A link to the U.S. Department of Education's site provided the fodder for this first entry from the southern-flyover lands.

As of 5:30 p.m. (CT) pdf files were available of follow up activities to President Obama's forthcoming speech to the nations' school kids. There are pdf files in age-delineated groups, but I would beg to differ with the "Teaching Ambassador Fellows," who wrote these plans, as to what Kindergarteners can write about.

I am highlighting the lesson plans for the 7th-12th graders; children that are capable of writing and asking deeper questions. Children that can figure out why a speech ostensibly about "staying in school," does not contain the word "stay" at all in the follow up lesson plans. ("School" is contained once.) Perhaps that will be covered in the speech. What is covered in the lesson plans sounds like a lot of work for teachers:

Teachers may post in large print around the classroom notable quotes excerpted from President Obama’s speeches on education.

...Based on these excerpts, what can we infer that the president believes is important in order to be educationally successful?

Granted, schools down here in the South have been in session since 8/10. Maybe teachers have had time to make these posters. I think not.

Before the speech begins, activities and questions are suggested for teachers to utilize.

“Why does President Obama want to speak with us today?”“How will he inspire us?”“How will he challenge us?”“What might he say?”“Do you remember any other historic moments when the president spoke to the nation?” “What was the impact?” After brainstorming answers to these questions, students could create a “cause-and-effect” graphic organizer.  

An extraordinarily alarming <a href=" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6127514/Sentenced-to-death-... in the UK <span style="font-style:italic;">Daily Telegraph</span> describes the adoption by Britain's National Health Service of a protocol to end the life of patients considered terminal by withdrawing food and water and other care.  The denial of care decisions are made without consultation or notice to the patient or the patients family. The policy, the Liverpool Care Pathway, was recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice). Nice is the model for the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research established in the Department of Health and Human Services under the <a href=" http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2009pres/03/20090319a.html">stimulus</a> act.While the comparative effectiveness research council would do research and make clinical recommendations, Americans receiving their health care at government expense could expect to have that care conform to the recommendations developed by the council, just as the Liverpool Care Pathway was adopted by National Health Service hospitals on recommendation by Nice.When we begin to describe health care as costing the nation too much money, instead of recognizing the costs are borne by individuals with individual, personal rights and decision making capability we are on the same path which led to the adoption of this policy by the National Health Service.No private health care plan, doctor of organization in the United States could adopt a policy of purposeful death of patients today without criminal and civil penalties. The fifth amendment to the Constitution states no person shall... be deprived of life...without due process of law. The current proposals to move more of the management and control of health care expenditures and decision making from individuals to government will inevitably lead to adoption of the same type of death protocols as now adopted in Britain. Government decisions to end the life of citizens without criminal conviction and without due process can have no other name than tyranny. Sic Semper Tyrannis is a proper motto for opposing the health care proposals now before the Congress. Read the <a href=" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6127514/Sentenced-to-death-..., read the accompanying comments. Who has a pike.

     Health care is an important issue right now and I am against any move to a socialized health system.  The turnout for the meetings and town halls has been great and an impact is being made.  But just so everyone knows, it is about much more than that. Politicians, TV news, and other mainstream media outlets are focusing on health care because it is happening now.  What they do not get or see is that the excessive growth of government has been happening for quite some time now.  With the initial bailout at the end of 2008, tarp and the stimulus, cap and trade, and now the health care bill, people are at the point where they are not going take it anymore.  That is why there are record numbers of people speaking out, attending these town halls, and just getting involved and informed.

      Both parties, the democrats and republicans, are to blame and we all know it.  People are getting more informed and they are paying attention now.  Be sure to know, politicians, none of your job's are safe.  We are going to and will continue to keep a close watch on you.  We want and need people in office that will fight for us.  People that will take a stand and not back down.  It isn't about compromise.  It is about the Constitution of the United States.  It is about downsizing and limiting the Federal government as prescribed by the Constitution.  It is about standing up for what our Founding Fathers envisioned and gave all they had to create.  It is about Freedom and Liberty.  It is about getting government out of every aspect of our lives.  This is the key to it all.

