"Safety Patrol" shows no Respect

While I was at home on "paternity leave," I was exposed to many children's show on Disney Channel. Most of them are pretty cute. I do have issues with some of them, though. For instance, Higglytown Heroes is about as socialistic as they come. For crying out loud people, doing your job does not make you a hero. You are watering down the word. Besides, they always show each individual doing what is best for the community. I just don't like the anti-individualism, anti-achievement mentality.

However, the one the really upset me was the "mini-show" Safety Patrol. Basically, these two twins try to teach the children about being safe, which is a good and noble goal. What bugs me is when these two children lecture their parents on safety. Children do not have the right or responsibility to hold their parents to standards. Parents tell children what to do, not the other way around.

Some people see things that are and ask, why?

When I was leaving my old job to start my new one, some of my coworkers were trying to convince me to stay. Besides being sad that I was leaving, they trusted my work, which is saying a lot in the IT world. As they were bemoaning the traits that I possess that they would miss most, they mentioned a curious fact that I really didn't know about myself. They said to me, "Randy, you think outside the box." I started processing these thoughts and realized they are right. Many times in meetings and in problem solving, I would say things like, "Let's look at this from a different angle." "You say the problem is this, but you really don't mean that. The real problem is that and this is just symptom of that." "Why do we do it this way?" "Why can't we change our rules to make it work this way?"

This is an important trait to have in life, especially when it comes to problem solving. The easy problems have already all been solved. One needs to be able to question their assumptions and bounce up against the rules to see if the constraints of a problem are really constraints, or if they are artificially placed there.

My three-year old has entered the "Why" phase. Except, she never asks "Why?" She always asks "Why not?" Maybe she will be a great problem solver, an "outside of the box" thinker, an engineer of imaginative solutions.

There are 90 of me in the US

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 90 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Potty Training Noah: Day 4

Very bad morning. Mommy on the precept of giving up because "he is not ready." However, he had his two year checkup this afternoon and Erin spoke with the doctor. The doctor was very encouraging to her and opined that he is indeed ready. She said for a two-year old, middle child, boy, that he was doing spectacular.

So, he still had on underpants when I got home and he had no accidents all night.

Iraq Surrender

This evening the President vetoed the Iraq spending bill because the Democrats had put in a firm deadline for pull out of American Troops. I have been aghast recently as key leaders of the Democrats have talked about how we have lost the war, how we awful things are, and how we should just pack up and come home.

Usually, even when I disagree with somebody I can put myself in their shoes and at least understand why they believe the way they do. However, this notion of humbly accepting defeat baffles me completely. I can not understand it at all. No matter if you believe we should have gone to war or not, the fact is we are there now. We are the greatest and most powerful nation on this planet and we are just going to sit idly by and accept defeat? That makes no sense to me. It would seem to me that if you are more powerful than your adversary and you have been holding back during a fight with him and he is starting to beat you, then you step up your attack and crush him. Where is their pride in their country? Where is their pride in themselves? How can somebody just accept defeat? I don't get it or understand it at all.

I am glad the President vetoed the bill. I wish he could rally Congress, the Media, and the People to remove the artificial political barriers we have placed on our troops and let them do their job. I am sure if we stopped caring about looking nice we could have the terrorist out of Iraq in no-time. We have forgotten the old saying that "All is fair in love and war." We are at war. Our enemies declared war on us and we have a right and responsibility to defend ourselves. If we are to continue to succeed as a nation, we must make it clear to the international community that we will not tolerate attacks on us. We must win and we must win decisively. Anything less is dishonorable.