Why The Lower House Sucks Reason #652

One reason why I don't have a single political blog in my blogroll is that I think politics is just too easy to write about. Being able to rant about local politics only requires a newspaper and a pulse, so I try to stay away from the topic as much as possible.

But of course there are exceptions.

Ladies and gents, I present to you House Bill 652, the nationwide emofication bill.

Basically, the bill just says hitting kids for whatever reason is a crime punishable by law. These people want smacking kids around for being wrong illegal.

I know.

I had that kind of reaction too.

I think I've already made my case before that being spared from childhood beating makes a kid crooked.

If you're too lazy to backread, my point is just this. Positive reinforcement works if you're starting from a negative point. I.e. a kid who is homeless will find the reward of not sleeping in the streets an effective motivation to not sniff rugby. A dog who just eats bones will be most likely swayed by positive reinforcement involving steak. Kids that grow up in suburban homes surrounded by wanton luxuries, however, are not amicable to these things. Like if you already have a shitton of XBox360 games, being promised more games in exchange for good behavior is NOT a good motivation.

No. If a kid grows up in a positive environment, the most effective way to offset bad behavior is through negative reinforcement. And the best way to provide negative reinforcement is one that appeals to a person's most natural instincts - conditioned response.

Contrasts between what you have and what you'll be getting can set behavior better and this effective way of setting kids straight so they don't live their lives wondering why they became washouts who can't even get a stable job or hold a coffee mug without dropping it because of the cuts in their arms.

Now here's the question. WHY ARE OUR LAWMAKERS FUSSING OVER SOMETHING THAT SHOULD BE THE DOMAIN OF AREA EXPERTS LIKE PSYCHOLOGISTS AND OH I DONT KNOW, REAL PARENTS WHO DON'T HAVE YAYAS TO TAKE CARE OF THEIR KIDS?!

I swear to god, if congress wasn't so damn entertaining, I'd have long considered them to be a very very bad waste of perfectly good money.

And oxygen.

Oh wait.