Shows›As Goes Wisconsin›Another Book Ban, The Power Of One Person And The Regent’s Revenge. (Hour 1)›Transcript

Transcript

Another Book Ban, The Power Of One Person And The Regent’s Revenge. (Hour 1)

As Goes Wisconsin · Thu Dec 14, 2023

From the Civic Media Radio Network, moving Wisconsin forward one joke at a time.

This is As Goes Wisconsin with Kristen Brott.

That's so cool, that's so cool, that's so cool, that's so cool.

Oh, man, it's going.

No one knows.

Oh, no, it's not safe.

Now, building in for the new mom, here's Jane Mattenair.

Good morning and welcome.

Welcome to As Goes Wisconsin.

So happy to have you along today.

Carol Kane is with me in studio.

Galvin is on the board.

You can always join a scholar text at 844-967-2789.

844-96 party Greg Bach is off today.

He's taking a paternity leave day to be with the puppy.

Oh, got it.

Okay.

Maybell and he's also baking with his mother because we have our great Christmas treat.

Exchange tomorrow cookie exchange.

No, it's no longer the cookie exchange.

There were special dispensations made brownies are allowed.

I'm not making brownies.

I thought you were making brownies.

No, I changed my I changed my mind because I took such heat because of the darn brownies.

So I'm like, I'm making cookies now.

Well, Greg's baking brownies.

Well, then we're not copying one another.

It's a Christmas treat exchange.

Okay, that will be we will be doing tomorrow.

And I have to bake today.

I haven't done that yet.

Yeah, well, I'm going to be baking this afternoon while my husband cleans the house.

So that was that's our trade off because I, you know, I did all the decorating.

I got the tree in now Alex arrives on Saturday with his girlfriend.

So here's the mop.

Here's the broom.

Here's the vacuum.

Knock your cell phone.

Have at it.

Calvin, are your mom's cookies done?

They are not.

They're not.

Oh, she's so she's going to be baking today too.

Yeah, she'll be making cookies tonight.

Yeah, I mean, you can only make them so far in advance.

You know what I mean?

That's true.

Otherwise, they get they either get stale or little nasty, right?

And I'm not, you know what?

I'm not a crunchy cookie girl.

I like a soft, like chewy, that's what because you're making key lime ones, right?

I'm making key lime cookies.

We'll see how this goes.

Haven't you ever made it before?

No, this is a new one.

This is a brand new recipe.

Where did you find it?

I'm Google.

Oh, got it because you know what I am.

My buddy Jim Lombardo from Bell Ambulance sent me cringles and I got the wee energies

because it was first responders.

So he put that in with the cringles.

So I'm like, thank you.

So what kind of cookie are you making?

It's a double chocolate.

It's like a chocolate chocolate chip.

So it's like a chocolate cookie with chunks and chips and so it's kind of a chocolate overload

if you will.

That sounds delicious.

I've never made them before.

So it'll be interesting.

That's going to happen tomorrow.

Last hour at 11.06 as she does every Thursday at that time, Dr. Kristen Lierli will be here

for our public service announcements and then at 11.33, General Sentinel sports reporter,

JR Ratcliffe, going to be here, obviously going to talk about the bucks.

Oh my God.

My God.

Last night.

He is a stud.

Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah.

I'm just a couple with 76 points.

64 points.

Setting a new franchise record.

He's amazing.

It's just.

And you know, in addition to everything else, his, you know, with his sports acumen, he's,

he seems like a regular, really nice guy.

Yeah.

He really does.

That's, I mean, I, I don't know him personally and, you know, I'm sure he, he lives in

my area though.

He's up in the Mechwanda area.

Yeah.

And like when they took their kids to retreating and he was all dressed up, I'm like, dang it.

I'd love to see that.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

In schools.

Well, today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Alex Johnson has a, has a, has a story out called

Elkhorn, Elkhorn School Superintendent Shocked at request to remove 444 books from school

libraries.

Well, they haven't, they weren't banned.

They was just as one parent raised all these titles and so what, what they are discussing

and doing from what I understand is maybe moving some of these two different areas out

of like a middle school situation and that kind of a thing.

