Author Archives: Jeffrey

Yes, Parents Are Capable of Choosing How Their Children Should Be Educated

The idea that parents get in the way of children’s education and can halt their flourishing is nothing new. It’s also false!

At the heart of debates around education freedom and school choice is the subtle but sinister sentiment that parents can’t be trusted. They are too busy, too poor, or too ignorant to make the right decisions for their kids, and others know better how to raise and educate children. Never mind that parents have successfully cared for and educated their children for millennia, ensuring the ongoing survival and continued success of our species. Continue reading →

In 2019, more Americans went to the library than to the movies. Yes, really!

The US film industry may have generated revenues somewhere in the region of $40 billion last year, but it seems Hollywood still has plenty of work to do if it wants to compete with that most hallowed of American institutions: the public library… Continue reading →

“Boom!” There, I said it….

No, Let Me Shout It Out For You… ‘BOOM, BOOM, BOOMER!’

“Boomer” as of recent past is being used as a pejorative term to paint us boomers in veils of black. How quaint! Yes, it’s true that we think a lot alike.

We grew up with all-American values, values that coarse through our veins as our life blood. Freedom is more than just a word; it has become a genuine part of our DNA! We know Americanism because we were taught from young on what the alternative was. We embraced the American way of life with every fiber of our being because we were taught the history of what the alternative was. WE WERE GIVEN THE CHOICE AND GIVEN THE FREEDOM TO CHOOSE, WE CHOSE FREEDOM!
Continue reading →

Thomas Jonathan Jackson

Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson

Lieutenant-General Thomas Jonathan Jackson was one of those rare historical characters who is claimed by all people–a man of his race, almost as much as of the Confederacy. No war has produced a military celebrity more remarkable, nor one whose fame will be more enduring. He was born January 21, 1824, in Clarksburg, Va., and his parents, who were of patriotic Revolutionary stock, dying while he was but a child, he was reared and educated by his kindred in the pure and simple habits of rural life, taught in good English schools, and is described as a “diligent, plodding scholar, having a strong mind, though it was slow in development.” But he was in boyhood a leader among his fellow-students in the athletic sports of the times, in which he generally managed his side of the contest so as to win the victory. By this country training he became a bold and expert rider and cultivated that spirit of daring which being held sometimes in abeyance displayed itself in his Mexican service, and then suddenly again in the Confederate war. Continue reading →

We don’t need no educachun…

The Federal Reserve: An Astounding Exposure, 1934

“You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the Eternal God, I will rout you out.” ~ President Andrew Jackson

Congressman, Louis T. McFadden

~ Prologue ~
On May 23, 1933, Congressman, Louis T. McFadden, brought formal charges against the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Bank system, The Comptroller of the Currency and the Secretary of United States Treasury for numerous criminal acts, including but not limited to, CONSPIRACY, FRAUD, UNLAWFUL CONVERSION, AND TREASON.

Quotations from several speeches made on the Floor of the House of Representatives by the Honorable Louis T. McFadden of Pennsylvania. Mr. McFadden, due to his having served as Chairman of the Banking and Currency Committee for more than ten years, was the best posted man on these matters in America and was in a position to speak with authority of the vast ramifications of this gigantic private credit monopoly. As Representative of a State which was among the first to declare its freedom from foreign money tyrants it is fitting that Pennsylvania, the cradle of liberty, be again given the credit for producing a son that was not afraid to hurl defiance in the face of the money-bund. Whereas Mr. McFadden was elected to the high office on both the Democratic and Republican tickets, there can be no accusation of partisanship lodged against him. Because these speeches are set out in full in the Congressional Record, they carry weight that no amount of condemnation on the part of private individuals could hope to carry.

