Perform a Google search for “out of control teens.” I’ll wait the 0.28 seconds it takes to return the 17,700,000 entries on the subject.
Now, let’s contribute to the problem by letting the degenerate idiots that trespassed, vandalized, and stole the dinosaur head from the Museum of Life and Science go with a community service type punishment. The problem with kids today isn’t the kids – it’s the adults.
Letting kids know that it is okay to break some laws sets a very bad precedent. What about the next time a kid is arrested for trespassing on private property, vandalism or stealing? Will that kid be able to site the bronto-beheading to be released from liability for breaking the law?
I am trying to get a handle on a teenage issue in my community. Their trespassing makes some families feel unsafe. Each year their vandalism causes thousands of dollars of damage to private property. Their theft of items from around homes in our community costs owners thousands as well. Should I tell them that their behavior is acceptable as long as they spend 10 hours picking up trash?
Thanks to the Museum of Life and Science and DPD I/we no longer have a choice.
Admittedly I needed a little help with this one. I’m not that old. At least I don’t think that I am that old. A flash mob rave is when a large number of people simultaneously decent on a location to participate in rave-style frivolity that lasts just minutes. This very phenomenon occurred last night (video Rated PG) at the largest library on the campus of UNC Chapel Hill.
This type of event in my day was made possible by word-of-mouth. In today’s on-demand society, where social networking makes exponential connectivity possible, this type of event can easily become viral.
Not only is it viral with students at UNC, but also among college campuses across the United States and cities throughout the world. A search on YouTube finds similar events at UVa, Kentucky, CofC, Texas A&M, Birmingham, and Cornell – as well as in Edinburg, London, Manchester, and Liverpool.
The title will only be made possible with the assistance from the likes of Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Digg, mass texting, etc. When the dust settles, and the record swells out of reach, I will be interested to know how participants became aware of the event.
Thanks to social networking utilities, word of mouth spreads like – well – a virus.
With this hubbub over the “morning after pill,” Plan B I decided to do a little investigating. I have fashioned a rather disgraceful top ten list for The Old North State – the Top Ten Counties; by number of teenage pregnancies (number, not rate).
On the top of the list is Mecklenburg County followed by Wake County. You will find Durham County among the top ten as well.
According to the 2006 Center for Disease Control survey, there was a baby born every four-and-a-half hours to a teenage mother in N.C. Remember, this only figures the top ten counties in North Carolina for number of teenage pregnancy. That is 1,973 unplanned instances of babies having babies.
121 were born to children under the age of 15. Again, this is just the top ten counties.
Conservatives don’t have to worry about girls, 17 years-old or otherwise taking advantage of Plan B. According to the matriarch of Planned Parenthood, these girls are likely too stupid to understand that the pill even exists. Even if they do they would be apt to mistake it for a suppository.
The ultra-conservative website PatriotPost.us (http://tinyurl.com/dlem49) quoted P2 founder Margaret Sanger in an article on a recent award presented to Hilary Clinton by Planned Parenthood. In her book “What Every Girl Should Know” Sanger said that humans – and I’m paraphrasing – with lower intelligence quotients are more likely to engage in unprotected sex and therefore become pregnant. She compares chimps to Aboriginal Tribes in Australia that fornicate in public in an attempt to draw a parallel to stupid little girls.
I agree that teens that engage in unprotected sex are doing so with little or no concept of the consequences, and therefore must be less intelligent than their safer peers. I also agree that despite their stupidity, 17 year-old girls should be permitted to obtain Plan B over the counter and without parental consent. I just hope they can read the directions.
According to The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy a little over half of the sexually active teenage girls engaged in protected sex where a condom was used. Just 17% used birth control pills.
There is no doubt that this is a slippery slope. The more accessible and accepted the drug becomes the more flippant teenagers may become about sex. If pregnancy is not a deterrent for unprotected sex, then we can be sure that disease isn’t either. Making the morning after pill an accepted birth control method could cause a spike in sexually transmitted diseases among teenagers.
The drug’s name is misleading as many things have to fail for Plan B to become an option, none more important than the first…parenting. I do not believe that the problem of teenage pregnancy has reached the tipping point yet – the day when the ripple effects would touch off an exponential growth in bad parenting, the cycle of unwanted children, increased budgets for social assistance, and crime. I hope that day never comes and making Plan B accessible for such a high risk group is a good start.
Real freedom is when someone’s rhetoric makes your blood boil, but you will defend - with your life if necessary - their right to express their beliefs.
Real freedom lost the fight in Chapel Hill last night, and an institute of higher learning has a black eye this morning.
There is a saying in politics; when you are young you must have a liberal point-of-view or you have no heart, and when you are old you must have a conservative point-of-view or you have no brain. The unfortunate truth in this statement is that the heart and the brain rarely act in concert over one’s life.
Had rational thought been applied last night during the Tom Tancredo speech at UNC Chapel Hill the redress of the student’s grievances might have been more effective. As it happened, the night was a complete failure. And sadly the student protestors - in all probability - believe that shouting the former congressmen off stage was a victory for their cause.
The right of the protestors to peaceably gather to voice their opposing opinion is also protected. And I am all for peaceful, or even spirited discourse. But when property is damaged and the mob mentality begins to show, it is the responsibility of the police to regain control.
Society is fickle when it comes to law enforcement officers. (Disclaimer: there are sh*tty police officers out there wearing a badge, but that is the exception, not the rule) We trust them to keep us safe, yet criticize the manner in which they perform their public duty. If the police officers felt that non-lethal force was necessary to keep the peace and protect citizens (and yes, even the protestors) by defusing a potentially dangerous situation, then I do not question their decision to use pepper spray and Tasers.
I don’t agree with Tom Tancredo’s stance on immigration. I do agree with the following statement in practice, if not in spirit: "It's a fascinating thing. Colleges are supposed to be the marketplace of ideas," Tancredo said two hours after he called off his speech. "I wonder why institutions of higher education continue to produce people who can't think critically."
Okay, a great deal has been made about the Treyburn HOA kicking a poor woman while she is down – way down – cancer down.
The problem I have with this tale is the woman, and her attorney, are blaming the HOA and they are doing a damn fine job of playing the victim. Am I heartless? Not so much.
If the facts – as presented by the HOA attorney – in The Herald-Sun are true then this woman had ample time to make a decision on how to make good on her debt to the community. And at one point she even acknowledged her violation of community rules by making payment arrangements only to later default again. She had two years to sell the home (it was just her and some animals after her husband died) and move into a more reasonable and, more importantly in her case, a more affordable home. Preferably not one with an HOA that is responsible for upholding community rules.
I am guessing that the homeowner had time to sell the home in the two years since the ordeal with the HOA began.
The part that vexes me most is this person knew (or should have known) that by signing the paperwork to purchase/finance the home in a development with an HOA, that they would be held responsible for paying HOA dues, and would be subject to community rules and regulations. And not just in health and wealth…at all times.
No doubt the past few years have been difficult on this woman. She could not help the fact that her husband died. She could not help the fact that she was diagnosed with cancer. She could have helped the fact that she was foreclosed on.
Find me one of the thousands of stories about the single mother/father living in a economically depressed area that has lost their job, is suffering from an illness or is caring for a sick child, and is about to lose their home because they could not pay the $400 a month mortgage. Then I’ll be compassionate and offer to send money…wait…I have.
A word to the wise – if your HOA sends letters about past due assessments, architectural violations, or intent to foreclose – do not ignore them. Take them seriously.
