When looking at all that harms America, crime, lack of educated kids, over-crowded prisons, moral decay...., when faced with the varied "issues" bantered about in blogs, discussion groups , political campaigns and editorials, I've come to a singular cause for the preponderance of the problems. Bad parenting.
You can go down the list and it keeps coming down to this most important of human responsibilities. Crime? Most criminals lacked a father or mother figure, or good moral guidance in their formative years. Bad parenting. Education? We can slam the teachers and schools systems all we want, but if most parents would be involved in but a cursory way in their kid's education and growth then most would not fail and drop out with the frequency that they do. Bad Parenting. The falling apart of the traditional family? Maybe bad parenting is not solely responsible or even applicable; as the need for 2-income families and the in-your-face media culture has left us handcuffed with how to curb the bad influence in our kid's lives. But to deny that we let kids get away with murder is to be naive. I got my ass whupped a few times in my youth, and for good reason. It hurt so bad that I NEVER did that offending crap again. Now corporal punishment is akin to getting your ass sued. We've let the f*****g lawyers take over our moral compass guidelines. Bad parenting. The obscene welfare system and institutional poverty in America? Where do I start with that! Why do we subsidize people on welfare keep having kids? Why do we let kids have kids? Why don't we set a standard acceptable to force (yes dammit, force) citizens to think loud and clear about the pitfalls and responsibility of parenting?.... which brings me to the point of my post.
Why to we spay and neuter our pets? Is it because we don't respect their freedoms? is it because we are evil? No. It is because we feel that if we let the little heathens bang away to their loin's content we would be awash in stray hell, right? I don't see the pro-life crowd defending the animal as holy life. I don't see P.E.T.A or the ACLU filing lawsuits on behalf of those poor animals being dis-enfranchised by loosing their rights to procreate as nature would have them do. Nope. We spay their asses because we don't want to care for the pets that are not owned by responsible persons or entities. Someone tell me why the hell we can't spay and neuter people that are too stupid, unable, irresponsible or otherwise unwilling to be a good and responsible parent. We demand kids to take a permit test, driver education classes and driver's test before we allow them to drive a car. What about a test and a pass/fail grading system to decide whether someone is up to the task of taking care of their own offspring? I have to pay huge sums of cash to pay for an addition to a house. Why does the government not demand a huge amount of cash and permit fees for the privililedge of being a parent? The city demands a permit to ensure the safety of the building and its long term structural soundness,.. why the hell does it not care for the safety and long term care of its infant citizens? Why should I have to contribute to the welfare "lock box" because some irresponsible moron could not control his tube steak and some stupid female could not contain her hootch's cry for some girth? Why should I have to contribute to the care of a baby born to a mother already on welfare, or one who is already a mother 3 times over and still living on the dole? Why should I have to do this? Wy should any of us have to do this?
I have no problem de-balling rapists. None. You rape a woman you should have your dick stuck in a pickle jar and your balls given to the nearest SPCA as dessert for the Rottweilers. No quarter whatsoever. You force yourself into a woman, you loose little Richard. Finito. Woman? You keep popping out babies that fall under my financial burden and presto, you loose your ability to pop 'em out. Call me totalitarian, call it a slippery slope to other big brother intrusion, call is the only thing in which I agree with the Chinese Communist government,... I really don't care. And this coming from a die-hard libertarian of all things. I really believe that idiot-minded humans, or maybe ignorant ones, who have no concept of the sacred and moral responsibility to care for their children should not be allowed to participate in such llife-long blessing and holy task.
As to the picture of the chastity belt?... I could have just as easily put one of a male. My posting is as applicable to both men and woman. But being a straight man, I can't really see a meat-hook picture on one of my postings,... so the hootch wins again.
Bring on the missiles,....
18 comments:
There are always those children who, no matter how good the parenting, will not learn, will not become good citizens, will become barbarians. But that's a tiny percentage. The rest would respond to good parenting. Tough parenting.
Yeah, I had my butt spanked more than once! My sibs and I knew that we got one shot at acting out. One! After that the backhand from Hell nailed us and we knew we'd never do that again! My folks had no problem nailing us in public. We never had any leverage to use a public place to misbehave. My folks simply refused to be blackmailed by a public setting. My sibs and I learned how to behave - in public and in private.
Because my folks cared and got involved.
Nice to be loved, isn't it? Good post! Good thoughts!
Truth-Pain,
Education? We can slam the teachers and schools systems all we want, but if most parents would be involved in but a cursory way in their kid's education and growth then most would not fail and drop out with the frequency that they do.
