British Tea Party Movement Begins!

It is exhilarating, but not unexpected, that the British people would stand up to tyranny in their own government using a totally American idea. It is more than ironic that the instrument they chose would be that of the 'Tea Party', a rebellion against the British rule itself originally. I cannot express my joy and support enough for these people in their efforts to reform their country. Here is an exerpt from the article I found at FloridaPundit.com :

British Tea Party Movement to launch on Saturday

American protesters hold signs in the rain during the protest last year (Photo: AP)

British Member of Parliament Daniel Hannan is launching a tea party movement in Great Britain this weekend. To people perplexed that about launching a movement that is based on American protests against Great Britain in 1773, Hannan responds:

Some British Lefties – and some Americans – are thrown by the idea of a Brighton Tea Party. After all, they point out, the original Boston Tea Party was directed against the British Crown.

Yes, it was. But where do you think its leaders drew their inspiration from? The American patriots didn’t see themselves as revolutionaries, but as conservatives. In their own minds, all they were asking for was what they had always assumed to be their birthright as freeborn Englishman.

Part of that birthright was liberty from unjust, arbitrary or punitive taxation. The proposition that taxes ought not to be levied except by elected representatives would have been every bit as popular in Great Britain in 1773 as in America.

Check out the current post on The Snooper Report to get updates on the Michael Behenna case.

Coming soon...Census explained

July 22, 2010 UPDATE!! Ok, do I reeeeeeally let the ball drop with this one. I had all sorts of advice for yall, and I overestimated the time impact homeschooling would put on me. It all boils down to this short anecdote....

Got a call from hubby one day that the Census worker had come knocking on our door. Not surprising, since I had 'neglected' to turn in my census forms, and I knew it was a matter of time. I was desperately hoping to be there when it happened, just to see what they would say to my answers, but alas I was out playing chauffeur somewhere when the big day came. Hubby handled it just fine, and after answering the basic 'how many peeps in your house' questions, the transcript went something like this:

Census Worker: "So what should I put down for your 'Race'?

Hubby: "Um, how about Ferengi?"

Census Worker: "Uh, ok, how do you spell that?"

Nuff Said.

What you can and can not do and why it matters. Check back later, these are just my research links.

http://nche.hslda.org/docs/nche/Issues/U/USCensus.asp
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/census/2009-08-26-census-kits-schools_N.htm

The Great Walmart Debate

I need to take a deep breath now, to settle myself. Right now I am feeling very discouraged and not a little bit angry at some fellow conservatives who I guess don't truly understand some of the values that define Conservatism.

Perhaps I am the one who doesn't understand?
Do conservatives believe in allowing the capitalistic forces of a free market system to unfold, whatever the outcome?
Do conservatives agree that we need less regulations on businesses, not more?
Don't we think that man is ultimately responsible for himself, for making his own decisions and living with the consequences of those choices?

When I hear things from fellow conservatives like, "Walmart is an evil corporation," "Walmart forces small hometown businesses out of town," "Walmart kills jobs," "Walmart buys cheap stuff from China and sells it to us," or the winner, "Walmart doesn't provide decent healthcare coverage," it just breaks my heart. Since when is it the job of any business to provide healthcare coverage? If someone doesn't like the benefits a certain company offers, then DON'T GO WORK THERE, Einstein! Oh? There aren't any 'other jobs'? Then move. There are always 'other jobs'. Common sense tells me Walmart would not be moving into an area that had no customers to begin with, now would they? It's not that there aren't any other jobs, its just that there arent' any other jobs that person WANTS to do. When Walmart moves in to an area, it increases the jobs, the revenue, the economic growth. Otherwise countless city councils across the country wouldn't be slobbering to get one in their city.

