Jonathan, T-Ball Superstar!

Well, Jonathan has followed in big brother Joe's footsteps, and is now officially a Little Leaguer! (T-Baller, in this case, but close enough!)

Yes, that does say "podiatrist" on his jersey. The league that the kids play in don't use team names like the Pirates, or Angels. Instead, they are simply referred to as the local business that sponsors that particular team. In Jonathan's case, he's a member of Team Carnvale (Dr. Carnvale is a local podiatrist.)

His pants were a size or two too big....his jersey is big enough to fit half of the team in, but who cares?!? He's ready to....PLAY BALL!

After only one practice (he joined late) Jonathan played in his first game this morning, and went 2-2, with 2 runs scored! With a swing like this, is it any wonder???Don't look for him on Sportscenter anytime soon, but he may make it on to a Wheaties box or a baseball card this year. You never know!

Another Reason We Homeschool Our Kids

This post could be subtitled "Reason # 173 Why We Don't Want Our Children Anywhere Near A Public School", but that wouldn't have fit in the title section above.

I've been wanting to write something meaningful on here for a few weeks now (it's been nearly a month since my last original post), but haven't been able to decide what to take on. For a week or so I was really fired up over the Cynthia McKinney story. For those of you that don't know, she's the U.S. Representative from Georgia that PUNCHED A CAPITOL POLICE OFFICER IN THE CHEST at a security point, then blamed it on him for being racist. It's a long story, and I'd encourage you to check it out. When I last heard, the situation was before a grand jury, but more than likely she'll get a slap on the wrist when she should already be serving time for assault. You or I would be if it were us.

Then, and I still may tackle this one, I was going to give my take on the illegal immigration debate that's currently sweeping the nation. As you've probably gathered by now, I ALWAYS have an opinion on things. However, I like to have an EDUCATED opinion on things, and I'm still looking into the whole immigration thing and learning more before I jump into talking about where I stand on it.

So, there I was, once again faced with the dilemma of what to write about when, as luck would have it, talk radio came through for me again. I was listening to the Quinn and Rose Show (local out of Pittsburgh....syndicated in a few other cities.....soon to be on XM Radio....check 'em out if you can at www.warroom.com) this week and they happened to be discussing a story out of Massachusetts (big surprise). You can read the story for yourself if you'd like, but here's the main gist. A teacher at Joseph Estabrook Elementary School read a book called King & King to his second grade class. On the surface, that doesn't sound too bad, right? Lots of elementary school classes have storytime. The book starts out telling us about a queen that had ruled for many years. She decides she's tired of the life of a queen and wants to step down and have her son, the prince, take over and become king. Before he does so, though, she wants him to find a wife, so the search begins for the perfect princess. By the end of the story, the prince cannot find a princess he wants to marry, but instead finds...yes, you guessed it.....another PRINCE that he wants to marry. The book ends with a "gay wedding" between the two princes, including a kiss, and the reader is told that the two princes live "happily ever after". Which of course, leads to the aformentioned reason #173 I don't want my kids in a public school.

Why in the world is a public school system indoctrinating SECOND GRADE STUDENTS on homosexual marriage? Kids that age shouldn't even KNOW what homosexuality is, any more than kids that age should know where babies come from. Furthermore, why is a public school teacher indoctrinating 7- and 8-year old children on ANY kind of marriage? Last I heard, it was not the responsibility of school teachers to present different types of relationships as normal, abnormal, or otherwise. When I sent my kids to school, my expectation was that they would learn things like math....reading.....history....geography.....y'know, that outlandish, ridiculous stuff that I learned when I was in school. (Not coincidentally, these are the types of subjects that our country's public school kids AREN'T learning appropriately, as testified by the growing number of illiterate kids that can't even tell you who the current Secretary of State is even though they just graduated from high school.) I spent 17 years of my life in school (and that was just 5th grade! just kidding), and I can't remember EVER being taught about ANY type of marriage or relationship being "normal". And, oh by the way, EVERY year of that schooling was spent in a religiously-affiliated private school. The teachers, principals and superintendents understood that this was something that I should have been learning at home from my parents! It's my responsibility, as a parent, to train my children on moral issues at home, to prepare them for life outside of the home.

