Harvard Morons, On Video Game Morons

Game Reviews - E3 2012

The Harvard nerds conclude that NOT playing video games makes kids more violent. Seriously.

Of course it's suburban nerds that play video games and poor urban minorities who can't afford them.

So their *conclusion* is meaningless. Did you expect anything different from those Cambridge idiots?

I love how Harvard researchers - with all the taxpayer funding - are out there studying something as frivolous as video games.

And I love how they are positioning themselves to be lobbyists for Big Video Game!

Whether video games make kids more violent or not is beside the point - considering that they fry brains and fatten mid-sections to a far greater extent. It's not simply that one mind-numbing game is worse than another.

De-Comercializing Christmas - Giving A Thoughtful Nothing

My wife was whining about having to buy her staff Christmas presents this year. Thankfully she no longer has 42 wage slaves underneath her! I think it's down to 6 or 7.

A bottle of champagne? Well Vueve Cliquot is $45 a bottle now. I recall not long ago when it was only $30!

Like a good life partner I'm always encouraging her to *not spend* in every department. Did y'all read that famous book - which asserts wealthy people are incredibly cheap but their spouses are EVEN FAR MORE stingy?

My wife started Googling and came up with giving them all *2 days paid vacation*.

Hah! What a terrible gift!

CaptiousSpouse - That's sort of like when I haven't bought you anything for one of the 5 freakin' days EACH YEAR THAT I HAVE TO....it's like giving you coupon for one free 4-minute massage...

While definitely still wage slaves, they are salaried and will have to get their work done no matter what. Days off are meaningless; Blackberries come with wherever. Plus it costs the boss nothing to give - especially since the employer is a large corporation.

CaptiousSpouse - If you are going to that, you may as well just tell them you made a donation in their names to the Human Fund!

The Grass Might Be Greener...

LESSON FOR TODAY

Sometimes, we try too hard to get to the greener grass.
In the process, we end up in trouble........

And when you find yourself in trouble and you're stuck in a
situation that you can't get out of, there is one thing you should
always remember.......

Not everyone who shows up.......
Is there to help you!!!

NYC Commercial Real Estate Crash

Okay, local movie theater lease runs out, tenant asks for rent reduction, Moronic owner doesn't want to hear of it,....tenant leaves, monthly rent collection drops to $0 per month for almost 1.5 years.

What is the market rent on such a place? I mean who even goes to movies anyway?

Well the place is about to finally be re-rented for somewhere between $20,000-$25,000 a month, maybe.

I always do the math on these things. Essentially they have to make near $1,000 in PROFIT PER DAY, just to cover the rent. Then there's the enormous cost of air conditioning and heating a large space. Paying staff. The cost of the films and projectors. Insurance. Accounting. Cleaning costs....

Oh yeah, there's a movie theater 1.5 miles away, and another 3 miles away - both of which are BETWEEN this theater and the mass population of Long Island.

I told my wife how much the market rent was and she too was incredulous, calling anyone who would take on that lease a (bleeped) Moron.

But like a good joke, I had to interrupt her clamoring to tell her something even more incredulous.

It turns out, the previous motion picture theater owner was paying an astounding $52,000 per month.

So, for one thing, how stupid was this 'old coot' owner to not come to some type of deal with the exiting tenant?

And in macro terms, realize that this example is indicating that NYC-metro area commercial rents are looking at a 50% drop ALREADY. And this drop is occurring WITHOUT higher interest rates - which are inevitable.

I almost titled this post - "Screaming Bull Market In An Empty Theater"!

Website Building Chronicles - 4 - Facebook

I've spent the last couple days learning about Facebook marketing and how I can use it for my new edu-site - HomeschoolDad.com.

I purchased the young lady above's product for $97 and am powering through the 20 training videos. (It might be a little pricey for what it is, nonetheless it is helpful.)

I must say that despite being a Headbook-hater, the immense power of the platform is not to be denied - especially for someone looking to sell a product. It's really opened my eyes.

Facebook basically killed the growth of this blog - and it did so in two ways.

First, everyone started spending all their time on the social network; they stopped prowling the web for interesting and hilarious blogs.

And secondly, I myself never took the time to promote Marginalizing Morons on Facebook. I tried for a minute but didn't know what I was doing.

I'm seeing now that although my blog is too *general* for Google keyword optimization and promotion....that there are still many ways I could have, and can successfully promote it on Headbook.

Whatever, moving forward...

I think Facebook is so powerful from a marketing standpoint, that a well-done Fan Page can conceivably even preclude the need for a website altogether.

