It's not my fault - it's the florist's fault

This news item highlights just one more of so very many situations that show our increasing reluctance to take personal responsibility for our own sins.

A man decides to send flowers to his mistress, but rather than going to the local florist shop and paying cash (thus leaving absolutely no trail - remember, he was already in the middle of an "amicable" divorce from his unsuspecting wife) he goes online to 1-800-Flowers, using a credit card and leaving a trail wider than the Grand Canyon.

This guy is not the sharpest pencil in the bunch. I'm rather surprised he wasn't found out before this incident.

I simply love his attorney's statement:

"This is not a moral issue," Foote said. "The issue is, is 1-800-Flowers in the business of causing divorce or are they in the business of sending flowers and sticking to their privacy policy?"

Let's see:
1. Infidelity is no longer a moral issue?
2. The couple was already divorcing; only the settlement terms changed as a result of the discovery of the infidelity.
3. The privacy policy states that 1-800-Flowers will not share any information with a third party; I'm certain the thank you note that raised the wife's suspicions was addressed to the husband. You can argue that the company should not have faxed the receipt to her, but by that point (particularly since she was suspicious enough to call the company, rather than simply ask her husband what was up) the cat was probably out of the bag anyway.

The spokesman from 1-800-Flowers hit the nail on the head:

In a statement, spokesman Steven Jarmon said, "We take all matters relating to our customers seriously; however, we are not responsible for an individual's personal conduct."

Emphasis mine.