Bored mom surfs porn on school computers

The paper covered a story (can’t link, sorry) about a North Raleigh mom who’s upset that she was able to figure out a way around the school’s Internet content filters. Mom Carolyn Homan has launched a crusade against this vile material being accessible from school computers:

“Kindergarten computers have access to porn,” Homan said at Tuesday’s board meeting, as she held up photos of graphic images she said came from Brassfield’s computers. “Filters filter out only a few sites such as Playboy, leaving billions of explicit videos and sites.”

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Endless Adolescence

Remember two years ago when I mused about how American society really suffers from not having a clear-cut bestowal of adulthood? It seems I am not alone in that thought. I’m reading a good book by psychologists called Escaping the Endless Adolescence which addresses this very idea.

Authors Joseph and Claudia Worrell Allen are clinical psychologists who have noted how the endless postponement of the promise of adulthood has made teenagers feel powerless, leaving them increasingly unable to cope with providing for themselves. Once a very quick phase one lived through in one’s teens, adolescence now stretches well into the 20s and beyond.

Kelly and I make lots of mistakes in raising our kids; indeed, parenting is one of the hardest jobs anyone can take on. One thing we’ve tried to stress to our kids is the importance of being responsible for themselves. Whether those lessons do any good remains to be seen but we’ve always spoken to our kids with respect of their ability to make their own decisions. They get plenty of practice in making their own decisions and have learned much from it.

I’ve just started the book and can’t wait to read the rest. I am glad someone is taking a good, fresh look at this crucial part of growing up.

LED bulbs: a bright idea

The three or four regular MT.Net readers know of my long history of griping about CFL bulbs. I’m a greenie, don’t get me wrong, but aside from the handful of CFL bulbs I bought when they were first introduced in the market the CFLs I’ve had have fizzled depressingly quickly. The culprit? Cheap electronics.

Imagine my surprise today when I was wandering through Costco and saw an end-cap stacked with LED bulbs on sale. These bulbs are normally $15 apiece but a manufacturer’s instant rebate knocks them down to under $5! What’s more, this rebate runs through the rest of 2013!
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