This Little Piggy Goes to School

The mind's first step to self-awareness must be through the body.--George Sheehan It used to be common sense that a healthy mind required a healthy body, but somewhere along the line educators have cast that much tested fact aside. I am not saying that childhood obesity lay only at the door of the public schools, no indeed, there is culpability enough to share, but my focus is on the culpability of the public schools. I am not impuning the schools for cutting fitness programs, because it is not the schools responsibilty to provide fitness opportunities to kids. No my complaint is that schools are completely filling up the time when kids should be outside playing or exercising. Look at the facts. Every public school system has consitently and regularly lengthened the school day and the school year. Most elementary schools have completely cut recess even for the youngest students. In addition to the time spent within the walls of the school, there has also been a steady increase in the amount of homework assigned per day. Most teachers believe that a student should get 10 minutes of homework per year in school. For instance if a child is in 6th grade they should get 60 minutes of homework. Okay, that might work well enough if a child is in a program with a single teacher, but is not such a reasonable formula in the higher grades with multiple teachers. Consider 10th grade. According to the formula, a 10th grader should have 100 minutes of homework each night. Now mulitply that by a minimum of 4 core-subject teachers = 400 minutes of homework each night. That's (well don't ask me I went to public school...just kidding. Fortunately, I learned math in college.) That's 6.67 hours of homework per night. Now include extra-curriculars, which are a necessity for any college-bound student, supper, and well you can forget family time. (See last blog) It's no wonder that the average high school student cannot get to bed before 12 AM, and it is certainly no wonder that we are seeing a steady climb in childhood obesity...by the way, obesity is considerably lower in home-schooled children where academic achievement is higher and where balance between mind and body is better maintained. If home-schoolers understand the balance, shouldn't we be able to expect professional educators to understand as well?

The Plumping of Failed Institutions

Why put more money into an already failing institution?--Paraphrasing Michael Medved First, by way of disclosure, I am a product of public schooling. However, when I went to public school, common sense reigned and no one need tell teachers how to deal with profanity, drugs or bullying. For the most part teachers, because they had the morality of such issues clear in their minds, knew how to deal with such problems utilising "common sense" unclouded by moral relativism. Common sense, however, is dead. That leaves us with the current state of the public school. A state of abject failure. So how do we address that failed upon failed institution, well we plump it up with more money, and even worse, more control over our children's lives. Even though, the school day has gotten steadily longer with each new legislative year, schools continue to decline. Even though each school year has been lengthened with each new legislative year, schools decline. Even though the amount of homework has increased exponentially, student achievement declines. Wake up and smell the coffee! This is a trend that must be reversed, but the answer does not lie with the public school, it lies with the parents and the pubic schools need to get out of the way. Note: The more time kids spend in school the less time they spend with their parents. Duh! While the schools, disingenuously, decry having to parent children, they have in fact grabbed more parenting by law since the 1940's as educators convinced themselves and lawmakers that educators knew better than the parents what was best for the children. The steady decline of this society is proof of how well that has worked. The best thing that we can do for both society and public school is to retrench. We need to stop pouring additional money and time in plumping up a failed institution. We need support strong families by allowing and expecting parents to be the primary educators in children's lives with the public schools serving a supporting role. Next: Public Schools and Childhood Obesity

Redistribute the Wealth, its only FAIR

Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men's stupidity, but your talent to their reason.--Ayn Rand

After a lifetime of resistance, I am finally caving to the left. I have seen the light and I am ready to embrace the idea of redistributing the wealth. Don’t be shocked. After listening to a recent diatribe by a caller to a conservative talk show, whose most persuasive argument was, “because, that’s why,” I decided that she was right. It is only fair, in the full 5th grade playground meaning of the word fair, to take money from those who have earned it and give it to those whose greatest exertions in life get them from the bedroom to the couch. Not only do I embrace this concept, but I have the perfect plan for implementation.

Step 1: Get up off the couch.
Step 2: Provide a service or product that people are willing to pay you for.
Step 3: Follow through with that service or product and collect your fair and equitable pay.

There you have it; wealth redistribution in three easy steps. I think I will call my plan CAPITALISM!

You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before. --Rahm Emanuel

As if the shooting of 19 people is not tragic enough, we now see it compounded by the tragedy known as the liberal left.

Typical liberal opportunistic behavior. Nothing more liberal than capitalizing on another's pain, whether it's a sudden tragedy or multi-generational poverty. The liberal left know that they owe their very existance to the down trodden and they are not above creating them.

Part IV: Revolution!

We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a feather-bed.
–Thomas Jefferson

I am calling for revolution! A bloodless, ballot box coup de’ tats! It is long past time.

