Monarchy is Anti-democratic

This article claims that monarchy is not dictatorship in that there are limits on a monarch's powers. "Monarchy is the vestment of State power in one person. Monarchs are usually known as kings or queens. This is distinguished from a dictatorship, however, in that there are limits on the ruler's powers, whether this be due to tradition, a body of nobles who have some claims on the monarchy (as in much of feudal Europe), or a parliament to which the monarch is actually subservient (as in modern European constitutional monarchies)."

However, that ignores absolute monarchy, which exists for example in Saudi Arabia. Even a prime minister under a representative democracy fits the definition of monarchy provided above.

Children Addicted to Smartphones

Today I went to Medicare to get a refund for a consultation with an oral surgeon. While there I noticed the place was packed with families. While waiting, I sat down next to a mother with two children, a boy and a girl. I noticed that both these children were playing games on their own smartphones. After getting my refund, I went to my father's house and passed an empty playground. When I arrived at my father's house, I noticed that all three children in his house were each playing games, one on a laptop, another on a desktop computer, and another on a smartphone. I can see the allure of these gadgets that double up as babysitters and as pacifiers. If children start to go wild and crazy, giving them a smartphone to play will make them completely silent.

I had lunch with my father and he brought along his five-year-old daughter who is my younger half-sister. We didn't know where to eat, but the little girl was insistent that we eat at McDonald's, and so off we went to McDonald's. When we got to McDonald's my half-sister was keen to play on the playground and even while she played on a playground for a while she made a new friend.