I do find it fascinating, some, like a couple of the titles and I'm, so you know, imagine

John Steinbeck.

I mean, the grapes of wrath, I'm, I'm an English literature major.

So and in all honesty.

And I understand it deals with the Joed family and the Dust Bowl situation and they have

to move from their home and like Oklahoma, if I remember correctly, from like Oklahoma

out to California to try and start a new life.

And I guess the, the, the whole thing is that there's some sexuality in there that this

parent thought was inappropriate and, you know, but to, I found it fascinating.

The story itself, just to kind of educate myself about the Dust Bowl and the history

of it.

Absolutely.

And if, if the grapes of wrath is guilty of anything, it's guilty of just lolling

me to sleep.

It was, it's so slow and like Steinbeck takes all of this time to describe everything

and go on and on and on and it's just like, I had to read it for high school.

I, it was a high school thing that I had to do, but it sounds like by the time you got

to the sex part, you're sleeping.

Yeah.

It really, no.

And if, if I have never read the grapes of wrath, so I can't check in on it.

My whole thing about this is, why is it that one person, one person, and it doesn't even

have to be a parent with a child in that school district?

Yeah.

One person can come forward and say, there's 444 books that are need to be looked at because

they're bad.

Why is it one?

I, that, that's, that's, that's puzzling to me too.

You know, I just don't understand the, it's the squeaky real syndrome, I guess.

Maybe they just, act we ask to this individual just to shut them up.

You know, I mean, it's just, yeah, we'll take a look at it.

Sure we will.

We'll take a look at it and, and we'll just go from there.

And I go back to, and I totally agree with you in the fact that one person should not

carry this kind of power.

No.

And if you've got a problem with a book that's available for your child in their library,

that you think is problematic, once, Jane, what do I always say?

What do I say?

Read the book with them.

Go chapter after chapter and then close the book down and go, okay, what'd you get out

of this?

Yeah.

Let's talk about the book.

Now, and, and another one of the books that was mentioned in the article is the person

being a wallflower.

Now, I've never read this book, but I think it deals with this kid and he's experimenting

with, he's 14 and he experiments with his sexuality and, you know, all kinds of different

things that happen to kids.

If you think that these kids in middle school are that naive, you are out of your mind.

They could probably teach you a few things.

Shockingly, you're probably right.

And this attitude now that we cannot talk about sex ever.

Don't, not in books, but you better get rid of Netflix and Hulu and all your streaming

services too.

But yet we, we incur, we have, we're in and we, our kids are inundated with violence.

That's not a problem.

Yeah.

But no, anything sexual is dangerous.

You remember when Grand Theft auto came out?

Yes.

And I'm still mortified by that.

It's, it was bad.

I mean, it was, it really was bad.

I mean, we have our, our kids, we allow our kids to, to do first person gunman games.

And that's not a problem.

But let's not talk about sex because that's really dangerous.

I think, don't, when it comes to, and if this kid and the person being a wallflower,

this, the main character, if he's, if he's experimenting with his sexuality, do you know

how many kids right now can relate to that?

Look at what we're doing.

I mean, I, I, maybe I'm a weird parent.

I, I'm weird no matter what.

I'll admit that.

But like I, I sat down with my kids and I talked, this is something I want to talk about

with the good doctor at 11 o'clock too.

You know, how do you talk to a boy about a girl's body?

Let's, let's just have that conversation.

That's a great, that's a great question.

I, I sat them down and with all of the correct verpage to my son's horror.

I, you know, does this happen to you when you see an image like this?

Does this, is this exciting for you?

Is this that?

Oh, he must have been.

Oh, he was just like, mom, please.

But I'd like to, dude, you got to, we got to talk about this stuff.

This is what happened.

How do you think you got here?

Four, four, nine, six, seven, two, seven, eight, nine, you can call or text or leave a comment

on the livestream.

If you're watching on Facebook, YouTube or Twitter, Stephen from Green Bay is on the

line.

Good morning, Stephen.

Thanks so much for joining us.

Hey, bud.

Wisconsin.

Hey.

