...typically annoyingly good...
--Carlotta, UK home educator
...a rational, prolific, powerful web communicator...
--Tamara K. Fuller, Founders College Education, Inc.
... gives me hope that my wife and I can raise our two cambia to be upstanding citizens through educating them at home.
--Cavalor Epthith, Editor-in-Chief, The Dis Brimstone-Daily Pitchfork
Disclaimer: This is a personal website. The opinions expressed here are the author's own. Comments are not moderated and are published as a public service. All comments are the responsibility of the commenter. HE&OS assumes no responsibility for the accuracy of said comments.
Published in the State of North Carolina. Copyright 2002-2007.
Senior officials from the Bush administration and the Federal Reserve on Friday called in top executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance giants, and told them that the government was preparing to place the two companies under federal control, officials and company executives briefed on the discussions said.
Taxpayers will have to foot the 100s of millions this will cost. Bondholders will make out like bandits. That’s the GOP version of the free market at work.
I feel sorry for the kid. Hopefully, homeschooling will work out better for him. OTOH, the parents who complained ought to be covered in peanut butter and honey and tied down on a fire ant hill.
Twelve-year-old Aiden Broadhurst has lived all his life with the knowledge that he could die from anaphylaxis if he comes in contact with anything that has peanuts in it.
[snip]
The problems faced by children with anaphylaxis are made worse by people who do not understand, which is why the family has decided to speak out about Aiden’s situation, Trevor Broadhurst said.
Although most students and teachers at school were understanding, the Broadhurst family received phone calls from irate parents who objected to being told what they could include in their children’s lunches, he said.
As anyone who does home schooling knows, it is ideal to have a specific place within the house for the children to go to “school” — a place to teach and to store the materials. That is not always possible, and more frequently than not, the kitchen table converts into the workspace when needed.
Hanna is still tracking to pass right through here, but as a strong tropical storm. All hatches are battened down. Water jugs will be topped off tonight. (We’re on a well, so if we lose electricity we lose water.) We have plenty of food and the camp stove.
Even if we lose power for a day or two, I’m sure we’re ready.
Ugly layout. One click too many to access your bookmarks. And worst sin of all, the scroll wheel doesn’t function properly. Clicking it in FF either opens up a new tab (if you’re hovering over a hyperlink) or activates smooth scrolling (if you’re not). Chrome doesn’t know squat about scrolling.
Sep 3rd, 2008 | ST. PAUL, Minn. — Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani says if Sarah Palin had been president when the U.S. came under attack on Sept. 11, 2001, he’s confident she would have been able to handle the crisis.
Palin’s experience as the mayor of a tiny Alaska town and as Alaska’s governor for less than two years have led critics to question her readiness to be vice president in a John McCain administration — and president should he be unable to continue serving.
In an interview Wednesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Giuliani was asked, “If she were the president on 9/11, you would have been confident?”
Giuliani responded: “I’d be confident that she’d be able to handle it. She’s been a governor of a state, she’s been mayor of a city.”
The current track puts Hanna just west of us. The models are predicting a move eastward, so I expect tomorrow’s updates to have her going right over the top of our house overnight Friday.
TO DO:
Fill up water jugs
Buy gasoline and oil for chainsaw
Make sure chainsaw actually starts
Break out air mattresses for a “camp out” downstairs on Friday
Fill camp stove and lanterns
The more info that comes out, the more it looks like my wife’s prediction that she’ll withdraw to spend more time with her lawyersfamily will be the final verdict on Sarah Palin.
Members of ‘Fringe’ Alaskan Independence Party Say Palin Was a Member in 90s
September 01, 2008 6:52 PM
The campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., likes to herald the independence of its new running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
Officials of the Alaskan Independence Party say that Palin was once so independent, she was once a member of their party, which, since the 1970s, has been pushing for a legal vote for Alaskans to decide whether or not residents of the 49th state can secede from the United States.
