April 30, 2006

Azalea in Alum Springs Park


100_0117
Originally uploaded by ChrisOD.

Flower blogging...it's catching on everywhere!


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Michael Pearl - Evil, and not so good at math either

The reporter that wrote the original story linking No Greater Joy to the Sean Paddock murder has published a follow up focusing on Pearl and NGJ. Thinking about the life of torment and abuse facing the children of the parents in the article just sickens me. I don't have the stomach to write at length about this, but one huge lie by Pearl stuck out like a sore thumb.

By Pearl's math, one-sixth of the nation's estimated 3 million home-schooling families use his training methods.

What kind of math is he using? There probably aren't even 3 million home educated kids, let alone 3 million families. In fact, I've never seen a responsible estimate for HEK's that exceeds 2 million. 3 million families would suggest 6-9 million kids. He is either lying, or has no idea what goes on in his own business.

Pearl is wary of strangers and doesn't care for reporters. He avoids situations in which he will be censored. He declined a sit-down interview with The News & Observer after the paper refused to sign a contract promising to post the unedited interview on its Web site.

That's a shame. I'm sure the unedited interview would have been very enlightening.

Hat tip: Tulip Girl

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links for 2006-04-30

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April 29, 2006

Allergies and city living

Fred explains a possible reason why city dwellers suffer so much in the spring. Back when we were living "in town" in Leesburg VA, Michelle and I both noticed that our allergy issues would improve dramatically any time we left town for a few days. I attributed it back then to the house - suspicious that maybe we had mold in the walls somewhere. Maybe it was the landscaping and plantings in the city. I still need my daily Claritin during the peak of allergy season, but my symptoms aren't nearly as bad as they were living in Leesburg.

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April 28, 2006

links for 2006-04-28

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April 27, 2006

Michelle's first blog post

Woo Hoo! My better half finally stepped out of the comments and actually made her very own blog post!.

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How to get a band-aid to stay on all day

The really great thing about these goofy Japanese videos is that they make perfect sense, even though I don't understand a word of the commentary.

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links for 2006-04-27

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April 26, 2006

VA Blogger Goes Big Time

No, it's not me. Anyway, I'm already big time ;)

Fred First, of Fragments From Floyd, now has over 1100 copies of his book in his house. You can help by buying one.

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Michael Farris' Plan to Kill Homeschooling

I've long said that Micheal Farris was no friend of home education, but I had no idea how right I was. He is now promoting the idea that when Hilliary is President, the UN will swoop in, ban homeschooling, and force Christian children in re-education camps, or something like that.

His remedy is a parental rights amendment to the Constitution. If he wants to see the Federal government turn against homeschooling, trying to mess with the Constitution is a sure way to do it.

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The truth about biofuels

Popular Mechanics has published a fantastic article that lays out the pros and cons of the various options to gasoline powered vehicles. No political dogma, just facts on the costs, obstacles, and potential benefits of the various options that are being discussed today.

Without some sort of major breakthrough in battery technology, I expect most of us will still be using a lot of gasoline in our cars 20 years from now.

BTW, President Bush's speech yesterday on the gas price crisis was a textbook example of political pandering. One of the benefits (to the govt) of govt schools is the pitiful lack of economic knowledge among the citizens. Record profits for the oil companies is a meaningless phrase. What matters is the profit margins. If both costs and prices scale upward and demand is inelastic, the profits will also scale upward at about the same rate.

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links for 2006-04-26

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April 25, 2006

links for 2006-04-25

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April 24, 2006

Give me that old time Southern Rock and Roll

The Trews are from Canada, but listening to their tunes you would swear these guys were born in Atlanta, and raised on The Black Crowes and The Allman Brothers.

Hat tip: Andrea, who sent me the link weeks ago.