So I just have to say it was a full book thing with, but obviously it's the first time

that this has been brought up, you know, one, one parent not liking something that was

on a book and therefore going to school board and complaining.

But I will say this.

I kind of feel bad for their kid because their kid must not watch any TV, must not play any

video games and after he goes to school, he or she goes to school, must be locked inside

their bedroom and not being able to look outside because any one of those things could expose

you to far worse things than are in these books that they're saying need to be banned

from these schools.

We live in a very, you know, volatile time where all it really takes is walking out and

being present in your community to see things that are worse than what's in the book.

And are the parents outraged over that?

Are they outraged over the stuff that their kids are seeing every day just by, you know,

turning on the radio even?

It's just absolutely garbage.

You know, I think Carol brought up the whole grand theft auto thing.

We just had to have a conversation with my wife, brother, who was autistic and found the

game online.

Oh, wow.

And started playing it and he started asking questions about it because he didn't quite

understand some of the things you could do.

And we had to have a long talk because let's be honest, some of the stuff you can do in

a video game and the comfort of your cozy chair, if you would, you know, pull those acts

in real life.

In the real world.

Telling these that could land you in prison.

So yeah, I just, I think it's absolutely garbage.

I think there are much bigger topics that these parents could be screaming about than what's

in a book.

I completely agree with you, Stephen.

And again, my whole thing is if one person, it can come forward and have this power to get

them to look at the over 400 books, then I think they should have to write a synopsis

on what is so disturbing in each of those books before they take a look at them.

You brought that up before I do, I think that's only fair, eight, four, four, nine, six,

seven, two, seven, eight, nine, should one person have the ability to really gum things

up.

Most of these books have been returned after they were reviewed, right?

But this takes time.

Well, this takes time from other things.

Yeah.

Well, take your calls.

Stay with us.

This is Asgos, Wisconsin.

You're listening across the civic media radio network.

Good morning, welcome to Asgos, Wisconsin, Jane McNair, in for Kristen, Brian, Carol

Kane with me in studio.

Calvin is on the board.

You can always join us call or text at eight, four, four, nine, six, seven, two, seven,

eight, nine, what a remind you to tune in each morning for the fabulous Midwest farm

report with our friend, the fabulous farm babe Pam Yankee.

She airs at five a.m.

You can catch her on WGB, W the talk of Green Bay and news from the center and Richland

center, W R C E, Pam is so knowledgeable and just wonderful.

And again, check out the Midwest farm report weekday mornings, five a.m. with the fabulous

farm, babe, Pam Yankee, we're talking right now about an article in today's journal

sent know from Alec Johnson about how one person was able to complain and have four more

over four hundred, four hundred and forty four books temporarily removed from the Elkhorn

area school district, middle and high school libraries should one person.

And again, I don't even think you have to be a parent with a child in that school district

probably not should one person have that much power.

Now, and did they go to the library?

That's I have so many questions, you know, like, did they go to their kids library and

walk through and go, no, no, because I, I mean this in all honesty and you laughed off

the error, but I'm an English literature major.

I don't think I could come up with four hundred and forty four times.

I seriously, I don't.

Well, but that's why I don't think this is an organic movement.

I think there is an organ is there is a nationwide push to get these books removed.

And I think you can probably get a list.

And I'm sure if you googled what books should be banned, you'll have all kinds of things

that come up.

You know, and I'm I'd be curious is just to see the whole list because I wonder of

how many ways on there probably because people would be upset, you know, he was pretty

violent with the bullfighting and all that kind of stuff.

And you know, but we seem to be pretty okay with violence.

It's only sex.

What?

It's only sex that makes a squeamish.

Well, then you're stupid there, texture from the two six, texture from the two six

two.

As a parent of a middle schooler and an elementary school student, I'm all for age

appropriate reading.

Absolutely.

Parents should have some input in that as should librarians.

If for all the folks in favor of banning books from a school districts entirely, you are

doing a disservice to our culture.

If these people were so self righteous, I'm certain they'd ban the Bible because of

the numerous instances of rape, murder and incest.

That always seems to be swept under the rug, doesn't it?

No.

Isn't that interesting?

I don't know why that is because God wrote it.