And while McCain’s motto — as seen in a new TV ad — is “Country First,” the AIP’s motto is the exact opposite — “Alaska First — Alaska Always.”
Lynette Clark, the chairman of the AIP, tells ABC News that Palin and her husband Todd were members in 1994, even attending the 1994 statewide convention in Wasilla. Clark was AIP secretary at the time.
“We are a state’s rights party,” says Clark, a self-employed goldminer. The AIP has “a plank that challenges the legality of the Alaskan statehood vote as illegal and in violation of United Nations charter and international law.”
She says it’s not accurate to describe the party as secessionist — they just want a vote, she says, adding that the members of the AIP hold different opinions on what Alaska should be.
“My own separate opinion as an individual is that we should be an independent nation,” Clark says. Others in the AIP “believe that being a commonwealth would be a good avenue to follow.” Some advocate statehood — but a fuller statehood than exists now.
She doesn’t know what Palin’s position was.
“It never came up in conversation,” Clark recalls. “But when she joined the party, our platform was right under her nose.”
Clark says that Palin left the party and became a Republican in 1996, when she first ran for mayor of Wasilla.
The McCain-Palin campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The AIP platform states that the purpose of the party is to “seek the complete repatriation of the public lands, held by the federal government, to the state and people of Alaska in conformance with Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17, of the federal constitution … To prohibit all bureaucratic regulations and judicial rulings purporting to have the effect of law, except that which shall be approved by the elected legislature … To support the privatization of government services …”
Walter Hickel, a former Republican governor, was elected to the governorship in 1990 as an AIP member — the third-largest party in Alaska — with a plurality vote of 38.8%. A Seattle Post-Intelligencer story that year said that “Hickel is running with the Alaska Independence Party, a fringe group advocating that the 49th state declare itself a sovereign nation. But he’s not a separatist; he’s an opportunist: the Independence Party was the only 11th-hour ticket to the general election.”
Hickel returned to the Republican Party in 1994; he endorsed Palin in her gubernatorial run in 2006. Subsequent AIP gubernatorial candidates did not fare as well as did Hickel, garnering less than 2 percent of the vote.
Earlier this year, Palin sent a video message to the AIP for its annual convention, where AIP vice chair George Clark told the small crowd that Palin “was an AIP member before she got the job as a mayor of a small town –- that was a non-partisan job. But you get along to go along -– she eventually joined the Republican Party, where she had all kinds of problems with their ethics, and well, I won’t go into that. She also had about an 80 percent approval rating, and is pretty well sympathetic to her former membership.”
Lynette Clark says that Palin is “a fine individual. She’s forthright and she puts Alaska first.”
She is not a fan of McCain.
“I can’t understand why in God’s name she has aligned herself with a candidate who opposes the development of our republic and Alaska’s resource wealth,” Clark says.
Therein lies the most troubling flaw of the proposed ordinance. After Section 1 defines attendance requirements, Section 2 of the ordinance states that “One or more parents, legal guardians, or custodians of any child who is found to be in violation of Section 1 on any given school day shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars ($500.00) or imprisonment for up to six (6) months or by both the said fine and imprisonment.” (Italics added.)
Whatever happened to in loco parentis? Once the kid is at the school, hasn’t the school principal assumed the role of parent? So if a kid cuts second period, does the principal go to jail? That would be an interesting solution.
I just don’t have the vocabulary for how sick I find this:
Republican White House hopeful John McCain and running-mate Sarah Palin will Sunday ditch their pre-convention plans and visit people in Mississippi bracing for deadly Hurricane Gustav.
The visit comes as the fearsome category four storm’s approach overshadowed the buildup to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota on Monday, and stirred memories of the botched response to Hurricane Katrina exactly three years ago.
“Yes it’s confirmed we are going to Mississippi in the morning” on Sunday, campaign spokeswoman Kimmie Lipscomb told AFP, after McCain flew into midwestern Missouri for an overnight stop.
