# Mother puts baby in dryer. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 7, 2005, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-puts-baby-in-dryer/334511 "2005-12-07T15:57:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2005, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-puts-baby-in-dryer/334511/61 "2005-12-09T22:24:58Z")
[QUOTE=buttonjockey308] Or, maybe you’re just lacking the faculties required to have a **civilized** argument about a divisive issue like this one. In any case, please piss off. QUOTE] Yeah. I’m definitely looking to you for lessons on how to be civlized. _You big strong man, you!_ ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2005, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-puts-baby-in-dryer/334511/62 "2005-12-09T23:16:33Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > I would say we might want to remove such sickness from the gene pool, make sure it doesn’t get passed on. Seems like a sickness that makes you kill your own children is already trying to remove itself from the gene pool. > [@](#): > > Why is it worse to kill a baby than a grown man? Indeed. If I didn’t think I’d get flamed to hell, I’d say it’s better, not worse. I’d say the killers of grown men are a greater threat, even if they are more sane than this particular woman. I’d compare it to destroying an artist’s blank canvas vs. destroying a completed painting: the canvas has the potential to become any painting, but so does every other blank canvas, and it’s not hard to get a new one. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2005, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-puts-baby-in-dryer/334511/63 "2005-12-10T00:41:13Z")
> [@Mr2001](#): > > I’d compare it to destroying an artist’s blank canvas vs. destroying a completed painting: the canvas has the potential to become any painting, but so does every other blank canvas, and it’s not hard to get a new one. You’re a dumbass. Your wonderful little metaphor presupposes that a “completed painting” is automatically of greater value that a blank canvas. I disagree vehemently. There’s an awful lot of completed paintings out there that would dramatically improve the world by their removal. Blank canvases are precious precisely because each one has the potential to become something great. ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2005, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-puts-baby-in-dryer/334511/64 "2005-12-10T01:22:32Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > You’re a dumbass. Your wonderful little metaphor presupposes that a “completed painting” is automatically of greater value that a blank canvas. I disagree vehemently. There’s an awful lot of completed paintings out there that would dramatically improve the world by their removal. One might argue that there are an awful lot of grown people out there who would dramatically improve the world by their removal, too. However, even they have accumulated a lifetime of experiences, and they’ve left a lasting impression on thousands of other people. People have come to know them as individuals, and they cannot be replaced. > [@](#): > > Blank canvases are precious precisely because each one has the potential to become something great. Then why is it that no one takes out insurance contracts protecting their blank canvases for millions of dollars? I mean, they all have the _potential_ to become the next [Picasso](http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2005/0606/134.html), so by your logic, they should be worth at least as much. But obviously, they aren’t. They’re cheap commodities, because one blank canvas is no better than another. The blank canvas doesn’t become as valuable as a masterpiece, or as worthless as a crappy painting, until there’s paint on it. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2005, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-puts-baby-in-dryer/334511/65 "2005-12-10T14:02:40Z")
> [@Mr2001](#): > > One might argue that there are an awful lot of grown people out there who would dramatically improve the world by their removal, too. However, even they have accumulated a lifetime of experiences, and they’ve left a lasting impression on thousands of other people. People have come to know them as individuals, and they cannot be replaced… The shit I took this morning can’t be replaced either. It was the product of factors and events that cannot be exactly duplicated. Does that mean I should have kept it? > [@Mr2001](#): > > Then why is it that no one takes out insurance contracts protecting their blank canvases for millions of dollars? I mean, they all have the _potential_ to become the next [Picasso](http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2005/0606/134.html), so by your logic, they should be worth at least as much. > > But obviously, they aren’t. They’re cheap commodities, because one blank canvas is no better than another. The blank canvas doesn’t become as valuable as a masterpiece, or as worthless as a crappy painting, until there’s paint on it. Look, we aren’t literally talking about paintings. Perhaps I confused you by staying with your metaphor. This issue is grown people compared to babies. What paintings sell for is not germane. Every infant is potentially great, though not all of them achieve greatness. A good many adults are worthless scumbags whose removal could only improve the world. That is the point. ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2005, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-puts-baby-in-dryer/334511/66 "2005-12-11T01:11:43Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > The shit I took this morning can’t be replaced either. It was the product of factors and events that cannot be exactly duplicated. Does that mean I should have kept it? That’s up to you, since it was yours. Your morning shit was “snowflake unique”: different from every other one, but only in ways that don’t matter (unless you’re cataloging shits as part of some research project, in which case I don’t want to know about it). > [@](#): > > What paintings sell for is not germane. Oh, but it is. This is the Straight Dope, and stamping out ignorance is always germane. You claimed blank canvases were precious because they could potentially become something great, but a quick glance at the real world reveals that to be false. People do not place a high value on common, easily replaceable things, even if they can someday become great and unique. > [@](#): > > Every infant is potentially great, though not all of them achieve greatness. A good many adults are worthless scumbags whose removal could only improve the world. That is the point. Of course, every infant is potentially a worthless scumbag, too. Their potential doesn’t make them precious, because they’re easily replaced by another one that has exactly the same potential… like a blank canvas. A chunk of stone is potentially a great statue, and a blank CD-R is potentially a best-selling album, but neither of them are worth much at all as long as they remain blank, either in terms of money or in terms of how far we would go to protect them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-puts-baby-in-dryer/334511.md?page=3)