Are our children truly in ominous danger?

Depends on where they live.

Perv pedophiles are everywhere, though. Plus, some kids get abducted in what seems to be the least likely town in the middle of nowhere.

But theres a higher likelihood of abduction in some areas

Where?

Crowded cities, as opposed to small towns where everyone knows each other

This is totally blown out of proportion. Actually, you stand a better chance of winning multiple state lotteries -- and I'm sure no one lives their lives as though they're about to win millions! Don't get me wrong, you should take precautions, but don't live life in fear. Let children be children. The odd thing is that abductions take place less often today than 30 years ago; however, the media broadcasts these immediately (saving many children in the process), and makes it appear to be a bigger threat than it truly is.

no, I don't think they're in more danger. I think we talk about it more. We dramatize it more.

I severly doubt it.

News Media is bullcrap!!!!!!!!!! Do yourself a favor, dont trust these dopes.

actually now that I think about it, the Media probably blows the chances of winning state lotteries as well, so mentioning that wont do you any good.

No, abductions are not more prevalent but media reporting of them is. It is possible that these fears are also tied to the parents' feelings of guilt over the miniscule amount of time they spend with their children. It would seem that it is typical today for both parents to work. People don't sit down together for meals regularly; instead they grab something and eat in front of the TV. Children are constantly involved in various organised activities. The parents probably spend more time driving their children to and from things than they do having conversations with them. Everyones going around with headphones on all the time, so they don't have to talk to anyone...

I believe that children are in some danger and parents should take precautions to protect them. But, I wouldn't say that children are in more danger than they were 20 years ago. Crimes against children have always been around and will probably always be around. I think they are just more widely reported now than they used to be.

I can't believe it!!! We actually agreed on something.

By overprotecting your child from life...you do the child a great disservice. Instead teach your children street smarts and then let them live.

Certainly

No they are not. A bit of over zealousness by the media - who love a good story. I mean, who wants a headline reading,
'Child plays in garden and nothing happens of interest
- read our exclusive report on pages 17-19'

Could I get a print copy of that article you provided (above)? I'd love to know more about what didn't happen!

Its a shocking revelation of what life is REALLY like in the heart of the UK.

Ha! I may write that article one day. Anyhoo - back to work. Its 9:45am in the UK and I've done 'nothing of interest'. I'm a headline waiting to happen.

A bit more, but it's still blown way out of proportion. The fear is perpetuating matters worsening by accepting that we can't allow kids to bike to the store for popsicles anymore rather than parents collectively ensuring that that's still reasonable and safe.

i think so...my husband said that he was allowed to go out and about by himself when he was quite young....his 7 yr old is a different story for she would talk to anyone anywhere....gave her a code word so to speak, her and her friend, to help prevent an abudction...

No, I think parents have just gotten overprotective.

Your media blow and lottery comment is a little disjointed. What are you trying to say?

No.If I had a child I would be afraid of the traffic,pointy objects,falls,mean children but not of him getting abducted or kidnapped.First almost every kid that finds himself in this situation has parents who are in the crime ambient themselves,or at least they have relationships with it,I don't and don't plan to marry someone who is,then there's a bunch of crazy women stealing babies,I will keep my baby close to me or with someone I trust,then there are the pedophiles,but really there are so many dangers for a child who are more common.

What's more common than child abductions, is children being molested. That's what some parent's don't look out for/protect kids from enough, in my opinion.

I'm not an illiterate idiot - but I still don't know - I think John Walsh (America's Most Wanted) said that abductions are increasing - but I'm not sure. And that's the states - I don't live there - our crimes are a little different.

everytime someone wins the lottery, they quickly run a story of the average joe that just won. this reineforces the idea that just any one of us could WIN the lotto, which I am also sure, skews our perception of the lottery and the chances of winning.

then he's probally full of crap.

dont beleive anything you hear on TV.

Sure. So many people are living their lives as though their the next Super Lotto winner.

