Had a Blast at the mothers for liberty meeting.

the sewing meeting for the west michigan mothers for liberty was an awesome good time. Robin, Kate and i made our little sewing projects (the one i made is above) and then sat and chatted over coffee and tea. many ideas were shared for the group and our next meeting is in the works. i am so excited and hopeful for the development of the group. good thing are going to come of it. hopefully we will start getting more members and more activities can be done on promoting liberty and freedom and community.

mothers for liberty november 8 meeting

do you want to learn to sew? this is the meeting for you! we will be sewing a couple of simple projects that everyone from beginning seamstress to the expert will find fun. bring your machine and supplies (i will list later) and come and join the fun. i do have one extra sewing machine, so even if you can't bring yours you can borrow mine. the coffee will be hot and the conversation good, please come on out.

uphill

our battle will be uphill. we will need to work harder to keep our freedoms and liberties.

Perhaps America will one day go fascist democratically, by popular vote. William L. Shirer

i am a patriot, i will defend the constitution, the bill of rights!

How's the soap packaging?

well here is an example of how i am going to package my homemade soap. i will be adding labels to them with the kind of soap and contact information. we are out of ink in our printer now =) so what do you think? how much would you pay? any thoughts would be appreciated. these will also go up for sale on my etsy site if you are interested in purchasing some. i will have lavender, this bar is chamomile, and i will do some other fun ones.

my new etsy shop

well i have opened a new etsy shop. stop by and check it out! i will be adding new things as soon as i can! i have a mini etsy on the side of my blog too. very cool!

quote, what do you think?

Alexander Tytler writing in the founding era said: "...the world's greatest civilizations.. have progressed through this sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back again to bondage." Where do you think we are in this sequence? Can we stop it or at least slow it down?It also seems to me that we are moving through these phases at an accelerated pace compared to earlier civilizations. Is this because of the technology of the modern age? If so then we have lost more control than we can fathom.

10 public school "signposts of failure"

10 public school "Signposts of Failure"

by The Libertarian Party(11/5/99)

WASHINGTON, DC -- George W. Bush is wrong: The biggest problem in public schools is not "moral chaos" but educational chaos -- thanks to government schools that endlessly demand more money to hire more teachers, while lowering standards and churning out more functional illiterates, the Libertarian Party charged today. "Government schools can't teach reading, writing, and arithmetic -- why should we trust them to teach morality, respect, and character?" asked Steve Dasbach, the party's national director. "If public education does for ethics what it's done for learning, we'll end up with a generation of immoral, disrespectful, and characterless students."

On Tuesday, Texas Governor George W. Bush, in a major speech on education in New Hampshire, proposed that public schools must begin to teach "right and wrong" to end the nation's "moral chaos." Bush, the leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination, also promised to increase the amount of federal money spent on "promoting character education," from $8 million to $25 million. But any effort to "save" the foundering government school system -- whether with more federal money, smaller class sizes, or morality-based teaching -- is doomed to fail, countered Dasbach.

As evidence, he pointed to 10 "Signposts of Failure" in government schools:

* Between 1960 and 1995, average per-pupil spending in U.S. public schools rose 212% in inflation-adjusted dollars.

* Between 1960 and 1995, the student/teacher ratio has dropped by 35% -- from approximately 26 students for every one U.S. public school teacher to only 17.

* Between 1960 and 1995, the average salary of U.S. public school teachers jumped 45% in inflation-adjusted dollars.

* In 1994, fewer than 50% of the personnel employed by U.S. public schools were teachers.

* American 12th graders rank 19th out of 21 industrialized countries in mathematics achievement and 16th out of 21 nations in science.

* In fourth grade, 77% of children in urban high-poverty schools are reading "below basic" levels on the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests.

* Since 1983, over 10 million public school students have reached the 12th grade level without learning to read at the basic level.

* Since 1983, more than 20 million students have reached the 12th grade unable to do basic math.

* Since 1983, more than 25 million students have reached the 12th grade not knowing the essentials of U.S. history.

* In 1995, nearly 30% of first-time college freshmen enrolled in at least one remedial course to compensate for a sub-standard high school education.

"Look at the track record," said Dasbach. "More funding has been tried. It failed. Smaller classes have been tried. They failed. Higher-priced teachers have been tried. They failed. More educational bureaucrats have been tried. They failed. "In fact, the only thing we haven't tried yet is freedom: The freedom of parents to use their own money to send their children to the non-profit, religious, or private school of their choice -- non-government schools that effectively teach the values parents want," he said. "It's something that George W. Bush and other Republicans don't seem to understand: Freedom and responsibility are a prerequisite for morality, respect, and character. So why don't we try it in education?" Source: http://www.libertarianrock.com/topics/school/ten_posts_of_failure.html