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What a friend we have in Garry! This ran the other week:
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In case you can’t read it, it says:
Blue Mom: Hey look boys — a new playground. boys? How ridiculous is this?
Pink Mom: Sorry?
Blue Mom: This playground! It’s so safe and sterile! Everything’s rubberized and low to the ground. Kids have a basic need to experience risk. To face fear and overcome it. That’s how they become confident. But this place? My guys are totally bored here!
Pink Mom: Which ones are yours?
Blue Mom: They’re right over there.
Pink Mom: Um…over where?
Blue Mom: Across the street — in the dumpster. Boys! Wave!
Pink Mom: Ok, so I’m calling the police.
26 Comments
I saw this a couple of weeks ago, and LOLed. Thanks for posting.
“Blue mom”?
We don’t read Doonesbury much, do we?
Thank you for shining a light on the issues! Great job!
(Crocodile Dundee accent)
That’s not a playground.
…
THIS is a playground!!
http://www.play-scapes.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/2.Playground_1942_LOC_8d23003v3.jpg
By way of context, ‘Blue mom’ is Alex, the daughter of Michael Doonesbury, has a PhD from MIT, and is married to a Gulf War II vet.
Trudeau covers a lot of ground, and is an absolute treasure.
I haven’t read Doonesbury in years. Alex has kids. Wow. In my head she’s a teenager.
I’m so old.
It sounds like something that change happen in real life. Worrywart. Sees kids having fun without any approval of the kind of fun kids like thorws hissy fit and call cops.
Don’t you love it!?
Gotta eat a peck of dirt before you die!
Betcha Pink Mom’s kids suffer from asthma and allergies. And Blue Mom’s kids have robust immune systems.
Thank you Garry. And Lenore.
ha ha. Saw this a few weeks ago. Alex’ kids are my kids. Playing in the dumpster, the fountain, climbing the fences, sitting on top of the play houses….
Doonsbury used to be genuinely funny, even when I disagreed with Trudeau’s politics. Then he started to take himself Very Seriously. Now it’s only occasionally funny.
There are 10 games-that are contra-indicated-by today’s teachers and play leaders.
Red Rover, Fox and Goose, and Dodgeball all Among them.
TWO DILEMMAS
-They are trying to include disabled persons-but in a culture where people are litigious-this is putting play leaders and teachers into a quandary.
ONE BI\G FAULT-is lawyers who take cases on a contingency basis.
Perhaps the courts have a role-to PROHIBIT certain cases-where a lawyer gets-a percentage of the damages.
I live in Canada.
Our new Prime Minister is Justin Trudeau(His father was Prime Minister in 1968(succeeding Lester Pearson.
In your country, John Quincy Adams was the son of John Adams.
I am a WARRIOR.
IThe purpose of our courts should be to discourage suing.
Just like our policemen, firemen, and hospitals are not looking for customers.
“The reason we have this mess-is that there are too many lawyers.
Being a lawyer is NOT an easy way to get rich quickly.
Just like the Governor of New York has a publicity song called
East Side, WEst Side, I will make a son called
“I Never Will Sue”
“Being a lawyer is NOT an easy way to get rich quickly.”
I know, and know of, quite a few non-rich lawyers.
But personal-injury lawyers always seem to live in mansions.
Shared this a few days back. A few days after sharing the Simpsons storyline. The rest of the [western] world is catching up with us Lenore. PS thanks for the tag – I’m flattered!
“But personal-injury lawyers always seem to live in mansions.”
Personal-injury lawyers literally make nothing if they don’t win the case.
Doonesbury spells it out so clearly. Kids will seek out excitement. We can’t stop this. However we can rubberize and sterilize our playgrounds so much that it forces them to seek it elsewhere.
If we bring back the merry go rounds in parks and let kids play tag at school then they won’t have as much urge to seek the thrill elsewhere. Perhaps even the game ‘Grand Theft Auto’ won’t be as popular.
@Vagugan Evans
Great way to put it. Policemen, firemen, and hospitals are not looking for customers. However lawyers are encouraging people to fight.
I am a mechanical draftsman. I designed an almond harvesting factory. During harvest, the factory runs 24/7 for 1 month. For 11 months of the year it is closed down. There are no employees. There are only 2 security guards that make certain that nobody vandalizes. The nearest town with a population over 200 is 100 miles away. It is extremely boring.
A security guard went to sleep in a conveyor. It hasn’t been running for 6 months and he didn’t expect today to be different. It was started, he got seriously hurt, and he admitted that he had used it as a bed for months.
A lawyer talked him into suing.
The moral of the story. Many people a TAUGHT to not take responsibility and to seek out fault in others.
@NYMom – That’s EXACTLY what my grandmother used to say! I figure as long as I’m not close to my peck – it’s all good.
“Personal-injury lawyers literally make nothing if they don’t win the case.”
Of course, they also get to pick which cases they take….
“‘Personal-injury lawyers literally make nothing if they don’t win the case.’
Of course, they also get to pick which cases they take”
Yeah. That’s the point.
They only get paid if they win the case. They get to pick which cases to take, and which to pass on.
THEREFORE
The only cases they take are the ones where the person being sued has actually caused injury to the person doing the suing. The way to make PI lawyers go away is to not injure people in the first place.
So, you can CHOOSE to see it as “look at all those lawyers swarming around, chasing a buck. Disgusting.” Or you can take a broader view… look at all the times (defendant class) has injured people, and say “That’s not right. Someone should make them pay for what they’re doing to people! Oh, here come the lawyers. They’ll get justice for the victims.”
Actually, personal injury lawyers very rarely “win” cases. They are mostly settled out of court, because it is much more expensive to defend against a lawsuit than to just pay people to go away. You are visualizing courtrooms, judges, and jury boxes, when really you should be imaging an extortionist saying, “Nice business you have there. It’d be a shame if I had to drag you through months and months of expensive litigation…”
“The only cases they take are the ones where the person being sued has actually caused injury to the person doing the suing. ”
Not necessarily. They may only take cases where a jury can be convinced that the person being sued has actually cause injury — which is not the same thing at all.
Plus, as Mekisteus says, those cases where the defendant can be successfully extorted.
“Not necessarily. They may only take cases where a jury can be convinced that the person being sued has actually cause injury — which is not the same thing at all.”
There’s this thing called a “jnov”. Look it up.
I am guessing that happens only when the miscarriage of justice was blatant, not when a jury is wrongly swayed to hold someone responsible who wasn’t really responsible, because people in general have a skewed idea of responsibility these days.
Otherwise, there would never be successful lawsuits about kids falling off playground equipment unless the manufacturer was standing there pushing the kids off — because it’s not really their responsibility at all. Accidents happen.
“Otherwise, there would never be successful lawsuits about kids falling off playground equipment unless the manufacturer was standing there pushing the kids off — because it’s not really their responsibility at all. Accidents happen.”
That’s technically a different area of law… products liability. Product liability is strict liability. You can look that one up, too.
Hope? A sliver of hope? I’m almost afraid to believe it.