Storing Treasures

I just tried out the Meme Maker for the first time!  Like it?

 

On the Homeschool Battleground of the Culture War

Photo obtained from http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,511825,00.html

Via Lady Liberty 1885 comes homeschooling news I’m rather embarrassed I didn’t know:  one of the German families persecuted for homeschooling has petitioned for asylum in the United States, and Eric Holder’s DOJ is fighting this grant of asylum in federal court.

Eric Holder thinks there is no fundamental right to homeschool.  So if all Germans are banned from homeschooling, no grounds for political asylum exist.

Wow.

Maybe I’m not so surprised.  Eric Holder and his ilk don’t really believe in natural rights generally, do they?  To top it off, homeschooling is a right-wing-extremist-bitter-clinging-Bible-thumper’s issue, so combating it would be instinctual.

Caffeinated Thoughts lays out all the details, quoting generously from homeschool pioneer and HLSDA founder Michael Farris.  DOJ makes additional legal arguments, all of them horrifying.

You know, when I pulled the boys out of brick-and-mortar school, part of me was actually looking forward to playing the rebel’s part.  Disappointingly, the typical response of the everyday person has been respect, even encouragement, rather than the skepticism or derision I was looking forward to refuting.  Articles like Glenn Reynolds‘ and Paul Elie’s lend further support to the idea that homeschooling is becoming an accepted, mainstream concept (or, as the Professor quotes Buffy, “not just for scary religious people anymore.”)

Our ruling class may hate homeschooling and try to get rid of it, or more likely try to provide some oh-so-reasonable federal regulation and oversight “for the children.”  Attempts to regulate are already popping up and needing a whack-a-mole-smackdown on the state level, like in post-Newtown Connecticut or in South Carolina.  Their attempts will fail, however, if they don’t succeed in ”othering” the homeschooling population as something suspicious and dangerous.

They are trying it.  Check out the title of this news article linked over at Lady Liberty’s, about a murdering homeschooled teen, for example. But this is one battle of the culture war the left is currently losing.  Homeschooling is growing steadily, and in my anecdotal experience people just aren’t scandalized by the idea anymore.  Everybody knows somebody who does or did it successfully.

“Oh, you are homeschooling.  That is so great, but I could never do that,” is probably the most common response I get.  It makes me uncomfortable.  It also tells me that the next hurdle in normalizing the concept of homeschooling is to convince the average parent that they can do it, too.

Not that they must homeschool, but that they could if they wanted.  I worry that too many parents don’t trust themselves to educate their own children.  Those that feel they couldn’t get along without a  public school are at the mercy of the government benevolent to provide it.  The “experts” certainly encourage this kind of mentality, using impenetrable academia-speak to build their intimidating field of expertise.

Imagine the decrease in governmental coercive power, if every parent with public school-attending children woke up tomorrow and decided, not that they are going to pull their kids out.  Just that they could pull their kids out, if pushed hard enough.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Very Inspiring Blogger Award

Okay.  A very long time ago, like way back in August which is eons in the blogosphere, my blog buddy Citizen Tom bestowed a “Very Inspiring Blogger” award upon me.

I was humbly grateful, and bookmarked that post for future action.  Then I procrastinated.

Then the election came and went, in a most disappointing fashion.

I took a little break.

What better way to get back into the swing of things, then by making good on old commitments?

So, without further ado, here is the fulfillment of my Inspiring Blogger obligations:

1.  Display the award logo:

2.  Link back to the person who nominated.

3.  State 7 things about myself.  Okay, but since I’m already using numbers, I better move to the letter system:

a) I coulda sworn this award originally required a list of my seven favorite Bible passages.  Upon clicking upon the bookmarked post, however, I see only a requirement to list seven things about myself.  Weird.  Did I remember wrong, or did something change?

b) I’m really glad I don’t need to list seven Bible passages.  I may be a Christian, but I’m no Bibletician nor God-ologian.  A foolish childhood decision to attend a friend’s “Vacation Bible School” (I can think of something crucially wrong with that label, my friend), a few haphazard appearances at my newly-born-again-and-possibly-body-snatched-parents’ church, along with two distracted years at a Baptist College, where I learned that dances should be called “foot functions” because dancing is bad, do not a religious expert make.