Paul Ash, the superintendent of the public school system where this happened defended the teacher's actions, stating that same-sex marriage is legal in Massachusetts, and that the school system is "committed to teaching children about the world we live in". So, Mr. Ash, I have to ask you where you're going to draw the line that divides what you want to teach the children of Massachusetts and what you won't teach them. It's abundantly clear that the line is drawn where your agenda stops, and the beliefs of mainstream America begin. Mainstream America (close to 90%, last figures I saw) believes in God....I'm sure you won't be teaching any theology classes in any of your schools, will you, Mr. Ash?

I know that some of you reading this started calling me a homophobe (maybe even with an adjective in front of it) three paragraphs ago, and if you choose to look at me that way, I cannot control that, nor is it likely that I can change your opinion. I will say, however, that I've never met a gay person I was afraid of (by definition, isn't that what a homophobe would be?) If two people choose to live in that type of relationship, they have every right to make that choice. I disagree with it from a moral, social, and economic standpoint, but I wouldn't shove that opinion in their faces unless they asked me. I think you just have to be concerned about what this kind of behavior from teachers in public schools will lead to next. Will the next story be about a boy that marries his dog because Fido doesn't nag as much as his girlfriend? Will we have books published by NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association) being read to our young children, teaching them that it's OK for a twelve year old boy to have a sexual relationship with an adult man as long as it's "consensual"?

You hear the term "slippery slope" thrown around a lot, probably too much, but in this case that's exactly what this is. If I were to ask my dad (he's 60) if he ever would have dreamed when he was my age (35) that something like this would be an issue someday, I'm confident his answer would be a resounding no! If we do not draw a line in the sand now and "rein in" these public schools today, what will my kids be writing about and dealing with in the schools 25 years from now? It scares me to even think about it.

By the way, if you really want to know the other 172 reasons we don't want our kids near a public school, it'll take awhile, but I can make a list!

Police return $42,000 thrown out with trash

My apologies to Reuters news service for "borrowing" this article from them. Original story is in standard print....my added thoughts are in italics.


TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese man wept for joy this week when he recovered 5 million yen ($42,210) in cash his wife had mistakenly thrown out with the household rubbish.

The 35-year-old man had withdrawn the money from a bank account but, fearing it would be stolen, he hid it (good thinking so far....) inside a refuse bag (ummmm....not so smart) which he placed in a rubbish bin (was this REALLY the best place he could think of to hide the money), Japanese media said.

His wife unknowingly threw out the bag (notice whose fault this was, and I can relate, as my wife unknowingly threw my cell phone away at McDonald's once...although I guess that's better than dropping it in, say, the Gulf of Mexico), which was found last month at a refuse collection point outside an apartment building in Saitama, north of Tokyo.

Local police returned the money after the man was able to give details of the exact amount and where he had withdrawn it.

Many Japanese keep large quantities of money hidden in their homes and cash is often used for business transactions. (Many Americans also keep large quantities of money hidden in their homes for "business transactions", too.....they're called drug deals!).

(So, what have we learned from this story? Japanese very good at making cars and televisions...not so good at hiding money).

How Do They Survive?

I recently received this in an email from my Dad. I don't know how many (if any) of these stories are really true, but after spending more than a decade working in retail, and dealing with the things and people that I've dealt with, I can certainly believe many of them. I think my favorite is #8.....

