Blame it on the parents.

Interesting few days. Julie is still barfy in the mornings and really fedup with it. Cannot blame her. Charlotte is amusing herself with various projects, such as counting to 10, waking up in the middle of the night and disintegrating polystarene.

TV has been unusually good. I didn't see the Dawkings programme yet, but did watch Life on Mars. Very dissorientating, but interesting. I bought the new Battlestar Galactica, and look forward to it.
I was at a meeting yesterday about the governments proposals in the changes in the licencing laws in Northern Ireland (see here). The basic gist is that "because of the peace process, more people want to drink for longer. This is good for the economy, and therefore we should have pubs open longer, a whole extra hour, untill 2pm. Afterall, this is what the tourists want." There were people there from mainly churches just discussing what this could mean, especially to young people and children, in relation not only to the age they start drinking (10 is not that shocking anymore), but where they get the drink from, older people, parents etc, and the issue of parents out drinking heavily, getting home to relieve a babysitter when they are in no condition to care for the hildren.
I got talking to a worker who has a young person now living is Scotland. All his life he had threats of "if you don't do this you will be expelled", "if you do not behave you will not get of this programme", "if you break the law one more time you will go to court", all of which became empty threats, because he did the things and was never held for the consequences. Now he left fleeing paramiliterys. He now wished he learnt the responsabilities of the actions. Nice that Tony is now thinking that way.
One of our boys called home for a lift this afternoon.
dial
"ma, pick me up"
cilck
In my day you would never of dare to do that. There is a real vacume of parenting skills in some homes, where adults have been duped by the myth that you only need love (which is bought, but don't get me started on that subject) and dicipline isn't needed.

Page turner prize

I managed to get a throat infection over Christmas so we didn't wander very much this last week. I did get to read a bit.
I finished 'State of fear' by Michael Crichton. Dealing with global warming and global terrorism, it has a pace style that keeps the page turning. I have read quite a few of Crichtons books over the years, and found this one the most preachy. He shows his views on global warming (see G W Bushes), with the main chariters job for the first half of the book to ask 'why?' and 'what?' a lot to get two more pages of explanation. The basic point is, don't believe in something just because everybody else does, but look into it. Good read, bad preaching.
I managed to finish 'Thud!' by Terry Pratchett. Following City Watch Commander SamVimes, trying to stop a war between Trolls and Dwarfs, dealing with a Vampire as a new recuit (due to the equal opportunities employment) and making it home ever night to read 'Where's my cow?' to his son at 6pm every day. Terrific writing, but the ending does go by in a blur. Dealing with priorities in life, as well as subtle nudges at current world events.
' I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League' is the follow up to 'Formerly Known as the Justice League'. Think less of action packed adventure and think more sit com with superheroes. Minor league heroes join together to be heroes for hire as 'Super Buddies'. These comics have divided the fandom. Those of us who read comics before 1994 will enjoy the nostalgia of it. Multipanelled pages, not full page splash; Pages filled with dialogue, not monologue; real life humor, compared to grim and gritty. Sad thing is, DC, in there, er, wisdom, has now killed off three of the main characters to appease the company wide crossover.
Hopefully 2006 will bring more good books. Just have to find them now.