c) Here’s my seven passages anyway, because I looked them up before I realized I didn’t have to.  They are not really my all-time favorites, since I’ve really only studied the “Big Four,” as far as the Bible goes, and the rest is pretty much hit or miss.  Also, that was self-study, so I’m not exactly operating from a position of authority here, other than that Holy Spirit guidance and authority, isn’t that in the back of the Bible somewhere?  Anyway, now I better use bullets:

• Matthew 6:25-34 Do Not Worry:  easier said than done, but still worth trying.
• Matthew 8:5-13 Jesus Heals a Centurion’s Servant:  this is a favorite because “he who lives by the sword dies by the sword” makes Jesus sound like a pacifist; yet, He was happy to oblige a soldier’s prayer without requiring the soldier lay down his sword.
• Matthew 19:1-10 Marriage and Divorce.  A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife and the two become one flesh.  The best part?  When Jesus says how rare divorce should be, the disciples say, if that’s how it is, it’s better not to marry at all.  Ha!  I knew that marriage was hard!
• Mark 14:36 Prayer in the Garden.  Jesus asked God to “Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.”  This might seem weird, but the fact that Jesus Himself prayed for something He did not receive is of enormous comfort.
• John 16:33 Overcoming the world.  I wrote about this one recently.
• Acts 5:37-32 Obey God rather than obeying men.  Today, we are again at the point where government forces folks to pick between these two options.
• 1 John 3:18:  “My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.”  Needed wisdom for a lady who hopes her actions speak louder than words.

d) I completely agree with Citizen Tom’s statement that religion is inseparable from politics.  At this point in American culture, if you are pro-life and a believer in religious liberty, then the Democratic Party is not the place for you.  Also, the Democratic Party is not your friend if you believe you have a right to your own private property.  (Psst:  that makes you a dirty capitalist!)

e) I believe that the results of the 2012 election indicate that we will have to suffer, as a nation, before we can get on the right track again.  I dare not predict the form of this hardship, and I hope for as much alleviation as possible.  Still, I can’t see any other long-term outcome.

f) I’m more at peace with the results of the 2012 election than I ever could have imagined.

g) I don’t forward stuff much.

Whoo.  This post is longer than I thought it would be.  Thankfully, we’ve made it to the final rule of the Blogger Award:

4.  Nominate 15 other bloggers for this award and link to them.

Ah, nope.  Sorry.  See reference 3g).  I just don’t feel like it.  Not even when it’s those chain messages, and a puppy dies if you don’t.  I know, I know, I’m missing the point of this exercise.  Except I’m not.  I appreciate the recognition, and the wisdom from the likes of Citizen Tom.

The best to all of you dear readers and fellow bloggers.  We’ve got an interesting few years ahead of us.

John 16:33

“In the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

But . . . the world has gone mad.  Especially the Democrats.

“I have overcome the world.”

The whole world?

“Yes, when one refers to the world one generally means the whole world.”

Well . . . okay then.

All us Tea Party patriots could use a little extra cheer right now, that’s for sure and certain.  Any major election is stressful for the civic-minded sort, but this ain’t just some run-of-the-mill major election.

We are no longer confident in our great nation’s ability to survive, let alone thrive.  For four years, we have fought without furlough in the trenches of a culture war.  Some of you have fought much longer, and I thank you.  If more of us had joined the fight sooner, things might not have gotten so grim.

Shoulda woulda coulda.  Here we are, and here I am, attempting to bring good cheer–which, by the way, is not in my nature.  I’m mostly predisposed to skeptical pessimism.  (Or pessimistic skepticism, depending on my mood.)

Anyways.  Good cheer.

Right.

I’ll make a list.

1) My dog is feeling much better.  Remember when I posted about Sussie’s severe moving anxiety?  I promised a final installment to the Trauma Saga, but alas.  She is now only a footnote.  Long story short, we had to drug the poor critter.  Did you know that dogs can take Xanax?  It merely changed her distressed barking from a frantic yelp into more of a sad hound serenade.  Still, the vet gave lots of good advice about desensitizing her to separation, and once we got our stuff delivered to our new house, Sussie was like, hey.  We’re home.  I can stop freaking out.

2) I’m officially on the band wagon.  You know, the wagon that we must use to haul Romney across the finish line.  As of today, I’ve got Romney/Ryan in my yard, on my minivan bumper, and plenty of extras to share with like-minded neighbors and homeschoolers.  I even signed up for the phone bank.   Mr. Belvedere is absolutely right on this point:  we shoulda woulda coulda got a better candidate, but we didn’t, and we gotta do what it takes to get Barack Obama voted out.  If we succeed, our work sure ain’t over, but at least we’ll have a chance to keep federal encroachment at bay.

