Thoughts of a Regular Guy

The Risk of Postponing Fertility

2011-10-27T12:06:00.001-05:00

Robert Stacy McCain takes a break from his insightful political reporting and commentary to make an important cultural observation:

[Regarding a woman of 33 who describes herself as "slightly old for prime procreating"...]“Slightly old for prime procreating”? As a matter of scientific fact, she’s far more than “slightly old,” as prime childbearing age is 18-24.

It is strange that secular moderns, who constantly lecture us religious traditionalists about our alleged aversion to science, are themselves often ignorant of (or hostile toward) the actual science they claim to revere. Fertility begins to decline after a woman passes her mid-20s and, by the time she is 33, she has a much higher risk of infertility than she would have faced 10 or 15 years earlier.

This is simply a fact and, while all statistics about health risks are based on averages that include exceptions — i.e., Rachel Birnbaum might experience no difficulty whatsoever becoming pregnant at a later age — she probably wouldn’t choose to defy the odds if she really thought carefully about it. But her reference to her “much younger state of mind” and her expressed dread of “the conveyer belt traveling toward adulthood” suggest that her ideas on the subject are not entirely rational.

God help her husband if he ever said something like that, huh? A man who accuses a woman of being irrational is inviting the counter-accusation that he is a sexist swine with a head full of ignorant stereotypes. And in a situation such as that involving Rachel Birnbaum, her husband’s desire to become a father is also at odds with the feminist dictum that reproductive choice is entirely a female prerogative. Men’s parental preferences are as nothing, when weighed against four decades of Women’s Movement rhetoric about female sovereignty in these matters.

McCain's insights are certainly worth reading in full.

Articulate Democrat Needed

2011-10-25T14:48:00.000-05:00

... to defend this:

A proposed revision to Freedom of Information Act rules would allow federal agencies to lie to citizens and reporters seeking certain records, telling them the records don’t exist.

The Justice Department has proposed the change as part of a large revision of FOIA rules for federal agencies. Specifically, the rule would direct government agencies who are denying a request under an established FOIA exemption to “respond to the request as if the excluded records did not exist,” rather than citing the relevant exemption.

In what perverted moral system could this be defended as anything better than reprehensible?

Happy St. Crispin's Day

2011-10-25T14:43:00.001-05:00

The Republican Presidential Primary Race

2011-10-25T13:07:00.000-05:00

A number of people have asked my opinion about the presidential race. Here's how I see things today.

It's weird for me to notice that I've actually met four of these candidates in person, Romney, Perry, Cain and Santorum. I like all the candidates, but I'm sorry to note that none of them are perfect. So I'm going to have to overlook something I don't like no matter who is nominated.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, with his money and name ID, is clearly the one to beat. And that's the defining fact of the Romney campaign. He's been running for president for over four years now, he has a plan, and he's following it. He's gotten good at this. In fact, I fear that he may have become much better at running for president than we would be at actually serving as president. Romney has presented a 59-point policy plan that only a policy wonk could love, and my impression is that it's a solid, moderate, bi-partisan, traditional Republican plan to slow the rate of acceleration towards the cliff that we're currently barreling towards. Frankly, despite what he says today, I don't trust Romney to keep his promises.

Texas Governor Rick Perry got a great deal of attention when he joined the race in August, but has since lost a great deal of his early momentum. Still, he had a great fundraising quarter, so he's got the cash to enable him to keep at this for a while. Perry has a great record as Governor of Texas, but has performed badly in debates. Perry and his staff haven't so far shown that they understand that a presidential election is different than a Texas gubernatorial election. But he's made some recent staff changes, and today come out with a very solid-looking economic plan with a centerpiece of an optional flat tax. Perry needs to explain how he helped Texas become such a great place to live, and how as president he'll make America a great place to live again, too. So far, he hasn't done that. Too, he lost ground early with many conservatives, especially those concerned with illegal immigration, and pro-lifers because of that Gardasil issue. Can he recover his lost momentum? Time will tell. Perry is still on of my top three candidates.

Former Senator Rick Santorum was one of my top three, but his recent debate performances, his poll performances, and some of his commentary, has really begun to get to me. Santorum is a good guy, and he has the virtue of being right on the issues. But he presents himself and his issues poorly. Santorum, in my mind, is beginning to shape up to be like a white Alan Keyes. Right on the issues, but not able to present them in a fashion that can be accepted by people who don't already share his position. Santorum has recently seen a brief bounce in his poll numbers, but it was a very small one, and didn't last. I believe it's time for Santorum to fold his tent.

Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann, to my mind, has done a great job in Congress. But I don't believe that she's shown herself to be ready to be president, either. Again, she's right on most issues, but seems to have a hard time explaining herself to people (like those in the media) who don't already share her views. Despite winning the Ames Straw Poll in August, Bachmann has been losing steam ever since. While I think it's good that she mounted this campaign, I'd like to see her terminate her presidential campaign and run for re-election to Congress.

Former Utah Governor and Ambassador to China John Huntsman, in my view, never had any business running for president as a Republican. I don't believe he's raised much money, nor ever gotten much support. I think it's long past time for Huntsman to abandon this race.

I recently told people on Facebook that I thought it was time for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to quit, too. Newt, I've felt, would do better as a debate moderator than a participant. But Newt, who has more issues over the last 20 years, both personal and political, than I care to get into here, is enjoying a small bounce bringing up to third place in some polls. But unless he can turn that into a big move, I don't believe he should keep at this.

Congressman Ron Paul has a lot of good ideas, too, and seems to be running a much better campaign this year than last. I have big qualms about some of his ideas, like ending the bulk of our overseas military involvement. I can't help but think that there would be unintended consequences which we might find intolerable. But there's a lot to like about Paul, as well. Last time around, Ron Paul was my fourth choice, after Sam Brownback, Duncan Hunter, and Fred Thompson, none of whom were still in the race by the Illinois primary in early February, so I voted for Paul. If Perry and Cain don't stay in until the Texas primary in March, I may vote for Paul again, as he's currently in my top three.

Finally, businessman Herman Cain is currently riding a very remarkable groundswell of support in the polls, supported by his excellent debate performances. Cain has had some recent missteps, but seems to be getting good at explaining himself. Too be sure, a campaign is an educational experience, for the candidate no less than for the electorate. And this is the drawback Cain has, insufficient experience in politics. I don't say none, because Cain ran a primary race for the U.S. Senate a few years back. But Cain clearly has a lot to learn if he's going to finish this race. Still, with his cheery mien, and his excellent 9-9-9 plan, I think he's got a lot to offer; Cain is my first choice at the moment. But that could change, I'm still learning about all these candidates.

Prager: Who's More Irrational?

2011-10-25T12:00:00.000-05:00

Dennis Prager, a Jew, defends Evangelicals from liberals:

If evangelicals come with some views I find irrational it is a tiny price to pay compared to the price humanity has paid for the Left’s consistently broken moral compass — about America; about Communism and Islamism; about the superiority of peace studies over waging war against evil; about America’s role in the world; about Israel; about the welfare state; about Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, and all the other left-wing dictators the Left has celebrated; about the belief that men and women are basically the same; about the greater worth of any animal than of the unborn human; and about nearly every other major moral issue.

Tea

2011-10-24T10:55:00.000-05:00

The Year of Change, Part One

2011 has been, for me and my family, very much a year of change. Many changes, large and small, some voluntary, some involuntary, some good, some bad, some still unclear. This is the first what I intend to become a series of posts on these changes, and my thoughts about them.

I'm starting small here. I've taken up drinking tea early this year.

Tea. You know, hot water, the tea kettle whistling on the stove, a cup, a saucer, a teabag. Tea. Not a political statement, but a cultural icon, a vehicle for consuming caffeine, and a connection to something lost.

I never acquired the taste for drinking coffee. When I needed caffeine, which has been often, I drank cola. Always. Any hour of the day or night. Pepsi, Coke, RC, or almost any other brand. Cola; a child's drink.

But having past the mid-point of my fifth decade walking the earth, I've put on quite a few pounds, and reducing my sugar intake seemed like a good step towards reducing my girth (or least slowing the rate of increase).

When I say tea, in this article, I'm referring only to a small sub-set of the vast universe of tea possibilities. I'm talking about hot tea, not iced tea. Black tea, not green tea. Caffeinated, not decaff.

The switch has led me to a few insights:

Firstly, it requires an element of patience to drink tea. Being the only one in either my household or my office drinking tea, it's taken one cup at a time. I heat the water in a tea kettle on the stove-top, then when the kettle whistles, I pour it over the tea bag in the cup. I wait for it to steep in the boiling water, and then wait for it to cool enough to drink. (I tried not heating it so much, but there's something ineffably different in drinking tea that is cooling from too hot than in drinking tea that was never too hot.) Then it must be sipped slowly, and, if it's good, savored.

Tea slows down the frantic pace of life. It forces me to relax and be more patient.

I started out drinking Lipton. Then I tried a version of Lipton that was seasoned with orange. Then, being a Trekkie, I had to try Earl Grey, and upon trying Bigelow's brand, quite liked it.

A friend of the Extraordinary Wife's, Irish by birth, had encouraged me to try Irish Breakfast Tea. I tried Twining's version, which is strong but a tad bitter. But I found I liked Twinings' Earl Grey, English Breakfast Tea, and Lady Grey (a version of Earl Grey infused with orange) best.

I've tried various other smaller brands on occasion, often with excellent results.

Packaging matters, too. Bigelow staples the string to the tea bag, which means it sometimes comes lose. Twinings stitches the string to the bag.

But I noticed something else, as well. I found myself more connected to the culture of which tea in an important part. I better understood Tolkien's many references to Bilbo Baggins' longing to return to his tea kettle at home. I understood better the British television and movies I've watched.

We Americans make fun sometimes of the British who, it seems, whenever adversity arises, respond first by brewing up a pot of tea. But tea is wonderful for clearing your head, and forcing you to slow down and look more carefully at your situation. Tea is also good for the long haul; you can drink cup after cup without become too strung out on caffeine, or, as with cola, too bloated.

I'm glad I took up drinking tea this year. It's helped me in dealing with all the other changes that have happened.

Notice To The Next President

2011-10-10T11:33:00.002-05:00

Notice to the next president of the U.S., of whatever party:

I expect you to do better than Barack Obama. I don't care how bad he makes things, I expect you to make things better. I won't want to hear during your term about how everything is Obama's fault, I will expect to see your policies working to improve conditions in America. And if those policies do not work, I will expect to see you changing them in order to achieve success.

Quarter Million

2011-10-10T11:32:00.001-05:00

This past weekend, we saw blog traffic pass the 250,000 hit milestone. Thanks for reading!

Catholic Calendar: Monday, October 10th, 2011

2011-10-10T00:01:00.000-05:00

Today is Monday, October 10th, 2011, the feast day of St. Francis Borgia in the traditional calendar.

Readings in the Ordinary Form: Rom 1:1-7; Ps 98:1bcde, 2-3ab, 3cd-4; Luke 11:29-32

Readings in the Extraordinary Form: Ecclus 45:1-6; Matt 19:27-29

Pray the Joyous Mysteries of the Rosary

Book Review: "Killing Lincoln"

2011-10-09T14:31:00.002-05:00

Killing Lincoln
by Bill O'Reilly & Martin Dugard
Henry Holt & Co., New York, 313 pages, $28

Nevermind what you may think of the Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly; this isn't a book about politics. This book is straight-out history. It's a very good retelling of a very compelling story. A very intense period in April of 1865 saw the final battles of the Civil War, the surrender of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's army to Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, and the plot, only partially successful, to bring down the federal government by assassinating President Abraham Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William Seward.

Abraham Lincoln, and particularly his death, has been a subject of great interest to me since I was a child, and while I don't claim to be an expert, I have read extensively on the topic. So I'm always surprised to read something that tells me something new. Such as that John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln's murderer, had a fiance, Miss Lucy Lambert Hale (the daughter of a U.S. Senator) and she spent the afternoon of the assassination with Lincoln's son Robert, studying Spanish. More importantly, I didn't know that Secretary of War Stanton's favorite detective Lafayette Baker (whom Stanton placed in charge of the manhunt), had direct ties to Booth. And I didn't know the Nixonian detail of the 18 pages missing from Booth's diary when Stanton released it to the public, after holding it secretly for two years.

I've long been in the camp of those who suspect that Stanton had a hand in directing the assassination plot, which, if successful, would have left Stanton president, under the succession laws then in effect. O'Reilly and his co-author Dugard do an excellent job of placing in their proper context the links and questions that have lead to suspect Stanton of involvement, while also pointing out exculpatory details, such as that Stanton discouraged Lincoln from going to the theater.

Booth, as told by O'Reilly and Dugard, becomes an even more sinister character than I understood previously, too, as they illustrate alternatives that Booth passed up to pursue his hateful vendetta against Lincoln.

The story is told compellingly, and is fast-paced and interesting.

And yet, I am disappointed in this book, as well. O'Reilly failed to properly set my expectations in his forward, when he promises that the reader would better understand how Lincoln's murder "Changed America Forever" (as it says in bold text on the book's cover). Instead, the generally strong narrative concludes weakly with the notation that Mary Surratt was the only woman ever hanged by the federal government. Very little effort is made to explain how America itself was changed in the long run by this shocking murder.

The advance copy I received includes a number of editing errors which I hope will be cleaned up in the final edition (now available). Some of these errors are passages where the syntax is simply awkward. Others include small factual errors, such a references to Lincoln working in the Oval Office, which was not built until the 20th Century.

But on the whole, I found the book to be a good read, both interesting and informative.

Click here to hear an excerpt from the audiobook.

Catholic Calendar: Sunday, October 9th, 2011

2011-10-09T13:53:00.000-05:00

Today is Sunday, October 9th, 2011, the feast day of St. Denis and his Companions in the new and traditional calendars.

Readings in the Ordinary Form: Isa 25:6-10a; Ps 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6; Phil 4:12-14, 19-20; Matt 22:1-14 or 22:1-10

Readings in the Extraordinary Form: Eph 4:1-6; Matt 22:34b-46

Pray the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary

Catholic Calendar: Saturday, October 8th, 2011

2011-10-08T00:01:00.000-05:00

Today is Saturday, October 8th, 2011, the feast day of St. Briget of Sweden in the traditional calendar.

Readings in the Ordinary Form: Joel 4:12-21; Ps 97:1-2,5-6, 11-12; Luke 11:27-28

Readings in the Extraordinary Form: 1 Tim 5:3-10; Matt 13:44-52

Pray the Joyous Mysteries of the Rosary

Anti-Science Zealots Force Their "Faith" On Others

2011-10-07T15:37:00.000-05:00

Catholic Calendar: Friday, October 7th, 2011

2011-10-07T00:01:00.005-05:00

Today is Friday, October 7th, 2011, the feast day of Our Lady of the Rosary in the new and traditional calendars, and of St. Mark in the traditional calendar.

Readings in the Ordinary Form: Joel 1:13-15; 2:1-2; Ps 9:2-3, 6+16, 8-9; Luke 11:15-26

Readings in the Extraordinary Form: Prov 8:22-24, 32-35; Luke 1:26-38

Pray the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary

Catholic Calendar: Thursday, October 6th, 2011

2011-10-06T00:01:00.001-05:00

Today is Thursday, October 6th, 2011, the feast day of St. Bruno in the new and traditional calendars.

Readings in the Ordinary Form: Mal 3:13-20b; Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4+6

Readings in the Extraordinary Form: Ecclus 31:8-11; Luke 12:35-40

Pray the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary

Catholic Calendar: Wednesday, October 5th, 2011

2011-10-05T07:52:00.000-05:00

Today is Wednesday, October 5th, 2011, the feast day of St. Faustina Kowalska in the new calendar, and of S. Placid and his Companions in the traditional calendar.

Readings in the Ordinary Form: Jonah 4:1-11; Ps 86:3-4, 5-6, 9-10; Luke 11:1-4

Daily readings in the Extraordinary Form: Heb 10:32-38; Luke 12:1-8

Pray the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary

If I Were A Liberal

2011-10-03T12:08:00.001-05:00

(Back in the middle of August, I made this series of posts as my Facebook status.)

If I were a liberal, I would believe that everyone is entitled to as much of the money I make as they want, except for myself.

