The Peaceful Gnome

A big difference between school and homeschool is visible in this picture of our homeschool park day. In public schools you can be suspended for drawing a picture of a gun and the cops are called if you bring butter knife. Homeschooled kids are generally armed to the teeth with toy swords, guns or sticks :-) School kids are under zero tolerance for no touching no weapons etc. Homeschool kids can give a hug when they are saying good bye if they want to. Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

From Free Range Kids: A Glass of Sprite Posted on January 26, 2011 by lskenazy Hi Readers! I loved this letter from a guy named Brad. You may, too. — L. Dear Free-Range Kids:  I happened to rabbit-hole into your blog tonight, and read it for about 2 hours, fascinated by the psychotic parents out there. I’m 27 and was raised Free-Range. I was allowed to run amok, largely unattended, for extended periods of time. I got into all sorts of trouble and suffered many life-threatening injuries such as skinned knees, bruises of various sizes, bloody noses, and twisted ankles. One time I was attacked by a clearly homicidal rose bush. And I even broke my arm when I made the unwise decision to jump off the tailgate of a parked pickup truck and tumble down a hill. My broken arm shaped the rest of my life. First of all, I was 10 years old. I was playing unsupervised outside in the summer with my band of heathen friends, a group of about five boys in my neighborhood....

Last night, when I got home at 8:40 PM, Lora, Serenity and JD were busy cooking supper. I knew that they were going to make Portobello Mushroom burgers since Lora had informed me earlier in the evening that they were going to do that. What I did not expect was the vast quantity of side dishes that they, for reasons known only to them, decided to cook as well. I was also not expecting dinner to be at 10:00 PM :-P As soon as I came in the door Lora proudly announced "We bought you beer" so I felt compelled to drink one of those, though I hadn't actually wanted one before that. Before dinner there was a big bowl of hummus with peppers and other stuff in it that was quite tasty and crackers to dip into it (I checked the label and they were not vegan but I ate them anyway, what's a little whey now and then anywhey?). I think there were 3 types of cheese, I didn't eat any cheese of course. There were the most delicious large stuffed mushrooms, I ate about 4 of those an...

Oh Starbucks, what are you thinking? The "TRENTA?" My coworker Tom suggests they should instead name it "The Trough" Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

“(Many of) the greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules, but by people following the rules. It’s people who follow orders that drop bombs and massacre villages.” - Banksy Found on the facebook page of" I'm Unschooled. Yes, I Can Write. The life and times of an unschooling vegetarian animistic green anarchist hippie child." The Angry Gnome says: I doubt any unschooler would ever follow evil orders just because they are "Lawful Orders." Oh, and Bansky totally rocks.  Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Once in a while I need a refresher on what we're trying to do, so here, from Sandra Dodd's website , we have, How to Screw Up Unschooling A list created on the AlwaysLearning list, with items contributed by Marji/gaiawolf, Sandra Dodd, swissarmy_wife/heatherbean, Schuyler Waynforth, Cameron Parham, Alex Polikowsky, Katherine Anderson, Robin Bentley, Melissa Dietrick, Clarissa Fetrow, Angela Shaw, Jules Adler, Jenny C (jenstarc4), Liam Zintz-Kunkle (13), Jill Parmer, Emmy Tofa, Amanda Horein, De/sanguinegirl, Nancy Machaj, Joylyn, Deborah Cunefare, Jae (Adam's mom)     * Don't talk to your kids.     * Tell your kids to leave you alone.     * Tell your kids they ask too many questions.     * Don't let your kids explore the house; they have their own rooms, they can stay in there.     * Be critical and belittling of your kids' passions and interests and shoot down their ideas in the name of reality ...

via sfgate.com Tuna and swordfish collected from some California grocery stores and sushi restaurants contained mercury levels as much as three times the threshold that authorizes federal food regulators to pull seafood from shelves, according to a study by an environmental health group. And despite pervasive concerns about the toxic heavy metal in fish, not one of the restaurants and fewer than half of the grocery stores displayed signs warning consumers about the risks of mercury exposure, according to GotMercury.org, a public health advocacy group in San Francisco. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f= /c/a/2011/01/17/MN6H1H8NRN.DTL#ixzz1BPd9A9bn Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

In case anyone wonders, yes, I do know that the maker of that video below is associated with the "Church" of Scientology.  No, I don't believe anything they put out positively, ie all that "clearing" and Xenu and reincarnation and engrams and all the rest of the blatantly fraudulent WOO that L. Ron Hubbard spewed.  Yet, even a stopped clock is right twice a day and labeling kids is clearly a huge scam perpetrated by the drug industry to sell drugs and the government schools to force submission by kids who, being normal active children, fail to sit and obey the every whim of an increasingly intolerant (ZERO TOLERANCE, NO TOUCHING, NO ANYTHING!, see Free Range Kids for details on how this plays out) school system by drugging them into oblivion.  <Sigh> Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

In my opinion the main "Disorder" is in expecting kids to sit in schools all day 5 days a week learning crap they have no interest in, will never need in life and will have forgotten by the end of the year anyway. All of these labels are just excuses to medicate them into submission. Bah. Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

From The Herbivore Clothing Company Just in case you don't know what Seitan is go here. Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Sorry this is a separate post but I decided to add a couple of additional quotes from the SciAm story on dioxin contamination in animal products .   It's just a bit more ammo for us Vegans :-)  Enjoy your toxic burgers guys! "Dioxins are a family of persistent organic pollutants that are global in reach and persistent in the environment. Once dioxins find their way into the food web, they tend to stay there accumulating in fats, and slowly making their up way to us. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that food of animal origin contributes to about 80 percent of our overall exposure... Long-term exposure is linked to impaired immune systems, nervous systems, endocrine systems and reproductive functions. (More on the harmful health effects of dioxin exposure .)" Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

There are already hundreds of reasons not to eat animal products, ranging from moral issues over the horrific conditions on factory farms to health. Here is just one more from Scientific American: Dioxin's turned up in European eggs. Yum, toxic chemical omelets!   Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Serenity, Hannah and Issac up a tree... See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from Our Family Blog

Or I might do what I was planning for a while and just get a Droid phone of some sort. People seem very happy with those too... Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Finally, after four years of iPhone envy but not being willing to move to AT&T's crappy network Verizon has announced that they will have the iPhone!  I figure in a month or two, or sooner if I can't make myself wait, I'll have an iPhone.  Woo Hoo! « Foodspotting fetches... | Main After years of speculation, Verizon executives finally told subscribers on Tuesday what they've been waiting to hear since 2007: the iPhone is coming to Verizon. The deal ends AT&T's monopoly on selling... It's official: iPhone comes to Verizon It's official: iPhone comes to Verizon 180 After years of speculation, Verizon executives finally told subscribers on Tuesday what they've been waiting to hear since 2007: the iPhone is coming to Verizon. The deal ends AT&T's monopoly on selling the device in the United States, and gives a new option to people who would buy the iPhone but have qualms about AT&T. Anticipation for the ...

I brought in the New Year in style by going to bed at 10:00 PM and getting a nice nights sleep! Woo Hoo! Great start to the new year, I feel good! :-) Posted via email from The Angry Gnome