When I taught high school in the public-education system (1973-1978), very few parents attended parent night; and never did the trouble-making students' parents show up. In private education, almost every parent night was full to overflowing, with both parents in attendance for each student most of the time. And with homeschoolers, the parents are ever-present! What an asset!
I love your plan for rapists! :) My best friend in college was brutally raped, but she had no legal recourse because the rapist was a diplomat and had immunity.
Bad parenting leads to bad parenting.
Personally, I could care less if a girl has kids until her uterus falls out, but not on my dime!!!
I understand shit happens. It happened to me once. I was under my hubby's insurance, 4 months pregnant. He got laid off, mine pretty much gave me the "go to hell" answer of "pre-existing condition." I had no choice but to apply for aid for medical care. Guess what... Once the hubby found a suitable job, and insurance kicked in, I was off the aid. I think my son was one month old then.
Shit happens. We should help those who show responsibility and initiative to help themselves, but the chronic welfare addict that you're speaking about has no business living off my back like an overgrown leach.
Oh, and I'm pro death-penalty for rapists and child molesters. Seriously. They always do it again, so let's just let God sort 'em out.
We could always implement your plan shortly before death, though. :D
AOW... It's too bad that her family didn't kill the sorry SOB! He's not immune from that sort of justice.
get'em truth pain, the root of the problem lies in accountability, or the lack of.
There is not enough space for me to agree with your post.
Good one, T-P. One has to bring attention to the fact that liberal philosophy has had a lot to do with the breakdown of parenting.
Liberalism embraces, condones and attempts to clean up after irresponsible behavior--sweep its results under the rug--so to speak!
Sappho:
Thanks for the correction :)LOL , that's what happens when you don't check your word-speller after you're done (and don't proof-read your spewings as well)...
You're right as to the breeders. Thats one thing nobody can blame the gay population for,... its almost not fair, huh?....
As to the pic?.... I could have used others, but this one just got me to the place I was going, ya' know?
Benning:
Ditto, ditto and yes, ditto (apologies for the Limbaugh lingo there,....:)
I could not have said it better. I good ass whuppin' was what saved my own butt from getting away from the straight (no pun intended Sappho) and narrow.
AOW: Yep, I thank God daily that my Dad was always on my case for grades. His mantra?... you are the books you read, the poeple you associate with,... AND the grades you bring home :)
Brooke: THAT is the reason for safety nets. When responsible persons fall down due to life and not their own un-caring then I dont mind at all caring and spending my tax dollars on them. Its when the leeches drain my ass than I get the mother of all boyles.
Obob: What?, Disney is so boring that you have to pipe-in?... :)
Thanks or dropping by, even when you are away. Alwasys great to hear from you.
Al-Ozarka: God, I wish I could just blame bad parenting on the church of Liberalism. Maybe the permisiveness inherent in that mantra does lend itself to less discipline, I don't know. But truth be told, I have some liberal friends that are just wonderful parents so I can't shoot that shotgun of an opinion so wide and wide,...
I suspect stupidity knows no political spectrum. I wonder if there is a study on that.... I wonder if anybody has the statistics of what political persuasion were the parents of incarcerated fellons, or high school dropouts,...
I got a feeling THAT is not something you are going to see Time magazine print any time soon.
"Someone tell me why the hell we can't spay and neuter people that are too stupid, unable, irresponsible or otherwise unwilling to be a good and responsible parent."
i'll tell you why: the eighth amendment says we shouldn't.
eugenics laws tend to fall into the realm of extreme totalitarianism. not exactly an american tradition, that....
KEvron
KEv: the operative word being "shouldn't" not "can't". I said it myself that it rubs of totalitarian bent... but logic eludes me these days,... what can i say.
Now wait a second...
Apparently you didn't read my four part series on welfare.
I'll agree with you that parenting skills are a valuable and lacking commodity. However, parenting skills, just like good lovemaking technique, are learned. We do what we know, or what we think we know, until we've been taught another way.
The great tragedy is that there is no public will to address this issue.
msliberty: What is the title of your 4-part series? I'm very interested in such reads. I go to Betmo's (lifes journey) blog all the time,.. she is a master of the multipart series :)
aw tp- you make me blush :) i love this post. can everyone give a 'hoorah!!!' my pet peeve is bad parenting. in fact i am going to look up a link to an entire blog devoted to misbehaving children in the public arena. my only fault with this post is that you limited it. my biggest peeve are people who have children as extensions of themselves or accessories to their lives. i have posted on this as well. we all have the image of the teenage mom popping out welfare babies. i am here to say that my peeve are the suburban housewives popping out babies too. they think that everyone looooves their little heathens because they are well dressed and live in a nice home. guess again. there are more well behaved babies in a monkey exhibit at the zoo. these are the kids running around in the restaurants and stores making a nuisance out of themeselves because they haven't been taught manners or how to behave properly in public. i could wax forever on this subject.