If you're going to, if you're going to do, if you're going to do it, do it.

You got to own the whole thing.

Absolutely.

But that's why I believe this is not a sincere effort about protecting our children because

that's never going to happen.

The people who want to ban these books would never say ban the Bible.

Well, and the librarians are there for a reason.

They were educated in library science.

Right.

Do some of them probably have political leanings?

Of course they do.

They do.

But I have faith in the fact that I would allow them to make an educated decision and not

let their personal views stand in the way of something that would be appropriate for

a child to read.

Well, and again, this goes back to, if you don't want your child reading that material,

you can control that.

Right.

But why do you get control?

Why do you get to control what every other parents' kids get to read?

Right.

And in all honesty, to me, reading is powerful and reading can be knowledgeable and reading

change my life.

Right.

It did.

Yeah.

Reading changed the course of my life.

There was two trips a week to the library with my mother was one of my biggest joys.

And I grew up in a town of 8,000 people really small with books I've traveled all over

the world.

Sure.

All over the world.

It opened up so many things for me.

Right.

Well, obviously I'm a little biased, but I mean at the same time, I had to read, what

was it?

Cannibary tales when I was a freshman in college.

No, I was a freshman in college, but I do know that sometimes that stuff is, is I love

a bit of a literature.

And if you want salty stuff, yeah, holy moly.

So like the Cannibary tales, I remember even when I was a freshman in college, I was

like, wow, but you have to take into consideration when it was written.

And that also is another, that's another goal.

I had a professor who really made it interesting and didn't hedge at all.

It was just like, yeah, Miller's tale is pretty said, you know, yeah, well, yeah, I mean,

and I understand that you can put provisions on your TV, parental controls and things

like that.

So if you're going to do that, then monitor what your kids reading.

Absolutely.

Be a little bit more hands on, mom and dad.

Mr. Carol, these people think these books are planting the seeds for exploring their

sexuality, particularly non-heterol relationships.

I think it's often rooted in homophobia and in fear of sexual enjoyment and exploration.

These folks likely only have sex to conceive otherwise.

It's a sin and people find these books because of moms for liberty because they put out

a hit list.

Well, no doubt.

I mean, and if you think for one of it, because I know what kind of kid I was.

If this, if this list had fallen into my hands when I was in middle school, wouldn't that

be the first thing you'd read?

That's right.

Where I'm going.

844-967-2789-844-96 party.

If you want to call or text and again, you can always join us on the live stream and leave

a comment there on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

And another educational thing that I think it's important that we point out the Board

of Regents was University of Wisconsin Board of Regents did vote yesterday to approve the

deal.

Right.

Over DEI positions, it's finally going to allow some 34,000 UW system employees to get paid,

which is good.

Yeah.

I mean, they're getting a raise.

That's great.

They've got some construction costs that are in there.

I think they're going to build a new engineering building, which we critically write.

The one thing that I think is at least positive about this is that I don't, and I don't

know why the three flipped.

They voted on Saturday and they said, no, but now they flipped and they, and so I'm

not sure what their reasoning was.

But at the very least, there's some, there's a little bit of compromise, you know what I

mean?

I just think it's, it sets a dangerous precedent by allowing our politicians to set college

agendas.

I don't think that's their role.

They're not educators.

It's the, and on the same token, I don't believe that our politicians should be involved

in medical decisions because they're not doctors.

Well, I'm not going to say no to that.

I just think that I don't think there was, in my humble opinion, I don't think there

was a clear winner either way.

I think both sides had to take concessions and they, and they did.

And the biggest, the biggest winner is Robin Voss, who made sure $78 million is going

to his alma mater, UW Whitewater, and Mr. Voss happens to have 23 rental properties in

Whitewater for college students.

So that, that's going to work.

Okay, for him, I think.

Well, I don't know coming up, we have the news.

After that word, I talk about the economy.

Stock market is happy.

Stay close.

This is Asgos Wisconsin.

You're listening to the Civic Media Radio Network.

I can't say bad at all.

I don't want to be here.

Tonight, I'm here.

I gotta leave the night off.

I'm gonna show you now.

I'm fine.

Just enjoy yourself.

