Ever since my little boy came into the world, I've steadily become a different person than I was before he was around. The more he grows, the more I do, or at the very least, the more I notice my perspectives change. //
Angela Belcamino @AngelaBelcamino
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Imagine being 42, child-free, stress-free, and being this happy.
The right hates this.
0:20 / 0:20
6:58 PM · Jul 28, 2024
Is being child-free less stressful? Absolutely. At nearly two, my son is a gremlin who has two modes; asleep or going wild. When he's not in the house, I feel my muscles relax and my focus return.
But ease does not make for happiness. The question isn't whether your life is easier, the question is whether your life is filled with joy. That little gremlin is a joy to have. He gives my life far more purpose than something beyond myself and represents something much larger than me. Watching him grow is like watching a slow miracle unfold right before my eyes. My life is harder with him in it, but far better overall.
I don't need to use the "when you're on your deathbed, you'll want to be surrounded by your children and not your cats" argument. I can tell you that the joy is in the present, turning these little gremlins into proper people.
But the grandest of childless takes are the ones I see in positions of power. I'm amazed at how often school boards are made up of childless bureaucrats.
Pelican State officials have approved a proposal that says sex is “immutable,” that a “female” is someone who produces eggs absent a biological anomaly, and that a “male” is someone who produces sperm.
The proposal also says that K-12 educators must call a minor-age student by the name or pronoun listed on the child’s birth certificate.
Those provisions are similar to The Heritage Foundation’s model bills—and are bulwarks against dangerous gender ideology threatening women and girls. (Heritage founded The Daily Signal in 2014.)
Gov. Jeff Landry’s signature would make Louisiana the eighth state to adopt a version of a “Given Name Act,” which requires parental permission before a teacher can socially affirm a child’s confusion about his or her sex by using a name or pronoun that does not correspond to the student’s official records.
Lawmakers should insert parents back into important health-related conversations educators may have with the parents’ students. Children confused about their sex need compassion and wise counsel—and for their primary caregivers to be a part of those conversations.
But there are ads that can move you. There are bad ones—think Bud Light and Dylan Mulvaney—and there are good ones. Anyone who is old enough to remember “where’s the beef” knows that it became a catchphrase throughout the ‘80s, deservedly so, IMHO.
https://youtu.be/idnwh6iDnXA //
As one user noted, "It's interesting that countries outside the US are sent advertisements that celebrate life." Good point. //
There are many commercials over the decades that we could discuss—both terrific and terrible—but my wife sent me one Sunday that maybe sort of touched my cold, hard, toxic-masculinity-filled heart just a little bit. The spot, for Coca-Cola, brilliantly sums up both the joys and trials of parenthood in the modern age. Yes, little kids are bundles of joy—but yes, they also will test your stress tolerance and bring you to the edge of exhaustion in ways you never thought possible.
Watch, and if you’re a parent, pretend to look out the window and scratch that non-existent itch in your eye.
https://twitter.com/JoshuaSteinman/status/1792257229405749750
How could America shift so babies were more welcomed, less dreaded?
Tim Carney, author of the new book “Family Unfriendly: How Our Culture Made Raising Kids Much Harder Than It Needs to Be,” has a few ideas. He’d like to see corporations offer parents their child’s birthday off every year. He wants parents to not work so hard at parenting—and to never, ever, sign up their kids for a travel sports team. He’d like to see local governments prioritize sidewalks and denser housing, which would make neighborhoods safer for kids.
But he also wants us to think about why we have a falling birth rate—and what it says about us. After World War II, America had a baby boom, while Germany experienced a baby bust. Now, we’re struggling with our own baby bust, even as we are hammered by relentless discussions of America’s failures, the threat of climate change, and more. “The spirit of the age now is what I call civilizational sadness,” says Carney. “And the sadness is a belief that we’re just not good or that humans were a mistake.” //
"Kids make us be better people. They make us aspire to be better people, both our kids and other people's kids around us," says author Tim Carney.
In Florida, a court challenge to the hotly contested Parental Rights In Education Act has ended with a settlement reached between the plaintiffs and the state. You can read through the media reports about this conclusion and see the bias plainly on display.
The Associated Press talked of “the fallout from Florida’s settlement.” The New Republic claimed the “settlement has curtailed the ‘Don’t Say Gay' Law”. The Miami Herald, in imbalanced thinking, declares “DeSantis’ homophobic law doesn’t survive court challenge intact.”
These are all very dramatic interpretations of a court agreement where the law in question was, in reality, completely upheld. //
Not a single thing about the law was affected. No elements were moved, no content was altered – not a single word has been changed. So just what are the journalism geniuses claiming? //
This new court decision has to then be regarded as a complete failure. Not only was the law upheld but no portion of it has been struck down. The settlement that was reached can better be described as a “Clarification." //
While representatives from Equity Florida pointed at the vague language of the law leading to some using it oppressively, the fact is the false negative reporting on the law created that atmosphere. Claims about the restrictions that did not exist led to adverse reactions in some areas, and it was all rooted in a lie. This is proven in the settlement terms.
The opponents are cheering all of the things they are now permitted to do today as a result, but this is coming about without having changed a single aspect of the law - meaning that all of those items were originally permitted. Yet today we have the press cheering they are allowed to do what they had always been allowed to do, and they are claiming victory while nothing has changed.
Those who refused to read the language of the law are now refusing to read the language of the settlement, and as a result, they are cheering wholesale changes taking place when they have the very same legislation in place that they had years ago. The deluded thinking is a marvel to behold. //
Quizzical
44 minutes ago
I've read the law in question. It has often been observed that the word "gay" is not contained in the law at all. For good measure, the neither the word "don't" nor "say" appears in the law, either. The word "parent" or some variation on it (parents, parental, etc.) appears 39 times. It's a law about parental rights, not about saying gay or not.
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