And, yes, I realize this blog has trended way to the “P” side of its acronym lately. But that’s where we find ourselves. In the middle of the most important election in the last half-century. FSM help us if we’re stupid enough to elect Bush McCain.
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Officials with the McCain campaign and the Republican National convention are considering changing the event’s agenda as Hurricane Gustav bears down on the Gulf Coast.
[snip]
A senior McCain source said Saturday that officials are considering turning the convention into a service event, a massive telethon to raise money for the Red Cross and other agencies to help with the hurricane.
“He wants to do something service-oriented if and when the storm hits and it’s as bad as its expected to be now,” the McCain source said.
They are also hoping to get McCain himself to a storm-affected area as soon as possible.
A state-funded investigation of Scotland High Schools alleges that at least 115 students were removed from the rolls of end-of-course classes and put into non-existent classes to improve test scores.
After thinking about this for a day, I believe McCain’s choice of Palin is evidence that the moneyboys who own the GOP are conceding the election this year. There’s absolutely no question that Palin isn’t ready for prime time. But, by putting her on the ticket this year, they can set her up for a run in 2016 (assuming she’s not impeached in AK in ‘09).
So, I continue to talk to people in government about how we can make homeschooling a solid educational choice for families. I want stronger partnerships between parents and the school districts in which they reside. I want regulations that are fair, to both the parents AND the students so that the students are keeping up with their public school counterparts. If the public schools are indeed as terrible as homeschoolers say they are, it should be no problem to meet the same standards.I want homeschooling to be a legitimate educational choice, not the joke many people think it is now.
Yeah, the Constitution Party candidate has absolutely zero percent chance of winning even a single electoral vote. But I have to give him props for his choice of venue.
Nan McVicker thinks babelfish got hold of this one:
“If a kid who is place schooling acquires caught up in the history of the Roman Empire, you can allow that kid work on it for hr after hour,” said Nancy McVicker, manager of the New Jersey Home School Association. “Set aside another lesson planned and come up back to it later.”
The rest of the piece is equally fractured. Pretty funny.
Thomas Sowell is an idiot. Yeah, I know– dog bites man.
If ordinary people, with no medical training, could perform surgery in their kitchens with steak knives, and get results that were better than those of surgeons in hospital operating rooms, the whole medical profession would be discredited.
Yet it is common for ordinary parents, with no training in education, to homeschool their children and consistently produce better academic results than those of children educated by teachers with Master’s degrees and in schools spending upwards of $10,000 a year per student — which is to say, more than a million dollars to educate ten kids from K through 12.
He then goes on to point out that the economists who were running the planned economies in China and India haven’t done as well in allocating goods and service as the “market.” It’s two-fer idiocy. First, he’s comparing apples and oranges. Home education and a g-school education have nothing in common except the word “education.” I have no doubt that I’d be a total flop at running a class of 25 or 30 6th-graders. The “system” is completely different. Just as a market economy is a completely different system than a planned one.
Second, he’s attempting to carry water for the GOP’s latest anti-intellectual meme. Scientists are elitists when they talk about climate change. Economists are elitists when they talk about the economy. Obama’s an elitist when he talks about anything at all because he’s smart (and McCain’s not). Here’s a news flash. Being smart is good. Knowing what you’re talking about is good. Stephen Colbert nailed the attitude almost three years ago:
I’m sorry, but this reading initiative. I’ve never been a fan of books. I don’t trust them. They’re all fact, no heart. I mean, they’re elitist telling us what is or isn’t true, what did or didn’t happen. What’s Britannica to tell me the Panama Canal was built in 1914. If I want to say it was built in 1941, that’s my right as an American. I’m with the president, let history decide what did or did not happen.
The original Know Nothings weren’t ignorant. They just pleaded ignorance about their knowledge of party activities. The modern day Know Nothings– Bush, Sowell, and the rest of the GOP– don’t know anything and revel in their ignorance:
At a town hall event in Berea, Ohio, Obama recited his plans to encourage the development of alternative fuels and his proposal for energy tax rebates and said Republicans were “lying about what my energy plan is.”