It's just easier for word-of-mouth and links to go viral on it than via the vast World Wide Web of unconnected and mostly anonymous people.

So I'm working on the HomeschoolDad.com Fan Page, among many other things, at the moment.

Oh and I also subscribed to a few Facebook marketing blogs. Thankfully, there doesn't seem to be too much to learning and implementing the basics.

See also:

Website Building Chronicles 1 - For Morons

Website Building Chronicles 2 - Eben Pagan Selling Me On Change

Website Building Chronicles 3 - The Sales Letter

Another UNIque Ab Hack?

I heard recently that unicycling is a tremendous ab workout.

And when I informed my wife of this last night she rolled her eyes 720 degrees.

She knows that I might actually go get one!

But I have to confirm that it's really a killer ab workout first.

I do have a lifetime record of trying out funky new exercises - all the way back to when I was 14 and was the first one in my circles to buy those *platform* Strength Shoes.

BTW they WORK. At 5'10 and with a lily white complexion I could, back in my day, grab the basketball rim with two hands.

Windows - Bringing The Outside In

It's been unseasonably warm the past few weeks - 60+ degrees for late November.

Aside from squeezing in a few more rounds of golf, I've been running around the house opening windows.

In fact all winter long I do this on warmer days. Get that stale air, get those germs (and I'm hardly a germaphobe) out!

I'm no scientist (a feather in my cap!) but I believe that it's not so much cold weather that makes everyone sick in the winter so much as it is a lack of fresh air.

I've heard that Catherine The Great never got *sick* - even though she was constantly getting lymphocyte injections from random, scared-to-death studs - and that the main reason for her persistent health was the fact that she slept with the windows wide open every night. Realize she lived in ARCTIC Russia.

So open your windows when you can. It definitely can't hurt (outside of your heating bill).

What do I know? Well the Nut goes years between catching colds...

See also - Sick Streak Snapped.

Chess Chronicles - Getting Better?

You have to ignore the beginning of the graph because it's not truly indicative.

Towards the end of October I was on fire - winning 13 games in a row. My rating reached 1085 on Chess.com and I was feeling pretty good about myself.

Then I went into a serious slump. My rating crashed perilously close to 900. What was going on?

I think I figured it out. I wasn't castling. Since then I changed my strategy to castle AS SOON AS POSSIBLE and AT ALL COSTS.

That must of done the trick, along with increased playing experience, of course. After all, I've only been playing on the site for 2 months now. Today I finally cracked the 1100 rating mark and my chisel chest is puffing out again.

Out of 800,000 players I'm smack dab in the middle of the pack at the moment. We'll see how far I can get as time goes on.

Oh, my son?

Today, on ChessKid.com, he beat someone who had a rating over 1,000. John was positively beaming all day long!

He and I are learning together and it's truly an awesome experience.

While John didn't do too well (0-2-1) in his first scholastic chess tournament last month...

Only an absolute Moron would bet against him going forward. Seriously. We are just getting started - with books, lessons, competition, etc.

I remember, vividly, when we were at a friend's house and this little girl, a few months younger than him, could count to 10 but my toddler son couldn't. Man, did I feel terrible! My stomach literally sank.

Of course now my kid can derive the quadratic formula:

....and that little girl??? She's no doubt still adding 2 and 3 in a 1st grade government school classroom!

Boozing Chronicles - Funny People

So on my last night out boozing in NYC...

We're at Spring Lounge - probably our favorite watering hole these days - and some adjacent chick kept looking in our direction.

That place is generally *hopping* - people in and out in waves, which is what we like about it - and eventually I get to talking to the eyelash-batter.

She tells me that she's a comedian comedienne and has her own show on HBO.

WOW.

Except that I never heard of it; AND except that she wasn't very funny. But whatever.

She's the redhead in the clip above. It was her birthday *night out* and she was celebrating with a female friend, i.e. no man in her life at 34 years of age and despite *stardom*. Y'all know how girls are about these things!

Everyone tells her she's a cross between Kathy Griffin and Bette Midler - I guessed both correctly! And I must say that she looked a whole lot better in person, in the (dim lit?) bar than on camera. Had much better hair.

When she was informed that I was married she became visibly irate - which cracked my buddy up something fierce. I had no idea that a 4-minute conversation at a bar constituted the beginnings of a relationship!

So I go home and check out some YouTube clips of her show. Man was it crass and unladylike! I'm sure her parents are proud. [sarcasm]

Furthermore, I'm getting sick and tired of meeting professional *comedians* who aren't half as funny as I am.

