Richards

Is there more to this story? My biggest handicap is that sometimes the hole in the front of my head operates a tad bit faster than the grey matter contained within.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1683668,00.html Sigh...shake my head. Please make this make sense to me My biggest handicap is that sometimes the hole in the front of my head operates a tad bit faster than the grey matter contained within.

1.My house got broke into and the cops took a report and I heard nothing of it. No fingerprints...nothing. 2. Guy in a van tried to sell me all kinds of AV/ home entertainment equipment for cash (didn't take a rocket scientist to see it was probably stolen). I called the cops, reported the incident and gave them the make and model of the van and the plate number. Nothing happenned. That same year I got a ticket for not having my insurance sticker on my liscence plate (I had just renewed and it was pouring rain). I also saw a cop walking down the street looking into cars to see if they had thier parking brake on and giving tickets to those who didn't. Priorities I guess My biggest handicap is that sometimes the hole in the front of my head operates a tad bit faster than the grey matter contained within.

That would be fine My biggest handicap is that sometimes the hole in the front of my head operates a tad bit faster than the grey matter contained within.

I think we may be talking about the same thing. I wasn't suggesting citizenship classes. If the parent is legally immigrating here, then the kid is usually clasified as family class immigrant. My biggest handicap is that sometimes the hole in the front of my head operates a tad bit faster than the grey matter contained within.

Anything beyond rare/medium rare and you will have ruined it. My biggest handicap is that sometimes the hole in the front of my head operates a tad bit faster than the grey matter contained within.

I agree entirely with your first suggestion but with respect to the "parent becomes a citizen before your 18th birthday" shouldn't it be part of a sponsorship program (new immigrant sponsors immediate family). Otherwise I can see other potential abuses (although much smaller than the ones that can exist under the current policy) My biggest handicap is that sometimes the hole in the front of my head operates a tad bit faster than the grey matter contained within.

I believe that maladjustment is a pre-requisite to taking up this sport. My biggest handicap is that sometimes the hole in the front of my head operates a tad bit faster than the grey matter contained within.

Well, hope it works out. Good on you for turning out OK with that family life you described. My biggest handicap is that sometimes the hole in the front of my head operates a tad bit faster than the grey matter contained within.

Ahh..tit for tat retalliation. Can tend to escalate but I can see the deterrence value. I was once being bullied by a couple of characters who always came at me in numbers. They never actually attacked me it was more mocking and intimidation but if I ever lipped back I would have gotten boot-fucked since they were bigger and outnumbered me, so I silently took the abuse while they laughed. They never did it when it was one on one. Being pre-conditioned to beleive that it was wrong to be the one starting a fight I found myself wishing they would just try that once one on one so I would be in the right to defend myself while also being in a position where I actually could. . They never did. Every time I saw one of them alone he would ignore me. I finally woke the fuck up, stopped playing by the rules and caught one of them alone and impressed upon him that if I needed to worry about them when they were in a group then none of them should ever risk letting me find them alone. They found someone else to start in on. My only concern with advising a kid to do that is while I knew I could handle any of these guys one on one (or was reasonably sure I could) what if your kid can't? What if the other guy is actually tougher by a wide margin? Should he sucker punch him? Use a weapon? Could get real ugly. Not only that but I often find that the parents of bullies are often the first ones to sue if anything happens to their precious little thug and the way the courts appear to be these days...? My biggest handicap is that sometimes the hole in the front of my head operates a tad bit faster than the grey matter contained within.

Dangerous policy to allow that. We have the same policy up here in Canada. It is the ultimate back door entrance to citizenship. Come illegally, stay undercover long enough to drop a rugrat and you are now free to stay. My biggest handicap is that sometimes the hole in the front of my head operates a tad bit faster than the grey matter contained within.

Standing there watching is fine if they are doing so to be a witness while someone else runs to get a teacher. I do not wish to force kids to get physically involved if they do not wish (although we should encourage it). It's the sideliners (you know the kind...they never get into a fight themselves but they are on the sidleines every time there is one and their yelling fight, fight, fight) that are encouraging it that should be held partially responsible. Agreed. In many cases the parents are not doing thire job but I did know someone who was a complete fuck-up who had great parents and two siblings who were well adjusted and successfull. There are all kinds of direction you can point the finger but often it is some function of the parents and/or the rules/constraints that schools and parents face when tring to discipline a kid. If I and a couple of friends ganged up on a smaller kid and my father found out I would get spanked and decide not to do that again. If a parent did that today they would probably get reported to child services (the clowns who think it takes a village to raise a puppy). Thus kids feel untouchable. My biggest handicap is that sometimes the hole in the front of my head operates a tad bit faster than the grey matter contained within.

My biggest handicap is that sometimes the hole in the front of my head operates a tad bit faster than the grey matter contained within.

No. They killed a whole lot of innocent students too. My biggest handicap is that sometimes the hole in the front of my head operates a tad bit faster than the grey matter contained within.

Free speech is a motherfucker. Perhaps the best course of action is to shine the light of public scorn on the originator of the game to ruin them financially, without having to violate the Constitution to shut them down. I wasn't suggesting a course of action, I merely answered the OP's question. I suspect that the maker of that game would be quite proud to take publicity for it. My biggest handicap is that sometimes the hole in the front of my head operates a tad bit faster than the grey matter contained within.

