Author: Matthew G. Saroff

Homesteading Today – Any unschoolers?

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I occasionally look at a bbs that a lot of my friends frequent, and I just found this post on Unschoolers, a variant of home schooling. The misspellings are in red:

As I stated I myself went to public school. The only knowladge I feel i retained was a bit of poetry and how not to get the snot beat out of me by the three mean bullies.

When my first two childern were in school, i started seeing some of the same things in them. one was a slow prcessor(by this I dont mean slow witted, I mean he could not get the work compleated on time so the grades were low because he needed longer. They tested him , his work was perfect but he needed twice as long to do it. He is quiet so it wasnt talking or other distractions.Just a differant form of process. If i didnt have the same issue I might not have picked up on it.), the other a bully of sorts(miss popularity) . I felt I needed to rescue them from such “hell”.

Now they are so wounderfull. they both read well. Fell good about who they are. There arent better kids anywhere. My younger childern are learning, all are at differant levels. but it is all natural. They want it ,cant get enough. They are driven by the things they want for them selves. the things they want to do. No my 8 year old does not read at his expected “level”. but all the seasoned unschoolers tell me that it will come. it is comeing.
My responsability as mom is to always be aware.if there is a problem fix it. (We have not had any yet) and to provide all the materials, encourage and support.
My elder son is into woodworking.This requires math, reading and fallowing a blueprint at this point. He is learning by doing. He is working through an aprintaceship. His passions also include birds.I cant tell you how many books he has read on this matter. He knows what steps he will have to take to get his falconers licence.”All this on his own”

My eldest daughter is into sewing,nitting,and weaving. I cant help her directly here. I want to learn myself.We are looking for someone to teach us. We are trying to muddle our way through books on the matters. She has a dream to open a resturaunt. She is 11-12 tomarrow! She is a real good cook, and cooking for a family of 11 is giveing her lots of practice. (They are responsable for meals twice a week. No help from me.)We are working on shopping, and buddgeting. but her mine goal is to run her home when she has her own family. I want to give her everything I can to prpair her for that goal.

So to sum it all up “unschooling” in learning through life liveing.Much Of what Ive learned i didnt learn untill I was teaching my childern.

Hmmmm…who is teaching them spelling? Is anyone teaching them anything.

The MSM Speaks the Truth

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Yes, Jay Carney intends it to be a joke, but he ‘s really dead serious.

It really is all about them, at for them, so they love McCain because he is accessible, and because he gave them lots of free booze in 2000.

Waiting, and Complaining

Another reason to dislike the caucuses: we can’t spend the whole day of the vote calling and emailing and texting each other to find out the latest (deeply flawed) exit poll numbers. Instead, we have to sit around and wait until Iowans finish their dinners and trudge to their local church basement or middle school gymnasium, where, after milling around for a while, they’ll declare their presidential preference. We won’t have any results until something like 9 pm EST for the Republicans, 10 or 11 pm for the Democrats. And then the results we do get will be accurate! I mean, where’s the fun in that?

The thing is, he thinks that he’s making a funny, but this is what they really think.

Thoughts on Kenya

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I don’t know a lot about the place. I’ve never been there, and I’ve never been to Africa, and that continent has never figured prominently on my radar.

That being said, the current conflict appears to be driven by tribal rivalries, which in turn are driven by arbitrary colonial boundaries.

While I do not think that the US should be in the position of drawing boundaries in, or creating countries in, Africa (preventing Genocide is a moral imperative, despite the cowardice of GHW Bush, Bill Clinton, GW Bush, and Condoleeza Rice on this).

However, I do not think that the US should support the policy of the African Union that the colonial boundaries are sacrosanct.

Countries and boundaries have been fluid throughout history, and much of the strife in Africa comes from the insistence that barely viable nation states are forced to muddle on.

Kenya is a tribal conflict, exacerbated by corruption, but the corruption is largely driven by tribalism.

Simply put, when the primary consideration is tribal, clean effective government is at best an afterthought, because your guys have to beat their guys, but if the society is largely homogeneous, ethnic baiting becomes far less effective.

Lawsuit in Mississippi Over Special Election for Senate

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Lott resigned on December 18, so as to avoid the new ethics rules in his new lobbying job.

Mississippi law, Mississippi Code 23-15-855, requires that a special election occur within 90 days of a vacancy.

There is an exception, but only if a vacancy occurs in a year there shall be a general state or congressional election. (emphasis mine).

Since Lott could not wait an additional 11 days, he needed to collect his fat fees, the law is clear: a special election has to occur within 90 days.

Of course Haley Barbour, like any good Republican has decided that the law does not apply to him when it is inconvenient, so state Attorney General Jim Hood had taken him to court.

Here is the section of code:

SEC. 23-15-855. Elections to fill vacancies in office of U.S. Senator; interim appointments by Governor.

(1) If a vacancy shall occur in the office of United States Senator from Mississippi by death, resignation or otherwise, the Governor shall, within ten (10) days after receiving official notice of such vacancy, issue his proclamation for an election to be held in the state to elect a Senator to fill such unexpired term as may remain, provided the unexpired term is more than twelve (12) months and the election shall be held within ninety (90) days from the time the proclamation is issued and the returns of such election shall be certified to the Governor in the manner set out above for regular elections, unless the vacancy shall occur in a year that there shall be held a general state or congressional election, in which event the Governor’s proclamation shall designate the general election day as the time for electing a Senator, and the vacancy shall be filled by appointment as hereinafter provided.

(2) In case of a vacancy in the office of United States Senator, the Governor may appoint a Senator to fill such vacancy temporarily, and if the United States Senate be in session at the time the vacancy occurs the Governor shall appoint a Senator within ten (10) days after receiving official notice thereof, and the Senator so appointed shall serve until his successor is elected and commissioned as provided for in subsection (1) of this section, provided that such unexpired term as he may be appointed to fill shall be for a longer time than one (1) year, but if for a shorter time than one (1) year he shall serve for the full time of the unexpired term and no special election shall be called by the Governor but his successor shall be elected at the regular election.

