Parenting Essays - Cartoon Network, Jake The Dog, Jake Dean

Parenting It all started when little Jake was one month old. He quickly learned that boisterous wails would cause his grandmother, Betsy, to rush to his crib. He was well on his way to becoming a little dictator. Betsy, being a kind-hearted and compassionate woman, felt sorry for the boy because he had no father or mother to speak of. Betsy would perform on command every time the child uttered a whimper. Her doctor suggested that she let the boy cry. He further explained that, in time, the child would get the hint that no one would be coming at his every whim. Jake's rein of terror would have ended if his grandmother had taken her doctor's advice, but she ignored the suggestion. The effect was predictable: soon, Betsy was suffering from exhaustion. Is it any surprise that, by the time Jake reached his first birthday, his first word was no? Jake, please don't throw your toys, his grandmother would plead sweetly. No! was Jake's reply as he hurled a hard plastic ball at Granny. Eat your cereal, his Granny would say. With a sweep of his little hand, Jake knocked the cereal bowl to the floor while he bellowed another No!. All right, Jake, Granny replied, If you don't like the cereal, I'll fix you something else. Filled with hope, she mistakenly thought the boy would outgrow this behavior. By the time he was five years old, Jake did not hesitate to throw very public tantrums. He once sprawled out on the department store floor, kicking and screaming because he had been denied a toy he wanted. Embarrassed by his behavior, Betsy quickly placed the toy in the shopping cart and proceeded through the checkout line. When they arrived at home, Betsy informed Jake that his behavior had been inappropriate. We don't act like that in public, she explained. I am certain that the boy was thinking, Why not? It works. When Jake was ten, Granny warned him that if he did not do his homework he would not be allowed to go camping with his friends the following month. Jake promised to do his homework, but a phone call from the school confirmed that he had not turned in a single homework assignment during the entire semester. After a mild scolding, the lad made a half-hearted attempt to finish his assignments. He complained that the work was too hard, and that he didn't understand the material. Grateful for the meager crumbs that Jake offered, Granny began to help him with his homework, often doing most of it herself. Soon the time came for the camping trip. Wearing a halo and a pasted-on smile, Jake asked in his most angelic voice whether he could go. Granny consented. She was afraid that the boy would revert back to zero homework performance if she disallowed this outing. At twelve, Jake had completed the last three years of his schooling by attending summer school. Every morning, Granny begged him to get up for school, but Jake lingered until he missed the school bus. Granny then dutifully drove him to school so that he would not be late. Of course, the cafeteria food was not good enough for him, so Jake was handed a ten dollar bill each morning to purchase two hoagies and a large soft drink at the local convenience store. By the time Jake turned fourteen, he was roaming the streets with his friends every night past curfew. Demanding to wear the latest and most expensive fashion, he got what he wanted. Jake was denied nothing by his grandmother. Smoking cigarettes, getting drunk, and mouthing off to Granny in the most foul language had become a way of life for Jake. Finally acknowledging that Jake was well on his way to becoming a juvenile delinquent, Betsy decided to take him to a psychologist. Despite paying thousands of dollars towards the cause, she could discern no positive changes. The psychologist diagnosed Attention Deficit Disorder, which now gave Jake a handy excuse for his inappropriate behavior. Soon, Betsy was on the phone with her oldest son, Dennis. She complained that Jake would not listen to her. She cried, wondering where she had gone wrong. After two years of phone calls and letters to her son and daughter-in-law, Betsy

What Happens If the Presidential Election Is a Tie

What Happens If the Presidential Election Is a Tie In four instances, the Electoral College, not the popular vote, has determined the outcome of a presidential election. Although there has never been a tie, the U.S. Constitution outlines a process for resolving such a scenario. Heres what would happen and who the players involved are if the 538 electors sit down after the election and vote 269 to 269. The U.S. Constitution When the U.S. first gained its independence, Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution outlined the process for selecting electors and the process by which they would select a president. At the time, electors could vote for two different candidates for president; whoever lost that vote would become vice president. This led to serious controversies in the elections of 1796 and 1800. In response, U.S. Congress ratified the 12th Amendment in 1804. The amendment clarified the process by which electors should vote. More importantly, it described what to do in the event of an electoral tie. The amendment states that the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President† and â€Å"the Senate shall choose the Vice-President. The process is also used in the event that no candidate wins 270 or more Electoral College votes. The House of Representatives As directed by the 12th Amendment, the 435 members of the House of Representatives must make their first official duty the selection of the next president. Unlike the Electoral College system, where larger population equals more votes, each of the 50 states in the House gets exactly one vote when selecting the president. It is up to the delegation of representatives from each state to decide how their state will cast its one and only vote. Smaller states like Wyoming, Montana, and Vermont, with only one representative, wield as much power as California or New York. The District of Columbia does not get a vote in this process. The first candidate to win the votes of any 26 states is the new president. The 12th Amendment gives the House until the fourth day of March to select a president. The Senate At the same time that the House is selecting the new president, the Senate must select the new vice president. Each of the 100 senators gets one vote, with a simple majority of 51 senators required to select the vice president. Unlike the House, the 12th Amendment places no time limit on the Senates selection of a vice president. If There Is Still a Tie With 50 votes in the House and 100 votes in the Senate, there could still be tie votes for both president and vice president. Under the 12th Amendment, as amended by the 20th Amendment, if the House has failed to select a new president by Jan. 20, the vice president-elect serves as acting president until the deadlock is resolved. In other words, the House keeps voting until the tie is broken. This assumes that the Senate has selected a new vice president. If the Senate has failed to break a 50-50 tie for vice president, the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 specifies that the Speaker of the House will serve as acting president until tie votes in both the House and Senate have been broken. Past Election Controversies In the controversial 1800 presidential election, an Electoral College tie vote occurred between Thomas Jefferson and his running mate,  Aaron Burr. The tie-breaking vote made Jefferson president, with Burr declared vice president, as the Constitution required at the time. In 1824, none of the four candidates won the required majority vote in the Electoral College. The House elected  John Quincy Adams president despite the fact that Andrew Jackson had won the popular vote and the most electoral votes. In 1837, none of the vice presidential candidates won a majority in the Electoral College. The Senate vote made Richard Mentor Johnson vice president over Francis Granger. Since then, there have been some very close calls. In 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes defeated Samuel Tilden by a single electoral vote, 185 to 184. And in 2000, George W. Bush defeated Al Gore by 271 to 266 electoral votes in an election that ended in the Supreme Court.