“The other thing is, they are making fun of a step that every expert says would absolutely reduce our oil consumption by three to four percent,” Obama said. “It’s like these guys take pride in being ignorant. They think it’s funny that they’re making fun of something that is actually true.”
I’m so sick of being preached to and (mis)led by a bunch of people who believe that Orwell’s “Ignorance is Strength” was prescriptive.
I’m having a hard time interpreting NC’s homeschooling laws regarding vaccinations. First, the relevant homeschool laws:
§ 115C?564. Qualifications and requirements.
A home school shall make the election to operate under the qualifications of either Part 1 or Part 2 of this Article and shall meet the requirements of the Part elected, except that any requirement related to safety and sanitation inspections shall be waived if the school operates in a private residence and except that testing requirements in G.S. 115C?549 and G.S. 115C?557 shall be on an annual basis. (1987 (Reg. Sess., 1988), c. 891, s. 1.)
This says that we’re treated just like other non-public schools except for safety and sanitation inspections. Vaccination records are explicitly mentioned in two other sections:
§ 115C?548. Attendance; health and safety regulations.
Each private church school or school of religious charter shall make, and maintain annual attendance and disease immunization records for each pupil enrolled and regularly attending classes.
§ 115C?565. Requirements exclusive.
No [home]school which complies with this Part shall be subject to any other provision of law relating to education except requirements of law respecting immunization.
NC homeschoolers acknowledge that we have to maintain these immunization and attendance records. But what exactly are immunization records? That’s in another chapter:
§ 130A?155. Submission of certificate to child care facility, preschool and school authorities; record maintenance; reporting.
(a) No child shall attend a school (pre K?12), whether public, private or religious, a child care facility as defined in G.S. 110?86(3), unless a certificate of immunization indicating that the child has received the immunizations required by G.S. 130A?152 is presented to the school or facility. The parent, guardian, or responsible person must present a certificate of immunization on the child’s first day of attendance to the principal of the school or operator of the facility, as defined in G.S. 110?86(7). If a certificate of immunization is not presented on the first day, the principal or operator shall present a notice of deficiency to the parent, guardian or responsible person. The parent, guardian or responsible person shall have 30 calendar days from the first day of attendance to obtain the required immunization for the child. If the administration of vaccine in a series of doses given at medically approved intervals requires a period in excess of 30 calendar days, additional days upon certification by a physician may be allowed to obtain the required immunization. Upon termination of 30 calendar days or the extended period, the principal or operator shall not permit the child to attend the school or facility unless the required immunization has been obtained.
(b) The school or child care facility shall maintain on file immunization records for all children attending the school or facility which contain the information required for a certificate of immunization as specified in G.S. 130A?154. These certificates shall be open to inspection by the Department and the local health department during normal business hours. When a child transfers to another school or facility, the school or facility which the child previously attended shall, upon request, send a copy of the child’s immunization record at no charge to the school or facility to which the child has transferred.
(c) The school shall file an annual immunization report with the Department by November 1. The child care facility shall file an immunization report annually with the Department. The report shall be filed on forms prepared by the Department and shall state the number of children attending the school or facility, the number of children who had not obtained the required immunization within 30 days of their first attendance, the number of children who received a medical exemption and the number of children who received a religious exemption.
Noticeably absent from section (a) is “homeschool.” And that makes sense as we don’t file any kind of “immunization report” with the Health Department. So sections (a) and (c) don’t apply to homeschools. But what about Section (b)? The Department of Health doesn’t even know we exist. It seems that section (b) is also irrelevant. After all, what’s the point of maintaining records if no one has the authority to request them? The Division of non-public education is only authorized to request our testing records:
§ 115C?557
Each school shall make and maintain records of the results achieved by its students. For one year after the testing, all records shall be made available, subject to G.S. 115C?174.13, at the principal office of such school, at all reasonable times, for annual inspection by a duly authorized representative of the State of North Carolina. (1979, c. 505; 1981, c. 423, s. 1; 1987, c. 738, s. 180(b); 2004?199, s. 30(a).)
