Archive for the ‘Featured’ Category:
Chelsea Clinton Pregnant — Why Is This News?
Chelsea Clinton pregnant. This was just announced. Why is this news? I mean, I know why it’s news. But why is it really news?
Here is NY1’s tweet about Chelsea’s announce:
Report now on NY1 RT @courtneycgross Chelsea Clinton expecting her first child later this year
— NY1 News (@NY1) April 17, 2014
Are the Clintons the new Kennedys? Definitely not, if only because there aren’t enough of them. There are/were a LOT of Kennedys, and Chelsea is an only child. I suppose she could be the start of a dynasty, but I have a feeling that that days of political dynasties are over.
I’ve always been fascinated by Chelsea Clinton. Bill Clinton was the first President I voted for, and I remember how Bill and Hillary tried very hard to keep her out of the spotlight. They succeeded for the most part, largely because she was so young, but also because this was before the explosion of social media made it more difficult for First Kids to have private lives. Then again, remember Amy Carter, daughter of President Jimmy Carter? She made headlines way back in 1977 for reading during a state dinner; Art Buchwald praised her, but she was the subject of much scorn… at the tender age of 9. I remember that one as well, albeit less vividly because I was younger.
My point is, it has to be weird to grow up in the White House. Sasha and Malia Obama seem to handle the role of First Daughters very well, perhaps in part because they are media savvy kids. Digital natives, if you will. And perhaps the White House press corps showed some restraint, although I can’t say that with total confidence. I can say that whenever I’ve seen the current Presidential daughters they appear to be happy, well-adjusted, and very normal. I’ll go out on a limb and attribute this to good parenting by the President and First Lady, as well as Michelle Obama’s mom, who moved into the White House to help out, which to me made a lot of sense. (Not sure if she’s still there.)
Back to Chelsea Clinton being pregnant. I guess it seems a little… sexist? Maybe? To make this a big news story?
You know what? I’m not sure why it bugs me. But it does. It isn’t the most egregious example of news that maybe shouldn’t be news.
Maybe it’s just that, as a parent, I have a general feeling of protectiveness when it comes to somebody’s child’s privacy. Not that Chelsea is a child. She is very much a public figure, and an adult. But I think that’s the root of my troubled mind here. Over-protective parent, even of someone else’s kid. Go figure.
Related articles (Note: These are offsite links; DaddyTips takes no responsibility for outside content)
Rattlesnake Roundup is Real-Life Whacking Day
Some of you may recall the Whacking Day episode of The Simpsons, in which residents of the town of Springfield whack snakes with sticks. It’s a tradition. Turns out there is a real-life version of Whacking Day called Rattlesnake Roundup.
Here’s a link to the script of The Simpsons’ episode at snpp.com. The TV Guide synopsis, also via that site: “The soulful sound of Barry White and a key discovery by Bart—who was expelled from school—help Lisa in her efforts to save Springfield’s snakes from the annual Whacking Day.”
It happens to be an awesome episode, in no small part due to the presence of Mr. Barry White. The fact that there is an actual event that is even remotely similar to what was on The Simpsons is awful. Wendy Townsend, writing for CNN.com, agrees.
Again, in case you missed it the first time:
Oh. So. Creepy.
Opinion: ‘Rattlesnake Roundup’ teaches cruelty is fun – CNN.com.
Related articles (Note: These are offsite links; DaddyTips takes no responsibility for outside content)
Neil Armstrong Says The World Needs Nerdy Engineers
In our ongoing effort to get more excited about space travel and all things space science-y, here is a video from Universe Today in which Neil Armstrong says the world needs more nerdy engineers.
Universe Today (UT… actually, I don’t want to use that abbreviation, people might think I’m talking about the University of Texas, or the state of Utah) is a very cool web site that I was recently turned on to by Lucas Gonze. It is something that I should read daily. I’m saying this publicly in order to shame myself into following through on that plan.
Also, this pic from the Universe Today twitter feed is all sorts of awesome.
Awesome! RT @kpcuk: ;) .-? / |? ?| ? ? | . ?| |[][][]| |F9?| |?? | S | | P | | -? | C? | E | | X? | |?? |?? /_/_
— Universe Today (@universetoday) April 1, 2014
Neil Armstrong: Why The World Needs ‘Nerdy Engineers’ (In Animated Form).
Related articles (Note: These are offsite links; DaddyTips takes no responsibility for outside content)
Watch A Captain America Movie From 1944 For Free
Captain America: The Winter Soldier will be in theaters on Friday, April 4. But if you want you can watch a Captain America movie from 1944 for free, thanks to the good folks at the Internet Archive.
The film, an old black and white serial, runs 25 minutes and 16 seconds and is titled Captain America, Chapter 1 (1944). It stars Dick Purcell as Captain America, aka Grant Gardner (more on this in a moment), Lorna Gray as Gail Richards, Lionel Atwill as Doctor Maldor (think he might be a bad guy with that name? He also wears a monocle), along with Charles Trowbridge and Russell Hicks. The description from IMDB is as follows: Read more »
Commenter’s Kid Schools Walking Dead Character
This comment was posted on an interview with Josh McDermitt, who plays the character Eugene Porter on The Walking Dead, on AMCTV.com. I’ll let it speak for itself.