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The setup: Akron, Ohio, 2004. A costly and messy divorce, with a five-year-old child caught in the middle. She, Victoria Douglas, says he, Rodd Sutton, sexually abused their daughter. Victoria prints out and distributes flyers with his name and address and the words "CHILD RAPIST. BE ALERT! PROTECT YOUR CHILDREN."

Akron city police investigate and find no evidence of abuse. Nearby Springfield township police investigate and find no evidence of abuse. Akron City Hospital investigates and finds no evidence of abuse. Summit County Children Services investigate and find no evidence of abuse.

Victoria Douglas, with custody of the child, gives her house to her mother to avoid losing it in the legal fallout, and flees with the child to Florida.

Fast forward to August 2009, when a jury decides Victoria Douglas should pay $1.2 million in damages for defamation, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress, including $136,000 for the value of the house. Sutton's lawyers doubt that he will be able to collect the damages.

So this woman (and I use the word begrudgingly) ruins this man's life; steals his child through completely false allegations; defames him with flyers that all but beg the public to break into his house and rough him up (or worse); forces a hospital, two police agencies and the Children Services board to spend who-knows-how-much on investigating her wild claims, taking those investigators, doctors and social workers away from their actual duties where they could be helping people... and she basically gets away scot-free. She has custody of the child, she's living it up in Florida, and he probably won't see a dime of the settlement. My only hope is that he pursues this and uses this judgment to get custody of his child away from that nutcase.  read more »

Americans in their stupidity and apathy have really done it this time. Americans have turned the keys to the kingdom over to leftist radicals. The pot smoking, make love not war, blame America first crowd are now in total control. They immediately began to implement their egalitarian welfare society. Obama has nationalized private industries. His next big take over will be health care. Big Brother is alive and well and intends to control us from cradle to grave. Wake up America!Leftists began their attack on America decades ago. The intent of the Founding Fathers was for the "people" to always be in control of government. This intent was honored for many years after our founding. The tide began to shift during the War of Northern Aggression with Abe Lincoln becoming a dictator. It was in 1913, when an income tax was implemented by congress, that the power shift really kicked in. 

American citizens today are at the mercy of the federal government. When the government has usurped the power to confiscate property at will, when the government determines how much of your paycheck you are allowed to keep, you are little more than slaves.Liberals have destroyed the family. Families are the backbone of civilization. By making men irrelevant to the family structure they have established government as Big Daddy. Women will have child after child with no husband in sight because they know government will feed, clothe, and house them.Obama must be stopped. He is a Marxist and his agenda is to destroy capitalism. Obama has America on the highway to hell.

I read a lot of news, and I don't get to talk about it all. So I'd like to start a weekly segment here that I'm going to call the Saturday Summary, a look back at the news I found newsworthy over the past week or so (some links may be older than a week).

The Obama Administration is blocking American efforts to drill for oil in the Gulf of Mexico, while paying the Brazilians to do it themselves. Meanwhile, China, India and Russia are doing it without our help.

Contrary to the common belief, the US manufacturing sector is doing better than ever, accounting for 25% of global manufacturing value-added (compared to 10.6% for the Chinese).

The US currently has 130,000 troops in Iraq and 68,000 in Afghanistan. But most anti-war rhetoric ended in January with Obama's inauguration. To her credit, Cindy Sheehan is still at it, she's just being ignored by the left.

High prices in health care aren't as high as they seem. Medical insurance seems to act more like a union looking for bargaining power than as actual insurance.

Canadians are regularly coming to the US for health care, both paying out-of-pocket for it and getting the Canadian government to pay for it. A lot of people are asking where Americans will go once Obamacare is law, but I also wonder, where will the Canadians go?  read more »

  Why is America the greatest country in the world, with the longest lasting form of government (Our Constitution)in history? A fair question that of course can be debated by different schools of thought. I am a conservative, and the liberal mind may consider me radical, but there is absolutely nothing radical about believing the way that the founders of this great nation believed, and how they intended our system of government to work.

  We are a free people, and one of the main reasons that we have survived for so long with our precious freedoms is because of our free enterprise system. Our founding fathers planned for very limited government. Our individual state governments were supposed to deal with its people, while the federal government was small, and played a very limited role in our lives. These were great Christian men who believed in God, the Bible, and in the worth of each  individual person to conduct thier lives as THEY saw fit with very little, if any, interference from government.

