So I am sitting here reading articles and comments on epautos.com and monitoring my daughter as she is watching Bubble Guppies on Nickelodeon this morning when they show a segment with a police officer with a mere mundane pulled over on the side of the road. 
The sound of the sirens caused me to look up from my computer screen and what happened next can only be described as pure Pravda-grade, unadulterated propaganda: The mundane was brushing his teeth while driving. From what I could gather, he hadn’t hit anyone or caused any collisions but was being accosted by a lobster in a funny blue costume for not completely focusing on his driving (implying that brushing his teeth took away from the necessary focus) and received a piece of “payin’ paypah” as a result. Now if that were the end of it, I wouldn’t be boiling mad but when they had one of the main characters become enamored with the costume and lights, complete with a close-up on the shiny golden badge, it took all the Jesus within me to not hurl my laptop at the flat-screen. At that point I turned the channel to Looney Tunes (or is it Toons? Ah who cares!) on Cartoon Network smack dab in the middle of Bugs Bunny outsmarting the red-haired monster. I then said to my daughter “The police are NOT your friends, they will only hurt you no matter what. Stay away from them at ALL COSTS!”
Damn shame they start the propaganda full force before the kids are able to fully develop their critical thinking skills. Needless to say Bubble Guppies just made the scheisse-list and my child will NOT be watching them if I have anything to do with it.
If that’s what you’re telling your kids, that police are not your friends and will only hurt you, you’re doing a lot more damage to that child than any TV show could. These people put their lives on the line everyday to protect and serve you and your children. What kind of sick, twisted shit are you into that makes you think all cops are bad? Do you manufacture drugs or something? Teaching your kids those things is mental abuse, plain and simple. I pity you but I mostly feel sorry for your kids. I just hope they learn to think for themselves and forgive you when they grow up.
Hi John,
If only that were true.
But cops don’t “protect and serve.” They enforce the law. And many (arguably, most) laws on the books are nothing more than the criminalization of actions that – as such – involve no harm to others, no victims.
Hence – in a free country – no legitimate business of the government’s.
Obvious examples range from the trivial (but no less tyrannical for being thus) seatbelt enforcement and dragnet-style, probable cause-free “safety” checkpoints to the egregious – such as asset forfeiture prior to conviction of any crime (and without the necessity of ever having to establish guilt in a court of law) to the “war” on some “drugs.” It’s ok to buy a 12 pack and drink yourself silly in the privacy of your own home… but smoke a bag of pot and risk a thug scrum at 2 in the morning. Can you tell me – using reason, not your feelings – why the the former is “ok” but the latter a “crime”?
There is also the expectation that citizens immediately submit and obey any barked order; the brutal and needless escalation to enforce submission and compliance, up to and including summary execution in the street.
Latest example: Teenage kid flashes his brights at cop. Cop pulls kid over. He’s an unarmed, spindly 17-year-old kid. The thug cop needlessly escalates the situation instead of reacting like a got-damned adult with some sense who knows he’s dealing with a kid. Drags kid out of the car. Tazes the kid. In his agony and fear, the kid defends himself against this assault.
The got-damned cop shoots the kid dead.
Story here, with (disgusting) video:
http://ericpetersautos.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=39320&action=edit
“Hero” cop exonerated; the killing found (legally) righteous.
It’s insane. What sort of grown man does such a thing? A pussy with a badge who is also a sadist, itching to hurt someone with impunity. If a grown man can’t deal with a spindly, unarmed 17-year-old (over a trivial act of typically teenaged authority-challenging) without shooting him dead then he has no business in this business.
If cops were peacekeepers and their activities limited to going after those who steal, attack and otherwise harm others (create actual victims as opposed to “offending” the state) I’d be on your side.
But I’m not, because cops aren’t peacekeepers. They are enforcers.
John, if I were to plot the distribution of cops I’ve encountered and avoid would be negative X, the distribution curve would cross into positive X about 3-4 standard deviations to the right of the mean. That is the mean and almost the entire distribution would be left of zero, negative.
Cops have exactly zero duty to protect anyone (the courts have been clear about that) but themselves and they do not put their lives on the line for anything but a pay check and the thrills they get out of the job.
Points well taken, Jean. However I will take my chances with those shows than with the rot that rolls out today. When I was younger, my mother allowed me to watch such shows as Beavis and Butthead, The Simpsons, Tom & Jerry, The Three Stooges and Ren And Stempy. She explained the difference between fantasy and reality to me and explained the role of a man and a woman in the home (from a Biblical standpoint). Most importantly, she taught me what we call the NAP (and what many people refer to as the Golden Rule right from Jesus Christ’s Sermon on the Mount). I understand a spoonful of scheisse will ruin a gallon of ice cream, however I would rather that if she watches TV, that the poison be minimized. Besides that, I read to her on a daily basis, and we watch educational documentaries, listen to clean music and several other activities that contribute to her positive growth and development.