Now I am not condoning everything Walmart as a corporation does, especially the illicit 'imminent domain' deals they are complicit in. However, the blame for those catastrophies are to be laid directly at the feet of the City zoning boards that are perpetrating that particular type of crime on its citizens. Walmart, and other real estate brokers, are only the beneficiaries of these out of control elected officials' greed. I am not defending Walmart per se, I am only trying to use this company as an example, since they seem to be a popular target. I don't even shop at Walmart much anymore, but only because of their decidedly non-competitive coupon policy (oh, ok, I really wanted to say 'sucky,' but 'non-competitive' just sounds so much more civilized, lol). I actually do way better budget-wise at my local, more expensive, "boutique" store. Which, btw, has NOT been put out of business, and the competition is thriving. My point is this: Saying "Walmart did this, Walmart does that, Walmart is evil," is ridiculous. These same people are the ones who are quick on the draw when gun violence comes up in conversation, saying, "Guns don't kill people, people kill people." Walmart is a non-entity, it is a-moral, meaning it is incapable of having good or bad moral qualities. This personification of the 'evil corporation' is straight out of Alinsky's Rules for Radicals, and it pains me to see my fellow conservative sisters and brothers using that twisted tool of propaganda.

One other bone of contention that comes up is the 'unfair wages' canard, followed closely by the 'cheap crap from China' arguement, which in my mind are related. Last time I checked, there was a federal minimum wage of $7.25 in this country. And last time I checked, conservatives were for less gov't intervention into what states did. A quick check of base Walmart salaries across the country listed their lowest paid employees as getting at least a dollar more than the minimum wage. And again, I point out that should that not be enough, said employee is FREE to get another job somewhere else. They don't keep these things secret, you know. They do tell you before you get hired what the pay is going to be, as well as the increase structure.


And as far as China is concerned, I am as gung ho as the next guy when it comes to buying American, but even I realize that you can't NOT buy cheap crap from china sometimes. That would be like a vegan or Peta freak saying they would never ever ever kill an animal for any reason. That's just not reasonable, nor possible. Just tell them to start by looking down at those leather doc martins they are undoubtedly wearing. LEATHER. as in dead cow. I don't blame anyone for the fact that there are some Chinese products that I have to buy. I do blame those here who cry the loudest, yet are the main cause of the problem to begin with, the unions, who have driven a lot of needed jobs overseas. Just place the blame where it is due, not on the nameless, faceless 'Chinese'. They are just doing their thing, after all, filling a void.

I applaud Walmart's ability to fend off unions (so far), which are primarily to blame for inflated wages in most other manufacturing areas. And inflated wages make for inflated product prices. It's simple economics. The more you have to pay your employees, the more your product is going to cost. Also, the more your product costs, the less of it you will likely sell. So no wonder stores are looking overseas for more inexpensive suppliers. And no wonder they are keeping costs in check by paying their employees what the market will bear. It is a cycle. And when the gov't puts artificial price controls on businesses, they are messing with the free flow of commerce, gumming up the works. Gov't has NEVER, EVER, NOT ONCE been successful at lowering the price of an item for any substantial length of time, and had that company come out more efficient and profitable. So why would we conservatives want to suggest starting that now?


What is killing me the most is that all of the above statements were made by confirmed conservative friends, all supposedly working to improve capitalistic endeavors thru ACCDF.com, the American Constitution and Capitalism Defense Front. Individuals have their pet peeves, their opinions, and that is great, but when those feelings are in direct contravention to core conservative principles which they claim to adhere to, then those individuals need to take a closer look at what they really stand for.

Hampton Roads Tea Party June 26, 2009

What a fun 'early July 4th' Hampton Roads Tea Party! It started at 3pm, and was hot out, 95 or so, but the excitement there easily made you forget any discomfort. Ice cream helped too, lol!

The signs say it all:

yes, my kids immediately yelled, "Hey look! It's Fillmore!"

There were a couple of live bands at the amphitheatre, an amazing Janis Joplin sound-alike, and a country group doing all the best redneck standards, including Sweet Home Alabama, some ZZ Top, The Georgia Satellites 'Keep Your Hands To Yourself', and of course a wonderful rendition of Lee Greenwood's 'God Bless the USA'.

