I loved the ideas and enthusiasm of Lenore Skenazy when I first heard her. She sharply criticizes helicopter parenting. She labels her approach: "Free range parenting." Actually, lots of overlap here with this talk by "Humans of New York" author, Brandon Stanton.
This is an interview with Laura Poitras regarding her early contacts with Edward Snowden. Excellent background and a peak into Poitras' thought process.
As one who is finding helicopter parents increasingly annoying, I appreciated the many good points made by this article by Tim Elmore. Here is his take home:
Bottom line? Your child does not have to love you every minute. He’ll get over the disappointment of failure but he won’t get over the effects of being spoiled. So let them fail, let them fall, and let them fight for what they really value. If we treat our kids as fragile, they will surely grow up to be fragile adults. We must prepare them for the world that awaits them. Our world needs resilient adults not fragile ones.
At The Nation, Greg Mitchell has compiled a long list of things that we know, thanks to the efforts of Bradley Manning, nka Chelsea Manning. It's a long and important list for which Manning sacrificed many years of liberty and suffered torture at the hands of the United States government. As someone who hates being lied to, I am thankful for the efforts of Manning. Here is a small excerpt from the list: • Yemeni president lied to his own people, claiming his military carried out air strikes on militants actually done by the US. All part of giving US full rein in country against terrorists. • Details on Vatican hiding big sex abuse cases in Ireland. • US tried to get Spain to curb its probes of Gitmo torture and rendition. • Egyptian torturers trained by FBI—although allegedly to teach the human rights issues. • State Dept. memo: US-backed 2009 coup in Honduras was “illegal and unconstitutional.”
The Washington Post reports on the Pope's recent writing on economic policy:
In the first lengthy writing of his papacy — also known as an "apostolic exhortation" — Francis says such economic theories naively rely on the goodness of those in charge and create a "tyranny" of the markets. "In this context, some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world," the pope wrote. "This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting."