Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Actually I agree that there's a place for ''traditional values'', and even that promoting those things might be in the public interest. But how do we go about doing that without blatant ''social engineering'' and propaganda, which our conservative friends are always so down on (except of course, when it suits their agenda)?
What our conservative friends call social engineering and propaganda, I'm often liable to call sensible measures of good government, but I do think there's some shared ground between left and right on these issues. Inner-city poverty, for instance, to the extent that it correlates to single-parent and fatherless households (and it does) overlaps as an alliance of convenience with the conservative "traditional values" agenda enough to get some work done. See my last post for ideas suggested by some people with serious commitment to the issue.
Quote:
So if we really wanna promote traditional nuclear families... then we need to provide more of those same opportunities to the poor and middle class (rather than encourage any sort of ''moral coercion'' or ''propaganda'' campaign)!
Absolutely! Too many public-assistance programs and policies actively discourage two-parent families while signally failing to provide the support that would allow low-income families to function. Childcare not least of all - real, available childcare would, IMO, be the single best thing we could do for the cause of family.
Quote:
And for the ''natural order'' advocates... harems, cannibalism, slavery, and even homosexuality are also common in nature.... just like slavery, torture, human sacrifice and genital mutilation have also all been around for ''thousands of years''.
Indeed! And as I've said, no one taking a serious interest in these issues is actively lobbying for a return to the 12th century.
Yes, I really miss my cheating husband. Such problems I have!
Just think, I don't have to work all day and then make sure there's a hot home-cooked dinner waiting for the cheater when he gets home! Oh, the humanity! It just makes me feel terrible that I can do what I want, when I want to without worrying about 'being there' for my master and accommodating his every whim! Oh, woe is me!!!
I have no problems. I own my own home (no mortgage), have a new car with no payment, and have been voluntarily celibate for over 20 years. Just bought some new leather furniture and didn't have to compromise or argue or hassle with someone else who thinks he's smarter than me, or thinks it's not the right time, or thinks I don't deserve new furniture.
Cloaking it in concept of "benevolence"? Hahahahahahahahahaha.
Sexism is sexism.
Though the chest-thumper, knuckle draggers are going to looove telling the little woman how benevolent they are. That's right up their alley.
Yeah, I've heard it...way too often...'I only hit you because I love you!'
BARF
Yes, I suppose I needed 'correction'. If it wasn't for my now-defunct catholic upbringing which left in me the idea that there could be a SLIGHT chance that I have an immortal soul I would have offed the b@stard.
Conservatives and the subject of ''sex''... do you really wanna go there?
I'm a social moderate....Just because I dont dress in drag, wear a**less chaps or engage in ambiguous swingers festivities doesn't mean I have sex through a bedsheet with a hole cut in.
I am also a single mother - not by choice. I feel that I have done well - we live in a nice home; drive two nice vehicles and my son is a good student and athlete. He has already been accepted to three colleges.
BUT, but - was my situation ideal? No it was not. Not for either of us.
Ideally - two people would have been sharing the work; the decisions; the costs . . . .there are many of all those things when it comes to raising a child and it is mighty hard to have one person doing the work of two. I had one, single minded focus for 17 years and that is raising my son - nothing else. I had a good job and good income and it was STILL hard. So - how are women raising several children on minimum wage? I really do not know how they do it.
So - absolutely I can see the benefit of marriage in the raising of a child.
I have no desire to return to the old days though. Surely there is a way to create a better society for us all - without going back to barefoot and in the kitchen or some version of same.
The Institute for American Values and the National Center for African American Marriages and Parenting co-sponsored at study, "The Marriage Index", which is available here (pdf), which includes a list of "101 Ideas" to improve marriage co-authored by Dr. Linda Malone-Colon and David Blankenhorne.
Among the most interesting and provocative ideas they suggest are:
Public and private organizations could launch a public health campaign to alert the public to the central role that active and affectionate fathers play in protecting their children from neglect and abuse.
Link advocacy for children to advocacy for marriage. While advocating better programs for children, also insist that no children’s program, however well-funded and well-designed, can or ought to
substitute for a stably married two-parent home.
Promote education for successful marriage as a regular part of school curricula. Include understanding of the historical roots of marriage, its desirability as an environment for childrearing, and its psychological, moral, legal, and economic requirements.""""
WHOA! Keep YOUR ideas on marriage out of schools I pay for.....it's a slippery slope to your gruesome sexism....
""Work with state legislators to reduce unnecessary divorce""""
And just WHO decides for two adult people just what is, and isn't, an "unnecessary" divorce? One YOU don't approve of...LOL!
""".... by reforming divorce laws, primarily by combining longer waiting periods for divorce with stronger provisions for family courts to refer couples
to marriage education. Create a one- or two-year waiting period for unilateral divorce.""""
You sure like bigger government sticking their nose in private matters bewtween two American citizens....hate the home of the Free?????
"""End marriage penalties for low-income Americans by guaranteeing that any low-income couple who suffers a financial loss due to the decision to marry (usually through the loss of benefits) is legally
entitled to a payment or tax credit from the federal government equal to the amount of the loss.""""
More taxes , more big government....people already get a break for pumping out kids. You have NO idea how much money that would entail...
"""Create social security and other tax benefits for a parent who wants to stay home and care for young children.
Reform court-connected divorce education and mediation programs so that they seek to facilitate reconciliations, rather than merely expedite the divorce process. Reassess current trends in family law, in such areas as child custody, adoption, and divorce, with an eye toward promoting marital and childrearing stability.
Fundamentally reassess the current state-federal Child Support Enforcement Program, seeking whenever possible to foster not simply more child support but also more marriage and more fatherhood.
I suppose you want government to dictate exactly how couples should have sex, too.....
WHY are you so concerned about OTHER people's lives??? Do you have a control issue???
Last edited by Who?Me?!; 12-18-2012 at 07:56 PM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