Heck in the summer I went to a comedy club and I ripped more jokes at the table than were heard from the stage!

One more thing....

So I asked her if she could mention me on her Twitter feed or something.

She said she couldn't BUT she said she'd mention me in *her material*.

Oh the IRONY - check out this clip, starting at the 1:55 mark.

That is indeed Kathy Griffin, do you get IT?

Anyways, I right away fired back at this comedienne manqué, "HOW ABOUT I MENTION YOU IN MY MATERIAL!"

Present In The Moment?

I enjoy the pleasure of going out all night boozing in Manhattan, probably 1.5 times per month.

I just cannot believe, that these Moronic youngsters are soooooo addicted to their cordless cellphones.

EVERYONE you look at is staring at an electronic gadget: video games, Facebook, texting, etc.

I mean even if they are out in a group at least 75% of them are face-down in a phone, 75% of the time.

And if they are, God forbid, alone....it's an automatic that they will be, ESPECIALLY nubile women.

That picture above isn't really even accurate. If it was, the chick would have her phone out behind his head too!

For a while now I've been thinking of a strategy to employ...

Perhaps I wear a shirt out in town that says, *Chicks who stare at phones all-night will stay single longer than Carrie Bradshaw*?

Or *The Ugliest Girls In Manhattan Stare At Phones In Bars*?

I know - they both suck. Still thinking hard...

The bars and restaurants in NYC are freakin' awesome - and this is what kills me. I can see this being an epidemic in a worse scene, e.g. Boston.

Self-absorbed in the youth culture, they have NO IDEA how stupid and insecure they look.

While they couldn't care less what I - an 'old coot'(?) - think....maybe instead of a donning a cleverly worded t-shirt I'll just accost them verbally?

Will Be Bigger Than Michael Scott!

For all y'all who watch and enjoy The Office:

It's more than a little crass but....whatever. I didn't really watch it for more than a second.

Tim Ferriss - Launching Again

I just pre-ordered The 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life for my wife (a *Winter Festival of Trees* present).

While I obsess over exercise, posture, and whatnot...

She's Italian so she's genetically wired to obsess over food!

Seriously. Recently I asked her, rhetorically, what her favorite part of the government school penitentiary day was.

While the answer is supposed to be RECESS, she threw me off by saying *lunch*.

Though personally I'm not too excited about this subject, Tim's books have proven to deliver an enormous ROI. But there's simply no way this one will be as good as his others. So read them first:

4-Hour Workweek

4-Hour Body

Your House Isn't Really Private Property...And Your Kids Aren't Really Yours

So a poor kid has cancer...

He undergoes long, torturous treatment...

The disease abates...

Except his doctors are trying to force him, i.e. overrule his parents(!), to undergo more chemotherapy and radiation.

But the doctors wanted to give Jacob several more rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, despite the clean PET scan. When asked why they wanted to keep giving Jacob these incredibly dangerous drugs, the doctors replied that this was “the standard of care” for his illness.

Jacob’s parents begged the doctors to make an individual diagnosis, rather than simply following unbending standards. But the doctors were steadfast. All children with this cancer needed multiple rounds of these drugs—regardless of PET scan results, the doctors contended.

Jacob’s parents did extensive study of the side effects of the five different chemotherapy drugs that the doctor wanted to administer. And they believed that the risk of the drugs was far greater than the risk of recurrent cancer, since Jacob had a clean PET scan. They said no to the doctors. No more chemotherapy treatment for now.

But the doctors would not take no for an answer. They called child protective services in Jacob’s county and asked the agency to file charges against the family for medical neglect.

After looking into the matter, both the local CPS agency and the local prosecuting attorney refused to file charges. They believed that the parents were making reasonable decisions for Jacob.

The doctors still would not take no for an answer. They called higher authorities in the state level CPS agency. The doctors had to make several calls before they finally found someone who would agree with them.

As a result of all of these calls, the local CPS agency was pressured into filing medical neglect charges against the parents.

The local prosecutor still refused to take a case against the family, so the state level CPS officials hired an independent private lawyer to serve as the prosecutor against Ken and Erin Stieler.

A jury trial is scheduled for early January to determine if the doctors will be given the authority to take over the medical decision-making for Jacob.

Click the link above, read the rest.

See also - Vaccinate Yourself Against Doctors.

I Use An Eye-Dropper...

I can't recall if I've ever blogged on this scam before...