Ed Kelleher band

I can't decide what my favorite part was,... the music....

the portajohns....


that's Eric "Toilet Paper" Holder

Janeane "Got To Go" Garofalo

McCain, John

Aww, John, why the long face?


And of course,

The food was pretty good...

But no, the best part was definitely the 'Egg Toss' game....

my girls take aim!

Nancy Pelosi was by far the most popular target of the day, followed by...

BULLSEYE!!!

I didn't get to stay for all the speakers in the second half (it went til 8pm), but I did get to hear Karen Hurd, the organizer of our local Tea Parties, and she was on fire!!

Thank you Karen for all your hard work putting this together!!!

(and of course everyone else who helped!)

It was a gorgeous day at Chesapeake City Park, and the patriots were out in full force!!






There were a ton of kids there this time, and the whole place just had an old-fashioned 4th of July picnic feel to it. My kids loved it, and love to tell people about it. They wanted to wear their costumes, but the heat prevented it. FYI, most of these pictures were taken by my 11yo daughter!

Tax day Tea Party in Va. Beach, VA

Just a quick note regarding our local Tea Party today..

Network coverage for Tidewater area was adequate to unsatisfactory, natch. The one network that captured my kids on raw video had the least coverage. I think the guy who was sent (sans logo-tshirt, sans microphone wielding talking headster) to get the raw footage, spent a grand total of 10 minutes there, and from the looks of the film, he only shot towards the end, after 90% of the attendees had left. Pathetic. However, it was an AWESOME tea party, with speakers and a huge collection of tea bags and pork rinds, approx. 10 huge lawn bags full that I could see, and more that had already been taken for delivery to the various senators' and congressmen's offices locally. I spoke with a reporter from an online news service, www.virginianewssource.com , and he estimated the crowd at about 1800. Not bad for unseasonably cold weather, considering the organizers were hoping for 1000 if the weather was nice! We scored a couple of free Randy Forbes for Congress tshirts, and a nice gentleman was handing out pocket Constitutions to all the kids. If you want to see the pathetic 'raw footage' from channel 13 with my cute kids on it, click here! They are at the very end, not that the footage is very long, snort.

They each had a large trashbag with TEA written on it in electrical tape (yes, I am the MacGuyver of crafts), stuffed with newspaper. The homemade tags they wore said "9 years old and $42,000 in Debt!", "Future Congressman", and "Only 7 years til I can VOTE!".


This gentleman had the biggest flag there. It was tattered, and he was flying it upside down. His wife stopped me and wanted to make sure that my children understood the significance of the upside down flag and explained to them the feeling of distress he was trying to convey, and how tattered they felt. She said the flag had been shredded in the hurricane, but he could not bring himself to burn it.

Here they are posing with their teabags and a few of the lawn bags filled with tea and pork rinds everyone donated. The organizers insisted we put ours in the bag too, and the kids loved it!

I wish I had better pictures of their costumes, but it was raining and freezing, and I only had my cellphone to take pictures with. Here is a close up of my oldest in her Martha Washington costume.

What a fun day and a great opportunity to teach my children about civic responsibility and freedom of speech!

Once More, From the Top!

Or, My Rant in Defense of Homeschooling

Here is a little (snort) note I left as a comment on this poor woman's blog this morning, found as I was perusing local blogs. I certainly don't expect everyone in the world to agree with me, but I am getting really tired of having to 'explain myself' every time the subject of homeschooling comes up. Her post was just the same old, same old, hackneyed, tired, worn-out stereotypical rant against homeschooling, written after meeting a mother who works full time and homeschools two kids at the same time. The blogger goes on to condemn homeschool parents who dare to put their kids into sports programs or other activities associated with the public schools in their area, saying it should be an all or nothing proposition. In her defense (and she has a really cute name for her blog, lol), she did concede the point in a response to my comment.

