The value of play

Playing is a valuable way for mammals to learn lessons for life and skills they may need down the road. When you see two puppies rolling around together, trying to nip at one another's ears, shoulders, and legs, you don't separate the two of them out of fear that they are going to learn how to be violent attack dogs. You let them play because it is a) relatively harmless, and b) it will allow the dog to have some experience in defending both itself and possibly you. Humans are no different. Our children learn lessons through out their childhood by playing. I know that the so called experts agree with this, because the toy industry is built, in part, on toys that will help kids develop critical thinking skills. If you substitute a gun for that latest and greatest expensive learning toy, however, people's hands start wringing fast and hard enough to get water from desert sand.

Example A of this hand wringing appears in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Here's a little taste:

Today, however, weapon play that once seemed an innocent part of childhood has become more of a concern. When April Klinter's 7-year-old son engaged in some gunplay with sticks on the school playground, Klinter was called to a school meeting.

"His teacher became concerned about their gunplay and called a group of us to school to talk about it," Klinter, of Saukville, says.

Barb Luedke, who is the mother of boys ages 7and 9 and also works with children, does not allow gunplay in her home.

"When other kids are visiting our house, I explain that we don't have gun play or other weapons," the Wisconsin Rapids parent says.

According to a study by the Children's Medical Center in Washington, D.C., about two-thirds of parents felt it was never OK for a child to play with toy guns, and a similar proportion responded that they never allowed their children to do so.

Let's take away the toy in hand for a second and look at the bigger picture here. When kids play cops and robbers or cowboys and Indians, they always fight over who gets to be "the good guys." Nobody ever wants to be the robber, and very few ever want to be the Indian (there are a few of us who were the exceptions to that). During the course of this type of play, toy guns may indeed be the prop, and play violence may be the avenue, but violence and a lack of respect for guns is not what the kids are learning. Instead, they are learning that there is right and wrong and that there are good people and bad people. They are learning that it feels good to be a good person doing the right things. They are are also learning that violence has some very adverse consequences in a way that their minds can comprehend. Kids may not be able to fully understand death, but they do understand that it is very undesireable to be "play dead," a consequence of play violence. Yes, they may be able to get back up and keep playing, but to be play killed means you lost in some way shape or form, and it builds on their ability to understand the consequences of violence.

I defy any expert or non-expert to try and prove to me that toy guns lead children to grow up to be violent, careless with guns, or unappreciative of life. What is in question here is the lessons parents choose to teach or not teach, not the toy or play in question. There are millions of us who grew up playing with toy guns. Our parents reinforced the lessons we learned by playing. We grew up with a very healthy respect for guns and the harm they can cause. Most of us grew up to be the most careful gun handlers around, much more careful than those who never learned lessons about guns as kids. Where the problem comes in is with parents who are not reinforcing lessons to their kids, and who do not set clear boundries for their kids behaviors. It is these kids who are more likely to grow up with a disrespect for life, property and the health of others, and who may use guns irresponsibly.

Are their exceptions? Yes. Sometimes all the good parenting in the world will not help certain kids. Those cases are much rarer than you think, though. My advice in those cases is that if your kid always wants to be the robber, or if he or she likes to beat the hell out of their friends, maybe you should rethink allowing toy guns in the house. Otherwise, don't dictate to other parents that their kids can't or shouldn't play with toy guns, because your are depriving them of chances to teach lifelong lessons to their children.

The Irony of Geno's English Only Policy

If you haven't heard about the Great Geno's English Only controversy, here's a quick synopsis:

Bistec con queso? Not at Geno's Steaks.

An English-only ordering policy has thrust one of Philadelphia's best-known cheesesteak joints into the national immigration debate.

Situated in a South Philadelphia immigrant neighborhood, Geno's--which with its chief rival, Pat's King of Steaks, forms the epicenter of an area called "ground zero for cheesesteaks"--has posted small signs telling customers, "This Is AMERICA: WHEN ORDERING `SPEAK ENGLISH."

So what is the great irony, you say? Well, it is this. Across the street at Pat's King of Steaks, you have to order in Philadelphian or they send you to the back of the line to try again. Since Philadelphian is an accent of English, the English only policy has already been in place in the Philly Cheese Steak world, the difference being that at Pat's, it is part of their well known schtick, whereas at Geno's, there is a sign. And God knows what a problem signs are for some people. You know, sign, sign everywhere a sign...