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links for 2006-04-24

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April 23, 2006

This website is not "Homeschool Approved"

Homeschoolblogger.com, under their usual mistaken assumption that most homeschoolers think like they do, is offering to provide your website with a logo marking your site as TOS Homeschool Approved, if they find it family friendly. However, the logo design clearly emphasizes the "Homeschool Approved" part over the TOS part. Whether it's just poorly executed graphic design, or a purposeful attempt to cloud the issue, is an open question. However, once again, we have a right wing organization trying to stamp homeschooling as "theirs."

I'm not sure what they are trying to accomplish graphically with the logo, but the first two elements I noticed were "Homeschool Approved" and the Union Jack. I'm sure Carlotta will be thrilled. Actually, it's damn ugly in general, so it will fit right in on most of their supporter's sites.

How warped do you have to be to consider a website that promotes physical violence against children, unequal spousal relationships, and bigotry against gays, as the arbitrator of family friendly?

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April 22, 2006

The best little newspaper in Hell

I'm really beginning to like those folks in hell.

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April 21, 2006

Something Good From American Idol

I can hear Queen's Greatest Hits coming from Breck's room. He got interested in Queen due to the American Idol episode a couple of weeks back.

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Free Child Abuse Manual

Now you too can beat your children* and feel good about it at the same time. Click here to learn how you can get your free copy of TTUAC.

*Instruments of pain infliction sold seperately. Teach Magazine is the provider of this valuable offer. Check out the big screen TV in the background of the family picture. Apparently spreading God's word pays well.

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BANANAism

Build Absolutely Nothing Anyplace Near Anything

Along the coast of Nantucket, Mass. -- the only sufficiently shallow spot on the New England coast -- a coalition of anti-wind groups and summer homeowners, among them the Kennedy family, also seems set to block Cape Wind, a planned offshore wind farm. Their well-funded lobbying last month won them the attentions of Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), who, though normally an advocate of a state's right to its own resources, has made an exception for Massachusetts and helped pass an amendment designed to kill the project altogether

Anytime Kennedy and Young are working together, you know the taxpayer is getting screwed. Progress will require power. I guess Kennedy believes power generating facilities should only be built in poor areas of West Virginia. He can't have a windmill disturbing his view on the 3 days a year he bothers to visit his Cape Cod mansion. And Young should be in jail. He is a master thief, fleecing the taxpayers for every penny he can get.

I'm more and more of the opinion that the system is broke beyond repair.

It's time for a revolution.

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Furry Happy Monsters

REM on Sesame Street. Lots of other Sesame Street fun.

via Laze.

It's frightening how many of these I remember. For example, Rubber Ducky. It's not just that I remember the song, I remember the entire skit in detail. Anyway be careful, the Sesame Street stuff will sap your productivity quickly.

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links for 2006-04-21

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April 20, 2006

Do you even know what Hippology is?

Apparently my 10 year old daughter does, as she scored a blue ribbon in the county wide competition and was named to the District team.

I'm sure she would have done better if she had been in school all day with a real teacher though.

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links for 2006-04-20

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April 19, 2006

Rev Jim doesn't get it

Rev. Jim has stepped out from behind the wheel of his taxi to ask a couple of homeschooling related questions. I'd answer at his blog, but he won't post my replies. So I'll answer here where they will actually be seen.

1- What qualifications do you have to educate children?

I'm the parent. It's the only qualification I need.

2- Why do you believe it's proper to hide from the world rather than act as "salt and light" in it?

I'd ask my kids, but they are busy hiding from the world at Boy Scouts / Girl Scouts / Little League / 4-H / Fencing / a friend's house / in the backyard / down the street.

3- Isn't there something of hubris in your belief that you can "do it better" than trained professionals?

Maybe, so what? Have you looked at the track record of the trained professionals lately?

Anyway, it's not about education. I don't give a rat's ass about how my kids measure up on some silly standardized tests. I care if my kids are happy. The academic stuff is just a side effect of happy kids who haven't had the love of learning beat out of them by the school system.

