I have many concerns regarding the public education system, and the quality of that education in America. If you don't think it doesn't affect you in your daily life, think again.

Sticking to the Common Core directive, first, I see that the Federal government has to stay out of state and local functions altogether. Education has always been a state function of government, and even then, the states' have a better track record of letting the local school boards run their schools.

Oh, silly me....the teachers' unions have strong-armed their wills to institute their agenda upon the school boards where more money is spent on public education on stupid administrative expenses and less towards their students' educations. This has been happening for decades. That's the $$ aspect; less of school boards' budgets spent on teaching materials, like textbooks, workbooks, chalk, chalkboards (those last two deemed as unhealthful now due to OSHA and the EPA on the Federal level), and the like; more of those budgets are spent toward lawyers, union demands, costs of regulatory inspections besides those of an educational nature.

During these decades of money NOT going to the students' education has resulted in some teachers unable to go back to basic concepts themselves. And I see it snowballing today. There isn't a day that passes where I do NOT come across misspellings and sentence fragments in newspapers, the marquee at the bottom of TV news programs, working documents in my own line of work, and so on. Here's a good challenge: see how many cashiers would be able to make change if that smart grain of sand running that cash register somehow became stupid all of a sudden. Yes, we have a couple of generations suffering from digital dementia. This is just a symptom of union mandated education.

Now the Federal government thinks it can fix the problem. They'll "fix" it alright. Having extorted itself to 45 states in that the Feds will withhold funds to those states who do not adopt this "Common Core" miracle drug, it will as always, force political indoctrination to the young minds in America.

Take a look at the sample workbook lesson for 5th graders, to be published by Pearson. Look particularly at the lesson, "Hold the Flag High," and the last two questions for the Possessive Nouns exercised. The wording has me steamed! :x :!: If that doesn't come off as political indoctrination to you, then you're part of the problem of the government taking over. I hope that is not the case for the mast majority of those reads this.

I see this as just a small taste of what may wind up soiling our kids' minds and eyes. I am afraid there are much, much more of these subtle questions or statements in lessons where they can be sneaked in logically, and in every grade level. Come to think of it, I would hate to read a high school senior thesis under Common Core. George Orwell himself would have a heart attack if he were alive today.

I do hold out hope, though. There are many parents out there who do not want this Common Core curriculum forced down their kids' throats and they become government programmed robots. This needs to happen at every school board meeting across the land.

5th Grade Common Core Lesson
Attached file:
(Download)

I think it's time to say "Whoa!" to Ohio. Social workers are no more expert in determining if any homeschooled kid is achieving educational standards than Joe the Plumber, much less a parent. They should stick to investigating alleged reports of abuse.

I agree that an abusive home environment is not a good environment for hone schooling, but the case cited I think is an isolated case where mom, who is teaching the kids, got tangled up with an undesirable of a boyfriend (which happens a lot).

The government snoops on private lives way too much as it is. Punish the 99% of people doing the right thing for the 1% who muck it up? Come on.........

"Bending the knee to the mob and pleasing men rather than God would probably make them scruple at ever playing the role of a John the Baptist before a modern Herod." -- Sheen, F. J. (1931). A Plea for Intolerance. Retrieved from North American Martyrs.org: http://www.northamericanmartyrs.org/pdf/Plea-for-Intolerance.pdf

The truth hurts doesn't it? That is one of the sub-points that, then Monsignor, Sheen made in his essay. As for Phil Robertson, he stood above the fray and stated the truth, unpopular as it is, and he gets the to be the fall guy.

Yes, what America needs is Intolerance; we are too Tolerant.

Hey, it isn't enough to boycott a single network, you have to also boycott the whole family of networks. The A&E Networks are A&E, Lifetime, LMN, History and Bio.

Go a step further, since it is all about ratings, and with that comes advertisers. Boycott the advertisers, too!

Here is a great quote regarding stemmed all this hysteria on gun control and it is so true:

"Fixating on guns after a crazy person commits mass murder is like draining the ocean to find a ring you dropped." -- Ann Coulter Human Events "Mental Health Laws are Trouble for Democrats" 12/18/2013
http://www.humanevents.com/2013/12/18/mental-health-laws-are-trouble-for-democrats/

I just so happen to be a Weld County resident, the county in which John Cooke is the Sheriff, and I also happen to be a CHP (Concealed Handgun Permit) holder with his signature. In fact, when I drove my wife to the sheriff's office to pick up her CHP, Sheriff Cooke walked in the door and we both thanked him for taking the common sense stand he and 54 other sheriffs have done.

And it is true that the ammo, gun and CHP run per the article has grown tremendously since this has become an issue since Newtown. It is refreshing to see some common sense in a nonsensical political environment. And getting a CHP in Colorado isn't hard, so long if you have no felonies or been involved in a domestic violence incident. I am a firm believer, however, that one HAS to do some practical training at a range and get some trigger and basic scenario practice as part of the requirement. Online is good for the classroom part and nothing more than that.