Note: If you think you are one of the 'friends and family' I mention below, you probably are. I still love you, I just wish you would not get your panties in a bunch over something that really has nothing to do with you. I am not judging you, so please give me the courtesy of doing the same.

You didn't say how old these kids are, but if they are old enough to be left at home alone, then they are certainly at the point in homeschooling where most of their curriculum can be self-directed, with grading being done by mom and dad later in the day, or, if they are doing online classes (which most homeschoolers I know are doing these days), the work is monitored remotely. In this day and age, you can 'spy' on your kids from any computer, or even you phone, seeing exactly what they see on their screen at home or in another room. Not to mention the fact that actual 'class time' needed for homeschoolers is WAAAAY less than the 6 or 7 hours spent in a traditional school, due to the individual attention given to these kids. Most elementary grades don't need to spend more than 2 hours, with a max of usually no more than 4 hours for higher grades.
Please don't lump everyone in who homeschools as 'weird', when you don't know them personally. I do not homeschool (yet), but I am leaning heavily towards it, for financial and other reasons, and I am getting these same stereotypical judgements from close friends and family even, who really don't understand the motivation behind this decision. My girlfriends with kids in public school immediately get all defensive if the subject of homeschooling arises because (in their 'everything is about me' little world) they assume YOU are judging THEM, roflol!! Nothing could be farther from the truth. It's not about the school, I live in an area with the best public schools around (Great Bridge). It's not even about religion, or some holier-than-thou ideal that I am earning points in heaven or something like that. It is, however, about curriculum, and my kids learning styles, and character training, and the individual attention that some kids with ADD and other issues need.
Now I was lucky enough to grow up around a lot of homeschooling families (I went to Va Beach public schools myself), and I have a lot of friends today who do it. Yes, one or two are what some people might call 'weird', but isn't weird just a label for 'unfamiliar', 'not like me', 'different', etc? But they are a tiny, tiny minority of the millions of families that choose to follow this path. 99.9% of the kids and adults I know that are/were homeschooled have gone on to excel in their life pursuits, not handicapped in any way. In fact, these people and their example are a big part of the reason I defend homeschooling whenever I hear these stale myths being dragged out again. I am sorry this is so long, but I guess I am just as passionate about defending this very personal choice as some are to condemn it.

Here's a link to some interesting stats, if you would like to educate yourself on this topic a little better.
http://www.hslda.org/docs/nche/000010/200410250.asp

Oh, and yes, I absolutely would take advantage of every single resource available to me as a parent, especially public school sports and other extracurricular activities. The taxes used to pay for those non-academic pursuits is MY MONEY. You jump through hoops every year to get your tax refund and wouldn't dream of leaving off a child or two worth of deductions, would you? It's YOUR MONEY. You ever apply for a student loan or grant in college? Hello! No difference. Shoot, I would apply for and gladly accept any kind of government assistance/food stamps/WIC/whatever if I qualified, AND fight for welfare reform at the same time, without one ounce of guilt. Anyway, I am not here to berate or guilt you into or out of anything, just to provide information and open up a window of understanding on something that is much maligned and sorely misunderstood.

It's bad enough I have had to justify my decision to put my kids in private school, and a religious one at that. I have just had it up to here with people who don't know jack about a subject, or have had very little exposure to something, thinking they are the expert and know how to run everyone else's life around them. That kind of thinking is what got us a Socialist in the White House. I also just don't get the passion (fear?) that this topic seems to engender in people when it comes up. It's worse than discussing race relations or abortion! What is it about the choice to homeschool that freaks people out so much? Are folks afraid they may take over the world? That it might actually work? What is so threatening about that? I don't know.

Whew. Now, again, for those of you who still think I am judging your decision NOT to homeschool, or feel that MY decisions regarding MY children will somehow negatively affect you, let's say it all together now, "It's NOT about YOU". That is all.

Win free flowers and support the Troops!!