SOURCES: Derived from 1972 Code Sec. 23-5-229 [Codes, Hemingway’s 1917, Sec. 6835; 1930, Sec. 6279; 1942, Sec. 3308; Laws, 1914, ch. 148] and Sec. 23-5-231 [Codes, Hemingway’s 1917, Sec. 6836; 1930, Sec. 6280; 1942, Sec. 3309; Laws, 1914, ch. 148], both Repealed by Laws, 1986, ch. 495, Sec. 335; En, Laws, 1986, ch. 495, Sec. 260, eff from and after January 1, 1987.

Hood’s suit is here. (pdf)

Is America Following the Decline of the Ottoman Empire?

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Niall Ferguson of the Financial Times, and surprisingly enough the reactionary right wing Hoover Institution at Stanford, has some interesting parallels between the present day US and the Decline of the Ottoman empire after about 1870.

The Ottoman empire is in bullet points, the US is indented further.

  • After the Crimean war, the Ottoman Empire accumulated huge. Between 1855 and 1875, debt increased by a factor of 28.
    • At the end of 1980 the federal debt was $994 billion, at the end of 2007, it was $9,350 Billion a factor of almost 10 (link).
  • While some of the spending was for infrastructure, such as theSuez canal, but much was, “squandered on conspicuous consumption, symbolised by Sultan Abdul Mejid’s luxurious Dolmabahçe palace and the spectacular world premiere of Aïda at the Cairo Opera House in 1871.”
    • Iraq, tax cuts for the wealthy, pork barrel projects, Star Wars, F-22, JSF, Future Combat System.
  • There was a panic (financial crisis) in 1873 making further financing unavailable to the Ottomans
    • Sub Prime Mess, 2007.
  • In October 1875 the Ottoman government declared bankruptcy.
    • Not yet, but it is quite literally the goal of much of the Republican party, like Grover Norquist, who, when not taking terrorist money to lobby, wants to “drown the federal government in a bathtub”.
  • This led to the sale of the Suez Canal to the British, and foreign investors getting the right to other Ottoman revenues.
    • Sale of significant shares of major financial institutions to foreign investors and foreign government sovereign wealth funds.
  • For Egypt, this led to increasing British involvement in governance until eventually Egypt became a de facto colony.
    • Not yet here, but you see this with the IMF and World Bank elsewhere in the world.

As Ferguson so succinctly puts it, “Debtor empires sooner or later have to do more than just sell shares to satisfy their creditors.”

A New Nigerian Scam

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It seems that the only things that Nigeria makes the news for these days is oil related unrest, various forms of fraud, and one of the highest indices of corruption in the world.

The latest one is a Nigerian firm, Lagos Analysis Corp. (Lancor), suing the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) non profit over a “4 shift keyboard“, which allows for better handling of multiple languages.

The kicker is that the OLPC has not shipped any of the keyboards.

Oh, and that one of the principals at Lancor, served time for bank fraud.

Also, it appears that there is no valid patent in the first place.

Go, Groklaw is your friend, and it appears that there is a crooked judge in Nigeria.

Wal-Mart Screws the Pooch on Digital Downloads

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So, after less than a year, Wal-Mart is abandoning its digital download service.

Its basic features were:

  • Just as (if not more) expensive as a DVD.
  • A draconian DRM regime which forced you to watch it on your computer and only that computer.
  • It only ran on Windows Machines.
  • No High Def.
    • Which doesn’t mean much to me, but for the technophile early adoptors, it does.
  • The DRM scheme allowed the studios to revoke your rights to the movies that you downloaded with no recourse.

To quote ars technica:

The message here is very clear: draconian DRM and unrealistic pricing are turning consumers away from legitimate retail channels and giving them a big incentive to adopt underground file sharing.

Criminal Probe of CIA Coverup Started

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This is a significant step, though it is my understanding that by assigning someone from Connecticut, it means that they are not technically a special prosecutor.

Obviously the fact that a criminal probe has been opened is significant, and the man assigned, John H. Durham, was the one who successfully investigated and prosecuted the FBI agents who protected James “Whitey” Bulger and Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi because they used them as informants.

However, I do not expect him to be given much in the way of freedom over his investigation.

Schadenfreude: Scaife Edition

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I posted about this in October when the WaPo covered this, and now Vanity Fair has a much more extensive writeup of the Scaife divorce.

So, the man who did his best to get a president impeached for sleeping around is himself a philanderer. He is a hypocrite who deserves any pain he gets.

FWIW, he should let his wife have that damn dog. In a divorce, you try to get out with your balls intact, the dog is a distraction.

Tom Lantos Retiring

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The reason given is esophageal cancer, but doubtless the challenge of Jackie Speier in the primary, where she was leading by 30% in the polls, had a lot to do with that too.

It comes down to the fact that he was a very strong hawk on Iraq, and any Iraq Hawk deserves to lose their seat.

FWIW, part of his statement is very disingenuous.

It is only in the United States that a penniless survivor of the Holocaust and a fighter in the anti-Nazi underground could have received an education, raised a family, and had the privilege of serving the last three decades of his life as a Member of Congress. I will never be able to express fully my profoundly felt gratitude to this great country.

Of course, Leon Blum (France), Bruno Kreisky (Austria), both of whom were holocaust survivors and not in America, and, of course, Menachem Begin in Israel were all PMs and Holocaust survivors. (H/t The Reality Based Community)

This kind of ahistorical American exceptionalism is de regeur in US politics, and dangerous, because it leads to things like invading Iraq.