If I were a liberal, I'd believe that God is OK with federally-funded abortion and euthanasia, but not with capital punishment.

If I were a liberal, I'd believe that gay "marriage" and abortion are rights, but that gun ownership and freedom of religion are not.

If I were a liberal, I'd believe that depicting President Barack Obama as Hitler constitutes hate speech, but that depicting President George W. Bush as Hitler is patriotic.

If I were a liberal, I'd believe that we should try to understand Islamic fundamentalists, but I would fear Christian fundamentalists.

If I were a liberal, I'd believe that the IRS and the Dept. of Education could make better use of machine guns than the U.S. Army.

If I were a liberal, I'd demand we all rely on scientists to tell us that global warming is real, but I'd want every woman to decide for herself when life begins.

If I were a liberal, I would believe that nothing happens, unless the federal government makes it happen.

If I were a liberal, I'd feel threatened every time a Christian tells me what he believes, but I'd demand he listen respectfully to what I believe.

If I were a liberal, I'd insist on respect for people of all walks of life; except for white males, Christians, fathers, and men in general.

If I were a liberal, I'd believe that rich people will produce no matter how little of their profit the government lets them keep.

If I were a liberal, I'd understand that people with ethnic accents are sophisticated, but people with southern accents are rubes.

If I were a liberal, I'd respect other faiths, like Islam, that call on women to display their submission to their husbands by wearing veils and burkhas and walking behind them, but I'd have contempt for Christian women who believe that they are called to submit to their husbands, but whose husbands encourage them to run for President.

If I were a liberal, I'd believe that it was dangerous incivility that leads people to disrespect President Obama, was that it was funny when people called for President Bush to be assassinated.

If I were a liberal, I would be careful not to learn more about Christianity than is consistent with my liberal worldview.

If I were a liberal, I'd worry about Republicans leading Christian prayers, even in private-sector venues, but I'd be fine with President Obama discussing "the resurrection of our savior, Jesus Christ" at an Easter White House prayer breakfast. Possibly because I'd be confident he didn't really mean it.

If I were a liberal, I'd think Christians were foolish to be offended by public displays of pornography, but I'd expect them to sensitive to the feelings of those who don't share their faith by not displaying Christian images in the public square.

Catholic Calendar: Monday, October 3rd, 2011

2011-10-03T07:49:00.000-05:00

Today is Monday, October 3rd, 2011, the feast day of St. Therese of Lisieux, in the traditional calendar, and of St. Gerard of Brogne, historically.

Daily readings in the Ordinary Form: Jonah 1:1-2:2, 11; Jonah 2:3, 4, 5, 8; Luke 10:25-37

Daily readings in the Extraordinary Form: Is66:12-14; Matt 18:1-4

Pray the Joyous Mysteries of the Rosary

The Unasked Question

2011-10-02T07:47:00.000-05:00

My old acquaintance (and brother Knight of the SCA), David Friedman, is the son of Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman. He has a question that I haven't seen anyone else ask, nor try to answer:

The argument for large and expensive efforts to prevent or reduce global warming has three parts, in principle separable: Global temperature is trending up, the reason is human activity, and the consequences of the trend continuing are very bad. Almost all arguments, pro and con, focus on the first two. The third, although necessary to support the conclusion, is for the most part ignored by both sides.

The usual argument to show that an increase in global temperatures by a few degrees centigrade over the next century would be a catastrophe, or at least a very bad thing, consists of pointing out specific bad effects: rising sea level increasing the risk of flooding in very low lying areas, rising temperature making particular areas less suited to growing the crops they now grow. But an increase in global temperature would also have good effects, as should be obvious to anyone who has ever spent a winter in Chicago, not to mention Alaska or Siberia. The question is not whether there are any bad effects but whether there are net bad effects, whether the increased risk of flooding in Bangladesh does or does not outweigh the opening of a sea route north of Asia and the increase in the habitable area of Canada and Siberia.

The answer, I think, is that nobody knows if the net effects would be good or bad, and probably nobody can know. [Emphasis added.]

Quo Vadis?

2011-10-02T07:15:00.000-05:00

One of my new Favorite Bloggers, Robert Stacy McCain of The Other McCain, takes a look at a specific case that may tell us something about our culture:

‎When only secular progressive arguments are deemed admissible, when perspectives of faith and tradition are pre-emptively excluded from public discourse, we should not be surprised when the ghastly results show up on the cable TV news.

Catholic Calendar: Sunday, October 2nd, 2011

2011-10-02T06:17:00.000-05:00

Today is Sunday, October 2nd, 2011, the Solemnity of the Holy Guardian Angels in both the new and traditional calendars.

Readings in the Ordinary Form: Isa 5:17; Ps 8:9-12, 13-14, 16-16, 19-20; Phil 4:69-9; Matt 21:33-43

$eadings in the Extraordinary Form: Eph 3:13-21; Luke 14:1-11

Pray the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary

Catholic Calendar: Saturday, October 1st, 2011

2011-10-01T00:01:00.001-05:00

St. Therese, dressed as St. Joan of Arc

Today is Saturday, October 1st, 2011, the Solemnity of St. Therese of LIsieux, in the new calendar, and of St. Remigius in the traditional calendars.

Daily readings in the Ordinary Form: Bar 4:5-12, 27-29; Ps 69:33-35, 36-37; Luke 10:17-24

Daily readings in the Extraordinary Form: Ecclus 44:16-27, 45:3; Matt 25:14-23

Pray the Joyous Mysteries of the Rosary

Catholic Calendar: Friday, Sept. 30, 2011

2011-09-30T13:54:00.003-05:00

Today is Friday, September 30th, 2011, the Solemnity of St. Jerome, one of the patrons of this blog, in both the new and traditional calendars.

Daily readings in the Ordinary Form: Bar 1:15-22; Ps 79:1b-2, 3-5, 8, 9; Luke 10:13-16

Daily readings in the Extraordinary Form: 2 Tim 4:1-8, Matt 5:13-19

Pray the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary.

Slutwalk Comes To Minnesota

2011-09-30T13:19:00.001-05:00

Rule 5 Post #1

(This is posted in accordance with Robert Stacy McCain's Rule #5 for successful blogging.)

Stupid feminists (a tautology) routinely protest in various states of undress in order to get more attention than they otherwise could. This is the sort of tasteless, tacky, and frankly sexist tactic that one would think would be beneath a self-respecting feminist (an oxymoron). "Slutwalk" is coming to Minnesota tomorrow:

Waving signs like "My dress is not a ’yes,’" women in various states of dress or undress take to city streets to protest an attitude that holds victims responsible for inviting sexual violence. The march has caused controversy among women’s rights advocates, not only for its intentionally in-your-face name, but also because of a concern that the medium is smothering the message.

Now represented in more than 75 cities worldwide, SlutWalk was launched by a single remark. At a college safety seminar in Toronto last spring, a police officer told young women they would be less likely to be raped if they didn’t dress "like sluts."

Police officers will routinely offer you advice on how to avoid being a crime victim: lock your doors, put your Christmas presents in the trunk, stay out of rough neighborhoods, carry a weapon, don't go alone, get a dog, get an alarm system, get a restraining order... and yes, dress modestly.

We've built a society that has no concept of respect. Not for self, not for others. Take all the offense you want, but the guy who is impressed by "SlutWalk" probably wouldn't have raped you anyway, no matter what you were (or were not) wearing. The guy who rapes won't care about your message of what you should be able to wear (or not wear) without fear.

U.S. Senate Candidate Forum Tomorrow In Plano

2011-09-30T08:29:00.000-05:00

The North Texas Tea Party is hosting a candidate forum for candidates seeking to succeed the retiring incumbent, Senator Kay Baily Hutchison.

It's right around the corner from my house in Plano, but I'm not sure if I can break free from the Beauty Girl's birthday festivities to be there:

A Texas US Senatorial Candidate Forum will be held on October 1, 2011 from 2:00 – 4:30 p.m. at Spring Creek Campus Living Legends Conference Center: AA135, Spring Creek Campus 2800 East Spring Creek Parkway, Plano, TX 75074. Doors will open at 1:15 p.m.

Glenn Addison
Andrew Castanuela
Curt Cleaver
Ted Cruz
Elizabeth Ames Jones
Tom Leppert
Lela Pittenger

All registered Candidates have been invited; any Late entry Candidate will be invited

The forum will give voters an opportunity to become better informed about their choices for elected representatives, and candidates an opportunity to express their views to the audience.

The question and answer format will be moderated by Mark Reid, past president of Texas Tea Party Alliance and a panel of select tea party members.

The forum is sponsored by Texas Tea Party Alliance, Co-Sponsored by African American Republican Club of Collin County, Allen Area Patriots, Amigo De Patriots, Articles of Freedom, Collin Young Conservatives, Collin County Conservative Republicans, Frisco Tea Party, Golden Corridor Republican Women, McKinney Tea Party, North Texas Tea Party, Plano Tea Party, Plano Republican Women, and Candidate coordination by New Revolution Now.

Obama's Malaise Moment

2011-09-30T08:04:00.002-05:00

He says we've gone soft.

Debating Abortion

2011-09-30T07:56:00.002-05:00

I've used this line of reasoning, but with little success. Maybe it's the medium. Maybe it's the people I'm engaging. Maybe it's me.

What do you think of this video?

Of Course It's The Republicans' Fault

2011-09-30T07:45:00.001-05:00

When the Democrats, with their Senate majority, can't pass President Obama's top priority "jobs bill," we all know who'll get the blame, don't we? But Majority Whip Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) says they just can't round up enough D's to support the President (H/T: Marathon Pundit):

WLS Radio’s Bill Cameron reports his own party has delayed action in the Senate and talked with Senator Dick Durbin, the number two Democrat in the Senate, about the reason why.

#2 Senate Democrat, Richard Durbin (IL)
"The oil-producing state senators don’t like eliminating or reducing the subsidy for oil companies," Durbin tells WLS Radio, “There are some senators who are up for election who say I’m never gonna vote for a tax increase while I’m up for election, even on the wealthiest people. So, we’re not gonna have 100% Democratic senators. That’s why it needs to be bi-partisan and I hope we can find some Republicans who will join us to make it happen.”

But so far, Durbin concedes Democrats don’t have the votes in the senate to pass it, “Not at the moment, I don’t think we do but, uh, we can work on it.”

President Obama will be here in the DFW area next Tuesday campaigning for his bill. I won't be be able to make it, I have to work. But I hope he doesn't try that "If you love me, help me pass it," line in Texas.

Follow Jesus

2011-09-30T07:36:00.002-05:00

And not just on Twitter!

Re-Boot: So Many Changes

2011-09-30T07:28:00.002-05:00

Well, I see it's been over two months since I hit the "new post" button here, but it hasn't been for lack of material nor lack of desire. It's just that so much as been going on!

As was already reported, I've moved my family from Illinois to Texas following the taking up of my new job in Carrollton, TX, just north of Dallas. The job continues to go well, but it's always been my practice not to blog about my job, and I intend to continue that practice.

We moved into a lovely rental house in Plano (east of Carrollton) at the beginning of August, and have been settling in nicely. With its fenced back yard with a playhouse up on stilts, and its fourth bedroom, the kids have adjusted well to it, as an improvement over the townhome we left in Illinois.


(l to r: John Paul, Michael, baby James, Robby, and Mary)

Then, the Extraordinary Wife gave birth to our fifth child on Sept. 20th. Her parents came in the prior weekend to help out with everything, and they'll be here until Sunday, long enough to celebrate the Beauty Girl's 8th birthday on Saturday.

One of the biggest changes has been putting the kids into public school. That's right, with all that's going on, we've given up homeschooling, at least for now. I still have every good thing to say about homeschooling, but it just wasn't right for our present situation. We're just around the corner from a very nice elementary school, and the Plano school district has an outstanding reputation. The kids are loving it.

We attended mass for a few weeks in Irving at Mater Dei parish, run by priests of the FSSP, but have decided to make St. Mark the Evangelist, in Plano, our parish home. It is a huge parish of over 8400 families (over 30,000 parishioners), but it's much closer, and at that size, quite literally has something for everyone.

I haven't yet made direct contact with local political organizations, beyond subscribing to a few email lists, but I'm sure I'll be making my presence felt soon. There are a number of other changes to blog about as well, and I'll be resuming my commentary on all things political and cultural.

I hope you'll stay tuned.

Republicans: We Can't Blow 2012, But We Can't Mess Up 2013 Either

2011-07-06T21:55:00.000-05:00

Here's a consideration for 2012. What if the Republican candidate wins?

Mind you, I don't find that especially likely. Certainly, a Republican win with the right candidate is achievable. Viewed from this far out, President Obama certainly appears to be politically vulnerable, but lot can (and will) happen between this day and that.

But what if we win?

Here's my thought:

How often have Republicans had George W. Bush thrown in our faces as the be-all and end-all of the Republican Party? He's a real man, with good points and bad points, successes and failures. He's not perfect, and his two terms in office were not, from a conservative perspective, by any means perfect.

And yet Bush, with every right or wrong step, is often portrayed as exactly what the GOP stands for.

I, for one, don't always appreciate that. The Republican Party is more than just one man; even more than just one president. Still, I suppose the effect is inevitable. We certainly do our best to reduce our opponents to their worst, even when that's their last three or four presidents.

My conclusion, though, is simply this: As we go through the primary process, we should be thinking not only of who will be represent our party as a candidate, but also who will best represent our party, if victorious, as President.

Regular Guys Need Fans, Too!

2011-06-26T12:17:00.001-05:00

Socialism Is A Pro-Death Philosophy

2011-06-25T10:37:00.002-05:00

Listen to this chilling excerpt from Ayn Rand's 1953 novel, Atlas Shrugged, and then tell me that this isn't the finest example you've seen all year of how socialism is a pro-death system:

Why Homeschool, Part 31

2011-06-16T16:49:00.002-05:00

So your kids won't be given test like this one

Have you ever had oral sex? If you prefer not to answer that, I can certainly understand. How about having strangers as your kids that question (H/T: Creative Minority Report):

A middle school in Massachusetts is under fire for requiring children to complete a graphic sex survey -- without parental knowledge or consent -- that included questions about sexual partners and oral sex.

The Rutherford Institute, a civil liberties organization, filed a complaint with the U.S. Dept. of Education against the Fitchburg School Committee. They are representing the two middle school-aged daughters of Arlene Tessitore.

The U.S. Dept. of Education. Why am I not surprised? I could fall over dead from NOT-SURPRISE! They don't employ a single teacher, but they do have guns and SWAT teams. And, it seems, perverts.

...“It goes down a whole list, including birth control pills, condoms and one of the answers is ‘withdraw,’” Whitehead said. “Adults know what this is, but kids have to imagine or go online to find out what it means.”

Principal Fran Thomas told Fox News Radio that students were indeed given the survey – and admits it was graphic. But Thomas said the school has nothing to do with the content and they were required to administer the survey to fulfill a grant requirement.

Congressman Joe Walsh, please take notice! Here's a good reason right here to de-fund the Department of Education. Their grants are dependent on gathering data like this from school kids?

“I can take no responsibility for what’s on that survey,” Thomas said. “It’s not generated by the school system.”

And clearly Principal Thomas should be fired if she thinks that the things that are done to the students under her care are not her responsibility.

But I won't be sending my kids to schools like this one.

This I Believe

2011-06-11T17:20:00.002-05:00

No republic can survive the apathy of its citizens. If the people fail to object when their representatives vote to increase their own power, they will be inexorably reduced to slavery.

Goodbye, Illinois

2011-06-09T16:14:00.001-05:00

To all my friends in Illinois, good-bye. I have accepted an offer of employment from a company in Texas, and will shortly be leaving the state behind.

When he left Illinois for Washington, D.C. in 1860, President-elect Abraham Lincoln had these words to say: "Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell."

I grew up in Illinois, from before my first birthday nearly until my sixteenth. When I returned nine years ago, it was with a delight of which I have seldom spoken. Illinois has charms and gifts that are rarely remarked and even more rarely appreciated.

