Dear Mr. President,

Some children don't have the benefit of caring adults who have the time, resources, knowledge and patience to provide them with real life learning opportunities / one on one attention / enriching educational experiences. Therefore, let's keep all of them, including the majority who do have those benefits, cooped up in classrooms all day everyday where they don't have the resources or staff necessary to provide them with all of those things. What? That doesn't make sense?

P.S. Oh? You have an idea as to how to get them the resources? Ha. Haha. Hahaha. Riiiiight. I trust your financial decisions about as often as I let my 2 year old eat silver dollars covered in used motor oil.

P.P.S. In case you're wondering, I never let her do that.

P.P.P.S. Performance on standardized tests does not indicate actual knowledge, critical thinking skills, creativity, ingenuity, or other vital skills for making it in a 21st century global economy. It indicates performance on standardized tests. Also did you ever think that perhaps our reliance on standardized tests has harmed our education system? Didja?

P.P.P.P.S. What may be good for inner city Chicago can in many cases be bad in small town Utah. Perhaps that's why the founding fathers left educational decisions to the states. *Shrug* They may have been on to something. And by that I mean get your enormous, smelly, federal feet out of local government problems and allow the critical thinking, ingenuity, creativity, and hard work of the American People solve them without any more nice-idea-rotten-implementation-federal red tape. Please.

Wait just a minute...

Before you decide you're not happy with our president elect and you're moving to Canada, read this. (Fair warning: if you're like me you might wish you were listening to fingernails on a chalk board rather than reading it.) I know it's close to home and you won't have to learn another language, but you might not find what you're looking for. (That is if you're looking for someone more conservative than Obama, Biden, Pelosi, and Reid.) Is there a place where capitalism is alive and well? A place where people don't hate the rich purely because they have more money than you have? A place where hard work is rewarded and we don't despise those who have achieved the American dream and tax them until they lose it?

Although Courtlin thinks I'm crazy far right, I want you to know:

I'm not joining any anti-Obama facebook groups. I think that's in poor taste, not to mention completely useless.

I'm still hopeful. The constitution is inspired by God. He said so. And in it are measures to make sure that the president you disagree with can't go too terribly far.

These election results have kicked me in the behind to get my food storage. I fully expect a massive decline in the GDP and a massive increase in inflation due to the bailout + the unwise Obama tax policy. Anything that inspires you to do good, right?

I also remain an optomist and feel that some good will come of this. I have a whole post planned about that, but I don't think I'll write it today.

And, I voted for 2 democrats. I'm not one of those silly people who think that a little 'R' (or a little 'D' for that matter) means someone must agree with me.

Boiling

I was talking to my liberal/hippie sister the other day about how we disagree on a whole lot politically, and that's a credit to our parents for teaching us how to think. Now, of course, she thinks wrong, so that's not much of a credit, but . . . ;) Just kidding, Brecken.

One thing that really gets my dander up is politically indoctrinating children. Especially when it's done in public schools. Children are really good at pointing out supposed breaches of the separation of church and state, but I'm pretty sure they don't catch on to when someone is trying to get them to believe in communism. For instance, once a student in my classroom in a casual conversation to another mentioned the role of Diety in the world. Another shushed him, looked around hoping no one had heard, and said in a whisper, "You can't talk about God in school or you'll get arrested." These were not 5 year olds, in fact they were 12.

I don't really have any personal experience with political indoctrination, but I can imagine how it would go. As a very loose example, when I was in 4th grade my teacher, on a tangent, talked about her beliefs about taxes (a typical middle left ideology) and for years I just assumed that everything she had said was right. She was my teacher and I loved her, and it all sounded right. I don't think she was trying to push her ideas onto us, but that was the effect.

So, my blood really started to boil when I read this article. It's a long one, so let me summarize the part that got to me. Whether or not Barak Obama is friends with Bill Ayers, while serving with him on that school comittee (Chicago Annenberg Challenge education-reform project) the comittee gave $1,056,162 to the Small Schools Workshop, a program Ayers and Klonsky (a man more communist that the current Chinese government) founded together. Their program supports schools that urge "teachers not to mince words with children about the evils of the existing social order. They should portray 'homelessness as a consequence of the private dealings of landlords, an arms buildup as a consequence of corporate decisions, racial exclusion as a consequence of a private property-holder’s choice.' In other words, they should turn the little ones into young socialists and critical theorists." (As observed by Sol Stern.) Obama went on to serve on the board of the Joyce and Woods fund which gave more money to this indoctrination system. All together Obama participated on boards that gave $1,968,718 to turn children into socialists.

Let me be clear. People have a right to a socialist or even a communist ideology if they so choose. However, it is NOT acceptable to buy children's minds to indoctrinate with your ideology. The article did not make it clear of these schools were charter schools (basically public schools with a twist) or private schools. At least I couldn't find it. If they were charter schools I consider the activity dispicable. If they were private, my view depends on where the money came from originally. However, in either case I can no longer support any part of Obama's education plan.

Given the Choice...

Would you rather have $1000 from the government or a part time job? I'm curious.

My Two Cents

I spent at least 4 minutes writing this thing for an internet forum I participate in, so I thought I ought to give it a second audience. I had previously mentioned that I take issue with Obama's lack of respect for the family. Someone asked what I meant, since Obama and Biden officially don't support gay marriage.


My beef with Obama's family policies are primarily in his education plan. For instance:

"Zero to Five Plan: The Obama-Biden comprehensive "Zero to Five" plan will provide critical support to young children and their parents. Unlike other early childhood education plans, the Obama-Biden plan places key emphasis at early care and education for infants, which is essential for children to be ready to enter kindergarten. Obama and Biden will create Early Learning Challenge Grants to promote state "zero to five" efforts and help states move toward voluntary, universal pre-school."

