Neanderpundit

I was thinking about the post by Freddie, linked below, and about Child Abuse.I have to admit, in hindsight/retrospect, my parents seriously abused my kid sister.

Instead of insisting she go to specific schools, they let her go to the schools she chose. When she graduated high school, she went to school to be a hairdresser, for which mom and dad paid. She drove mom’s car, or sometimes dad’s truck. Prom dresses, school supplies, gas, all pretty much covered. When she got married, dad took out his wallet and spent till it hurt.

On the other hand, I went to the seminary for six years. At times- OK, most of the time, I felt really stupid, because I was nearly a year behind everyone else. It sucked. But I stayed, rather than going to the local public school, where I could breeze through with honors because even in the 70’s the difference between parochial school and public school was HUGE. One kid left my class, the only kid dumber than me, and was valedictorian at the local public school. I helped pay for my high school by being a camp counselor in summertime. I also stayed in the seminary because that halved my tuition.

When I graduated, I bought my first car with graduation cash- a 1967 Plymouth Valiant. I paid for it and my insurance, working in the lumberyard. It had an AM radio. That was it’s option. I scraped cash together for my first year of engineering school, and managed to buy a beer or two during that first semester. I never had much in the way of cash, because between books and gas and supplies I was nearly always broke. Oh, let’s not forget car maintenance, hammering my $72 Plymouth Valienat back together over and over again to make it “just one more week, please!!” Bald assed tires and thin brake linings, I remember thinking “I can get about fifty more miles on the cord on these tires” Women? What were they?

Yeah, I was the lucky one. I got the best of the deal. I feel for my sister. Like Freddie, I got the richness of experience- the richness that taught me how to appreciate the things I have gotten.

Any of you out there who have moments of self pity because you didn’t get the dog you wanted when you were twelve, or your dad beat you for setting the house on fire, or your older brothers were abusive, or your family was dysfunctional, or the schoolkids were mean to you, go visit my blogdaughter and be humbled.

We all had some pretty tough shit when we were kids, and it sucks to live in a dysfunctional family. Now think about living in a dysfunctional family and being poor. I mean real gummint cheese poor, not “we didn’t have a color TV” poor.

You did OK, Freddie. Keep it up.

Now, I would not ordinarily inflict this kind of nastiness on my readers at such an early hour, but let’s get serious here: This kind of new age hocus-pocus bullshit is the kind of crap you expect out of Hollywood and specifically out of scientologists. It may seem innocuous, if more than a bit psycho, but it has a specific agenda.

Huge numbers of viable stem cells can be harvested from a placenta and the umbilicus. Making embryonic stem cell research (one of the left’s favorite justifications for abortion, as ignorant as that is)totally useless. But, if the likes of Thom can convince America that “placentas are to be eaten, not used in medical experiments” then the embryonic stem cell bullshit can stand.

It sounds crazy to me too, but let’s look hard at smoking, for instance. All the claims of secondhand smoke dangers are based on junk science, and yet more and more municipalities are enacting blanket smoking bans. And a kid recently sued McDonalds for making him fat. This bullshit floats in this country, because the whackos go out and fight to get it, while normal people are at work.

Just my two cents. You may now return to your regularly scheduled breakfast. If you can.