Consequence and Mark Twain

I lost our football pool again yesterday and will have to come up with a meal for next Sunday. Yesterday my chili turned out great even though it is a little too spicy. Adding some cheese and sour cream seems to help. Next time I will know not to use so many of the dried chili peppers, apparently they have some kick.

On another note, do teens really understand the concept of consequences anymore? I don’t think the thought of punishment scares them anymore; otherwise they would not do such stupid things. I watched a show called ‘16 and Pregnant’ on MTV for about 15 minutes after which I was ready to throw the parents in front of a bus. Since when is it cool to have your kid pregnant at 16?

I did some research and according to The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, 1/3 of the girls in the US get pregnant at least once by the age of 20. They also state that teen childbearing in the US cost taxpayers (Federal, State, and local) $9.1 billion in 2004.

If you are shocked by those numbers join the club. I don’t think the human population is going to end if one million girls don’t have a kid before they are 20, maybe someone should inform them of this.

In other news I have been reading a bit of Mark Twain lately. I found a book at the library with three stories in it and since I only had one other book I decided to give it a shot. I started reading Tom Sawyer a couple days ago and unfortunately have only been getting in a couple chapters a day. I am hoping to change that in the next couple of days. I will sign off on that note with another quote from the man himself.

It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare. – Mark Twain