I'm living all the while.

Never mind.

I'm still a man.

Justin Jane Mattner.

In for Kristen Breyer.

Carol Cain is with me in studio.

Calvin is on the board, Greg with the day off.

Spending some time with puppy Mabel, and baking with his mother.

You can always join us.

844-967-2789.

Call and or text or leave a comment on the live stream.

As well.

If you're watching on Facebook YouTube and Twitter.

Earlier this hour, we were talking again about the efforts to ban books and reassign books

at various schools.

Lynn Bauer checking in with that.

I had suggested that if people want to ban books, then they should have to write a synopsis.

Pointing out what it is they find so objectionable, Lynn says that's a great idea.

If they want a book band, they should follow some protocol, synopsis, a proper APA sighting

of objectionable passages, pulling a list of books to ban off a website is what should

be banned.

Lynn also says, Carol, I was assigned Chaucer's Nuns Tale while that was hot.

It's pretty, it's pretty saucy, spicy stuff, Lynn.

Absolutely.

Anyway, you can always join us at 844-967-2789.

Dow Jones industrial average closed yesterday at a record high stock market is happy.

The Federal Reserve indicating it might start easing interest rates in 2024, and there

may be no more interest rate hikes.

Okay.

That's a good thing.

Yeah.

I got to be honest with you, I kind of glaze over when it comes to investments and stuff

like that.

That's why I hired a guy.

You know, DJ will call me every now and then and he's like, okay, I'm going to make

some changes.

Do whatever you need.

I trust you.

Right?

I'm like you.

I'm not that I don't watch things that closely and I certainly don't do trades on my own

or anything like that.

Right.

I am not qualified to do that.

I'm hoping that all this kind of that the silver lot because I know that there are people

out there drowning in credit card debt.

Yes.

Absolutely drowning in credit card debt.

So if we can, I would think that would be one of the first things that you should do

if the if this is the positive way of that we're moving is like get that stuff paid

off.

Absolutely.

Article from CBS News actually talks about what we should be doing with our money now.

If this is going to happen and the Fed is finally going to stop hiking rates and they

were doing that to slow inflation.

And it does seem like that has gotten more under control than it was.

But that is one of your suggestions in this article is to pay off that credit card debt.

And maybe I'm really naive because I only have one credit card.

Oh, I didn't realize that interest rates are like 25%.

It can be party high.

I have more than one credit card.

I hate to even tell you probably how many I have, but I pay them off every month if

I use them.

Yeah.

I do too.

I don't like I don't roll anything over.

It's just like if I like my washing machine or my TV, it was a big ticket item.

Yes.

So I just had to go my savings account and take it out and pay it off.

You know.

That's what it is.

You get those late.

Yeah.

If you turn over too much of a balance, you cannot.

You cannot get by on making minimum payments, the minimum payment because you will never

pay off.

You will never pay it off.

And my husband made some really stupid decisions, really stupid.

And I'm paying for it.

Like he, this was my, when we first got married, now I've kind of rained him in a little

bit, but this wasn't lose favorite line.

They get their money eventually.

That's probably not the right attitude to him.

No, no, it wasn't.

Yeah.

Calvin, how many credit cards do you have?

And I'm curious if you, if you know what the interest rate is, I have one and I'm not

sure what the interest rate is.

And do you carry a balance from month to month?

Yes.

You do.

Okay.

Again, according to this article from CBS News, if you have $5,000 in credit card debt

in an interest rate of 24.5%, will you'll pay $1,497 in interest?

Yeah.

And it will take 26 months to pay, to pay down the balance if you make payments of 250

bucks.

26 months.

Yeah.

That's huge.

Yeah.

I mean, it's not, and it's understandable.

I do, because, and I, things have been expensive when I, when I got out of college and I got

into radio, I, I made nothing literally nothing.

I remember.

And I was right there with right exactly.

And the only way that I could exist was by using my credit card and then continuing with

the balance.

But I don't know, I don't know.

That whole by now pay later thing can really trip you up.

Absolutely.

And again, unless you really understand just how much interest you're going to be paying

before you even start paying down the principle that you owe.

Right.