1. Recently, when I went to McDonald's I saw on the menu that you could have an order of 6, 9 or 12 Chicken McNuggets. I asked for a half dozen nuggets. "We don't have half dozen nuggets," said the teenager at the counter. "You don't?" I replied. "We only have six, nine, or twelve," was the reply. "So I can't order a half dozen nuggets, but I can order six?" "That's right." So I shook my head and ordered six McNuggets.
2. I was checking out at the local Wal-Mart with just a few items and the lady behind me put her things on the belt close to mine. I picked up one of those "dividers" that they keep by the cash register and placed it between our things so they wouldn't get mixed. After the girl had scanned all of my items, she picked up the "divider", looking it all over for the bar code so she could scan it. Not finding the bar code she said to me, "Do you know how much this is?" I said to her "I've changed my mind. I don't think I'll buy that today." She said "OK," and I paid her for the things and left. She had no clue to what had just happened.
3. A lady at work was seen putting a credit card into her floppy drive and pulling it out very quickly. When I inquired as to what she was doing, she said she was shopping on the Internet and they kept asking for a credit card number, so she was using the ATM "thingy."
4. I recently saw a distraught young lady weeping beside her car. "Do you need some help?" I asked. She replied, "I knew I should have replaced the battery to this remote door unlocked. Now I can't get into my car. Do you think they (pointing to a distant convenience store) would have a battery to fit this?" "Hmmm, I dunno. Do you have an alarm, too?" I asked. "No, just this remote thingy," she answered, handing it and the car keys to me. As I took the key and manually unlocked the door, I replied, "Why don't you drive over there and check about the batteries. It's a long walk."
5. Several years ago, we had an intern who was none too swift. One day she was typing and turned to a secretary and said, "I'm almost out of typing paper. What do I do?" "Just use copier machine paper," the secretary told her. With that, the intern took her last remaining blank piece of paper, put it on the photocopier and proceeded to make five "blank" copies.
6. I was in a car dealership a while ago, when a large motor home was towed into the garage. The front of the vehicle was in dire need of repair and the whole thing generally looked like an extra in "Twister." I asked the manager what had happened. He told me that the driver had set the "cruise control" and then went in the back to make a sandwich.
7. My neighbor works in the operations department in the central office of a large bank. Employees in the field call him when they have problems with their computers. One night he got a call from a woman in one of the branch banks who had this question: "I've got smoke coming from the back of my terminal. Do you guys have a fire downtown?"
8. Police in Radnor, Pa., interrogated a suspect by placing a metal colander on his head and connecting it with wires to a photocopy machine. The message "He's lying" was placed in the copier, and police pressed the copy button each time they thought the suspect wasn't telling the truth. Believing the "lie detector" was working, the suspect confessed.
9. A mother calls 911 very worried asking the dispatcher if she needs to take her kid to the emergency room, the kid was eating ants. The dispatcher tells her to give the kid some Benadryl and should be fine. The mother says, I just gave him some ant killer - Dispatcher: Rush him to emergency!

Project L.A.R.K.

This is one of those emails that gets forwarded all over the place, and I have my Uncle George to thank for getting this one into my inbox. Makes a great point in a great way....as Rush likes to say...."demonstrating absurdity by using the absurd"



LARK - Liberals Accept Responsibility for Killers

A Lady libertarian wrote a lot of letters to the White House complaining about the treatment of a captive insurgent (terrorist) being held in Guantanamo Bay. She received the following reply:

The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, D.C. 20016

Dear Concerned Citizen,

Thank you for your recent letter roundly criticizing our treatment of the Taliban and Al Quaeda detainees currently being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Our administration takes these matters seriously and your opinion was heard loud and clear here in Washington. You'll be pleased to learn that, thanks to the concerns of citizens like yourself, we are creating a new division of the Terrorist Retraining Program, to be called the "Liberals Accept Responsibility for Killers" program, or LARK for short.

In accordance with the guidelines of this new program, we have decided to place one terrorist under your personal care. Your personal detainee has been selected and scheduled for transportation under heavily armed guard to your residence next Monday.

Ali Mohammed Ahmed bin Mahmud (you can just call him Ahmed) is to be cared for pursuant to the standards you personally demanded in your letter of complaint. It will likely be necessary for you to hire some assistant caretakers. We will conduct weekly inspections to ensure that your standards of care for Ahmed are commensurate with those you so strongly recommended in your letter.

Although Ahmed is a sociopath and extremely violent, we hope that your sensitivity to what you described as his "attitudinal problem" will help him overcome the severe character flaws. Perhaps you are correct in describing these problems as mere cultural differences. We understand that you plan to offer counseling and home schooling. Your adopted terrorist is extremely proficient in hand-to-hand combat and can extinguish human life with such simple items as a pencil or nail clippers. We advise that you do not ask him to demonstrate these skills at your next yoga group. He is also expert at making a wide variety of explosive devices from common household products, so you may wish to keep those items locked up, unless (in your opinion) this might offend him.

Ahmed will not wish to interact with you or your daughters (except sexually), since he views females as a subhuman form of property. This is a particularly sensitive subject for him and he has been known to show violent tendencies around women who fail to comply with the new dress code that he will recommend as more appropriate attire. I'm sure you will come to enjoy the anonymity offered by the burka -- over time. Remember that it is all part of "respecting his culture and his religious beliefs" -- wasn't that how you put it?

Thanks again for your letter. We truly appreciate it when folks like you keep us informed of the proper way to do our job. You take good care of Ahmed - and remember...we'll be watching. Good luck!