My Friends and Fellow Fuddy-Duddies:“Opening minds and angravating liberals since 2001”
“I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life.”
Genesis 3:19 John 3:16
I got a message from an old friend the other day. A real good guy, salt of the earth type of fellow from fly-over land. He made a comment that went something like: “What the hell has happened to my Country? I wake up and feel like I am in a low-budget horror flick where people’s brains have been stolen!”
He goes on to ask how do the “sociopaths” (his word, not mine. I am not that polite) of the Left get away with the crime of the century while the humans on the Right simply sit back and watch Rome burn.
He went on to explain that while he does not consider himself rich he paid tens of thousands in taxes last year. He complained that the illegals and others want more and credits and deals and breaks and almost anything but to earn a pay check.
Well, I responded and amplified and went on for a bit (shock, I know!) I started to think about if this would make a good FISH. As it turns out, it might. You be the judge. (And this is one more example “How a Bill Becomes a Law!” Oh, no, I mean: “How a Random Ide a Becomes a FISH!”)
(OPENBAR: We all know how laws are made. Biff has a pen and a phone. Whenever OLG wants some new law he, poof, snaps his slender, manicured fingers and, as if by magic, the Constitution is shredded a little more. Or, he will call the EPA, DEC, OSHA or some other faceless and unelected entity and they will write a “rule.” When one of these agencies create a “rule” it has the force of law. Except no one for whom you voted passed it. And, before you ask, ALL of those agencies fall under the Executive Branch of gum’mint. Yet for some reason no seems to have a problem with the Executive Branch doing the work of the Legislative Branch. Either that or then never heard of the “Separation of Powers” and “Checks and Balances.” For some other reason they have been able to twist Article II enough to make it mean anything. Just like the 14th Amendment.)
As I have said many times, I am not a fan of coincidences. Things happen for a reason. As it turns out, just the night before, my wife was showing me some YouTube clips of some comedian, Sebastian something or other. His name makes little difference. But, the two clips I saw were funny and one very germane to today’s topic.
To synthesize this, he was talking about how everyone thinks their kid is special. “Oh, my child is so advanced! She reads at a fourth grade level and she is only in second grade!”
When I was in second grade I was translating Plutarch into Icelandic. I joke, of course, but what passes for fourth grade today might be on a second grade level back in the day.
What has happened is that we have allowed the school systems in many areas to dumb down the kids to meet their testing requirements. As a result parents are deluded onto thinking that their kid is a genius.
The comedian said “If you want your kid to amaze me, have her fly from the back of the house to the front.” Now THAT is setting the bar high.
Giving another example of how parents think their kid is all that and a packet of crisps is in sports. He acted as a parent talking to the coach: “Um, coach, yes, we are the Gibson’s. I was wondering why our child, Tyler, is not participating in the game with the rest of the kids?” The coach replies: “Because he stinks, that is why we have a bench.” Of course, that is the truth. Of course, that would NEVER happen today!
I am not sure when this sense of superiority of all children came about, but they sure did not have that when I was a kid. We were treated like idiots, gavones, we were barely tolerated in public. If a parent did not make a crack about a kid within a few minutes, there was some other relative who would take a shot at him.
That which does not kill me…
Just like “sports” today. If you sign up, you play. Half the time they don’t keep score and at the end everyone gets a medal for “participating.” A kid could play a sport all through grade school and still have no idea what the heck they were doing! But, they got a medal! Well, ain’tchu special!
We played baseball, football or basketball, depending on the season. If you were good, you played, if not, your rode the bench. At the end of the season, the top team or two got a trophy or something and the rest of the kids got to watch.
Today, if a kid is not getting an award, that parent is not going to take their exceptionally advanced child to see someone else get an award! No siree! So, EVERYONE gets a medal. Which has the exact same gravitas as no one getting a medal.
