Open Letter to TBP: Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

I’ve lurked around this site for years, and, on occasion, put forth an article or two. Mostly I just read and listen in on the commentary. Some of it is humorous, some of it is vile, and much of it is informative, but the little bubble of free speech this site represents is a virtual “city on the hill” from Matthew (5:14). The spirit of freedom is what connects us, and even if most of us talk a bigger game than we walk, we are at least willing to talk which is where the intention to walk is born.

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Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions

If you have small children whose interest might be captured and expanded by a different point of view, I highly recommend taking a look at Flatland:A Romance of Many Dimensions.  The PDF of the book and a recently lllustrated movie are available free online, with links provided below.

I think you may enjoy it as well. I have witnessed many kids’ minds piqued at the concepts introduced and have been rewarded by more than one parent thanking me for the recommendation.

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Netflix’s ‘Bird Box’ Contains Clear Coding on Continuing in Cataclysms

By Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com

A recent Netflix original movie has taken America by storm. The film is called “Bird Box”, starring Sandra Bullock.  The online streaming service claimed it was viewed by more than 45 million accounts during the first seven days after its release; the best week ever for a Netflix film.  Although I was, initially, hesitant to write about it, it’s now become such a big deal, I’m compelled to add my proverbial two cents.

The film became available for streaming on December 21, 2018 and since that time, it has propagated as a viral topic of conversation, instantaneously, online and in three dimensions. My kids mentioned it over Christmas break and the discussion continued to expand by means of social media, internet memes, and a plethora of articles both in print and throughout the electronic interwebs.

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Stucky QOTD: Lyin’ Chil’ren.

Sitting in the waiting room … now a constant in my life … reading the only crappy rag available, Time, a headline caught my eye; “Why You Shouldn’t Punish Your Kids For Lying”

Lots of folks here have kids and/or grandkids. Some, like Maggie, are pregnant. I thought maybe you’d like to weigh in. Maybe you can save someone from making a fatal error. Yeah, a non-controversial question …. maybe this will get to 25.

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THE CHILDREN’S STORY

Submitted by Hardscrabble Farmer

The story takes place in an unnamed school classroom in the United States, in the aftermath of a war between the US and an unnamed country. It is implied that America has been defeated and occupied. The story opens with the previous teacher leaving the classroom, having been removed from her position and replaced with an agent of the foreign power. The new teacher has been trained in propaganda techniques, and is responsible for re-educating the children to be supportive of their occupiers.

During the course of the story, the children are persuaded to abandon their religion and national loyalty. Framing the story is the fact that, while the children have ritually recited a ‘Pledge of Allegiance’ every morning, none know what it actually means. The teacher is relentlessly positive about the change, offering the children candy, songs and praise. When asked if the war was won or lost, she responds only that “we won”, implying that everyone would benefit from the conquest.


This Might Just Be the Scariest Tweet You Will Ever Read in Your Life

Via The Daily Sheeple 

http://www.thedailysheeple.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/twitteringsoc.jpg

Without further ado, what may possibly be the scariest Tweet you will ever read in your entire life:

As @FLOTUS said, the choice in this election is about who will have the power to shape our children for the next four years of their lives.

Yep.

@HillaryClinton @FLOTUS The fact you think it’s government’s job to “shape our children” creeps me the hell out.

… Told ya.

And don’t forget…

@conkc2 @Coondawg68 @HillaryClinton @FLOTUS Don’t forget; “It takes a village”:


SAVE THE CHILDREN – GIVE THEM GUNS

Guest Post by Francis Marion

Prologue:

I wrote this piece back in 2001. I have left it unedited – though there are a few things I would change today I don’t think I knew just how relevant it would be to today’s society ‘way back then’. I thought it would tie in nicely with Stucky’s question of the day regarding the ‘one reason’ so here it is.

 

I was 11 years old when my parents gave me my first real firearm. It was a Lakefield Mark II .22 caliber repeater that I still own. It’s killed a lot of squirrels and grouse in the last seventeen years and in the process I’m convinced that it — with a little help from my father — saved my life.

Of course it never downed a charging grizzly or wounded a marauding thief. Nope. All it did was keep dad and I busy on the weekends filling the freezer with grouse and slaying errant pop cans. But those activities coupled with the sense of responsibility the ownership of such a tool entailed were enough to keep me out of a lot of trouble that other kids — mostly friends of mine — seemed to have an easy time finding.

Now I’m not saying I was an angel as a young man. I too had something of a taste for adventure and like a lot of other teens in the small community I lived in I suffered all too often from the Saturday morning flue and other similar self induced ailments. But I never participated in destructive activities and I never hurt anyone. I had — whether I could articulate it or not — a very clear understanding of the concepts of property and justice. I understood from the time I was quite young that a man is responsible for his actions and that I would be held accountable for any damage I perpetrated on another human being.

Deadly Tools and Responsibility…

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How Do You Prepare a Child for Life in the American Police State?

Guest Post by John W. Whitehead

“Fear isn’t so difficult to understand. After all, weren’t we all frightened as children? Nothing has changed since Little Red Riding Hood faced the big bad wolf. What frightens us today is exactly the same sort of thing that frightened us yesterday. It’s just a different wolf.” ― Alfred Hitchcock

In an age dominated with news of school shootings, school lockdowns, police shootings of unarmed citizens (including children), SWAT team raids gone awry (leaving children devastated and damaged), reports of school resource officers tasering and shackling unruly students, and public schools undergoing lockdowns and active drills, I find myself wrestling with the question: how do you prepare a child for life in the American police state?

