I heard the news today, oh boy
NS February 15th, 2008
My thoughts on a few things in the news today:
Jobless to lose out on £2,000 if children misbehave
Wow, what a great idea! Take the “long-term unemployed” (who undoubtedly have larger issues than just finding the right career), dangle a cash reward of £2,000 in their face and then hold their children responsible for obtaining that cash for them. Maybe it will work for a few families but I can also see kids being threatened, even physically beaten, if they step a toe out of line or forget to eat all their peas at school (where the parents aren’t even there to supervise and interact with them). The thing that some people don’t seem to get is that children are not just little extensions of their parents. Of course parenting has a large impact on how a child turns out but it’s not the only thing that comes into play. To pretend otherwise is just insulting to the intelligence and free will of all parties, especially children. None of us can be ‘tamed’ or ‘controlled’. We’re all humans and deserve to be treated as such, not used as a reward system for parents who can’t or won’t be good little earners. Give incentives for good behaviour, sure. But don’t use money as a carrot on a stick and then snatch it away when a child misbehaves.
Bush: 7/7 bombs families would back terror torture
In an interview with BBC World News America last night, President Bush said that relatives of those killed and injured in the 2005 London bus and Tube bombings would “understand” his own hard line on terror. He said: “I suspect the families of those victims understand the nature of killers. And so, what people gotta understand is that we’ll make decisions based upon the law. We’re a nation of law.” Bush then went on to defend the CIA’s use of waterboarding as a form of torture at Guantanamo Bay and said he would veto a bill passed by the Senate yesterday which declares the method illegal. Is he really suggesting that all of the relatives of anyone killed or injured in a terrorist attack must support torture. At this point, a trained monkey would make my nation look better. Oy vey.
Second Week for McCartney hearing
Paul McCartney and Heather Mills continue the ongoing saga of their bitter divorce and squabble over millions of pounds like most of us mere mortals would do over the last beers left in the fridge at the end of a good party. Mills was branded a golddigger immediately upon news of her claims to McCartney’s fortune (estimated to be worth £825 million) and McCartney continues to be heralded as an innocent, angelic altar boy who can do no wrong. The fact that we don’t actually know what went on in their marriage and have no way of knowing who ‘wronged’ who doesn’t stop the British red-top press from being its usual hysterical self and making assumptions based on guesswork and stereotypes.
That’s all from me folks, have a great Friday night!
