"Less government! Less government!" cry the conservatives...as they find something else they want governed. The party of moral micromanagement cannot have it both ways. You cannot exert more control over the general population by reducing government.

People cry for less government when they realize who's doing the governing and who's being governed.

Patrick, "DOLLS SHALL REPRESENT THREE (3) RACES" does sound like moral micromanagement, but it doesn't sound like a particularly conservative position.

I like your term for it, though, and I suppose if we tried, we could come up with a long, long list of moral micromanagement outrages from both the left and the right.

How is this conservatives, Patrick?

Patrick, just admit you don't like conservatives, and readily believe anything bad about them. And believe them to be this one, large, monolithic (and monothesistic) block.

When you've gotten that out of your system, then perhaps we can have a discussion about the proper role of government in our lives.

They've prohibited whole milk?
IF memory serves correctly, even the USDA says that small children (infants and toddlers) should not have a fat-restricted diet.

I never really thought about the fact that my barbies didn't look like me. (Barbie's unrealistic proportions didn't make me anorexic, either.) Oh, and even though Ken didn't have a dong, we all still made our barbies do it.

momof4: How is this conservatives, Patrick?

This particular story? I wouldn't argue that it's conservative. In fact, I would say it's liberal.

However, it is the conservatives that want to be in our bedrooms. You only have to look at Rudy Guiliani, for instance, to see just how "small government" he actually is. Another example was Bowers vs. Hardwick (which was finally, mercifully struck down by the ruling of Lawrence vs. Texas).

I mention conservatives -- although I agree with RPM Daddy that both parties are guilty -- for the same reason that instances of adultery become more egregious when done by conservatives, because of the added element of hypocrisy. Democrats aren't the ones self-righteously touting themselves as the party the party of family values, preserving the sanctity of marriage and all that. (Democrats are self-righteous for entirely other reasons, but not family values.)

Democrats aren't the ones constantly screaming for smaller government, all the while demanding government intrusion in places they have no business, such as your bedroom. Or mine.

What about the implant Barbie?

Just when I thought it really couldn't get any lamer! OMG. really, this is just.. NOT SOMETHING THE GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO BE INVOLVED WITH.. among so so many other things...

Ironically, as a brown-eyed brown-haired white person, possibly the largest color demographic or one of them, itshard to find a doll with my coloring. The pc ethnic dolls tend do do this:

blond with blue
brown with green
red with green or blue
hispanic - medium skin, brown eyes, black hair
asian - brown eyes, black hair
black.

I guess they have brown eyes covered by the nonwhite races, but there are white people with brown eyes!

There oughtta be a law!!!!!

Yeah, I'm a strawberry blonde with hazel eyes... where's my doll?

Oh, here we go:
http://www.mytwinn.com/Custom-Twinn-Doll

The more I think about this the more I get confused what about Muppets - I mean is Elmo a different race then Cookie Monster, they do look similar but are they the same race or different. Their are to many Elmo dolls around what about the poor Count or Big Bird they deserve to be treated equally. What about Pokeman - they are all monsters aka a race but they come in different sizes and colors and animals shapes so maybe many different races. What about robots - are the Autobots and Decepticons from Transformers separate races or are they the same race with different ideologies. So would they count as one or two dolls. Now the big question - Teddy Bears and stuffed animals. Are they classified as one race aka stuffed soft cuddly animals or is a stuffed pony different from a stuffed Unicorn.

I think a government commission needs to be set up to solve these pressing issues. Laws and guidelines must be set out or there will last damages do to unfair toy play. Somebody think of the children!

Cool Patrick, I was pretty sure this was just you turning yet another completely unrelated thread into your quest for bedroom habit freedoms, but i just wanted to check.

heh, you forgot Carmel, Amy... [part of a Suzanne Vega tune IIRC]

The thing is Patrick, your knee jerks every time somethiung like this comes up. I'm trying to track this, but I am pretty sure this is one of those Republic of Boulder ideas, writ large for the state...

It's entirely stupid, when they have day carew's w/ too many kids that they don't get regulated at all. Making more rules is not equal to enforcing them, and they don't enforce the ones, they 've got very well. It just makes the conscientious ones worry more about compliance, while the scofflaws let the kids sit in front of the TVs all day.

Make the list short and make people comply... Not 98 pages of too much, and then "we don't have the budget for compliance people".

Of for fucks sake! Really?!

I used to work in a day care center way back before I was in NYC and we would have laughed our assess off at this ridiculousness. We also would have posted it on the 'moron board' that we kept in the back room and gone on with our lives.

Kids don't care. They just don't. They want a doll. Any doll will do. They don't even notice that shit. They certainly aren't scarred for life about the dolls "skin" color. If they do happen to become curious, as kids do occassionally, it's easily explained by "the doll is made of plastic...Now go play." That is sufficiant enough for their 4 year old brains to understand.

Who actually came up with that rule? Did someone complain about "race" enough for this shit to actually be considered or is this another one of those Liberal "equality" rules?

Three races?

Human and what else?

And just what species is a SpongeBob or a Tinky-Winky?

The United States is all fucked up.

"Human and what else?"

Latino Lizard-Bat Barbie! Comes with two outfits, cute handbag, moltable outer skin, and ultrasonic emitter! Rabies available separately.

