FB: Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Klopenhiemer]

Alcohol and cigarettes are held to way high of a regard in the United States.  My only point in this issues is this.  I have many close friends that are European and grew up most of their lives in Europe before moving to the United States.  They laugh at how big of a deal we make of these two items.  To them, they are merely social devices.  Go to the pub, have a smoke and a pint and call it night.  BTW:  They all smoke "cowboy killers" Marlboro Reds.  Funny how we view what they think is elementary. 

[DutchFan2004]

Alcohol and cigarettes are held to way high of a regard in the United States.  My only point in this issues is this.  I have many close friends that are European and grew up most of their lives in Europe before moving to the United States.  They laugh at how big of a deal we make of these two items.  To them, they are merely social devices.  Go to the pub, have a smoke and a pint and call it night.  BTW:  They all smoke "cowboy killers" Marlboro Reds.  Funny how we view what they think is elementary. 

One thing to ask them but I believe that most of those countries in Euorpe you can not drive a car till 18 or 21 either.  That makes a huge difference in this equation.  I have known many exchange students from Europe and they to have that attitude but one from Germany told me that if kids drived over there they would have to raise the drinking age there or there would be no kids left as they would all be in car wrecks. 

[Purple Heys]

[rant]

I say 18 primarily because I am indescribably tired of the infantalization of our society.  Alexander joined his old man on the battlefield at 16, killed him off about 4 years later, had conquered half the world by 24 and was weeping a couple years after that because the job was done.  And we call 18 year old adults "kids".  They are not.  They are men and women and they should both be treated as adults and expected to behave like them as well.

[/rant]

Top speed of an elephant: 25 mph; horse: 40-45 mph

Automobile:  105 mph (avg)

Teenagers thoughout the ages consider themselves invisible and bulletproof(arrowproof).

Today's speeds are lethal; yesteryear's, generally, were not.

Plus the animal adding some intelligence to collision avoidance system.

[Klopenhiemer]

Alcohol and cigarettes are held to way high of a regard in the United States.  My only point in this issues is this.  I have many close friends that are European and grew up most of their lives in Europe before moving to the United States.  They laugh at how big of a deal we make of these two items.  To them, they are merely social devices.  Go to the pub, have a smoke and a pint and call it night.  BTW:  They all smoke "cowboy killers" Marlboro Reds.  Funny how we view what they think is elementary. 

One thing to ask them but I believe that most of those countries in Euorpe you can not drive a car till 18 or 21 either.  That makes a huge difference in this equation.  I have known many exchange students from Europe and they to have that attitude but one from Germany told me that if kids drived over there they would have to raise the drinking age there or there would be no kids left as they would all be in car wrecks. 

Good point but think about one thing.  Europe is roughly the size of the NE USA.  They do not have the open road system that we have or the infastrucutre to support that amount of drivers.  I think the driving age is more reflective of the amount of population they have in a smaller space with less infastructure. 

[OzJohnnie]

[rant]

I say 18 primarily because I am indescribably tired of the infantalization of our society.  Alexander joined his old man on the battlefield at 16, killed him off about 4 years later, had conquered half the world by 24 and was weeping a couple years after that because the job was done.  And we call 18 year old adults "kids".  They are not.  They are men and women and they should both be treated as adults and expected to behave like them as well.

[/rant]

Top speed of an elephant: 25 mph; horse: 40-45 mph

Automobile:  105 mph (avg)

Teenagers thoughout the ages consider themselves invisible and bulletproof(arrowproof).

Today's speeds are lethal; yesteryear's, generally, were not.

Plus the animal adding some intelligence to collision avoidance system.

Gaugamela:  Well over 100,000 Persians against 47000 Greeks.  End result?  Well over 50000 dead Persians and barely 100 dead Greeks.  The moral of the story?  Don't ride elephants.

[Mr. Ypsi]

[rant]

I say 18 primarily because I am indescribably tired of the infantalization of our society.  Alexander joined his old man on the battlefield at 16, killed him off about 4 years later, had conquered half the world by 24 and was weeping a couple years after that because the job was done.  And we call 18 year old adults "kids".  They are not.  They are men and women and they should both be treated as adults and expected to behave like them as well.

[/rant]

Top speed of an elephant: 25 mph; horse: 40-45 mph

Automobile:  105 mph (avg)

Teenagers thoughout the ages consider themselves invisible and bulletproof(arrowproof).

Today's speeds are lethal; yesteryear's, generally, were not.

Plus the animal adding some intelligence to collision avoidance system.

Gaugamela:  Well over 100,000 Persians against 47000 Greeks.  End result?  Well over 50000 dead Persians and barely 100 dead Greeks.  The moral of the story?  Don't ride elephants.

Tell that to the 50-70,000 Romans slaughtered by Hannibal at Cannae!   (And, yes, the Carthaginians were vastly outnumbered that day.)

The moral of the story?  Don't mock elephants!

[Mr. Ypsi]

And we call 18 year old adults "kids".  They are not.  They are men and women and they should both be treated as adults and expected to behave like them as well.

