Weinstein, et al

The news continues to be depressing.  Currently, amidst the slog that is Trump, health and environmental warnings, and the Royals beginning their long generational slide into the abyss, we have a huge sexual harassment scandal in which a high-ranking Hollywood executive has lost his power and influence after decades of terrible behavior.  The fallout is that scores of other spotlighted people are being dragged through this...Kevin Spacey propositioned a teenager many years ago, Andy Dick licks people, and George Bush the senior acts like a dirty old man.  It's sad, really, even though hopefully the public shaming will hopefully people putting a stop to terrible behavior.  As a dad, I pray that my daughter will never have to go through what many women through the ages have endured.

Yet I can't help think that this is yet another story in which the chickens have come home to roost.  Men have always behaved badly, I suppose...in the Bible Xerxes gets his XXX rating by plowing through a whole generation of women looking for a replacement wife, and things haven't gotten much better in the years since  Celebrities and powerbrokers have always gotten away with bad behavior...how many of the legendary Wilt Chamberlain's 20,000 supposed lays were not consensual?  Heck, we have a sitting president who made some of his reputation as horny business mogul who would brag about grabbing a woman's 'p****' when she was not expecting it or walking in on teenagers getting dressed in beauty pageants.  Sexuality has been glorified as the right of the powerful, and now with western equality being our god, everyone else as well.  With glorification, abuse will soon follow on its heels.

As always, we want all the pleasures of sexuality without any of its drawbacks.  Will we continue to celebrate all the glories of our modern sexual freedom and then continue to be so surprised when this freedom is so badly abused?  Something's gotta give.

Grumpy Old Guy #31

I'm driving a shuttle route last night and most of the kids are fine, but a little boy, about 6, keeps standing up and jumping around in the back.  Three times I have to get on the intercom, 'Sit Down!'  I don't like being that guy, but kids in the aisle or standing up, that's dangerous. 

So we get to the final drop-off point and as the boy is coming off I have him stand on top of the engine compartment and tell him that he has to do better sitting down, that he can't be jumping around on the bus.  We're a quarter of the way through the school year, he knows this by now but he doesn't care.  But then his brother, probably a year older and is waiting on him says, 'He can't sit down!  He has ADHD and that's why he acts like this.' 

To summarize: a seven-year-old is already making excuses for his younger brother as to why he is the way he is.  Where did he learn these things?  Most likely from his parents, who likewise make excuses for his unacceptable behavior.  This child is likely to through life with people making excuses for him, instead of simply saying 'No, you can't do this.' 

It's easy to bag on people I don't know well, but most kids really don't have ADHD.  Most of them are simply over-sugared, over-caffeinated, over-stimulated, and under-disciplined.  And when they act like this, everybody then looks for an excuse besides what's obvious.  No wonder I have a headache.