gdp's Comments

Big Government : Troubled Teens Born in the Classroom

Fri, 31 Dec 2010 21:00:33 +0000

Typically when families start homeschooling an older (late elementary to Sr. High) child, a substantial part of the first year is spent just building a parent-child relationship.

Big Government : Troubled Teens Born in the Classroom

Fri, 31 Dec 2010 20:59:14 +0000

Back in the early '90s there was a bill HR6, that would have severely restricted all private education, and almost certainly "restricted to death" homeschooling. It was sponsored by George Miller (D, NEA). The Home School Legal Defense Association got the word out to it's membership, and other private school groups. The capitol switchboard MELTED DOWN, primarily due to home schoolers. And not just one day, it was day after day after day of protest. The bill died with something like 434 votes against it. Homeschoolers will not gently acceed to being restricted to death. The modern day heir to the pioneer woman, baby in one arm, rifle in the other, is the homeschool mom.

Big Journalism : Media Wants A Brawl Between Libertarians And Christian Conservatives In Tea Party

Fri, 3 Dec 2010 03:26:54 +0000

Newsweek should be glad Dana read the piece, that doubled their readership.

Big Journalism : Media Wants A Brawl Between Libertarians And Christian Conservatives In Tea Party

Fri, 3 Dec 2010 03:26:19 +0000

Complaining about secularists in the Tea Party would be like a Marine on Okinawa complaining that the Marine in the foxhole next to him had BO.

Big Journalism : All You Need to Know about that Beck-Breitbart Protest: Obama's 'Organizing for America' Was Behind

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 00:30:18 +0000

Breitbart has a pair of steel to face down that rent-a-mob.

Breitbart.tv : Trump Lectures MSNBC Host on Her Naiveté and Predicts 'Riots in the Streets' Over Ground Zero Mosqu

Sat, 11 Sep 2010 12:19:59 +0000

O'Donnell and the blond lady (Mika?) need to spend some time in the real world. O'Donnell's smirk is infuriating, as is Mika's naivete.

Big Government : Union Jobs vs. Children's Lives: Which Side Are You On?

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 04:11:37 +0000

I don't blame the teachers for not wanting to stick their necks out. Blame the lawyers. If the trained, volunteer screws up, or there's a bad outcome in any respect for any reason, not only the volunteer, but the teacher, administrators, and school district will get sued. Won't matter what the law is (if any, because the plaintiffs bar will bend heaven and hell to make sure their highway to zillion-dollar damage awards is straight and unimpeded in any way), they'll get sued anyway and have to defend themselves, even if the suit is meritless and gets thrown out it will cost them time and money. Just another reason why public funding of education needs to go to the parent in the form of a voucher. Then Ms. DeLorenzo could send her child to a school that will take proper care of her (on pain of not only being sued if they dont, but of losing a customer). As a special needs student, the extra funding the local school gets should follow her.

Big Journalism : You Know You're Near the Bottom When You Get Booed By the Boy Scouts

Mon, 9 Aug 2010 01:24:08 +0000

Boy Scouts Boo Obama (part 4) For enquiring minds who might wonder my background for writing about the Boy Scouts. Two of my sons are Eagle Scouts, as am I. I helped start a scout troop and was the Troop Committee Chairman for 6 years and have well over 100 camping days of adult field leadership of a scout troop.

Big Journalism : You Know You're Near the Bottom When You Get Booed By the Boy Scouts

Mon, 9 Aug 2010 01:23:44 +0000

Boy Scouts Boo Obama (part 3) My hypothesis is that we saw a manifestation of the growing anger over a government that seems increasingly out-of-touch and uninterested in the views and customs of a large number of the governed, as described in the last week by Peggy Noonan in her August 7 Wall Street Journal column America Is at Risk of Boiling Over (http://online.wsj.com/article/declarations.html), and Pat Caddell in an August 6 (?) Fox News Interview (http://www.examiner.com/x-35976-Conservative-Examiner~y2010m8d7-Video-Democrat-pollster-warns-American-anger-has-become-prerevolutionary) Some of the adult leaders may have been disenchanted with the president’s policies, others may have been disgusted. Still others may have joined in the booing. For whatever reason they were not as energetic in quelling the booing as them might otherwise, and should have, been. When the Democrats booed a Boy Scout color guard flag ceremony at (I think I recall it was) their 2000 convention, it was dog bites man. When the Boy Scouts booed President Obama at their Jamboree, it was man bites dog. One wonders if the president was listening.

