letting kids convince lawmakers of the virtue of a particular piece of legislation and lawmakers using kids to convince voters. i realize the article has nothing to do with that (it's about banning elephants from circuses), but it irritates me to see politicians and lobbyists gaining sympathy for or against a bill by exploiting the oh-so-cute-yet-naively-profound-pseudo-wise (blech) perspectives of children instead of debating its actual merits (or lack of), or its inherent rightness (or lack of).

it irritates me that people actually fall for that crap. who cares if a particular law is necessary or just. slap the photo of a puppy-eyed second grade kid on it, and suddenly it's the right thing to do.

why listen to these kids? they're friggin' blowing each other away at school. how can you trust them to know what's compassionate and right anyway? you can't.

how many times have you heard or read some Senator's speech, and somewhere within it, they mention that their position was influenced (if not actually decided) by "looking at my daughters as they slept" or "hearing my sons wonder why"? why don't these same Senators ever tell you about the decisions they made while "watching my son empty a clip into that Johnson kid in homeroom," or "listening to my kids talk about how they nailed a cat to some plywood and tossed it into the lake"? you never hear that kind of thing.