"ALL CAPS IN DEFENSE OF LIBERTY IS NO VICE."

Friday, December 01, 2006

Trading A Baby For A Playstation 3

I'm pretty sure this is the same thing as selling your soul to the devil:
Minneapolis radio station KDWB’s host Dave Ryan asked if people would trade a baby for a PS3. He didn’t expect that he would have any takers. He was mistaken.

The station received many calls offering to trade a baby for the PS3 system. The station started with just the offer: trade a baby (for a while) for a PS3. Then, after they received such a high response, they started an “auction” to get the youngest baby for the longest time… The parents were told that they could not check up on the welfare of the child and they were also told that the station did not have a child safety seat for the car.

These parents were still willing to trade their child. The “winner” was a one month old baby for three days (no children or PS3’s were traded).
Now, let's be honest, these parents are justifying this in their mind by telling themselves that the radio station can't afford the negative publicity that would come along with any neglect. However, while that might be true, it is also true that there is all sorts of abuse that can be levelled on a pre-verbal infant, which the parent would never be aware of.

In other words, these parents are willing to expose their babies to the possibility of sexual abuse, shaking and all sorts of other horrors.

People who work for radio stations (especially the types that do this kind of comedy bit) are not the straightest cues in the rack. Most of us wouldn't leave an older child unattended with such people even for fifteen minutes. One wonders what these people would do for a new Mercedes, or a house in a gated community. Oh wait, people already do leave their children with strangers for such baubles, don't they? You know, it's called Day Care.

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