Kids
I am not yet officially a parent. My wife and my first child is due in October (it's a girl!). So I do feel a little bit under qualified to write a post about raising children. However, really, this is less about raising children as much as it is about government not raising children.
Summer break has barely begun and we already have two outlandish stories about government nannying of our country's children.
The first has been a recurring theme the past few years: You need a permit to sell lemonade. There are few things as quintessentially American as a kid sitting at the end of his or her parent's driveway and selling lemonade for a quarter (or a dollar; inflation is a you-know-what). It is an education experience that teaches a basic idea. That idea is that if you work to create something you have the right to sell it. It teaches the cost of production (such as sugar, lemons, water, and time), and how much you need to price something to make it cover the costs and worth your time. It teaches that money doesn't grow on trees and that if you want something you need to work for it. So it's no surprise that the Left hates it.
The most recent example comes from *sigh* Texas. Yes, the state that is consistently front and center for rugged individualism is the setting of sisters, aged 7 and 8, who wanted to make money for a Father's Day present. The city, to it's credit (at least as much as you can credit someone for having common sense) agreed to waive the $150 permit, but the health department just can't have you drinking lemonade that hasn't been property inspected by the same people who won't let your doctor prescribe you marijuana for your chronic pain, but sees no problem with Vicodin, OxyContin, Percocet, etc. (My apologies for the digression).
You see this is what happens when we as society give up control not just to politicians, who are at the very least accountable to someone, but to the appointees of the politicians. There are vast departments making laws who have no actual legislative power. Whether it's the FDA, DOE, or the EPA, there are people out there making a lot of money telling you exactly how you can live your lives. And there really isn't anything you can do about it, because they aren't elected. Rather, we elected people to make laws who gave the responsibility to actually make laws to friends and the powerful.
Combine this with a complete lack of common sense by those who enforce those laws, and you have a pretty pathetic system of government. Our second story takes place in Florida, where an 11 year old boy was forced to play basketball in his driveway unsupervised for 90 minutes. Because a neighbor thought calling the cops out of "concern" was better than, you know, going over to the kid and asking if he's okay, this child and the parent's 4 year old were taken from the parents for a couple weeks. The parents, meanwhile, spent a night in jail and were charged a felony. That's about the best I can do with a summary, because you really need to read the linked article to fully grasp the idiocy of the entire ordeal.
But ultimately, here's the point: We need less government and more common sense in raising children. The Left hates nothing more than children growing up to be independent (unless, of course, the child is being independent from the parent while becoming dependent on The State). Remember, The Left is the party of eugenics, of abortion, of no-fault divorce, of being against homeschooling, and of against traditional marriage. Anything that promotes family over government they are against. You see, family represents a small group of individuals choosing to work together to take care of each other. This is the enemy of The State, because, like the advertisements in "Treehouse of Horror VI", if everyone ignored it enough, it would eventually go away. Because of this, The Left, worshipers and henchmen of The State, need to do all they can to destroy the family. I imagine that an overwhelming majority of people think the kids in Texas should be allowed to sell lemonade in their parents front yard. I also imagine the overwhelming majority of parents, while maybe not preferring to leave their child locked outside of the house alone for an hour and a half, think their kid would survive okay.
But government knows better.
Summer break has barely begun and we already have two outlandish stories about government nannying of our country's children.
The first has been a recurring theme the past few years: You need a permit to sell lemonade. There are few things as quintessentially American as a kid sitting at the end of his or her parent's driveway and selling lemonade for a quarter (or a dollar; inflation is a you-know-what). It is an education experience that teaches a basic idea. That idea is that if you work to create something you have the right to sell it. It teaches the cost of production (such as sugar, lemons, water, and time), and how much you need to price something to make it cover the costs and worth your time. It teaches that money doesn't grow on trees and that if you want something you need to work for it. So it's no surprise that the Left hates it.
The most recent example comes from *sigh* Texas. Yes, the state that is consistently front and center for rugged individualism is the setting of sisters, aged 7 and 8, who wanted to make money for a Father's Day present. The city, to it's credit (at least as much as you can credit someone for having common sense) agreed to waive the $150 permit, but the health department just can't have you drinking lemonade that hasn't been property inspected by the same people who won't let your doctor prescribe you marijuana for your chronic pain, but sees no problem with Vicodin, OxyContin, Percocet, etc. (My apologies for the digression).
You see this is what happens when we as society give up control not just to politicians, who are at the very least accountable to someone, but to the appointees of the politicians. There are vast departments making laws who have no actual legislative power. Whether it's the FDA, DOE, or the EPA, there are people out there making a lot of money telling you exactly how you can live your lives. And there really isn't anything you can do about it, because they aren't elected. Rather, we elected people to make laws who gave the responsibility to actually make laws to friends and the powerful.
Combine this with a complete lack of common sense by those who enforce those laws, and you have a pretty pathetic system of government. Our second story takes place in Florida, where an 11 year old boy was forced to play basketball in his driveway unsupervised for 90 minutes. Because a neighbor thought calling the cops out of "concern" was better than, you know, going over to the kid and asking if he's okay, this child and the parent's 4 year old were taken from the parents for a couple weeks. The parents, meanwhile, spent a night in jail and were charged a felony. That's about the best I can do with a summary, because you really need to read the linked article to fully grasp the idiocy of the entire ordeal.
But ultimately, here's the point: We need less government and more common sense in raising children. The Left hates nothing more than children growing up to be independent (unless, of course, the child is being independent from the parent while becoming dependent on The State). Remember, The Left is the party of eugenics, of abortion, of no-fault divorce, of being against homeschooling, and of against traditional marriage. Anything that promotes family over government they are against. You see, family represents a small group of individuals choosing to work together to take care of each other. This is the enemy of The State, because, like the advertisements in "Treehouse of Horror VI", if everyone ignored it enough, it would eventually go away. Because of this, The Left, worshipers and henchmen of The State, need to do all they can to destroy the family. I imagine that an overwhelming majority of people think the kids in Texas should be allowed to sell lemonade in their parents front yard. I also imagine the overwhelming majority of parents, while maybe not preferring to leave their child locked outside of the house alone for an hour and a half, think their kid would survive okay.
But government knows better.
Comments
Post a Comment