But this beautiful state is oppressed beneath the weight of a political system that holds no regulation to be too onerous, no tax to be too high, and no virtue worth troubling about. This political regime has led, predictably and inexorably, to an economic depression with no end in sight. As other neighboring states pull their economies up by their own bootstraps, more and more businesses and citizens opt to "shrug": they close up shop, sometimes permanently, sometimes to cross the border into neighboring states, sometimes to go, willingly or not, on the public dole, to become the beneficiaries of the programs for the maintenance of which they were taxed and regulated into penury.

As I became aware of this state of affairs, I began to involve myself, seeking to be more part of the solution than part of the problem. I soon found myself working alongside many good people -- most of whom had, like me, only lately become activated to get involved.

Now I am returning to Texas, whence I came. I am taking up a job as a programmer with a growing company in Carrollton, Texas.

To the friends I have made in Illinois through my political endeavors, we have worked together to try to improve our communities and our state against tremendous odds. I hope my participation contributed to making a difference, just as I hope that you will carry on with it. I am very proud of the work we did.

To all the friends I am leaving, including those I have gained through religious, leisure and other activities, I hope we can keep in touch. I may not have often expressed my sentiment, but I have always been grateful for your many kindnesses and your friendships, and I will miss you.

I leave with regret for leaving so much incomplete, and for leaving so many good people. But I go knowing that in the place I am returning to, I already have many friends, and many more to be made, and work to be done there to which I can apply the lessons I learned here.

I am leaving because I could not find work enough to sustain my family here, and I have found it there. And so it is with very mixed feelings that Karie & and I say goodbye to our Illinois friends, and hello again to our Texas friends.

I close with these words of Davy Crockett: "I must say as to what I have seen of Texas, it is the garden spot of the world. The best land & best prospects for health I ever saw is here, and I do believe it is a fortune to any man to come here. There is a world of country to settle."

Pro-Marriage Demonstration

2011-05-29T08:29:00.002-05:00

Great video from Cao of Cao's Blog on the demonstrations in Chicago Friday. I will say this: it only took the counter-protesters about 2 minutes before they started calling us names: bigot, homophobe, right-wingers. They alternated between contempt for religion and appeals to it. Their chanting and hostility form a backdrop throughout this video.

I would estimate about 150 people came out for this march and rally in defense of traditional marriage, with about half that many counter-protesters demanding the right to redefine marriage for everyone.

If they were really as tolerant as they claim, you might think that they would just let us make our views heard peacefully, but no. Our folks prayed the rosary, and they chanted violent rhetoric through bullhorns.

And yes, I'm in this video.

Sometimes people like to point out that conservatives are a monochromatic group, but that certainly wasn't the case Friday. It was the folks carrying the rainbow flags who were all one color.

In related news, the Illinois civil unions law hasn't even taken effect, and its already pushing the Catholic Church out of the adoption business.

And, given that homosexual relationships don't engender children, their only hope for the future is co-opt heterosexuals' kids to embrace their lifestyle. So we recently had a rare moment of honesty from a gay blogger:

In response to New York’s recently introduced marriage equality bill, the so-called National Organization for Marriage got a bunch of pictures of black people and some guy who sounds like Foghorn Leghorn to repeat the same lies about indoctrinating schoolchildren that they ran in 2009. They accuse us of exploiting children and in response we say, “NOOO! We’re not gonna make kids learn about homosexuality, we swear! It’s not like we’re trying to recruit your children or anything.” But let’s face it—that’s a lie. We want educators to teach future generations of children to accept queer sexuality. In fact, our very future depends on it.

...Recruiting children? You bet we are.

Why would we push anti-bullying programs or social studies classes that teach kids about the historical contributions of famous queers unless we wanted to deliberately educate children to accept queer sexuality as normal?

Remember, Prop 8 passed along age lines with the very old voting largely in favor of it. The younger generation doesn’t fear homosexuality as much because they’re exposed to fags on TV, online, and at school. And I don’t know a single lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender person who wants that to stop. I for one certainly want tons of school children to learn that it’s OK to be gay, that people of the same sex should be allowed to legally marry each other, and that anyone can kiss a person of the same sex without feeling like a freak. And I would very much like for many of these young boys to grow up and start fucking men. I want lots of young ladies to develop into young women who voraciously munch box. I want this just as badly as many parents want their own kids to grow up and rub urinary tracts together to trade proteins and forcefully excrete a baby.

I and a lot of other people want to indoctrinate, recruit, teach, and expose children to queer sexuality AND THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT.

I dont' get the impression that this fellow really believes that line about people being born gay, either.

And for our liberals readers, how would you feel about your kids being gay?

But while Jerry, Geoff, and other progressive dads of their generation are more than happy to down margaritas and watch Project Runway with gay friends, they're not so comfortable with the idea of their own offspring going the way of Dumbledore. And only on the condition of anonymity will they elaborate on why, exactly...

Parents who say they're open to the idea of homosexuality are often the most difficult for a child to come out to. "Perhaps they make a distinction between your kid and mine," he says. "It's nice for other people's children to be gay or to have gay friends, but one's own child is a different story. Indeed, some of the young people say religiously conservative parents respond the best, because of the value of family. But it's the progressive, holier-than-thou parents who often can't cope."

One Christmas, my wife went over to Goodwill and came back with a boxfull of "dress-up clothes" for the kids; play costumes they could mix and match. I was somewhat disturbed when my then-four-year-old son put on the evening gown, high heels, and lady's hat and paraded around the living room, but I didn't make a sound, and he never did it again.

Liberal Civility: The Agenda Project

2011-05-18T20:21:00.000-05:00

The Agenda Project is a well-funded liberal effort to sway public opinion.

Never mind all that crap about the intelligence of progressives. These videos are nothing other than slanderous lies intended to elicit emotional reactions.

How to begin a debate on an issue of national importance: Accuse your opponents of murder:

Or just tell them to f*ck off (NSFW):

Just remember, when a Democrat decries the low quality of public discourse, it only means he's losing. It doesn't ever mean that he really disapproves of below-the-belt tactics.

Champion News Radio, Breitbart's Big Government.com and Townhall.com All Cover The D46 Email Scandal

2011-05-17T15:29:00.000-05:00

We getting some more widespread coverage for our local scandal: Townhall.com and Big Government.com!

And here is the video of our interview which aired last Sunday morning on Champion News Talk Radio, on WIND AM.

Andrew Klavan: The Hilarious World of Abortion

2011-05-06T11:37:00.001-05:00

State's Attorney's Office Confirms School Board Under Investigation

2011-05-06T00:20:00.001-05:00

This is how you change your community for the better. A simple FOIA request uncovers evidence of illegal activity. You publicize what you've found and file a criminal complaint. And then the prosecutors go to work:

The Lake County State’s Attorney office has confirmed it is looking into complaints of misconduct against Grayslake School District 46 officials related to the campaign for last month’s school board elections.

E-mails sent by District 46 officials, which form the basis of the complaints, were submitted this week to the state’s attorney’s office by district critics who are affiliated with the Lake County Tea Party movement.

In a press release issued Tuesday, Lake County Tea Party spokesman Paul Mitchell, of Hainesville, said the e-mails show, among other things, that political activity was conducted by district officials using public resources.

The e-mails, also posted on the Lake County Tea Party’s website, were obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, he said.

Mitchell said that in the weeks leading up to the election, one District 46 official had inappropriately used a public e-mail account to discuss campaign activities with other district officials.

In another e-mail, a different official referred to offering gift cards to high school students as an incentive to register to vote, Mitchell said.

The officials have not disputed the authenticity of the e-mails and have declined to comment further.

They say we're interfering with the task of educating the children. I say they're using the children as human shields to try to get away with their continued embezzlement of district funds for their own benefit.

So far, we have only scratched the surface of the tip of the iceberg.

Unhappy Crowd At Grayslake D46 School Board

2011-05-04T10:06:00.003-05:00

We had quite a showing at the school board meeting last night:

Grayslake Elementary District 46 Superintendent Ellen Correll and other officials were blasted Tuesday night for what Lake County tea party leaders claim was improper use of publicly owned email systems before the April 5 election.

County tea party founder Lennie Jarratt of Round Lake Beach said during public comment time he’s turned over more than 300 pages of emails to the Lake County state’s attorney’s office and the Illinois attorney general. State law prohibits public resources from being used for political activity.
Advertisement

Demonstrators smile outside before last night's D46 school board meeting.
Jarratt obtained the emails through open-records requests with District 46 and Northbrook/Glenview Elementary District 30. Mary Garcia, who was District 46’s board president until the changing of the guard Tuesday, is a teacher and union president at District 30, was the focus of many complaints.

District 46 resident Joan Seifert said school officials involved in the emails should apologize to her for their actions. Other who spoke contend the officials acted unethically and may have violated state law.

“You dishonor this community,” Seifert said.

Many of the 60 or so spectators had copies of a news release distributed by tea party members at the board meeting and read aloud selected emails that were posted Tuesday on the group’s website.

Garcia and Susan Facklam were the incumbents in the April election with political newcomers Shannon Smigielski, Kip Evans and Marchell Norris. Smigielski, Evans and Facklam were the top three vote-getters.

Several speakers criticized an email that apparently showed Garcia used her taxpayer-funded District 30 email to seek campaign assistance from a Lake County Democrat Party operative. Correll was chastised for potentially participating in political activity on District 46’s email.

Correll wrote an email to North Chicago Unit District 187 Superintendent Douglas Parks on behalf of Garcia on the afternoon of March 10. “Mary Garcia is wondering how many signs you would take?” Correll wrote to Parks.

Facklam was criticized by speakers for writing an email to Garcia’s District 30 account that implied she offered gift cards to a high school student encouraging her to get more friends to register to vote. Facklam arrived late to the meeting and declined to comment during a break, while Garcia was absent.

Round Lake Beach resident Joe Hubbard read an email that Garcia sent from District 30 to a Daily Herald reporter that expressed concern Smigielski, Norris and Evans were backed by the tea party and would bring partisan politics into a school board race. All three denied Garcia’s claim in a news story.

District 30 Superintendent Edward Tivador said officials there are investigating an ethics complaint that Jarratt recently filed over Garcia’s work email use. Depending on the findings, the District 30 administration can recommend discipline or termination of Garcia.

“We always take these matters very seriously,” Tivador said Tuesday.

Per typical operating procedure, neither the District 46 board nor Correll responded to the speakers during the meeting.

Board member Keith Surroz said he understood the crowd’s criticism of Correll and the others. He said Correll deserves credit for drastically cutting expenses at the district and managing to keep employee morale high.

“I think we have to look at what is there to see if it has significant merit," Surroz said of the political email attributed to Correll.

Correll declined to comment on the criticism, saying her focus is on education.

Tensions in the crowd at Grayslake Middle School ran high at one point in the meeting when the board discussed Correll’s yearly goal performance evaluation.

Board member Colleen Wade criticized colleague Michael Carbone because he didn’t submit an evaluation, which triggered hoots from the crowd. A Grayslake police officer walked into middle school library to monitor the session when the shouting became loud.

This is the text of the press release that was circulated:

Released School Board Emails Reveal Legal and Ethical Violations in Grayslake School District #46.

Activists of the Lake County Tea Party organization today made available on their website a collection of over 300 pages’ worth of emails obtained through two Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, which they believe reveals legal and ethical violations, including offering rewards to people for registering to vote, conspiring to avoid required political disclosures, and political activity conducted by district employees using district resources and on district time.

“It's a sordid story about crime and corruption where anyone would least expect to find it: In a suburban elementary school district,” said Tea Party spokesman Paul Mitchell, of Hainesville.

“Don’t let them turn us in...” - The April 5th election was a hard-fought race in which five candidates (two incumbents and three challengers) were vying to fill three seats. Mitchell describes the two incumbent candidates, Board President Mary Garcia and Vice President Sue Facklam, as strongly pro-union. In one of the released emails, noting that the three challengers had been linked on the Lake County Tea Party website, incumbent candidate Mary Garcia wrote, "I think that all members of both Unions should be apprised of this information... There will be no collective bargaining with those 3 on the board. I am very afraid that Sue and I will not have the funds necessary to fight a ‘party’.” This email, sent to D46 Superintendent Ellen Correll, Assistant Superintendent Lynn Barkley, union leaders Christine Wilson and Diane Elfering, and fellow incumbent candidate Sue Facklam, was sent, like virtually all of the information we have, from Garcia’s email account in District 30 (Wed., Feb. 23^rd, 11:34 AM), where Garcia works as a teacher and is president of the teachers’ union. Campaign fundraising activity like this, using D30 public resources have already landed Garcia in front of a review board that was scheduled to meet Monday, May 2^nd.

In another telling email, Facklam, a voter registrar, writes about registering high school students to vote, and giving them gift cards: “Don’t let them turn us in; gifts to register to vote is probably illegal! I did offer Erika [Garcia’s 18-year-old daughter] more gift cards if she can gather up more friends!” (Wed., March 2^nd, 10:14 AM to Mary Garcia at her D30 account.) It is a felony to offer remuneration to anyone for voting or registering to vote.

“Lie and pay me cash” – The emails reveal evidence of extensive contributions, expenditures, and in-kind contributions that, Mitchell believes, ought to have triggered formation of a campaign committee, and been reported to the State Board of Elections. Garcia and Facklam’s campaign manager, Alex Finke, in what Mitchell calls one of the more egregious examples of their efforts to cloak their campaign in secrecy, wrote, “Anything you spend counts towards the 1999.99 that you and Mary would be allowed to spend. The only way around it, would be to lie and pay me cash. Then I could claim that I am volunteering for you.” (Mon., March 7^th, 3:55 PM, to Sue Facklam.)

The Superintendents Get Involved – D46 Superintendent Ellen Correll, who Mitchell says receives a compensation package worth over $200,000 per year to educate students, evidently spent quite a bit of her compensated time on election activities: “Mary Garcia is wondering how many signs or flyers you would take?” (Ellen Correll, on her D46 email account, to North Chicago D187 Superintendent Douglas Parks and to Mary Garcia on her D30 email account, Thurs., Mar. 10^th, 3:24 PM.) As a custodian of federal and state education funds, Correll is prohibited by law from participating in political activity of any kind.

Mitchell notes that these examples are only the tip of what appears to be a very large iceberg. “It’s our hope that the appropriate law enforcement agencies will take an interest and conduct a full investigation of these matters. But we have more FOIA requests pending.”

To download and view the entire collection of emails in pdf format, visit http://lakecountyteaparty.com.

This story has also been picked up by McHenry County Blog and Illinois Review.

Illinois School District #46 Email Scandal

2011-05-03T17:01:00.003-05:00

Crimes, Corruption, and Lies in Grayslake D46

2011-05-02T21:38:00.001-05:00

The Cost of Corruption – This is not something you will read for fun. But it’s something you must read, as a parent or taxpaying citizen. It’s a sordid story about crime and corruption where anyone would least expect to find it: In a suburban elementary school district.

In response to Freedom of Information Act requests, activists of the Lake County Tea Party organization have received over 300 pages of emails. The tale they tell is grim.

“Don’t Let Them Turn Us In” – The April 5th election was a hard-fought race in which five candidates (two incumbents and three challengers) were vying to fill three seats. The two incumbent candidates were strongly pro-union: Noting that the three challengers had been linked on the Lake County Tea Party website, incumbent candidate Mary Garcia wrote, “I think that all members of both Unions should be apprised of this information… There will be no collective bargaining with those 3 on the board. I am very afraid that Sue and I will not have the funds necessary to fight a ‘party’.” This email, sent to D46 Superintendent Ellen Correll, Assistant Superintendent Lynn Barkley, union leaders Christine Wilson and Diane Elfering, and fellow incumbent candidate Sue Facklam, was sent, like virtually all of the information we have, from Garcia’s email account in District 30 (Wed., Feb. 23rd, 11:34 AM), where Garcia works as a teacher and is president of the teachers’ union. Campaign fundraising activity like this, using D30 public resources have already landed Garcia in front of a review board scheduled to meet Monday, May 2nd.

In another telling email, Facklam, a voter registrar, writes about registering high school students to vote, and giving them gift cards: “Don’t let them turn us in; gifts to register to vote is probably illegal! I did offer Erika [Garcia’s 18-year-old daughter] more gift cards if she can gather up more friends!” (Wed., March 2nd, 10:14 AM to Mary Garcia at her D30 account.) It is a felony to offer remuneration to anyone for voting or registering to vote.