Parents already believe that preschool is better than not. That may be true if the alternate is daycare. It is NOT true if the alternate is a mother. So, all of these mothers send their kids to preschool (many of them sacrificing other things in order to afford it) when actually they would be a better option. (One on one is better than 3 of 20.) I realize that there are parents who are working multiple jobs to make ends meet, and thus can't dedicate the time to parenting they might like, and that is why I support headstart programs, however I oppose programs that will make parents believe (falsely) that the government can do a better job educating their children. Especially if they are trying to tell them that they should have your children from infancy. That makes me want to slug somebody. (Disclaimer: there are many reasons to send a child to preschool, and in some cases it is a good option. I only take issue with the belief that preschool can educate better than mothers. It is not true.)

Also, this statement:

"From the moment our children step into a classroom, the single most important factor in determining their achievement is their teacher" (found multiple times on Barack's site) goes a long way discounting the role of the family. Not to mention that it's a big fat lie. As a teacher and a mother and a daughter, the single most important factor to a child's achievement is their parents. Ask any teacher, they will agree. Teachers have a lot of power, but not nearly as much as even the father who left the family and doesn't pay child support, let alone the parents who help their children with homework.

I am glad that Obama has decided that he can give up what I suspect are his true belief's regarding gay marriage in order to get the independent vote. However, I'm thinking that gay marriage is most likely to come from the supreme court, not congress. Therefore, I'm not liking voting for someone who will appoint judges that will most likely have an easier time acting on their belief in gay marriage than someone who has to get elected.

Lastly, I feel that his policies on women will nudge women out of the home needlessly. As an optimist recently coming from the bubble, I like to think that the great majority of the unequal numbers of women vs. men in the workplace come because women have a natural understanding that it's really important for them to be mothers. I'm sure some of the discrepency comes from discrimination, etc., but I think there are few women CEO's because women decide it's not worth giving up their family to work 90 hours a week to get to the top. And good for them. (And good for the men who make the same decision.) Having the government throw money at that "problem" would, I think, convince women to give up that natural righteous feeling and give up their greatest blessing for money. It's not the government's place to make sure women raise their children, but I also think it's wrong for them to pay women to let the government raise them in their behalf.

Am I alone?

Am I the only one that thinks that taking $10,000 out of your retirement account right now (as Barack Obama said this morning he wants to allow you to do without a tax penalty) is a really, really bad idea? To take out that huge chunk of money now, when your retirement account is worth less than it has been worth and (hopefully) than it will be worth relatively soon. Taking out that huge chunk of money from what you're saving for your retirement. Who's going to help you when you retire? Social Security? HA!

Am I the only one who thinks if you need $10,000 to "cover your bills" you have bigger problems than the stock market crash? Perhaps a more helpful suggestion would be to cut out expenses, rather than destroy your future? In my calculations, $10,000 taken out today to "cover your normal expenses," if left in an average 401k for the next 15 years, would become $36,425. Most people will leave that money in there if the tax penalties for withdrawing early are left in place. Even people who don't take the 30 seconds to find an online 401k calculator. I would go so far as to predict that, left alone, some people would decide to stop charging their plasma TV's to credit cards, and maybe not buy another one rather than pull money from their retirement in order to support their consumer addictions. Wouldn't that be a better idea than bleeding your retirement savings?

Don't tell me that we need people to buy plasma's on credit card in order to save the economy. Baloney. Debt is what got us into this mess. Bleeding our savings will only deepen the crisis individually and nationally.

Campaigning

This song is great fun! My favorites:

"Unless you want this liberal wuss in command."
"Like the change we must change to the change we hold dear."
"Then we spin you around and poke you in the rear."

For those of delicate ears, someone does call another person a donkey named Jack.

http://www.peteyandpetunia.com/VoteHere/VoteHere.swf

Alena has just watched it intently 3 times in a row and keeps begging me to turn it on again. I guess she is a prodigy in political satire, not zoology.

Hypocrisy Politics

It's interesting to me that the conservative response to the whole "Bristol Palin is 17 and pregnant" thing is to point fingers at liberals and cry hypocrisy. It seems to me that by doing so, we avoid the real issues, and, at best appear, at worst become hypocrites ourselves.

For example:
Liberal: Having a 17 year old pregnant daughter should disqualify Sarah Palin . She should withdraw.
Conservative: But you didn't care that Bill Clinton was unfaithful, and it was him who was doing it, not his daughter. So, you're a hypocrite, and Sarah Palin rules!
Simulated liberal response: But you didn't like the whole Bill Clinton thing, so why do you still think Sarah Palin rules? Hypocrite!

I've seen many conservatives react this way, even when there's no liberal around. Perhaps we should concentrate on why this issue isn't an issue for us. There are lots of legitimate reasons to forget about the whole thing, for instance:

• It's not Sarah Palin's mistake, it's her daughter's.
  
• Bristol is taking responsibility for her actions and has chosen to act responsibly, and *gasp!* so has her boyfriend. That changes a whole lot. Even the evangelical right believes in forgiveness.
  
• It's not Sarah Palin that's pregnant. (I realize that's redundant, but isn't that the point?)
• It's opening a huge can of disgusting worms to decide that parents are responsible for all of the mistakes of their children. I think most parents, when asked if they would like to take that responsibility would say no thank you. There are loads of good parents whose children make big mistakes. Adam and Even had one.
  
• Bristol is not running for vice president, her mother is, and her mother is neither 17 nor pregnant.
  

Now, those of us fanning the fire of this hot "news" story should be ashamed of ourselves. (I guess this blog would be included in that.) For once the candidates have got it right, and they agree with each other. The media, and the rest of us should leave the children out of it. When I read that Barak Obama had said that, for the first time in my adult lifetime I was really proud of him.