so, its not ok to have truck nuts, but is ok to tell someone that they are an idiot. Oscar Wilde said, "While I do agree with what you have to say, I will defend to the death your right to say it". The ability to take in an tolerate varying prospectives in an open and civil society is what makes the First Amendment viable. While I do not believe a set of Truck Nutz is an intelligent and/or worthwhile addition to ones vehicle, they do reserve the right to purchase and display said wastes of money. Taking the good with the bad and being able to say "big deal" is what makes an open society worth defending.

 

Funny- Yes

Childish- Yes

I personally chuckled when I first opened this thread, but I can personally see the arguments made for both sides of this debate. Once again though, the everlasting, neverending question becomes, "Well how far do you want the government to go in our freedom of speech and regulation?". That is what it will all come down to, and as a previous poster said, if left to our own humanistic (at times animalistic...) tendencies, we will degrade ourselves (or what others may consider degradation) down to the lowest possible level. Someone mentioned, "well why not just have the full ***** hanging there?" and in my opinion that will only be a matter of time b/c we as humans love to push the envelope of "good" or "proper" taste. (Of course who is the Judge or "etiquette marm" that is the omnipotent decider of what is non-vulgar taste?)

As far as explaining the human/animal anatomy to children in today's society, (I'm not a parent so I openly admit that I don't know ANYTHING that is the huge/awesome responsibility of raising a child, and maybe this is totally CRAZY to even think of saying), but if your child asks what that is (the bull *****), why not just go with the truth? Could you not say, "Sweetheart, that is the part of a man's body that helps get the mommy pregnant before she has a baby"?

I'm not being sarcastic, but is that not simple, to the point, & cut and dry? And yes, of course most children may have 1,001+ followup questions to your response, but you could just follow that up with, "Honey, do you remember how when you were still just a little girl that you would go to the potty in your diaper, right? But once you reached a certain age, Mommy & I were able to teach you and you were able to understand how to use the 'big-girl' potty? Well that's how it is now, when you get just a wee little bit older (that is how parents talk, right? J/K!), Mommy and I will sit you down and have a more, special conversation about the boy and girl body, okay Sweetie?"

Is this me living in a dream world? Am I giving 4 year olds too much credit? Most of the 4 yr. olds that I've come across nowadays are smarter than all hell I'll tell you that!!

 

Ahh, but you admit that not ALL speech is protected speech. So who gets to determine which is and which isn't? I will leave that up to the SCOTUS to decide.

Of course, I could respond to your ad hominem in kind but I think I'll just stick to arguing the merits of the issue with you instead of attacking your intelligence.

 

I am not being sarcastic here in the least LWT, so please hear my words as they come across sincerely and truly; I realize that you don't need my approval or nod of agreement to verify the truth of the matter, but that was very big of you (especially on an internet forum, where silly "fights" break out and someone always feels as though they must get the last word in).

I'm not sure if your above post was in response to what I said above (or if it was solely directed @ dewman)and if it was, then so be it. I truly appreciate you not attacking my intelligence as I am admittedly only 25yrs old and you have probably forgotten more lessons in life than I will ever know. My post was not meant to bring about discord, but to try and find some type (any type) of solution for parents who may have to talk about something like this w/their child.

My intention was not at all to belittle you are make it seems as though your points were not valued or valid, b/c I believe that whether or not you personally embrace someone else's point of view, that does not give you the right to disrespect how they feel about a certain situation.

Obviously, this scenario has brought forth ALOT of thoughts & opinions & I think that any time that adults can come together and have an actual adult coversation about an issue that we all don't agree on, and yet still be able to come away from that situation respecting eachother, then atleast some type of progress was made in the form of an open forum exchange of thoughts & ideas.

I for one must admit that I have def been enlightened by this thread in a way that I NEVER thought would be the case when I first scrolled down on the first page. Who knew?! LOL!!

God Bless To All

-BigDre

 

i looked at getting a set for my truck awhile back, but decided against it. i thought about it for awhile and decided that a set of skins hanging from my truck might look out of place. this wasn't done to protect any small children's eyes, i just didn't like them. on a side note, i have a 22 month daughter that is growing up fast and like TY says, they are going to experience "those" things eventually.i won't have a problem explaining to mine when the time comes.

 

I think what it boils down to is city kids vs. country kids. Any kid raised on a farm or ranch or even near them, knows what those are. So to protect the kids not raised in the city, we need regulation to castrate all bulls.

OMG, what if they should see dogs mating? This problem is bigger than I thought, we need to outlaw all animals right away.

 

Dre,

That wasn't directed at you at all. I found your post to be very well said. I was going to comment on that but it was already 4:40am when I posted last after having spent 2 1/2 hours on an on-call issue with work (I am in IT), and then having my beautiful little 4 year-old (previously mentioned) come in after I got back in bed to inform her mother and I that she had thrown up in bed! So I made a brief post to come down from working and cleaning a puke covered child and bed at 1am-4:40am. But at 25 you are wise beyond your years. I appreciate both of your posts. I wish more people would stick to arguing issues and not getting into the usual "shoving" match on message boards.

God bless and keep you, and all of you, even those that disagree with me and attacked me because of it.

LWT

 

P.S. Your point on how smart 4 year-olds are is spot on. My 4 year-old regularly outsmarts me, though admittedly that isn't very difficult to do.

 

Hey, I had good parenting so I guess you should prob be thanking them!

It is downright ridiculous (their intelligence). My little cousins are smart and articulate it blows my mind sometimes as to how advanced this upcoming generation is...but of course once again, they have all had parents who have made the sacrifice of putting the HUGE time investment issue as a #1 priority in their childs' lives.

 

YES! take away more of our freedoms so some guy doesn't have to have a birds and bees discussion with his kid.... whats next, are we gonna ban these?

I got news, we better outlaw television because I guarantee a little 4 yr old will see and pick up worse stuff off of television than from a pair of rubber nuts hanging off a truck! whatever happened to telling your child "Honey thats something you will learn about when your older." End of story, point out a bird or a dog and she will forget about it!
Rediculous