“Lie and pay me cash” – The emails reveal evidence of extensive contributions, expenditures, and in-kind contributions that, by law, ought to have triggered formation of a campaign committee, and been reported to the State Board of Elections. Garcia and Facklam’s campaign manager, Alex Finke, in one of the more egregious examples of their efforts cloak their campaign in secrecy, wrote, “Anything you spend counts towards the 1999.99 that you and Mary would be allowed to spend. The only way around it, would be to lie and pay me cash. Then I could claim that I am volunteering for you.” (Mon., March 7th, 3:55 PM, to Sue Facklam.)

The Superintendents Get Involved – D46 Superintendent Ellen Correll, who receives a compensation package worth over $200,000 per year to educate students, evidently spent quite a bit of her compensated time on election activities: “Mary Garcia is wondering how many signs or flyers you would take?” (Ellen Correll, on her D46 email account, to North Chicago D187 Superintendent Douglas Parks and to Mary Garcia on her D30 email account, Thurs., Mar. 10th, 3:24 PM.) As a custodian of federal and state education funds, Correll is prohibited by law from participating in political activity of any kind.

It’s important to recognize that this is not an article about politics. And it barely scratches the surface. This is not about whose policies are best and whose are wrongheaded. It’s about how elected officials and employees of School District #46, the elementary school district in Grayslake, Illinois, have abused their positions and their access to benefit themselves at taxpayers’ expense, and at the expense of the children entrusted to them.

Click to download all of District 30 FOIA 1
Click to download all of District 30 FOIA 2


Emails by hour of day. Notice that many emails are sent during work hours, but none during lunch hour.

(Cross-posted from Lake County Tea Party.)

Fight of the Century: Keynes vs. Hayek Round Two

2011-04-28T09:05:00.004-05:00

I always love it when a good movie has a sequel that's even better than the first installment. So it is when Keynes and Hayek go at it again in their rapping lessons on economics and politics.

And in case you missed the first one:

And what do you think? Is President Obama a Keynesian?

Why Homeschool, Part 30

2011-04-25T14:06:00.001-05:00

So your kids won't be indoctrinated by Marxists!

The Other McCain reports:

Steve Foley at Minority Report describes this video, recorded at last month’s Left Forum in New York City:
Sarah Knopp, a Los Angeles teachers union leader (in the Tax the Rich shirt) and Megan Behrent a New York City teacher affiliated with the International Socialist Organization, explain how to push Marxism in the public school classroom.

This panel discussion, entitled ”Capitalism and Education: A Marxist Discourse on What We’re Fighting Against and What We’re Fighting For,” was sponsored by the magazine International Socialist Review. (I’ve screencapped this from their Facebook page.)

Notice that participants in this panel included two public university professors who train teachers: Jean Anyon of City University of New York and Jeff Bale of Michigan State University.

Parents who continue sending their children to ~~public schools~~ government indoctrination centers always react to revelations like this by saying, “Oh, that kind of stuff isn’t happening in our school. We live in a good district!”

To such parents, I ask: Do you think people like Sarah Knopp and Megan Behrent only teach in bad school districts? How many more socialist teachers like Knopp and Behrent are there in America? And do you think they advertise their beliefs to the parents in their districts? [Emphasis in original.]

School choice -- including homeschooling -- is the only answer to this sort of problem. And make no mistake, these are the people driving the opposition to school choice!

For Liberals, Some Defendants Shouldn't Be Defended

2011-04-25T13:19:00.004-05:00

The law firm that was to defend the Defense of Marriage Act has been pressured to withdraw:

News reports this morning indicate that King & Spalding — the firm whose partner, former solicitor general Paul Clement, was slated to defend the Defense of Marriage Act — has decided to withdraw. This follows a campaign of intimidation with threats from law schools and activist groups that retribution would follow if the firm continued to defend the law. This tantrum and its seeming success tell us that many on the left believe they have a veto on the principle that everybody deserves to be represented in court. It also suggests that there are few limits on what gay marriage supporters will do to marginalize those with whom they disagree. It’s worth remembering, as Maggie Gallagher says, that this is what “marriage equality” means. Paul Clement’s principled stand, which Kathryn has noted, is a much-needed grown-up decision and a very powerful rebuke to the intimidators. [Emphasis added.]

They know no principles. They only know what they want, and there is little they won't do to get it. I have a commenter who defended President Obama's decision not to defend this law saying that it would receive better representation this way. I wonder what she'll say about this.

Follow those links, and read what those people are saying. They're saying that 5,000 years of human tradition is nothing but bigotry, that they have the right to force gay "marriage" on us against our will, and that threats and intimidation are an appropriate response to what they call "intolerance." Well, the only "intolerance" going on here is coming from gays, who are simply throwing a temper tantrum about the fact that, since they have rejected the mores of human society, some in society have been less than enthusiastic in response.

Star Wars Song

2011-04-25T09:16:00.001-05:00

My children will not stop singing this song.

So it might as well be stuck in your head, too.

Catholic Prayer Breakfast

2011-04-25T07:48:00.000-05:00

A Saturday Laugh

2011-04-23T16:02:00.001-05:00

It's just been brought to attention that, in addition to the Easter Triduum, today is also Talk Like Shakespeare Day!

The Essence Of Non-Marital Cohabitation

2011-04-23T11:15:00.002-05:00

Abortion Ensures Wisconsin Will Be Conservative

2011-04-21T16:27:00.000-05:00

James Taranto at The Wall Street Journal has done the math (H/T: The Other McCain):

There probably are many more like Tricia Willoughby, aren't there? After all, her parents are "pro-life activists," which means they have a tendency to follow the biblical injunction to be fruitful and multiply. People on the other political side are more inclined toward subtraction (or as they call it, "choice"), as we explained in our 2005 paper "The Roe Effect."

Here are some Badger State numbers: Roe v. Wade legalized abortion nationwide in 1973. The Wisconsin Department of Health has statewide figures on the annual number of abortions going back to 1975. Tot up the numbers through 1992, and you come up with 316,457.

Scott Walker won the governorship last year by a margin of 124,638. That may not be within the margin of abortion; after all, some of the missing 316,457 would have voted Republican had they existed, and many would not have voted.

But JoAnne Kloppenburg, the left-liberal state Supreme Court candidate who was supposed to save Wisconsin's labor monopolies from Walker's reforms, lost by just 7,316 votes, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (this figure is pending a possible futile recount). It's almost inconceivable that the Roe effect alone is insufficient to account for Justice David Prosser's victory.

Oh, and in four years, Tricia Willoughby will be old enough to vote, while an additional 54,522 will not be.

Abortion; it's not an evolutionary survival technique.

(Cross-posted from Lake County Right to Life Blog.)

Petition to Redistribute GPA Scores

2011-04-21T11:51:00.000-05:00

College Republicans at UC-Merced try to get support to redisribute "excessive" GPA scores to those who are struggling to fulfill graduation requirements. What kind of response do you think they get?

(H/T: Cold Fury.)

Wesley Mouch To Boeing: You Will Not Move

2011-04-21T11:42:00.001-05:00

In Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, Wesley Mouch is the scumbag lobbyist who is ultimately appointed as America's economic dictator. This is in a novel written over 50 years ago, but don't imagine that he's not real (H/T: Backyard Conservative):

In what may be the strongest signal yet of the new pro-labor orientation of the National Labor Relations Board under President Obama, the agency filed a complaint Wednesday seeking to force Boeing to bring an airplane production line back to its unionized facilities in Washington State instead of moving the work to a nonunion plant in South Carolina.

In its complaint, the labor board said that Boeing’s decision to transfer a second production line for its new 787 Dreamliner passenger plane to South Carolina was motivated by an unlawful desire to retaliate against union workers for their past strikes in Washington and to discourage future strikes. The agency’s acting general counsel, Lafe Solomon, said it was illegal for companies to take actions in retaliation against workers for exercising the right to strike.

Indeed? But isn't it also illegal for the federal government to retaliate against South Carolina workers for not unionizing and for electing a Republican governor?

Although manufacturers have long moved plants to nonunion states, the board noted that Boeing officials had, in internal documents and news interviews, specifically cited the strikes and potential future strikes as a reason for their 2009 decision to expand in South Carolina.

Boeing said it would “vigorously contest” the labor board’s complaint. “This claim is legally frivolous and represents a radical departure from both N.L.R.B. and Supreme Court precedent,” said J. Michael Luttig, a Boeing executive vice president and its general counsel. “Boeing has every right under both federal law and its collective bargaining agreement to build additional U.S. production capacity outside of the Puget Sound region.”

It is highly unusual for the federal government to seek to reverse a corporate decision as important as the location of plant.

But ever since a Democratic majority took control of the five-member board after Mr. Obama’s election, the board has signaled that it would seek to adopt a more liberal, pro-union tilt after years of pro-employer decisions under President Bush. [Emphasis added.]

At some point, the costs of doing business outweigh the benefits. When government over-regulation is considered as a cost (as it must be), and when government recognizes no legitimate limits on its authority to regulate, it will quickly drives companies, even large ones like Boeing, out of business.

Imagine if the government tried to tell you where you could have a job or a business, and where you couldn't? If they can do it to Boeing, why shouldn't they do it to you? This is a clear case of government picking the winners and losers in the marketplace. Winners: Washington state union workers and union bosses. Losers, South Carolina non-union workers, Boeing, airlines who buy Boeing aircraft, and passengers who have to pay higher prices to fly about those aircraft in order to cover the cost of those higher manufacturing costs. That's a lot of losers.

UPDATE: More at Marathon Pundit.

UPDATED: Why They Hate Trig Palin

2011-04-21T08:30:00.001-05:00

Every politician makes political appearances with their kids. Every candidate makes campaign appearances and produces campaign materials that include their kids. The Clintons did it with Chelsea, the Obamas do it with their daughters, I did it with my kids.

But one politician -- just one -- has taken flack for appearing with one -- just one! -- of her kids. That politician is former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. And the child they hate to see her with is her youngest, Trig, who has Down Syndrome.

Make no mistake. The left hates Trig Palin:

Now Wonkette is at it again, in an even more crude manner, this time authored by 2010 Georgetown grad Jack Stuef, Greatest Living American: A Children’s Treasury of Trig Crap On His Birthday.

Replete with PhotoShops of Trig next to a pulsating pole dancer (image right), and links to videos in which various Democrats mock Trig in profanity-laced tirades, Stuef has a good laugh with text such as this:
Today is the day we come together to celebrate the snowbilly grifter’s magical journey from Texas to Alaska to deliver to the America the great gentleman scholar Trig Palin. Is Palin his true mother? Or was Bristol? (And why is it that nobody questions who the father is? Because, either way, Todd definitely did it.) It doesn’t matter. What matters is that we are privileged to live in a time when we can witness the greatest prop in world political history...

What’s he dreaming about? Nothing. He’s retarded.
Wonkette is no fly-by-night outfit. Here is how it describes itself on its Advertising page:
Wonkette.com is a top 5,000 site and No. 63 Technorati blog that reaches over 1 million monthly unique visitors, 88% of which are in the U.S. The site is wildly popular among a mostly male, very affluent and well educated adult crowd. The typical visitor reads Gawker and subscribes to the Economist and Vanity Fair.

Winner of three consecutive Bloggies and a regular source of outrageous quotes and jokes for the political class, Wonkette is Washington's non-stop campaign cocktail party.
Wonkette is a sick publication. But it sure is popular with the liberal D.C. crowd.

Outrageous. Some some folks complained to the advertisers on that site, and three of them pulled their ads. Papa John's, Huggies and Vanguard. The editors at Wonkette defend the post:

“We beat up on Sarah Palin’s craven use of her son as a political prop. Child protective services should take Trig away.”

“On whose account are you requesting that Jack Stuef remove a post mocking Sarah Palin’s well-documented use of her special needs child as a political prop?..."

It's easy to see that the left hates Sarah Palin with the hot, hot fire of a thousand suns. And the real reason for this hatred is Trig. They hate Trig with every fiber of their being. They hate him with a passion beyond description. Murder would not satisfy their hatred of Trig, because they hate most of all the fact that this baby was ever born.

If Sarah Palin had aborted Trig, she would be a hero to the left. But she kept him, she loves him, Down Syndrome and all. And they hate that.

The abortion ethic holds that only the perfect baby is worthy to be born. The abortion ethic holds that only the wealthy baby is worthy to be born. Trig stands as a living rebuke to the pro-aborts, who, in him, are revealed not to be pro-choice at all, but only pro-abortion. Trig Palin, by simply living, is a testament to the dignity and sanctity of all human life. The pro-abort left cannot abide, and cannot tolerate, his witness.

And so they make up lies and excuses for their hatred about Sarah Palin's "exploitation" of her son. Of course, if Trig was never seen in her materials and appearances, they would claim that she was ashamed of him, that she was hiding him. It's not that they see Trig that enrages them; it is that Trig lives at all. Modern liberalism is a philosophy of hatred, of jealousy, of death. The left's reaction to Trig Palin is the logical expression of that philosophy.

UPDATE: Ace of Spades HQ has more (H/T: Cold Fury):

But in fact we have seen plenty of some other politicians' kids. To some extent, every politician uses kids as "props" in the sense that they all know that kids = warm feeling. On the other hand, showing your kids is just normal. It's your life, after all, and you're selling not just your policies but the sum total of your life experiences.

I wouldn't attack Barack Obama for granting Access Hollywood exclusive interviews with his daughters. I most assuredly would not attack his daughters, who I assume just do what daddy says.

But the left feels differently. Because they never ask the shoe-on-the-other-foot question. They don't think that applies to them -- they are very comfortable, and very accustomed, to double-standards that work perpetually in their favor and vindictively against their opponents. [Emphasis in orginal.]

David Bereit "The Tipping Point" Benefit for Lake County Right to Life

2011-04-20T16:19:00.001-05:00

I was the warm-act for David last Thursday night.

Atlas Shrugged: Four Stars

2011-04-15T22:21:00.004-05:00

I always know, when I read the reviews panning a movie I've been looking forward to, that I'm going to enjoy it. This rule proved true for me again in seeing Atlas Shrugged Part I.


Taylor Schilling as Dagny Taggart

Directed by Paul Johanssonn (who also plays the mysterious John Galt), working from a screenplay by John Aglialoro and Brian Patrick O'Toole, faithfully based on the 1957 novel by Ayn Rand, the film follows the efforts of the beautiful Dagny Taggart (wonderfully played by Taylor Schilling), the youngest, and most competent, scion of the ancient Taggart dynasty of railroad barons. Dagny must fight lobbyists, the legislature, her older brother James's (Matthew Marsden) managerial incompetence, and the mysterious disappearances of the best thinkers and producers in the country to save her family's railroad.

Joining her in her efforts is steel magnate Henry Rearden (Grant Bowler), the target of the lobbyists and his competitors due to his innovative development of a new, lighter, stronger and cheaper steel that he calls "Rearden Metal". Faced with steel suppliers who don't make timely delivery on orders, Dagny engages the controversial Rearden to manufacture new rails using his much-criticized new metal.


Grant Bowler as Henry Rearden

The setting is a dystopic 2016 (which might actually look this bad, if President Obama is re-elected) in which skyrocketing gas prices due to the complete political collapse of the Middle East has rendered both commercial aviation, much of trucking and even private automobiles unfeasibly expensive; railroads have re-emerged as the primary form of transportation of both freight and passengers. It is against this backdrop, in which the only remaining nationwide railroad -- the final wavering prop of the country's internal transportation network -- must be preserved. If only the short-sighted lobbyists and bureaucrats of Washington can be persuaded not to tax and regulate every remaining successful business into bankruptcy in an effort to feed the poor and unproductive who have been thrown out of work because of prior rounds of taxation and regulation.

Rebecca Wisocky does an outstanding turn as Rearden's loathsome wife, Lillian. Rounding out the cast are excellent performances by Grant Beckel as Ellis Wyatt, Jsu Garcia as the enigmatic playboy Francisco D'Anconia, Edi Gathegi as Eddie Willers, Michael Lerner as Wesley Mouch, Patrick Fischler as Paul Larkin, and Armin Shimmerman as Dr. Potter.