Okay, this is the last blog of this series. This blog has been a long time coming. The reason why is well, I am very disappointed.

Too many (and even one is too many) readers met my last blog with the proverbial “not in my back yard sentiment.” You know that sentiment, when everyone thinks a group home for the mentally ill is a great idea, but not if it is too close to them. A group home is only a great idea if it is in your cross-town neighbor’s backyard.

Sadly, this is the same approach that too many have to government funding. Take away the other guy’s entitlement, boondoggle or earmark, but DON’T TOUCH MINE!

Well, then. Let me enlighten you. We have a lovely pedestrian bridge across the Missouri river. I have walked it and it is lovely. So thanks! Even though it is absolutely unnecessary and in a few years will be graffiti-ed, rusted, and forgotten. And while most of you will never, ever get any use out of it, your tens of millions of tax dollars went into building it (That is eight figures worth of money). Thank you so much! It must be okay with you, because if you want to preserve you earmark, you can’t say no to mine.

Or

You can let the oxygen back into your brain; admit that the federal government has no business building foot bridges (or any other boondoggle, entitlement or earmark) for the few with the money of the many; and go to the polls and vote the bums out. Quit protecting your piece of the pie and do what is right and honorable--leave the money in the blistered hands of those that earned it.

Not Part IV

If it was easy, everyone would do it. The hard..is what makes it great.--A League of Their Own

Okay, this is not the fourth part of the series. This is a follow-up to the last blog. The response I got to the last blog was mixed. Some said, "That's too hard." Others found it unrealistic. My response is "really?" (Actually my knee-jerk response was "waaaah.")

Yes it's hard. It's like losing weight, we didn't add all that weight at once and we will not lose it over night, but we better do something because it is killing us. Likewise, the bureaucracy (first time I spelled that right without spell check) that we have sold ourselves to, is also killing us as a nation.

Personally, I am ready for a crash diet from the Federal Government trough, but if you find it too hard or unrealistic at least consider this: every time you or your representatives take Federal dollars, at least ask yourself whose pocket it is coming out of, because it is coming out of someones pocket...maybe yours. Then ask yourself if the expenditure is justified beyond the value of getting an incumbent re-elected. You will probably find that it is not. Especially if you take a real hard look at it.

Finally consider this, just as we have seen in Municipal and State governments throughout the country, consider how we can manage on a forced fiscal diet if we don't have the self-discipline to curb our appetite for government dollars, because the forced fiscal diet is coming.

So quit whining about how hard it is, quit moaning about how unrealistic it is and start reprogramming your thought processes regarding the amount of money you are willing to let the Federal Government spend on you.

A PLACE TO START REPROGRAMMING YOUR VIEW ABOUT GOVERNMENT SPENDING:
1. When the Federal Government withholds taxes, they use our money interest free.
2. When we get a Tax Refund it is our money, (that the government used without compensating us) we are not getting anything from the government,they are just giving back what we did not owe in the first place.
3. If we are going to have a Federal Income Tax, then taxes should be paid on a flat rate, across the board, no deductions, at a rate lower than a tithe. (10% for all you Godless readers).
4. Tax deductions = Government control.
5. When we get on the government dole, we are dependant on a system that cannot be sustained.
6. When we look to the government for our financial salvation (being on the dole), we close our eyes to the source of our true salvation.

Part III: Who Is In Control?

The way to secure liberty is to place it in the people's hands, that is, to give them the power at all times...--John Adams

Who is in control? The cheap and dirty answer is: WE ARE--the reality is: we are supposed to be but...hmm?

(All of you Godless people ignor the next simile.) The Federal Government is like the Devil; it only has the control and power over us that we give it. And boy have we given it control and power. Yep, we gave our power to the Federal Government when we sold our souls to the twin Devils of Tax and Spend.

Among the things you aren't taught in History class is that the majority of control and power that the Federal Government has over the States and the Citzens is the money. It's called Tax and Spend and the Feds have refined it into an art. The Feds take your money so they can give it people who will give up their control and power to the them. If we don't take the money, they can't grab the power. Ergo, the only way to get the power back is to quit taking the money. Stated once again for emphasis: IF WE DON'T TAKE THE MONEY, WE KEEP THE POWER!

So when you bellyache about how the Federal Government is controlling your life, ask yourself how did you let that happen? I have to confess the Feds make it easy to do, take the money I mean. The Feds are willing to give us money for anything we "need", for the State, for the County, for the School System, for the Individual. All we have to do is sign our rights, power and control away on the dotted line and they will show us the money.

If we truly want the power of government back in the hands of the people it is time to show the Feds the door. We have got to say no to every penny, nickel and dime that the Federal Government hands us. JUST SAY NO TO THE MONEY!$!

Next: Part IV Revolution!