Thinking of the children

Photographs of children in Northern Israel painting taunting messages on shells meant for targets in Lebanon have made their way around the world, via that dastardly internet, inciting controversy at every stop.

Also today Nobel peace laureate Betty Williams, while addressing a large audience of school children in Brisbane, Australia, said she "would like to kill George Bush."

I'm a big fan of preaching violence to children. I think it does a good job preparing them for when they become adults.

That in mind, I whole-heartily endorse children painting taunting messages on bombs.

Messages have been painted on bombs ever since either bombs or paint were invented. And taking into account kids grow up so fast these days with the myspace and the cell phones, I think we owe it to children to treat them as adults in respect to ordnance.

Plus this activity encourages creativity. Although, I can't say the examples of messages cited, such as "from Israel with love," were particularly creative. What they really need is a contest to spice things up. The winner would get a summer internship as a New York Post headline writer.

As for Mrs. Williams's "kill Bush" remarks, I'm mixed. Part of me thinks any speech to a youth group that encourages the issuing of idle threats is only beneficial to jsb's long-term prospects.

But another part of if me thinks Justin Timberlake is still a very young man and it is cruel to even suggest a humble schoolchild from a place called "Brisbane" would ever be in position where he or she could dream of ending Timberlake's tyrannically Idle Threat of the Week reign.