Even in 1957, Rand foresaw much of today's liberal trends in which no enterprise is too small or too local for the federal government to get involved in, no tax is too high, no regulation too intrusive, and no bureaucrat spouting pieties about the good of "the people" and trying to legislate "equality" is above lining his own pockets and serving his own interests at the public expense.

This is not an action movie. It is long on dialog, features virtually no nudity, only one momentary and discreet sex scene, and no violence at all, and very little suspense. It is a movie about thinking men and women, for thinking men and women. It is therefore sure to tank at the box office.

And yet, there is a very urgent sense of suspense attached to this movie. It's not about how the movie ends. This film is the first of a planned trilogy to adapt Rand's 1100 page novel. But even those who haven't read the book will not find the conclusion too surprising, if those movies ever get made.

No, the real suspense generated by the story of Atlas Shrugged is not how the characters will get out of their crisis. Instead, the nail-biting question is how the real America of today might hope to get out of the crisis we now face. Atlas Shrugged offers an important suggestion: stop discouraging and penalizing those who make money, create jobs, produce goods, and drive the economy. We must stop discouraging and penalizing these people before we succeed completely and drive them all out of business. And then, with no businesses left to provide us with jobs or goods, where will we be?

And so it's in the entrepreneurial spirit of John Galt that I've decided to pay homage to this story in the most practical fashion: I've opened a new Cafe Press shop! Order your t-shirt today!

Sandy Cole: Eat French Fries, Go To Jail

2011-04-14T09:06:00.001-05:00

13 Republicans Help Pass Trans Fat Ban

My erstwhile opponent, Republican Sandy Cole, she of the "proven conservative leadership", joined Illinois Democrats and 12 other Republicans to pass a ban on trans fats in Illinois. Other Republicans voting for the ban include Cole's fellow Planned Parenthood beneficiaries Sid Mathias, Skip Saviano, and Tom Cross. Because of course, a social liberal is after all a social liberal:

Am I surprised that some of our Republican lawmakers – including the House Minority Leader himself – are supporting one of the most radical leftwing bills ever? No, I’m definitely not surprised. It’s hardly the first time it’s been impossible to tell the Republicans from the Democrats in Illinois.

Last year House Republicans sealed the defeat of school choice legislation.

And it’s been House GOP lawmakers who have kept rank-and-file Republicans from having a voice and a vote in their own State GOP. Tom Cross and his lieutenants have been stonewalling SB35 (formerly SB600) for years.

So we’ve got Republican lawmakers who won’t let low income families choose better schools. They won’t let Republican voters choose their own party leaders. And now they even want to take away choices about what you eat.

When it comes to banning trans fats – a reasonable person might say our state has bigger fish to fry.

Which leaves only one question: how many years will people violating the ban be thrown in jail for? Sandy wants a 100% ban on trans fats, for how many years will she put people in jail? Sandy Cole wants you to go to jail for eating McDonalds fries! Call her and ask for how many years.

Why is that I just can't work up much enthusiasm for the "health-conscious" nanny-statism of liberal elites who get elected by taking money from people who kill babies for a living?

With our state on the verge of bankruptcy, this is really what the legislature is spending its time on?

Caution: Ayn Rand

2011-04-13T12:46:00.000-05:00

As regular readers of this blog know, I recently read Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged for the first time, and am enthusiastically looking forward to the release of Part One of the new film based on the book. I found the book in many ways to be compelling.

Some of my devout friends have expressed dismay at these expressions of mine, fearing that I am advocating for Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. I'm not. This essay captures my views on the topic nicely:

In truth, Rand’s philosophy, taken to its logical conclusion, was so monstrous that she was unable to live it personally even though she boldly and often claimed that she did. As Charles Murray (who is a Rand fan) notes, there is much to admire (for some people) in her works and novels; however, her philosophy is simply not something that can be consistently lived, and to try is to invite a life of misery and madness.

I would certainly not begrudge anyone who enjoyed Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead. I myself read them as a teenager and enjoyed both, and to this day they are two of the books which most encapsulate what is wrong with liberalism today.

Read it all.

Researcher: Liberals Angrier, More Racist Than Conservatives

2011-04-12T16:36:00.001-05:00

A researcher at Northwestern University School of Law finds that liberals are more racist and less happy than conservatives:

I first show that respondents who express traditionally racist views (on segregation, interracial marriage, and inborn racial abilities) tend to support greater income redistribution. Traditional racists also tend to oppose free-market capitalism and its consequences, wanting the government to guarantee jobs for everyone and fix prices, wages, and profits. Next, I report a similar pattern for those who express intolerance for unpopular groups on the fifteen Stouffer tolerance questions (regarding racists, homosexuals, communists, extreme militarists, and atheists). Those who express less tolerance for unpopular groups tend to favor income redistribution and oppose capitalism.

...I then explore an alternative hypothesis, showing that, compared to anti-redistributionists, strong redistributionists have about two to three times higher odds of reporting that in the prior seven days they were angry, mad at someone, outraged, sad, lonely, and had trouble shaking the blues. Similarly, anti-redistributionists had about two to four times higher odds of reporting being happy or at ease. Not only do redistributionists report more anger, but they report that their anger lasts longer. When asked about the last time they were angry, strong redistributionists were more than twice as likely as strong opponents of leveling to admit that they responded to their anger by plotting revenge. Last, both redistributionists and anti-capitalists expressed lower overall happiness, less happy marriages, and lower satisfaction with their financial situations and with their jobs or housework. [Emphasis added.]

Housework?

Another Good Reason to De-Fund Planned Parenthood

2011-04-12T07:50:00.002-05:00

They're not licensed!

McHenry County Blogger (and former GOP State Representative, and former libertarian gubernatorial candidate) Cal Skinner made a Freedom of Information Act request of the Illinois Department of Public Health to see all the licenses for Planned Parenthood clinics in Illinois.

As it turns out, there are no such licenses. No wonder they're so adamantly opposed to the regulation of abortion clinics!

Cross-posted from Lake County Right to Life blog.)

On The Odd Behavior of Atheists

2011-04-11T23:14:00.002-05:00

(This is post number 2,100 to this blog.)

I just received a note in my email, a comment on a two-year-old post to this blog about why I believe in God, from someone who identified himself as an atheist.

He didn't like my arguments, and wanted to leave his opinion. Well, that's what the combox is for. But when I went to the post to see his comment, it wasn't there. My best guess is that he must have deleted it himself.

Just today, by coincidence, a friend of mine made an interesting point to me. Walking through a cemetery, he noticed that most of the people buried there had been dead for many more years than they had been alive.

If atheists are right, thought my friend, then it seems logical that the ultimate purpose for human life is... death. You might live 70, 80, even 100 years. But you'll be dead, according to the atheists, for hundreds of thousands, even millions or billions of years, eventually.

And yet, with so little time left to them, many atheists, including my abortive correspondent, spend some part of that time arguing about something that they know doesn't exist.

As a Christian, I know I'm only taking a tiny (negligible, really) slice out of the eternity that I will continue to live when I discuss my faith, which is real, rich, and enduring. But an atheist -- if he really believes what he is saying -- is making a far, far larger investment of his time, in terms of a percentage of his existence, in arguing in favor of nothing.

There's something wrong with that. If you're so sure that there's nothing after death, why are you spending your Monday nights on something so trivial as visiting Catholic blogs to tell the bloggers that they're wrong? Isn't life any more precious to you than that? If you're right, you have so very little of it.

How Mitt Romney Can Earn My Vote

2011-04-11T19:05:00.001-05:00

I heard Mitt Romney speak here in Lake County last fall. Somewhere, there is a picture of him with me in it, but I don't have a copy.

Romney make a very good impression in person. As well he might; he's been running for President for four years.

In his remarks at the time, it was clear to me that he would certainly be running for President, and now he's taken the step of announcing an exploratory committee:

But Romney is not my first choice. Or even my second, or my third.

For me, Romney has some important negatives.

1. Bill Clinton once said that, "Republicans fall in line, Democrats fall in love." I think there may be some truth to this. In each presidential election year, we seem to nominate the candidate whose turn it is. In 1980, Reagan had been a very close second place for the nomination four years earlier. In 1988, Bush (41) was the sitting Vice President. In 1996, Dole was the senior Republican senator, and a former nominee for VP (in 1976). In 2000, Bush (43) was the son of the most recent Republican President. And in 2008, McCain was the guy who'd come in second for the nomination in 2000.

In 2012, the two candidates who can best argue that it's their turn are Gov. Sarah Palin, the 2008 VP nominee, and Gov. Mitt Romney, who finished second to McCain in the 2008 nominating race.

I don't believe that this "next-turnism" (if I may coin a phrase), serves us well. To really earn my vote, Romney will need to show in his campaign that his ideas and policies are the ones we need today, in 2012, to set America on the right course.

2. Romney, clearly, is running a campaign primarily as a fiscal conservative. But his fiscal record as a governor isn't as conservative as one might wish, and his governing record on social issues is, from a conservative standpoint, abysmal. This is the man who passed Romneycare as Governor of Massachusetts, and the man who surrendered in the fight against gay "marriage". On abortion, he claimed to have had a pro-life epiphany while in office, but did nothing to advance the pro-life cause, and was in fact an obstacle to its advance.

To earn my vote, Romney will need to credibly show what he's learned as a governor, what he should have done differently; he cannot run on his experience as a governor and also run away from it, both at the same time.

3. Too, Romney needs to define himself on social issues. Too often, especially here in Illinois, conservatives try to campaign only as fiscal conservatives and leave the social issues unmentioned. This tends to lead to having their opponents demagogue their positions, and define them on these very important matters.

Instead, to really earn my vote, I need to see Mitt Romney define himself on the social issues; more than just to say "I'm pro-life," but to explain why a person should be pro-life, and what pro-life measures a president Romney would seek to implement. This is called "leadership," and Republicans claim to be good at it.

4. Finally, to earn my vote, I need to see Mitt Romney identify the problems our nation is facing, and what his solutions are. I need more than just "President Obama's policies have failed." That's fine and true as far as it goes, but we have more problems than just those created in the past two years.

I need to hear from Mitt Romney an acknowledgment that it's a problem that 1.5 million babies are lost to abortion each year, and what he intends to do about it. I need to hear him explain to the American people how our country is harmed by the breakdown of the traditional family, and what his remedy is. I need to know that he recognizes that the presence of 20 million illegal aliens is a burden on our economy that we can ill afford, and I need to know his solution to the problem. I need to hear Mitt Romney's approach to fighting America's enemies and using our military.

In short, I need to see Mitt Romney campaign on all the issues facing our nation, and not just the ones he thinks make him look good.

And if he were to get through the entire campaign without mentioning his hair once, that wouldn't be a bad thing, either.

Who Is This Obama Person, Anyway?

2011-04-10T16:30:00.001-05:00

It really does seem that we know ever less and less about our President (H/T: Stormbringer):

What she and fellow investigator Neil Sankey unearthed was a nugget that could have ended the career of a George Bush or a Sarah Plain: Barack Obama had been using a social security number issued in Connecticut between 1977 and 1979, a state in which he never lived or even visited at that time in his life.

... This being the case, I asked Daniels to guide me through the data mine field and help me ascertain what we know for sure about the world’s best-known social security number--042-68-4425.

“All I can say,” says Daniels of 042-68-4425, “is that it’s phony and [Obama] has been using it, with it first appearing on his selective service document in 1980.”

Daniels sent me a copy of the hand-written application of the individual who held the number immediately before Obama’s, 042-68-4424. The applicant, Thomas Wood, died at age nineteen which is why his information is available.

Wood's Social Security number was issued sometime between March and May of 1977. Obama would turn sixteen in August of that year. Woods lived on Glenview Drive in Newington, Connecticut, the state from which all “042s” applied. Obama lived in Hawaii.

President Promises To Use Anyone's Good Ideas

2011-04-08T17:51:00.000-05:00

...unless the idea is school choice!

Dems: If We Can't Fund Abortion, We Won't Fund Anything

2011-04-08T08:07:00.001-05:00

I never doubted it would come to this. If they can't fund the nation's largest abortion provider, they'll shut down the government. Isn't 53 million innocents lost enough? Do they have to involve you and I in it as well? Jake Tapper has the story:

His meeting with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., having concluded, President Obama came to the White House briefing room this evening to report “additional progress” had been made and “differences have been narrowed.”

But outstanding issues remain, he cautioned, ones so important – to both sides - the president said he wouldn’t express “wild optimism” that there will be a deal.

Democratic sources tell ABC News that things “feel better now” in terms of a deal being cut, but the major sticking point remains the GOP rider prohibiting any federal funding to Planned Parenthood or any of its affiliates.

...“The stickiest issue will end up being Planned Parenthood.”

The House voted earlier this year to de-fund Planned Parenthood but 41 Democrats in the Senate already have said they would not support legislation ending funding to Planned Parenthood, making the matter one that could be filibustered. The White House has said the president would not agree to any ban on funding to Planned Parenthood.

Planned Parenthood is already prohibited from using any federal funds for abortion-related services. Officials of the organization say more than 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood clinics do has nothing to do with abortion, but rather focuses on women’s health services such as pap smears and breast cancer screening.

Abortion opponents say federal funding for other services means money freed up for the purposes of conducting abortions, which they regard as ending human life.

The claim that the bulk of Planned Parenthood's operation is not abortion is simply a lie. A boldfaced, easily disproved lie. And it's also been proved that they don't do breast cancer screenings, either, but they're still harping on that one as well.

That President Obama would take this to the brink to protect Planned Parenthood comes as no surprise. This is the most pro-abortion president in history.

(Cross posted from the Northern Illinois Patriots blog.)

A "Change" In Campaign Themes

2011-04-06T20:21:00.002-05:00

A Thought About Koran Burnings

2011-04-06T18:25:00.000-05:00

I had an idea about burning the Koran.

It is, of course a highly disrespectful act. It is discourteous. It is even a hostile act. But hey, so are murder and war.

But as the Bible tells us (in Ecc 3:1), "All things have their season, and in their times all things pass under heaven."

It really seems to have a big effect on some Muslims, when one guy on the far side of the world burns a Koran. How many people have they killed? 20?

What if we turn the tables? Instead of them killing people in reaction to a Koran being burned, what if we were to tell them that we will burn Korans until the killing stops?

What if we were to say, the American people will burn one Koran every day until the killing stops in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya?

When they kill people, somehow it gets blamed on a guy in Florida who wasn't anywhere near the killing. It's a childish sort of "see what you made me do?" defense. Well, if those are the rules of the game, let's play by them. Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

We could put a weregild on every American killed by a Muslim. We'll burn three Korans for every enlisted man they kill, five for every officer, and ten for every civilian. And until they stop killing each other, we'll burn one every day.

They claim to care about the burning of a Koran. They claim it's important to them. They're willing to kill to avenge the burning of a Koran. But what will those people do to prevent Korans from being burned? Could it be possible that they might be constrained to stop killing out of respect for their holy book, which they believe was written by Allah?

Or is it possible that they'll use any excuse to kill, and any little thing at all will do as provocation, so that they can shift the blame for their wanton killing onto someone else?

To ask the question is to answer it.

Francisco d'Anconia's Voice Mail

2011-04-05T19:47:00.001-05:00

Join me in seeing this movie, Friday, April 15th, at the Marcus Cinema in Gurnee!

If Only Teachers Were Allowed To Marry

2011-04-05T13:08:00.001-05:00

This is the school district my kids would be in, if we weren't homeschooling them:

A Round Lake-area schoolteacher has been arrested on a warrant that claims he sexually assaulted four children under the age of 13, Round Lake Beach Police officials said Tuesday.

Manuel Reyes, 55, was arrested Saturday at his home in the 9900 block of 69th Street in Kenosha after being charged with six counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, Deputy Police Chief Rich Chiarello said.
Advertisement

Reyes is held in the Kenosha County Jail on the $100,000 warrant, but is expected to go in front of a judge on Thursday to determine if he will waive extradition, Chiarello said.

If he waives extradition, he can be transferred to Lake County jail and could be in bond court as early as Friday, Chiarello said.

Reyes, a third-grade teacher at Raymond Ellis Elementary School in Round Lake Beach, allegedly inappropriately touched four victims under the age of 13 in an attempt to sexually gratify himself between Aug. 18, 2010 and March 23, 2011, Chiarello said.