Children should be allowed to carry pistols or stun-guns, as long as they don't use them on each other. There are no self-defense courses offered to children at our local police departments. Ex-weight-lifters or bored housewives may teach our children karate, but, so what?
Children should have miniature cam-cords attached to their clothing so parents can review the endless number of nameless faces children encounter everyday!!! Children are not physically stronger than they were in 1970, so the dangers they are faced with now leave them just as vulnerable as they were 30, 50, 100 years ago!!!

I blame the kiddie-porn sites on the Internet. (Sorry Zang, but someone had to say it.......)

I think there are more 'children against children' crimes due to the media (wrestle-mania, alone, is responsible for hundreds of injuries a year. As a former hospital ER, X-Ray tech, I know!)

In your case, the child SHOULD overprotect the parent!

Remember, Snake. Be brief ( to Dunkans comment). The LESS you can say...the better! No pros and cons. GIVE AN OPINION AND STICK TO IT!!!

I'm so happy to know you still care. I've been feeling left out the past few days without all your smart ass comments!

Last night I dropped a Mississippi Mud Pie on the kitchen floor, accidently stepped on it and smeared it all over the kitchen floor...and I suddenly thought of you!!!

Really? How sweet of you.

This afternoon, I stepped in a pile of steaming dog crap and immediately thought of you!!!

Isn't it great to know you're loved?

Did you have an alternative planned for dinner?

Yes, I have a fear of what the world will come to when these children are leading it!

I misread the question. I think this is unrealistic. I thougt it was about us destroying ourselves!

By typing it like this:

<font size=6> Type text here </font>

To make the text bold you need to put the whole thing between these tags.
<b> text </b>

I like. It like romper room. *whistles, stuffs hands in pockets, rolls away with eyes*

Yes, probably a little. I also think there is a lot more coverage in the media than there used to be. I think you have to teach your kids basic street smarts, but still allow them to be kids. I do know there were things I did as a kid that I probably wouldn't let any kid of mine do now. For instance, when I was 6 or 7, I was allowed to walk downtown by myself, go to the show, stay and see it twice, then walk home. Now, I wouldn't dream of dropping a 7 year old off at the mall by herself. I don't even know why. It just doesn't seem like a good idea. Maybe I am just too much of a worrier, so it is probably good that I have no kids.

Our society is out of whack, we act like children are more important than people. We've gone overboard with our protection of children.

Seriously? Anyway, whether your right or wrong - living in a world without child abductions is much better so I'll try to believe they don't happen much. Did you see "Bowling for Columbine" - Michael Moore's comment on Americans being fed garbage to keep them scared all the time?

I read some essay by Noam Chomsky about how the States is "Anti-child". he was mentioning all the policies that are against children - school underfunding, not providing/subsidizing child care, not providing help for underprivileged families, etc. He makes a better case than my poor memory can remember. But one thing that I think I sympathize with you on is I'm sick of people saying "oh the poor children" every time there's some tragedy and the adults are just as poorly off.

Did he suggest why? Perhaps it's anti-masses. Since the industrial age and information age, public life support is fairly automated. Educated children may grow up wishing to do something. Save those positions for the few with money for a private education to maintain their social niche. Many sci-fi utopian authors saw this coming a century ago. You don't dare teach carpentry in kindergarten anymore. The notion that people can do things for themselves is bad for the economy. Instead let's put advertisements in their textbooks.
It's a make-work society now. Personally I think we'd be better off going back to building victorian homes that require a year of diverse craftsmanship than employing everyone in law, security, telemarketing, and video game production; do something durable people can take pride in.
Are you a Pacifica listener? Voting for Kucinich?

Bill Maher (Comedian and pundit) thinks our culture has been Feminized (children more important than people, safety more important than fun, etc.)

Yes, I think there are more dangers today then in the 1970's, but you just see it a lot more on T.V. now and that blows it out of proprtion.

