Speaking of land yachts...

Wow. Maybe Darwin was wrong if this guy's kids lived long enough to have kids of their own...
 
[A] police officer warned the man that hauling four unrestrained children, all around age 4, on a busy street in a 15-foot motorboat pulled by a lawnmower isn't a good idea.
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They couldn't have been going very fast. :redface:

Hey, that gives me an idea for the redneck pilot thread over on you-know-where.org.
 
drafttek said:
How 'bout six kids riding on a VW Beetle hood pulled by a speeding snowmobile. Man , THAT was fun! :hairraise:
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How about them yellow plastic kiddie skis tied to your boots, then you put a ski tow rope on the back of a Camaro and drive around St. Louis in the middle of a snow storm skiing 3 abreast:D
 
You've got to be kidding me?? Kids sitting in a boat on a trailer while being pulled by a lawnmower? Told to have someone else pick the kids up in?

How about pulling two brothers on two sleds behind a jeep on an icy road in 20 degree temperatures? That would probably be child abuse now.

Is this really the society we live in?

I'll tell you, I'm glad I grew up on a farm and wasn't exposed to this kind of crap. Let's see, I've ended up overboard in January, damn near had to have an arm amputated at age 5 courtesy of farm equipment, had pellets extracted from my face.

We're becoming a nation of softies, both physically and mentally. Even speaking for my generation, the numbers of my classmates, friends, and colleagues who were mollycoddled and sheltered from anything is mind-numbing.

What a load of horse manure.
 
Obi Heed Kenobi said:
We're becoming a nation of softies, both physically and mentally. Even speaking for my generation, the numbers of my classmates, friends, and colleagues who were mollycoddled and sheltered from anything is mind-numbing.

What a load of horse manure.
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Mollycoddled... :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
 
Obi Heed Kenobi said:
You've got to be kidding me?? Kids sitting in a boat on a trailer while being pulled by a lawnmower? Told to have someone else pick the kids up in?

How about pulling two brothers on two sleds behind a jeep on an icy road in 20 degree temperatures? That would probably be child abuse now.

Is this really the society we live in?

I'll tell you, I'm glad I grew up on a farm and wasn't exposed to this kind of crap. Let's see, I've ended up overboard in January, damn near had to have an arm amputated at age 5 courtesy of farm equipment, had pellets extracted from my face.

We're becoming a nation of softies, both physically and mentally. Even speaking for my generation, the numbers of my classmates, friends, and colleagues who were mollycoddled and sheltered from anything is mind-numbing.

What a load of horse manure.
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Government. Our self-appointed protector, safety blanket, and nanny.
 
wsuffa said:
Government. Our self-appointed protector, safety blanket, and nanny.
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Let me elaborate a little bit.

When I was very young, my right-hand was caught in a piece of farm equipment and was pretty-well mangled. We're talking bad. I remember the incident in its entirety, despite only being 4 or 5, and it isn't really worthy of repeating, except to say that I did not cry - at the time I was obsessed with Davey Crockett, and decided that being as DC wouldn't cry, neither would I.

Anyway, the doctors wanted to amputate my arm. They were apparently concerned that some kind of bone infection would set in and, if it did, I would die. My parents instead decided that I would better off dead than without an arm.

That sounds like a harsh decision to make, but I'm glad that they made it. Frankly, I would rather be dead than have spent a childhood minus an arm. I can say, to a degree of absolute certainty, that I would not have turned out as well as I have (and if I were any worse, society wouldn't tolerate me) were I lacking an arm.

Long story short, my hand and arm are fine. I'm not missing anything, and have full use of my hand. The only negative effect is that when it's cold, my right hand goes numb quickly. That made January lacrosse practices interesting. My college coach damn near cut me because I couldn't catch a ball when it was below freezing...until I showed him my hand. He cut me a little slack after that.

But this thread got me to thinking about what would happen if my parents were to make that decision today, so I decided to do a little legal research. I looked at a brief survey of case law from across the country, and have decided that two things would happen: 1) I would be taken away from my parents, my arm would be amputated on the whim of a social worker and a judge, and I would then be placed in a foster home on the whim of the same parties; and 2) my parents would be charged with child abuse.

The basic rule I found in my brief research is that a parent never has the right to withhold life-saving treatment from the child, no matter what the reason. There are cases involving Jehovah's Witnesses not wishing their child to undergo medical treatment, in which the child is taken by the State. There are cases in which the parents, for reasons other than religion, do not want their child to receive life-saving treatment, in which the State takes the child.

That's not to say all of the court decisions are like that. In Virginia, for instance, there was a case from about 10 years ago in which a private hospital and the state attempted to force an adult to undergo a life-saving treatment which the adult, who was in his right mind, did not want. The court in that case came down on the patient's side and told the hospital and state to buzz off.

More recently, and also in Virginia, an adolescent chose to refuse life-saving treatment. The juvenile court ordered him to get it, and ordered the social workers to go get him. He had to appeal to the big boy court to get that order overturned, and it was overturned.

I think I'm a little more qualified than most to speak on this issue, as I'm directly involved with it on two levels - as both the injured person and a lawyer - and I've got to say that the court decisions allowing the State to determine what is right for a child disgusts me.

I don't mind the State stepping in when the parents are bad parents (ie, abusive - but making a rational decision about a child does not constitute abuse) or don't have a rational reason for refusing the treatment (and there are times when religion is not a rational reason). But for the State to assert its supposedly better judgment over a parent's decision that is rationally reached is absolutely disgusting, and is indicative of a society that is sick.

And I have no problem saying that if I ever become a parent and am placed in a similar situation, I will act with the all the force I can muster to do what I think is right for my child.
 
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