Yup. Looks pretty racist My biggest handicap is that sometimes the hole in the front of my head operates a tad bit faster than the grey matter contained within.

Here is my macho statement. I may not have been the best boxer but every time I stepped into the ring I managed to make second place Best advice Smply not always realistic Again, everbody loses sooner or later. If some bigger kid from a tough background with some boxing experience goes and attacks a smaller kid with no experience then that smaller kid is likely going to get his ass kicked regardless of his fathers orders. Should he then go hang himself because he has dishonoured his father? As a general rule our society needs to follow this advice but the fact of the matter is, bullies exist and will usually win because they make sure they have singled out someone they have all the advantages over before they start the bullying. My biggest handicap is that sometimes the hole in the front of my head operates a tad bit faster than the grey matter contained within.

I'm sorry but if he is facing a better opponent he will lose regardless of the rightness of his cause. I admire the fact that you want him to stand up for himself but with an unrealistic expectation like that what if some nasty savage kicks his ass? Will he realize that it was OK for him to lose? There are all kinds of people out there that I know I could never beat no matter how hard I tried. I would stand up for myself but I would not hang my head in shame if someone bigger or tougher cleaned the floor with me. It happens. My biggest handicap is that sometimes the hole in the front of my head operates a tad bit faster than the grey matter contained within.

Huh? Anyway, Kudos to you for having done a good job as a parent (it is the hardest job on the planet). Sounds like your kids have developed well. Every case is different but your core ideas are correct. There still needs to be greater effort at the administrative level to deal with the problem. My biggest handicap is that sometimes the hole in the front of my head operates a tad bit faster than the grey matter contained within.

I suspect that your approach may be a bit outdated given our current political environment. Today if your kid hits back and the bully gets hurt you will be sued. Furthermore the school wil make an example of your kid because the parents of the bully will be screaming at the principle that they will sue the school he does not punish your child for hurting their precious little child. This also only works at the elementary school level anyway. When you and I were kids it would work because the bully would look even more like a coward if after backing down from you (when you stood up to him) he went and got his buddies to come back him up for a second round. Today, high school kids feel no shame in getting a few friends to help them unlevel the playing field if thier intended target is willing to stand up for himself. It does not seem to have any stigma attached to it anymore and is rather the norm. Not to mention kids nowadays will bring weapons into a conflict without hesitation. In heart yes I agree with your aproach towards teaching your kids to stand up for themselves but kids today face greater threats than you and I did (unless you went to a really nasty school). My biggest handicap is that sometimes the hole in the front of my head operates a tad bit faster than the grey matter contained within.

I agree with you that it is an issue of parenting and that is one of the points I tried (and obviously failed) to articulate in my post. The question is as you pointed out, how to get parents to act like parents. My biggest handicap is that sometimes the hole in the front of my head operates a tad bit faster than the grey matter contained within.

It will vary from region to region. It is not as simple as "kicking their asses" nor is it going to be solved with a bunch of touchy feely methods. Greater involvement between parents and schools is a must but I have no clue how you could enforce that. Open to suggestions. Zero tolerance policies towards bullying and violence can work but claims of racial bias need to be looked into. If one group of students is being more harshly punished thatn another group for identical circumstances then the implementation of the policy needs to be looked into so as to ensure all students facing penalties are given an equal and fair punishment. If it is happenning because one specific community is committing the bullying at a greater frequency than the others then backing off on the policy is not an option, but social worker types will need to look into posible causes in that community and think of realistic (not feel good) methods of addressing that. A kid should be allowed to defend himself/herself if bullied and blowups between two kids of equal stature should be treated accordingly but any time a kid is being singled out for abuse or a smaller kid is being bullied then it should be an automatic suspension the first time. Counselling and such should be available for the bullies to help them "rehabilitate" but they need to realize right away that there are consequences for their actions. More to the point, if one group of kids is bullying another kid, other students do not have a responsibility to intervene but the ones that stand there laughing and clapping are encouraging it and should also be penalized. As for online bullying our harrasment laws should be extended to cover that (if they do not already). A penaly for internet bullying could be a court order preventing a kid who has been found guilty from accessing the internet unless on school property and under the supervision of an adult. Again I have no idea how enforceable this would be. Teachers need to end this silly mentality of labelling whistle-blowers as "tattle-tales". From personal experience when I was a child I can also say that much of the bullying happens with implicit consent from teachers. Teachers need to have some reasonable degree of accountability with respect to this, just as some employers are accountable for harrassment or violence committed by their employees. Sorry, I know you said specific but this is the best I can do. My biggest handicap is that sometimes the hole in the front of my head operates a tad bit faster than the grey matter contained within.

Probably. They tried something like a zero tolerance policy in Toronto with respect to bullying and violence. THe idea was that any bullying was dealt with swiftly via suspensions but it fell apart. Parents of black kids were screaming that this policy targetted their kids unfairly as they were suspended at a higher rate than other kids. I honestly don't know if it was because black kids did it more or if they were simply being punished more harshly than other kids. That debate went on for awhile and then the law seemed to die off. But yes, that cycle will lead to more violence with or without guns It's an easy election winner My biggest handicap is that sometimes the hole in the front of my head operates a tad bit faster than the grey matter contained within.

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Because there is better political capital in banning guns My biggest handicap is that sometimes the hole in the front of my head operates a tad bit faster than the grey matter contained within.