Billo and social conservatives are always on about how Europe is going to hell in a handbasket because marriage rates are down (except for gay marriage rates, they're up) and lordy we don't want to be like the Dutch, Swedes and Fins.
Well Unicef did a survey of 21 of the major industrialized nations to see how well we're taking care of our children. 'Cause children are the future don't you know? Can you guess what perfectly delicious (and shameful for Americans) findings they have published?
The Netherlands, followed by Sweden, Denmark and Finland, finished at the top of the rankings, while the U.S. was 20th and Britain 21st, according to the report released Wednesday by UNICEF in Germany.
How 'bout that? Those Godless, socialist, straights living in sin but gays allowed to marry Northern Europeans are on the tippy top and us Nascar loving, Bush voting, mega church going, laissez faire capitalist Americans are at the bottom. Suck on that crack pipe Billo. Seems to me that marriage is not the be all and end all of life, or civilization or anyfuckingthing. The piece of paper that says two people are legally joined is just not all that germane to whether kids grow up happy and healthy and families thrive. Having a government that supports its citizens and gives them the wherewithal to raise successful families is.
How ironic, more families in the Netherlands have two parent households even though fewer of them marry. Hmmm, how do you figure that Billo? Because marriage isn't love, it's a legal contract entered into with almost no fucking due diligence and little if any actual negotiation over things like qualifications to be partners or Godforbid parents! It's not commitment which comes from the heart, not from a notary stamp. And people all over the world, yes even in socialist countries, fall in love and have children together even without benefit of marriage. (And if you've been married for 20 years like me, the term "benefit of marriage" may be a mystery to you too.)
Anybody who wants to "protect marriage" or "foster marriage" or "encourage marriage" is lost in a mental timewarp. Living in an Ozzie and Harriett matrix-like dreamworld. Ozzie (Neo) and Harriett (Trinity)are trapped in an artificially created world of suburban PTA meetings and getting together with the neighbors for bridge and voting for seemingly benign cloth coat Republicans, while the rest of us are trapped in a dystopian reality full of Tom DeLay Republicans. Republicans are the commonality here fucking it all up.
It's like back in the good old days when Dan Quayle went off on the fictional Murphy Brown because she was a single mother. He was right when he cited that single mothers do worse in the economy but what he was wrong about is that it wasn't a marriage problem; it was an education problem. If you looked deeper at the stats the single mothers also had a lower level of overall education. And they had support issues. Like even if they had jobs what did they do with the kids for 8 hours a day? Their counterparts in Europe, were not mired in poverty despite being handicapped (handienabled?) by being husbandless. They had education and good jobs bolstered by universal health care and day care. They didn't need a husband because they had a village (a village called Social Democracy. It's not a cool name like New Rochelle or Somerville, but it works).
Billo, I hear you asking "what criteria were these UNICEF pinkos using? Whether the parents drive Volvos and sip wine?"
No.
The study ranked the countries in six categories, based on national statistics: material well-being, health and safety, education, peer and family relationships, behaviors and risks, and young people’s own subjective sense of well-being. Both the U.S. and Britain were in the bottom two-thirds of five of the six categories.
Specifically it was economic inequality, poor levels of public support for families and high levels of single parent families all contributing to placing Britain and America at the bottom of the list of 21 nations.
Thusly shamefully:
The United States and Britain ranked at the bottom of a U.N. survey of child welfare in 21 wealthy countries that assessed everything from infant mortality...
Whether babies live or die, kinda important. Speaks to a broken ass healthcare system.
... to whether children ate dinner with their parents...
Nice, but did they look at how much time the kids spend playing video games, I wonder if we won that one?
...or were bullied at school.
Wha?
Bob Reitemeier, chief executive of The Children’s Fund charity in Britain, said the UNICEF report also showed that less than half of British children reported good relations with their peers.
"That really jumped off the page," he said, citing concerns about the competitive, ratings-based school environment in Britain and higher reported incidences of bullying and fighting. "The environment for these young people is quite negative."
Wow the British schools sound like their football* games.
Now I know that bullying is a personal issue with you Billo. It's how you make your living and from what I hear how you get laid. These UNICEF crackpots think it's detrimental to a child's well being. Obviously that's not true. Bullying builds character, right? How else are kids going to learn how to deal with horrible abusive bosses when they grow up if they aren't subjected to peer maliciousness as a child? We all dealt with it. These UNICEF people are just mollycoddlers who hate America. Keep telling yourself that.
Now I know this is just meaningless tripe to you Billo. You know what's right. Parenting was just fine when everyone prayed in school and respected authority. The kids all grew up and because above-average homeowners with life insurance policies who smoked pipes. Now you can't smoke anywhere. You have to bring back prayer and smoking! And seal the borders and make the darkies know their place. They're entirely too uppity today especially that Ludakris fella. I know Billo, it all sounds good, but it ain't gonna happen. Can't go backwards. Ozzie and Harriett took the blue pill and are fighting Agents in Westbury.
You can't accept being like the Swedes? The Dutch? The Fins?
Do you just hate children Billo?
Judging by how you treated that poor Missouri boy I guess you do hate kids. Oh and there was your book "The O'Reily Factor for Kids." Wow you must really despise them.
Okay you hate kids but at least stop demagoguing against them hating on the Dutch, Swedes, gay marriage, universal healthcare, public education, affordable child care, generous unemployment benefits and the myriad other services provided by governments that put people first.
If it'll make you feel any better the French were on the bottom third too.
Jetfan away....
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
*football otherwise known in the U.S. as soccer, but known in the entire rest of the world including Antarctica as just plain football, because you know, you kick the ball with your foot. Whereas in American football only two players ever kick the ball with their foot and the rest of the team looks down on them as "just a stupid kicker" and puts Ben Gay in their jocks on a regular basis causing discomfort and self-esteem problems.