The Desert Gadabout

How not to raise stupid children

I know I'm just a Jon Talton fanboy, but I know of no other blogger offering the kind of compelling commentary (and relevant to my region) as The Rogue Columnist. His recent post, R U raising stupid children?, has inspired me to add one important note to his commentary:

Parents aren't reading newspapers, either.

This is like the whole smoking thing: If parents smoke, children are more likely to smoke regardless of the message their parents send. So this stands to reason that:

• If you want your children to read newspapers (and the assumption here is we're talking real newspapers and not the conspiracy-theory newsletter you get in the mail once a month), read a newspaper
• If you want your children to read books, read books. Preferably, books with some substance.
• If you want your children to be reasonably intelligent and capable of carrying on an adult conversation, have a few with them.
• If you don't want your children to plop down in front of the TV or computer at dinner time, it's generally a bad move to do so yourself.

I don't have children but I know this timeless truth: Kids have supernatural BS detectors and they don't really care what you say. What you do says it all for you before you open your mouth. "Do as I say and not as I do" is a maxim best left to politicians and law enforcement.

The realistic college freshman checklist

If you're looking for a legitimate checklist, this is complete, if not very practical. If you are a parent of a child heading off the college for the first time, this is the real list:

• Lots of this
• Or one of these

That should cover it. Also, if you are sending your son to Arizona State, please realize the enormous challenges of this great academic institution. If you're sending your daughter there, I suggest a new fashion statement.

(Inspiration: collegeboard.com)

An honest Arizona map

Fixing Arizona

Jon Talton, the way-too-smart-to-be-a-blogger blogger a.k.a. The Rogue Columnist, has written a manifesto of sorts for fixing Arizona.

A future state senator from Mesa?

Now, I know what some of you are thinking. Arizona isn't broken. Sure, everything is fine if you prefer:

• A public education that gives a student just enough information to make it to one of our overgrown community colleges. I'd love to call someone on this and check the validity of it, but I was once told the most common class taken by the 250,000 students at Maricopa community colleges is remedial math (sub-100 series). Having spent several years at MCC, it rings true. I was one of those students.
• An economy based on consuming finite desert that was never designed be inhabited by so many people at once. In terms of violating ecological science, Phoenix is the poster city for reengineering nature in unnatural ways.
• Politicians that are more likely to view global climate change as a socialist conspiracy than legitimate science.
• A leadership void so vast that someone like Joe Arpaio is allowed to achieve cult-hero status.
• Bragging rights is valued in population numbers rather than quality of life issues such as per capita income, as Jon so eloquently describes.

What's irritating is ideas like Jon's set are written off in this state as intrusive government or just plain liberal, as if the Republicans who run this place don't love Big G any less. Those "limited government" voices tend to disappear when their own expenditures are on the line. Not that I'm for bigger government, but pragmatic, logical populism always makes more sense to me on a local level than grand philosophies that ignore fundmental issues.

Perhaps the most inspired idea in his post was the idea of creating a new county consisting of Mesa, Gilbert, and Chandler -- against their will, I think -- that would likely win some award for it's lack of gov't spending and regulation oversight. At some point Zion County would face the same problems Mesa is facing -- trying to keep together public services like garbage collection that even good Republicans expect their government to take care of -- just on a much more massive scale. But until then they could run their county any way they wish while I move to reconfigured Maricopa County, where the absence of certain East Valley influences might just open up a conversation beyond stale neo-con hyperbole.

My reaction to comic-cons

Why is this man smiling?

(HT: The very prolific Espresso Pundit)

Geek toy of the week

Wooden War Engine Kits
What cubicle is complete without a mini-retro ballistic? I could put it right next to the titanium spork.

Greg Boyd: Myth of a Christian Nation

Here's an interview with one of my favorite people, Pastor Greg Boyd of Christus Victor Ministries. Boyd split his church and took a lot of national heat from Evangelicals for disowning politics -- all politics -- as part of his church's ministry. He's also a leading voice for Open Theism, which has people like these guys gathering pitchforks and torches.

MCSO Honduras: Operation Receipt Shuffle

Sheriff Joe's numbers on the cost of the Honduras sister-city operation appear to be a moving target. Do they keep these receipts in a cigar box in the basement? Are they cluttering the back seat of Arpaio's OldsmoBuick? Are they hiding under Dave Hendershott's hat?

Good thing the accountants figured out how to show a surplus, just in time for an election year, announced during a Dan Saban presser.

LA fitness: The Great Burger Ban

Since we import virtually all our ideas by way of southern California, you just know this kind of stupidity will be headed our way within the calendar year:

A proposal that would place at least a one-year moratorium on new fast-food restaurants in a broad swath of neighborhoods, mostly in South Los Angeles, won unanimous support from a Los Angeles City Council committee Tuesday.

If approved by the full council and signed by the mayor, the law would prevent fast-food chains from opening new restaurants in a 32-square-mile area. The moratorium would be in effect for one year, with the possibility of two six-month extensions.

As the old joke goes, they give you a Perrier and a motivational tape at the California border, but even the most entrenched public health advocate has to confess this is beyond gross government micromanagement.

It's also a bit hypcritical.

After all, you can still get a $14 BLT at The Stork and three scoops in a waffle cone at Silky Smooth. What those places lack is the stigma of creating low-income fat people. They're more than willing to cater to pudgy city councilmen, though.