From Emom at Mail Our Military blog....

Monday, February 2, 2009
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Cap n' Trade is Not a Character on Spongebob

What is Cap and Trade? I kept hearing the term and had no idea what it was, but now that I do, I am sorry I asked. Cap and Trade is a system of selling so-called 'carbon credits' to companies to offset the pollution they create as a byproduct of their manufacturing. These credits are limited, or 'capped' at a certain amount per company, and those who need to make up the shortfall in credits can 'trade' with other companies that produce less waste. The problem lies in the limits, and the huge fines awaiting the non compliant. With only so many to go around, corporations will be forced to significantly reduce their emissions, either by costly retrofitting, or completely shutting down operations in some cases. And don't think it won't affect you. Operating costs will skyrocket, in turn inflating the retail prices of whatever product is being manufactured, be it automobiles, vacuum cleaners, food products, toys, anything. And in this difficult economy, it will be fatal for some industries.

These credits could be completely arbitrary, assigned by a government bureaucracy, more than likely headed by an environmentalist. It is a money making scam, akin to the indulgences sold to the faithful in centuries past. And they say environmentalism isn't a religion. This is also a liberal scheme to gain power over private industry, a dangerous tool that, hand in hand with a few other lovely policies, can cripple our economy in a very short time. This bill of goods will be sold to the American people as a wonderful thing protecting them from the big evil polluting corporations (and they have those deep pockets anyway, right?), preying on the fears of those uneducated to the big lie of global warming.

I don't believe for one second that those in power in Washington attempting to implement Cap and Trade are doing so for the good of the environment. It is purely for power, and to grow the government's size and reach to unheard of levels. Oh, and who doesn't want the government to run every aspect of our private industry? I mean, they are the best and most efficient at everything they put their hand to, right? This is just one more attempt to push us down that slippery slope towards a full on nanny state.

Fairness Doctrine Smackdown

There has been a lot of talk lately about the so-called Fairness Doctrine, and how it will be a damper on free speech because of it's "equal time" provision. Well, I want to explain what it all means for those of you confused and scared by these implications. Without getting into the long involved history of it, the fairness doctrine was established in 1949, suffered a constitutional challenge in 1969, which it survived, setting a legal precedent, and was finally revoked in 1987. The actual language from the 1969 ruling is as follows,

"When, during the presentation of views on a controversial issue of public importance, an attack is made upon the honesty, character, integrity or like personal qualities of an identified person or group, the licensee shall, within a reasonable time and in no event later than 1 week after the attack, transmit to the person or group attacked
(1) notification of the date, time and identification of the broadcast;
(2) a script or tape (or an accurate summary if a script or tape is not available) of the attack; and
(3) an offer of a reasonable opportunity to respond over the licensee's facilities."

This last requirement is what has caused all the worry, and has been popularly interpreted, albeit somewhat incorrectly, to mean that your favorite radio talk show host will be forced to stop speaking freely his/her opinions. While I agree that passage of a bill allowing enforcement of this doctrine would be chilling to free speech, it is not the end of the world. Now don't start sending me hate mail, let me finish! What I mean is that relatively speaking, we have much bigger things to worry about than the fairness doctrine (more on that later...), and secondly, the implementation of this rule-set will be much more harmful to the radio station owners/companies themselves than any individual talk show host or radio personality. You see, the FCC only has jurisdiction over the license holder, the broadcast station. They cannot force anyone to say or not say anything. What they can do is fine the station owners for not providing equal time for the 'opposing view'. For example, Rush Limbaugh does not have to let some liberal talking head onto his show for half of his planned broadcast time. The station carrying his broadcast must provide that time, at their own expense even, if a person or group with opposing viewpoints requests it. And you know they will. Here's the problem. The station is now forced to give away valuable broadcast time, that no advertiser is going to want to support, time that before would have been filled with some kind of revenue-producing programming. I mean, let's be honest, left-leaning radio broadcasts have never attracted a following big enough to justify commercial time to any large advertiser. Can you say 'Air America'?