I’m writing this on behalf of my son, Gideon, who is 6 years old. Because of him, I’ve learned a lot about dinosaurs, and I knew enough to realize that when Eugene Porter said last night that he would love to see a revived Ankylosaur fight a Diplodocus, the otherwise brilliant Dr. Porter had made an egregious and embarrassing error. I reported Dr. Porter’s comment to my son (since I don’t let him watch the show, of course), and he makes the following observations. First, both those dinosaurs were herbivores, and they would almost certainly never fight. If, for some reason, they did get annoyed with each other, it would not be the kind of bloody combat that Dr. Porter salivated over. It would probably just be a quick pushing match to get at some branches. Second, “ankylosaur” is an umbrella category of dinosaurs. It was not a specific dinosaur, unlike Diplodocus which was a specific dinosaur species. So it is not clear what dinosaur the Diplodocus would be fighting. Third, the archetypal ankylosaur, namely, the Euplocephalus, only appeared in the late Cretaceous era, whereas the Diplodocus lived in the late Jurassic. Tens of millions of years separated them, and they never would have encountered each other. Dr. Porter should be more careful than to perorate on dinosaurs, because the average 6-year old can be a merciless fact-checker.
It gets better. Or worse, depending on your point of view. Other people responded, some slightly unkindly, to what this parent had to say.
And BTW… It’s Euoplocephalus. If your going to be snarky at least spell stuff right!
To be clear: we are talking about a fictional character. In the case of the commenters, they are directing their comments AT a fictional character. Some people take this stuff seriously.
Here’s another dinosaur picture. Because why not.
Q&A – Josh McDermitt (Eugene Porter) – AMCTV.com
Boy Brings My Little Pony Backpack to School; Boy Gets Bullied; School Blames Backpack
It’s the same old story you’ve heard a thousand times before. Boy brings My Little Pony backpack to school. Boy gets bulled. School blames backpack, calling it a “trigger for bullying.” Story gets picked up by national media. Internet explodes.
Oh wait. The old story is “Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back.” This one is actually new. Sort of.
Bullying is a serious problem that is finally being taken seriously after countless years of being explained away by adults who would prefer to look the other way and/or actually didn’t/don’t give a crap about the kids who were/are being victimized by small-minded jerks.
Ten years ago, this story might not have made national news. Twenty years ago it absolutely would have been ignored. The kid would be called a fag, a queer, gay, been beaten up, and his school would have done nothing to stop it.
In this particular case, school officials decided that the way to solve the problem was to tell the boy to stop carrying around his ‘My Little Pony’ backpack. Get something more butch, like Spider-Man. (I made that part up; as far as I know no one offered him any specific backpack suggestions.)
In general, the Internet hive mind is horrified by the notion of blaming the backpack. But school officials are not wrong that the backpack makes the kid an easy target for bullies.
What is wrong is the way they handled the situation. Telling the boy that the solution is to leave the backpack at home sends the message that being different is a bad thing, and that if you are different it’s OK for people to taunt you and beat you up. This is especially important because we are talking about a very young kid. He’s only nine and already equates colors with gender; he was pleasantly surprised to find a blue ‘Pony’ backpack because “most of the [‘My Little Pony’] toys are girly,” he told a reporter from People magazine.
The behavior “triggered” by the backpack is indeed bullying in the truest sense of the word. According to the article on People.com, kids at school were “taking it a little too far, with punching me, pushing me down, calling me horrible names, stuff that really shouldn’t happen.” That’s remarkably articulate for a 9-year-old. It also makes me cry man tears. The school has to stop the behavior immediately. Focusing on the backpack is wrong.
The boy’s mother is quoted thusly: “Saying a lunchbox is a trigger for bullying is like saying a short skirt is a trigger for rape. It’s flawed logic, it doesn’t make any sense.” I respectfully disagree with her. A lunchbox, in this case a backpack, is in fact the trigger for the bullying. Bullies see backpack. Bullies commence bullying. That doesn’t mean the school handled the situation appropriately. But we should stop saying things are “like rape” because the only thing that is “like rape” is rape. (I have no wish to knock the mother of the bullied boy. Note that I’m not using either her name or his.) There’s no need to compare bullying to something else in order to make it more terrible. Her son is/was being beaten up at school. Why? It doesn’t matter. He should be able to go to school and feel safe, actually be safe. The bullies should be punished immediately. Suspensions, expulsions if the bullying continues. Any parent of a bully who tries to defend their child’s behavior is flat out wrong.
The article on People.com has a link at the end that I won’t click because I know it will only make me more sad.
RELATED: 11-Year-Old Boy Attempts Suicide After Being Bullied for My Little Pony Passion (People.com)
That’s where it goes if you keep blaming the victim. The victim is the 9-year-old boy, not his backpack.
Since the word bullying has become a bit watered down — Justin Bieber claims that when people call him names on Twitter that’s “bullying”, which is bullshit — maybe we should start calling the behavior what it would be called if these were adults.
Assault and battery.
Grayson Bruce Prohibited from Bringing ‘My Little Pony’ Backpack to School : People.com.
Related articles (Note: These are offsite links; DaddyTips takes no responsibility for outside content)
Kristen Bell – “You Cannot Be Stalking Six Year Olds”
Kristen Bell told a Huffington Post interviewer that children should be off-limits when it comes to celebrity photographers, or paparazzi. “You cannot be stalking six year olds,” the “Veronica Mars” star said. We agree. Read more »
