Signs of a bad babysitter

Your child has frequent bumps and scrapes

Sure, kids will be kids, so don’t panic at the first sight of a scraped knee. But if accidents start to become a frequent occurrence, it could be a sign that your babysitter is not keeping a watchful eye on your children.

Your babysitter is doubling as social chair

You come home early or make a surprise pop-in to find your babysitter has invited friends over without your permission. Or perhaps she’s busy talking on the phone while your kids are in the other room unattended. Either way, the primary focus of a good babysitter should always be your kids – socializing should take place on their own time.

Your babysitter has an Internet alter-ego

Today’s younger generation is very in touch with social media, from MySpace to Facebook. Sure your babysitter will do her best to make a good impression on you, but it never hurts to do your homework. Although profiles on social media sites are often private, it is worth taking a look at places like MySpace and Facebook to see if your potential sitter has a page. At the very least it gives you insight into their personality and interests – and in the worst cases, if the content of their profile raises a red flag, you can respectfully look at other options.

Your child begs you to stay

Getting used to a new babysitter takes time, and kids will naturally miss Mom and Dad, but if you child is regularly upset or angry over the prospect of being left at home with a babysitter – there is likely an underlying issue. Remember, as much as you may like someone, it’s even more important that your kids do too.

Obama as the first black president?

Bill Clinton. We've been calling him that for years. He's apparently been hearing it. Because he has approached his campaign against Barack Obama in the manner of a person who has no fears of being misunderstood and slapped with a race card violation . Now he is accused of just such an offense. Maybe he got too familiar and forgot to respect the painful lens through which African Americans often hear criticism. Or maybe he knew he was flirting with danger, but felt he was well enough loved to be given a pass. Or, and this is radical, maybe he was battling an opponent without regard to ethnicity , not as a Black contender around whom he must tread carefully so as not to stir up any thoughts of race. But surely Bill Clinton is savvy enough to realize that the race card is always hovering above the table, if not actually in play. Perhaps it was a calculated tip of the hand to remind voters of the pitfalls that await a Black candidate, if not to remind them that Obama is African American. Whatever his intentions, Bill Clinton has been branded as the campaign criminal who "injected Race into the race" , so everthing he says and does might now be judged with a pre-concieved bias instead of on it's merits. Maybe he really is Black.

Spring Time!

Spring training starts this week with pitcher's and catcher's reporting. Woo-hoo! That means warmer weather is around the corner (right?) and baseball will be back in full swing soon. It's been a pretty dismal winter so far, and not just because of the snow and cold. The Bulls have been disappointing and hampered by injuries to key players...same goes for the Blackhawks, though I believe the best is yet to come for that young team...area college basketball teams aren't exactly lighting it up...inconsistent at best. The Bears season ended far too early...so we're left with looking forward...to baseball.

But will baseball ever be the same again if Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee continue their very public he-said, he-said battle? At this point, it's difficult to believe either of them, and what good is this doing anyway? To prove to kids that it's not good to use steroids or human growth hormone? That cheating is wrong? That's the reason Congress is using to investigate the issue. And haven't children already learned that? I'm not sure what the benefit can be other than to ruin one's reputation forever, be it McNamee or Clemens. Enough on that...at least baseball is giving us some conversation pieces.

Politics

I've always been intensely interested in American politics and government, as far back as I can remember. Before I came to college, I based my sense of American history and, thus, of patriotism and morality on what other people told me about American history. When I came to college, however, I was no longer able to assert the same beliefs as I had previously without proving the points myself, which required an extensive examination of the words and actions of the Founders themselves. What I found in my examination absolutely blew me away; everything that I had always been told was conservative was liberal, and everything that I had always been told was liberal was, in fact, conservative.

I believe that free market capitalism, at its most fundamental, is anti-democratic and is therefore anti-American. To explain this point, I offer the following excerpt: "Democracy both recognizes the right of the individual to use his powers to the utmost, and encourages him to do so by offering a fair field and, in case of success, an abundant reward. The democratic principle requires an equal start in the race, while expecting at the same time an unequal finish...Americans who talk in this way seem wholly blind to the fact that under a legal system which holds private property sacred there may be equal rights, but there cannot possibly be any equal opportunities for exercising such rights. It would be absurd to claim that, because all the rivals toed the same mark, a man's victory or defeat depended exclusively on his own efforts. Those who have enjoyed the benefits of wealth and thorough education start with an advantage which can be overcome only by very exceptional men - men so exceptional, in fact, that the average competitor without such benefits feels himself disqualified for the contest." The above quote is an excerpt from The Promise of American Life, written in 1911 by American political scientist Herbert Croly. It completely articulates the ambiguities posed by the pairing of capitalism with democracy; as Croly suggested, the two are philosophically opposed.