According to this article in the New York Times, ADHD may not be the enemy to the male children of the world that we think it is. It may actually be a benefit for those who are afflicted with it.

I, for one, am shocked. Imagine that what all of us have been saying since this ridiculous brouhaha started, is actually true! That you can work with children with ADHD, that there are discplinary techniques, learning techniques, and parenting styles that work well with children with learning disabilities. As opposed to just popping pills at them, we might actually suggest that they can be taught and helped without drugs! What a concept.

Brilliance can be hidden in what we deem as a throwaway. In fact, it usually is.

Listening to the radio today, I had to wonder how people thought we got this country. The latest commercial for our largest health insurance provider in Central Pennsylvania, Capital Blue Cross, includes a female voiceover while their trademark music plays in the background. I tried to find the exact text, but unfortunately, they don’t list it online. The general gist was: can you imagine a world where there are no junk-food junkies? Can you imagine a world with no bullies or name-calling? Can you imagine a world with good self-confidence, etc. That is apparently what Capital Blue Cross wants to imagine.

You know something - I don’t want to. I don’t want to imagine a world where I can’t be a junk food junkie when I want to be. I don’t want to imagine a world where there are no bullies and tough times growing up. I don’t want to imagine a world that is superficially inflated with feel-good emotions that aren’t earned or built over time.

Adversity is what grows us. You can look back over the times in your life when things were hardest, and you can see how you learned, grew, and became a stronger person. My life frequently stunk growing up, but you know something - there is very little that I can’t handle now as an adult.

Recently my youngest slapped his brother. While his father came down on him, I stuck up for him. He takes all kinds of abuse from bullies at school, from his brother, and frequently those of us that are supposed to protect him let him down. He had taken everything he could take from his brother that day, and he’d had enough, so he hauled off and let his brother have it. You know what - his brother deserved it. I don’t want him to learn that you just keep lying down and taking it from people. I want him to know when you have to fight back. He is finally learning, from being bullied and controlled, that he doesn’t have to take it.

If his school didn’t have bullies, if his brother wasn’t a cretin at times, he’d never learn that. He’d grow up and think the world was perfect and easy, and then get slammed when he discovers that the real world has the IRS, mean people, and terrorists.

Peace and harmony are beautiful ideals, but that’s all they are. In the real world, times can be tough. But they are what make it all worth it in the end. You can never appreciate the gentle warmth of a summer morning without suffering through the harsh chill of a winter evening.

This last election and our current economic “plan” are seeing the world through rose-colored glasses. Economies need to fail. It’s how they rebuild. You can’t constantly bail-out everyone. Nothing is too big to fail. Things need to fail. Failure is how we learn what we screwed up, and then we get to fix it and try again. Yes, it means that people will lose their jobs. Yes, there could be more foreclosed mortgages and food lines. And yes, children will have to suffer without the latest game consoles and seeing the latest box-office hits. But that’s life, and it’s how you grow and develop character and staying-power.

I’m so glad that David Tanenhaus can remember Bill Ayers with such warmth and innocence. In his article, “Barack, Bill, and Me,” he recounts his own tender relationship with the Ayers and Dohrn, insisting they are much different people than the terrorists they once were. Why on earth would we be bothered that one of our presidential candidates maintains ties with unapologetic terrorists? That he announced his Senate campaign at the Ayers-Dohrn house? But this writer has seen the other side: “I know them better as the couple that invited me into their home in 2000 to meet their extended family, make gingerbread-cookie houses, and share Christmas dinner. Our conversation that night, as it almost always did, focused on the future, not the past.”

Of course - and in Putin’s eyes, Bush saw friendship.

Don’t want to be bothered with walking FiFi? Is cleaning up after Fido taking its toll? Are you too busy at work to have a dog and take care of it? Here’s the service for you: Rent-A-Dog. That’s right, folks! All the joys of dog ownership without any of the bonding and familiarity that can become so demanding.

And we wonder why our kids have issues. We can’t even take care of our pets anymore.

So as I’m slogging it out on my recumbent bike at the gym, I see the women on the Today Show (may I just add, that women like these set women’s causes for equal rights back decades) talking about whether or not Obama is too thin to be president. This is nearly as bad as discussing how good-looking a presidential candidate is. For goodness sakes, people, get a freakin’ clue!! Who cares what Obama weighs?! Did you listen to his socialist policies? His marxist social viewpoints? That is what matters, not whether he wears a 28 waist!

Chain me to the wall, here, or I might get loose!

Then I come home to enjoy my protein shake, and I read this article, describing how LA is going to prohibit the new constructions of fast food restaurants within 32 square miles of low-income areas. Excuse me? Now we are telling those with little money that they can’t buy cheap food? Oh, I’m sorry, it’s not healthy. Well, there’s news for ya! Really? Cheeseburgers from McDonald’s don’t make it on the healthy food scale? These people have no money! They eat what they can afford! That is why there is drive in the human spirit to do and be more! So you can eat at fancy restaurants, and buy a better quality of food. Why ever leave the slums otherwise? Besides that, don’t people have the right to care for their bodies in the way they choose? We were warned, and here we have it: the government is telling us how to eat. It will start with the poor, and it will make its way up the scale. Just watch.

