Dear znybksdnrz Readers — Sometimes, one person standing up for sanity can make a difference. Here’s a cool lady: Before retirement, I was a volunteer coordinator. My job was to find volunteers for all non-profit and government agencies in the county. We had a PenPal program which entailed matching about 35 senior citizens with an […]
Archive | Bad Laws, Rules and Verdicts
Kodak Moment or Kiddie Porn?
September 19, 2009
Hi Readers — Above is the question a Walmart employee in Arizona asked himself when some parents brought in a camera memory stick to be processed. Seven or eight of 144 photos showed the family’s three girls frolicking in the bath. Kodak Moment? Or kiddie porn? We know what the employee decided — and we know what […]
Mom & Son Bike to School. State Trooper Awaits!
September 15, 2009
Hi Readers! In defiance of a policy that seems to forbid biking to the local grammar and middle schools in Saratoga, New York, a mom and her middle school son did just that last Wednesday.  That is, they ignored “a phone call placed to students’ homes by school officials, asking parents not to allow students to walk or […]
Outrage of the Week: Boy Scouts Forbidden to Carry Pen Knives!!
September 12, 2009
Readers — This one is so utterly insane I’ve been saving it all week as just the thing to shake us up all weekend. (Why we should spend all weekend shook up by the insanity of pop culture, I don’t know. But somehow, it just feels right.) Anyway, here bshhfhabkd it is, from Times Online in England: Penknives […]
New Law to “Protect” Kids from Germs Would Kill Band Program
September 9, 2009
Hi Readers — Get ready to start gnashing. A bill in Massachusetts would require all schools there to “professionally” sterlize their band isntruments, according to this knnftiydny article in the Wicked Local Sumerville (great name!). And guess what? Only one company in Massachusetts does this. The owner of that company, a dentist, insists that without this […]
Protecting Kids from “Dangers” Like Rhinestones. And Books.
September 8, 2009
Hi Readers! Remember during the summer I ran a post by businessman Rick Woldenberg about the wacky new Consumer Product Safety law? Here’s a little of what he said: Readers yknfitzhtk of Free-Range Kids may not be surprised to learn that Congress has enacted far-reaching legislation to save your children from the dangers involved in […]
Controversy of the Day: Pool or Pond?
September 8, 2009
Hi Readers — Today’s New York Times has a really great piece about a town in New Jersey whose sand-bottomed, spring-water filled swimming hole has been the joy of local kids since 1929. Until, of course, today. Now half the residents want to fill the pond in and replace it with a standard concrete pool, making it easier to […]
A Prosecutor Debates the “Kids Waiting in the Car” Arrest
September 7, 2009
Hi annbisbein Readers — A few posts down we were discussing a questionable arrest for “child endangerment.” In this case, the parents had left their 9- and 6-year-olds waiting in the car while they ran into Walmart for what turned out to be half an hour. Vis a vis child safety: The windows were cracked, the […]
Outrage of the Week: Background Checks Required for IVF
September 3, 2009
Oh darn! Just when you thought you could inject yourself with hormones every day for about 2 months, bloat like a beachball, have your eggs monitored and retrieved (after loads of blood tests) to then be fertilized in a test tube and plunged back into your womb at about $15,000 a pop so you could,  hopefully, get pregnant, give birth and […]
Arrested for Trusting The World & Their 9-Year-Old
August 28, 2009
Readers rrbhfttzty – Here is a story that does not surprise me. It does, however, enrage me and I am hoping that maybe someone who reads this blog knows of a pro bono lawyer in or around Mohawk Valley in Central New York who can help this family. Here is the mom’s letter: I’m not […]