The petition for Articles of Impeachment was thereafter referred to the Judiciary Committee and has YET TO BE ACTED ON. Continue reading →

Hindsight Is Not Necessarily 20/20

“If we read the words and attitudes of the past through the pompous ‘wisdom’ of the considered moral judgments of the present, we will find nothing but error.” ~ Mark Twain

“The study of the past with one eye upon the present is the source of all sins and sophistries in history. It is the essence of what we mean by the word ‘unhistorical’.” ~ Herbert Butterfield

The recent Democratic sweep of Virginia’s Governorship, the Va. State Senate, and the Va. State House has emboldened the “Party of Jefferson and Jackson” in ways unimaginable just a decade ago. The Old Dominion is almost entirely “red” geographically, but the extraordinary growth of the Northern Virginia suburbs around Washington, D.C., and the resulting influx of a non-Southern mindset has changed the political calculus for the foreseeable future. Governor Ralph Northam, a surgeon from Accomack County on Virginia’s “Eastern Shore”, was best known nationally for having posed in blackface for his college annual. He apologized for it, but then retracted the apology, saying it probably wasn’t him. But his nickname in the annual was “Coonman”. (I’m not making this up.) Continue reading →

Rabbit: A Few Things You Probably Weren’t Taught In School…

I can’t speak for your education but there were times when I was going to school and one of the first things my teacher would say, aside from Good Morning, was, “How many of you have read your homework assignment from yesterday?” Then the teacher would go about discussing what we were supposed to have read, often finding that some of us had not actually read our assignments.

I wish I could do something similar; ask by a show of hands how many have actually sat down and read the Constitution. I wonder how many would raise their hands. I also wonder if I began to grill you on the specifics of the Constitution how well you’d be able to answer. It would be an interesting experience, to at least see how many people were knowledgeable about the document that framed our system of government, considering their voting records show that they either don’t know, or don’t care what it says. Continue reading →

States Move to Add Native American History to Curriculum

A recent report shows that 87% of state history standards include no mention of Native American history after 1900.

At the old well of Acoma (1904) Tiwa by Edward S. Curtis

On the heels of the National Indian Education Association’s conference held in Minneapolis earlier this fall and just in time for Native American Heritage Month, the nearby Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community announced a $5 million philanthropic campaign to fund resources, curriculum, and training on Native American heritage for teachers and administrators across Minnesota, according to the Star Tribune. “We’re hoping we can move the needle in the narrative in Minnesota and be a model,” Rebecca Crooks-Stratton, the secretary-treasurer for SMSC, told the newspaper. Continue reading →

Happy Birthday Robert E. Lee

Harper’s Weekly, July 2, 1864

During a tour through the South in 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt told the aged Confederate veterans in Richmond, Virginia, “Here I greet you in the shadow of the statue of your commander, General Robert E. Lee. You and he left us memories which are part of the memories bequeathed to the entire nation by all the Americans who fought in the War Between the States.”

January 19, 2020, is the 213th birthday of Robert E. Lee.

During Robert E. Lee’s 100th birthday in 1907, Charles Francis Adams, Jr., a former Union Commander and grandson of US President John Quincy Adams, spoke in tribute to Robert E. Lee at Washington and Lee College’s Lee Chapel in Lexington, Virginia. His speech was printed in both Northern and Southern newspapers and is said to had lifted Lee to a renewed respect among the American people.

Robert E. Lee, a man whose military tactics have been studied worldwide, was an American soldier, Educator, Christian gentlemen, husband and father. Continue reading →

Robert E. Lee

He was a foe without hate; a friend without treachery; a soldier without cruelty; a victor without oppression, and a victim without murmuring. He was a public officer without vices; a private citizen without wrong; a neighbor without reproach; a Christian without hypocrisy, and a man without guile. He was a Caesar, without his ambition; Frederick, without his tyranny; Napoleon, without his selfishness, and Washington, without his reward. ~ Benjamin H. Hill

~ Joshua Cameron
Facebook
January 19, 2020

Deeper Roots of Northern Slavery Unearthed

An investigation has revealed that one of Colonial New England’s most aristocratic families participated in the slave trade.

In the winter of 1757, one of the bluest of Colonial Connecticut’s bluebloods set sail from New London. Colonial governors sprouted from Dudley Saltonstall’s family tree, and his ancestors included John Winthrop, the Puritan founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and Sir Richard Saltonstall, Winthrop’s first assistant. His aristocratic father – mayor of New London and one of Connecticut’s richest men – had dispatched Saltonstall, barely 18 years old, to sail off on one of his vessels and keep an eye on its crew.
Continue reading →

‘We‘ Should NOT Regulate Homeschooling

Modern homeschooling encompasses an array of different educational philosophies and practices, from school-at-home methods to unschooling to hybrid homeschooling.