So to summarize: Government policies have little or no effect whatsoever on people’s lives; almost all of society’s problems are the result of bad parenting.
This makes perfect sense because American society is made up of a lot of parents, many of whom are divorced and many of whom have children who, lacking both parents are likely to become criminals, even more so given that these divorced and thus single parents aren’t interested in their kid’s education.
Traditional families (those made up of parents who don’t get divorced and do take an interest in their kid’s education) don’t produce criminals. Indeed whoever heard of any criminal who wasn’t the child of a single parent, or any single parent who didn’t produce a criminal (or a whole bunch of them?). What’s more every kid whoever got “whupped” in the past NEVER did anything bad EVER again—unless of course the “whupper” was a single parent (inherently a bad parent, being single)—or just a bad parent (who though being married is still bad—except that doesn’t make sense because the argument here is that only single parents are bad parents.
Never mind, let’s move on.
As you say “to deny that we let kids get away with murder is to be naïve”. Not only figuratively but literally too. I mean, how many stories have you read about a kid taking his single mom’s gun and shooting another kid. Hundreds of times I’m sure. What about those Columbine kids--all the progeny of single mom’s—how could they be otherwise?
Sure we could slam the teachers all we want, but then aren’t a lot of them the problem anyway? A lot of them are probably single mom’s who simply aren’t involved in education—they’re just welfare moms taking a government check who let kids commit murder ( see Columbine for example). If the married teachers would just “whup” the kids in their classes into shape the way they would their own kids ( being inherently good parents because they are married) then kids would NEVER drop out!
Lawyers are of course are a huge problem. They must all be kids of single-parent welfare queens, after all, how could they afford the college fees unless my taxes paid for their expensive educations (provided by the aforementioned unwed teachers who don’t care about education). Because all the lawyers are the children of unwed welfare queens they are ipso facto criminals and thus earn their huge salaries by perpetuating the welfare status quos, thus breeding more lawyers and criminals who then pass laws preventing the whupping of children whilst ignoring education and allowing even more welfare queens to suck the money out of my pocket at the same time!. No wonder the US has an $8-trillion dollar deficit! And it’s all being paid for out of our wallets! ( those of us who are married and gainfully employed of course).
Moving on: Why do we spay and neuter our pets? Because if we didn’t there would be more cats and dogs than we’d know what to do with! And that’s the situation right now because single mothers don’t spay and neuter their pets. What’s needed of course is a comprehensive program to prevent single motherhood. But how, you ask? Educating the idiot breeders is a lost cause because the education system is run by stupid single mothers who ARE the problem, along with their criminal lawyer offspring who won’t let them beat any sense into the kids! And the Government is no help because everyone knows the government is incompetent and useless (unless it comes to killing foreigners) so we need another organization that can set a moral compass and a standard that will physically force people to stop having kids out of wedlock—and who better than the Catholics and the Evangelists? After all how many Catholic priests have had sex with women? Hardly any! And how many pregnancies have the evangelicals prevented? Hardly any! So, obviously only the holiest organizations can save us from the criminal offspring of unwed welfare mothers who are stealing all our money and unleashing child criminals onto the streets who mug us at the ATM .
Funny that you should write:
“Call me totalitarian, call it a slippery slope to other big brother intrusion, call [?] is the only thing in which I agree with the Chinese Communist government,... I really don't care. And this coming from a die-hard libertarian of all things.”
…because the Chinese Communist Government didn’t restrict the breeding to one child per family because of unwed welfare queens churning out criminals, it was because China didn’t have enough resources to support the extant population growth and the government recognized that. Yeah, from the libertarian point of view it is kind of funny how government can serve to benefit the majority and preserve social stability for everyone, as long as the government responsibly applies its powers to a problem that is properly identified and which thus can be suitably and effectively addressed.
But let’s just ignore that anti-libertarian concept and move on to the necessity of Government or religiously organized neutering of stupid human beings to reduce the tax burden of intelligent libertarians who are strangely under-represented in national politics (for some reason it just seems weird to vote for a Libertarian government when their agenda, upon achieving power, is to then destroy their own ranks and the means by which they could wield power) and consider how such a scheme might be implemented.
