Outlaw Spanking? California NEEDS a whuppin'.

As far as this parent is concerned, if you spank your kids you deserve a medal.

Now of course i'm not referring to abuse. But there are times where the only things your now snotty nosed brat will understand is a spanking. And of course many people think any form of physical discipline is abuse.

But what's really lacking is any serious and regular form of discipline by many parents. This surprises me even at church where my peers let their kids run circles around the octaganerians carrying lunch trays without any supervision. Not to mention the kids aren't exhibiting any courtesy or manners.

Apparently parents today aren't concerned about disciplining their kids. Nor how the actions of their offspring reflect upon the parents. While mom and dad are socializing or eating their lunch, the kids roam in packs. Church is a safe place after all, and you'll keep anything bad from happening to my kids won't you?

Meanwhile the kids are off tearing things, breaking things, running slalom through pedestrian traffic, and more. Just an elder's broken hip waiting to happen. Just the other day I had to restrain myself from clobbering a kid.

I had just left the buffet line when I was surrounded by a feral pack of ankle biters untethered. The Lilliputian terrors were playing games and running free in the common area where families share a meals together. Apparently they were sharing their cute children but I was having none of it. One of them blindly careened out of control toward me and my full platter of chow. A froze and braced myself for the impact, even dodged a little to lessen the impact, but wanting to just thrust my knee ever so slightly into the child who has no clue what world of hurt would crash upon them if Gulliver here hadn't been paying any attention. Why?

Because next time, some half-blind, bone brittle elder won't be prepared. The collision will likely cause one of not both of them some bumps and bruises at the least. Maybe a little tough love would make the kid see the light. After all, surely their parents have told them not to run rampant in the dining hall and why, right? At the very least they've explained that it's not nice, right?

I can only imagine that they need more of this sort of thing in California where everyone is coddled from cradle to grave.

Suicide Lane Salvation

Have had odd bits of traffic disagreements with my fellow drivers as of late. Everything from more roadway compulsive compassion to people ignoring the lane arrows.

Oddly enough i've seen more issues lately with people not understanding the purpose of the shared/two-way lane in the middle of a road, aka the 'suicide lane'.

This is *not* a lane to drive a hundred plus yards down to the daycare center just because you don't feel like merging. I've also seen more folks afraid to use it as a deceleration/turn lane, and instead choose to clog up the regular traffic lanes.

But what really has my thong in a wad is the people crossing two lanes of traffic who pull halfway out into traffic and stop, waiting for their moment and not entering the suicide lane so that they can merge. The suicide lane is you place of salvation. You use it to get out of the way of one traffic flow and then wait for an opening to merge in the direction you are headed.

Just. Don't. Get it.

Tet '07

The politicians are cutting and running on both sides. Shame on them. And shame on the Republican hawks nad White House for not better articulating what needs to be done and why.

Nobody seems to care about what happens after we leave. The only war the Democrats seem interested in winning is the domestic political one. Cutting off the troops to spite Bush.

Just Damn. Never would have thought we'd have let things go this far.

Vick Losing Benefit of the Doubt

Atlanta's National Football League franchise, the Falcons, has been struggling with the Michael Vick enigma for years now. Many fans are outspoken in their disdain for Vick and his fire from the hip style of decision making on the field. Apparently, this kind of thinking extends off the field too.

Until now, I had been a pretty staunch defender of his. I was even looking forward to seeing him with a new coach to see if that might be what we needed.

But this week's transgression in the Miami airport pretty much takes the cake. He's arguably the most recognizable face in the NFL today. All he has to do is keep his nose clean, or at least be smart about how he goes about his off field activities and he'd have people lining up for his endorsements. As it stands now, even if he won the superbowl, how many people would want to pay top dollar for him to endorse their products/services?

The really intriguing thing that few have asked about? He was hoping on a flight from Miami to Atlanta to meet the new coach in Atlanta. Was he going to his first face-to-face with the newcoach stoned? Now he *may* face a 4 week suspension next season if he had already tested positive and or was on secret probation with the NFL. That won't do any looming QB controversies any good.

Never have been real impressed with Vick's on field decision making. This obviously may be a lot more than an on the field problem. Here's to hoping he wises up and has a banner year this season. Though i wouldn't bet on it. :/

Windfall Tax for Citrus!

Where are all those people clamoring that the oil industry be saddled with a "Windfall Profits" tax?

Despite the utter absurdity of such a thing in a capitalistic economy, where's the equal treatment here?

Oil prices surged last year and the industry reaped large amounts of revenue because the paying public needed the oil products and didn't change their driving habits.

Now, the Calif citris industry is being squeezed with the recent freeze. This means that Florida growers (and elsewhere) will likely make *nice* money from the same acreage of farmland that they had last year. Their product is in high demand and prices are expected to *double* as a result of the bad spate of weather.

Shouldn't the citrus industry be 'punished' for their obscene good luck? Those farmers that have been wise or fortunate with their crop choice and location have always benefited from the curveballs mother nature sends our way. Doesn't it make good sense to take money from those that will be rewarded and give it to the government? They need that money to buy more votes.

After all, we do the same for home improvement centers and the like in the path of hurricanes and what not?