Recycled Cash; Proving Government Waste And Homeschooling

I love this:

"The government gives me back $100 for daycare. The cost is $140 but I end up paying $40 in actuality! Isn't it great?"

No, it isn't. Think, putz. That money is yours to begin with! All you're getting back is your money.

The government taxes you to no end and refuses to give you your money back in good economic times or in things like the old OAS or Social security in the U.S. You put in doesn't mean you get back anymore. Moreover, this thing about government deficits and surpluses is a little weird to me.

Governments shouldn't be running surpluses (or deficits) when you think of it. If they're not supposed to be "for profit" and "looking out for the greater good" then why do they "show" a profit? If they do, then they should return the money back to the people.

But we live in times where "crown corporations" are seen as normal. It's a a time where the expropriation - sometimes used for things we would never ever agree to - of our money is deemed acceptable. We have to prove to the government our income, yet they don't have to show squat to us.

Man, I need a 222.

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I love this - by now you should know I'm being facetious - about defenders of governmental inefficiency. "Yes, it does have big problems but I'm willing to give it a chance." I wonder why capitalism and free enterprise is not accorded the same benefit of the doubt. The minute it slips, the people are there to demand government (made up of more people but drunk and bent on power) to "regulate" it. Faith is man? Bah. Get that bureaucrat in there as a progressive middleman to curb free markets.

I love when, snicker, someone says, "Really? Government wastes money? Show me where that's written?" Hello? Are you Sleeping Beauty and overslept or something? Or have you been blatantly disconnected from sources that discuss such matters? They make it sound there's a little black book of accounting figures disclosing the government's book keeping records. You, as a free and upstanding sovereign individual MUST SEEK it out yourself. When the government says something will cost "A" when was the last time they came in on budget?

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My sister decided earlier this summer to home-school my nephew. He's 14 but his experience in the public school system (he went to French school) has been mixed given his ADHD/POS/Turret syndrome. Going private was an option but in the end my sister felt she should take control of his education.

Ah, freedom to choose. It's a beautiful thing. At least he'll be spared that piece of crap ethics and religion course intellectual zealots are trying impose on people.

My nephew is an excessively bright kid. He loves music and comics in particular. He knows how to read and read maps. He enjoys dark humor. Very few 14 year olds listen to the Allman Brothers, Bruce Springsteen, Nick Cave or Jonathan Richman.

His brother, by contrast, is academically smart, endowed with a handsome Italian gene and without neurological issues. Will probably be a doctor or something. My niece, whom we call la tedesca (the German) because of her tall posture (she's 5'4'' already at 11), blond hair and green eyes (my mother has green eyes). Actually, come to think of it, none of us really "look" Italian.

Veered off track and back to the homeschooling we go.

I think it's a good idea. My sister can tailor the provincial curriculum to my nephew's needs by finding a niche. He craves that. You need to properly contextualize things with him. He thoroughly enjoys when you make analogies to pop culture when it comes to history and politics.

However, there can be concerns. For me, critical thinking (and for this post I strictly mean on matters of politics and history) is important. Basic economics too. Too often in the past, I would engage in a political discussion where specious economic musings were being passed around as fact.

On critical thinking, the "normal" neurological nephew once, quite aggressively (for an eight year-old) told me in a tone suggesting he was not prepared to discuss or explore, "Bush was pure evil and that Obama was good." My sister heard and said nothing. I felt she should have quelled such a poorly thought statement in the bud.

I found this troublesome. I attempted to get to the root of how he arrived at such a conclusion (if you're eight you're getting it from somewhere) but my sister stopped me. She said, "kids are perceptive."

Again, troublesome thinking to me.

All I could get in was, "Ok. Have you been focusing and examining on Obama?" and all he said was, "What for?"

Troubling. Again.

Meanwhile, my menally afflicted nephew took issue in class with a teacher who tried to pass off a Michael Moore movie as historically accurate or at least, a good companion for critical thinking. He wasn't buying any of it and when he pressed on questioning how that can possibly be (he sniffed bull shit), the teacher dismissed him as "acting up." My nephew visits the U.S. a lot and he felt in that particular French school, they had a completely skewed view of the Americans. He was looked upon in horror for "dissenting."

It's incumbent on the homeschooler, in my view, to transcend partisanship and personal ideological leanings and present all sides of a story. My nephew knows there are three sides to every story and he demands it. If you will show Michael Moore then show all the films that have come after him (betcha you don't even know they exist, huh? And Moore claims he's "censored) to expose there's another side to the coin.

The hurling of who did what and which party is hypocritical and which politician was bad can only be discussed once a person possessess the ability to keep perspective, contextualize and knows history.

From that point forward, free as a bird the person is to choose a side should it be desired.

Just my thoughts.