The Peaceful Gnome

Saw this on APOD (Astronomy Picture Of  the Day) and loved it.  Bet it makes you smile: Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted via email from Our Family Blog

Download now or watch on posterous VID 00052-20100727-1333.3GP (1878 KB) Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted via email from Our Family Blog

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted via email from Our Family Blog

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted via email from Our Family Blog

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted via email from Our Family Blog

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted via email from Our Family Blog

Well, Lora, Serenity, Topanga, Buster and me are all heading out for Caswell Memorial State Park tomorrow with the SFBUN ies so there won't be any posts here for at least the next four days.... unless there are... there is a Starbucks 8 miles away in Modesto where we could pick up wifi. Anyway, there won't be many pictures from me because my fancy schmancy camera is FUBAR at the moment and I haven't had the time nor inclination nor cash to send it off for repairs yet.  I have no idea what happened to the thing.  Usually I drop them or spill soda on them or crush them in narrow cave passages but this time I really have no clue what I did to break it.  :-( Finally, the whole vegetarian thing is officially history for us :-)  It would be nice but it's so much cheaper to buy packaged meats and such from the evil agribusiness conglomerates that I've given up on the idea of treating our avian, porcine and bovine brethren with love and respect and am just going ...

I know that software engineers or programmers or whatever they call themselves need to justify staying on the payroll by producing things.  Really, I do understand this concept.  But why do they insist on "improving" products that work perfectly already?  If you try to improve something that is already RIGHT in every way then you can only make is LESS RIGHT!  Two examples I've encountered recently are the Thunderbird email program, the one I'm using at this very moment and Mozy online back up , which is running in the background right now.  Thunderbird went from being slick and fast to being grindingly slow after the last "upgrade" they did.  Now it does some nonsensical thing that serves no purpose I can discern called "indexing" that supposedly allows me to find emails better, though it doesn't actually do that.  They were easier to find in the previous version with a simple key word search.  Now the program sucks resources and almos...

Gene Edward Veith posted a bit about the Huguenot cross on his website. On my grandmother DuPertuis' side we are descended from Hugenots who fled France and sheltered in Switzerland, or so says the family history I read. Cool symbol, I think I'll see if I can find one somewhere. http://www.geneveith.com/the-huguenot-cross/_5951/ Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Check out this website I found at lewrockwell.com The structure of American schooling, 20th-century style, began in 1806 when Napoleon's amateur soldiers beat the professional soldiers of Prussia at the battle of Jena. When your business is selling soldiers, losing a battle like that is serious. Almost immediately afterwards a German philosopher named Fichte delivered his famous "Address to the German Nation" which became one of the most influential documents in modern history. In effect he told the Prussian people that the party was over, that the nation would have to shape up through a new Utopian institution of forced schooling in which everyone would learn to take orders. So the world got compulsion schooling at the end of a state bayonet for the first time in human history; modern forced schooling started in Prussia in 1819 with a clear vision of what centralized schools could deliver: Obedient soldiers to the army; Obedient workers to the mines; Well ...

Reporter: Jennifer Waddell Web Producer:  Forrest Carr TUCSON (KGUN-9 TV) - Kids skip out on school.  They're truants, little criminals right? Not so fast. There are some kids who never step foot in a school and don't follow home schooling guidelines either.  It's a movement known as "unschooling."   And in Arizona, it appears to be legal. 9 On Your Side wanted know more about it.  One Tucson area family agreed to talk about their experience with it. Lisa Cottrell-Bentley and her husband Greg are parents to Zoe, age 13 and Teagan, age 9.  Lisa explained to 9 On Your Side anchor Jennifer Waddell how "unschooling" began for them.  "It all came about because of Zoe. When Zoe was first born, she was a brilliant infant, but by the time she was a year old she could say 104 words and by the time she was three she was reading books all on her own." The Bentley family is letting their children decide how, what and when they learn....

GREAT Speech!  :-) Erica Goldson America Via Erica Fri, 25 Jun 2010 12:00 EDT © The Daily Mail The 2010 Graduating Class of Coxsackie-Athens High School. Comment: The following speech was delivered by top of the class student Erica Goldson during the graduation ceremony at Coxsackie-Athens High School on June 25, 2010 Here I stand There is a story of a young, but earnest Zen student who approached his teacher, and asked the Master, "If I work very hard and diligently, how long will it take for me to find Zen? The Master thought about this, then replied, "Ten years . ." 
The student then said, "But what if I work very, very hard and really apply myself to learn fast -- How long then?" Replied the Master, "Well, twenty years." "But, if I really, really work at it, how long then?" asked the student. "Thirty years," replied the Master. "But, I do not understand," said the disappointed student. ...

I'm sure some people will think this has to do with those " EVIL DRUGS !" but it's really about governments killing people.  That is pretty much all governments do, kill people, steal their stuff and blow things up.  Other than that they do nothing right and serve no real purpose at all.  These guys were growing a harmless crop, you know, PLANTS , to sell to people who want to buy it and one was killed and and their farm destroyed and their crops were stolen because the government doesn't want them to do it.  How medieval can you get, ever hear of a word called FREEDOM ?  Nope?  I didn't think so.   Yes, this is the area we almost moved to a couple of months ago and it pisses me off to hear of the gestapo crawling around out there destroying lives. Deputies kill man at South Bay marijuana farm Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, July 22, 2010 (07-22) 09:11 PDT DEL VALLE RESERVOIR -- A man was shot and killed by Santa Cl...