3) Encouraging first hand accounts of conservative momentum have surfaced!  Mr. Saddleburr found a glimmer of hope when he knocked on some doors, and Insty readers have shared similar experiences.

4) Via Disrupt the Narrative and Be Sure You’re Right comes a website called Unskewed Polls.  When the polls aren’t skewed, they don’t look so bad anymore.  It’s like the Dems having to take off their beer goggles or something.

5) Obama for America’s blog posts are getting very few shares and likes.  Seriously, scroll down the women’s section of the leftist ghost town, and see for yourself how unviral is the President’s reelection campaign.

6) The ObamaFoodorama blog site has gone private.  Actually, I’m not sure whether this is good news, but I wanted to bring it up because I’ve linked to this Blogger site a few times, and those links won’t work anymore.  Annoying.  And intriguing.  The twitter account still says the blog is the “official blog of record & archive of White House food initiatives.”  Why did something official become private?

7) 41 million Tea Party members are preparing to vote.  That’s 31% of likely voters.  Yyyeaahh.  Turns out, that radical extreme right-wing thang might just be more mainstream than Maher’s worst nightmare.

8) The Coffee Party is still around to mock!  Because their movement is still so relevant and vibrant!  Or not.  I used zip codes from Tampa, Washington DC, Los Angeles, and New York City, but I couldn’t find a single scheduled event with their handy-dandy “event finder.”  Perhaps you’ll have more luck than me.

9) 110 days until Barack Obama leaves office.  And counting.

And finally, without further ado, item #10 in my list of good cheer:

10) Strong Bad is funny.  Really.  Watch.  If it’s not funny, then you must be viewing these videos without the company of a 10-year-old boy.  If you had a 10-year-old boy with you, then your sides would be splitting.

update:  changed ghetto to ghost town bc it makes more sense, if nobody’s there

A Warning (Now updated with more deliciousness!)

Let us serve, at least, as a warning to others.  This is what happens when you shop at IKEA the day before the movers arrive:

Yikes

Life is good, though.  We are trying Roku instead of cable.  So far so good.  Older son is sad to miss the new season of Gumball, but we really could not take any more of the Let’sMove.org or Big Time Rush ads.  Ugh.

Oh, and we got to a Brandon FL location of Chick-fil-A on Appreciation Day.  Hubs picked up our dinner about 8:30pm the night before the movers arrived, and he said the place was still slammed with customers.  Yay for a successful showing of support to an awesome business that gives you the best chicken sandwiches right along with the best customer service you can find in a fast food chain.

Seriously.  I’ve been to a lot of Chick-fil-As in my day, and the employees are always cheerful, polite, and hardworking.  Also, there is some kind of secret ingredient in the breading that no other restaurant has duplicated in my chicken-sandwich-eating experience, which is long and illustrious by the way.

Our last picnic before the furniture arrived.

UPDATE:  Edited to correct my spelling of Chik-fil-A, I mean Chick-fil-A.  I blame the cows for making me misspell the name.  Also, writing this post made me crave the deliciousness, so after picking up Trauma Dog from the kennel (I still need to write part 3 of her saga!), we went through the drive-thru.

What you have to understand is, I am a real Chick-fil-A junkie.  It was the restaurant I missed the most during our three years in the UK.  Barbeque pork can be adequately faked in a crockpot, and cheeseburgers can be made at home.

Chick-fil-A can’t be duplicated.

Once again the Lake Brandon Village location was hopping busy.  This is normal during lunch, but we noticed they have a new system.  In the past, we’ve seen Chick-fil-A station an employee outside whenever the drive-thru line gets long.  This person takes the order and submits it to the kitchen long before you get to the order station.  The speed at which they move you through the line is always surprising.

Today, they had three employees stationed outside.  They are serving so many cars, the usual speaker/window system simply can’t keep up.  The employees have electric fans, umbrellas, and sunglasses in order to cope with the Tampa sun cheerfully.  My husband commented to gal #3, “I bet you guys have been busy ever since Wednesday.”

She replied emphatically, oh yes we have.  She told us that yesterday (Friday, August 3rd), during the peak time of business, their location served 170 cars in one hour.

That’s 2.83 (repeating of course) cars with completed transactions and sackfuls of yum per minute.

Somehow, I don’t think the politicization of a successful private business is working out the way some folks thought it would.