And one other thing– the religious exemption. Here’s where it gets completely ridiculous to try to apply these laws to homeschools:
§ 130A?157. Religious exemption.
If the bona fide religious beliefs of an adult or the parent, guardian or person in loco parentis of a child are contrary to the immunization requirements contained in this Chapter, the adult or the child shall be exempt from the requirements. Upon submission of a written statement of the bona fide religious beliefs and opposition to the immunization requirements, the person may attend the college, university, school or facility without presenting a certificate of immunization. (1957, c. 1357, s. 1; 1959, c. 177; 1965, c. 652; 1971, c. 191; 1979, c. 56, s. 1; 1983, c. 891, s. 2; 1985, c. 692, s. 2; 2002?179, s. 17.)
Upon written submission to whom? It’s got to be the school, since the school has to report each year how many students are there under a religious exemption. So we would have to submit a written statement to ourselves that we object to vaccinations for religious reasons? Again, this makes absolutely no sense. But NC homeschoolers talk about obtaining a religious exemption all the time. I’d argue that since § 130A?155 (a) doesn’t include homeschools, and since we are the schools to whom we would have to submit a statement, that this section simply can’t apply to homeschools.
So I’ve come to the conclusion that despite the explicit requirements in § 115C?548 and § 115C?565 to maintain immunization records the vaccination requirements just can’t be applied to homeschoolers.
Senator Joe’s a good choice. Although he’s been in D.C. forever, he’s not of D.C. He never bought a home there, instead commuting on Amtrak each day. He’s a quick-wit and was the one who made “A noun, a verb, and 9/11″ famous. That quote probably did more to sink Giuliani’s chances than anything. And now, of course, it’ll be easy to note that McCain’s entire campaign seems to consist of “a noun, a verb, and prisoner-of-war.”
This is a mash-up of several different recipes. Start to finish, it takes about 3 hours (or 7 days depending on your POV).
You’ll need a good active sourdough starter. To make your own from scratch takes about a week, but it’s really easy and worth the effort.
Quick sourdough bread
1 c. sourdough starter
4 c. all purpose flour
1 1/2 c. warm water
1 T. dry yeast
1 t. sugar
1 1/2 t. salt
Combine all of the ingredients in a stand mixer reserving 1/4 c. of the water. Knead until the dough forms a ball, adding water a teaspoon at a time if necessary. When complete, the dough should be a little sticky. Turn out onto a floured (whole wheat or cornmeal) pastry sheet or something similar. Dust the dough with additional flour or cornmeal. Cover with a large pot and let rise until doubled in volume. Depending on your yeast, that may take an hour to two. While the dough is rising pre-heat a heavy Dutch oven with a lid in the main oven at 475 oF. When everything is good and hot, gently place the dough seam side down in the Dutch oven. BE CAREFUL. It’s very easy to get burned here. Put the lid on the Dutch oven and place the whole thing back in the oven. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool on a rack for about 5 minutes before cutting into this very crusty loaf.
Before I had read up on or really thought about the vaccine issue, I was at least somewhat sympathetic to the anti-vaxxers. But no more. Their religious convictions or anti-scientific “worldviews” are endangering the lives of their children and infants too young to be vaccinated. Basta!
Here’s the reason I asked the survey question below:
NASHVILLE, TN, Aug 11, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) — Until last Friday, more than 8 in 10 Americans were at odds with a California appeals court that ruled in February that “parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children,” according to just-released data from LifeWay Research.
In fact, 86 percent of those polled by LifeWay Research in an April telephone survey agreed with the statement: “Parents have a constitutional right to homeschool their children.”
In the science stream, just 1.79 per cent of home-schooled pupils achieved the pass rate of 60 per cent, while in the arts stream, the figure was 2.95 per cent. At adult education centres, the pass rate in the science stream was 14.63 per cent, while in the arts stream, only 13.02 per cent of candidates passed.
