Its all about the children

   Have you noticed that every liberal cause always starts with "the children".  Here is a short list of campaigns that focused initially on the children

• Anti-Obesity campaign   - control what we eat
• Anti-Bullying campaign - control what we believe
• Anti-Smoking campaign - control what we breath
• Anti-Violence in Media  - control what we see
• Anti-Hate-Speech            - control what we say

    These are just a few that come to mind.  Each of which was highlighted in the media (Good Morning America, 20/20 , 60 minutes, Night Line, etc..) for days and weeks on end. Many time advocates for these causes would bring their own children on the set to use them as center-pieces for their arguments.  After all, who is going to argue with a mother or father with their children standing by them.  Also the children serve a untouchable advocates as they will be asked probing questions like:  How do you feel about this?   or What do you think of your father?   Have you ever been the victim of this? etc..

    Recently, even on Fox News, Sean Hannity interviewed the parents whose child died from being bullied.   Of course I feel bad for this couple.  I have children of mine own and I would feel terrible if this happened to one of them.   However, at the same time, I believe their cause (which is an honorable one) is being hi-jacked by the left as a way to shut down political and religious free speech as it could be called being a "bully".  And a question I have for this family is: "How far do you want this taken?".   Do you just want to inform parents and teachers of the severity bullying?  Do you want laws passed to restrict bullying?  If so...

• What is bullying?   Like "hate-speech" its undefined and nebulous. 
• Where is it to be restricted to?   Schools only?  Places where children meet?  Homes? 
• Who should it be restricted to?   Teenagers only?  < 21 , 25   any age?
• What should be the punishment?  Fines? Community service?  Jail?
• Are there exceptions?   Police?  Military?  Family?

   These are all issues that need to be answered before we take up such causes.   I remember here in California when a young girl named Polly Klaas was abducted from here home by a known pedophile named Richard Davis who was a repeat offender.   Polly's parents where whisked into the 3-Strikes-Act campaign to take people like Richard Davis off the streets.  The 3-Strikes-Act said that upon your conviction of your 3rd felony, you would serve a life-sentence-without-parole. They were made the poster-family for the bill and urged people to write their assemblymen to get this bill passed.   Years later, however, they found out that the law swept more into jails than just pedophiles like Richard Davis.  The bill made no distinction in what felonies would be included or not included.  For example, writing a bad check is a felony and could land a person in jail for the rest of their life if they had 2 prior felonies.  Polly's father later worked on a campaign to pass Proposition 66 which tried to fix the 3-Strikes-Act and put in the necessary wording.   Interesting enough, he was not greeted with the same amount of enthusiasm by the law enforcers and prison-guard unions as he had been earlier.  The proposition later failed, achieving only 47% of the vote.

   Like most jokes that use a "Geni-in-a-bottle" as the theme,  parents need to "be careful what they ask for" when others wish to use their pain to promote their own agenda.