But *concentrated* laundry detergent has got to be one of the biggest little rip-offs out there.

Every time someone over-fills the cap it's cha-ching, money in the bank for Big Laundry - sort of like every time a Vegas tourist hits with the dealer showing a 5 or 6.

And I'd wager that there are still plenty of 'old coots' out there filling the cap all the way up!

Running Out Of Self-Help Books!

Is that all you have to do, THINK?

In a sense, yes, Think & Grow Rich is about working *smart* rather than simply working hard.

I just finished it and my verdict...

I would say it is decent.

The background on it is that way back when, Andrew Carnegie (the steel magnate) commissioned this dude to spend 25 years studying *success*, er successful earthlings. And this book is allegedly the fruit of that laborious endeavor.

The more of these self-help, get-rich gurus I read....the more their theories blend together. In fact Tony Robbins, whom I just read, I feel rips substantially from this book which was published back in 1937.

To both of them, it's all about *mindset* - persistence, will power, self-control, etc.

I must note that there were two surprising parts to this book.

One, the author talks about sex a bunch. He asserts that highly sexed individuals are usually very successful - and they ought to be admired for their flirtatiousness rather than deprecated. (Throughout this subject....all I could think of was Bill Clinton.)

And the other section which was a little wacky was the part where Hill starts talking about, with considerable certainty(!), exactly what happens to people after they die.

In books like this I really look forward to great anecdotage and there was a bit (mostly Thomas Edison and Henry Ford), but not really that much considering all the alleged empiricism behind the text.

But that's not to say that Hill's suggestions on how to succeed in life don't constitute sound, if not profound advice. I will chew on his ideas and assess later on.

Anytime you hear people say *I've read that book 5 times* - as I did with this one - I think it can't hurt to check it out.

And, not for nuthin', but the book has actually sold over 60 million copies now.

Mounts For Color TV Morons

I finally got around to hanging that Sony Google Internet LCD color TV - or at least I got around to getting my handy BIL to do so. (I procured it for free with my Sony Points.)

To someone like me, who doesn't have much experience with things of this nature, it's always educational to watch plumbers, carpenters, and hands-people work. While many earthlings wonder how the bleep I can get toddlers to solve math equations....I'm equally amazed by people who can change tires without a cordless cell phone!

I'm not much of color TV watcher. Heck we barely have one. This lone TV is tucked away in the guest room and is really only for me to watch DVR-ed sporting events (i.e. golf and Tom Brady).

But nevertheless I am an expert from many years of prior vegetative experience.

Most Morons make the mistake of hanging or situating televisions TOO LOW. These buffoons put the sets at a level appropriate only for slouching, couch potatoes. I tease my parents about their *TV on the floor*. So if you are standing you have to tilt your head down to see what's going on. No matter how you watch, you are going to be *practicing* bad posture.

I myself have always watched TV while lying on the floor, aligned directly in front the screen, and WITHOUT a pillow prop for my head.

So I can lengthen my spine, get an ab workout in, and do other exercises from this position while the Morons are wasting away mind AND body on the couch.

Anyways, with an LCD you pretty much HAVE TO hang it - it's the whole freakin' point!

I went even higher than normal. I put the center about 5 feet 7 inches off the floor - almost as you would a picture frame. (I think since it's web-enabled I can turn on slideshows of my photos.)

But I got a mount that not only pops out and side-to-side, but one that also tilts down 15 degrees.

4.5 stars on Amazon
....$76.

Another Great YouTube Entrepreneurial Success Story

Yeah, it involves *dragon breath*.

Click here.

Google - Setting Its Sights On iTunes

I'm always rooting against Apple - much like I'm always rooting against the Red Sox.

While neutral on the products, I just don't care for the rabid fans!

And this reminds me...

One of these days I'm going to have to figure out a way to listen to music and whatnot in my car in a more modern way, i.e. NOT through the AM/FM car stereo.

I just can't bring myself to BUY an iPod and then BUY a thousand dollars worth of music.

Then I have to *manage* it: physically bring it with me, hide it in the car, sync devices, etc. Heck I'd probably get another $180 ticket from a cop for a *hands free violation* messing around with it.

I need a computer embedded in my car, with access to my stuff. Google obviously is positioning itself for such a future world.

For more info Google's latest salient - click here.

DIY Self-Defense?

I was informed the other day that Raid - the wasp and hornet killing variety - is *better* than mace or pepper spray.

Raid shoots 25 feet in a nice laser-like beam.

