Mitt Romney the Bully

Mitt Romney participated in a few pranks in high school as did many of us and the right has the view that these things don't matter to becoming President.  The difference is that Mitt did was assault in the case of the hair cut incident and classic bullying in the rest of his pranks.  This and the fact that years later (after all of the studies on the effects of bullying) he still laughs them off are what disqualifies him to be President.  This bulllying behavior has long lasting effects on the victims and in this case on all of the perpetrators except one, Mitt Romney.  The only thing about this that might qualify him to be President is that he was able to lead a bunch of people to help him hold this kid down and give him a haircut.  That is really a sad comentary.

Guns in School

So, a Wisconsin girl was arrested last week for bringing a concealed weapon to school. Why isn't the right in an uproar? Sure she broke the law, no permit. But that law is wrong, if you are going to allow open carry with no permit why require one for concealed? What about the expansive "castle doctrine" that is being debated now. Under this thinking there would be no way that guns could be banned from schools. This is an institution that causes many to fear for their lives. That is part of the point of the movie Bully, fortunately saner minds prevailed and the rating was reduced to PG-13 (and that might be too high). This girl was apparently being harassed and had hoped that just showing the gun would make people stop. No instead we are going to punish the victim. The bullies should be the ones going to jail. Hopefully she'll get off without having to go to jail. Of course, she'll never be able to attend that school again and given the press she might have a hard time finding another school. She'll probably be forced to go to either a private school or to an online school. Which I see as a problem if her parents do not have the means to pay for her education. We say that children are entitled to a public education but the reality is that due to the behavior of a minority of students with the tacit approval of other students and faculty many students are either outright denied this education or wind up with a poor education because they don't fit in which makes learning difficult. This bullying behavior can have long lasting effects on some of the bullied. Hopefully this girl can turn this around and become successful.