I’m changing my political affiliation this year to independent, possibly libertarian. At least THAT makes sense.

Let me just tell you - we keep saying this will never happen to us. Ah-huh. All we need is to let the government into our personal health coverage, and here it comes, folks. Just wait.

I want to see the nursing assistant who has to tell a woman she is too fat for her government and now she has to get on a government-mandated diet. Yep - I can’t wait for that day.

So with all our plans to educate poor kids and give them computers, it turns out that technology may not be the panacea we see it as. This article suggests that while computers can be a useful tool in learning, it can be a distraction if it is not monitored, which comes back to more parental involvement in children’s lives.

Why do we need studies to figure this out? Isn’t this a no brainer? While I’m a big fan of wikipedia and google for (re)searching, I’m alarmed when my stepson comes home and tells me he has to research stuff on the computer of the weekend. Why? Why can’t he use his school library, which is much safer, than an errant google search which may turn up things I’m don’t want to explain? Heck, there’s some things out there I can’t explain. I’d much rather take him to the library or go to the book store and look up the information he needs, where it is much easier for me to monitor what he sees.

Not to mention, kids don’t want to read - they’ll get on the computer and play games, but suggest a book, and they think you’ve grown a second head. I have to sit on these kids to get them to read. I have to offer Wii time, money, just to get 30 minutes of reading out of them. Why is that? I loved to read when I was kid, because it took me away from the boring stuff the adults were doing, and often, out of a rather miserable childhood. But with parents too busy to teach kids to read, the schools do, and they associate all reading with school work. What are we thinking here?

I make one comment, one post in six months, and good grief, I’ve already got annoyed Democrats making goofy comments. Does someone pay them to do this? Or do they have nothing better to do with their time? Grief!

Apparently, the right to say what you want is unacceptable to Democratic contender, Barrack Obama. See here for the full story.

“The GOP, should I be the nominee, can say whatever they want to say about me, my track record,” Obama said. “If they think that they’re going to try to make Michelle an issue in this campaign, they should be careful because that I find unacceptable, the notion that you start attacking my wife or my family.”

Hmm, so if his wife opens her mouth, and someone doesn’t like what she says, they are supposed to what? Not say anything? Not exercise their right to free speech? Isn’t that a double-standard? Oh, wait, I’m sorry - I forgot - the Obamas are Democrats. Double standards are acceptable as long as you’re rich and support them.

My bad.

“…government of the people, by the people, for the people” is a famous part of his Gettysburg address, a location that I have the privilege to live next to. Lately it seems that the only part of that desired governing ideal he described that we remember is the “for the people” part. Apparently Katrina “victims” have decided to sue the government for $3 quadrillion dollars. This ridiculous amount is called a negotiation tactic.

So here is my question. Let’s suppose a meteor came out of the sky and landed square on your roof. Your house is now destroyed (you and your family were at work and school during this time, so you survived). You have no where to live, and your homeowners insurance has declared a moratorium against God, so His acts are not covered. You are sunk. No home, a mortgage for a hole in the ground. Your neighbor comes to you and says, “Hey, I am so sorry for what happened. Do you want to stay with us for a few days, until you can get things together and get some directions?” Grudgingly, because you really want to sleep in your own bed, you thank him, and you and your family stay in his house, eat his food, watch his cable television. Time passes. You end up renting an apartment, because you can’t afford to buy another house, and you are struggling to survive. Your frustration and bitterness build. So one day you go to your neighbor, the same neighbor who took you in, fed you, clothed you, and let you live off of his generosity, and you demand recompense: He needs to buy you a new house, because this whole situation wasn’t fair, and he didn’t lose his house, and so he needs to belly up to the table.

Does this even make sense? The “victims” of Katrina - we act as though Katrina is a person and purposely attacked them - are suing our government. Hmm, now let me see. Who is that government? Oh yeah, that’s us. The people. These victims are suing us, because life isn’t fair, and the rest of us, who weren’t attacked by Katrina, should have to pay for it. That’s logical, right?

We have gotten so far away from what this government was intended to be, it is sickening. Life isn’t fair, and I am very empathetic to those who lost their homes in the storm that was Katrina. But they need to make sure their local government is better prepared for the future, and accept that it is a chance you take, simply breathing every day, that trauma can hit. Learn from it, grow, help each other out of the holes of life, but for goodness sake, take responsibility for your own survival. We as a government have offered our tax dollars for their relief, done the best we could for a situation no one could truly be completely prepared for, and let their local government off the hook for not reinforcing their dams. We did not intend out assistance to return their life to its apparently lustrous state prior to Katrina. It was simply to get them through until they could get back on their feet.

I’ll tell you what: the next time life throws me a curve ball, I’m heading down to Louisiana and demanding they cough up the dough for my problems. I wonder how that would go over?