It works you just have to type it right.Look at the directions again.

yup, sure did. I think he was doing an interview with maryln manson at the time also. That probablly influenced me to make this comment is one way or the other, but I am a pretty much a cynical person to begin with.

btw: did you read kalleps comment on michael moore in forum. Sounds to me a lot like a case of "say it aint so"

You were closer the first time (at least the right sort of brackets). Your beginning command needs to be in a pair of brackets, and then you need a 'stop command' also enclosed in a pair of brackets which starts with a /. Your brackets were out of order, not in matched pairs, and contained things like commas.
Here is an example (substitute angle brackets for parentheses):
(b)Oh boy, bold letters. (font color='red')How neat!(/font)(/b)
Here's what that should like:
Oh boy, bold letters. How neat!
Notice that the start/end pair of 'red' commands was nested inside the pair of 'bold' commands. You can't rely on it working when command pairs aren't totally within another. (It's somewhat like proper usage of parentheses in english grammer)

To make things less confusing I prefer to throw in my angle bracket pairs first:
()()
Throw in my command stop /:
()(/)
Add my commands:
(b)(/b)
Then insert my text:
(b)Whew, finally.(/b)

You need to use these type of brackets.

< >

The are above your comma and period key.

Yes - Noam Chomsky is always on about instructing the masses about how we're being mislead, suppressed, brain-washed, etc. The movie that first taught me about Chomsky is called "Manufacturing Consent" - do you know about him/the movie? In an interview he said he would never watch the movie (I think because it would be a misrepresentation). Yes, what you wrote about craftsmanship is something I've been thinking about recently. here I am, getting a good education, coming out of a pretty good (I know it could be better) education in highschool - and for what? Tons of well-educated telemarketers, cashiers (that's me), etc. No outlet to apply our intelligence to. And not too much good craftsmanship around, is there? I don't know who/what Pacifica is - and I live in Canada so I don't know who Kucinich is either. But, I'd like to know.

Pacifica is a national network of local progressive stations which are big into peace, political, metaphysical, & a touch of jazz/blues/folk/etc. programming. They interview a lot of local and global society thinkers, and broadcast the things of global importance that even PBS and the BBC won't air, like the syrian UN speech which colin powell preempted. Kucinich is the only pro-peace US presidential candidate running. I send domestic & campaign strategies to his manager.
For a while, i thought I had security being one of the computer programmers who wrote software to write programs. These days there are a few $200/hr programmers and a wasteland of $15/hr programmers looking for work elsewhere, or other continents. In LA, schools probably churn out 4000 computer grads/yr, and the papers offer 40 new programming jobs/yr.

No, I just think child abductions are getting more media coverage than before.

Is there some kind of "list" that shows all the changes you can do (font, text, color, etc...)here? I see what you've given out poor jailbird friend and wonder how one obtains these instructions.

http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/reference/html_cheatsheet/
is my favourite

Where? In the USA? Or Iceland? Or Bangladesh?

B A D

Thank you Dino! All of these instructions will apply to SC, or do I have to "sign-up" for anything?

Nergens landen !!

I don't know if it's more prevalent, but I definitely think the fear is blown out of proportion.

You should pick up a better dictionary!

There's such a thing as not being careful enough, though. I have neighbors that leave the house until the late hours, and allow their kids to roam the neighborhood until 10:00pm. I've seen them out there past 11 before. It's one thing to be too careful, but I think it's worse to not be careful enough. How many people really want their kids to be roaming around after most of the working family folks have gone to bed? Who is looking out for them?!

No just use them here. Some of the stuff about frames and other technical stuff won't work - they're for web-designers stuff. But for making letters bold or different colour then use the tags either side of your text.

<b>testing testing </b>

testing testing

The people they are annoying.

I'm arbeidstijdverkorting on it.
(I know that doesn't make any sense, either)

I wonder if they even check on the kids to see if they are in their rooms at1:00am or whenever they come home. They could be outside hurt or something, and the parents wouldn't know until the next morning.

Maybe they tell the kids, "As long as you're out late, bug some adults so at least someone is keeping an eye on you"....

That's probably true during the day though "go play at so-n-so's house til we get back"

I don't think they're in more danger from abducters than in the 70s, but maybe in more danger than when cars were less common. It's harder to abduct a child unnoticed without a car.

Children are in most danger from their parents, be they abducted, killed, abused or even denied vaccinations (I have a bee in my bonnet today, sorry).

Mostly it seems to be custody related abduction that is happening now. The AMBER Alert system may make a difference.