The current iteration of the fairness doctrine was most recently defeated by Congress in the summer of 2007, but will be revived should the Democratic Party gain a veto-proof majority in the House (which is entirely possible come tomorrow). I am sure that whoever proposes the next bill will try to include internet content such as bloggers, which I oppose more from a 'keep your filthy paws off my internet' perspective than any attempt at censorship. There are a lot of good reasons why the fairness doctrine is bad, besides the obvious ones, and the arguments used to support it in the past just don't hold water anymore. There are so many outlets for varying points of view today that you couldn't read/listen to/watch a fraction of them if you tried. Gone are the days when you got your canned news in neat little prescreened doses at the end of a long day. Today you get your news fresh and raw on your phone via texting the instant it happens, before it has a chance to even hit the mainstream media filter. And analysis from someone you can create a rapport with, not the cute guy in the blue suit on channel eleventy-seven who is reeeeeeally good at reading a teleprompter.

A little something my friends and I like to call the mainSTREET media.

Unfortunately, there is already in place an 'equal time' provision in the US Code, relating specifically to political campaigners. If you really want to make your head explode, take a gander at Title 47, Chapter 5, Subchapter III, Part I, Subsection 315. Talk about micromanagement! I am of course aware there is such a thing as creeping incrementalism, and we must fight this just as vigilantly as any other possible encroachment on our freedoms, but sometimes we must pick and choose our battles. After all, how many of us thought 6 months ago we would be in bed with Hillary supporters, singing the praises of John McCain, of all people?!

Alas, we can fret and worry over the fairness doctrine, but I believe there are bigger fish to fry, and their name is Cap and Trade and the Employee Free Choice Act.

Ship of Fools

Well, well, well. There was one thing that made being forced to sit through HSM3 on Friday night with 7 giggling tweens worth it, sort of. I got to see a commercial about a new series from Animal Planet featuring a beyond leftist named Paul Watson, and his ship of fools, the Sea Shepherd. If environmentalism is a religion, then this guy is their pope. Let me splain: Back a few months ago, I read a bit on Drudge about some moonbat who proposed that having children was the most environmentally criminal thing you could do. Yes, you heard me... he doesn't believe that we should be procreating anymore, since it is the single most harmful thing to do to the earth. And his name was Paul Watson, none other. Specifically, he's the one who said that humankind was a "virus" that needed to be eradicated. At the time I first read that, I looked him up at his foundation and sent him a nastygram with my opinion of his idiocy, but apparently Animal Planet doesn't realize this guy is advocating the end of the human race, their main demographic, and gave him a show. The premise of the show is how these brave activists go out on their trusty ship and throw molotov cocktails at Japanese whaling boats. They are shocked (shocked, I say!) that the fishermen dare to defend themselves and fire back!! This man and his crew have a long history of dangerous, criminal attacks on many ships around the world, and has endangered the lives of MANY fishermen, sailors, and the police forces attempting to protect legitimate working people. I plan on sending my next nastygram to Animal Planet, protesting their glorification of this criminal. It took me less than 20 minutes to find all of the horrific details of the exploits of these people. You would think Animal Planet's legal department could have done a little homework before giving this libtard a platform.

If it won't go down, call Brown!!

I wonder if Bill Ayers had gone into a different line of work, would the elite left would be so quick to circle the wagons around him? Like, oh, say, plumbing?? Or if he had bombed an abortion clinic instead of a federal building, would 3,000 educators have signed a petition supporting him? My friend Sherri tried calling a bunch of those supposed 'college professors' using the info provided on their petition, and quite a few the schools listed had never heard of them, or the person who signed the petition was a student, not a professor at all. And NONE of the ones she contacted would come on her show and defend their stance. Hmmm.

Update!! Here's a related photoshop from my friend Joi the Artist, who rocks!