I heartily AGREE with this!

For once, I agree with the ACLU.  Why?  They've filed a suit against the state of Michigan - over kids not being able to read at grade level, as the state is charged with ensuring.   

To this, I say a hearty BRAVO! and HUZZAH!  I run into kids at church, that are in 4th grade, that cannot read at a 2nd grade level.  Much of this, however, I blame on the PARENTS.  People don't read to their kids, or teach them anything before they go off to school, and the teachers are put upon to teach the kids even basic things like 'how to squeeze a bottle of glue so the glue will come out" or to hold scissors, or hold a crayon.  

Our oldest's favorite number is 7.   Why does she say it is? Because she had trouble recognizing it when she was little, before school, and so we made that her favorite number.  

I really don't get the parents that just hand their kid a Nintendo, Wii, an iPhone, or plop them in front of the television, and expect these kids to actually accomplish much of anything.  

I often get accused of "lazy parenting" because I am a Free-Range parent - meaning, the kids actually have freedom to do stuff, their days are not laid out by me, I don't hover over them - as in doing everything for them.  Some people think that Free-range parenting is just totally hands-off, but it's not.  It's more of letting kids actually DO stuff, instead of doing everything for them.  How will they learn if not actually doing something for themselves?   Lenore Skenazy, over at http://freerangekids.wordpress.com/ Free Range Kids
has this blurb along the side of the blog: 
Do you ever...let your kid ride a bike to the library? Walk to school? Make dinner? Or are you thinking about it? If so, you are raising a Free-Range Kid! Free-Rangers believe in helmets, car seats, seat belts — safety! We just do NOT believe that every time school age kids go outside, they need a security detail. 

I agree with this. 

How many of you remember summer days, where you went outside after breakfast, and you didn't show up again till it was time for dinner? Or rode your bike all over the place, going to town, to the little store that sold candy cheap, and eating it all on the way home? 

Now, parents are the #1 teachers of their children - and too many parents just don't bother to teach the kids anything.  

Oh - THAT reminds me, I was at the nail salon at our local Wal de Mart on Saturday - a woman was there getting fake nails put on - and she was jabbering away on her phone, her kids were fighting behind her, and whining for a good 30 minutes.  Then they noticed the nail art samples (long fake nails glued to a board).  They started picking off the nails.  Mom noticed nothing, and the owner of the salon, they kept handing him the nails they had picked off.  I lowered my voice, put my hands around my mouth, and said loudly "You stop picking those off there, right now!".  Kids immediately stopped, mom just looked at them and said "don't do that" and went back to talking on the phone, ignoring her kids again.  The owner said thanks to me later for stopping HER kids from tearing up his display.  

Anyway, the article I was reading, about the ACLU suing Michigan - http://www.aclumich.org/sites/default/files/RighttoReadComplaint(1).pdf">HERE
is the complaint that they filed, in case you'd like to read it.

Fiat Dollars..here and there

I  know it's been a while since I have written anything, but this video is something that everyone should watch.  http://www.silverdoctors.com/end-of-the-road-how-money-became-worthless%E2%80%8F-full-film/

I saw it on the Documentary Channel, and DVR'd it so I could watch it at my leisure.  Seems it was "the speculators" that were blamed then for going off the gold standard by Nixon (a 'temporary measure') and they're still being blamed today! Anyway, happy watching, it's quite informative.

A short game for you!

Is it prison food...or school food? I'll admit, when I went to high school, we found out the meatballs BOUNCED quite well - not as great as a superball, but pretty good for being mystery meat.  There doesn't seem to be much of a difference http://cityrag.com/2012/05/prison-food-or-school-food/">HERE where you can click photos and find out if you had guessed correctly.

Our grocery store here in TX, HEB, sells "value beef".  Its the same quality that prisons and schools get sold, and its tough as heck.  But the value beef loin tail is great for making fajitas, especially when regular loin tail is around $5 a lb, you can get value beef for 2.99 a lb.

Speaking of school lunches, the Fed has changed (yet again) their plan for kids eating lunch at school.  My take on this? Send your kids a lunch with them for the day.  You'll stand a better chance of it NOT ending up in the trash can!  The Feds now have a mandatory (for all schools) for their bought-at-school lunch.

They will be forced to buy at least one fruit or vegetable, even if it gets tossed.  Must buy either non-fat chocolate milk or 1% milk.   If the student doesn't want a fruit or a vegetable, they're charged a la carte, which means it costs more - and those free/reduced school lunches? forced to take a fruit/veg.

They're figuring a 30% increase in school lunch costs.

http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2012/04/01/news/doc4f77cf1c4b99e507580020.txt?viewmode=fullstory">HERE is the full story.

