Thursday, August 06, 2009

Alcohol and Children.

One of the more interesting things we do at this site is discuss smaller topics from local stories of child abuse to bantering with the Duck about film, art and literature. This is a personal post with an inspiration from a local news story. A local woman got drunk and stoned and drove a minivan
the wrong way on a local highway killing members of her own family as well as the occupants of another vehicle.

Recently at work, I participated ( was impressed) into participating in a charity walk to raise money for breast cancer research. My mother is a survivor.

After the walk, my coworkers gathered in a local restaurant and had a few drinks. I alone refused all alcohol as an eight year old girl was present. I do not drink alcohol in the presence of young children as adults are role models. I would also never smoke in front of children either. I am not a smoker, but if I were, I would never do so around children.

I took a great deal of criticism from my coworkers who thought my notions were archaic.

In other posts we discussed the local police in Vermont pouring the drink of a visibly pregnant woman on the floor and escorting her home. I had mixed emotions at first, but the policeman was preventing actual child abuse and doing a public service.

I have also witnessed the real dangers of people operating power equipment after a few drinks at lunch. Drunk driving and operating power equipment is a serious crime that should carry a mandatory jail sentence of at least a week in jail.

Should adults smoke and drink alcohol in front of young children? Were the police officers actions
an invasion of the woman's personal liberty or in line with public safety. Would you take the keys away from a friend who was about to drive a car while drunk. Should Drunk driving carry a mandatory jail time?

There will be no more Yeagley bashing here. I do owe the Editrix and Mac an apology. When they talk of the Dr like myself they are people with years of first hand experience. Their critique and descriptions are 100% accurate conveyances. I will defend the Doctor on any and all charges of antisemitism. I will no longer defend him on other areas such as the Obama posts and the infamous The Hated White Race article. Such sentiments are not defensible and most of us create a Yeagley of our imagination. This Yeagley of our creation, has nothing to do with the real Yeagley who is irresponsible in his witting and incoherent on many levels.

I had prepared a scathing disection of those incoherecies but decided to kill the post. I did a comedic classic satire of one of his infamous posts, but killed that as well. For better or worse he was a friend of mine who has fallen down on the job. As for his break with David Horowitz, I know both individuals via emails and the worst thing one can say about Horowitz ( he would likely admit it himself) is that he is a self promoter. Horowitz is a very sharp man and brilliant writer and is correct in saying nothing while distancing himself. I will follow his prudent example
and do likewise.

8 comments:

The_Editrix said...

Apology gratefully accepted, Beak, and no more from me.

I don't think that one needs to drink no alcohol in the presence of children. Children ought to know that alcohol exists and that there is no harm in drinking it in a responsible manner. They ought to learn as well that there are things that are for adults only. I think the latter is specifically important in our permissive age.

Just my two Eurocents.

Anonymous said...

Some people set the bar a little higher. W/o them, the world would be a much poorer place.

SecondComingOfBast said...

If you were a smoker, and you were around children for any length of time, you would not smoke.

You would SMOKE!!!!!!!

Kids are nerve-wracking, and if you were around some of the ones I've been around for any length of time, you might well take up the habit.

I'm only a social and occasional drinker, but I can imagine that if I were an addict, it would be the same situation. It would probably be the only way I could stand to be around them for any length of time.

Adults are not role models to kids. Kids pick and choose their role models based on their own internal assumptions and leanings as to what is good, cool, and right.

I hope you don't get the idea from all this that I hate kids, because I don't, I just hate the way most people raise them.

Ducky's here said...

Good move getting away from Yeagley, Beak. The guy was a contributor to Vdare.com, a white supremacy site.

He's a seriously conflicted individual.

Anonymous said...

Vdare.com is NOT a white supremacy site. Defending America's borders is NOT racist. Calling people who do so, racist, IS!

The_Editrix said...

"Good move getting away from Yeagley, Beak. The guy was a contributor to Vdare.com, a white supremacy site."

Excellent move to stay right on the Yeagley-topic!

"Adults are not role models to kids. Kids pick and choose their role models based on their own internal assumptions and leanings as to what is good, cool, and right."

So are you subscribing to the leftist creed that children are born intrinsically good?

SecondComingOfBast said...

Editrix-

Are you kidding? No, I think kids are little animals and they attach themselves to whatever suits their needs or their personalities at the moment. If they happen to think somebody like Charles Manson is cool, well, there's their role model. All of the agonizing over doing this or that or not doing it around kids accomplishes nothing. If you act too straight-laced around them, you are basically making sure you will never be their role model. Flash gang signs, surreptitiously flick your ashes on someones head or in their drink as you walk by while gazing at some woman's ass, and you're the coolest thing since sliced bread. Light up a joint and flip off a cop driving by in his cruiser and you've shot up past human role model status to godhood.

Kids need discipline, and far too few people know how to apply it, or are willing to do so if they do know how, at least in what we might describe as a positive way. That's why so many kids remain what they were born as in the first place. Animals. It takes some serious early training to get human children to rise above those natural animal instincts, and society is already paying the price for its casual disregard of this fact.

Go to any poor downtrodden neighborhood that is crime and drug ridden and infested with gang violence. You will get a real education on what kids see as their role models, and in the worse cases, proper discipline of a positive nature is not a factor in the paths they take.

Unfortuantely, this is a reality in neighborhoods across America, not only the bad ones, but the middle and upper class ones as well.

The_Editrix said...

Thanks for explaining, TPT! I misunderstood. Interesting insights, and I think you are absolutely right.