But it can, it can be really daunting to wrap your head around this expert from Harris

financial group says to a lot of people need to build back their savings now because most

people are working, they're not terribly worried if their savings accounts are depleted.

That's not good.

No.

You need to, you need to have, at least, and I know this is a big stretch because a lot

of people don't even have 500 bucks in the bank.

Right.

I like to keep it up around 5,000.

Oh, sure.

Just in case.

Right.

Just in case.

My dryer is dead.

My, you know, there, those things, my garage door opener, you're, you're, you're

bored.

Yeah.

He's dead.

So that's, you know, he already knows it.

That's not like I'm spilling any beans.

That's his big Christmas present.

I'm just going, I have to fix it.

It's a new, he's getting a new, your husband's getting a new garage door.

Yeah.

There's nothing wrong with that.

Well, it's, it's just the, it's the next thing, you know, I've had to replace the

washing machine.

I've had to replace the TV and now the damn garage door, being a homeowner and, you know,

what though?

I hope that with this moving in this positive direction, it might make home ownership

for some people a little bit more realistic.

Let's hope.

Yeah.

The mortgage rates are going to come down because it's a steep hill to climb to get into

the housing market.

I, I think we still have the issue with having enough inventory for people who want to

buy a house.

Right.

Because old people like us are not leaving our houses.

Yes.

I know.

Because we speak for yourself because we, I don't know where we would go.

Well, I couldn't, I know, I, and that's, that's a problem for sure because what I could

get from my house probably at this particular juncture could be substantial because I've

got a big lot and, you know, and the area that I live in.

But where am I going to go for and not have to pay, you know, everything or and take out

a new mortgage.

Right.

Yeah.

Another thing this article suggests that some wise things you may want to consider about

your money.

So CDs, certificates of deposits have been having some pretty good interest rates.

That might be an attractive place to sock some money, but they do say now is the time

to lock in some of those rates before those start coming down.

So you're, if you're going to get a, get a CD, you may want to do that.

Now some of them paying up to close to 5% for five years.

But that will be hard to achieve once the Fed starts cutting interest rates.

Right.

And if you have questions, just go to your financial advisor or your bank and sit down with

a banker and just go, I don't know what I'm doing.

There's no, there's no heart.

There's no shame in that.

No, no.

So I'm really not.

No.

I just want to make sure that what I'm doing is smart and beneficial for my situation.

And I, there is your absolute, there is no shame in admitting that you don't know something.

And for something as important as your money and investments, right.

If you don't understand it, I certainly have a very limited grasp.

So yes, you want to talk to someone, a financial advisor.

Just find somebody that you trust, like DJ, my DJ, who I've known for, he babysat Elizabeth

when she was a baby.

Oh, wow.

So then when I found out, so I really trust him.

So when I found out that this is what he did for a living, I ran, not walked to his

financial institution and said, take my money, please.

There.

You do something with that.

Take my money.

Mm-hmm.

844-967-2789-844-96 party.

If you want to check in any suggestions on what you are doing with your money, 844-967-2789.

Coming up, we're going to talk.

I don't understand how this is even allowed to be sold to children.

There is a children's toy that is being taken off the market from,

Wal-Mart's and Targets because of the risk it poses to children and I'm just dumbfounded.

Yeah.

Me too.

That any toy manufacturer looked at this thing and said, that's a good idea.

We need to market this to really small children.

What could possibly go wrong?

Everything.

Yeah.

Everything and more.

You had two kids.

They're adults now.

Right.

Everything goes in their mouths.

Everything goes in their mouth.

Everything goes up their nose.

Everything goes in their ears.

You know, I mean, that's just what kids do.

But once again, let me reestablish that I probably wasn't the best parent in the world.

But I can tell you this, I never gave my children something a toy.

I took marbles away from them because I could see Alex swallowing them.

Absolutely.

And, you know, it's just like, little stuff like that, you have to be vigilant and watch

and make sure that they're not getting into something that they are not supposed to

be in.

Look what we've gone through with the laundry pods.

Oh, yeah.

They're bright.

They're colorful.

They're squishy.

Let's see what it tastes like.

Yeah.