The desire to control other people’s ideas and behaviors, particularly when they challenge widely-held beliefs and customs, is one of human nature’s most nefarious tendencies. Socrates was sentenced to death for stepping out of line; Galileo almost was. But such extreme examples are outnumbered by the many more common, pernicious acts of trying to control people by limiting their individual freedom and autonomy. Sometimes these acts target individuals who dare to be different, but often they target entire groups who simply live differently. On both the political right and left, efforts to control others emerge in different flavors of limiting freedom – often with “safety” as the rationale. Whether it’s calls for Muslim registries or homeschool registries, fear of freedom is the common denominator.

A recent example of this was an NPR story that aired last week with the headline, “How Should We Regulate Homeschooling?” Short answer: “We” shouldn’t!
Continue reading →

Are Computers Contributing to the Decline of Writing Skills?

Image Credit: Wordserve Water Cooler

According to new research from the Department of Education, the switch to computer-based writing tests shows a decided decline in the writing ability of fourth–grade students, particularly for low or average performing students. As Jill Barshay from the Hechinger Report explains,

“Last year, more than half of U.S. states gave computer-based writing tests to children as young as third-graders. Some wrote their paragraphs with a pencil and paper; the majority used a computer.
Continue reading →

Secession ~ a Point Blank discussion

2 Replies

At the time of posting, we have entered the third week of January, 2020 – and all that you read below is worth your serious understanding as we move closer each day to a REAL Civil War in America. As we post – (not -so) civil war is beginning in Virginia, and it is quickly spreading to other states within America’s borders… and why? Because of Trump? He is merely the excuse. Gird your loins and prepare for battle – it is “WE the PEOPLE” who must take this nation back, for if we do not – then all is lost – and it will all have been for nothing.

THIS time, it is not about North or South – it is about “WE the PEOPLE” as a whole – THIS time – we Ride Together! ~ Ed.

Secession Legal? Illegal? I say it was Legal for the South to Secede! What are your thoughts toward the legality of Secession? What is your proof that it was illegal? What are your thoughts and perceptions? Continue reading →

…for those who were never told the TRUTH!

…the continued teaching of American history.

…as the Wars of Northern Aggression expand once more. ~ Ed.

My, My, My – what a novel idea!

Your Children Are Listening and Imitating What You Do!

“Children have never been very good at listening to their elders but they never fail to imitate them.“ ~ James Baldwin

Most parents want the best for their children. They want them to grow up to be proud, strong individuals, capable of meeting most, if not all, of life’s challenges. They want their children to be good parents to their offspring, as well. Any of these desires depends almost entirely on what goes on at home and on the quantity and quality of both education and experience while they are growing up. But the hard truth is, children are like sponges and they soak up the environment in which they live, in most cases, mirroring their parents. They start filling up the “Little Black Box” of their brain from the day they are born.

If their parents are slovenly and lazy, children have a very high percentage of turning out slovenly and lazy. If parents are industrious, creative, responsible and self-reliant, their children are quite likely to take on these qualities. If their parents are involved in the community, children have a greater chance of also being involved. If the parents take an interest in and are a part of the political process, that experience will rub off on their children. But if the parents are apathetic and indifferent, their children will learn apathy and indifference. Continue reading →

Dishonest Abe

He is revered as the man who freed US slaves, yet he never intended to do so and it was he who forced a war for the Union!

Today Abraham Lincoln remains America’s most popular president and its historians devote enormous efforts to ensuring that his reputation survives unscathed. Yet during his presidency he was hated by millions and in 1865 he was assassinated. Even before the Civil War he was loathed by perhaps a majority of his fellow countrymen and in the presidential election of 1860, 61 per cent of the electorate voted against him.

Rather than accept him as president, the South seceded from the Union. The Founding Fathers had indicated that secession was entirely legal. Lincoln should have taken the advice of the Supreme Court, but rather than that, he manipulated an attack on Fort Sumter to give him an excuse for war. Lincoln vetoed an attempted constitutional compromise and got his way by illegally organising a military invasion of Virginia. There, his troops were humiliated. Continue reading →

Bring Back Shop Class In All Public Schools

This isn’t a new thought, as highlighted below, but this does need to be a growing trend. Teaching the youth that not only is it acceptable to work with your hands, it is also very rewarding. The process of creating something, and then being able to hold it in your hand, can have a profound effect on a kid’s desire to learn more… Continue reading →