Guns, Deadly Pillows, And How The Media Manipulates Your Emotions

Time for a rant (it's been a little too long anyway)...

I saw a news article today from NBC News asking us to consider that since Sandy Hook (emotional trigger) an American child has been killed (emotional trigger) by a gun (HOT topic) every other day. 555 kids in three years is 185 per year.

I am not minimizing the loss of life. Life is precious. Nor am I entering a the gun debate. Your mind is probably already firmly made up on this issue anyway!

I am taking up some other numbers backed life saving causes and need your help...

Lets begin with drowning (4500 lives lost per year in the US). I think its time we had legislation to fill in these killer pools with dirt. Plus the water savings is good for the environment too. This will save 24 TIMES the number of lives in the NBC "cause" and I like winning!

Next on my attack list is natural gas and propane. Accidental inhalation in the home claims 700 lives (small numbers but still 3.8 times NBC) each year. It is time to return to heating and cooking with wood as our forefathers did. And while we are returning to the past, electrocution claims 400 lives each year. Electricity has got to go. Machinery kills another 350 per year (including 13 each year by vending machines). Clearly these "advancements" are dangerous. Don't even get me started on motor vehicles with their whopping 43,000 accidental deaths per year. Horses are clearly better.

Now with some momentum on our side, it is time to tackle the big issues. Pillows. That's right. I said it. Pillows are the leaders in accidental suffocation which claim 3300 lives per year (17.8 times NBC and most of these are children). Pillows are seductive, comfortable, and LETHAL. We have got to do something about this!

And now time for a controversial one.

Clumsiness. Specifically falling which claims 15,000 lives per year. We need to legislate walking and improve the safety of stairs immediately! Perhaps that is too big for us to tackle or just too personal as so many of us are afflicted with bouts of clumsiness. So lets just focus on falling out of bed which kills 450 per year. Much like pillows, beds are killers. Time to sleep on the ground again. It's probably better for your back anyway.

Now let's get weird for a moment. Autoerotic asphyxiation kills 1000 per year in the US.  (If you don't know, Google it.) Weird, yes. But it is still over 5 times the number that NBC cares about. Or do some lives count more than others?

While you are pondering the use of numbers to jerk your emotions around, consider that there are 319 million people in the US and 2.6 million die each year. Focusing on 185 deaths as a major cause for action is silly, especially when there are still pillows in every home (perhaps a march on Washington?). Regardless of the issue, we need to keep numbers in perspective or arguments get preposterous.

One more thing. Remember to keep an eye on the family pet. Dogs kill 34 every year. If they ever got organized...

Lets Play Hangman . . . Oops, I'm Handcuffed

Common sense and unicorns. Both of these seem to be works of fiction, especially among our nations educators.

A 13 year old student was doodling the game "Hangman" and the school (being calm and rational stewards of children) suspended him and turned him over to the police. Apparently, playing a game constitutes a "threat of harm". Read about it here.

Are you freaking kidding me? Can as student be arrested for buttering bread because he is wielding a weapon? Or can children no longer play "cops and robbers" at recess (unless the cops illegally strip search the robbers because that would make it ok)?

Let's just consider that a threat must be directed somewhere. If I draw a hanged person and write someone's name underneath then I have made a threat. The only threat in the game is that the puzzle might not be solved. Or perhaps the greater threat is that the schools vision of a politically correct world has been challenged by a simple pencil drawing! We can all agree that protecting our children is important. But the national push toward forcible conformity to a single ideal threatens the freedom that this country was built upon. Schools are supposed to educate, not act as self deputized thought police.

Here is a question for those administrators. At what point did handcuffing a child for playing a game become a good idea? That is the point where the fiction of protecting our children was exposed. That is the point where your politically correct agenda was revealed as the true threat of harm to our children. That is the point where your utopian ideal went up in flames and common sense died. Now, go and figure out how to educate. Or better yet, go play with your unicorns and leave the children alone.

If Your Sick Child Misses School You Should Be In Jail

Picture for a moment a terminally ill mom with cancer and other health issues. Now add a disabled child with some debilitating health issues of his own that has kept him out of school. Finally, picture them having very little money. This is a tough situation folks. Right?

So what does the school district do? They fine mom for his absences. (See, they lose budget money for him if he is gone a lot.) And the fines total several thousand dollars AND she could go to jail if she doesn't pay! You can read the story here. So, mom could go to jail for having a very sick child because the school does not want to be deprived of its funds.

Let me start with this . . .

Where in the hell does the government have any right to FINE a person for not exercising their personal rights? Yes, I know that school is a legal obligation. But school absences due to illness are NOT a failure to comply with the law. What authority does the district have to deprive others of property or even to make such policies in the first place? School officials are not elected law makers!

So now we have a situation where non-representatives can enact their own laws depriving citizens of property for actions that are perfectly within their RIGHTS and if they are poor enough that they cannot pay they can be thrown jail.

Have a sick child and go to jail.

Something is wrong with this picture...

What do you think?

Government Takes Down 11 Year Old Cupcake Entrepreneur

Chloe sells cupcakes to save money to start her own bakery. This 11 year old also donates hundreds of cupcakes to cancer fundraisers. She gets a wonderful story in the local paper about her beautifully decorated creations.

Naturally, this out of control menace to society had to be stopped!

And so comes Illinois'  Madison County Health Department to rescue the public by shutting her down. Read the story here. By law(?), she can't use the family kitchen. That's the crime. Baking cupcakes in the family kitchen. That's right up there with the lemonade bust of a 10 year old I wrote about in a previous post.

Apparently our local governments think that the number one problem we face is the epidemic of cupcake and lemonade slinging children. Now, let's arrest all those girl scouts peddling cookies and our streets will once again be safe.

What do you think?

Arrested For Playing Chess?

The NYPD arrested a group of men for playing chess in a park with stone chess and backgammon tables. This was next to a children's play area and signs posted made the area off limits to anyone unaccompanied by children. The NYPD defended the actions of the officers. Read the story here.

First in all fairness, the officers were trying to clean up an area that has a drug trafficking problem. This occurs next to a children's playground. Okay. Fair enough. I think we can all get behind that.

However, this was a PUBLIC park and set up specifically for that purpose. The chess area is separated from the playground by a fence. Little children are not known for playing chess and backgammon. Adults are. Adults with small children do not have time to play chess while their little one's play in the park. They have to watch the kiddies.

These men are not bothering the kids. Based on the reports, they are not dealing drugs. They were simply playing chess in a public area. Why would anyone want to harass folks doing that?

Shame on the NYPD. Do you agree?

How To Communicate With An Idiot

I've been out of action for a while, but I thought I'd provide a little humor courtesy of Dilbert.

How To Buy Congressmen

This is a cool discussion of how the political system is manipulated by special interests and how the people pay the price. It doesn't matter what your political position may be, this is worth watching. Check it out now.