(Author's Note: Text and title changed from "mandatory reporting" to "anonymous reporting". I goofed on terms today!) A number of my readers have taken issue with my contention that we end the anonymous reporting that is the basis for the majority of reports lodged with Child Protective Services. I would like to take this opportunity to explain why it will not decrease legitimate complaints, and will further help prevent child abuse, which SHOULD be the aim of an agency whose a...
As many of you know, as an activist against CPS abuse of power, I frequent the fightcps.com website. While this website provides A LOT of good information, it provides evidence of why you should check your sources before reporting something as fact. One of the posters posted an article as a joke (my guess is, he was wanting to research how many people actually checked their source). The article referred to a lesbian mom who had adopted a son and was planning to give the son a sex change opera...
I am a lifelong pacifist. This is not a commitment made out of cowardice or in judgement of those who do not choose to be pacifists, it is a personal decision made for me as to how I choose to manage my life. I do not believe in the use of force as a means to obtain political or social goals. So it came as a surprise to me when I came to the Libertarian Party a couple of years ago after a decade and a half of "political homelessness" that, of all the things on which Libertarians disagr...
Occasionally, in the heat of the moment, we say words we do not mean. We all do it. But it doesn't make them defensible. And occasionally, in defense of our words, we will continue to defend our actions/words, even when we know that, while our indignance is right, our actions and words may be wrong. We all do it. But it doesn't make it defensible. In a blog written last Monday, in anger and indignance about a certain blogger's (equally heated) response for our position, I went on to q...
The story's out on the news wire that there are thousands dead in an Asian quake. As I have been following it, it leads me to ponder our responses to quakes, in comparison with our responses to hurricanes or floods. Quakes don't seem to generate the outpouring of response that flooding and hurricanes do. Although we mourn the dead, quakes are merely regarded in the "act of God" category as something tragic, but outside our ability to control. Floods, on the other hand, stir up emotion and sym...
Link My reaction to this, surprisingly, isn't what you probably think. The linked article outlines a Santa Barbara, California school's decision to randomly test every third or fourth student at a homecoming dance, and every student that appears to be drunk. While at first glance this appears to be an infringement on the students' rights, a closer look indicates that it is not so. First of all, this is an extracurricular function. Attendance is voluntary, NOT mandatory. Unlike the cl...
Many of you assumed when I wrote about our struggle against CPS that we were tilting at windmills and that we were simply pulling out card after card blindly, hoping to draw the ace. We were not; I had actually done my research before I spoke. In my haste to post, I may have given the wrong impression. In this article I'm hoping to help you understand the basis upon which we mounted our fight. If you know of anyone who is having difficulty with CPS, please feel free to give them access to this i...
Well, it's the end of the week and I'm sitting here, a lot of work done and a lot of work to do. We stayed the course as regards CPS, and asserted our fourth amendment rights. We have heard nothing from them since that point. I assure you that if they had the authority to bash down our door, they'd have certainly done it by now. Noone, but NOONE, likes to be "shown up". I don't fancy myself a Don Quixote. A more apt description would be a person exercising Teddy Roosevelt's policy of ...
In the court of JU, I'm a condemned man. Why? Simply because I stand behind rights that our founding fathers have cherished, and for which countless soldiers have fought and died. The consensus seems to be that I am to open my home to any and everyone who requests it and allow them to filter through everything in order to prove our innocence. I'm hurt, honestly. Deeply hurt that you would be so quick to judge me, even as I am only standing firm to principles I have espoused consistently in...
Those who have read our story are well aware of our fight against our county "CPS". While sentiment seems to be running about 2 to 1 against us, we have nonetheless received a lot of support and prayers from each of you. In our quest to fight CPS, I have found a new love, or, actually, rediscovered an old one. It's called the US Constitution. No matter what historians may say about their lifestyles, their actions, their motives and such, our founding fathers were wise men. They wrote into ...
One of history's widely regarded greatest blunders was Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement to Hitler's Germany prior to World War 2. He essentially compromised Germany into a position where, had America acted too late, all of Europe could have fallen under the iron fist of the Third Reich. While it exists on a different level, our encounter with CPS is no different. The actions being taken by CPS are wrong, and our standing upn against them is right. We are standing up against them...
Here they are, folks...FEMA's Newest disaster survival tips (courtesy of the Onion [ www.theonion.com ]) FEMA Disaster Survival Tips September 28, 2005 | Issue 41•39 Recent events have underscored the importance of being properly prepared to deal with the effects of natural disasters. With that in mind, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has prepared the following guidelines. State and local governments should notify FEMA a minimum of t...
For those of you keeping score at home, I am making a format change to my "sister" blog site (linked on sidebar). On it, I will be posting articles that pertain to topics of interest such as homeschooling, homesteading and the like. This is to give those interested in those topics easier access to the information, as well as to separate the identities of the two blogs, rather than make them virtual clones (even though some articles may still appear on both sites). I believe the blogspot site...
Well, most of the Houston and Galveston area evacuees are returning home as we speak. But as I watched the news stories from Amarillo on the evacuees, I noticed a decided difference between the evacuees from each area. From New Orleans, while most of the evacuees were fine, upstanding people, there seemed to be a general perception of being owed; of being deserving of the charity of the people of Amarillo by right. From Houston, however, it was a tone of overwhelming gratitude. Of thanks t...
Recently, much has been said about public education, by public school educators. While I have my own personal opinions of many of the public school educators I have encountered (but will withhold them here, as it's not germaine to the topic), my general view towards public education in America is that it is still more good than bad and we owe much to public school educators in this country. After all, as I frequently point out, I, as a homeschooling father, would not have had the confidence or t...