Read more: http://dailyherald.com/article/20110405/news/704059955/#ixzz1IfoD84R9

When priests are accused, we're told it's because of celibacy. But public school teachers are statistically twice as likely as priests to abuse children, what's their excuse?

Videos, We Got Videos

2011-04-05T12:31:00.001-05:00

Coming soon to a nation near you:

(H/T: Pro Ecclesia.)

Where bioethicists get their authority (they make it up):

(H/T: Reflections of a Paralytic.)

An impassioned reminder about freedom of speech:

(H/T: Brutally Honest.)

Finally, the most beautiful debate on abortion you ever saw (and some of these wonderful young people go to my church!):

(H/T: What Does The Prayer Really Say?.)

The Path to Prosperity: America's two futures, visualized

2011-04-05T11:06:00.001-05:00

Christian U.S. Military Chaplains Threatened With Courts Martial If They Teach Christian Morality

2011-04-04T09:24:00.000-05:00

Christian Chaplains serving with the U.S. Military have been threatened with courts martial if they preach Christian morality (H/T: The Lair):

Christian Chaplains who speak out against homosexual sin can be accused of "harassment" by homosexuals and face disciplinary action simply for voicing their religious views outside the "context" of their religious ministry.

[Chaps' interpretation: The phrase "vocational reflection" is not-so-subtle code language meaning "reconcile with homosexuality or find another line of work." The phrase "do NOT tolerate harassment" is code language for "don't speak against sin, for ANY reason, or you the Chaplain will be disciplined for quoting the Bible, and the homosexual protected."] More fine print from the text from the Army's presentation is directly quoted as follows:

...

ARMY: "You may, in appropriate circumstances and within the limitations of law and policy, express your moral or religious beliefs regarding sexual orientation. However, you may NOT make statements detrimental to good order and discipline and must obey lawful orders. You do NOT have the right to refuse duty or duty assignments based on a moral objection to another's sexual orientation."

[Chaps' Interpretation: the phrase 'appropriate circumstances' will soon mean ONLY in the context of Sunday chapel, thus Chaplains can be punished for private counseling, or speech outside of chapel, or speech inside chapel on Monday through Saturday, just as I was punished in writing 3 times for quoting the Bible in optional Saturday chapel services.]

ARMY: "You remain obligated to follow orders that involve interaction with others who are homosexual even if an unwillingness to do so is based on strong, sincerely held moral or religious beliefs. As expressed in the Manual for Courts-Martial regarding a Soldier's obligation to obey orders: 'the dictates of a person's conscience, religion, or personal philosophy cannot justify or excuse the disobedience of an otherwise lawful order.'"

[Chaps' Interpretation: the phrase 'lawful order' will mean ANYTHING ANTI-CHRISTIAN COMMANDERS WISH and judges will back up the Commander, not the Chaplain. I know from personal experience, when a Navy Judge said my Navy Commander could punish me, a chaplain, for disobeying "lawful orders" because I was quote "worshiping in public."]

Bottom Line: Army Chaplains will now be punished at court-martial for "disobedience" of "lawful orders" if they dare to express their religious views about homsexual sin outside of Sunday chapel.

MILITARY CHAPLAINS FACE CHARGES OF "HATE SPEECH"

The Pray In Jesus Name Project was featured in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last week, with YOUR fax petition campaign to Congress getting noticed. Reporter Ann Rogers interviewed military chaplains who fear persecution by the Obama Administration, especially now that open homosexual service is being fast-tracked in violation of the rights of many Christian troops.

"The majority of 3,000 chaplains are theologically conservative Christians, many of whom worry that they will be accused of hate speech if they preach that same-sex relationships are sinful," the paper reports.

"The Pray in Jesus Name Project, which supports conservative chaplains, has called the Pentagon guidelines the 'plan to purge Christians' from chaplaincy.

"'Now the Obama Administration is officially on record pressuring chaplains to quit the service if they cannot 'reconcile' with homosexual sin that violates their Christian conscience,' said a petition on its website.

"The 'purge' is a clause that says chaplains have an option to leave the military that isn't open to others who object to serving with gay troops. They can ask their faith group to withdraw its endorsement, which would trigger a discharge.

"Retired Brig. Gen. Douglas E. Lee, a former Army chaplain who endorses for six conservative Presbyterian bodies, is less alarmist, but shares the concern that protection of religious freedom may erode.

"The fundamental issue for us is morality, but the debate is being purposely framed as a civil rights or a discrimination issue," he said.

"Homosexuality is 'just another sin that affects soldiers, airmen, guardians and Marines. However no other category that we would declare as sin is ... claiming civil rights to be a serial adulterer.'

The battle for "gay rights" is really a battle against religious faith, and contrary views will not be -- are not being -- tolerated.

How Can We "Win The Future" When We're Losing the Present?

2011-04-04T08:55:00.001-05:00

(H/T: Marathon Pundit.)

Pay To Play

2011-04-02T17:32:00.000-05:00

Gov. Quinn Nominates Supporter to Key Post

Illinois' premier pro-abortion activist, Terry Cosgrove, Executive Director of Personal PAC, claims credit for electing Democrat Pat Quinn as Illinois Governor last November, and well he might. His organization's vile, lying, misleading and mean-spirited ads, mailings and calls slandered Republican Bill Brady -- and many other candidates besides.

Is Governor Quinn grateful? You bet your sweet bippy!

Last week, Governor Pat Quinn nominated abortion rights leader Terry Cosgrove to fill an opening on Illinois' Human Rights Commission. Next Thursday, Cosgrove's nomination will be heard before the Senate Executive Appointments Committee.

Cosgrove, the 58 year old CEO of Personal PAC, plans to continue directing his pro-abortion political action committee while he serves part-time on the commission. Personal PAC's generous $400,000 campaign donation to Governor Quinn's campaign in 2010 is stirring another round of Quinn "pay to play" buzz.

Cosgrove's Facebook photo (right) is pretty indicative of his pro-Quinn, anti-Brady partiality in the 2010 governor's race. You've got to wonder how impartial he'd be voting on the Human Rights Commission, don't you?

Certainly, no one could reasonably hope that Cosgrove would support human rights for all humans. Cosgrove's vision of "human rights" is something that mere humanity doesn't qualify you for.

And Quinn's vision of public service is something that mere public service isn't a qualification for. In both cases, something... extra is required.

And, oh yeah, this is the same guy who sent out this mailing about me during my campaign in a Republican primary.

And Another Thing

2011-04-01T08:55:00.000-05:00

Why Is Komen Funding Planned Parenthood if They Don't Do Mammograms?

Six More Years

2011-04-01T08:41:00.002-05:00

Planned Parenthood Lies

2011-03-31T08:42:00.001-05:00

Quelle Surprise...

(H/T: Illinois Review.)

If this bill ever becomes law, perhaps they will no longer be able to afford to spend hundreds of millions of dollars of our own money to lie to us! Defund.

Thank you, Congressman Joe Walsh, for supporting the Pence Amendment!

How Do The Wisconsin Catholic Bishops View Protection Rackets?

2011-03-31T07:54:00.002-05:00

I somehow doubt that we'll hear them issuing a statement on this.

Lavish trips, Nepotism, Firings, Litigation- Grayslake “Public Service”

2011-03-31T07:43:00.000-05:00

For close to two years, Michael Carbone has been the lone voice of reason on the Grayslake Elementary school board. Despite his best efforts, the board has operated like a runaway freight train with taxpayer money. From lavish trips to resort locations, to the hiring of an ex-board member and personal friend of the superintendent for a part time position netting $75,000 annually, Grayslake elementary school board decisions are rife with controversy.

In the past year, CCSD #46 has gone through 5 business managers, one of whom was not properly vetted for the position. It was not until after he was hired, that the district learned of his litigation with another school district in Wisconsin. Now, there is additional consideration of litigation against Grayslake. “This type of poor, not well thought out decision making, harms all of us. Unnecessary litigation costs redirect money that should be spent in our schools educating our children,” said Carbone.

However, this is not the only questionable hiring made by the school board. Carbone led the efforts to expose the nepotistic hiring of school board president Mary Garcia’s husband for a job, which otherwise would have gone unnoticed.

In November, Garcia’s husband was hired for a custodial position with the district, as well as coach for several sports teams. At the time that his paperwork was before the board, Ms. Garcia recused herself from the vote. But she never openly admitted that her husband’s application was among the stack of applicants. Carbone questions her decision. “In this economy, the district receives hundreds of applications for every job posting. What makes her husband the most qualified candidate and does his hiring really support the needs of our children and this district?”

Now others in the community are looking closer. Many are wondering how Garcia’s husband can work as both custodian, Tuesday through Saturday as required by his contract, and still get paid for a coaching position which often requires him to work on Saturdays. This conflict of schedules causes the custodial department to find a sub for Garcia on the weekends. Community activists are now trying to determine if Garcia’s pay was docked for the days not worked or if the District paid both Garcia and his fill-in for those days, while still paying him a full stipend to act as coach.

As a current board member Michael Carbone cannot endorse any specific candidate. However, he has been quoted as saying “This year is an election year. It is time for new blood on the Grayslake School Board. We need people on the Board that realize we are servants of the public and not the other way around.”

There are currently three seats open on the CCSD 46 school board. The three newcomers recently endorsed on March 17th 2011 by the Daily Herald are Kip Evans, Marchell Norris and Shannon Smigielski. All three have shown a dedication and involvement in the school board.

Marchell Norris, a private business owner of 15 years with an MBA from the University Of Notre Dome, believes her strong business background coupled with Evans’s knowledge of the inner workings of school systems can help shape a new vision for Grayslake.

Kip Evans is a retired teacher of 33 years. He has taught grades K through 12 in his career and also has an Administrative Degree from Roosevelt University. While not officially in a slate, Evans is leveraging resources with Norris to get the word out about their campaign.

Currently, 68% of property taxes in Grayslake are allocated to school budgets. It is more important than ever to ensure that school budgets allow for the funding of quality education, while being ever vigilant to root out corruption and waste. In 2011, an individual in CCSD received a 14% pay increase, which equated to $27,000 raise.

In this economy we cannot continue to ask American families to shoulder the burden of wasteful government.

(Cross-posted from For the Good of Illinois.)

Reporter Locked Up To Keep Him From Covering Event

2011-03-27T10:04:00.000-05:00

... by Vice President Biden!

More liberal civility (H/T: Cold Fury):

The Orlando Sentinel assigned longtime reporter Scott Powers to cover the event. But when he arrived, Biden staffers decided they didn’t want him mingling with the 150 guests who had forked over $500 to meet Biden, so they locked him in a closet! A member of the Biden advance team even stood guard outside the door to prevent Powers from escaping.

Powers has all the details, even pictures of the inside of the closet where he was held; but it appears the Sentinel editors have refused to let him report on all the details of what some are calling a kidnapping! There was a very brief, and very “vanilla” mention of the incident in Thursday’s paper. One attendee later emailed the Sentinel to say “I was in attendance at the Fundraiser and enjoyed a nice lunch. If I had known there was a reporter stuffed in the closet, I would have been compelled to stand up and demand answers. I would also like to know if this is actually legal to treat people like caged animals. I’m disgusted by these actions.”

Despite this outrage, Sentinel editors have dropped the story.

The arrogance continues. Perhaps the Orlando Sentinel will apologize for having endorsed these clowns for office. But I'm not holding my breath.

Atlas Shrugging

2011-03-27T09:59:00.001-05:00

Caterpillar may leave Illinois

I'm currently reading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged for the first time, in which the producers in an unspecified future America go "on strike", disappear, and refuse to produce because of government over-regulation making it impossible to run their businesses efficiently or effectively. Written over 50 years ago, Atlas Shrugged seems remarkably prescient in many respects. So I couldn't help thinking of it when I heard that Caterpillar may leave Illinois (H/T: Illinois Review):

The chief executive of Caterpillar wrote a letter to Illinois Gov. Patrick Quinn raising the possibility the heavy equipment company could move out of Illinois because of concerns that the direction the state is heading isn't favorable to business.

In a letter to Gov. Pat Quinn obtained Friday by The Pantagraph of Bloomington, Doug Oberhelman said officials in at least four states have approached Peoria-based Caterpillar about relocating since Illinois raised its income tax in January.

"I want to stay here. But as the leader of this business, I have to do what's right for Caterpillar when making decisions about where to invest," Oberhelman wrote. "The direction that this state is headed in is not favorable to business, and I'd like to work with you to change that."

Oberhelman wrote he has been called, cornered in meetings and wined and dined. He said he had never considered living anywhere else or the possibility of Caterpillar relocating.

"But I have to admit, the policymakers in Springfield seem to make it harder by the day," he wrote.

Quinn spokeswoman Brie Callahan said Friday the governor plans to discuss the letter with Oberhelman on April 5 when the two meet at a conference in Peoria.

"The governor welcomes frank and open exchanges between the business community and government, and we are always open to new ideas that can help our businesses grow, innovate and create jobs," Callahan told the Pantagraph.

Along with the letter to Quinn, Oberhelman sent correspondence the company has received from leaders of South Dakota and Nebraska.

"I stand ready to help convince you to relocate or expand in the fiscally conservative, low-tax Lone Star State," wrote Texas Gov. Rick Perry in a Jan. 24 letter.

Caterpillar spokesman Jim Dugan tells The Pantagraph the letter shows Quinn that Oberhelman wants to be involved in finding solutions that benefit the company, which employs 23,000 people in Illinois.

"I view it as an olive branch to offer our help," Dugan said.

While Oberhelman didn't single out a specific problem with Illinois' policies, Dugan said the recent income tax increase was major factor triggering the note. [Emphasis added.]

Illinois taxpayers, both individuals and corporations, are viewed in Springfield as milch cows, serfs tied to the land who must work and give as much of what they produce to the state as the legislature may demand. But people are streaming out of Illinois in droves. Former State Senator Roger Keats, recently a candidate for Cook County Board president, recently announced that he and his wife were moving to Dripping Springs, Texas (a lovely place near Austin, I can assure you). It takes longer for a major corporation like Caterpillar to pull up stakes and go, but they can and will go eventually.

The Democrats running Springfield -- and yes, a few Republicans, too -- are really a piece of work. They lie to get into office, they raise taxes, they over-regulate, they are looters and pirates who are not above any scam to rake off the productivity of Illinoisans and pocket the proceeds.

What can be done to stop the flow of red ink? Who is John Galt?

The Best News I've Heard From Libya

2011-03-25T08:44:00.001-05:00

You may not be old enough, but I remember this story, and how, at age 22, I keenly felt the injustice of letting a terrorist murderer get away. But maybe not forever (H/T: Stormbringer):

The man suspected of murdering PC Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan embassy in London in 1984 has been arrested by rebel forces in the country and is in custody in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

Campaigners welcomed the arrest and expressed the hope that Omar Ahmed Sodani would face trial in Britain.

PC Yvonne Fletcher
Sodani, a prominent figure in Muammar Gaddafi's regime who acknowledges that he was working in the embassy at the time of the shooting, insisted he had not killed 25-year-old Fletcher.

Speaking in custody in Benghazi, he told Channel 4 News: "I was there but I wasn't at the scene when the shooting took place. I was in police custody before that. I had a quarrel with a police officer before the event, so I was detained and I was told while I was in the police station that a shooting took place and a police officer was shot."

Fletcher lay dying after being shot in 1984
Fletcher was helping to control a small demonstration outside the embassy in St James's Square on 17 April 1984 when shots were fired from the first floor of the building at the protestors. She was shot in the stomach and died in hospital.

Armed police surrounded the embassy in an 11-day siege. Gaddafi responded by sending forces to surround the British embassy in Tripoli. The sieges ended when staff in both embassies were allowed to leave. Britain broke off diplomatic relations with Libya. Libyan embassy staff, who were expelled from Britain, claimed diplomatic immunity which meant they could not be questioned by police. Nobody has faced justice for the shooting.

Knights of Columbus Remember Victims Of Abortion

2011-03-24T20:55:00.000-05:00

In honor of The Day of the Unborn Child tomorrow (which Catholics celebrate as the Feast of the Anunciation), members of the Knights of Columbus Curé of Ars Council #14819, at St. Peter Church in Volo, IL, erected 53 crosses, each to represent one million innocents lost to legal abortion since the Roe v. Wade decision of 1973. The crosses will remain until Sunday.

