Editor’s Break 074 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following topics: what fathers need to do so that their children will always talk to and confide in them; inconsistencies among right-wing (red) and left-wing (blue) politics regarding their views on government and gun control; a short look at the Backpage.com and Silk Road shutdowns; the difference between education and schooling; and more.
Tag: children
The Sexualization of Children
If we saw a picture or video of a child in a bath the natural thoughts of the vast majority of people 100 years ago, or from someone not influenced by our culture would be incredibly indifferent. Now, our modern culture has trained people to immediately think of sex. The video turns into a test of pedophilia and how we ought to regard this video in response to pedophilia. Think about that for a second … our society has trained you to view child nudity, child interests, and child activities first through the prism of sex. Holy shit.
“Statistics” are Irrelevant
Even if some former slaves die after being freed (and the evidence is pretty clear that a lot of them did die as a direct result of “emancipation”) you still have no right to enslave anyone for any reason. Not for their own good, not “for the children”, and not because the cotton won’t be picked otherwise.
Educated: A Must-Read
From the first page, I was captivated and, cliché as it is, I truly couldn’t put it down. I read the book swiftly, entranced by Westover’s vivid depiction of growing up in rural Idaho in a religious fundamentalist, survivalist family. School was where the devil hides, often clothed as socialists, or so her father said. In piercing prose, Westover offers an eloquent illustration of conviction blurring into paranoia, ideology into lunacy. She describes how fragile those lines can be.
She Spat, Then I Spat
My three-year-old is full of life and has a great, fresh sense of humor. Her favorite word, if you ask her, is “fuck!” She uses it quite often, much to the delight of myself and her older siblings. A few weeks ago, she started spitting. This doesn’t seem uncommon for little kids. They eventually discover the process and she found some joy in it. So much so, that she thought she’d share it with me, and spit right on my face.
Scott Adams on Guns
It is in every decent person’s self-interest to encourage gun ownership for everyone. Even if I go crazy and try to kill an innocent person, and they shoot me in self-defense, I completely support their right to do so. Maybe knowing they are armed would help keep me sane, or scare me into not attacking them even if I go nuts.
Equal and Independent
As regards the matter of independence, no human is naturally dependent on another human from similar or different origins. Person A lives her own life, maintains her own health, enjoys her own liberty, and lays claim to her own possessions. These are separate and distinct from those of person B. Since no law of nature gives A advantage over B, there is no enabling of A to exercise dominion over B.
7 Reasons I Can’t Wait To Be an Old Man
I’ve got some 50 years to train for being the best old man ever. They say you should visualize your success, so here are eight things I’m looking forward to about senior citizen status.
“Zombies” and the Uncanny Valley
Standing up or sitting down, holding something close to our faces, head slightly bowed, and not moving much for extended periods of time is a seemingly unnatural position for human beings to take. There’s something not quite right about it. From their perspective, they are actively and purposefully engaged in reading or watching or playing, but from a third party’s perspective, it’s inhuman.
Unschooling and Writing
The reality is that sentence-diagramming and copying someone else’s writing template don’t create better writers. They create students who may meet contrived curriculum benchmarks and pass standardized tests. They create students who can play the game. With unschooling, there is no game to play. There is no manufactured curriculum or assessment. There is simply life.