Month: September 2008

Parents who choose to not vaccinate their children are now being called parasites by actress Amanda Peet. She’s initially apologized, but that was apparently the parents of autistic children whose parents many times believe vaccines are at least in part to blame. Of course, she didn’t apologize for the improper use of the word parasite,…

John Taylor Gatto, who is a former New York State and New York City Teacher of the Year and the author, most recently, of The Underground History of American Education wrote an article that appeared in the Sept 2003 Harper’s Magazine, titled “Against School”. Let me say upfront that this is a whole lot to…

No, I didn’t double-type the word response in the title–this is a response to a response I just read to last month’s Costco Connection debate. Rarely do I get this worked up this quickly. Really. The debate last month was this question: Should parents be certified to home-school their children? The response came from a…

…but they want you to believe it is. Yes, unemployment has risen slightly, and foreclosures are up, but don’t believe the scare tactics of politics. It’s an election season. Here’s my simple way of viewing the health of the economy, and it involves only 2 stocks: Starbucks and Walmart. If the economy begins tanking for…

So a new “recommendation” by the CDC is that virtually every child age 6 months to 18 years be vaccinated, barring those with serious egg allergies. So the push begins to use a vaccine with less than 44% effectiveness (last year). One new way that are pushing it to adults now is a program called…

Asked to me this morning: “Which smells worse, the smell of rubbing alcohol or the smell of decay?” No, no, don’t jump to any off-the-wall conclusions. My FBI file is still clear. The kids are doing a homeschool project of mummifying a chicken (was originally going to be a cornish game hen to be smaller…

2006, when the NEA voted to formally sanction homeschooling. NEA President Reg Weaver: “It has been obvious for years that home educators are kicking our asses. Their kids are smart, polite, well spoken, and well versed on the issues of the day. I can’t say that for most of the members of this union, let…

“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” CS Lewis, The Problem of Pain

They grow up so fast…

The issues of last week completely derailed plans of all sorts, including those on the business side. There’s some work I needed to get done remotely in Iowa with transferring some file shares to a new Windows 2008 Server. I’d notified the owner about some of what was going on, and he was more than…