When I was at my son's college orientation, I sat there laughing to myself as one Nervous Nellie parent after another asked incredulous administrators about how the school enforced curfews, conducted bed checks, and otherwise regulated the behavior of the helicopter parents' emancipated adult children.

OxyBob

I taught college for 32 years.  I always treated them as adults, and insisted on it from them.  A disturbing number, alas, were definitely 'kids'.

As a parent, it is a much more gray area - my almost-20-year-old is still in many ways a 'kid' to me (and probably will be 'til I die!), though I keep hectoring him to be an 'adult' financially, getting a doctor (his pediatrician has cut him loose!), etc.

[Sabretooth Tiger]

That's a good theory and all but I'm not buying it.  So if we lower the drinking age to 18 does that intice younger than 18 to drink? 

For what it's worth, the initiative that the college president's signed is not advocating for lowering the age, but rather for the reasoned discussion on whether to do so.

tooth

[EastCoastStag]

One's behavior in college, decisions to drink, etc. are a reflection of the character of the "kid / young adult", which stems from his upbringing and character (which is a result of his immediate and extended family, close family friends, and friends - although these, one could say are selected as a result of interests / values instilled in said "young adult" by the aforementioned characters). If a "young adult" is raised with an understanding of excess, and has been shown wise decision making by family and friends, then he will understand his limits, rarely exceed them and take responsibility for the times he does not. This is a generalization. However, this is something which, for the most part, holds true among all my close friends - even if their backgrounds are extremely conservative or extremely liberal - all have been raised to understand appropriate behavior and their limits.

95% of everyone drinks in college regardless of age. The problem is not the drinking age... so much as it is the teaching of appropriate behavior. If Billy's mommy and daddy pound a 6 pack apiece every night, then Billy is not being taugh appropriate behavior at home; if Suzie decides to sleep with another guy even while in a commited relationship, then Suzie needs new girlfriends and a new mommy to stop encouraging her to engage in such slutty behavior; so on and so forth. Junior running off to college and doing a coffee table of blow and 2 bottles of vodka in his first weekend is not the college's fault alone - it is his parents, his friends and the college's fault; but the blame should land first and foremost at home. Unfortunately, the vast majority of parents just aren't prepared or even more - involved in their kids' lives and working to set desireable examples. Go ahead and cast the stones on me folks, but truth be told, I've had this opinion ever since before college.... watching kids drink themselves through HS on their way to being townies. Does being an overprotective parent work? No... ha, hell no. Those parents are naive or just foolish. Which, is as poor preparation for a kid going off to college as a kid who observes his parents failing to engage in self-restraint.

Do we all cut loose? Yep! Is it ok? Yep. Is doing it every weekend necessary? Nope. Did I? Yes! Did I consume several thousand dollars of alcohol last weekend and still have a hangover on Monday afternoon? Yes. Was it foolish? Yes.
Point being, outside of my very rare occasion of stupidity - do my best to engage in behavior which is appropriate and responsible. And, I choose to surround myself with similar people.

I understand the concerns of parents. But, at the same time, if the kid has been raised well, he will be responsible. We cannot control those around us who continually make poor decisions. That is unfortunate, but true. But, at the end of the day, it is not the drinking age, etc that really matters.... but, I forget the origin of this (but I know it has some political connotations connected to it as of the last decade or so, but please, lets keep politics off of the board) - back on point - character matters.

I have no doubt that just about everyone here is someone of high character... so let's not worry about this issue. Let's worry about making sure we examples of appropriate behavior.

Ok, and forgive me if this fails to make sense, rambles, etc.
But, after 36 consecutive hours of work...... I'm not churning out my best material. fortunately, Excel is much easier to handle at 1am, than actual thought.

[EastCoastStag]

And... camp has kicked off? Correct here folks?
Has everyone been hydrating hydrating and hydrating?
What's the skinny? Anyone been attending practices?
Hopefully I can get a CMS camp report sometime soon
(insert attempt by Redlands poster, specifically RFB, at witty CMS insult having something to do with either HS teams or Scrippsies).

[Fear the Poet]

we plan on hovering over practice in our Helicopter tonight.

[DAW]

we will  then land on top of the dorm room after practice so I can make LR's bed, clean his room and make sure he brushes his teeth before Ni-night

we plan on hovering over practice in our Helicopter tonight.

[scandihoovian]

OK, FTP.  Just make sure the rotor wash doesn't mess with the rubber infill on that beautiful new field    From the online photos it looks like the remodel came out nicely.

As for the pregame kegger for the CLU-Willamette game, try this park.  Not usually a site of tailgating action, but CLU students have polished off their share of kegs in it.

[Gray Fox]

What's that sound I hear? Oh, it's just a couple of helicopter parents.

OxyBob

Lucy and Ricky,

OB had to use the helicopter sound effect because he couldn't find one of Shoes being tied.

[Gray Fox]

They just put some Olympic horse jumping on TV.  Four horses have been disqualified  from the finals because of use of a banned substance.