You know, when foreigners complain about the crap we transmit around the world on satellite TV, they're not entirely mistaken.

Because they lack context, you just know they're going to assume that this is somehow normal for the US. Like 'Dallas' or 'Flamingo Road' are just so representative.

Or MTV.

Being the Nazi that I am, I actually think eugenics could be a good thing. (Quick! Someone file a lawsuit with the ACLU!)

As Scott Adams of Dilbert has said, it's easier to have a child than it is to apply for a pet license, driving license or gun license. It's a basic right to have children. No intelligence, ethics or financial-capability test is required.

But having kids is arguably the biggest responsibility - Parents are affecting their own lives, bringing a new life into their sphere of influence, and adding another headcount to the national economy/welfare/public support/voting system.

It's a Marching Morons dilemma that it is magnitudes easier to have a quickie than it is to raise a balanced, responsible, societally-contributing individual. Heck, even operating a condom isn't as easy apparently, or abortion clinics would have far less business!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Marching_Morons

Uh, given our evolutionary history, age 15 is about when women started having babies. For a long time 16 was the age of consent for marriage. In some places it was 14.

There is culture. There is genes. Sometimes the match up is not so good.

People will do stupid things. You will be asked for a "donation". Life is so unfair.

BTW the rich are starting to have more children. It is a status thing.

The question stands ... what is more likely to kill: A gun, a car or a poorly parented young adult.

You get 1 guess.

Rich parents can raise equally dysfunctional brats. I'm not sure money has much to do with the quality of parenting -- other than the ability to buy kids their way out of problems.

Anyway, I think I'll continue my head-in-the-sand approach to TV, and tell myself that people "just aren't like that."

The paradox, of course, is that the West is being outbred!

So, if this girl produced a baby, I guess I'd let her give birth, then take it away from her. (She already said she'd sell the baby, which indicates she's unfit to be a mom, and plenty of people are standing in line to adopt.)

Bear in mind that unfit dog owners lose their dogs, and are not allowed to adopt more. Shouldn't we treat human babies as humanely as we treat dogs?

Dysfunctional parenting produces some of our best artists.

Sad but true facts of life.

BTW we have managed to survive for millions of years without laws about who can procreate.

Of course there is always the Chinese model.

Dysfunction is the price of liberty.

The right to procreate is not the same thing as the right to raise a child, though.

How far do parental rights go? Do parents have the right to rent out their kids by the hour for sex?

Or is there no such thing as an unfit parent?

I'm ashamed of all of you, who seem rather smug in your parenting abilities and in your right to decide for others how they should do it.

Procreating is an inalienable right. Raising children as you see fit is also an inalienable right. We have ceded to the Nanny State that beating and other kinds of poor parenting are grounds for removal, but the level at which removal is triggered seems to be creeping.

How soon before teaching a child to swear or telling them dirty jokes is such a crime? Will making them work for less than the minimum wage be deemed abuse? How about forcing them to get a haircut -- or not forcing them to get a haircut?

This may seem like slippery-slope straw-manning, and I guess it is.

But keep in mind that showmen like Jerry Springer and Maury Povich carefully select and manipulate their gullible guests, then edit the final product to achieve the desired amount of sleaze and shock. Their goal is to make the goofs in the audience (i.e, us) know that somewhere, someone is a bigger goof than they are.

Loren, I'm against Nanny Statism for adults. But children and animals can't take care of themselves, and if adults who are charged with taking care of them don't, then they shouldn't have them. That's just what I think, and I'm not ashamed to think it.

(Of course, perhaps the age of majority should be lowered to 14 or 15.)

It should be required that you serve a leutenancy and a captaincy in order to qualify for a majority.

BTW we have managed to survive for millions of years without laws about who can procreate. - Eric

True, but until the advent of civilization, with its caring about the less fortunate and welfare state etc, poor parenting and general stupidity usually led to you not passing on your genes and your personal lifestyle habits.