Chicago schools ban lunches brought from home

Labels: Education, Kids, ObamaNation, Social Observation

Last Thursday, CNN reported that a Florida legislator has proposed a bill that would have public school teachers issuing a grade to parents. Yes, grading the parents. HB 255 provides that “each prekindergarten through grade 3 student report card shall include a section in which the teacher grades the parental involvement as satisfactory, needs improvement, or unsatisfactory…” based on criteria set by the bill.

The whole idea of setting up public schools as overseers of parents is one more sign that American parental rights are in danger. Parents should not have to answer to government agents unless and until there is solid evidence of abuse or neglect on the part of that parent. Giving a grade to every parent clearly violates this constitutional principle.

In fact, this bill would espouse the same foundational principle as the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child: assume that all parents are bad parents, and that only government oversight can save our children from parental incompetence.

Totalitarian regimes are built on assumed guilt; the nanny state determines which citizens do or do not require their “services.” Florida’s bill would establish a system to do the same. A free nation, on the other hand, operates on the assumption of innocence until proven guilty. Parents do not need government intervention (interference) unless there is proof to the contrary. The Supreme Court has held that “historically, [the law] has recognized that natural bonds of affection lead parents to act in the best interest of their children.” Parham v. J.R., 442 U.S. 584 (1979) Sadly, Florida’s proposed bill recognizes no such thing.

To find out more, and to register your concerns, go here.

Labels: Education, ObamaNation, Social Observation, Theater of the Absurd

Second, I've resolved to give my best shot to re-learning to play the cello. I mentioned that I have a friend who has graciously loaned me her beautiful instrument to use while she travels (cellos are notoriously hard to travel with) and I am taking this opportunity seriously. I've purchased some materials to help me and I'm hoping that before time to return this beauty, I'll know whether it will be worth it for me to make the investment in buying my own cello. At my age I know that it will be hard work and will require a disciplined schedule, but something in me says it's time. Or rather, that it's now or never  :-)

I love YNAB. You will too. And this is a great month to try it.

No, my decorations are not put away. But other New Year's Eve rituals were accomplished: putting up six new calendars (I'm a calendar freak, and if it weren't for what other people think I'd probably have twice as many); donating half a closet of clothes to charity; throwing away two large bags of stuff from our room that we don't want or need; changing the checkbook to a fresh book of checks to start the new year (though nowadays it takes half a year to go through one pad!); sharpening several new pencils and taking stock of other office supplies; setting up new schedules for work, school, household responsibilities, etc. I'm ready for 2011!

May you have a beautiful and blessed New Year, building on the foundation laid for you in God's excellent Word:

Labels: Books, Family, Food, Holidays, Music, ObamaNation, Political Observation, Sports, Weather

Government by regulation. Shhhh.

Labels: ObamaNation

FLOTUS on the care and feeding of your children

Labels: ObamaNation, Theater of the Absurd

Labels: Money, ObamaNation, Political Observation

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said using a cell phone while driving is so dangerous that devices may soon be installed in cars to forcibly stop drivers — and potentially anyone else in the vehicle — from using them.

“There’s a lot of technology out there now that can disable phones and we’re looking at that,” said LaHood on MSNBC. LaHood said the cellphone scramblers were one way, and also stressed the importance of “personal responsibility.” …

“I think it will be done,” said LaHood. “I think the technology is there and I think you’re going to see the technology become adaptable in automobiles to disable these cell phones. We need to do a lot more if were going to save lives.”

Labels: ObamaNation, Theater of the Absurd

Labels: ObamaNation, Political Observation, Theater of the Absurd

From the administration that brought you "man-caused disaster" and "overseas contingency operation," another terminology change is in the pipeline.

The White House wants the public to start using the term "global climate disruption" in place of "global warming" -- fearing the latter term oversimplifies the problem and makes it sound less dangerous than it really is.