Last night Serenity and Rogelio, the little boy from next door, went out after dark with flashlights and garbage bags and wearing rubber gloves and picked up garbage near Railroad Blvd. Serenity announced solemnly that "We are saving the world." :-) When I said "Good" with a smile and tone that let her know I was not totally serious she said something like "Even two LITTLE hands can make a big difference." and went off to work with Rogelio. It was very cool and they came back with big bags full of litter too. Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

via tumbleweedhouses.com Cool, I like this idea :-) Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

I had a personal best time of 35 minutes from home in downtown Livermore to the Pleasanton BART station. :-). Of course now. I'm a bit damp from sweating. But that's all right, keeps people from crowding into my seat ;-) Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

I share this only because my shower curtain has red eyed tree frogs on it :-) Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted via email from Our Family Blog

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted via email from Our Family Blog

Serenity, Topanga, Rogelio and Jesus on the stairwell munching down sugar. Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted via email from Our Family Blog

Pastor Matt Harrison was elected to be the President of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod at the synod convention in Houston today. Pastor Harrison said during his acceptance speech "you have kept your perfect record of electing sinners as presidents of the Missouri Synod. I guarantee you I will sin and fail. I will fall short." Here is is short address to the convention: http://issuesetc.org/podcast/532071310special.mp3 Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

<pout>We can't go this year.</pout> Maybe we can go next year!  :-) Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Ah Switzerland, long known as the land that shelters the blood money of murderous dictators from around the world is now the number one haven for child rapists.  How low can you go? <sigh> Polanski free, Swiss reject US extradition request By BRADLEY S. KLAPPER and FRANK JORDANS, Associated Press Writers Monday, July 12, 2010 More... (07-12) 06:38 PDT BERN, Switzerland (AP) -- The Swiss government declared renowned film director Roman Polanski a free man on Monday after rejecting a U.S. request to extradite him on a charge of having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl.  (Full story) See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Jamie's Birthday and Potluck Posted via email from Our Family Blog

Topanga spent the night with us on Thursday and all day Friday.  Serenity, Topanga and I walked over to Cafe Art and I left them there to spend a couple of hours doing some ceramic painting, I'll show some photos of those when they are finally done.  We had lunch at La Pupusa House , a Salvadoran restaurant just across the street from us. The History of the Pupusa Pupusas were created by the Pipiles,  an indigenous people from El Salvador who spoke a dialect called Pipil. A pupusa (the Pipiles called it "pupusawa") is a thick, corn tortilla filled with any assortment of vegetables, pork, beef or seafood. Before hand-shaping a pupusa it is filled with the stuffing of your choice and cooked on a griddle - Not deep fried! A pupusa is equivalent to the pizza of Italy or the taco of Mexico, and the sky's the limit in selecting your favorite stuffing. Enjoy! I especially love them because you can get them vegetarian or even full on vegan if you want to, and the...

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From Peter Gray at Psychology Today : July 7, 2010, Child Development ADHD diagnoses derive from schools' intolerance of normal human Diversity. Published on July 7, 2010 According to the most authoritative recent data, approximately 8% of children in the United States, aged 4 to 17, have been diagnosed as having ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder).[1] The same reports note that the disorder is about three times as frequent in boys as it is in girls, so this means that roughly 12% of boys and 4% of girls have received the diagnosis. Think of it. Twelve percent of boys--that's approximately one boy out of every eight --has been determined by some clinical authority, using official diagnostic criteria set out by the American Psychiatric Association, to have this particular mental disorder ! If only teachers' ratings  were used, the numbers would be even greater. In one study involving 16 different schools and more than three thousand c...

Back to Article Study: Pot prices could plummet post-legalization By LISA LEFF, Associated Press Writer Wednesday, July 7, 2010 (07-07) 10:05 PDT San Francisco, CA (AP) -- A new study says legalizing the recreational use of marijuana in California could drive down prices and undercut the potential tax windfall that supporters have touted. The study published Wednesday by the RAND Drug Policy Research Center says "considerable uncertainty" surrounds the state ballot initiative. It would allow adults, 21 and over, to possess an ounce of marijuana and cities and counties to license and tax commercial pot sales. The authors predict that retail marijuana prices could drop from $375 an ounce under the state's current medical marijuana law to as low as $38 per ounce, in part because growers and sellers would be taking fewer legal risks. According to the RAND analysis, consumers would pay more than that — about $91 an ounce...

One thing mentioned among solutions at the end of this video is bringing back drinking fountains. I think there should be drinking fountains every few blocks! Bottled water, what a stupid idea. Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Similar to unschooling, idle parenting makes great sense.  There's even a "Manifesto."   8-) Manifesto of the idle parent We reject the idea that parenting requires hard work We pledge to leave our children alone That should mean that they leave us alone, too We reject the rampant consumerism that invades children from the moment they are born We read them poetry and fantastic stories without morals We drink alcohol without guilt We reject the inner Puritan We fill the house with music and laughter We don't waste money on family days out and holidays We lie in bed for as long as possible We try not to interfere We push them into the garden and shut the door so that we can clean the house We both work as little as possible, particularly when the kids are small Time is more important than money Happy mess is better than miserable tidiness Down with school We fill the house with music and merriment Check out the story here. Posted v...

Serenity and I spent the 4th lazing at the pool after church... See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from Our Family Blog

Happy Independence Day to one and all! Today we celebrate rebellion and high explosives, a true American Holiday for sure :-) In honor of that I give you this gem from Bizzaro: Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Posted via email from The Angry Gnome