The first thing to do of course is to identify everyone who is stupid. Clearly we can’t rely on the education system (see above) but a standardized test modeled as you imply on the lines of the driving test might suffice—after all once teenagers pass that test, the libertarian kids have perfect driving records ever after! It’s only the stupid criminal kids of stupid unwed mothers who steal cars and drive drunk, etc. And like you say why shouldn’t people be charged for wanting to have a child BEFORE they have actually one, just like you are charged to add an extension to your house before you even get it? I mean, what’s the difference, really? They both involve a lot of banging and a bit of a mess! And why indeed should someone take care of someone else’s baby with the money that you earn—after all you sweat for every dime and then to have something like two dollars a week taken out of every pay check to pay for the upkeep of infant criminals, let alone the changing of diapers and the cost of formula and the sleepless nights and all the other shit you have to do as a taxpaying libertarian parent of someone else’s baby---well it’s just too much, isn’t it?
But then as a moral person and clearly an intelligent one, you wouldn’t be advocating a Communist style enforcement of a Nazi style eugenics program based on the identification of stupid sluts via some kind of driving test that will ultimately solve most of the problems that seem to be exclusive to the US if the cost of adding an extension to your house weren't so damn high! Isn’t that the American dream after all?
I have to agree bad parenting, lack of morals and stupidity are the key to most of America’s problems. The issue is how do we identify such people and implement an effective program to eliminate them? Perhaps as you suggest we should physically discipline every child until they are old enough to take a driving test, part of which would involve castrating rapists so these kids would learn some respect for women. And after that they should learn the value of a dollar by getting a job, say, building house-extensions at a reasonable price!
WHen all's said and done, isn't that what really matters?
See, thats what I love about you 5th,... not a single smidget of sarcasm or ironic demeanor in your banter,... but you really should open up a bit, you know? You edit yourself waaaayyyy to much!
Ok,I love your points, truly I do. Not because of any particular reason but because the fact that you took my posting and made your own soup using my ingredients proves something I've been mulling for a while,... let me explain (got a minute or ten 5th?)
Understand that my stream of consciousness writing does not evolve from having "full-compass" logic, but only that which happens to mortify my emotions at the moment. I could go point for point with you and some of my retorts would be in agreement with yours, some diametrically opposed, and some just left as you state them. You and I can easily take any fact or any opinion and mold them to whatever point we want to make depending on the pliability of our audiences' receptors.
But do you expect me to give you a full tit for tat? oh hell no!,... do you think I have an hour to reply to this freaking diatibe? (and I say diatribe with much admiration, trust me..) I do have a life you know....
Ok,let me just make a few cursory points of disctinction.
1) My postings are always opinions based on casual observation and comparitive study of 1st hand human behavior,...not exactly scientific. I've never laid claim to anything else.
2)My main point was my opinion that faulty or "bad parenting" is the cause for most (and i say that loosely) of the ills mucking up our Society,.. again, my opinion. You think improvements in parenting accross the board would not make a difference?
3)When I said "Whup" I meant my Dad's whuppin' not to be confused with some wimpy teacher's ruler mind you,... I've never seen anybody (not even in my youth) get pelted by a teacher, not once. But yes, Dad did wax my tail and I freely admit deserving it.
4)I did not say the Chinese did it for welfare reasons,...just that they instituted limits to poppin' out kids. I did not mean to imply their motives were the same as my wishes.
5)Moral and Intelligent? Moi?,.. oh you must surely be talking about someone with greater IQ than your humble blogger (your brilliant disecting of the Libertarian nonsense is proof on my stupidity).
I've read your comments 4 times and I although I applaud your words and dolce vita musings, I still don't know why you did not summarize at the end what you really think! Go ahead,.. say it!.. ok, I'll say it for ya',
You don't agree with my opinion and you find it mildly amusing that a person spewing such garbage can be even read by anyone,.... am I close?... nearly close? Ok, if my last paragraph is as much full of shit as the posting so be it,... I'm tired anyways...
Isn't this a great country, is there a greater time to be alive?...
As always 5th, youre comments may come by like Haley's comet but fuck-almighty, when they come it lights up the sky. Terrific piece!
Thanks for your time, nobody appreciates a good, salient and crisp reply more that I do.
Youre always welcomed here.
Truth-pain...
My comment on your post was originally going to be at least twice as long, and I realized as I submitted it that I could have just sent the second half because it is rather re-iterative.
My first reading of your post was that you had completely lost your mind!
