The Peaceful Gnome

More reasons "The Man" hates homeschooling and independent thought in general: How Teenage Rebellion Has Become a Mental Illness For a generation now, disruptive young Americans who rebel against authority figures have been increasingly diagnosed with mental illnesses and medicated with psychiatric (psychotropic) drugs. (two pages of fine info here) Final paragraph: It would certainly be a dream of Big Pharma and those who favor an authoritarian society if every would-be Tom Paine -- or Crazy Horse, Tecumseh, Emma Goldman or Malcolm X -- were diagnosed as a youngster with mental illness and quieted with a lifelong regimen of chill pills. The question is: Has this dream become reality? Not in MY HOUSE! Read the rest here .

I have a new favorite political writer, one who echoes my thoughts on issues with near perfection, and he has a frequently updated blog ! Check him out for "Observations and commentary from a Christian Libertarian perspective" Name: William N. Grigg Location: Payette, Idaho, United States Grateful follower of my Lord Jesus, equally grateful husband to my wonderful wife Korrin, inadequate father to five delightful children

A study published in the December 2007 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (see abstract here ) provides another example of the damaging effects of divorce, this one on the environment.

Yesterday Serenity and I went to Perpetual Recess up in El Cerrito, about 34 miles from home. This is a monthly gathering of "unschooling" families and I wanted to go to see what sort of people they were, how they acted and so forth. The gathering was in a big hall rented from the Boy Scouts for the occasion. There were probably 20 families there, and maybe 30 kids from toddlers up to late teens. I was the only adult male to be seen, which is no surprise actually, though it is disappointing. In any case the kids were generally very happy looking which is important I think. The atmosphere was uncontrolled chaos with parental intervention almost non-existent. The result in the kids was varied. There was one teen boy, a huge kid over 6 feet tall with long hair down nearly to his waist, who never wears shoes, striding around inside and out unshod at all times. I would have been that way had I been allowed when I was his age I'm sure. One small boy who must have been...

I got this from The New Unschooler blog, Serenity liked it, I liked it too:

Yesterday I had "oral surgery" which is a nicer way of saying I had 8 teeth yanked from my head ;-/ I underwent general anesthesia so the process was painless. So far I have some swelling but no significant pain. I took two Vicodin yesterday, one right away after I woke up and got to the pharmacy and one later in the evening before bed. So far today I have not felt like I needed to use it. I have been taking Ibuprofen for the inflammation but that is all. I'm on a course of penicillin during the healing. On Friday I'm going in to my primary dentist, hopefully to get the dentures that should have been ready yesterday. Though I'm "missing" those teeth now it's not much different really since they were mostly gone anyway. At the start of the new year our company switched dental insurance and for a while there they were trying to deny service to me because I needed to wait 12 months. However, after working with our company, they decided to wai...

When we send a child off to school it separates them from us, from their family, for much of the day five days a week. This reduces our influence on our own children and increases the impact of the government, which is why I frequently call public schools "government indoctrination centers" . When we stop sending them off to school it brings them back into our family in a big way, while cutting out the influence of those government indoctrination centers. But there may be some adjustments in our attitudes that need to be made along the way it seems to me. Homeschooling means involving our children (or in my case grandchild) much more intimately in our lives. The idea that we can do a set number of things and then they go away is not one we can keep up in this project. We can't feed them, play with them a bit, maybe teach them for a couple of hours and call it good. No, they are involved in our whole life, pretty much morning to night. In our situation there are ...

Lora mailed in the withdrawal letter to Serenity's former elementary school yesterday morning. She is now officially attending the Serenity School ! On Thursday evening Serenity and I attended the San Francisco Symphony together. That was her first experience at the symphony and I was quite pleased that she both enjoyed it and was able to act in such a way that everyone who saw her was encouraging and complementary about her being there. She was amazingly quiet and well behaved ;-) We took BART to the city and had dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen. I had Chicken Chipotle Pizza and a beer while Serenity went with the plain cheese pizza and a Shirley Temple. She got a big pile of extra cherries on her Shirley Temple because of the enthusiastic way she responded to the "Do you like cherries" question. She was chatting with our server, Brittany, and had a suggestion about the way people were seated and how the servers were organized. Serenity ended up talking wi...