Every parent lives with a fear of the dangers that prey on young children: the predators who lurk at bus stops and playgrounds, the traffickers who make a living by selling young bodies, the peddlers who push drugs that ensnare and addict, the gangs that deal in violence and bullets, the drunk drivers, the school bullies, the madmen with guns, the diseases that can end a life before it’s truly begun, the cynicism of a modern age that can tarnish innocence, and the greed of a corporate age that makes its living by trading on young consumers.

It’s difficult enough raising a child in a world ravaged by war, disease, poverty and hate, but when you add the police state into the mix—with its battlefield mindset, weaponry, rigidity, surveillance, fascism, indoctrination, violence, etc.—it becomes near impossible to guard against the toxic stress of police shootings, SWAT team raids, students being tasered and shackled, lockdown drills, and a growing unease that some of the monsters of our age come dressed in government uniforms.

Children are taught from an early age that there are consequences for their actions. Hurt somebody, lie, steal, cheat, etc., and you will get punished. But how do you explain to a child that a police officer can shoot someone who was doing nothing wrong and get away with it? That a cop can lie, steal, cheat, or kill and still not be punished?

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PARTICIPATION TROPHY NATION

What a pathetic nation of entitled whiners we’ve become. When did participation in a sport or any competition deserve a trophy? Trophies are for winners. Trophies are for the people who excelled. Trophies are for the people who worked harder than their competitors and won. The bullshit about every child being a special snowflake has permeated our society and created generations of momma’s boys and girls. They think they deserve a trophy for showing up at their jobs now. They think they deserve automatic B’s for showing up at college classes. They think they deserve pay raises because they came to work.

You get ahead in life by hard work, using your brain, and refining your social skills. The free shit army mentality permeating our culture drives the participation trophy bullshit. Real free market capitalism (not the crony capitalism/socialism) has winners and losers. Losers need to work harder to become winners. Not in America today. The losers have a million excuses and think they deserve exactly what the winners have achieved. 

Trophies for all. Do it for the chilrun. We must boost the self-esteem of losers so they think they are winners.

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7 Children Who Will Put A Smile On Your Face And A Tear In Your Eye (and restore your faith in humanity)

Tired of Doom Porn? Of course you are!  Watch one or two, take a break, come back and watch the others. They’re all terrific.  Best to watch the intro part, and not just skip to the music part. Some of these kids have a wonderful story to tell.

I might have posted one or more of these before. So what. Sue me. Not everyone has been here forever. And good stuff deserves to be posted more than once …. like that picture Admin has posted 649 times of him kicking SSS in the nuts.

Just one request.  If this type of thing isn’t your cup of tea, then just stop right now and click on something else.  In other words, it’s not necessary for you to let the world know —“I don’t like this. Wah! Wah! It sucks.” No one cares.  In other words .. just shut the fuck up.

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1)  Quite simply …. PREPARE … to get blown away …. from the very first note.

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IKEA RECALLS 27 MILLION DRAWERS – RESPONSIBLE FOR TWO DEATHS

Having worked at IKEA for 14 years, I know everything there is to know about their inner workings. This recall is the result of gross negligence on the part of IKEA. I was there in the early 1990’s when the first death in the U.S. occurred. A young child opened the bottom drawers of an IKEA chest and it fell on him. He suffocated to death. My boss Mike McDonald, the CFO, met with the parents and negotiated the large payout to the family. This was over 20 years ago. From that moment forward the company vowed to include a wall anchoring kit with every bookcase and drawer unit. It was a nylon strap with screws and washers so you could attach one end to the furniture and one end into a stud in the wall.

I bought many pieces of IKEA furniture over the years. I had small children. I anchored all of my bookcases and storage units to the wall with these anchors. There is nothing new about this. Why didn’t the Malm dresser already have these wall anchors included? There is no excuse, considering it has been a standard for 20 years. If they were not included in order to save money or cut corners, then the blood of these children are on the hands of IKEA executives in the U.S. and Sweden. IKEA will try to spin this tragedy, but it sounds like corporate irresponsibility to me.

Ikea recalls 27 million chests, dressers after two deaths

Jayne O’Donnell, USA TODAY

Ikea is recalling about 27 million chests and dressers because they can tip over and crush children if they aren’t anchored to the wall, the retailer and the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced Wednesday.

Two children died after Ikea’s Malm chests fell on them in 2014. Ikea says it knows of reports of three additional deaths since 1989 from tip-overs involving other models of Ikea chests and dressers.

While Ikea’s new repair program is considered a recall, consumers aren’t supposed to return the furniture. Instead, they should order or pick up a new free wall anchoring kit for the affected chests and dressers. Consumers should move unanchored chests and dressers into storage or other areas where they cannot be accessed by children until the chests and dressers are properly anchored.

Patty Lobell, Ikea’s U.S. commercial manager, said in a statement that the company is “deeply saddened” by the deaths and hopes “our efforts prevent further tragedies.”

Furniture and TV tip-overs have been a top concern at CPSC for several years. A child dies every two weeks and one is injured every 24 minutes in the U.S. from furniture or TVs tipping over, according to CPSC data.

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