(Cross-posted from Lake County Right to Life blog.)

If You Like This Blog...

2011-03-24T10:51:00.002-05:00

... you'll probably also like my other blog, Lake County Right to Life Blog!

(And don't forget to "follow" that blog, on the sidebar!)

Instrinsically Disordered

2011-03-24T08:00:00.000-05:00

Pat Archbold comes out of the closet:

For years I have fought my own nature, but no more.

Ever since I can remember, I have felt this way. It has always been just below the surface, but I have done my best to push it down. Way down.

Also ever since I can remember, when my ‘tendencies’ would become obvious, people would tell me that it is wrong. My parents, my teachers, and especially my priests would warn me, you can’t act that way, that the Bible says that it is wrong.

Now I know otherwise. I have been denying my true nature. There is a long-standing social stigma against people like me. We are put down and people do not like to associate with us. But the one thing I know is true is that I didn’t ask to be this way. It is not, I repeat NOT something I have chosen. It is who I am. Everyone in my life, for my 44 years, has forced me to deny it. To pretend. And I have listened to them, until now.

I was born this way, the way God made me. No more denying it. I will embrace it and finally be who I was made to be, angry.

Yes, I am angry.

Ever since I can remember, anger has been there. This is not nurture, it is nature. I have always been angry. I could be going about my daily life, happy as a clam, and without warning and with the merest provocation, red-faced anger would envelop me.

Everyone always told me that I needed to get my anger under control, but why? Isn’t this the way God made me? Why should I pretend otherwise, because other people don’t like it? As long as I don’t hurt anyone, I should be as flaming angry as I was born to be, and all you fury-phobes can kiss my grits.

Think this is a stupid post? Yeah, me too. Somebody should tell Arthur Fitzmaurice, Director of the Los Angeles Archdiocesan Ministry with Lesbian and Gay Catholics. Here is what he had to say.
In the final paragraph of a March 11 story about the 25th anniversary of the founding of the archdiocesan Ministry with Lesbian and Gay Catholics, ministry co-leader Arthur Fitzmaurice, citing "pain," "hurt" and "bitterness" over the adoption of Proposition 8, says the ministry focuses on "the pastoral side that says 'God made you this way. You’re welcome to participate in the Eucharist.'"

Pat correctly points out again, as we often have on this blog, that the old argument about whether or not gays are "born that way" is irrelevant. Not everything a man is born with is virtuous.

If You Want Some Fun, Sing Ob-La-Dib-La-Da!

2011-03-23T09:09:00.005-05:00

(H/T: Illinois Review)

Liberals Demand Back-Alley Abortions

2011-03-23T09:01:00.001-05:00

When President Bill Clinton told us that abortion should be "safe, legal and rare", we knew he was lying about doing the slightest thing to make abortion "rare." But now, as it turns out, pro-aborts aren't too interested in abortions being "safe," either.

In Illinois today, veterinary clinics are better-regulated than abortion clinics. But as you may have already heard (especially if you subscribe to Lake County Right to Life emails) the Illinois General Assembly is considering a bill to change that. Co-sponsored by both pro-life and pro-abortion members, the bill (as reported by Illinois Review):

...amends the Illinois Ambulatory Surgical Center Act. Currently Illinois law exempts abortion clinics from the standards imposed on all other outpatient surgical centers in Illinois...

Last week, after hearing testimony from Thomas More Society's Peter Breen, the House Agriculture Committee passed that bill on a bipartisan 13-0 vote. With this amendment, abortion facilities would be required to meet the same health and safety licensing standards as any other outpatient surgical center, from appropriate hallway width for gurney transport to typical sanitation standards in operating rooms. In light of the "House of Horrors" clinic of Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell, regulations like these are long overdue in Illinois.

The pro-abort side loves to tell us that they are the ones who are "pro-woman", that they oppose a return to their fictitious "back-alleys".

But here we find that the ACLU ardently opposes making abortion safer for women (it's already nearly 100% fatal for babies, but why shouldn't moms share the danger?) in organizing protests against this bill. Last week, they demonstrated in Springfield wearing t-shirts proclaiming "Women are not livestock" (presumably because the state mandates quality care for livestock), and now they've announced a protest at the offices of the bill's chief sponsor, State Rep. Darlene Senger (R-Naperville).

This bill has passed out of committee and is now on the house floor. We'll keep you posted on its progress, but this would be a good time to contact your state representative and ask his or her position on the Senger Amendment:

Ed Sullivan (R, Dist #51, 847-566-5115)
Mark Beaubien (R, Dist #52, 847-487-5252)
Karen May (D, Dist #58, 847-433-9100)
Carol Sente (D, Dist #59, 847-680-5909)
Rita Mayfield (D, Dist #60, 847-599-2800)
JoAnn Osmond (R, Dist #61, 847-599-6200)
Sandy Cole (R, Dist #62, 847-543-0062)

Leave us a comment below to let us know how your state rep will be voting!

(Cross-posted from Lake County Right to Life blog.)

Nepotism -- It's All About The Benjamins

2011-03-18T09:48:00.004-05:00

Follow the money.

Michael Carbone

When my friend, fellow parishioner and fellow Knight of Columbus Michael Carbone, a member of the Grayslake School District #46 School Board was censured by the unanimous vote of his fellow board members this past Wednesday, what was the real reason?

Follow the money.

D46 board president, Mary Garcia, who is also the president of the local teachers' union in another district, together with her cronies on the board, doesn't like it when Michael Carbone, who has made it his practice over the past two years to uncover poor spending practices, and worked to bring accountability and transparency to board operations, sheds light on her shenanigans.

Follow the money.

When Michael Linder resigned from his unpaid position as a board member to take a job as a part-time consultant at $75,000 per year, Michael Carbone led the objections.

Follow the money.

When the board spent thousands to send staffers to Disney World for a conference, Michael Carbone was asking why.

Follow the money.

And when Mary Garcia hired her husband to work for the district as a janitor on the public payroll, Carbone was the first to question the process.

After all, with the economy as it is, with over 10% unemployment in Lake County and fifty applicants for every advertised job, just what was it, other than his relationship to the school board president, that made Robert Garcia stand out? Was he so highly recommended by his previous employers? In fact, if he was such a very good employee in his prior jobs, just why was it he was unemployed? Don't get me wrong, many good people are un- or under-employed these days, for completely honest reasons. I'd just like to know how we came to the coincidence that Mary Garcia's husband just happened to be the very best candidate for the job with the organization of which his wife is the head, but not for any of the other jobs he'd doubtless applied for.

There's a word for this.

The word is nepotism. And in this instance, it means using taxpayer money to do favors for your friends and family. Or yourself.

Mary Garcia and her union cronies don't understand that taxpayer money isn't theirs to dole out as largesse to their favored recipients.

Michael Carbone does understand this, and that's why they made up a series of lies about him, and publicly defamed him with a censure resolution that's made national news.

Mary Garcia and one of her cronies are up for re-election in less than three weeks. Linder's appointed replacement will likewise be leaving the board. I have to second the endorsement of the local paper for all three challengers to these seats to be elected, and I hope that with Michael Carbone, they will form a new majority who will bring some fiscal accountability to this school board.

So, as I told the board on Wednesday, I'm glad they chose this week to make such a statement of contempt for the taxpayers, and the one man on that board who represents our interests.

I was at that meeting, and was first in the public comments:

Some of those comments were attributed to me in this report as well.

Surveys

2011-03-17T09:37:00.001-05:00

I'm often torn about how much faith to place on surveys. Obviously, of course, the ones I agree with are the ones that are valid.

(H/T: Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion)

On The Morality Of Money

2011-03-16T13:49:00.003-05:00

I'm currently reading Ayn Rand's 1957 novel, Atlas Shrugged, and I have to say, I'm very impressed with it thus far. Moved, even.

Herewith a fascinating quotation, which I am very surprised never to have seen excerpted:

Rearden heard Bertram Scudder, outside the group, say to a girl who made some sound of indignation, "Don't let him disturb you. You know, money is the root of all evil — and he's the typical product of money."

Rearden did not think that Francisco could have heard it, but he saw Francisco turning to them with a gravely courteous smile.

"So you think that money is the root of all evil?" said Francisco d'Aconia. "Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?

"When you accept money in payment for your effort, you do so only on the conviction that you will exchange it for the product of the effort of others. It is not the moochers or the looters who give value to money. Not an ocean of tears nor all the guns in the world can transform those pieces of paper in your wallet into the bread you will need to survive tomorrow. Those pieces of paper, which should have been gold, are a token of honor — your claim upon the energy of the men who produce. Your wallet is your statement of hope that somewhere in the world around you there are men who will not default on that moral principle which is the root of money. Is this what you consider evil?

This would be a link to Amazon, but,
ironically, Amazon has dropped Illinois
from its affiliate list because of a new
state tax on internet businesses.
"Have you ever looked for the root of production? Take a look at an electric generator and dare tell yourself that it was created by the muscular effort of unthinking brutes. Try to grow a seed of wheat without the knowledge left to you by men who had to discover it for the first time. Try to obtain your food by means of nothing but physical motions—and you'll learn that man's mind is the root of all the goods produced and of all the wealth that has ever existed on earth.

"But you say that money is made by the strong at the expense of the weak? What strength do you mean? It is not the strength of guns or muscles. Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think. Then is money made by the man who invents a motor at the expense of those who did not invent it? Is money made by the intelligent at the expense of the fools? By the able at the expense of the incompetent? By the ambitious at the expense of the lazy? Money is MADE — before it can be looted or mooched — made by the effort of every honest man, each to the extent of his ability. An honest man is one who knows that he can't consume more than he has produced.

"To trade by means of money is the code of the men of good will. Money rests on the axiom that every man is the owner of his mind and his effort. Money allows no power to prescribe the value of your effort except by the voluntary choice of the man who is willing to trade you his effort in return. Money permits you to obtain for your goods and your labor that which they are worth to the men who buy them, but no more. Money permits no deals except those to mutual benefit by the unforced judgment of the traders. Money demands of you the recognition that men must work for their own benefit, not for their own injury, for their gain, not their loss—the recognition that they are not beasts of burden, born to carry the weight of your misery—that you must offer them values, not wounds—that the common bond among men is not the exchange of suffering, but the exchange of GOODS. Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men's stupidity, but your talent to their reason; it demands that you buy, not the shoddiest they offer, but the best your money can find. And when men live by trade — with reason, not force, as their final arbiter — it is the best product that wins, the best performance, then man of best judgment and highest ability — and the degree of a man's productiveness is the degree of his reward. This is the code of existence whose tool and symbol is money. Is this what you consider evil?

"But money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver. It will give you the means for the satisfaction of your desires, but it will not provide you with desires. Money is the scourge of the men who attempt to reverse the law of causality — the men who seek to replace the mind by seizing the products of the mind.

"Money will not purchase happiness for the man who has no concept of what he wants; money will not give him a code of values, if he's evaded the knowledge of what to value, and it will not provide him with a purpose, if he's evaded the choice of what to seek. Money will not buy intelligence for the fool, or admiration for the coward, or respect for the incompetent. The man who attempts to purchase the brains of his superiors to serve him, with his money replacing his judgment, ends up by becoming the victim of his inferiors. The men of intelligence desert him, but the cheats and the frauds come flocking to him, drawn by a law which he has not discovered: that no man may be smaller than his money. Is this the reason why you call it evil?

"Only the man who does not need it, is fit to inherit wealth—the man who would make his own fortune no matter where he started. If an heir is equal to his money, it serves him; if not, it destroys him. But you look on and you cry that money corrupted him. Did it? Or did he corrupt his money? Do not envy a worthless heir; his wealth is not yours and you would have done no better with it. Do not think that it should have been distributed among you; loading the world with fifty parasites instead of one, would not bring back the dead virtue which was the fortune. Money is a living power that dies without its root. Money will not serve that mind that cannot match it. Is this the reason why you call it evil?

"Money is your means of survival. The verdict which you pronounce upon the source of your livelihood is the verdict you pronounce upon your life. If the source is corrupt, you have damned your own existence. Did you get your money by fraud? By pandering to men's vices or men's stupidity? By catering to fools, in the hope of getting more than your ability deserves? By lowering your standards? By doing work you despise for purchasers you scorn? If so, then your money will not give you a moment's or a penny's worth of joy. Then all the things you buy will become, not a tribute to you, but a reproach; not an achievement, but a reminder of shame. Then you'll scream that money is evil. Evil, because it would not pinch-hit for your self-respect? Evil, because it would not let you enjoy your depravity? Is this the root of your hatred of money?

"Money will always remain an effect and refuse to replace you as the cause. Money is the product of virtue, but it will not give you virtue and it will not redeem your vices. Money will not give you the unearned, neither in matter nor in spirit. Is this the root of your hatred of money?

"Or did you say it's the LOVE of money that's the root of all evil? To love a thing is to know and love its nature. To love money is to know and love the fact that money is the creation of the best power within you, and your passkey to trade your effort for the effort of the best among men. It's the person who would sell his soul for a nickel, who is the loudest in proclaiming his hatred of money — and he has good reason to hate it. The lovers of money are willing to work for it. They know they are able to deserve it."

"Let me give you a tip on a clue to men's characters: the man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it.

"Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper's bell of an approaching looter. So long as men live together on earth and need means to deal with one another — their only substitute, if they abandon money, is the muzzle of a gun.

"But money demands of you the highest virtues, if you wish to make it or to keep it. Men who have no courage, pride, or self-esteem, men who have no moral sense of their right to their money and are not willing to defend it as they defend their life, men who apologize for being rich — will not remain rich for long. They are the natural bait for the swarms of looters that stay under rocks for centuries, but come crawling out at the first smell of a man who begs to be forgiven for the guilt of owning wealth. They will hasten to relieve him of the guilt — and of his life, as he deserves.

"Then you will see the rise of the double standard—the men who live by force, yet count on those who live by trade to create the value of their looted money—the men who are the hitchhikers of virtue. In a moral society, these are the criminals, and the statutes are written to protect you against them. But when a society establishes criminals-by-right and looters-by-law—men who use force to seize the wealth of DISARMED victims — then money becomes its creators' avenger. Such looters believe it safe to rob defenseless men, once they've passed a law to disarm them. But their loot becomes the magnet for other looters, who get it from them as they got it. Then the race goes, not to the ablest at production, but to those most ruthless at brutality. When force is the standard, the murderer wins over the pickpocket. And then that society vanishes, in a spread of ruins and slaughter.

"Do you wish to know whether that day is coming? Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society's virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion — when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing — when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors — when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you — when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice — you may know that your society is doomed. Money is so noble a medium that it does not compete with guns and it does not make terms with brutality. It will not permit a country to survive as half-property, half-loot.

"Whenever destroyers appear among men, they start by destroying money, for money is men's protection and the base of a moral existence. Destroyers seize gold and leave to its owners a counterfeit pile of paper. This kills all objective standards and delivers men into the arbitrary power of an arbitrary setter of values. Gold was an objective value, an equivalent of wealth produced. Paper is a mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it. Paper is a check drawn by legal looters upon an account which is not theirs: upon the virtue of the victims. Watch for the day when it becomes, marked: 'Account overdrawn.'

"When you have made evil the means of survival, do not expect men to remain good. Do not expect them to stay moral and lose their lives for the purpose of becoming the fodder of the immoral. Do not expect them to produce, when production is punished and looting rewarded. Do not ask, 'Who is destroying the world?' You are.

"You stand in the midst of the greatest achievements of the greatest productive civilization and you wonder why it's crumbling around you, while your damning its life-blood — money. You look upon money as the savages did before you, and you wonder why the jungle is creeping back to the edge of your cities. Throughout men's history, money was always seized by looters of one brand or another, but whose method remained the same: to seize wealth by force and to keep the producers bound, demeaned, defamed, deprived of honor. That phrase about the evil of money, which you mouth with such righteous recklessness, comes from a time when wealth was produced by the labor of slaves — slaves who repeated the motions once discovered by somebody's mind and left unimproved for centuries. So long as production was ruled by force, and wealth was obtained by conquest, there was little to conquer. Yet through all the centuries of stagnation and starvation, men exalted the looters, as aristocrats of the sword, as aristocrats of birth, as aristocrats of the bureau, and despised the producers, as slaves, as traders, as shopkeepers — as industrialists.