I last wrote here about homeschooling Serenity back on December 22. In the last month Lora and I have become committed to this idea, though we have yet to settle on curriculum and style issues. I, of course, lean strongly toward the Unschooling idea, while Lora is nervous about that and thinks that some structured classes are necessary. Yesterday we did file a PSA (Private School Affidavit) here in California, what that means is that we are now a legal private school. We have not withdrawn Serenity from the local elementary school yet, she was sick yesterday with a cold anyway. We may do the deed some time today or tomorrow but I don't know for sure yet. I'm going to take Serenity to an unschooling group gathering next week, I think, it's with SFBUN (San Francisco Bay Unschooling Network) and is called Perpetual Recess :-) Sounds like fun to me. There is a "mushroom walk" with a naturalist we could go to today but I'm taking Serenity to the City for the ...

Today, being described as a “constitutionalist” can have fatal consequences – as in death-by-government consequences. The precise definition of “police state” may be elusive, but this one is suitable for our purposes: A police state exists anywhere an innocent, law-abiding family can have its home violated, and their lives threatened, by a paramilitary strike team -- who abducts one of the children at gunpoint -- as the result of an anonymous phone call. Boiled down to its essentials, this is what happened to the Shiflett family of New Castle, Colorado. Last Thursday (January 3), 11-year-old Jon Shiflett fell and hit his head while attempting to grab the handle of a moving car. His father, 62-year-old Tom Shiflett , is a Vietnam veteran with adequate medical training to deal with minor emergencies of this sort. He's also something of a curmudgeon, a bearded patriarch who has raised ten children, home-schooling them all and raising them in commendable isolation from our depraved po...

At play in her Sponge Bob Square Pants tent... (click on an image for high-res version) Then helping grandpa cut up the Christmas tree... That's my happy helper :-)

Basil the Great of Caesarea , Gregory of Nazianzus , Gregory of Nyssa Basil and the two Gregorys, collectively known as the Cappadocian Fathers, were leaders of Christian orthodoxy in Asia Minor (modern Turkey) in the later fourth century. Basil and Gregory of Nyssa were brothers; Gregory of Nazianzus was their friend. All three were influential in shaping the theology ratified by the Council of Constantinople of 381, which is expressed in the Nicene Creed. Their defense of the doctrines of the Holy Spirit and Holy Trinity, together with their contributions to the liturgy of the Eastern Church, make them among the most influential Christian teachers and theologians of their time. [From " Commemorations Biographies , " Lutheran Service Book, LCMS Commission on Worship]

"In the space of one hundred and seventy-six years the Lower Mississippi has shortened itself two hundred and forty-two miles. Therefore ... in the Old Oolitic Silurian Period the Lower Mississippi River was upward of one million three hundred thousand miles long... seven hundred and forty-two years from now the Lower Mississippi will be only a mile and three-quarters long... There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact. " Heh. :-)

This is the third introduction to the following article I've written so far. The previous two were full of venom and hatred and disrespect for the police. Now I simply present the story as written in our local paper with this comment. The police increasingly use deadly force when deadly force is not called for. To kill a single person with a knife, especially when there are more than one officer present, is not what we should expect from our protectors. It seems they are more concerned with their own personal safety than with protecting their employers, us. That said I am just as guilty of murder as these police are, I kill them with my hatred and must repent and seek forgiveness from the Lord for that sin. I am no better than they, and probably worse on some days. SF Gate (01-08) 18:17 PST SEBASTOPOL - The family of a 16-year-old boy shot and killed in his Sebastopol home by Sonoma County sheriff's deputies has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the count...

I have some problems with the entire concept of "personal evangelism." First I don't care for the term "evangelism." The vocable itself has been so terribly tortured, for so many decades, that anyone hearing it can't help but get the wrong idea. It automatically implies outlines, Saturday seminars for laymen, going for the close/conversion etc. Secondly it wrongly binds consciences, telling Christians that it's everyone's duty to "evangelize" (as taught in Saturday seminars etc.) when indeed it's not. Thirdly it springs from wrong notions, namely that we can "grow the church" and that if we don't do it, many will be lost un-necessarily. Untrue. Conversion and church growth is the work of the Holy Spirit, who is God, and who also loves the world and all its people. Fourthly, mission work (not evangelism) is the work of the church, not the individual. It's accomplished by baptizing, teaching, absolving and feedin...

