Search results for: “national kindergarten”

A Detroit Free press columnist is saying that there ought to be a law against broadcasting interviews with underage teens about sex: Under Michigan law, it is illegal to have sex with a 14-year-old girl, even if she consents. But there’s no law against broadcasting on television the same 14-year-old’s account of her sexual activity.…

One of my pet peeves (which goes beyond ordinary political left-versus-right considerations) is what I see as this country’s relentless degeneration into what I’ve called a vast “national kindergarten” — more times than I can remember. Not everyone agrees with me that a national kindergarten would be a bad thing. In fact, there’s a piece…

Last Wednesday (while not looking for anything in particular), I stumbled onto a YouTube video showing a very cute animal eating a grape: http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=K9s5xYPsG8c&feature=endscreen My immediate impulse was to want one of these cute animals, and I wondered how Coco would feel about having one join her family. The slow loris is at the lowest…

An ominous development I heard about today is a perfect example of the dynamics of power addiction that M. Simon mentioned in his latest post. In case you hadn’t heard, the federal government is trying to ban the sale of certain tiny magnets — not to children (they’ve already done that), but to adults. The…

From a friend, here’s some food for thought. Of course, by calling someone’s thoughts and ideas “food,” right there I used one of those sneaky expressions intended to both simplify and persuade. Instead of saying “I read and liked this article, and I think you should read it too, because you would benefit from it,”…

Speaking of idiotic remarks about the Colorado theater shooting, I certainly did not mean to imply in my last depressing post that they are limited to conservatives even though I was quite irritated by one. Most of the nonsensical scolding has been coming from the left. Here’s famed director Peter Bogdanovitch, blaming guns, movies and…

Here’s a good one for those who appreciate the national kindergarten approach to policing: Police in Aurora, Colo., searching for suspected bank robbers stopped every car at an intersection, handcuffed all the adults and searched the cars, one of which they believed was carrying the suspect. Police said they had received what they called a…

The reason Coco looks that way is because Sarah links an article which reminded her that online spontaneity can not only have consequences, but the consequences can be permanent. And permanent spontaneity (a complete contradiction) sucks! After all, she is her master’s watchdog. GRIM THOUGHT: What if Facebook — because of the sheer numbers, and because…

While I have long worried about the possibility of the government shutting down the Internet, recent events in Egypt show that what I have been told is technically impossible in this country has become possible — at least in other countries. The most ominous development to date is an actual proposal to have an Internet…

I’m in a quandary. Again! There’s an issue I am tired of writing about that I feel obliged to write about. That alone wouldn’t be such a big deal, except that the last time I admitted I was tired of an issue, some commenters were mightily annoyed. One opined that if I am tired of…

When I was awakened early this morning, I made the mistake of turning on the TV in the hope of being bored into drowsiness so I could go back to sleep. I turned on C-SPAN, thinking that boring speeches would do the trick. Big mistake. Instead of boring speeches, I was greeted by passionate, in-your-face…

Glenn Reynolds raises the unsettling question of whether there’s a bad driving gene. I have long suspected there’s some explanation along such lines, but it now appears that there’s some scientific evidence for it: People with a particular gene variant performed more than 20 percent worse on a driving test than people without it –…

Few things annoy me more than busybody bureaucratic attempts to interfere with people’s privacy and tell adults what to do. Especially where it comes to personal matters like human sexuality. It amazes me that a society which is supposedly concerned with getting the government out of the bedroom would countenance (much less encourage) a system…

Glenn Reynolds (who with his wife Dr Helen has a great great podcast on the same subject) links Megan McArdle’s discussion of psychologist Robert Epstein’s thoughts on extended adolescence. “It occurred to me that young people must be capable of functioning as competent adults, or the human race quite probably would not exist,” says Dr.…

I never thought I’d write a post about such a mundane topic as peanut butter, but here I am, doing just that. Where it comes to buying peanut butter (a staple food for me), I’m one of those cheapskates who couldn’t care less about brand loyalty; I buy whatever is on sale. Jif, Skippy, Peter…

WARNING! This post has been called a “spoiler.” People who don’t want to read about certain details in “Brokeback Mountain” might not want to read any further. Someone at the Childress, Texas Chamber of Commerce isn’t doing a very good job. For a shrinking town of some 6500 people, it seems to be the capital…

Not long ago, I touched on the problem of the presence of children as a threat to freedom: And suppose I decided that no undisciplined brats would ever enter my home. Even that wouldn’t avoid possible contamination, as my child might end up visiting the home which created the problem, and on top of all…

Speaking of our national kindergarten, it’s almost comical to see the “War on Drugs” degenerate into a War on Sudafed — soon to be a “War On All Substances That Even Though They Can’t Get You High Might Be Used In Theory By Someone To Make Something That Could Get Someone High.” Uncle Sam is…

Here’s Margaret Cho of all people, defending Michelle Malkin: Malkin tries to speak louder in to the microphone to drown out the chants of the protesters. The American flag taped up behind her falls down. This gets a smattering of ironic applause among the confused and scared looking audience. I don’t blame them for being…

This story is a perfect example of the kind of rude and uncivilized behavior called “disorderly conduct.” Sakinah Aaron was walking into the bus area at the Wheaton Metro station several weeks ago, talking loudly on her Motorola cell phone. A little too loudly for Officer George Saoutis of the Metro Transit Police. The police…