"To the glory of mankind, there was, for the first and only time in history, a COUNTRY OF MONEY — and I have no higher, more reverent tribute to pay to America, for this means: a country of reason, justice, freedom, production, achievement. For the first time, man's mind and money were set free, and there were no fortunes-by-conquest, but only fortunes-by-work, and instead of swordsmen and slaves, there appeared the real maker of wealth, the greatest worker, the highest type of human being — the self-made man — the American industrialist.

"If you ask me to name the proudest distinction of Americans, I would choose — because it contains all the others — the fact that they were the people who created the phrase 'to MAKE money.' No other language or nation had ever used these words before; men had always thought of wealth as a static quantity — to be seized, begged, inherited, shared, looted, or obtained as a favor. Americans were the first to understand that wealth has to be created. The words 'to make money' hold the essence of human morality.

"Yet these were the words for which Americans were denounced by the rotted cultures of the looters' continents. Now the looters' credo has brought you to regard your proudest achievements as a hallmark of shame, your prosperity as guilt, your greatest men, the industrialists, as blackguards, and your magnificent factories as the product and property of muscular labor, the labor of whip-driven slaves, like the pyramids of Egypt. The rotter who simpers that he sees no difference between the power of the dollar and the power of the whip, ought to learn the difference on his own hide — as, I think, he will.

"Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to be the tool by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of men. Blood, whips and guns — or dollars. Take your choice — there is no other — and your time is running out."

Anyone with access to the internet, or even a newspaper, can easily see that Atlas is shrugging now. With a great cry of "how much is enough?" the people who produce are rising up against the never-ending burdens placed on their labors by their would-be rulers. Atlas Shrugged, Part I debuts in movie theaters nationwide on April 15th.

T-Paw in New Hampshire

2011-03-16T09:45:00.000-05:00

I'm really leaning towards Tim Pawlenty these days. We should find out more about him.

Help Stop An Injustice; Support Michael Carbone

2011-03-15T18:18:00.000-05:00

In the course of my political activism, I've come across one fellow in particular who has earned my profoundest respect.

He's far from rich, and not making any money to speak of in the office he was elected to.

He's not self-aggrandizing, doesn't seek the limelight, and he's not confrontational.

But neither will he back down from a confrontation, even if it means that people will notice him. He's the most conscientious public servant I know.

Unless you live here in Lake County, IL, you won't have heard of him. His name is Michael Carbone, and he serves on a local school board in Grayslake, and he has been a one-man champion of the taxpayer, fighting for transparency and accountability.

And tomorrow, Wed., March 16th, the Board will be voting to censure him for this.

So come out. The meeting is at Prairieview School, 103 E. Belvidere Rd., Hainesville, IL at 7:00 P.M.

(I've disabled comments on this post, because comments here don't matter. Come to the meeting and comment there!)

Imagine President Palin

2011-02-24T16:51:00.000-06:00

Executive Nullification

2011-02-23T20:16:00.003-06:00

We don't want a regal presidency, do we?

It's appropriate for a president to veto a law on the grounds that it is unconstitutional in his opinion. Many have done so.

But imagine if, as Attorney General Eric Holder has announced regarding the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the executive refused to defend the constitutionality of settled laws (DOMA, signed by Clinton, has been on the books since 1998) based on whether the current president agreed with them?

When a plaintiff (recruited by the president's party) filed suit and the AG refused to defend it, lacking a defense, the court would enter a default judgment for the plaintiff. Without an appeal, the issue would never even get to the Supreme Court; individual federal judges might throw out major pieces of legislation without appellate review.

A president would suddenly gain, in effect, the power to overturn laws he didn't like without Congress having to repeal them.

Liberals should be careful how they applaud this choice by the Obama administration. What if a future Republican president were to refuse to defend the constitutionality of the Social Security Act? Or the Income Tax Code?

Presidents shouldn't have this sort of power by themselves.

OTOH, perhaps Republican presidential candidates should be rushing to microphones to be the first to announce that, if elected, they will appoint an Attorney General who will not defend the constitutionality of Obamacare.

SB 136 Tabled by Sponsor

2011-02-17T13:48:00.002-06:00

SB 136, a bill to require registration of homeschoolers with the State Board of Education, has been tabled by its sponsor, Senator Ed Maloney (D-Chicago). We're told this means that the bill is dead for the session.

A rally outside the senator's district office in Chicago to oppose the bill had been scheduled for February 26th.

Illinois Review is calling on Sen. Maloney to issue a statement promising to abandon all such efforts during the current session.

I've received the following email from Senator Matt Murphy:

Good news! Efforts to stop SB136 have succeeded. For now! Senator Maloney tabled his bill today. However, I will continue to monitor the situation to make sure it is not later revived. Congratulations on your efforts, and those of the entire homeschool community, in derailing this unnecessary power grab. Please stay in touch. Matt

And from my friend Lauren Fleming, who serves as the legislative aide to my own state senator, Suzi Schmidt, I've received:

Paul,

Suzi wanted me to specifically contact you to let you know (though I think you may already be aware) that SB 136 has been tabled and is dead. If there are still questions or concerns from the group, she said she's happy to come in on Saturday to the district office and discuss it with anyone.

Lauren

It's really good to see legislators like Schmidt, Murphy, Duffy, Lauzen, McGann, Meeks, and others, step up to oppose vocally oppose such intrusive legislation.

Truant Officer Believes SB 136 Would Negate 4th Amendment

2011-02-16T16:56:00.000-06:00

At yesterday's informational hearing on SB 136 held by the Senate Education Committee, we learned more about the intended purpose of the bill: to empower jack-booted thugs to kick down doors to make sure that homeschoolers are being properly indoctrinated:

The following exchange took place between Committee Member Senator Luechtefeld and a Truancy Officer:

Senator Luechtefeld: "If they register - will you go to any house and see if you can help?"

Truancy Officer: "Yes sir."

Senator Luechtefeld: "Even those that are doing a really good job?"

Truancy Officer: "That's right. And I'll know very quickly as I knock on the door the ones that are doing a great job won't let me go. They'll want me to come in. The ones that say we don't want you around I'll know to take further action."

Senator Luechtefeld: "I still don't see how this changes things just because they register."

Truancy Officer: "It gives me the name and opportunity."

What this Truancy Officer doesn't seem to understand is that government entities are accountable to the people, the people are not accountable to government entities.

This officer seems to suggest that all home educators should be considered guilty of neglect until they prove themselves innocent by allowing government agents into their homes with no evidence of wrongdoing. This is a dangerous assault on our Fourth Amendment rights. [Emphasis added.]

The relevant portion begins at about 5:00 into the following video:

This is alarming in the extreme. Under no circumstances will I be registering my children with the state. Again we see in this video that SB 136 is not about improving education, but about gaining control.

Ed Maloney Wants Homeschoolers In Jail

2011-02-15T17:45:00.000-06:00

What Will Be The Penalty For Disobeying SB 136?

This is how liberals campaign. So turnabout being fair play, I want to know what the penalty for disobeying SB 136 will be? 20 years? 30? Senator Ed Maloney and the education establishment clearly wants to put homeschoolers in jail.

As we've been blogging here for the past week, Illinois Senator Ed Maloney (who accepted $13,000 in contributions from teachers' unions towards his latest re-election bid) has introduced a bill, SB 136, that would require that Illinois homsechoolers register their children with the State Board of Education. A hearing was held today in Springfield, and over 4,000 homeschooling parents and children were on hand.

Curt Mercadante made a compelling testimony:

First, I’d like to share the following quote: “To protect the integrity of the system.”

That quote was made on WLS Radio’s “Cisco Cotto Show” yesterday by Senator Edward Maloney as his reason for proposing SB 136.

I repeat the quote: “To protect the integrity of the system.”

With all due respect to Senator Maloney, I think the State of Illinois should worry more about protecting the integrity of the public education system before it begins trying to assert its authority over the rights and duties of parents to choose how to educate our children.

Because, as the SouthtownStar editorial board wrote on February 13: Homeschoolers are not the problem.

In fact, SB 136 is a government “solution” in search of a problem that doesn’t exist. And I use the term “solution” loosely.

In that same WLS radio interview, Senator Maloney admitted that he “doesn’t know” if there’s a problem. He also promised to provide anecdotal evidence in the hearing that some problems may exist.

Anecdotal evidence may be fine, and may provide for good theater. Each and every one of the home educators present today can provide overwhelming anecdotal evidence of their success in educating our children.

But we don’t need mere anecdotes to tell our story. We have statistics to show that the problem with our educational system certainly isn’t home educators.

For example, as that same February 13 SouthtownStar editorial pointed out, almost half of public school students failed to meet expectations in reading and math last year. That is despite being part of a state-run education system in which local superintendents and bureaucrats are fully aware of the curriculum, and supposedly in charge of the educators.

Senator Maloney has also stated that this bill is about “accountability.” Well, let’s talk about accountability.

In 2001, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that more than 5,000 Illinois public school teachers — not students — failed to pass basic skills exams. National Public Radio has reported that these exams should easily be passed by someone with an eighth or ninth grade education.

In the Chicago Public Schools system, only 28.5% of 11th graders met or exceeded expectations on Illinois standardized tests — yet, according to a report in Newsweek, only 0.1 percent of teachers were dismissed for performance-related reasons between 2005 and 2008.

That isn’t accountability. It’s failure. It is a sign that the State of Illinois is failing our children.

We, as home educators, have chosen to step up to the plate and choose something different — something better — for our children.

That is our right. It is our responsibility.

But education isn’t the only factor that influenced our decision to home educate. We have certain moral and religious values that we have chosen to instill in our children as part of their learning experience.

In addition, we are troubled by many of the social ills that plague American youth today.

For example:
According to the Centers for Disease Control, for youth between the ages of 10 and 24, suicide is the third leading cause of death.
According to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, during the past month 26.4% of children ages 12-20 used alcohol, and binge drinking among the same age group was 17.4%.
Also according to the Department of Health and Human Services, in 2008, an estimated 20.1 million Americans ages 12 or older were current illicit drug users.
In addition, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services “Stop Bullying Now” fact sheet: Studies show that between 15–25 percent of U.S. students are bullied with some frequency (“sometimes or more often”) while 15–20 percent report that they bully others with some frequency.
Now, can the public education system guarantee that our kids won’t be the ones who are failing in reading and math; or the ones who succumb to drug use, alcohol abuse, suicide or bullying? Of course not. But, as a home educator, can I guarantee that my kids will excel in their studies and avoid those social ills? Absolutely. [Emphasis added.]

Homeschooling mom Susan Ryan also testified:

...I would like to emphasize that laws are in existence now to protect all children, including homeschooled children in order to ensure a solid educational and nurturing base. The compulsory school attendance exemption requires private schools to teach the branches of education that are taught to children of corresponding age and grade in the public schools and that it should be in the English language. If there are questions, the truant officers employed in the Regional Offices of Education may follow up and confirm the education process. We’re not hard to find.

Registration has been unnecessary for our children to receive quality educations. Our esteemed University of Illinois created an admittance information page specifically to recruit homeschoolers. There are several other states proving the same educational results from our productive homeschooled adults.

Some worry about whether we are tested or not, even while the National Education Association has pled to Congress for less standardized assessments and more project based learning. Homeschoolers have the wonderful advantage of time and flexibility to create what the public school teachers crave. With that said, there are private means to test homeschoolers and access that progress and many homeschoolers take advantage of those opportunities.

The Home School Registration Form created some years ago has been a concern of mine - first of all - for the expended money for paperwork, mailing and other costs by the Illinois State Board of Education and the Regional Offices of Education for a non-mandated over-compliance demand. They already have this sort of spending history, so what can we tax payers expect if they are in charge of mandated registration.

But my major uneasiness is that new homeschoolers are trying to find what works for their children, and particularly when they start - parents often find much that doesn’t work. What if a homeschooler listed Sonlight Curriculum in the box for “Which curriculum will you be using” and discovered it works for the 8 year old, but not the 11 year old. Will we be stopped from switching to useful materials for our children by a bureaucracy that hampers us? That seems to be the saga of too many public school learning opportunities. Homeschoolers will lose our flexibility. We aren’t running a classroom. We are tailoring a one on one educational plan at home.

Often we don’t use a textbook as much as we frequent the museums, nature trails, the park district programs, and various community programs that enrich our children’s education. For instance, the Annenberg Learner program offers Journey North – a global study of wildlife migration and seasonal change. Science, math and observation skills are used in this program. The Great Backyard Bird Count- sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Audobon Society pulls families into the world we live in by observing birdlife in our backyards. The Cornell Lab also created specific homeschool resources online to use for their Project Feederwatch. But it’s not a “curriculum”.

In 1950, Illinois Supreme Court Justice Crampton delivered the opinion of the court in the Marjorie Levisen ruling that determined Illinois homeschools are private schools. In part of that legal documentation, he said this: “Compulsory education laws are enacted to enforce the natural obligation of parents to provide an education for their young, an obligation which corresponds to the parents’ right of control over the child.”

We don’t have to be forced to do the right thing for our children. We’ve proven that. Please honor our love, respect and nurturing of our children. Do not require onerous demands on our lives and our time with pointless paperwork held over our heads, when we’d much rather spend that time with our families living and learning. [Emphasis added.]

Senator Maloney wants to be in control of homeschooling. He cannot.

For those in Maloney's Chicago district, it's time to be recruiting his next Republican opponent, who will need to begin circulating petitions to get on the ballot this October.

For the rest of us, we must continue to contact our own state senators, the education committee members, and even our state representatives to line up their opposition to this bill.

This bill represents a clear intrusion into our homes, and our families. It is a legislative home invasion. We will not lie down for it, we will not stand still for it, we will not be content to only slam the door on it. We have now reached the point at which every legislator who goes on record on this bill must be noted and listed. Those who approve of this bill -- that is, those who approve of unwarranted government intrusion into homes and families, must be marked for opposition and defeat. Those who oppose this bill should likewise be noted, thanked, and defended from opposition when election season rolls around. I'm quite serious about this.

And just in case this bill passes, we must prepare to demonstrate to our children the lesson that there is an obligation to disobey unjust laws. How about it Senator Maloney? What will be the penalty? How many years will you give me?

Murphy On SB 136: I Am Opposed

2011-02-10T09:25:00.000-06:00

Regular Guy with Sen. Murphy

I've received an email this morning from State Senator Matt Murphy (R-Palatine), newly appointed to the Republican leadership in the Senate:

Thanks for writing Paul. I am opposed to SB136 and will vote accordingly if the matter makes it to the Senate floor. I appreciate hearing from you about this issue. Please stay in touch. Matt

We appreciate this commitment from Senator Murphy!

We understand from our friends at the Illinois Family Institute this bill is scheduled for a hearing in the Education Committee at 10:45 Tuesday morning next week. Please call the committee members to make your voice heard:

Committee Chairman, Sen. James T. Meeks (D-Chicago)
Springfield: 217-782-8066
District: 708-862-1515

Sen. Kimberly A. Lightford (D-Westchester)
Springfield: 217-782-8505
District: 708-343-7444

Sen. Gary Forby (D-Benton)
Springfield: 217-782-5509
District: 618-439-2504

Sen. Susan Garrett (D-Highwood)
Springfield: 217-782-3650
District: 847-433-2002

Sen. Iris Y. Martinez (D-Chicago)
Springfield: 217-782-8191
District: 773-463-0720

Sen. John G. Mulroe (D-Chicago)
Springfield: 217-782-1035
District: 773-763-3810

Sen. David Luechtefeld (R-Okawville)
Springfield: 217-782-8137
District: 618-243-9014

Sen. Kyle McCarter (R-Decatur)
Springfield: 217-782-5755
District: 217-428-4068

Sen. Suzi Schmidt (R-Lake Villa)
Springfield: 217-782-7353
District: 847-752-7004

Sen. Christine Johnson (R- Sycamore) *Will be sworn in on Feb. 14th
Springfield: 217-782-1977
District: 815-895-6318