Apparently it'll blind a victim for *weeks*.

AND It's not illegal to have on your person.

So I was advised to keep a can in my car. And to let my first wife know where it is in the house for self-defensive reasons.

I'm not sure what that Moron is spraying...

But perhaps they ought to try it out on campus and down on Wall Street?

Just kidding!

Obama....Trying To Catch Me

Hah!

I myself got round 31 in just this morning.

Went to bed at midnight. Got up at 3:35am without an alarm...

In line at Eisenhower Park by 4:35am. I was *second* this morning but they wouldn't let us tee off until 7:56am.

Started off at 40 degrees but was an unseasonal 60+ by the end of the round. (Couldn't buy a putt. Shot 83.)

I'm starting to really enjoy playing with the characters on this muni. These guys, the ones crazy smart enough to camp out early anyway, have just as much *personality* as my South Philly jabronis - which is no small feat either.

We get to play in jeans at Eisenhower too.

Oh, what did I do all that time this morning?

I sat in the car, reading my book of course.

Parents Versus Big Government

Here is the full story on Dave Parker. I'm really shocked that this happened in Massachusetts. [sarcasm]

Sheeple - Dumping The Dude/Broad

I lived in a freshman dorm all three years of my stay at UPenn.

Why?

Well the upperclass housing options stunk, I had plum jobs in the freshman residence, and....for *socialization tactics*. Infer from that what you may. And note that I've always been making savvy decisions!

I saw it every year so by my third year amongst freshman chicks it was easy to predict.

My floor that year was 80% female - and almost all of them had residual boyfriends from government high school.

Ever the antagonist I laughed and scoffed at all of them. From the first week I flat-out told each and every one of these nerd-girls that by Christmas break they would be dumping the old boyfriend (or getting dumped!).

"Oh,"..giggling..."Don't say that!"

And I continued to razz them all semester long. My favorite time to do so was after midnight, when they were in the hall on an outstretched phone line. I'd whisper, "He's going to dump you," "It's almost ooooover",...

Sure enough, after Kwanzaa break EVERY SINGLE ONE of them was no longer attached!  (Long distance phone bills, which I delivered, became much, much thinner.)

People are indeed SHEEP, living scripted lives.

Not only will they break up with their sweetheart in December of freshman year...

But they will marry whomever it is they are dating at age 28.

They will have kids right away....OR they will get a dog right away.

They will convince themselves that daycare is good *socially* but really it's the bills in mailbox (fancy horseless carriages, large mortgage, etc.) that chose daycare.

They will convince themselves that the schools in their town are *the best*.

And between the ages of 35-40, if not sooner, they will start to really hate their chosen career, their industry will implode, or they will get laid off/fired.

They will pay thousands for tutors and SAT prep for these same kids who attend *the best* schools.

They will fork over all of their home equity to send their kids to college.

Their stomachs will turn with every little blip in the stock market - which holds their retirement hostage.

They will PRAY that their graduates get a job, ANY JOB, that first year out.

And they will PRAY that their kids, at age 28, don't marry the loser they've been slumming with for the past 5 years!!!

My favorite part about the graphic above is the weekly cyclicality, i.e. the *Monday reconsideration*.

Women Ruined Schools?

A few years ago some dimwitted Harvard (Graduate School of Education) broad told me - out at a bar in Brooklyn - that the schools weren't doing well because of *rich people*.

She said that if only those wealthy bastards would keep their kids in government schools then magically Big Education would be a success.

It is amazing how to the neo-Commi's everything can conveniently be blamed on the rich. Certainly if the setting was 1930s Germany this young lady and her ilk would've been scapegoating the Jews.

But to shift topics...

Most people agree that the school system fell apart (whatever that means) gradually beginning around 1950.

So why did it stop working?

Is it because the textbooks became *revisionist*? Because the welfare state was growing? Because of teachers' unions? Because of moral decay and rising divorce rates? Or, like dimwit said, because of private schools stealing the best students?

How about this theory which I'm sure many people have never heard:

Schools worked back in the day because the smartest, most competent women in America became teachers.

Understand that 60+ years ago females didn't go to law school, med school, or slave away for corporate America. But today they do.

Consider my wife. She majored in Elementary Education and Economics at Boston College. She student-taught 5th grade during college but opted to become a stock broker upon graduation. There was no way she, "...was going to deal with all that bull$hit in schools."

Only a Moron would think that one day in the future our best women (and men) will return to teach at government schools.

They just could never raise salaries high enough to entice highly competent people - not in the numbers they would need to make a difference anyway.

