Posted on May 1st, 2013 by lskenazy
Folks — As you know, this site believes in safety for children. That includes safety from predators as well as safety from hysteria ABOUT predators. Unfortunately, fear for our children has mestastasized into an ever-expanding Sex Offender Registry that now includes even pre-pubescent children, some of them on the list for LIFE, for crimes ranging [...]
Filed under: Bad Laws, Rules and Verdicts, Media Madness, Miscellaneous, Sex Offender Issues | 60 Comments »
Posted on April 8th, 2013 by lskenazy
Readers – At the request of the woman who wrote to me about her husband landing on the Sex Offender List for 25 years for putting a $5 tip down a 17-year-old’s shirt, I have taken down her post. I share her concern that some of the comments were painful. We all agree, I’m sure, [...]
Filed under: Bad Laws, Rules and Verdicts, Sex Offender Issues | 1 Comment »
Posted on April 4th, 2013 by lskenazy
Hi Readers! There’s the boogey man and then there’s the ice cream man. But thanks to a country suffused with predator panic, the two are fused together like the twin sticks of a Popsicle. It’s the same if you are guy and you want to work in day care, or as a birthday party clown, [...]
Filed under: Bad Laws, Rules and Verdicts, Eek! A Male! (and Stranger Danger), Miscellaneous, Sex Offender Issues, Uber Safety | 73 Comments »
Posted on March 31st, 2013 by lskenazy
Hi Readers — Here’s a story from this scary, scary Easter season that I’m reprinting in full from NBCPhiladelphia.com, (with some commentary): WOMAN TRIES TO GIVE CANDY TO KID: POLICE Police are on the search for a woman who tried to give candy to a child Friday evening along a quiet residential road. [HOW DARE [...]
Filed under: Breaking news, Eek! A Male! (and Stranger Danger), Media Madness, Miscellaneous, Sex Offender Issues | 95 Comments »
Posted on March 22nd, 2013 by lskenazy
Readers: This article is one of the best things I’ve ever read about our increasingly cruel, counter-productive sex offender laws — laws in place because of excess fear and excess pandering when it comes to our kids. It appears in City Pages, a Twin Cities alternative newsweekly, and focuses on Patty Wetterling, whose 11-year-old son Jacob [...]
Filed under: Bad Laws, Rules and Verdicts, Eek! A Male! (and Stranger Danger), Guest Post, Miscellaneous, Sex Offender Issues | 96 Comments »
Posted on February 15th, 2013 by lskenazy
Readers — Here’s a great letter by George Mason economist Alex Tabarrok that he graciously allowed me to lift from his blog, Marginal Revolution. – L. Dear Principal _____, Thank you for requesting feedback about the installation of interior cameras at the high school. I am against the use of cameras. I visited the school recently [...]
Filed under: Helicopter Effect on Kids, Miscellaneous, Photography issues, School and Zero Tolerance and Bullies, Sex Offender Issues, Uber Safety, Zingers and retorts | 127 Comments »
Posted on November 14th, 2012 by lskenazy
Hi Folks! Here’s a letter from prison…er…Chuck E. Cheese, sent to us by Angelica Totten, who originally posted it on her Facebook page. I so agree that the policy at Chuck E’s is not only overkill, it’s cultural pollution, spreading the idea that predators are always lurking near kids and ready to kidnap them if [...]
Filed under: Helicopter Effect on Kids, Insurance repercussions, Marketing Madness and Gadgets, Miscellaneous, Sex Offender Issues, Uber Safety | 86 Comments »
Posted on November 1st, 2012 by lskenazy
Hi Readers! Another day, another report from the frontlines of our obsession with predators. Allow me to make a strange analogy. As the storm Sandy approached us this weekend (I’m in New York), Mat McDermott at the blog TreeHugger wrote a post, “What if New York City Invested in Climate Change Adaptation Like it Has [...]
Filed under: Eek! A Male! (and Stranger Danger), Miscellaneous, Sex Offender Issues, Worst-First Thinking | 134 Comments »
Posted on October 22nd, 2012 by lskenazy
Hi Folks — Here’s me, today, on the show “The Doctors.” This was not an appearance I’m proud of. I don’t think I got my point across — that kids today are pretty safe, and it is only our worst-case-obsessing culture (as exemplified by, ahem, The Doctors) that is convincing us our kids are in [...]
Filed under: Media Madness, Miscellaneous, Parks, Playing and Playgrounds, Sex Offender Issues | 106 Comments »
Posted on October 19th, 2012 by lskenazy
Dear Readers: Here’s a little missive from the frontiers of irrationality, brought to you by a terrified culture and a school in Arizona. . Dear Free-Range Kids: I was shocked when I received this in an email from my daughter’s school: “Mrs. K has informed me that all volunteers must have a fingerprint card prior [...]
Filed under: Insurance repercussions, Miscellaneous, School and Zero Tolerance and Bullies, Sex Offender Issues, Uber Safety | 60 Comments »
