Tag: parenting

Are the Republicans Having a Trantrum?

On By southwerkIn Editorial

I thought this was deliciously funny: a discussion of the government shutdown as an exercise in parenting. It’s just priceless. Please read the whole article!

James Pilant

How to handle the Republican tantrum: What advice do parenting guides have for Democrats?

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/10/04/how_to_handle_the_republican_tantrum_what_advice_do_parenting_guides_have.html

Do not reward the tantrum. As WikiHow explains, “If you allow yourself to be held hostage by tantrums, your child will continue to use them long past the age when they would otherwise cease.” Giving into this Republican tantrum means they will continue to look for every opportunity to hold the government or the economy hostage to extract further demands. As any parent knows, no matter how tempting it is to give them what they want to shut them up, you’ll just be paying for it down the line.

Explain to the child that you will talk to him or her when he or she calms down. Let Eric Cantor tweet as many petulant pictures as he wants of himself and his fellow tantrum-throwers demanding attention, but let it be known there will be no discourse until the tantrum is over and a reasonable federal budget is passed.

Avoid trying to reason with any child who is in the middle of a full-blown tantrum, especially in a public place. There will be many attempts by cable news%2

via How to handle the Republican tantrum: What advice do parenting guides have for Democrats?.

Cross Stitches (via Achilles & Aristotle)

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

Here we are talking about Montaigne again! (I discussed another Montaigne blog post a week or so ago.) There is always an undercurrent of classicism in the United States. I have been a fan of Mortimer J. Adler and the Great Books project since I was 14 and read his masterpiece, How to Read a Book. Years later when the book was put in the discards, I bought it for a few cents and it is still a part of my library.

I like and appreciate this kind of talk, this kind of reading. Once these deep waters are explored, a person’s thoughts are never quite the same. I remember Adler talked about this and he said that after you have read great books you never need to fear boredom when you are alone. I think that’s true.

This fellow writes intelligent essays. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it as much as I do.

James Pilant

Cross Stitches I’ve subscribed to Montaigne’s Essais on dailylit.com which breaks him up into comparatively bitesized chunks. Still the discovery that there are 426 daily episodes to look forward to sometimes feels a long haul. I’m up to episode 62. Some days I skim him, some days I ignore him completely. But sometimes he discusses something with himself, in his meandering way, which speaks to my own day. Whenever I’m close to cancelling my daily dose of Montai … Read More

via Achilles & Aristotle