No kidding.

So neither Alex or Liz ever got like a pee up the nose and you had to go to the doctor

with a forceps and or their ear or anything like that.

No, no, Toddler for stories of we might.

He might have gotten his hands on a penny and it might have gotten up the nose.

I'm not going to say no to that.

You know, I mean, you can do your best to protect, but like these things that we're going

to talk about, I wouldn't even lose around my dog.

No, I agree.

And again, what kind of review process this stuff has to go through?

I just find it.

It's the outling that it was allowed to get this far.

I'd be curious.

I got to look it up because I'm not really quite sure what this kit goes for because

then if it's expensive, then it's the almighty dollar.

We don't care.

It's just okay.

We don't care about safety.

That's not our concern.

No.

Whatever happens happens.

It's all good.

Yeah.

Once it's out of this warehouse, it's in the parent's hands.

You're probably right, but again, we don't have any standards for child for children's

toys.

Um, I don't, you know, it's, I played with Jards for Pete's sake.

So did we?

You know, I mean, uh, and I wouldn't, when, when Alex decided that he wanted to snowboard

or skateboard, he looked like an oompa loompa by the time he got on the darn thing because

I had the pads and the helmet and the clothes or this or that, you know, everything was.

I had it covered because I'm like, he's going to take a tumble.

I know he is.

Oh, yeah.

But I have to make sure that he's at least not going to kill himself.

Um, I let that to football.

It is interesting, though, when we look back at the things that our parents allowed us

to play with because we played with Jards too.

And as I got older and I started thinking about it, I kind of assumed their logic was

like, well, we have six of them.

If we lose one or two, well, well, big of a loss is that that stabbed, you know, stabbed

in the chest in the backyard with a Jard.

That's hilarious.

That's a Kathleen Madigan, that's a comedian.

She came from a family of eight, she was like, yeah, you know, you lose a couple.

We still got, we still got more.

It's all going to be good.

Just a reminder that coming up at 11 o six, as she does every Thursday at that time, we

will be joined by Dr. Kristen Liarly for public service announcements.

She's always willing to answer your questions.

If you have questions about health, it doesn't have to be just about women's health.

She can address all kinds of things.

So if you have a question, you want to text that in, do it right now at 844-967-2799.

Right.

You know, I should get answer those questions because she's a doctor.

She's a doctor and she's been, she was educated to be a doctor.

Yeah.

And in all honesty, I don't know where and when my husband did this, but somewhere down

the road, he went to Costa Rica or something and he got his medical license and his veterinary

license because he knows everything.

Trust me.

You know, I'm like, I'm like, what is, where did you become a vet?

You know, come on.

He is a certificate from Costa Rica.

No.

I'm, I mean facetious.

But you know, like he'll say stuff to me and I'll go, when did you get your MD?

You know, come on.

Really?

Children's toys.

That's coming up next.

You're listening to Asco's Wisconsin State Close.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Good morning, welcome to Asco's Wisconsin Jane Metnaire.

I'm in for Kristen Brie, Carol Canis with me in studio, that Calvin running the board

and you can always join us at 844-967-2789 or watch us on the live stream and leave a comment

there.

If you're watching on Facebook, YouTube and or Twitter.

This jumped out at me yesterday, Amazon target and Walmart have voluntarily stopped selling

water beads marketed for kids after there was a call.

To ban them, they're these tiny, and I'm talking tiny balls, right, right, made out of

this extremely absorbent material.

So when they're exposed, when they're exposed to liquid, they can expand to 100 times the

initial size and weight, right.

So you get a bag of these and they're supposed to be good for kids to help them with counting.

You can have 25, 50 or 75,000 of these eansy, beansy beads in a bag.

Uh, it's, no, they're not labeled as dangerous to small children.

There's no warning and they're not hard to get.

No, they're not hard to get and the thing is that, you know, you're a parent for a reason,

you know, I mean, you've had these children, you have to protect them.

If you go up to these things, I don't care how much the kid begs for these things.

You go up and you take a look at it and go, no, not a chance, no, not a chance.

You want to help with counting.

You can do that with all kinds of other things, you know, I mean, Alex, when he was, when

he was younger, um, he had trouble in school and so what did I do?