Did you know, in Alaska every kid can get medical insurance? All a parent has to do is apply for it. This insurance will cover all vaccinations needed to enter school, yet we have a HUGE percentage of unvaccinated and under-vaccinated kids. Do you suppose these parents are just too lazy to apply?

I think we had like four vaccinations whenI was a kid. I hear they happen nearly yearly now. I've also heard of communities outlawing pollenous plants. At this rate people will soon evolve to have very little natural immune system working. Those people may not want vaccinations.

I thought of that, but I would think it would be a small minority with that view. You need vaccinations to get into school. I wonder if there are that many kids not attending regular school here. I know Alaskans tend to be individualistic, but I wouldn't have imagined it to be to that extent. I saw a map that had color codes for each state. The deeper the red, the more kids un- or under-vaccinated. we were about in the middle. That would seem normal for a state whose kids aren't all insured, but with Denali Kid Care, I thought there would be more insured kids here than other places.

It's probably more the vac's than the insurance. Many social programs lack visibility. People don't know they're there to apply for. For helping the desperate, that works contrary to what's needed. Most of people who can do the research, figure out the beauacracy, make the social connections, do'nt need to be on wefare in the first place. I think more though, it comes down to the desperate running into advocates who can help with these nearly covert opportunities for them. I doubt Denali kid care is that covert though.

It would be interesting to know exactly what it is.

Possibly, or just not educated enough to realise the good that vaccinations do, or the danger of the diseases they are being vaccinated against.

"At this rate people will soon evolve to have very little natural immune system working"

What does that mean when it's at home?

When what's at home?

Not a phrase you have in the US? It just means "What's that's supposed to mean?" and generally suggests doubt or cynicism on the part of the person saying it

I believe having a healthy constitution involves putting oneself at slight contamination risks, and that people who attempt living in sterile bubbles end up with some drastic illness anyhow.
and no, it's not a phrase here.

Ah - that makes sense. I agree entirely. Children should be allowed to play in the dirt and eat mud

YEAH

Most people that are abducted are taken by non-custodial parents wanting to see their kids. Crime rates have actually dropped some recently, but the news covers more. I have never experienced any ill will from a stranger. Am I going to take midnight strolls down dark alleys? Of course not. However, it's ridiculous that a kid won't say hi to me, an eight grader, because they can't talk to strangers.

I take 3am strolls with my cats down the dark alleys, best time to see the stars, then we stroll down the street to smell neighbors roses at the front fence. I met one neighbor who stays up all night planting all commercial sidewalk gardens on the next block.
Have you ever noticed how you can be totally comfortable walking in your own neighborhood, but nervous in one that's just as good/bad that you're unfamiliar with? People pick up on the vibes of whethar you belong somewhere or not. I've decided the world is my neighborhood.

I think this area is pretty safe. It's certainly been an area to be considered a "hot spot" because of its central location, which - seemingly - has only recently been realized.
However...you must have been visited as well by the policemen about a month ago when a guy was shot in the head, on my block! Some gangster was hanging in this neighborhood recently (big ol' guy, they say) because he was waiting for an ex-girlfriend to come home to her mother, supposedly. One night, I was driving home from work and got blocked by about five cruisers. The next day, cops came by with fliers on the incident. They were pretty graphic in the description of the crime - told us two guys were working on a car in that alleyway, the guy approached them, took one in a headlock and shot at the other guy as he ran away (missed him) then shot the guy in the headlock dead. The shooter fled up my street.
They've had a makeshift memorial for the guy at that spot in the alleyway. Last weekend, I was standing at it, looking at the many candles encased in glass lit for him and noticed that the yellow pole right at this spot had gangster graffiti written on it. I went home and came back with yellow(ish) paint and painted over it. Got jolted to death by a woman watching me when she said, "Thanks for that."
Were you not visited by the cops recently about that? In any case, you had to notice the cruisers hanging around here for a long while afterward. They wanted this guy badly, I imagine.

Didn't even know, no indications. Intuitively, the subject had been on my mind a bit though.

Danger is much like child abuse. I feel that neither of these has really increased, only that we've become more aware of them due to increased reporting from various media sources.