Like the comic says in his bit and as I mentioned above, our parents did not molly coddle us, they did not tell everyone that we were “special.” But you know something, there was zero doubt that they loved us more than anything and pity the fool that wronged their child.
Not for anything, that is not like it is today.
Today’s parents love their kids but far too many “like” their kids and want to be their “friend.” “Friends” rarely reprimand you, you get into trouble with your friends. What has happened is that parents have forgotten how to parent, how to be a fair disciplinarian, how to keep a kid in line and how to teach the kid that he is exactly as special, unique and amazing as every other kid.
Like that medal that everyone gets, when every kid is special, unique and amazing, he is not any better than the rest. But the dimbulb parent can ruin a kid by making him feel superior when, like most kids, he is average. Hence the term “average” and not “special, unique and amazing.”
Just a thought for your weekend, nothing else weightier than that.
But hark back to some old issues.
Remember when that unindicted (so far) co-conspirator the Hilderbeast said that “it took a village to raise a child?” Then this Saltine-American went off on some cockamamie story about how African villages raised the kids or some such malarkey.
It does not take a village to raise a child. It takes a pair of parents or one truly dedicated and loving single parent to do that job. Only a parent can truly instill the values and morals that they want. But when you let the “village” raise your child, and that village is the educational system or the gum’mint, I assure you that if you are not a Left-wing nut you are going to be disappointed in the results in most every case.
Again, as I mentioned, the gum’mint taking over the rearing of children comes from the “Communist Manifesto” and those fun-loving snappy-dressers, the Nazis, worked out a plan for kids to turn in their parents for activities unbecoming, if you get my drift.
I say that we started to go downhill almost right out of the gate as a nation. But we really went into a tailspin with the end of Blue Laws.
Most of us grew up with Blue Laws. They demanded that most businesses were closed on Sunday. There are still some areas where they are enforced. But not nearly enough.
I recall on Sunday, the bakery was open until about noon, there was a Walgreen’s Drug Store in the mall open and the bowling alley. Virtually all other businesses but gas stations, movie houses, bars and restaurants were closed.
Back then we had Sunday dinner in the middle of the afternoon. It was never, or hardly ever just us. Either company came to our house or we went to theirs. It was always a nice meal, like a turkey or roast with all the fixings, not soup and a sammich!
The kids played with the kids and the adults talked amongst themselves till dinner when all gathered and the meal was enjoyed. After dinner, dessert was had and the kids went off and the adults chatted at the table.
Back then we had few distractions, granted but they did exist. I suppose that with having one day when virtually everyone was off and there were few places to go that the families spent more time together. The families spent time with their extended family.
Kids could still get into mischief but not like today. You got in trouble in school, the teacher cracked you. And if you thought you would get sympathy at home, guess again. You got a second beating.
Today, some teacher gives some exceptional little darling even the stink eye, the kid is in therapy and the school board is in court being sued by “Tyler’s” parents. Had those parents been brought up right, we would not have half the problems we do today.
So, when people ask “what the heck happened to my Country”, alls I can say is that somewhere along the line parents got real lazy with respect to raising their kids. No, I do mean they did nothing, quite the opposite. In fact, they did everything in the sense their kids belonged to the band, the Italian Club, chemistry club, soccer and baseball. The kids are NEVER home. The parents NEVER interact with the kids unless they are driving them from activity to activity.
There is no family unit. There are two adults with driving licenses shuttling some short people from place to place. They have no idea that Sally is the most “popular” girl in fifth grade (but that is ok, she can get an abortion without parental consent)(GRRRR), that Jimmy has all kinds of porn on his computer, that Billy is selling drugs in his room. Then when something happens, the parent is the last to know.
Why?
Like I said, the parents were so busy trying to be parents they were too tired to raise their kids. They have no idea what is going on in their child’s lives.
What is the answer, I dunno. But I would start with reinstituting the Blue Laws for a start. Maybe people will stop, look around and see what is REALLY important.
Enjoy your weekend.
thedailyfish.net 