Native Hawaiian bill rejected

This is a good thing:

The U.S. Senate began debating on Wednesday the long-stalled Native Hawaiian Recognition Bill at the U.S. Capitol.

The bill needed 60 of the 100 senators to vote for it, but only 56 did with 41 voting against it. Thursday's vote effectively kills the bill.

I'm probably not going to have time to discuss this today at length, but I may touch upon it over the weekend. One thing that bothered me about this bill was the parallels supporters would try to draw between Native Americans and Native Hawaiians. There is no comparison between the two.

Hallelujah! Blogger is up at last!

Good Lord. Was I the only person on Blogger who was down for the vast majority of the day? I see others had made postings. Each time I tried, I got the Blogger "sorry" message. I'm beginning to think Blogger just has it out for me.

Buh-Bye, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is dead, given a one way ticket to the afterlife by a couple of 500 pound bombs. I hope he enjoys his 72 white grapes.

This is a victory for coalition troops, but victories in battles are fleeting. There is now an opening at the top of al-Qaida in Iraq. It is very possible that someone worse than al-Zarqawi could ascend to that position. Our job at this point should be to divide and conquer al-Qaida of Iraq while that power vacuum is at work.

Watch the Ehren Watada story

The big news tonight is an Army Officer, Lt. Ehren Watada, who has refused to serve in Iraq. From Reuters:

A U.S. Army officer said on Wednesday that fighting in the war in Iraq would make him "party to war crimes" and he would not go.

First Lt. Ehren Watada's supporters -- including clergy and a military family group -- said he is the first commissioned officer to publicly refuse to serve in Iraq and risked being court-martialed.

I'm not accusing Watada of manipulating the military in an effort to make a carefully crafted statement. At least not yet, anyway. A very bad smell is wafting off of this story, though. Plus, if you do a little search work, you'll find that Watada does not exactly come from a family that is sympathetic to current (or past) U.S. foreign policy. His father Bob Watada, a former member of the Peace Corps (As confirmed by the Hawaii Reporter), and he had this to say at a Peace Corps message board on June 1, 2004:

I am a RPCV 1964 Peru. Last year I visited Peru twice and wherever I went, friends, relatives, and people of all walks of life expressed disgust with "Bushy" and it was impossible to disagree. Their perception of the USA is like a "Rambo". "Have gun, am right." Whatever good the Peace Corps did forty years ago in developing good will has now been destroyed. We eliminated the myth that we were CIA henchmen out to get the communistas.
We are now obsessed with a "terrorist" behind every tree, as we were obsessed with a "communist" around every corner forty-five years ago. We need to start somewhere to make a change. Bob Watada

It's thin gruel, I'll be the first to admit that, but Watada enlisted after this war had already begun. He had to have known that there was a pretty good chance he'd be going to Iraq. I'll give him a little wiggle room on this for now, but I have a sneaking suspicion that this refusal has probably been in the plans for a while. Watch as this story unfolds and more details about the Watadas emerge.

Molten power

Jonah Goldberg has long been in favor of lancing volcanoes. If he ever perfects that technology, I want to use to to create volcano-electric power.

Don't ask me how yet. I'll figure that out once Goldberg gets the lancing technology down pat.

MAD, and Comparing Iran & the USSR

I see that a couple of my fellow Wisconsin bloggers seem to be coming to terms with a nuclear armed Iran, something that I cannot yet do. As I watch people begin to accept the likelihood of Iran acquiring nukes, I see MAD (mutually assured destruction) trotted out frequently as part of the rationale. Is it really possible to compare the nuclear situation with the USSR to the potential nuclear situation with Iran, though? MAD worked during the Cold War because, despite our occasional doubts, there was a reasonable certainty that the Soviets were not wild about becoming crispy critters should they use their arsenal themselves. Can we say that about Iran?

Prior to Ahmadinejad becoming President, I might have been willing to believe that the mullahs were too comfortable with their privileged lives to so foolishly risk them, but with him at the helm I'm no longer sure of that. He is a fanatic, and I think that was nicely shown as fact when he claimed that he was bathed in a light and had a halo during a speech at the UN. He is the type who I can easily see living his life solely as a path to his place in paradise, and a nuclear detonation in say, Israel or New York City would accomplish that nicely for him. We are dealing with a government that does not have the earthly concerns the Soviet government did. We are dealing with a government that places Allah and the after life above those things, and that makes MAD a question mark, not a certainty. It very well could end up that those in the Iranian government like being alive so much that MAD does become reality. Betting on that is a very risky wager, though.

