Having grown up in a school system that ascribed to the idea of positive self-esteem, I found the article very interesting. To summarize, the research challenges some of the long held attitudes of praising your kids. It really explains to me some of the behaviour we are seeing out of gen-x and gen-y. I have often pondered the inability of so many of us to lead successful lives and make good choices when previous generations seemed to be so much more self sufficient and decisive. Maybe it’s because we have got too many of the wrong messages from our teachers/parents/authority figures (not that I’m blaming anyone).
I would make this recommeded reading for anyone raising kids.
Kelly’s response is quite insightful and an opinion that I agree with completely. To expound on her point of view, to address some misconceptions about the Internet and generally express my personal irritation with using the “what about the children?” argument to intrude on our constitutional rights, there some points I would like to make.
Internet regulation is extremely difficult and expensive to enforce.
The Internet is a global phenomenon. Many sites are run from outside the United States. Laws regulating content not only violate 1st Amendment free speech rights of US citizens, but also require cooperation from other governments if the violating sites are run from severs on foriegn soil. Efforts such as these (or other regulations on things like file shareing and online gambling), if put into law, are phenomenally difficult to enforce and defend in the courts.
Porn is an economic driver of technology.
Since the inception of the Internet, adult sites have been one of the primary ways to monetize the technology. Online Pornography, like it or not, is a very lucrative business. If their current practice of allowing free viewing is a effective marketing technique (which we must assume it is) there is no motivation for the sites to voluntarily require passwords to view free content. This being the case any initiative is doomed to failure.
There is no central authorizing body.
There is no central repository of personal information that can be accessed to verify a person’s age. As such there is no way for any site to verify that a visitor is over the age of 18 and eligible to view free content. Most sites with adult content make an effort to validate their viewer’s age, but without making the visitor jump through hoops (which again, the industry is not motivated to do) and collecting credit card or other information, there is no easy way to confirm the visitor is of legal age. If ‘password protection’ was enabled it would probably be extremely easy to circumvent, especially for a teenager that has grown up in the current technological environment.
The burden of responsibilty for protecting children must rest squarely on a parent’s shoulders, not on the benevolence of an adult website provider or on the government.
I was browsing craigslist recently and noticed an ad for a “Kidney Shaped” table, and it started me thinking.
Of all the organs in the body, why is the Kidney the only one associated (besides the heart - which doesn’t count since a heart isn’t actually heart shaped) with a particular shape? To my knowledge no other internal organs purposely get furniture (or anything else) made in their image.
Wife: Honey, look at this great spleen shaped table I just found.
Husband: Awesome! That is going to look so good next to our liver shaped couch and brain shaped ottoman!
Guess it just goes to show that it’s not only the overprocessed food like Con Agra’s Peter Pan Peanut Butter that can have quality problems. ‘Organic’ health food is not exempt either.
Of course, the interview isn’t enough to recommend the music. The songs themselves were amazing - an interesting combination of styles that are hard to define. The keyboards definitely border on electronica, the vocals are powerful and the songwriting is soulful yet fun (if that’s possible).