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links for 2006-04-19

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April 18, 2006

Mindcrime II - first listen

First of all, I have to apologize to Dawn for this being so late. I had it in my head that the record hit the streets on 4/14 - it was really 4/4.

My bad.

The record, however, is good. A sequel to one of the great concept albums of all time is a daunting task. The story picks up 18 years later, with Nikki out of prison, haunted by the death of Mary, and looking for revenge. The sounds is the killer though. It sounds like it was recorded right after they were done with Operation Mindcrime.

Queensryche has gone back to the 80's, but not in a cheesy way. The amps are way up, the guitars are extra crunchy, and strings and horns fill in the quiet spots. It's classic Queensryche, easily their best record since Empire. The record probably lacks the big hit that would be required to make them a household name again, but if this is their swan song, they can feel good about how they are going out. It's not as good as the original, but I doubt any of us really expected it to be.

Catching them on tour this summer is a no brainer. What better show for Breck's initiation into live metal?

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Philips patents dumbest idea ever

Philips has patented a technology that will disable your TV controls during commercials, thus forcing you to watch them, even on Tivo. The plan is to charge for the right to skip commercials.

Are they trying to piss off every TV viewer in the world?

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Blame homeschooling

A pastor kidnaps a teen aged homeschooler and this pastor blames the homeschooling for her being naive and falling for it. Apparently school would have made her wise to the ways of Christian leaders that prey on teenage girls.

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The Graduate Homeschools

The guy that wrote the novel that is the basis for The Graduate is flat broke and facing eviction. He sold the rights to the story for a flat 14,000 pounds and did not get a cut of the $60 million box office take.

Presumably, he missed out on the whole plastics thing too.

However, he is writing the sequel, in which Benjamin Braddock and Elaine Robinson homeschool their kids by going underground and hiding out in a series of nudist camps in CA, where homeschooling was illegal at the time. In what must be a very weird situation, he doesn't own the rights to the characters that he based on his own life, so the novel may never see the light of day.

Didn't Kramer sell his life stories to Peterman in a Seinfeld episode?

Hey, maybe HSB will be interested. They are publishers, right?

Hat Tip: Daniel

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More on Virginia's Religious Exemption

Two articles in as many days? Do I smell an agenda here? This almost seems like a set up to induce a rash of exemption requests that can be used as justification to revisit the law.

It was nice to see VHEA founder Will Shaw quoted as the counter to HSLDA. HSLDA's recommendations regarding the exemption have long been an issue in VA.

My issue with all of this is that special freedoms are being granted to those that are religious, or are willing to claim that they are. If government is forbidden from the establishment of a state religion, the granting of freedoms not available to all on the basis of religion seems to be a violation of the spirit of religious freedom protections.

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April 17, 2006

24 Quote of the Week (I don't think this is a spolier...)

Our government has no integrity!

-Jack Bauer

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Virginia Home Education and the Religous Exemption

My local fish wrapper on the Virginia Religious Exemption to school attendance laws. In VA, if you can convince the school officials that sending your kids to school violates your faith, you are exempt from everything, even the annual testing laws us normal homeschoolers have to follow.

Playing devils advocate for a minute...

Why should religion play any part in the decision on the part of the state? I wonder if Scott Woodruff would support me if I filed for an exemption on the grounds that it is a violation of my faith for my kids to attend any school where pasta is not held in reverent regard?

I'm glad that there are Virginians that are legally and completely outside of the school system. However, why should they be granted a freedom that is denied me, purely on a subjective decision by the state that is based 100% on religion?

Something seems wrong with that.

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April 16, 2006

Let's Get A Room For My Birthday

If I heard my teenager say that, I be worried. But maybe I shouldn't be. There seems to be a trend among the younger teen set to get one gullible parent to chaperon a dozen friends for an overnight at a local hotel. We had a party here Friday night. About a dozen 13-14 year olds hanging out at the pool, doing the present / cake thing in the restaurant, running around the halls, etc. They were all at breakfast the next morning too. I found it very odd but upon asking my brother I learned it's not unusual at all.