White House: Global Warming Out, 'Global Climate Disruption' In

Labels: ObamaNation, Theater of the Absurd

Should we have been so rough on a lack of decorum and so easy on outright deceit?


On Obamacare, Wilson was rude but right

Labels: ObamaNation, Theater of the Absurd

I haven't had much time to blog lately, what with all the medical tests, starting school, and getting ready for travel. But once in a while it's important for me to stop and share bits of cogency that are getting all too rare. Here's one by Thomas Sowell, one of the sages of our time:

Dismantling America

Labels: ObamaNation, Political Observation

Returned from my WONDERFUL stay in Virginia last week and ended up going straight from the airport to the emergency room with a scare that was, thankfully, over in 24 hours. I was afraid my infection had returned or that I had again fractured something, but both those possibilities were quickly ruled out. Other than that, the trip was such a joy...got to spend some good time with Erin, Judah, new baby Savannah, and, of course, their parents.

Tomorrow, we start Year 26 of our homeschooling journey with only two (male) students. After missing so much of last year I am chomping at the bit to get started. Can't say as much for said male students, but I'll have 'em on my team in no time.

This week was momentous for our country, and not in a good way. We've now installed on the Supreme Court a woman whom I firmly believe is in the "enemy camp" as far as matters of morals, the Constitution, economics, and the role of government in our lives. Yes, elections have consequences...and those who were so keen on voting for Obama just to say we'd elected a black president forget that his choices for the court will outlive his term by a factor of ten. And we can't un-elect her.

At O'Hare airport last week, I made an uncharacteristic impulse purchase of a book I had seen on the bestseller list and started reading it during my trip. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger (author of The Time Traveler's Wife) is a fairly mindless but pleasant modern "ghost story" with a lot of interesting characters and some occasionally inspired writing. It's been a nice foil for my rather plodding trip through Herodotus.

URGENT REQUEST: Please, please check now to find your state's voting schedule for November. If you want to vote early or need to vote absentee because you'll be out of town on November 2, then find out NOW what the deadlines are, mark them on your calendar, and send yourself email reminders with the pertinent dates. Then use your blog, Facebook, Twitter, and every other means you can think of to remind people in your state what those deadlines are. Every vote matters, and only by restoring a Congress who respects the Constitution can we have any hope of stopping our slide into the abyss. (Here's the schedule for Texas)

And at the risk of sounding like a broken (vinyl) record, download a copy of Atlas Shrugged onto your iPod, iPhone, iPad, or Kindle, or get the book from Amazon now and increase your awareness of just how close we are to a socialist state and how quick the trip will be to totalitarianism.

From the recent annals of nationalized health care in the country that our decision-makers (read: High Priests of Obamacare) worship, there's this tragedy, coming soon to a country and hospital very near you. May God have mercy on all the little humans born before 24 weeks.

Guacamole? Yes. Please.

I spent quite a bit of time this past week listening to clips of madrigals, an early music form that shaped much of my music education. Just listening made me feel young again.

Said I wouldn't do it, but I did. Signed up for Netflix again. I vowed that I wouldn't do it until they stop using pop-up ads to advertise, and they haven't stopped. But what they have done is made a lot of the stuff I want to see instantly available through streaming and I could no longer resist. Last night I watched the first episode of the mini-series Pillars of the Earth. I loved the book, and unlike with many book-to-movie/TV conversions, I was not disappointed. Looking forward to the next parts.

I'm off to finish up plans for tomorrow...I hope that whenever you're starting your school year, you're as enthusiastic about it as I am! Have a great week!

Labels: Books, Family, Food, Homeschooling, Music, ObamaNation, Political Action, Political Observation, Sundays

Oh, and just in case you think the government doesn't have the power or intend to regulate farm dust, catch this juicy morsel from a man who accidentally spoke the truth:

Labels: ObamaNation, Political Observation

Next up on the priority list of The One and his Merry Band of Outlaws: Outlaw Farm Dust. No really, there's got to be a way to farm without all that mess, and they're going to penalize you or even put you out of business if you can't find a way to do it, uh, hygienically. And why should we be surprised?

