Teddy Bloggie Blog Blogging

As I celebrate the day watching and listening to fireworks, I feel as though the most patriotic among us keep their feelings to themselves and the ones who could care less talk the talk. To illustrate that idea is a timely and important editorial in the Army Times:

Army Times - Community - Military Families

In recent months, President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress have missed no opportunity to heap richly deserved praise on the military. But talk is cheap — and getting cheaper by the day, judging from the nickel-and-dime treatment the troops are getting lately.

For example, the White House griped that various pay-and-benefits incentives added to the 2004 defense budget by Congress are wasteful and unnecessary — including a modest proposal to double the $6,000 gratuity paid to families of troops who die on active duty. This comes at a time when Americans continue to die in Iraq at a rate of about one a day...

Brett recently reminded me of how all our high school friends are "dropping like flies". Of course, by this he means that everyone's getting married and having kids, or, are unmarried and have kids. Wayne's talking about his friend in Oregon with three kids. Angie's on her third marriage. Tina, Kyndal, and Holy, three inseparable high school friends, are now all moms, something of a trifecta. I'm 24, so they have to be about my age. There's something unsettling in thinking about how everyone's getting married and having children, partly because the last time I saw many of them was in high school. They're still smoking and drinking and staying up till 4am in my mind. It's got to be a huge energy-sapping responsibility to raise a little human. I couldn't do it. I'm not even reliable enough to water the lawn everyday. That's why there are sprinklers. There should be baby sprinklers.

Meanwhile, the statistics tell us that the U.S. birth rate is at an all time low, it was 13.9 per 1,000 persons in 2002.

Oh well, here's to escaping the madness. And there's definitely some madness in growing up in life-defining leaps and responsibility ushering bounds. And it definitely crosses some options off your list once you're a mom or a dad. Can't really take a solo trip to any place that ends in -stan for about 18yrs. Have to rethink riding motorcycles without life insurance. No working day and night to get ahead in your career (though this might be a plus). Not easy in any case.

I noticed one thing in all these conversations: those who get married and have kids are more often those people who stay in the place that they grew up. Maybe they're the ones who gave up on solo trips to afghanistan or tadzhikistan. In labor economics, there are studies about how college delays family life (but there could be self selection going on, whereby the people who want to have kids aren't going to college so college isn't a cause, it's just correlation). There's also a huge selection bias in my observation since I'm mostly going on information from people I've grown up with. Anyone with anecdotal evidence of the opposite?

Just so you don't misunderstand and think I'm totally negative about the subject, I can see the counter-argument too: the miracle of childbirth, the genetic programming in our hormone filled blood, and the life enriching experience. On balance though, I don't get it. In my harshest moments, it seems like giving up. I think that's why squids and many other animals die after giving birth. See, I haven't grown up. I can't reason this out. I think this type of logic has to come in life-defining leaps and responsibility ushering bounds. No baby steps.

P.S. In some future entry, I'll probably try to figure out what my opinion is on the socially constructed institution of marriage. In lots of ways it seems a bit superfluous to me. Why do we need it in the 21st century? Can we do without it?

I've never thought so hard on the difference between dim-sum and mongolian barbeque.

Tug Boat Potemkin

Can Libertarians Do Yum-Cha?

"Doing yum-cha" is a pleasant way to spent a rainy Sunday afternoon in Melbourne. Or anywhere other city. Melbourne has plenty of Chinese restaurants that put on a good yum-cha, and it's a popular way to celebrate special occasions like birthdays, wedding and divorce anniversaries, send-off lunches and those secret, after the event, "they finally sacked our bastard manager" parties.

A few words of explanation might be in order for anyone who's never been to a yum-cha. What you get is a lot of free tea (now seems as good a time as any to slip in the obligatory reminder that literally translated yum-cha means "drink tea"; however more intoxicating beverages are usually available, for a price) and a lot of dim sum*.