Anybody else heard of this, or is it unique to Alpharetta GA?

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V for Vendetta

In which the always adorable Natalie Portman gets mixed up with the mysterious V, a freedom fighter setting in motion an elaborate revenge plot and citizen uprising against a theocratic totalitarian government. In an interesting coincidence, the phrase spare the rod, spoil the child comes into to play. The government uses it to justify violence against citizens.

Did I mention Natalie Portman is the co-star?

Do you even have to ask if I enjoyed the movie? Any movie with Natalie Portman has a floor of 8/10 on the ODonnellWeb scale. I give V for Vendetta a solid 9.

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April 14, 2006

This guy could be teaching your 5th grader

Attention Las Cruces NM parents. This guy is a 5th grade teacher in your town. Is your kid in his class?


Subject: Re: congratulations
From: "Ross Bussell" [bussross@gmail.com]
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 17:39:09 -0600
To: "Daryl Cobranchi"

Well, I know this oversteps my bounds here, but fuck you. I had a nice weekend going here, and I always enjoy blogging, but you're a god damned piece of work, and that's the end of it. I'm glad you feel the need to shit all over everyone else, and by the way, you're still nothing but rhetoric. I haven't heard ANYTHING from you to actually say that homeschooling is superior, other than you pointing out a few spelling mistakes I made in my non-proofread blog post, and you use that to discredit me. Fuck you Daryl, you're a piece of shit. I'm sure you'll post these words in your blog, and that's fine. You obviously need to mock others, so good for you, I guess I let my emotions get the best of me. I shouldn't care what you and your little special interest group say, you're a bunch of filth. I love it how you try to place these nice "scholarly" words in your e-mails and posts, you really have proven your knowledge my friend. By the way, I think you're a big fucking liar, you're no Phd, you're some uneducated little fucker from the east coast who feels that he is superior to everyone west of the Mississippi. I know the type. Again, fuck you Daryl. How about this for an idea. Have a blog of substance, rather than pointing out those who disagree with you and mocking them. Of course, all of the few home school people I've known are exactly like you, and after dealing with you and your group, why would I be inclined to think differently? You're a bunch of bullies, and you sit behind your computer screen and play the big man. You have no idea the anger that I'm feeling toward you right now. I know it's unintelligent, but if you were here right now, I'd beat the living shit out of you. Good day "doctor." Go ahead, post this, I know you will, you can't handle this on your own, you have to involve your whole group. You people are all the same, safety in numbers, you feel like you need validation from your cronies, and so that's fine. They can all e-mail me too and tell me how ignorant I am for calling you a fucker and what-not, or they can mock my grammatical flaws in my e-mails. God, you think I sit here and proof read this shit? Re-reading my words piss me off even more. Plus, well, forget, you're not worth the time. Congratulations again on pissing me off. Kiss my ass. Leave me alone. Fuck off. Please.

It all stems from this blog post at Daryl's. And here. And also here.

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Gridlock defined - Alpharetta GA

I don't care where you live - your traffic is not as bad as Alpharetta GA. The entire town (a burb of Atlanta) is gridlocked. North, south, east west, major road, two lane twisty road, it just doesn't matter. Every one of then is backed up to hell, all the time.

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April 12, 2006

links for 2006-04-12

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April 11, 2006

How to survive 11th grade

Maybe the fact that the education reporter at The Washington Post felt compelled to write about this should be the first clue that something is very wrong with how we go about education in this country.

Can anybody give me one good reason why 11th grade should be the hardest year of your life?

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Beer Flavored Ice Cream

Ben & Jerry's presents Black & Tan Ice Cream. If this is some sort of test you can put me down as a failure now. I will be staking out the groceries stores in search of this.

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What Would Jesus Do?

Ron explains it. We all should be doing the same, and you don't even have to be a Christian to "get it."