(You ARE reading or listening to Atlas Shrugged, right?)

EPA to Crack Down on Farm Dust

Labels: ObamaNation, Theater of the Absurd

Readers here know that I've used whatever influence I may have to encourage the reading of Atlas Shrugged during this pivotal time in our nation's history. Some are put off by its age, its length, its occasional irreverence, or the questionable character of its author. I don't think these are good enough excuses: there are ways the novel can open eyes that the newspaper can't. If you're still resisting, read the following piece from Investor's Business Daily.

Atlas Shrugged's Timeless Moral: Profit-making is Virtue, Not Vice

Then go buy or download your copy of this important and timeless work...

Labels: Books, ObamaNation

Monday morning required reading for voters:

William Voegeli has bad tidings for advocates of limited government and low taxes: There is no endgame when it comes to the liberal agenda.

If tomorrow, liberals in Congress, state legislatures, and town councils all across the nation raised taxes and increased spending in order to fund every single item on every special-interest wish list, would social-justice nirvana have arrived? No.

Within hours, some liberal would find an unmet need - perhaps a champagne shortage due to the previous day's celebrations - that only a new government program could address.

Read the entire (short) piece.

Back Channels: The liberal roadblocks to shrinking government

Labels: ObamaNation, Political Observation, Social Observation

Entering this 26th year of homeschooling, I'm having some of the most fun ever getting ready for the new semester. Events in my life made planning for last year totally impossible, and we relied on the help of others and the seat of our pants to get through the year. While I'm grateful for all the ways God provided through my crisis, I'm so ready to get back into the role of planning and teaching. With only four years left in this journey, I am going to savor each moment...

As far as reading, I'm deep into The Histories of Herodotus, marveling at how human nature never changes, and how human idiosyncrasies get passed down through the millennia so that traits of certain peoples are recognizable even now. I'm also reading an interesting little volume that we'll be studying in history this fall, Faith in the Age of Reason: The Enlightenment from Galileo to Kant, by Jonathan Hill. And I'm listening to the audio version of Charles Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby, mostly while I ride the bike at physical therapy.

All right, I try not to complain about the weather here. When I hear people fussing about the heat I always think, "Okay, what did you think you were going to get in south Texas?" But today the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak and can I just say, I HATE THIS!

But I might be willing to forget it for a few hours if I had some Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies. And milk.

If you see me on Facebook you might already know about my big accomplishment of the year: climbing an entire flight of stairs and coming back down again, ALONE! This is something I've rarely done in the past decade, and only when absolutely necessary. Today, though, I did it so that I could pay a surprise visit to Aubrey, who is still upstairs-bound in her house following her recent surgery. (My kids are going to be shaking in their boots flip-flops when they realize I might actually see the state of things on our second floor in the next few days...)

And speaking of flip-flops (slippers, for our Hawaii family), can you wear them to church and still go to heaven? Is that in one of the creeds? Just askin'.

Be watching and listening in the next few months as the Obamadministration starts replacing "Freedom of Religion" with the substantively different "Freedom of Worship." It might sound like an innocuous change, but words matter. And this change will definitely matter.

And just in case the whole idea of religion offends you and you're ready to take action to get rid of the nasty feel of the baptismal waters on your head (or your whole body, if you're Baptist), a spokesman for the American Atheists is available to perform the sacrament (or sacrilege, depending on your own personal convictions, because it might be right for you and wrong for me) of de-baptism. With a hairdryer. Bring your own conditioner and mousse.

Wedding plans are proceeding with vigor at Granny's House. CJ and Tony have finished registering for home furnishings, doing it pretty much all online, as 21st century couples are tending to do more and more. At least if they disagree about colors they don't have to do it with an audience :-)

And tomorrow, we'll meet with our friend Garfield to talk about landscaping our front yard and deck area for the wedding. We won't get started on the actual work until September, but we want to have a great plan in place way before then!