Big Journalism : You Know You're Near the Bottom When You Get Booed By the Boy Scouts

Mon, 9 Aug 2010 01:23:19 +0000

Boy Scouts Boo Obama (part 2) That said, I will indulge myself in the sort of “root cause” analysis that some on the left use to exonerate rapists, rioters, and other bad actors. The scouts themselves are mid teens, ages 13-18. Kids do dumb things and it was no doubt something of a “wave” phenomenon. The president chose not to attend, as has been customary, the scouts booed the video. Having been an adult scout leader for some 10 years I can assure you that boys that age are not interested in the kind of policy analysis that might lead an adult to be critical of the president. Which brings us to the adult leadership. Had I been one of them, I would have squashed any booing by the scouts under my supervision. I have no doubt that is what many of the adult leaders did. So the question is why did some adults allow it? My experience with adult scouters has been that they are by and large a pretty fine group of (mostly) men, whose political persuasions run the full gamut of far right to far left.

Big Journalism : You Know You're Near the Bottom When You Get Booed By the Boy Scouts

Mon, 9 Aug 2010 01:22:47 +0000

Boy Scouts Boo Obama (part 1) As seen on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAWsy7VV8oE&fe... Scouts booing the president is a shocking and inexcusable breach of courtesy. The National Council owes the President an immediate and public apology. Each scout who booed, and their adult leaders, should write a note of apology. Scouts and adult leaders alike pledge “On my honor, I will do my best … to obey the Scout Law…” The fifth point of the Scout Law is “A scout is Courteous.” Booing does not come under any definition of “courteous” that I know of. The scouts invited President Obama to their event, they decided to proceed with his video avatar, common courtesy required a respectful hearing of an invited speaker.

Big Government : Cartoon Ridicules Combat-Wounded Veteran Congressional Candidate, and Backfires

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 02:43:54 +0000

GSgt. Popaditch: Thank you for your service in the Marine Corps, and soon in the US Congress. Maybe you can get the water turned back on in the Imperial Valley.

Big Government : While Illinois Goes Broke, State Union Employees Get 14% Raises

Thu, 8 Jul 2010 02:57:04 +0000

Forbear my recycling a comment made two blog entries down, tweaked slightly: I was a Republican precinct committeeman in suburban Chicago for 10 years, have seen the system from the inside, and you can believe me when I opine that there's really only one political party in Illinois. I call it the "Where's Mine" party, John Kass (Chicago Tribune columnist) calls it "The Combine." In suburbia there are many Republican pols who would be Democrats in Cook County, Marxists in 1920s Russia, Nazis in 1930s Germany, Khmer Rouge in 1970s Cambodia, Taliban in 1990s Afghanistan. You get the idea, they would be whoever runs the show and they are principally (if not solely) concerned with getting their piece of the action. So it's not surprising there's no accountability in Illinois state government.

Big Government : Breaking: Chicago Democrat Machine Throws Black Female Candidate Off the Ballot

Thu, 8 Jul 2010 00:28:43 +0000

I was a Republican precinct committeeman in suburban Chicago for 10 years, have seen the system from the inside, and you can believe me when I opine that there's really only one political party in Illinois. I call it the "Where's Mine" party, John Kass (Chicago Tribune columnist) calls it "The Combine." In suburbia there are many Republican pols who would be Democrats in Cook County, Marxists in 1920s Russia, Nazis in 1930s Germany, Khmer Rouge in 1970s Cambodia, Taliban in 1990s Afghanistan. You get the idea, they would be whoever runs the show and they are principally (if not solely) concerned with getting their piece of the action. So it's not surprising the GOP is at least MIA if not actually complicit in this.

Big Government : After Facing the Very Worst of Our Healthcare System, I Still Oppose ObamaCare

Thu, 8 Jul 2010 00:24:02 +0000

Thank God your wife is better, and may she continue to improve. My oldest daughter is a comparable story, too long to go into. With Obamacare I'm certain she'd be dead, and if not dead, blind and disfigured. Nothing is better than Obamacare, literally. If you have no insurance at all you can still scramble around to find treatment and try to figure out how to pay for it somehow. But with Obamacare if you have anything the least bit complex, or you're old, or some "life not worth living" then you're SOL.