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Child Beaters are desperate - resort to spamming

Check out the comments of this post - where The Pearl's daughter spams a totally unrelated post with her story of an idealic childhood full of sun and joy and fluffy bunnies. She calls out Carlotta over in the UK - so apparently her efforts are having an effect.

Way to go Brits!

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links for 2006-04-11

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April 10, 2006

Is there an Oscar for Internet video?

This is the most incredible thing I have ever seen. The bottom of the 10th inning from game 6 of the 1986 World Series, recreated in RBI Baseball and synchronized with Vin Sculley's commentary from the game.

Two years ago, watching this would have caused me to go into a crying fit of rage. I can describe exactly where I was and what I was doing when this went down back in 1986. But now that 2004 is in the bag, I can enjoy this for the pure artistic genius that it is.

Conor Lastowka is the creator of this work of art.


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3 more years of 24

Keifer Sutherland has signed a $40 million dollar deal to keep him in the role of Jack Bauer for 3 more years. I can't even imagine what they will come up to top this season.

And never forget, the only reason you are still conscious is because Jack doesn't want to carry you.

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10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America

The History Channel started a 5 day series last night in which they analyze 10 days in US History that had a huge impact on all to come after. They went looking for lessor known events that ultimately shaped who we are as a country.

Last night I watched Massacre at Mystic. How did I get to 38 years old without ever hearing of the seminal event that started the legacy of violence between Europeans and Native Americans? If we covered it in history class in high school it didn't stick at all.

Of course, the massacre of about 25% of the Pequot tribe, women and children included, was perfectly justified because, you know, them heathen natives were acting against God's will. The rest were sold off into slavery.

I wonder what part of the bible told them to slay women and children, and sell the survivors into slavery?

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links for 2006-04-10

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April 09, 2006

US Congress - Now spamming, among other crimes

I'm the lucky recipient of an email from Congressman J. Gresham Barrett, something to do with immigration. I didn't read it.

Barrett is the Republican congressional representative from South Carolina's 3rd District. Why is he emailing me? An even better question is where did he get my email address? The email came to my Gmail address. I am on my congressional representative's email list, which is fine. She is also a Republican.

Are they sharing email lists? I don't remember giving permission for that. I guess it could also be a simple clerical error where some intern sent the email out to the wrong list. However, if that is the case, shouldn't an apology be forthcoming? It's been a few days.

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links for 2006-04-09

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April 08, 2006

What's wrong with my camera?

test.jpg

I got no pictures at the show today because every outdoor picture looks like this. The green is way way oversaturated, and a lot of the pictures were totally washed out. I tried all the auto program modes, and the pictures are all unusable. I do seem to be able to take indoor pictures that look normal. The movie mode outdoors works just fine too.

It is an Olympus C-720 UZ and is about 4 years old. I assume fixing it will cost close to what a new camera will run. Is it time for a new camera, or am I missing something? I did take the batteries out and let is sit for a few minutes before trying again. Same result very bad outdoor picures.

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April 07, 2006

A Note To My Readers

Thank you for not being a bunch of sycophants that agree with everything I write here. This would be damn boring if all I ever got in the comments were a bunch of kiss ass pats-on-the-back for everything silly thing I post here.

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The Century War with Islam

Set aside 10 minutes and read this short story in which Sci-Fi author Dan Simmons is visited by a time traveler bringing a message of warning concerning our Long War with Islam.

Interesting perspective, or xenophobic right wing bullshit?

Hat Tip: VodkaPundit

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Homeschooljournal.net is open

If you homeschool and need a place to blog, this is your answer.

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links for 2006-04-07

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April 06, 2006

Do 5 frisky teachers make a trend?

The literary demons over at Hell's Leading Daily have connected the dots to give us 5 female teachers that have uh, gotten busy, with students.