"I mean is Elmo a different race then Cookie Monster, they do look similar but are they the same race or different"

Cookie, Grover, Telly, and Elmo are all monsters, just different colors and sizes. The real bugaboos start getting facotred in when you have to take Grouches, Snuffleupagi, YipYips, and humans in the mix. Plus you have the cases of Prarie Dawn, Bert, Earnie, Guy Smiley, and Mumford the Magician - all of whom are allaegeldy humans. You would have to pack a Sesame Street daycare to the gills to have an equal representation of all these races in doll form.

Eh, the kids'll probably just soend all day watchon Yo Gabba Gabba anyhow.

To be blunt, but not naming names, those who accuse me of hating conservatives wouldn't know conservatism if it kicked them in the head...which, by the way, I wish it would do.

Because as it is, I have not seen a real conservative, and am convinced that the ones who call themselves conservatives don't have the mettle to be a conservative.

I'll give a hint: The last conservative to run for President was Barry Goldwater. Reagan was NOT a conservative. Bush? Don't make me laugh.

Conservatives mind their own business, don't run to the government for every social ill and take personal responsibility. You think it's conservatism to outlaw abortion, to mend the constitution over something silly like outlawing gay marriage, or to demand the FCC outlaw certain words on television? Well, no, it's not. A conservative, if he's against abortion, he makes it his business to do something about it, like help expectant mothers who aren't prepared to be mothers to find options. Or better still make birth control available.

A conservative does not expect the government to prohibit free speech to protect their delicate little children. They take responsibility for that themselves. How would they do this? Oh, I don't know. Lobby the television companies to produce microchips that are attuned to specific content, then block the content you choose.

Or, in the days when technology wasn't up to it, you could pressure the television networks, so that they produce more acceptable content, or agree to show certain things when your little darlings are supposed to be in bed.

But they don't go running to the government, "Oh, outlaw this! Outlaw that! And punish them BAAAAAD if they don't listen!"

But what happens if your precious little darlings are at a friend's house, and they see something naughty-naughty on television...oh, I don't know. You could actually take responsibility and explain to your child what is and isn't acceptable, instead of expecting the government to nanny your child till his eighteenth birthday.

Oh, I know it's a lot of work raising kids...but you know, the government didn't force you to have kids. In fact, they didn't even ASK you to have kids. Not their job to protect you from biting off more than you can chew.

Ok, any legislation revolving around doll ethnicity is ridiculous.

That said, Sabrina, having a doll that at least vaguely resembles themselves does make a difference to plenty of kids, who find assurance or empowerment or just comfort in seeing themselves reflected in the doll they baby and nurture.

I know my super curly haired girl, who's got a super curly haired mom, has wished for doll with a super crazy mane. And American Girl has long had a hit on its hands with "Dolls like me," which are scarily Stepford-like despite their differences when viewed as one behind glass.

http://store.americangirl.com/html/myagconfig2/main.html

AHW, I'm afraid you have the wrong color eyes. Strawberries are supposed to have blue or green eyes. I know, 'cause I saw it on a doll.

Elementary, that's fine if that's what some kids want or what thier parents want for thier kids. Personally, as a kid, I remember being pretty darn satisfied with my blond haired blue eyed Barbie (I am blue eyed reddish brown haired girl, there is NO doll that looks like me ) I didn't grow up scarred about not having a doll that looked exactly like me. I had a doll. She was pretty. I liked to brush her hair and dress her up. That's all that mattered. But that's my personal exeperiance. And I know plenty of people with kids who could give a rip about their dollies race or hair color. I assure you thier childs feelings of "empowerment" are not coming from thier dolls race but how they are being reared by thier parents.

Government legistlation about it is stupid regardless of how someones kid feels about it. If parents want their kids to have dolls that look like them, they should be responsible for providing it. Daycare workers have way more important things to worry about when it comes to the kids in thier care than what race the doll is they are playing with.

Sabrina, in total agreement on the idiocy of government regulation of doll ethnicity. Said that right in my first line.

It's good you didn't grow up scarred - not that I think doll ownership or lack of dolls can cause that. I also think you hugely underestimate the difference between having a doll that looks EXACTLY like you -- no one expects that -- and a doll that bears no remote resemblance to you at all. Your comparison between what you had - blond blue-eyed Barbie -- and say a black girl having access only to that same doll is absurd.

I live in a hugely multicultural city and live a hugely multicultural life, and while none of us parents demand our daughters ONLY play with dolls that look like them (In our house we've got black Barbie, brown Barbie, Asian Barbie, wheelchair Barbie, one-armed Barbie -- ok that was an accident but she's loved just the same -- even a red-haired Barbie or two for Amy, etc.) But I assure you that every single mom (or dad) has made damn sure their child has at least one or two that do.

It'd be nice to believe I had complete control over my girl's sense of empowerment, but then I'd be an idiot. Lots of factors play into it: Me, her dad, teachers, peers, doing the hard work to reach a goal, seeing she'll survive when she fails, societal pressures, societal norms and, yes, even possibly a doll.

I get all of that elementary, I do...and I don't entirely disagree.

If your friends little girl wants a doll that resembles her, even if it's as simple as having the same kind of hair, then so be it. If that is what is going to make her happy then by all means I urge her mom to do that for her. I just don't think that all kids feel that way. It differs from child to child. Some kids really don't give a rats patoot. The parent knows what works for thier kid and should take that matter up themselves. A child likely don't even notice until they are older anyway, and I think that as long as the parents and other adults around the child aren't making race a big deal, the child likely won't either.

We both still agree that the regulation is stupid though... no matter how we view kids and dolls.