In my case, I learned about bullies in two ways.

One was when I was on my paper route with my brother. A gang of five bullies came up and started harassing me -- one was even tossing lit matches at me (silly as they blew out well before reaching me, but it was the principle of the thing).

When I finally retaliated by grabbing the match-flinger and one-arming him against a fence while I kneed him in the groin, I was wondering why the rest of his gang -- which included two of his older brothers -- wasn't coming to rescue him. I fully expected them to have pulled me off of him, but they didn't, and that was what made me cool down enough to let him go. I found out from my brother, who had witnessed the whole thing, that the other kids took off in sheer terror the moment I grabbed the Little Match Boy.

Lesson Number One: Bullies are cowards. Call their bluffs and they run away.

Another lesson came from a girl who had been told by someone else that I'd said something nasty about her -- which was ridiculous as I didn't even know her. But she wouldn't listen to reason, as somebody she really admired (but who turned out to be a jerkette) had told her this. She wanted to fight me, and I finally chose not to avoid it. So I let her knock me down and get the fight out of her system, and that was that -- and she later went on to become a friend when she realized that she was lied to about me.

Lesson Number Two: Fights aren't always the worst things in the world, and they don't have to end badly. Be prepared to have them if necessary.

I think that some people here are reading what they want to read in the interview, rather than what is actually there. (For instance, all the people insisting that America isn't as safe as when they were growing up are ignoring the sharp drop in murder rates over the last four decades: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/race.htm)

Saying that a particular ten-year-old can be trusted to take the bus or subway is NOT the same as saying that wearing seat belts or helmets impinges on people's freedom. But it's a nice straw man to vanquish. My parents made sure we buckled up well before it became mandatory. They also made sure we knew how to handle ourselves in various situations when they couldn't be around (my mother was one of those Baaaad Mommies who got flak for not only working outside the home, but making more than Dad did).

Oh and by the way: Most killings (86%: http://www.ojp.gov/bjs/homicide/relationship.htm) and molestations (70% to 90%: http://www.usatoday.com/life/2003-01-28-molester_x.htm/) and all the other things we're told to fear aren't being done by strangers, but by people our kids know and are taught to trust. That includes relatives -- yes, even mommies and daddies. Instead of freaking out over the child riding the subway, it might be time to address what issues at home are being left to fester.

Two years ago, back when it was still fashionable in the Trad Med to pretend that the economic house of cards wasn't about to collapse, I wrote about the cognitive dissonance and anxiety caused by people being told that Everything Was Just Fine Economically even though real wages had resumed their decades-long drop, a trend interrupted for a while during the Clinton years before it recommenced. (http://letters.salon.com/mwt/feature/2009/05/04/free_range_kids/permalink/dc3e8fee6886a3dcaa044fcf77fe954a.html)

My suspicion was that, since people weren't allowed to think, much less say out loud, that the economy stank to high heaven and that they were doing worse than their parents had at their ages, the anxiety connected with these forbidden thoughts had to find another channel. The obsession with cocooning one's kids seems to be a big recipient of than anxiety.

He did so right here: http://www.rgemonitor.com/roubini-monitor/256589/the_thinkers_who_predicted_early_on_many_aspects_of_this_financial_crisis

And even Paul Krugman -- who has been warring with Obama for the past two years now -- very grudgingly admitted the other day that Obama and his people have pulled us back from the abyss. (Of course, Krugman has now gone from predicting "despair" and destruction to a Japanese-type L-shaped recovery, whereas Roubini says that it's a U-shaped recovery and it should be well underway by this time next year:

http://phoenixwoman.wordpress.com/2009/05/05/turning-the-corner/

Cue the reflexive cynics and doom junkies lining up to trash Roubini (and even Krugman) as a tool of Obama in 5...4...3...2...1...!

One of my friends works for the part of the Federal government that regulates meat inspection. Applications for new meat plants going under Federal inspection, which were down by over half during the October to February period, are now back to normal levels. These plants wouldn't be opening if they didn't have lines of credit.

I'm glad that China is ramping up its efforts to get off of coal. While every other major industrial nation managed to cut pollution in recent years, China's pollution was enough to offset that and more. I suspect the Olympics was a big ol' wakeup call for a number of Chinese who'd been resisting the central government's efforts.

They were "FOX Liberals" well before FOX News existed. They're the go-to folks the GOP/Media Complex uses when they want someone from a 'respectable liberal' publication to beat up on lefties.

You silly trollies realize that the more you wank your hatred of Salon in the letters section, the more clicks you're generating and the more ad revenue flows into Salon because of you.

Carry on!