NEA on Education - MUST SEE VIDEO

Astounding. You MUST see this.
(I'm even more amazed that it survived on tape!)


via this tweet from @cboyack - highly recommend following him; he really does find some of the coolest stuff!

What the US *Should* be Saying about the Environment

Currently, our President is working with other leaders of nations around the world, discussing what we can commit ourselves to, to help the environment.

Here's some of what "we" are saying to the world, and what the world is saying to us:

1. "The United States has sometimes fallen short of meeting our responsibilities," Obama said. "Let me be clear, those days are over." [Calling us irresponsible and apologizing to the rest of the world for our citizens' exceptional horrible-ness. Maybe we should all have government-issued flails for when someone, somewhere, is upset with us. Oops, strike that - I'm afraid they'll get a new spending bill authorized...]
   
2. "We have agreed for the first time that average global temperatures must rise by no more than 2C." -Gordon Brown [Did you hear that, sun? No more than TWO DEGREES!!!]
3. "[T]he G8 needed to sound a second wake-up call on the world economy." [No comment necessary.]
   
4. "Neither the wealthy nor the countries in search of their own footing think the other side is doing enough. And only when the pollution emitters work together on a binding plan will a climate strategy work, experts say." [Sounds like a winning strategy to me - just don't do anything until we ALL agree! *wink*]
   

Here's what we SHOULD be saying, as a nation:

1. We love people.
2. We love the planet.
3. We should try to be responsible human beings.
4. NOW,

What "The Science" Says

Sarah over at Trying to Grok has a great post up about UN climate projections.

Specifically, how they're not ... er ... CORRECT.

As I've said before, good thing we're not actually basing policy on this, right? *wink* Maybe I should make that an acronym... GTWNABPOTR?

Anyway, please check it out here - and put another arrow in your quiver of what I'd call, "Reasons the UN Shouldn't Be Making Our Decisions."

Understanding Risk and Revolution

image credit: http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wcarr1/Lossing1/Chap35.html

It's a nice get-together with my in-laws on Father's Day.

The kids float in and out of adult conversations, wanting snuggles here and owie-mending there... when this particular adult conversation turns to Iran and the upheaval it is experiencing.

We discuss some of the complexities and conflicts most recently in the news, and I become particularly animated as I recount the rapid succession of tweets from a day prior, about the rooftop Allahu Akbar chants escalating into shouting that shook the city.

That catches my eight-year-old nephew's attention.

With fascination and callousness borne of near-complete lack of understanding, typical for his age, he asks, "Why don't the [Basij & co.] just shoot 'em?"

"Sometimes they do."

His face falls.

"These people," I continue, "are risking their lives to get up on their rooftops and shout because they believe so strongly in what they're doing."

It's quiet for a moment, and then the conversation moves appropriately in a different direction.

***
It was quite a sobering talk for me, too - having this risk illustrated so graphically.

In today's society, it is too easy to forget the real risk our own founders took in banding together and rebelling against the government they had. It wasn't clean and peachy: slander at least, hanging, burning, drawing-and-quartering...

And it makes me think.

What am *I* willing to stand up for?

What am *I* willing to risk?

I'm at least willing to put my own name out there.

It's Krista.

Good News from Kyrgyzstan

Following up on this post: The US and Kyrgyzstan have finally agreed to a deal that will allow the US to continue using their Kyrgyz air base.

That's good news on the Afghanistan war front, since the base serves as a main supply line for those efforts. As long as we're there, we'd better darn well be able to get supplies to our troops.

Which Apartment?

Saw this TwitPic & HAD to share - go check it out! :-)

Let's Socialize!

Check out this post I found a hop, skip, and a jump away from a tweet - a fun thought on homeschooling!

[In other news, I've been lost in real-life obligations lately and haven't been able to think of anything new to add to socio-political discussion, LOL... if it's not patently obvious yet... my apologies!]

We Must Not Become France

From Drudge today: French strikes are getting ugly.

Most tragic quote:

“The Government is losing control,” he said. “So now is the moment to push back the capitalist logic which has crept into the company.”

It's mob rule all over again...

Understanding the parallels between the French Revolution(s) - where demagogues used ill-educated, class-envy-inspired mobs (who were actually oppressed, but wanted vengeance rather than justice) to advance their evil agendas - and the current state of affairs in the USA, if that article doesn't scare the livin' daylights out of you, I don't know what will.

We can see where they ended up: barely functional and fighting amongst themselves for a century and a half now.

Those demagogues were using the same arguments we hear today - you could directly replace so much campaign rhetoric with the speeches from those looters. Those arguments are evil, and they're persuasive; and we need to stand against the perversion of legitimate law and government by standing for the proper role of law and government.

-Recommended reading:
The Law, by Frederic Bastiat
The Proper Role of Government, by Ezra Taft Benson
Frederic Bastiat: A Man Alone, by George Charles Roche

Thank You, Pres. Obama!

I was anxiously awaiting the headline indicating the captain's rescue from the sea pirates... and I was overjoyed to see it.

Glenn Beck pointed out this morning - and I agree - that finally, President Obama, here's something we can totally support you on - rescuing US citizens being held hostage.

Awesome.

Thank you, sincerely, Mr. President.

If your hesitation was due to uncertainty on popular support for instant action, please know that even Congressmen from New Jersey feel we have the right to defend our citizens abroad.

Thank you again, and let's keep working together on this one. (h/t: Drudge)

Must Be New Math...

90 = 17 now, right?

Those are the stated percentage and the actual percentage, respectively, of US weapons found in Mexico.

When I was in school, 90 > 17... in fact, 90 was more than five times 17.

But does the truth actually matter to an anti-gun lobby? Nope. The Big Story is that we need to take guns away from law-abiding citizens because someone, somewhere, is selling them under the table to criminal elements in a failed state.

Must be the same new math that Tim Geithner uses on his taxes.