my uncle Bill half to death for being cold and hungry . . .but we'll leave that for now . . .
)My Mum was telling me about this yesterday and she was about as upset as she's ever been about anything. Nothing upsets my Mum as much as a lie. She can forgive murder quicker than a lie; I have never known anyone as literally truthful as my Mum. Sometimes, too truthful.
As in this case, because when Ken and Ev were bragging about having got the $3,000, Mum said, "You took the money even though you LIED about your age? That's terrible!!!" Oh, I wish I'd been there to see and hear her say it. Anyway, Rob's argument was that since age discrimination is illegal, they were perfectly fine with lying about their ages and the contest people had no choice but to pay them out. I think he's full of it and I threatened him with a wooden spoon, at which point he laughed and went away. Grrr.
So, I wanna know, Halofirians, should the contest people have given them the money? By god, I wouldn't have. I would have fought the hypocritical old fart all the way to the Supreme Court, but then, that's because I know him, I admit.
But on general principles?