High hopes for diabetes drug that mimics healthy lifestyle effects Bernadette Tansey, Chronicle Staff Writer Tuesday, January 8, 2008 A small Cambridge, Mass., startup is betting it can mimic the healthful benefits of diet and exercise with a pill, an entrancing possibility that has earned Sirtris Pharmaceuticals a ton of press coverage in the past few years.

Habakkuk 3 17 Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. 19 GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. To the choirmaster: with stringed [ d ] instruments.

Psalms 37 8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil. 9 For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the LORD shall inherit the land. 10 In just a little while, the wicked will be no more; though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there. 11 But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.

And now the Christmas season is officially over. The Wise Men Traveled from Afar L M Text by Walter P. Snyder, 1957– St. Matthew 2:1–12 Suggested tune: Puer Nobis Nas­ci­tur The Wise Men traveled from afar To worship Him who, by a star, Was shown to be the Royal Son — King David’s Heir, Anointed One. A Child they found in Bethlehem, By Holy Ghost conceived, yet man: The Father’s Son in flesh and blood Was fully man and fully God. Their incense honored Deity And gold was gift to royalty; While myrrh foreshadowed death and grave As sinful men He came to save. Yet tomb was not His final end; He rose — our Wisdom, Savior, Friend. The Morning Star still beams His light And scatters Satan’s gloomy night. Salvation, pardon, life, and health — Richness beyond all earthly wealth — Through Word and water, body, blood, Christ gives these gifts of highest good. To God the Father and the Son, With Holy Ghost forever One, Be honor, glory, hymns of praise By men and angels ever raised. — W. P. Snyde...

So, "Hee Haw wannabe" the Hillbilly Redneck "Huckster" Huckabee won in Iowa. Big deal, the ignorant redneck sweeps the ignorant redneck vote. Ignorant Rednecks, AKA "Evangelicals" gave him the pass there, we have yet to see how a state with an average IQ up in double digits plays out. :-P~ Meanwhile, on the neo-socialist side of the divide the tribal leader Obama beat out tribal leader Hillary. Gee should I assuage my guilt by voting for the black man or the white woman ? Who cares what they actually stand for, which is NOTHING but LUST FOR POWER in both cases. In any case race guilt won out over feminism.

From the front porch this morning. There is a big storm coming our way.

Fred Reed at his very best I think.

I bought a new bible for Christmas, really Mom bought it for me, thanks Mom! :-) It came wrapped in bubble wrap of course. I just walked into the other room where Serenity is watching Dora the Explorer on TV and handed the wrap to her. She perked up and said "You know how to make me happy!" and is now happily popping the bubbles while snuggled beneath a warm blanket in front of the fireplace where I started a fire this morning because it was frosty this New Years morning. Simple things can make a 6 year old happy, fancy toys get old quickly but a favorite stuffed cat has provided endless entertainment and comfort to her. :-) I do love Serenity, she is a joy to watch and live with. I'm still thinking about the homeschooling idea and have ordered a book from I do need to be careful that I don't " over research " the thing. Sometimes I get so involved in researching things I never get around to actually doing them :-) On the other hand I don't w...

New Years is pure artifice. There is no corresponding religious event to go with it, no saint's day or event in the life of Christ to celebrate, except the circumcision and naming of Jesus is commemorated today, really though I don't think that is what people are out partying over. If it was maybe I'd participate, but not even my church does anything on this day. It's not the winter solstice even, it's just an arbitrary cut off on a calendar set up hundreds of years ago . Yippee we changed from 2007 to 2008, for that we stay up till all hours of the night drinking? Not me! :-) I brought in the new year last night in a dream like fashion... well not dream like , actually I was in a dream, I went to bed and fell asleep well before midnight. :-) Now that is the way to celebrate what is, after all, just another day .