Essentially, when it did *work* the school system was subsidized by male chauvinism.

So in that sense it was never really a natural success - a point all these tinkering *reformers* (charter school and voucher advocates, et al) would do well to consider.

Some Funnies...

...Deserve their own post!

As Big As A Pachyderm...

From halftime of last week's New England Patriot drubbing of the Jets:

But sans the *thick skin*!!!

(Fan yelled, "Rex, Belichick is better than you...)

Money - Can't Take It With You

My grandmother just became a complete ward of the State of Massachusetts.

Grandpa died 20 years ago. She lived on her own; then at a subsidized home; then at an assisted-living facility until recently when her money ran out.

She had - I believe - 300k after selling her house not long ago. But the monthlies on her care ultimately devoured all that cash.

So now taxpayers are footing the bill, er bills, but at a lesser place than she had been at.

When my father told me how this all worked (you have whittle your accounts down to zero to gain eligibility) I was a little surprised - but only because I was completely ignorant about typical end-of-life living.

It's all really sad. My grandmother doesn't recognize anyone and has all the usual maladies of a nonagenarian. She's not just dying alone, she'll have been living alone for many, many years before leaving this world.

I mean, is this what we all have to look forward too?

She is/was a very difficult woman and there was *no chance* that she was going to live with my father or his brother. Old folk, even if moderately healthy, do need around-the-clock care - even just for incontinence and whatnot. My father said he could have conceivably taken care of (butt wipe) his father but not his mother.

But still, theoretically my grandmother could have moved-in with my parents (or uncle)....they could have hired nurses to stop by here and there....much of that money would not have gone to waste....AND taxpayers could have been spared.

Obviously if they didn't have this *welfare* state those people that can afford their own end-of-life care would pay for it themselves - and the money would be spent a whole lot more efficiently. People would simply figure it out, as they did for thousands of years before the tyranny of Big Government entitlements.

And dotage might not be so lonely...

Occupy Wall Street Fun

Thanks to LeagueIslander for sending me this slightly crass funny:

OWS apologists are bragging that 90% of their protesters have college degrees...

Hah! I've been telling y'all how worthless college is.

Now I don't follow this contemporary news din so maybe one of my readers can answer this question:

Is Obama taking any flack from Occupy Wall Streeters?

Because he's the head honcho at the moment. He's the one *printing money* and bending over to Wall Street with backdoor bank bailouts, 0% down FHA mortgages, suspended accounting rules, and whatnot.

I give it a month or so at most before the *winter* ends this protest FOR the status quo.

See also:

Peter Schiff - Not Just Brilliant

Occupy Wall Street Versus Greg Mankiw

Wealth Gap OR Reality Gap?

Why?

This video time-lapse images from space is getting TONS of hits and attention right now:



But quite frankly I don't see what's so enthralling about it. The music was grating to boot.

Of course I'm biased....Earth isn't even close to my favorite planet!

Hired A Homeschool Legal Posse

Remember Elian? If not, Google...

30 years ago homeschooling was highly regulated and practically *illegal* in almost every state.

But homeschoolers and their lawyers quietly fought back and won reclaimed the freedom to education their own - a freedom many homeschoolers take for granted today.

I've been reading all about it in - Home Schooling, the Right Choice: An Academic, Historical, Practical, and Legal Perspective - which so far has been a compelling read.

I mean, what would I do if a Social Worker or agent from Child Protective Services showed up on my doorstep tomorrow and demanded to come in to meet my kids and inspect our living conditions (because we don't send them to government school)???

Even after watching 1,000 episodes of Law & Order I still didn't know what the right course of action is.

The author - Christopher Klicka - has represented several hundred, if not more than a thousand families over the years who've been persecuted and harassed by principals, edu-crats, social workers, et al.

I'll give a more comprehensive review of the book when I finish it.

But the stories of what Big Government can do to homeschoolers (i.e. throw your kids in a foster home!) got me a little scared (and grateful).

So just now I joined Klicka's Homeschool Legal Defense Association. It's $500 for five years of guaranteed legal protection. Over that time they will represent us in ANY disputes we have with our school district, social workers,...

Newbies can read about the little tiff I had with my district last year - here.

Retro Fighting

Someone told me about this *comeback* today - jousting!

Is it more Moronic/dangerous than UFC and whatnot - getting skewered?

Apparently there's a new show devoted to it on color TV too:

I have to admit....I've started getting into the UFC stuff - as gruesome as it is.