I'm thinking a sack lunch will be the preferred route for many parents, especially if the lunch prices rise. As for "childhood hunger".. I'm wondering why we have 'hunger' and "obesity" sitting right next to each other?

Reminds me of someone who said she HAD to have a double quarterpounder with cheese, because "she's a big girl".  I was like "yeah, and you're gonna get BIGGER" you don't need that. a single one will do!

You and your money?

Reichsfluchsteuer – literally translated, means “Reich flight tax”, is well and alive today.  First used in Germany in 1931, for those wishing to flee the country – they only had to pony up 25%.  (This was before the Nuremburg laws regarding Jews).  They wanted your money, and you couldn’t leave the country without paying. 

Switch to this year – Chuckie Schumer, has evidently read some history and thought “hot damn! We can make some good money off people!” by proposing the US’s own version of Reichsfluchsteuer – the “Ex-Patriot Act”.  I suppose by wrapping it in the red, white and blue, Schumer hopes to make this less reprehensible. 

I found the full text of the law http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/s3205/text”>HERE, and I have some thoughts on this bill. 

Their stated purpose  is to “To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide that persons renouncing citizenship for a substantial tax avoidance purpose shall be subject to tax and withholding on capital gains, to provide that such persons shall not be admissible to the United States, and for other purposes.”

Really? So we take their money, which they legally have gained, and wish to avoid the hand of the government that robs people of money, and keeps them out of the US forever? Why?  Why is it thought that people earning lots of money is BAD, and them KEEPING their own money is even worse?

I found out that people that are American citizens, living abroad, have to pay money on what they earn to the US government.  I’m kind of like “why?” 

The co-sponsors to this (no surprise, all D’s) are as follows:

Sen. Richard Blumenthal [D-CT]

Sen. Robert Casey [D-PA]

Sen. Thomas “Tom” Harkin [D-IA]

Sen. Benjamin Cardin [D-MD] (joined May 23, 2012)

Ron Paul has something to say on this as well.  He refers to the government as a “tyrannical regime”, and that only tyrannies need to take the people’s money before they are “allowed to leave”.   He has on his http://www.ronpaul.com/2012-05-28/ron-paul-the-ex-patriot-act-americas-berlin-wall-for-tax-refugees/”page about it,

The Ex-PATRIOT Act goes even further than current law by assessing a 30% capital gains tax on all future earnings of expatriates. Not content just with this additional tax, the bill also grants the IRS the sole authority to determine whether individuals have expatriated for tax purposes and allows the IRS to bar those individuals from ever re-entering the United States. Finally, the bill blatantly violates the ex post facto provisions of the U.S. Constitution by extending all of these provisions to anyone who has given up their U.S. citizenship within the past decade.

This all goes back to “whose money is it?” that you earn for your slaving away at your job.  Does it belong to the government?  Or does it belong to you? 

Bad mom!

We went to Pinchers this past Friday night, to celebrate the youngest's first year of college being over, and then went to go see Men In Black 3.

Pinchers is basically a cajun restaurant - crawfish, fried alligator, shrimp, etc.  We sat out on the patio by the duck pond, and there was Zydeco music being played over a speaker, complete with guy playing spoons on a washboard.  A little kid got a washboard & was playing, and that was cute.  However, one family came & sat at one of the tables outdoors, and requested some song.. that had the lyrics "show your chest.. wiggle wiggle wiggle".. and her little kids, about 9 and under, are up doing basically dirty dancing.  you know, shove your butt out and wiggle it, etc.   I was like what kind of mom lets her kids dance like that? the mom was videoing on her iphone the dancing.

Later when we got home, hubby was browsing I think Free Republic, and he came across this cartoon:

I was like "this is SO much the mom that was videoing her kids doing this dancing!, I have to blog about it".  I would have done it sooner, but we were busy this weekend.  Unfortunately, this is the type of mom that is all too common these days, and it's a sad commentary on the United States.

Taxes

I found this tax graph interesting.  The AVERAGE is 17.80%...so in theory, if everyone paid a flat 18%, wouldn't we end up with the same amount - yet it would be FAIR.  Why should some pay way more than others, and call that 'fair' when it certainly isn't?  18% of 1 million is way more than 18% of 20,000.

Making more money does not take away any money from those earning less.   And I often see those earning less, and on welfare, with nice cell phones, large flat-screen TV, cable, internet, driving large vehicles that are fairly new.   The 'poor'?  Hardly.  Did you know you can buy lobster tails with food stamps? (lone star card here in TX).  That, and gift baskets containing food.  I'm just like "WHAT!??!"

geeze

OH MY GOSH I HATE THIS NEW BLOGGER!

just a couple of things worth mentioning; 1991 biography of obama - 'born in kenya, raised in indonesia/hawaii',

AND obama has brought consensus to DC! it was unanimous in voting against the obama budget!