I scanned a few of your other recent posts to compare, but those didn't help me judge one way or the other.
Be assured I didn't find a lick of sense in your whole piece--it's really incoherent all the way through IMHO, and that's what I tried to illustrate.
No I don't expect a tit for tat ( that was how I intended to approach my response/comment intitially) most especially because it would suck for all concerned--who the hell has the time? Blogging is great for exchanges which expand discussion; arguing to the n'th degree about one subject becomes a chore and a bore and plain intrusive. A few tits here and there are fine, but but the more tits one sees the less interesting they are :D
Anyway, in the course of all this here's a subject you might want to think about, and that is satire. You see I was trying to be satirical about your post in my comment, but I'm not sure (from your comments) that that completely came across. I just read your latest post (the "top secret" conversation regarding Qana) and I didn't find it at all amusing--for a bunch of reasons--BUT it is satire isn't it, in form? You are trying to make a serious point in a humorus, or artful way, right?
I like to do that too (my recent Condiplomacy post) but such things can be so easily misconstrued--when writing in another persona as it were what is meant to be a joke can be taken seriously and vice versa, depending on the predilictions of the reader. As bloggers we all acquire a like-minded audience of regulars, but we also are visited by first-timers too--and sometimes that person is you, or me.
When I write satire I think my efforts are funny and I'm delighted when others do too, but I'm beginning to appreciate that others might not find the humor--not because they are "stupid" but because, well for all sorts of valid reasons. So I think that's quite interesting.
Last thing: whilst I thought your tirade was complete bollocks as a whole, here's something my Dad explained to me that I think is demonstrably true (anecdotally and scientifically): Kids aren't little adults, they are kids, long on ego and short on reason. A physical "lesson" is a simple way of triggering reason, of teaching consequences that fits the child's level of understanding. YOu can't apply it all the time and every time, but to never apply it does no one any good, neither the child nor the parent for that matter.
I think we agree on that point at least.
Blog on
5th Estate~
Very well said as always.
One of my failings (or strengths to some) is my complete and lack of political "correctness" editing in my postings. I just have no persuation to guide my behavior into caring for wide spectrum of sensibilities out there. I just don't. That is why (and I admit even this is done with sarcasm) I post disclosure "warning" statements. It's as if to say "hey, this spewing is not for everybody and if you are sensitive in the least of uncontrolled rantings, maybe my humble blog is not a place you want to hang out"
But as you said, this medium only mirrors the words, not the complete mood of the story-teller. It is impossible for me to convey the laughing I do, the satire or other deviations in writing..., that is why I try (as best I can) to avoid sensitivy editing and just wail away.
I think your point about styles is a great one. Had you not calibrated my idea of your satirical leanings, your personna and / or stylistic bent I would not have had seen much "satire" to your retort,.. but after reading your last, I went back and laughed my ass off. Not that I did not laugh before (trust me, I did), but I did so with much more gusto this time around. It is, -as you say- knowing the person a little bit.
The last thing is that I truly believe there is an inherent culture difference in the way British express or digest satire or comedic intent as opposed to us Yanks. I hope I do not cross the line of gross generaralization but If I were to use your TV shows as a guideline, your humor and satire is dry and less direct,... almost too formal to my taste. I grew up in the New Jersey and Puerto Rico, ... were you could call you black friends "yo nigger, what's up?" and they would not take offense because you had developed a trust that crossed racial and culture line. A bond that allowed you to to use verbiage otherwise considered offensive and racist. It was a street thing. Is is rude for me to do it now in public? Oh hell yes!, I would think it is the height of rudeness for me to say that today. But I understand this about myself and since my personality does not have the typical filters of liberalism (if you can call them that) I leave the vestiges of proper writing decorums to others and hope that my good conduct, my respect for others when I visit THEIR blogs, and my apologies when they are merited, reflect who I am as a whole rather than my being judged by a single posting.
Once again, I think that the more we interchange ideas and familiarize with the other, it will be easier to "get" what the other is all about. Its all good.
5th estate p.s.~
You happened to mention my posting not making a lick of sense to you and that you thought it was "bollocks as a whole" (I am still trying to figure out the "bollock" thing...), and while I respect your freedom to say what you feel, nobody else before you thought it was un-sensical, no?
Sense, satire and humor, is like beauty in a way, its in the eye of the beholder.
I'm still curious about your opinion of the 2 Hezbollah fellas..... (how can you not laugh at that?... to think it was anything but purposely sarcastically and irreverent is to... well, let me zip the flap,... shit; here I go with editing myself....
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