Just Say No!

Okay, yes, drugs are bad and continue to be a problem--old news.

What we need now is a national "Just Say No" program for parents. Daddy can I go to the mall on a school night with my girl (right) friends? No! Can I trash my perfectly good Iphone and get a new $300 Blackberry like the cool kids? No! Can I cuss at you in public and be as openly disrespectful as I want because you never built me a tree-house? No! Parents need to be the grown ups! "Because I said so" always was, and continues to be, a valid explanation for any parental edict. Yes, parents should be reasonable people, but they should not relinquish all authority and responsibility by "reasoning" with their kids. They're kids! A parent does not reason with a nine-year-old when it's time to go home. A parent says it's time to go. If the nine-year-old argues, the correct response is not,"Well, honey, if you want to go get ice-cream, we have to leave before 3:30." The correct response is, "We're leaving. Pick up your stuff or we're leaving without it." Anyone who has never dragged a screaming toddler out of a public place has not experienced parenthood.

It is every parent's divinely appointed responsibility to teach and protect (not protect and serve--that's cops) their children until they can be self-sustaining, fully-functional, contributing members of human society. Children are not fashion accessories; get a Bluetooth. Children are not toys; get a Dressy Bessy or a G.I. Joe. Children are not fodder for an insecure ego; get a dog. If your child is your best friend, or vice versa, you're doing it wrong. If you are that over-protective, unreasonable, out of touch, bossy #$*&*#% your children hate but run to whenever they're scared, hurt, or confused, Bravo!
A good parent knows that, to be the hero, you cannot always be the good guy.

What was I doing with my childhood?

Let me get this straight

Okay, so, goodness is light, and light is knowledge; but, the Enlightenment was an apostasy, and the Gnostics were evil?

genius in shackles

Epictetus said "Only the educated are free." Recent reflection has me believing that the opposite is true: Only the aware can be truly imprisoned.

Tolerance

I respect the inherent right of all stupid people to exist. That being said, I demand that they be forced, by law, to stay out of my way and stop touching my stuff.

Kids are great

Confessions of a bibliophile

Ok, the following are my all-time favorite books-in no particular order. I offer no apologies.
The Count of Monte Cristo, The Diggingest Dog, Nineteen Minutes, The Tiger on Your Couch, The Oxford English Dictionary, Reviving Ophelia, Janet Daily's Calder series, The Golden Book version of A Child's Garden of Verses, Lace, The Christmas Cookie Sprinkle Snitcher, The Woman in White, Jane Eyre, The 776 Stupidest Things Ever Said, The Physician’s Desk Reference, Little Women, Rage of Angels, The Thorn Birds, The Three Investigators series from the 1960/70s, Little House on the Prairie, Interview with the Vampire, Small Miracles, The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank, Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now!, and any collection of poems by Robert Frost.