From this morning's worship at Covenant of Grace...

May His beauty rest upon me
as I seek the lost to win,
and may they forget the channel,
seeing only Him.

(from "May the Mind of Christ My Savior", Kate B. Wilkinson, 1925)

Snip, snip, that's all for this week!

Labels: Health, Homemaking, Homeschooling, ObamaNation, Sundays, Theater of the Absurd, Weather, Weddings

Saturday morning required reading for the intellectually engaged:

Rules of an unengaged president by Mark Steyn

Labels: ObamaNation

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration's flagship effort to help people in danger of losing their homes is falling flat.

More than a third of the 1.24 million borrowers who have enrolled in the $75 billion mortgage modification program have dropped out. That's more than the 27 percent who have managed to have their loan payments reduced to help them keep their homes.

Last month alone, 150,000 borrowers left the program -- bringing the total to 436,000 who have exited since it began in March 2009.

Administration officials say borrowers will get help in other ways. But analysts fear the majority will still wind up in foreclosure.

So...do the taxpayers get their money back?

Borrowers exit troubled Obama mortgage program

Labels: Money, ObamaNation, Theater of the Absurd

Recovery is coming along very nicely. The Papa commented a few minutes ago that he's still amazed at how different this one's been compared to all the other surgeries when it took so much longer to bounce back. I appreciate the thousands of prayers that have been prayed for me in the past six months and I believe that THIS is the reason behind the positive outcome. Because there's no other explanation for it. (And even if there were, I'd still believe that God was listening to the prayers of his people!)

Despite the smooth sailing the past couple of weeks, I became aware during the first few days of walking that the difference in the length of my legs is significant enough that I will not be able to walk without shoe lifts. And I don't mean inserts...it's more of a difference than I can compensate for with anything inside the shoe. While I'm not happy about this, I will certainly accept the inconvenience in trade for the pain I've been in for so many years. It won't be easy to give up flip-flops and bare feet, though...

Years ago I played the cello. And I would still rather hear it played than any other instrument except the piano.

I'm deep in books at the moment, getting school all planned for the fall and ordering supplies. I've said before how much I LOVE this part of homeschooling and will have to find a way to get this "fix" even after my kids have all graduated. Maybe I'll hire myself out for school planning, or maybe I'll just force my way into my grandkids' education. The job already takes me a lot less time than it used to: our last remaining students are 9th and 11th grade boys this year. Honey, we shrunk the school!

So as if we didn't already KNOW Tiger was a mere mortal....

While it's been a given for several months that the Democrats will lose a lot of seats in Congress in November, this week it seemed there was a tipping point where an avalanche of observers believe they could lose both houses. I believe this is so important that every voter should be planning now to make sure his/her voice is heard, not only by voting but by writing letters, volunteering, and praying. I'll be using my voice in a variety of ways to install a Senate and House that has the muscle and the guts to repeal every tenet of Obamacism passed in 2009-10.

I'm enjoying the new Next Food Network Star and HGTV's Design Star seasons.

Wedding plans here continue. This week we ordered bridesmaids' dresses and made some other decisions. What a joyful time!

Last night we shared a neat experience with all of our kids and grandkids who are 10 years old and up. We went to a Brasilian "churrascaria," Chama Gaucha, and had one of the most wonderful dinners I've ever eaten. We used this opportunity for an early celebration of Father's Day and my birthday, both falling on the same day this year. This night out was a gift from our dear friend Steph K., via gift cards that we received for Christmas but because of certain unfortunate circumstances was delayed for six months. The waiting only made it sweeter and it was better than we could have imagined. Thank you, Steph!



It's the longest day of the year...Carpe diem!

Labels: Food, Health, Holidays, Music, ObamaNation, Political Action, TV, Weddings