Author: Michael A. Ventrella

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Your children are not your slaves

Stop treating your children like property. Stop treating them like slaves.

Sure, you need to discipline them and sure they don’t have the freedom of an adult, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t people who suffer and feel pain.

It is wrong to hit your wife;  it is wrong to hit your husband;  it is wrong to hit your friends;  it is wrong to hit strangers;  it is wrong to hit your pets;  it is wrong to hit anyone — yet some parents think it is perfectly fine to beat their children. (And no, the argument that “I was beaten and I turned out okay” doesn’t work. You’re not okay, because you think it is fine to hit children.)istockphoto-471647376-612x612

Some parents have complained that there are now laws prohibiting them from smoking in the same car when children are present, despite the clear and obvious danger this poses to young lungs. These same parents don’t whine when they can’t smoke in an airplane or bus, but the car is their property and they apparently think their children are, too.

Other parents refuse to vaccinate their children because of their own ridiculous beliefs, not taking into consideration that the children who are affected might choose way differently if they were adults and had the scientific information available to them. Why this isn’t seen as dangerous as telling them to play in the traffic is beyond me.

Often, religion is used to justify child abuse (and no, I’m not just talking about obvious illegal sex abuse we’ve seen in the Catholic church). Parents use religion to justify beating their children because the Bible says it is okay. (It also says slavery is okay.) Some religions refuse medical treatment for children because they think Jeebus will heal them or something. (Fortunately, this is illegal.) And don’t get me started on circumcision.

If you’re getting upset at what I am writing, please stop and consider why that is. Think about how angry you get when you read about someone abusing their pets and ask if you’re being a hypocrite for not treating your children with the same respect as a dog. Start seeing children as people — small, helpless people who need us to make the kinds of good decisions for them that they are not yet capable of making. People who deserve not to be beaten and physically attacked, no matter how much you think they need it.

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Occam’s Razor

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Pat Bagley

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We can have double standards for certain jobs

“Well, big deal. He had blackface on when he was in college. He’s not the same man, so he should be governor.”

“So what if he drank a lot of beer back then? He’s not the same guy, so he should be on the Supreme Court without a problem. People can change.”

I certainly am one who thinks people should be forgiven for past behavior if they have changed and realized their mistakes. I, for instance, made a lot of anti-gay jokes when I was younger when that was common, and I cringe at that when I consider it now.

But here’s the thing: I’m not trying to get elected or be on the Supreme Court.

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We can and should hold certain positions to a higher standard. Lawyers should be held to higher standards than, say, garbage collectors — not because garbage collectors don’t deserve respect for what they do, but because we lawyers represent others. How can we provide competent legal services to all if we are prejudiced against some? Our daily job requires us to treat everyone fairly (unlike garbage collectors who don’t actually deal with people on a day to day basis).

And don’t get me started about police officers who show bias.

We should set especially high standards for those who literally are our representatives. We should have people in our government who are of the highest ethics and show no prejudices.

It’s not like the governor of Virginia is the only qualified guy to hold that position. It’s not like Kavanaugh is the only lawyer who could fill the Supreme Court’s spot. We can do better, and we should demand better.

Let’s not lower our standards to meet whatever qualifications they have — let’s raise it and find someone who can meet it.

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Spy vs. Spy

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Clay Bennett

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Doing the Republican’s job to attack Democrats

We Democrats have some very good candidates this time. Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren, Julian Castro … I’d be happy to have any of them as President.

So please Democrats. Pick your favorite and support that person without thinking that means attacking the other ones.

We’re all on the same team and we’re debating who is the most valuable player. We don’t have to say bad things about the other players to build up our favorite.

Saying “I prefer Harris’ health plan to Booker’s” is not an attack, and you can then debate why. Saying “Booker is an idiot and his plan is the stupidest ever and I will never vote for him” doesn’t help at all.

This does not apply if one of these candidates turns out to be corrupt or does illegal things. Yeah, then they deserve to be attacked.

So let’s keep our debate civil and reasonable, and not do the Republican (and Russian) job for them.

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My current favorite, but that doesn’t mean I dislike the others

 

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The Security Threat

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Mike Luckovich

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My radical, socialist, 75-year old platform

It’s always amazing to me how my crazy, far-left socialist plans would fit perfectly into the 1944 Democratic platform.

Seriously.

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Besides reiterating its support for “social security, including old age pensions, unemployment insurance, security for crippled and dependent children and the blind,” it called for (and these are exact quotes): “legislation assuring equal pay for equal work, regardless of sex” as well as “a Constitutional amendment on equal rights for women.” It emphasized “that racial and religious minorities have the right to live, develop and vote equally with all citizens and share the rights that are guaranteed by our Constitution” and stated that “Congress should exert its full constitutional powers to protect those rights.” It dedicated itself to full benefits for veterans, support for small businesses, and the tax structure under President Roosevelt of 94% for income over $200,000 (or slightly more than $2 million in today’s numbers). And then, of course, there was Roosevelt’s plan for a national health care policy…

The GOP has done such a great job of moving everyone to the right that when a Democrat suggests things that were mainstream 75 years ago, they seem radical.

 

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Eat it

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Bill Bramhall

 

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Trump IS the wall

There’s a way to get things done in Washington. You pass a law, make sure there is money in the budget for it, and poof, it gets done.

At any time in the past two years, Trump could have gone to the House and Senate, both run by Republicans, and gotten his wall financed. He did not do so.

Once the Democrats took the House, he then demanded funding for it. The Democrats said no. “If you don’t give me what I want, I will shut down the government,” he threatened. The Democrats said no again. And he shut down the government.

The House and the Senate then passed a resolution to open it back up again. And Trump vetoed it.new-york-daily-news-trump-wall-address-640x480

The Democrats have tried a number of times to pass that exact same bill to reopen government, but now Mitch McConnell, knowing it would pass, has refused to allow it to reach the Senate floor.

“Give me my wall or I won’t reopen the government!” Trump whines like a baby.

“We don’t negotiate with terrorists,” the Democrats say. “You want a wall? Pass a law like it’s supposed to work in a democracy.”

So when the mindless Republicans try to spin this to say the Democrats are the ones refusing to compromise, just point out that this is not how democracy works. A dictator says “Give me what I want or I’ll hurt you,” not a President. Democracy requires you to gain the majority on your side to get a bill passed.

Not that Trump or any of his followers understand politics anyway.

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Get it white!

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Matt Bors