Monday, June 4, 2007

YGTBKM

3 Illinois Teens Arrested After Food Fight.

As The Boyfriend says, "If you treat kids like prisoners, they're gonna ACT like prisoners."


Boy, am I glad I'm not in high school any more.

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Democratic debate results in people arguing like children.

I think we can safely say that a Democrat is NOT the best option for this country.

Also, has anyone else noticed that the debates seem to be happening a lot earlier than usual? Didn't they previously start these things about 9 months beforehand? Did I miss something?

Granted, I was only legal to vote in the last presidential election (I *barely* missed 2000) (do you feel old, yet?), so it's not like I've paid close attention to the other ones. But this seems weird to me.

As an aside, there's a video in which John Edwards decides that he's the authority on what's a right and what's a priviledge. He lists things as follows:

College Education - Right
Healthcare - Right
Liveable Wage - Right
OWNING A HANDGUN - PRIVILEDGE
Access to the Internet - Right


He got it all backwards. Who's suprised? Anyone? Show of hands?

*crickets*

Hmm...interesting.


EDIT: The Boyfriend just sent me a link to an Edwards interview on YouTube.

Interesting.

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Death Row inmate solicits jokes to tell as his last words.

People call this action "sick". Uh...he shot people to death. Would you expect anything less from him?

Common sense, people. He's not sorry for what he did. Apparently he did something bad enough that people feel that he doesn't deserve to live (don't get me started on that...), and they're surprised that he's doing something socially unacceptable?

Duh.

Seriously, guys: DUH.

Hand, meet forehead. Head, meet desk.


Oh, and to all you people out there who think the death penalty is an appropriate punishment? Here's a message from one of the condemned:

"They think they're killing me. They think they're punishing me. They've already punished me. I've already had 16 years of punishment. They're releasing me. They're letting me go. That's helping me out. That's the way I look at it."

You want to punish someone, you don't kill them. That's the easy way out, for both you and them. I don't believe in torture, but boredom for the rest of your life is a pretty appropriate punishment for some of these guys. We just have to convert our prisons from Club Med Lite into an actual, you know, deterrent.

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Brookline, MA bans trans fat in a nearly unanimous town hall vote.

Because babysitting people's diets has always worked out in the past.

8 comments:

Barbara said...

The high school thing: I used to work part time in a regional YDC and the school officers would bring them in straight from school. The most offensive thing I've ever seen was the lockup of a 12 year old boy for shooting a rubber band in class. His parents raised some kinda hell and I'm glad they did. I would have too.

My work in the YDC has a lot to do with why I am perfectly happy to keep my kids in private schools. Criminalizing typical kid stuff is insane.

Bonnie said...

If I ever have kids, I'm home-schooling them. If I end up marrying someone who can't support me while I stay home with my children, then I won't have children. Too many parents nowadays entrust school officials to raise their kids for them, and the parents who actually WANT to raise their own kids are denied that priveledge as a matter of course because of all the whiners out there who can't be bothered.

I can't BELIEVE they would jail someone for shooting a rubber band! That's insanity!

Barbara said...

Yep. And he was locked up in there with street gangbangers from Atlanta complete with the teardrop tattoos. They had the poor kid on a suicide watch. Then there was the 10 year old boy who took a classmate's necklace and then gave it back to him. He was locked up for the entire time I worked there.

I will say the benefit of a private school is that since parents are paying tuition, the schools HAVE to listen to us and the parents ARE involved. Most of us with kids there do care about our kids' education and there is just more common sense to go around - at least at the one my kids go to, anyhow. Plus it cuts down on their having any kind of constant exposure to detrimental influences, giving parents more control over how quickly to allow the kids exposure to the real world. Still gotta give them wings but at least you don't have to worry about doing it before they're ready.

Bonnie said...

In response to the punishments:

Uhh...

I have nothing intelligent to say. That's fucked up.


I'm not entirely sure I'd be able to afford to send my kids to private school, and I'm actually pretty well-skilled in the things I'd need to be in order to teach my kids at home. There are also some great socialization programs out there, so I wouldn't feel bad about keeping them out of the general public school cesspool.

I'm glad you were able to find a good private school. The ones in this area? Not so great. There's one, I think, that's notable. Others? Eurgh.

Anonymous said...

According to some stories a state corrections officer has told me, prison is no club med for the inmates, I'm happy to say. They not only have to deal with strict and very physical guards, they have to watch out for each other too. I agree...death penalty only lets them off the hook. And if you believe in life after death and ghosts and shit...who wants a pedophile rapist murderer ghost hanging out in the corner of their bedroom at night?

Bonnie said...

From what I've heard (obviously, I have limited experience in these matters), there are inmates who purposely get themselves back in jail just so they won't have to worry about having to find food, shelter, and a job. Prison should be a place that people AVOID going, regardless of their history or shiftless nature.

Of course, it'd be easier to convince people to, you know, WORK for a living if there weren't fun programs like Welfare, but I digress. :-P

Anonymous said...

Some of these guys don't know how to deal with civilized society so they go where they know. This guard has multiple multi million dollar law suits pending against him by inmates, he had his face pummeled before the inmate was "neutralized"(they think he may be able to form sentences again by next Spring), and torments them regularly by simply belittling them. Not a nice guy, but who wants nice guys watching our violent criminals in prison? point is, the criminals know how to live among one another, but on the outside, demands of civilized living prove beyond their scope. Either way, I'd rather have them there than here.

Bonnie said...

Oh, no doubt - I agree that they shouldn't be out and about, particularly if they can't handle it. My point (and call me naive, it's probably true) is that if it's truly THAT bad, no one should want to go back to prison, for ANY reason. Prison should give them a reason to want to straighten up. And if they can't straighten up? THEN send them to a long-term facility...a three-strikes-and-you're-out sort of thing. And make them go through therapy. Because there's nothing more annoying than being told you have a problem every single day when you're already well-aware of it.

At least, it's annoying to ME. Then again, I'm not a criminal, so who knows what they think.