Beyond the breaking of the law, the obvious ick factor of the age difference, and the fact that these women were in a position of power and trust over these young men (and one girl), I just have to wonder what the hell they were thinking. It's not like a 14 year old boy that is doing his teacher isn't going to talk, usually sooner rather than later.

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Why Your Free Blog Host Matters

The current meme floating around HomeschoolBlogger is that choosing to blog there does not associate the blogger with The Pearls or TTUAC.

Poppycock!

If you choose to blog at Redstate.com it's because you want to be part of the Republican club. If you choose to blog at DailyKos it's because you want to be part of the I hate Republicans club. If you blog at Slashdot it's to be associated with the geek crowd. And when you blog at HSB you willingly associate with the It's OK to hit your child with plumbing supplies club.

When you blog there you are part of that club, whether you like it or not. It's the whole point of a niche blog community. The HSB club leader is on record as enthusiastically supporting The Pearls and TTUAC. You can't just wish that association away.

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links for 2006-04-06

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April 05, 2006

"The only way you can kill a child with that is by shoving it down his throat."

Maybe true, but a homeschool mom did buy some plumbing supply line and hit herself with it. She reports back that it hurts like hell, and leaves welts.

But remember, it doesn't bruise, so it's not child abuse.

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links for 2006-04-05

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April 04, 2006

Cover up or incompetence?

It turns out the local teacher busted for extra curricular student activity here is Spotsy was reported by parents about a month earlier. The school, faced with an alleged felony, decided to do an internal investigation and found nothing.

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More Zero Tolerance Madness

Honestly, zero tolerance has to to be a mental disease. How the hell else do you explain a principle that suspends and recommends expulsion for a model 8th grade student that accidentally left his Swiss Army knife in his jacket pocket and upon getting to school, went directly to the office and turned it in.

His lawyer is exactly right. The message the school is sending is that honesty does not pay. He would have been much better off just quietly keeping the knife in his pocket. He is getting the exact same punishment as if he had been caught trying to conceal possession of the knife.

The principle should be fired.

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links for 2006-04-04

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April 03, 2006

Scott Miller - Citation

Have I mentioned just how rootin and tootin, rocking and rolling, fun the new Scott Miller record is? He has produced the ideal fusion of rock and country, with songwriting that speaks to folks in the real world. Without a doubt, the early leader for ODonnellWeb record of the year.

This is Americana rock at its absolute best. Buy it. If you don't, small kittens will die.

And now the hard part, deciding what comes off the IPod to make room for Citation.

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National Spank Out Day April 30

I've added an ad (free) for National Spank Out Day. May I humbly suggest that all bloggers that aren't into beating their kids, and have Blogads on their sites, do the same?

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A little light reading

The boy came home from the library with some light reading - The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volumes 1 & 2.

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Hell hath no fury....

...not really sure where I was going with that title, but when Hell's leading daily calls you evil, I think the argument is over.

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links for 2006-04-03

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April 02, 2006

Optical Intercourse

At Pensacola Christian College, you can be expelled for having ocular intercourse, the act of gazing too long into eyes of a member of the opposite sex. This won't surprise Daryl, but the also teach creationism in the science classes. It's an unaccredited school, so if you get expelled in your junior year for kissing a girl, you will likely be starting over somewhere as a freshman.

Also very interesting is the connection between PCC and A Beka books. They are both owned by the same guy, PCC loses boatloads of cash every year, but makes it up in royalties supplied by book sales to Christian schools and homeschoolers.

There really is no point to the post, other than I laughed out loud at the optical intercourse thing. They seem to hide their unaccredited status from prospective students, but otherwise I think the kids going there more or less know what they are getting into.

Original article is fire walled behind the oh so reader friendly Chronicle of Higher Education Website. This appears to be complete cut and paste of the article.

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The Mark of the Beast

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Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? At least now we don't have to bother reading inane blog posts to ID child abusers. They are proudly outing themselves.

I wonder if God told them to do it?

I'd link to the site, but you know...

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