I got the phonics game and we played every day, you know, uh, so there are ways around

the counting or whatever.

That's just an excuse as far as I'm concerned.

I, I agree with you.

Yeah, they're sold as kids toys to promote counting or to develop motor skills, but they

don't show, because they're mostly made up of water, typical x-rays don't necessarily

see them.

The beads can cause severe discomfort, vomiting, dehydration, intestinal blockages if these

are ingested by children.

Well, and they have found them in the intestinal track of, of toddlers and young people.

There is absolutely no way, no way this should be allowed around an 18 month old, no way,

because they're going to eat it.

I would say even under four, yeah, you even give this to a child under four.

I probably wouldn't do the only child that would get something like this for me would

be like a 10 year old, anything under 10, forget it, um, because they just don't understand

and like, it's pretty and it's shiny and it's, you know, it's a little squishy.

Yeah.

So I'm going to eat it.

No, you're not, you know, I just going by the big play school toy that they can't hurt

them.

Get, go get the fort, go get the princess castle or something.

It didn't even find that with, you know, with dolls and little shoes, you have to take

all those little accessories off and you have to watch like if they're removable eyes,

yep.

You have to be careful with, uh, let, yeah, like you said, the accessories, the shoes,

the, um, you know, even what about Lego?

You have to be really careful with those little, those little tiny, tiny Legos.

Yeah.

Um, uh, even you've got Lincoln logs and they have little connectors and, listen, me,

I don't even know if kids play with Lincoln logs anymore.

Resident young person Calvin, have you even heard of Lincoln logs?

We had Lincoln logs at my grandma's house.

Great.

Now I could be his grandma.

Well, we could both be his grandma.

That's fine.

I don't have a problem with that.

No, no.

So you, I mean, you just, you have to be vigilant.

That's part of being a pair.

Now I understand that a lot of people can't be around their kids 24, seven and you

have to kind of like, but then you sit down with them and go, this does not go in your

mouth.

Well, and something like this, again, if you're getting 75,000 of these expandable beads

in a bag, that's kind of like putting a bomb in the room with your child.

Right.

Sold us children's toys and some resembling candy.

What could go wrong?

Most recently in September, Buffalo games recalled their chuckle and war of roar, ultimate

water, bead activity kits after one infant death was reported.

Does it have you been able to, if I haven't been able to find out what this thing goes

for that I have not either, but at least at this point, Amazon, Target and Walmart have

all voluntarily stopped selling them, which is good.

Right.

One less hazard to keep out of your household, holy moly, I'm looking at an X-ray and again,

they're teeny tiny until they're exposed to water and then they grow to 100 times their

regular size.

I mean, this kid must have eaten the whole kit.

Oh gosh.

I've never seen anything like it in my life.

That's just, and how, I mean, nothing short of surgery is going to get that stuff out

of there.

I mean, it's not like, you know, if you're not going to pass it, right, right.

Oh, I guess you could try, or you could try, but you're probably not going to end well.

So I just, I mean, you just have to really, especially now, because this is toy season,

you have to be very, very vigilant as to what do you give to your children?

Well, and apparently we have to be extra vigilant because there was no flag on this

product by the toy company that made it or any kind of safety commission to say, yeah,

this seems like a bad idea.

I mean, I'm no brain surgeon, but I can just look at this and go, this is nothing but

disaster written all over it.

And maybe it's just our age because I know certainly kids, our age would end up

getting a pee stuck up their nose or something stuck in their ear or, you know, things like that.

But at least those were organic things to get stuck.

I don't know. Is that better?

I just think that something like this, those screams, they're going to eat it.

Be very, very careful. Just and again, I apparently have a lot more of the

responsibilities is not going to be on these toy companies.

It's going to be on us as consumers. So take a real close look at that box.

See what the recommended ages are and then make your own determination from there.

Yep, stay close. Coming up.

The news is on the way when we return.

Dr. Kristen Liarly will be here for our public service announcements.

This is Asgos, Wisconsin. You're listening across the Civic Media Radio Network.

You're listening across the Civic Media Radio Network.