In Re Today's Media Covering D-Day

Charlie Sykes has posted a satirical look (Via Boortz) at how the media of today would have covered D-Day. The fictional report on D-Day hits all of the big points right on. The only flaw is today's media would have been reporting on D-Day from a hotel in London. The dangers of the day's mission would have been obvious, and they wouldn't have gone. Now, some of today's TV media superstars would have tried to tape reports from the hedgerows in the coming days, thinking all was safe, but as for D-Day, nada.

As an aside, I keep thinking of the time Geraldo Rivera was imbedded with some troops and the convoy took fire. First, I think he soiled himself. Then he started talking about running out to help those in a truck in the convoy, and he nearly had to be held down and kept in the vehicle by the troops. Can you imagine Geraldo trying to report from the beaches of Normandy?

What is funny about Shadrack, Meshack, and Abendigo?

I get regular search engine traffic for the term "Shadrack, Meshack, and Abendigo." I can't imagine that I am any type of authority on the three, so my best guess is that I made a common spelling mistake on one of their names. I hope I can expand someone's knowledge out there, but tonight I had a hit from a S, M, & A search that I've not seen before: "Shadrack, Meshack, and Abendigo Jokes." What? What is funny about S, M, & A? I can't think of a funny joke that begins Shadrack, Meshack, and Abendigo walk into a bar...

Common sense in Canada

Have you been ready the Canadian papers since authorities broke the terror ring in Ontario? They are showing much more common sense than what I'm accustomed to from Canadian papers.

Be sickened. Be frightened. Be angry. But don't you dare be shocked.

Unless you've been had.

Either way, the time has long passed for domestic bliss born of ignorance, virtue and wilful denial.

For everyone who thought Canada could cower in a corner of the planet, unnoticed and unthreatened by evil men — even when the most menacing of a very bad lot has twice referenced this country as a target for attack — take a good, hard look at what's been presented and what's being alleged.

Now the questions remains, when this story fades out of the news, and it is no longer quite so insulting to the decency of most Canadians, will the common sense remain?

The Deal

The big offer has been made to Iran, and it is a sweet and tasty bag of carrots.

Iran and the United States had a rare moment of agreement Tuesday, using similar language to describe ''positive steps'' toward an accord on a package of incentives aimed at persuading Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment.

Diplomats said the incentives include a previously undisclosed offer of some U.S. nuclear technology on top of European help in building light-water nuclear reactors. Other incentives include allowing Iran to buy spare airplane parts and support for joining the World Trade Organization.

The deal that Iran was offered was probably a necessity, and if we are extremely lucky, it'll work. I caution against idealism here, though. If Iran rejects this offer, then continuing talks is rather futile because it will be clear that Iran is not interesting in negotiating. In that case, we'll need to start steeling ourselves for our much less palatible options, i.e. the diplomatic "sticks" that we are carrying. If Iran takes the deal, we still shouldn't be lulled into a sense of security. Afterall, we had a deal with North Korea once, too, remember? That didn't stop Kim Jong Il's nuclear program. Whenever I see a deal like this, I think of a line uttered by Powers Boothe's Curly Bill Brocious in Tombstone in reference to Faustian bargains: "I'd take the deal, then crawfish and drill that ol' devil in the ass."

I want one

To hell with the military applications, I want one of these for myself (Hat tip: Every other male blogger on the internet).
If these ever become affordable, I can see emergency rooms across the nation having drastic increases in the number of men breaking arms and legs from jumping off their roofs.

D-Day

SOLDIERS, SAILORS AND AIRMEN OF THE ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE!

You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.

But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United States have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned ! The free men of the world are marching together to Victory !

I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory !

Good Luck ! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.

[signed] Dwight D. Eisenhower

9 for 12

This is perhaps my best start to a softball season to date, and I was pretty damngood when I was younger, faster, and mor limber. 9 for 12 with 6 doubles. Unfortunately, we were screwed by the field umpire tonight. He screwed up three calls tonight. He admited to one but did not change his call. Then in the fifth, a runner tried to take second. I took the throw and laid by glove down in front of the bag three steps before the runner began to slide. After I applied the tag, I held up my glove and the ump, who was right beside me, called the runner safe. Tonight was the closest I've ever come to getting kicked out of a game They went on to score 5 runs after that, and it would have been the third out. We lost by four. So while I'm off to a good start hitting, we are 1-2 on the season, which just goes to show that the individual good does not always benefit the whole.

