Here are some interesting articles I’ve found over the past week.
Hyper parents and coddled kids
We’re all a little hyper sometimes, aren’t we? It depends on the situation. My mother thinks I’m crazy that I provide homework help when my kids need it. She just doesn’t get it.
There is a fine line, isn’t there? What matters is the big picture overall. OVERALL, are you the type of parent who lets their kid do it for themselves? Do you give your kid age-appropriate responsibilities? Who’s in charge? You? Or your kid?
I’d like to see the rest of this documentary. For me, I scoff at helicopter parents. Let them be kids! I scream. And yet … looking back at parenting my boys and seeing them today, indecisive and sometimes afraid to make their own decisions, I wonder – was I a helicopter parent? If I were to be perfectly honest? I’d have to say, yes. And I’d have to say, I regret being so overly protective then, and now. It’s something I struggle with constantly.
Pa. Man Dies After 10 Calls to 911
Everyone relies on 911 in an emergency. However, in Pittsburgh recently, a man called 911 10 times over the course of a weekend, complaining of severe abdominal pain, without getting an ambulance. He died without receiving help.
Really. There’s nothing more to say about this one. Tragic.
Lone Republican Senator blocking a million-plus Americans from receiving unemployment benefits
Since cutting health and unemployment benefits isn’t the most popular thing to do in a job-starved recession, the Senate had reached near unanimity on extending these programs. But near-unanimous isn’t enough when senators are looking to stretch out the lifespan of benefits about to lapse-they need to reach unanimous consent. And that requirement has delivered a great deal of power into Bunning’s hands– power that has allowed him to block the extension until the Senate find $10.3 billion in spending cuts elsewhere to fund the safety-net spending.
I find it baffling that everyone is down on Bunning for daring to say no to yet MORE spending.
I, for one, applaud this senator for standing up and saying ENOUGH SPENDING!! It’s time to make some hard choices. We have got to get this spending under control, period. We are printing money so we can spend it. A healthy economic environment doesn’t work that way.
The last I heard, the unemployment benefits were extended and that they cut some other program in order to pay for it. Again, not an easy decision to make, but I think we’ve reached the point where we must start trimming the fat from our country’s budget. We need to stop raising taxes and take a good, hard look at our existing programs to see if we can cut back, and/or eliminate these programs all together.
Throwing more money at a problem simply doesn’t work. Hasn’t that been proven in the past year?
Powerful unions, big spending put Democratic states in deepest fiscal holes.
The five states in the worst financial condition–Illinois, New York, Connecticut, California and New Jersey–are all among the bluest of blue states.
Why do Democratic states appear to be struggling more than Republican ones? It comes down to stronger unions and a larger appetite for public programs, according to Kent Redfield, professor emeritus of political studies and public affairs at the University of Illinois’ Center for State Policy and Leadership.
If states that have adopted Democratic programs/ideals are going bankrupt, what makes us think that these same policies won’t bankrupt America as a country?
I think this article speaks volumes for Obama’s “hope and change.”
Jenny McCarthy’s Son May Not Have Had Autism After All
After years of speaking publicly about her belief that MMR shots (immunization for measles, mumps, and rubella) caused her son to suffer from autism, Jenny McCarthy now faces the reality that her 7-year-old son Evan — who no longer shows any signs of autism — may likely have lived with completely different illness.
I’ve seen A LOT of blog topics about this article – most of them are not very flattering to Ms. McCarthy.
I think ya’ll know how I feel about this whole topic, what do YOU think?
Sure, we’ve had lots of evidence of his oddities over the last two years — Obama giving the finger to Hillary during the campaign; Obama thrilling to the sound of his own voice echoing at the Berlin Victory Monument, using Karl Marx’s own words in Marx’s old haunting grounds; Obama speaking to the whole Muslim world from Al Azhar Mosque in Cairo; Obama rushing to Copenhagen to rescue a scientifically phony climate treaty; Obama suddenly looking enraged last week when Rep. Paul Ryan demonstrated with impeccable logic that ObamaCare just doesn’t add up. It’s simple arithmetic. That C-SPAN shot of Obama’s sudden expression of rage when he couldn’t answer.
Here’s a partial checklist. You decide.
Given the sheer number of public appearances and speeches our president has given over this past year, and that it’s nearly twice that of Bush and Clinton in their first year in office, and the fact that he uses “I” so much in his speeches, I think this article is pretty valid.
I think our president is incredibly narcissistic. It’s either that, or he’s trying to appear more confident that he really is to help disguise the fact that he really doesn’t know what he’s doing.
Either way, the man seems to like the sound of his voice.
You can’t take God out of American history
The teacher, by the name of Bradley Johnson, got into trouble with the district, which said “it had to come down on Johnson because the banners advocated a Judeo-Christian point of view that was not in sync with the nonreligious mission of public schools.”
Johnson went to court on the grounds that his first amendment rights were violated and he also reasoned that other teachers posted religious and non-religious material without being penalized.
The court ruled in the math teacher’s favor:
A federal judge ruled that Poway school officials violated the constitutional rights of a math teacher when they ordered him to take down classroom banners that referred to God.
Now, that the First Amendment decision is out of the way, it should be noted that American history was also endangered.
The Big Problem with Health Care Is Cost, Not Access
Since 85% of the population is insured, the primary concern for most of the currently insured is cost control, not expansion of access. The great majority of the population do not believe that the various reform bills are “paid for” (with Medicare cuts, tax increases, and new fees), regardless of what the OMB says and what the bills’ advocates claim.
The so-called “doctors fix” on Medicare physician payment rates will cost $250 billion over ten years, and double that in the following decade. This cost was excluded from the bill, to allow Democrats to claim the bill cut the overall deficit in the first ten years. Many are properly skeptical that a Congress which loves to spend will in fact allow half a trillion to be cut from Medicare in the next ten years, particularly since some of the savings are expected to come from the “waste, fraud, and abuse” category.
The Pathetic God of Environmentalism
Writing, or trying to write, about God is usually a bad idea. Either there is a God or there is not. If there is no God, then there is nothing to write about. (Sorry, atheists — but if you are right and God does not exist, then why bother spending so much time and energy on…nothing?)
If there is a God…let’s start with a picture followed by a brief explanation:
Is Your Water Making You Stupid and Sick?
The fluoride in your water is actually toxic waste left over after the manufacture of aluminum and chemical fertilizers. – Dr. John Yiamouyiannis, Fluoride, The Aging Factor
Before the 1950’s fluoride was used primarily as a rat and insect poison. Hitler used fluoride to dumb-down prisoners and make them submissive to authority. Fluorine was the critical element that made the atomic bomb possible. After the war big industrial plants faced increased lawsuits stemming from death and injuries caused from fluoride contamination of nearby communities. Faced with lawsuits and hefty disposal costs of this environmentally hazardous waste product, a scheme was devised to add fluoride to the water supply, a plan easily sold to an as-usual gullible American public by spin doctors like Edward Bernays.
The facts against fluoride are overwhelming which is why you will not find one government proponent willing to debate the issue publicly.
Injecting fluoride into the water supply is mass medication of the population and this reason alone makes it unlawful and immoral.
This one sounds too much like a conspiracy theory to me. However, it makes you wonder.
My mom thinks I’m a water snob (we drink distilled, or filtered water, so I guess she’s right, I am a water snob). And one of the things she pointed out to me that I was missing by not drinking tap water, was the fluoride that’s in tap water.
I mean, I grew up drinking water with fluoride, I’ve always thought it was a good thing to have fluoride in your water. But now, I wonder – just what ARE we drinking?
What do you think?
Write From Karen 