I agree the most important things to do are: Golden Rule (I like better than NAP, and can’t see them as QUITE the same); Actual critical thinking skills, and ensuring there’s no “backdoor” for the indoctrination; and reading with her (Which I would guess is the next step after she grows up a little). 😉
Getting off to a great start, sir! I wish everyone were that careful.
Thanks! I certainly am trying to start her off on level ground. Now… If I could just get her to quit trying to eat her crayons…
Hi MP,
On: “Now… If I could just get her to quit trying to eat her crayons…”
I never had a hankering for those, but I do remember eating Play-Doh (how could one resist?) and also sampling those magic markers that smelled tasty… remember those?
I most certainly do! I bought my daughter some of those markers before and caught her trying to eat them. Needless to say I trashed them!
Way to go, MP. Taking an active role is the main thing, IMO. That’s what I did with my daughter and it has been quite a ride so far. Kids do love the company of other kids, but I think it’s important that they associate with all their family members of all ages as well.
When I was a boy, Mom would send me, or one of us kids at a time to spend a weekend with grandparents, and we had regular contact with our cousins who were older and younger than us. Of course, since there were seven of us, born over a period of almost 30 years, I also learned to care for baby nieces and nephews when I was a pre-teen.
I like the idea of most of the input for my daughter’s development coming from family. That’s very important to me.
I agree Ed. My daughter loves my mom and dad and her mom’s dad (her mom and her mom’s mom are nutz so she has little contact with them) no doubt and relishes in every moment she gets to spend with them. She is REALLY wild about other children though. I get a kick out of watching her play and interact with others. She just loves to make people laugh and recently she made the connection between laughter and the last thing said before the laughter. As such, she will often times repeat the last thing said right before people laugh. It is just so facinating to watch her make the mental connections. She really is a smart little person!
Give me the children until they are seven and anyone may have them afterwards.
Francis Xavier
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/f/francisxav187187.html#u4OiOvmjFlFoQafh.99
You have to be a smarter bunny rabbit than your typical parent these days. The propaganda is injected deeply into all so-called “educational” entertainment these days. It’s slippery and sly.
You’re not just whistling dixie, MoT. I pretty much keep her away from the whole rot and have her watch my programs with me. I generally watch older shows like The Cosby Show, The Golden Girls, I Love Lucy; shows that were generally propaganda free and clean comedy. If they happen to slip some in, I just explain to my daughter how they are wrong.
So, I’m playing a sort of Devil’s Advocate here, but:
Golden Girls: Half an hour of inane chatter punctuated by vicious insults back and forth.
The Cosby Show: Or, how to be a beaten beta-male schlub /servant to the modern “Empowered” woman. (Note how Dr. Huxtable is treated by his wife – Also a Doctor, true, but – SHE wears tha pants, and frequently makes sure HE knows it.)
At least I Love Lucy is just inane lunacy. (I hated I Love Lucy most of all, BTW – but aside from the Clovers renting to them, the “worst” part was the “sexism” of Ricky Ricardo, who had the unmitigated GALL to make his wife stay at home… How DARE he
ProtectSMOTHER her! Etc. The rest, though – once you see the nastiness, and realize it’s being integrated into your mind? Well, it makes things ahrd to deal with, to be honest. Read books. Make the child read, too. Push for details and discussions, and have conversations. It’ll make for a much better life down the road, though it may be lonely – she’ll be literate, and her peers will be… Well, worse than what we have passing for human now.)Jean – On your Cosby Show / Dr. Huxtable observation: There are only two kinds of men that are the boss in their own home; single men and liars. 😉
You just saved your daughter from major, heavy-duty, non-stop propaganda.
Shoal Creek…as in the park at the end of Shadburn Ferry Rd?
MP, that’s exactly where it all starts with the propaganda machinery; kids’ entertainment. By the time they get to public school, they have a trapdoor in their social programming that will allow propaganda in without any critical examination of the assertions being fed to them.
I started working with my daughter’s critical thinking skills at the age your daughter is now. By the time she was 5, she had a little practice of her own worked out. When we would turn off the paved road onto our own road leading to our house, she would unfasten her seatbelt and shout: “Take THAT, you fat head cops”, and would start to laugh.
At 15, when she was grabbed up by local cops who busted the boy she was with for possession of pot, she knew enough not to talk to the cops. She kept repeating, in answer to all their questions, “Call my Dad”. They finally did, and I came and got her without speaking to them at all other than to ask, “Is she free to go?”. She was free to go, but her friend, who answered their questions was charged and held.
Lessons learned early are pretty durable. Glad to hear you’re starting your baby off with good information.
Thanks Ed. I’m trying to teach her correctly. Yesterday when we were leaving, a cruiser passed our home and stopped at the corner. My daughter said “Police are bad, Daddy!” I replied “Yes ma’am, they sure are.” I thought to myself “She’s learning quickly.”