Update
Rather than correct the horrible grammar in this piece, I'm going to leave it unchanged as a stark example of why no one should ever BWI. Remember, friends don't let friends blog drunk, and I don't have any friends.

Corn and sugar pigging out at the trough of ethanol subsidies

I follow the news feeds on ethanol, and I'm really taken aback at how brazenly corn and sugar interests are lining up to pig out at the ethanol subsidy trough. Here are but two examples of it. Forget the mixed scientific reports on ethanol; if we continue down this road of subsidizing it, if it does get a major foothold as an energy source, we will ultimately pay through the nose for it, both with our consumer and tax dollars.

Caution: Economic work zone ahead

In Newsweek, Fareed Zakaria predicts the end of American economic dominance.

Well, Americans have replaced Britons atop the world, and we are now worried that history is happening to us. History has arrived in the form of "Three Billion New Capitalists," as Clyde Prestowitz's recent book puts it, people from countries like China, India and the former Soviet Union, which all once scorned the global market economy but are now enthusiastic and increasingly sophisticated participants in it. They are poorer, hungrier and in some cases well trained, and will inevitably compete with Americans and America for a slice of the pie. A Goldman Sachs study concludes that by 2045, China will be the largest economy in the world, replacing the United States.

He goes on to discuss our relative weaknesses in science and engineering as compared to developing economies. I for one welcome his pessimism, and I look forward to seeing more of it. Americans neurotic when it comes to our standing in the world. When the competition comes knocking our door, we collectively freak out and throw ourselves into the practice of getting ahead. It is our form of economic renewal, and it is somewhat unique to us. Other economies must get very depressed before they begin to renew. In the United States, paranoia kicks in and acts as the spark for renewal.

Zakaria points out this American paranoia in the article, but I'm not sure he truely understands it. His concern is that we aren't paranoid right now, in advance of the coming storm. That isn't really the American way. We feel no sense of urgency until we perceive that the competitor is knocking down our door, even if he isn't. Over the coming years, I think we'll see that old paranoia kick back in. Yes, we have some competitive disadvantages with the Chinas and Indias of the world, but Zakaria really glosses over how far those economies have to go yet, even if they are currently making gains.

Who, pray tell, is manipulating oil prices?

All of you who had visions of oil companies in your head, you fail this quiz. These guys are the true masters of oil price manipulation:

U.S. crude prices climbed a dollar to over $73 on Monday after Iran hinted it might use oil flows as a weapon in its nuclear dispute with the West and problems at U.S. refineries spurred worries over fuel supplies.

If I were in the government or oil ministry of any oil producing nation, I'd be laughing my tail off and hoping that Iran strings this nuclear dispute out as long as possible. All Iran has to do is run out an minor official to make an off handed comment about oil supply, and the price goes up a buck. As long as the world economy continues to absorb price increases, OPEC, the original big oil, will just sit back and laugh.

Smile, you're on illegal alien cam!

I'm not quite sure how effective this idea is going to work:

A US state is to enlist web users in its fight against illegal immigration by offering live surveillance footage of the Mexican border on the internet.

The plan will allow web users worldwide to watch Texas' border with Mexico and phone the authorities if they spot any apparently illegal crossings.

Texas is trying, but this program doesn't seem like it would be very effective. Of course, if it were to be combined with this program, I suspect it would be quite effective. Nobody would even die because the advance word would be enough to keep anyone from even trying to illegally cross the border.

France rioting...again

Here we go again:

Small gangs of youths pelted riot police with rocks and set cars and garbage bins ablaze late Tuesday in a second night of unrest in the Paris suburbs, raising fears of a return of the disturbances that inflamed 300 French towns and suburbs last fall.

The violence of the last two nights -- in which youths attacked police cars, government buildings and riot police -- was sparked in part by mounting resentment toward the mayor of the northeastern Paris suburb of Montfermeil, who in recent weeks imposed a law prohibiting 15- to 18-year-olds from gathering in groups of more than three and requiring anyone under 16 to be accompanied by an adult on city streets after 8 p.m.

It must a result of the heat.