House of Eratosthenes

That makes two, for me, counting the hands-free requirement that goes into effect Tuesday. I’ll back up the nanny-state goo-gooders again here. All those of you who’ve said I’m “locked in” to my viewpoints on things, take note, I can be flexible if things make enough sense…

Under new regulations, parents who are asked by the organisers of a children’s sports team to take other children to sports fixtures like football or cricket matches will have to be vetted.
:
The new rules are part of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 and are due to come into force from October next year at the same time as a new Independent Safeguarding Authority to vet adults.

I was wondering about this when my bicycling experience was tapped to teach the cub scouts how to hit those trails. Yes I get checked out when my registration is complete…but…I can lead these kids into the woods on bicycles? Sure, I’m the dad of one of ’em, but other than that what do you know about me?

It’s not the kind of thing where “if you do nothing wrong you have nothing to worry about.” I had the hair go up on the back of my neck, in particular, when one of the littler ones straggled and I had to go chasing off after him. It gets a guy to thinking: This is a fairly commonplace thing. I’m me. What of the other guys who are put in this situation, who aren’t me? Are they all parents? What if a couple of them are “That Weird Uncle So-And-So” who’s taking the family’s little tyke to the bike meet, whom the parents are just sure is alright…everyone else is sure because the parents are sure…

Like I said. When you’re a parent, the mind wanders. Yes, if you have a virtual stranger around other people’s kids, you ought to know something. I would hope it wouldn’t be a controversy.

Professor Frank Furedi, whose “Licensed to hug?” report for thinktank Civitas this week triggered a debate about the use of Criminal Records Bureau checks, said he knew of parents who have been rebuked for taking too many children to matches without being vetted.

He said: “I have talked to people who were reprimanded for taking three to four boys to football training. They were told they should have spoken to the manager.

“People can drive their own children to matches – but to drive four kids to the same match you should get CRB-checked.”

Makes sense to me. And it seems they got that far without doing it this way in uber-nanny-state Britain, no less. Whod’ve thought it.

Update: Regarding that other nanny-state thing, the hands-free deal. My thoughts are pretty much the same as what they were two years ago — except, as of now, I have in fact successfully trained myself to avoid texting. With considerable but not insurmountable difficulty.

Frank Drews. David Strayer. William Johnson. As of today, those are the only names I have found behind “all these studies that say” that hands-free devices fail to make driving safer. I continue to be told there are all these studies that say it’s the conversation that distracts the driver and not the physical presence of a hand-held device pressed up against the face. Those “studies” are attempting to assert a physical impossibility — when holding a device up to the ear, I cannot change lanes, and neither can you. And, furthermore, to the best I can determine, those “studies” are just being cranked out over and over again by three people. For reasons I don’t know, and don’t really care to find out because it doesn’t matter.

It’s a bunch of baloney. Two hands are better than one, and the discussion ends there.

Having said that, I do agree that the root of the problem is an exaggerated sense of self-importance because out of a hundred calls coming in to your cell phone, only one or two are important enough that it makes sense to take ’em while you’re driving…hands-free device, or no. By that I mean, someone is in the emergency room, and it’s somebody you didn’t know was in the emergency room before you took the call.

Here in NorCal, people take a hundred calls out of a hundred. About stupid crap.

“Get milk on the way home” doesn’t cut it. Sorry, it just doesn’t. If you weren’t planning to get groceries on the way home as of that morning, you don’t need to pick ’em up tonight. If you were, and something got left off your list, call the missus after you park the car at the store. If you’re worried that by the time you get there, she might have her phone turned off or she might otherwise be unavailable…you know what? She doesn’t really want the damn milk!

So shut up & drive.

S+ = F-
- vanderleun | 06/28/2008 @ 12:02
You’re supposed to be sleeping.
- mkfreeberg | 06/28/2008 @ 12:28
I AM SLEEPING….. QUIET PLEASE….. OR ELSE!
- vanderleun | 06/28/2008 @ 13:06

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Backing the Nanny State…AGAINSaturday, June 28th, 2008

Backing the Nanny State…AGAIN
Saturday, June 28th, 2008