I have the same position with Navy Ret CWO; I have no problem with the no discharging of firearms within my town's limits; I believe this is reasonable for the public safety. And the laws in Colorado regarding deadly force are not that restrictive where if I had to prove my innocence, if it came down to it, the deck would not necessarily be stacked against me.

The laws that were passed here in Colorado this past summer are feel-good reactions to tragic shooting incidents (with Prince Bloomberg's $$ doing the real talking).

I also say let the states and local governments take care of issues peculiar to them and keep Uncle Sam out of it.

I have heard of this before. I personally do not see martial law, which is what a hostile military takeover of the government is, occurring here in the U.S.

What is happening is the mainstream media is controlled by their huge corporate sponsors. Without their advertising revenue coming in, they would not exist. News in the U.S. is nothing more than a business and that business has to keep their sponsors happy. So, the mainstream news outlets' business models are instilling fear in the people because that is what sells newspapers, and newspaper, cable/satellite TV (they carry 24/7 news channels), and online subscriptions. On top of that, these news outlets have to "report" the news as per the major sponsors' political points of view. What is the best and most often used tool used to instill that fear? Suspense. It is human nature to fear the unknown, so the media exploit this fear, just like mystery and thriller novel authors by leaving their audiences hanging until the next installment or the next plot twist.

Therein lies the problem. The vast majority of the American public takes what they see, hear and view from the media at face value and accept it as complete and factual as presented. A small percentage of people, my wife and I included, do some fact checking and research on our own so we can get the full story and get fully informed.

Don't get me wrong, I despise Usama bin Obama with my entire being, but he alone is not the entire cause of what is going on in these times. Best example is the Obamacare fuster cluck. The architect, Ezekiel Emanuel, Rahm Emanuel's brother must have visions of grandeur. To take the grand approach of fixing everything that is wrong with our health care system, instead of just coming up with a plan to cover only those that are uninsured, which is what I understood the proposed plan was supposed to have been, is symptomatic of what goes on in political thought in Washington today; here this guy is Rahm Emanuel's brother, so with common sense long gone, cronyism and nepotism is the crucial play in the political game. It happens with the powers that be in the GOP as well.

Usama bin Obama's goal of making the U.S. a socialist country is slowly coming into fruition piecemeal. But remember this: he did get re-elected, in spite of having gone through his first term, marked primarily by the 2008 recession, government bailouts to the private banking and auto industries. The bureaucracy we have now is obscenely bloated, a necessity for any form of socialist government. We have the government snooping around in each and everyone of our personal lives. Our neighbors and even common folks we do not even know are empowered, if not required, to report anything they perceive, regardless how insignificant as nefarious to the authorities. Those Cold War era espionage novels I read in my youth are now real life factual events. When do we start marching goosestep, clicking our heels when coming into attention and rendering the Roman salute? What did I spend 20 years serving our country in the Navy, with all the associated sacrifices and hardships my family and I endured, voluntarily putting my life on the line defending our God given and Constitutionally guaranteed rights for? It seems it is becoming all for naught.

The only way I see for King Barry to carry out martial law is to draft the illegal aliens in this country, because our military under the Uniform Code of Military Justice do not have to obey any orders that are immoral or illegal; only lawful orders must be obeyed. My fellow Americans, please do a little outside reading to get ALL the facts behind the news stories so we don't re-elect the worst eff'ing candidate on the ballot. This also applies for the race for dog catcher. Become better informed, our democracy depends on it! The country you save could be our own.

First to Daanl: Please stop racial slurs out on the net; it makes you look ignorant and insensitive to groups of people, even though I know you aimed it at one individual, namely, King Barry Stompy-Foot Saotoro, that long-legged mack daddy crack dealer. Ever notice that when he makes a public speaking engagement, he always has to say "I," "Me," "My," and "Mine?" He HAS to make it all about him. Sort of like A. Hitler did in the 30's. Scary thought.

Second: I have a strong feeling a revolution is coming. Our Federal government is a prime example of the Ignorant leading Incompetent to do the Impossible. Our Federal servants in all of the agencies have to follow a chain of command, just like the military. Guess who is at the top of that pyramid?

Lastly, let me part with a few nugget of our government's attitude towards us, the citizens who elected this leader--the "I command and you shall obey" that is thrust upon all of us. Take a look at a page from a proposed workbook for 5th graders. Question 5 is particularly disturbing to me just for the wording it used; this reeks of political indoctrination aimed at our youth. It looks like the priority of fixing our subpar quality of public education is going to change to political indoctrination so the next generation that will eventually run the government will follow a Nazi style template relatively non impeded by the people. That template is being built as we speak. Take a good hard look.

Page from 5th Grade CC Workbook