Parenting vs. Babysitting

It seems to me that parents today aren't really raising their children; they're merely performing a custodial service until they grow up and leave the house.

I believe most of you would agree that the best environment to raise a child is a two parent family where only one parent works. Typically, the mother stays home with the children and perhaps gets a part time job when they are in school.

Those children from broken homes or two income families are not really being parented so much as just taken care of or babysat. When a parent sends a child off to day care for 9 hours a day and then only has time to spend 4 or 5 hours with that child after work, who is doing the parenting? Almost no parenting is really being done, it's all caretaking.

Parenting is more than just raising good kids and teaching them to be good people and instilling your values and ideals to them. Parenting is about passing your life on to your children. How can that be done when you're not spending time with them?

In the case of children of divorce, the child is split between two homes and each parent must take advantage of every moment to be as much of a parent as possible. But it still relegates the children to simply being cared for. It's still better for a child to be split between two homes than be abandoned by one parent but it still makes things far more difficult for that child than it is for the child of a two parent home.

Sadly, most people that initiate a divorce are thinking more about themselves than they are the long term benefit of their children. In cases of adultery, abuse, etc., that doesn't really apply but divorce is far too easy and our culture seems to be so accepting of it.

Nearly all of the adults I know that came from broken homes absolutely hated the situation. The only people that said their parents were better off apart came from homes where there was adultery, abuse, drugs or similar circumstances. The one thing they all had in common though is that they were frustrated that they didn't feel like they were part of a family no matter how well the divorced parents got along or were at least civil and cooperative with each other.

And we have to ask ourselves, "What does divorce teach our children?" What does it teach them about commitment, about honoring a covenant, about doing the right thing even when it's hard? I'm afraid those are the wrong lessons to be teaching our children.

Regulate Power Tools NOW!

Clearly the use of cordless power tools is out of control. In New York, a man grabbed two cordless power saws and started swinging them at subway patrons. He sliced open the chest of a 64 year old man who is now in critical but stable condition.

Regluators must take immediate action on this. I am calling for trigger locks on power tools. They could be built right in to the tools and each operator of a power tool would be required to have a key to operate it. With power tool trigger locks, the lunatic in the story would not have been able to slice that man open.

Other regulations to consider:

Maximum Pointiness and Sharpness of Knives - Knives are used to kill and injure thousands, perhaps millions of people per year either accidentally or on purpose. We need tough regulation on how sharp a knife is allowed to be. Eventually this regulation would require all knives to have rounded tips, thus denying a criminal an easy method of stabbing his victim.

Tool Registration - Almost every tool out there can be used as a weapon. We need a nation Tool Registry Database. Tool manufacturers will be required to put serial numbers on all tools. Anybody purchasing a tool will have to show identification. Because there are probably billions of unmarked tools out there, cities could hold Cash For Tools drives in order to get them off the street and out of garages and basements everywhere.

Limbaugh Not Charged

The Florida State Attorney's Office had declined to file charges against Rush Limbaugh for the Viagra found by customs officials at the Palm Beach International Airport.

Apparently, the pills were prescribed to his doctor and not to him directly.

My guess is they decided not to file charges because they figured the evidence wouldn't stand up in court! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I just had to!

El Jefe Nuevo de Mexico

Felipe Calderon, the conservative candidate for President in Mexico is claiming an electoral victory over the leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. As far as I'm concerned, anyone with four names should not be allowed to hold office anway, I don't care what country he's from.

Calderon is likely to continue the policies of Vicente Fox in what passes for free-market economics in that country. I have no doubt that he will also continue to be very harsh on illegal aliens coming in to his country whilst encouraging his own people to relocate north so they can send money home.

Although a "conservative" win is no doubt better for Mexico than a Marxist win, I think the United States will end up being worse off. If a leftist was elected in Mexico, Bush would not have as much internal political pressure to play nice with Mexico. As it is, he has kissed up to Fox as if Mexico is more important to us than we are to them.

All in all, this will basically mean no change whatsoever for our problems with Mexico and the enormous number of illegal aliens that their government encourages to come to the US.