dropkick03

Thanks for the welcoming! I've only been in for 4 years, which is all I intended to serve. @Reidy: I wasn't referring to any forums specifically, just that the internet is rarely the place to turn for a constructive conversation/argument.

No one is a "born Objectivist" or a "born Republican" etc. etc. We are all born savages. Ba'al Chatzaf I wasn't posting that confirming a belief that a "born XXX" existed, but rather I was not a person who believed they existed, and furthermore, believed that I was one of them.

Greetings OL! I've been a long time observer of the forums and recently decided to take the plunge and register! A little about myself: 27 year old male. Born and raised in the People's Republic of California, but I currently reside in the DC metro area. I'm active duty Army, although I'm geting out of the military in a few months, where I plan on going to school and pursuing a career in engineering and manufacturing. Though the formal philosophy is relatively new to me, it was rather easy to adopt because I already held many of the core values. That's not to say that I was a born Objectivist. Quite the contrary. Objectivism has turned a mirror on myself and forced me to realize that many of my "beliefs" were contradictory. Overall, it's quite exciting to be introduced to many like-minded (and not so like-minded) individuals where discussions don't always have to result in flame wars.

With the exception of a few choice cities, I'm pretty sure the good old days are gone. It was a kinder, gentler time. Sometimes, when you screwed up, and they knew you or your dad, they would even just tell you to go home, or give you a ride there if you were snockered. But even back then near the end of that era, the tender mercies were leaving us. Just ask Otis Campbell: When I was in High School I got into a fist fight off campus with another student. The police showed up and one of the officers had been on various school boards with my mom, and knew me personally. I got a ride home in the front seat with a stern talking to. Also, I had a friend who was a liberal user of marajuana. One night he and another student, who happened to be our school's star quarterback, got pulled over. From what I was told, it was a scene out of Cheech and Chong. An open back of roaches, smoke billowing out of the windows, etc. Well the cop recognized the quarterback, and knew his father pretty well. He ended up letting them both off the hook as long as they agreed to drive straigh home!

My wife and I had the same problem with our daughter about a year ago (age 2). I consulted my mother about the problem and her advice was to refuse to give in to our daughter's demands. She simply stated that, "The child will eventually get hungry and eat what you give her." This wasn't advocating starving our daughter, but only giving her one option. She could eat what we give her, or she could wait until she was so hungry that she didn't care to put up a fight any longer. Usually it would be an hour or so. Now this has evolved into our daughter eating on her schedule rather than ours, but she is receptive to what my wife prepares, and usually very happy to eat it. Now the hard part for us is getting her to eat in her chair, rather than in front of the TV in the playroom. Hope this helps!