At government schools, success rates were much higher – at 83.9 per cent in science and 69.4 per cent in the arts. At private schools, the results were even better.
It’s Abu Dhabi, so I have absolutely no idea what the term “homeschooling” means.
I don’t want this guy defending the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
Voters blinded by Obama’s promises
A general truth of human nature is that people are horribly prone to voting themselves largesse and that which promises the most plunder to themselves. Such is the premise of the campaign of Barack Obama: by stating that “we can change things” and “I can accomplish all of these things as president” is hypnotizing twaddle that deludes people into a false sense that the president has more power than he really does.
He vows to punish oil companies for “making too much money.” He pledges to “make the rich pay their fair share.” He pledges universal health care and to force countries to cease production of nuclear materials. All of these are quite appealing and alluring, causing people to bite his fishing line blindly.
In actuality, all of these are naught but empty promises that Obama is making use of to secure support and allow himself to sweep into office. Really, the president is not gifted with all of the power the candidates would have you believe they have. In that sense, Obama is extremely intelligent, saying just the magical words that will win him the election.
The purpose of the Electoral College is to protect the election of president from the blind tyranny of the masses. It worked in 2000. Here’s to hoping that it protects the office again in 2008.
It’s back to school time for kids and students of all ages — and breeds.
Some of the students going to class this fall will be canine. All kinds of educational options exist: kindergarten for puppies, various levels of obedience and agility coursework, specialized training, private tutoring, boarding school and home schooling.
First, it was UNC President Erskine Bowles’ study to allow illegal aliens access to the university system. Now, we have president R. Scott Ralls studying whether illegal aliens should be allowed to attend community colleges at in-state rates.
The problem with higher education in North Carolina is the educational administrators who have difficulty understanding the illegal aliens. Rather than allowing illegal aliens to attend college, they should be deported. In-state tuition pays less than a third of the costs to the state to educate a student. The other two-thirds are paid by taxes. Ralls tried to downplay the future costs by telling us that only 100 people are affected. That’s 100 now, but what about the attendance when word gets out that North Carolina is encouraging illegal aliens with in-state tuition?
Should one assume that the state’s higher educational systems are awash with money? Do they have the funds to support the influx of illegal aliens and their special needs? Should legal residents have to compete with illegal aliens for educational opportunities? How can one argue that a person in the state illegally can be in a state classroom legally?
The grandiose scheme to inflate one’s self with large enrollments is not limited to the community colleges. Bowles and his gang in Raleigh are pursuing the same route. The next time educational representatives come with their hands out whining for more funds, ask about the illegal alien enrollment.
Don Bekin
Pembroke
I doubt there are hordes at the SC and VA borders, just waiting for NC to give the okay to in-state tuition rates. A modern day Sooner land-rush, as it were. And even if there were, would having a better-educated work force, even if the legal status of the workers is questionable, really be a bad thing?
HARROLD, Texas (AP) — A tiny Texas school district will allow teachers and staff members to carry concealed firearms to protect against school shootings, provided the gun-toting employees follow certain requirements.
The small community of Harrold in north Texas is a 30-minute drive from the Wilbarger County Sheriff’s Office, leaving students and teachers without protection, said David Thweatt, superintendent of the Harrold Independent School District. The lone campus of the 110-student district sits near a heavily traveled highway, which could make it a target, he argued.
“When the federal government started making schools gun-free zones, that’s when all of these shootings started. Why would you put it out there that a group of people can’t defend themselves? That’s like saying ’sic ‘em’ to a dog,” Thweatt said in a story published Friday on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Web site.
Merit: For a committee of Fayetteville dog lovers and for the Fayetteville-Cumberland County Parks and Recreation Department, which have nearly completed work on the city’s first dog park.
The committee raised about $20,000 toward the project, which will fence in a large area where dog owners can let their pets run free for exercise and socialization.
