So much common sense has been lost. Here’s an effort to restore a touch of equilibrium: FREE RANGE KIDS.

I live two blocks from an elementary school, and I NEVER see a child walking past my house on his or her way to school. Every last kid is driven by parents. Parents who are so consumed by fear (well, it IS a Catholic school, so this makes sense) that their precious Pat may be whisked away by a bad guy. In Healdsburg? Find me a whiter, yuppier, more NIMBY-fied town than Healdsburg (outside of Marin County, of course), I dare you. Absolutely no reason to have fear, yet their children are not allowed to leave the YARD, let alone walk to school.

Was it like this when you were a child? Were you so strictly confined? I’m betting not. STOP THE MADNESS! FREE THE CHILDREN!!

Okay, a pretty weak post, but check the site out. We’re (including this father of a five year old) being totally anal, paranoid parents. Time to pull the sticks out of our asses and let our kids live a little.

Well, turns out the paranoid lefties were right on when they predicted Sarah Palin would skip the debates. Technically, she showed up, but not five minutes in she tosses out the gem, “I may not answer the questions the way the moderator or you (Joe Biden) want me to, but I’m going to tell the American people what they need to hear.” Or some such bullshit. In other words she’s not gonna debate, but instead stick to the talking points of her choosing, which is exactly what she did.

Sure, she made some verbal gaffes. Yeah, she said “nuc-u-lar” nineteen times. To be expected from a prime-time rookie. Her biggest fuck up?

“It’s toxic what’s happening. It’s toxic on Main Street and it’s affecting Wall Street.”

Damn, Sarah, I live three blocks from Main Street and Read the rest of this entry »

Just when you thought that democracy was absolutely DEAD in the United States (Clinton and Obama paying off superdelegates with millions of dollars in cash money = bye bye democracy, hello pay to play!), Ralph Nader comes along to remind people that ANYONE can actually run for President. Even someone with lofty ideals and concern for the wellbeing of the global citizenry.

In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” the consumer advocate said great changes in U.S. history have come “through little parties that never won any national election.”

“Dissent is the mother of ascent,” he said. “And in that context I’ve decided to run for president.”

Of course, if you haven’t heard of Eugene Debs or how his candidacies brought us social security, child labor laws, some small level of corporate oversight, minimum wage and much more, you’re not that tapped into the history of U.S. politics and Nader’s words fall on deaf ears (fancy that, a U.S. citizenry that isn’t well-versed in U.S. history or the actions of their own parties!)
On how his candidacy impacts the Democrats: “If the Democrats can’t landslide the Republicans this year, they ought to just wrap up, close down, emerge in a different form.”

Of course, we all know the Dems are really, really good at handing elections to the Republicans (Remember that sad sap, Al Gore, who handed Bush victory? Why aren’t more people upset at him for the last 8 years?) so nobody should be surprised if Hillary somehow steals the nomination from Obama, then gets her ass handed to her by McCain.

[tags]obama, clinton, nader, president, election[/tags]