Posts of the Week
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Turning 40 Chris Andersen - You may be at the halfway point in your life, but consider how you spent that first half: The first ten years were spent in mostly blissful ignorance as you learned how to walk, talk, poop, and dress yourself. The second ten years were spent rebelling against your parents because they "just didn't understand". The third ten years were spent getting yourself established in the world with a job, a home, a family(?). The fourth ten years were spent establishing some seniority in your social situation. Easily the first 20-30 years of your 40 years were spent learning how to live in this world. Now that you've already done that you can spend the next 40 years actually living. Ratings on the Net: boon or curse? Ashley Jacobs - It seems that the Fourth Amendment would never be passed if it were put up for vote today. Thank God it was written way back when Americans were still smarting from the gags slapped on them by a foreign power. Unfortunately, success breeds complacency, and the free discourse we've benefitted so much from is threatening to erode--a piece here (I don't think kids should see dirty pictures, do you?), a chunk there (why should I have to read gay propaganda?), until we will have lost the ability to discuss any but the most banal subjects. If we can't discuss controversial ideas, how can we improve as a society? The way to "fight back" against ideas that you think are flawed is to *present your own ideas as a counterpoise* ! Truly free speech accomodates everybody ! Kiddie Beauty Contests, Is this Child Abuse? MaryEllen K. Schoeman - When I was little, I wanted desperately to be in a beauty pageant. I had never seen one in real life, just things like 'Miss America' on TV, but I wanted so much to get all dressed up in a shiny dress and have everyone clap for me. My mother told me that those things werew wrong, that what was important was what was inside, not outside, that I wouldn't like it, that I should think about working on my brains, not dressing in a shiny dress. So...I decided that it was because I was ugly. I would never be a little girl in a shiny dress. Many little kids like to be the center of attention, they like to dress up, they like to sing and dance. Yes, the makeup and the grown-up dances and stuff are creepy, but no more creepy than parents who hire 'ringers' to play in Little League teams so their kid's team can do better, or any obsessed parent. |
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