A few nights ago, I heard someone refer to Barack Obama as Emperor Obama. This has become a common thing I've heard as Obama continues to make moves that will lead to a bigger federal government controlling more of our lives.
This got me thinking about the most famous emperor of all...Emperor Palpatine, who ruled a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. As I thought about it, I thought a lot of "Phantom Menace", "Attack of the Clones" and "Revenge of the Sith", and surprisingly, I found several parallels between Emperor Palpatine's rise to power and President Obama's rise to power.
-Palpatine was preceded by Chancellor Valorum, who was a good man, but largely ineffective due to constant attacks from his opposition. Obama was preceded by George W. Bush, who is a good man, but was largely ineffective due to constant attacks from his opposition.
-Palpatine rose to the Chancellor's spot, not because of who he was, but because of sympathy generated by the plight of Naboo during "Phantom Menace". Obama rose to the Presidency, not because of who he is, but because his teleprompter was better than John McCain's teleprompter.
-Palpatine used a series of galactic crises to gather more power for himself and his executive office. Obama has used the economic crisis to take over 2 auto companies, control the banking industry and appoint approximately 3 dozen czars, gathering more power for himself and the executive branch.
-Palpatine paid lip service to democracy, while orchestrating it's downfall. Obama pays lip service to democracy, while pushing a socialist agenda.
-Palpatine had Darth Maul and then Count Dooku as his apprentice, willing to do his bidding without question. Obama has Joe Biden...which is sort of the same, right?
Look, I'm not saying Obama is going to start wearing black robes and shooting lightning from his fingers. I'm not saying he is going to orchestrate a reorganization of our democracy into an empire. But, if Sean Hannity eventually becomes liberal, becomes Obama's right hand man, and is then confined to a black suit that makes him talk like James Earl Jones, you can't say I didn't warn you about all this.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Indoctrination 101
We are homeschoolers. And today, more than most other days, I was glad of that. Why you may ask? Well, I learned today that President Obama is planning an address to all public school children on September 8th.
One of the conspiracy theories that abounds amongst conservatives, and frankly the liberals don't do much to dispel, is that the public schools are one of the biggest tools the liberals use to get their ideology across. It's hard to dispute, when you consider teachers overwhelmingly support democratic policies, but that's not the subject of this blog. However, when I heard about Obama's upcoming speech, I thought "well, I'm sure glad we homeschool".
Then I read that the Department of Education has put together special teaching suggestions for teachers to use to help their students prior to and after Obama's speech. Perhaps the most offensive of these suggestions is for K-6th graders to "write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president. These would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals."
This really irritates me. First...I don't want my kids figuring out what they can do to help this President with his policies. I'm not saying that I wouldn't do a service for my country if asked by my President. But, I would not violate my core beliefs for anyone, nor would I want my kids to ever do that. I want my kids to understand why what this President is attempting to do in this country is wrong, and how they can be part of the democratic process to elect leaders who share their beliefs and will listen to their concerns.
What will happen to kids who are informed enough to write letters objecting to what the Obama is doing? I'm sure some good teachers who can put ideology aside will be ok with this, but others will most certainly not be ok with this. This is a horrible position to put a little kid in, especially if he or she has been raised by parents who didn't vote for Obama and don't support what he is doing.
Second...why does the President have to use the public schools to talk to our kids? Could it be that he wants a captive audience away from the influence of parents? If he really wants to get a message of encouragement to the kids of this country, then get some advertising time during Saturday morning cartoons. Don't go to them when they are stuck in the schools, and their parents aren't there to offer a counter perspective.
Third...this proves that the Department of Education is nearly worthless. Don't they have anything better to do than come up with teaching suggestions in support of an Obama indoctrination speech?
If I were a parent with a kid in the public school system, I would have to think long and hard about whether or not my kids would be going to school on September 8th. The dilemma is...children are sponges, and they soak up whatever they hear, so no matter how well educated they are, something will strike a chord with them...Obama is too good of a speaker to think otherwise. So, as a parent, I would have to be prepared to hear about this, and spend a lot of time explaining why the president was wrong (because he's almost always wrong), and what is correct. Luckily, as a homeschooling family, we don't have that problem.
One of the conspiracy theories that abounds amongst conservatives, and frankly the liberals don't do much to dispel, is that the public schools are one of the biggest tools the liberals use to get their ideology across. It's hard to dispute, when you consider teachers overwhelmingly support democratic policies, but that's not the subject of this blog. However, when I heard about Obama's upcoming speech, I thought "well, I'm sure glad we homeschool".
Then I read that the Department of Education has put together special teaching suggestions for teachers to use to help their students prior to and after Obama's speech. Perhaps the most offensive of these suggestions is for K-6th graders to "write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president. These would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals."
This really irritates me. First...I don't want my kids figuring out what they can do to help this President with his policies. I'm not saying that I wouldn't do a service for my country if asked by my President. But, I would not violate my core beliefs for anyone, nor would I want my kids to ever do that. I want my kids to understand why what this President is attempting to do in this country is wrong, and how they can be part of the democratic process to elect leaders who share their beliefs and will listen to their concerns.
What will happen to kids who are informed enough to write letters objecting to what the Obama is doing? I'm sure some good teachers who can put ideology aside will be ok with this, but others will most certainly not be ok with this. This is a horrible position to put a little kid in, especially if he or she has been raised by parents who didn't vote for Obama and don't support what he is doing.
Second...why does the President have to use the public schools to talk to our kids? Could it be that he wants a captive audience away from the influence of parents? If he really wants to get a message of encouragement to the kids of this country, then get some advertising time during Saturday morning cartoons. Don't go to them when they are stuck in the schools, and their parents aren't there to offer a counter perspective.
Third...this proves that the Department of Education is nearly worthless. Don't they have anything better to do than come up with teaching suggestions in support of an Obama indoctrination speech?
If I were a parent with a kid in the public school system, I would have to think long and hard about whether or not my kids would be going to school on September 8th. The dilemma is...children are sponges, and they soak up whatever they hear, so no matter how well educated they are, something will strike a chord with them...Obama is too good of a speaker to think otherwise. So, as a parent, I would have to be prepared to hear about this, and spend a lot of time explaining why the president was wrong (because he's almost always wrong), and what is correct. Luckily, as a homeschooling family, we don't have that problem.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
TV Series Review: Bones, Season 2
A lot of reviews lately...either I'm watching too much TV or nothing interesting is happening. Probably a little of both.
The second season of "Bones" concluded the summer TV series my wife and I were watching. Now school starts and life gets busy again. This season of "Bones" was a little bit of a disappointment for me. For me, the show strayed too far from the cases and became way too focused on the personal lives of the characters. I thought season 1 had a good balance, but season 2 tipped too far in the "character drama" area.
There were a few good episodes, but also several weak episodes. I rate this one as a 3 star season, which is the lowest rating I've ever given a series that I've gotten from Netflix. I think my wife liked it, so eventually we'll probably watch the follow-on seasons.
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