  Fast forward to the year 2009. We have a federal government that has become a "bloated pig." Taxes are a part of our democratic system, but when people are taxed excessively to pay for every whim of man, the spirit of the individual is severely oppressed. In my opinion, one of the greatest presidents ever, Ronald Reagan, knew the dangers of big government and high taxes. He proved that  the government could actually cut taxes, and revenue would be increased? Yes! But how could this be? When people are left alone,  allowed to run thier own lives, and handle thier money(What a great concept?)they will spend, invest, build, and create! As a result, more revenue will flow into the coffers. This is how America was meant to operate. The market must be left alone to work itself.  read more »

My previous blog entry covered many labels that fit me, when understood in the proper context (in other words, when not twisted by the left for their own purposes): liberal, pro-choice, etc. I'd like to add to that list with a few labels that do not fit me, but that the left will insist on applying to me-- and if you oppose them, they'll insist they apply to you too. 

First, I am not Racist. I think it's great that we finally have a black President even though I did not vote for him. I don't agree with most of what he does and I don't trust his motives, but that's not because he's black. I wouldn't agree with the policies he's advancing no matter what color he was. Frankly, the idea that white people cannot oppose a black President's policies without being racist is one of the most racist things I've heard in the past year.

Second, I am not Fascist. I have much less in common with Nazi ideology than socialists do. The word Nazi is an anglicized abbreviation of the German word Nationalsozialismus, meaning National Socialism. The Nazi Party's official name was the National Socialist German Worker's Party. Their actual policies involved increased government control over every aspect of the German citizen's life. They opposed capitalism on principle and they "approved" of individual property rights only when those rights were used to further the Nazi agenda. I could go on and on, but this issue has been widely covered in other blogs lately.

Third, I am not Sexist. I am a man who believes that abortion is morally and socially wrong, at least as wrong as killing any other human being. I'm all for equal rights for both sexes, but that means equal rights for both, not better rights for women. Violence by men against women is horrible, but is violence by women against men somehow more acceptible? Why do feminists work so hard to cover up statistics about violence by women against men? Considering that criminological studies estimate 40%-50% of rape accusations are false, why is it wrong to suggest that those accused of rape should be considered innocent until proven guilty? Why is it wrong to hold false accusers accountable for the lives, careers and relationships they ruin? I've been called a rape sympathizer and told I'm as bad as an actual rapist, just for asking this. Many other men have been called sexist and worse for asking questions like these. Rather than address potent issues that could benefit us all, men and women, the left would rather have you believe that anyone who questions their dogma is simply sexist and bigoted.  read more »

Dingell berries have threatened a protestor daring to speak at a congressional townhall. According to Mike Sola, supporters of Rep. Dingell showed up at his house in the middle of the night in reference to the exchange this father had about his son with the Congressman. The nocturnal altercation was reported to police and Sola vows to defend life and property by any means necessary if the situation calls for it.

Tolerancemongers and Afrosupremacists are plotting to remove Glenn Beck from the airwaves. A coalition of Black bloggers has convinced Geico to withdraw advertising from this particular afternoon Fox News program.

Beck dared to speculate that Barack Obama might harbor racial antipathy towards Whites in light of the hasty conclusions the President drew regarding the Gate's altercation. Perhaps conservatives should respond by pressuring advertisers into dropping notoriously anti-Caucasian Tom Joyner.

Freedom throughout the Western world hangs dangerously in the balance.

The military is recruiting for concentration camp guards. A classified on the GoArmy.com and National Guard websites is seeking "Internment and Relocation Specialists".

Naive supporters of the government will claim this is only referring to detention centers set up for America's terrorist enemies. I ask you, dear citizen, just exactly who is a terrorist now? Obama supporters and allies have dropped the term in relation to Islamic militants and instead apply it to citizens confronting legislators and bureaucrats over the inadequacies of the proposed healthcare reforms.

Things don't look much better off among America's closest foreign allies either as plans are being drawn up to extinguish liberty in one of the lands that once guarded this precious flame. British officials are considering mandatory vegetarianism throughout the United Kingdom.  read more »