Week Five I plan to cover Transportation and Communications
Of the two for the first stage transportation is the most critical. Well we are talking about what we have to do if we had t leave in a hurry, if you had 15 minutes to grab you stuff and go. There won’t be time to check the car or what ever you plan on using. You just have time to get in and go. So you must do PM (Preventative Maintenance) on your vehicle. You need to check your tires regularly, fluids need to stay changed and topped off. Check belts and hoses every time you change the oil. Keep it greased. Not only will you be under stress if you have to leave early but your car will be also. Most likely everyone else will be on the road with you, so it will be slow going if it is summer time, that will put a tremendous strain on the cooling system of the car. Keep it maintained. Keep the vehicle full at all times. It is important for a number of reasons, first if you are trying to leave in a hurry you don’t want to be in line behind the other 20 people waiting at the pumps for fuel. Another reason it is better for the car, and fuel filters and pump. How about maps to where you want to go to, are the recent? Are they readable?
Have you given any thought in how you will pack the vehicle? If you pack the car is there room for the people?
I would say a minimum would be a gallon of water per person and a gallon for the vehicle. At least a days worth of food and a days worth of snacks. A first aid kit, repair tools for the car, make sure that the spare tire is full and holding air. Extra fluids, oil, power steering, brake coolant. A few 12-volt appliances; If you have kids I would make sure I had a 12-volt DVD player and at least one 12-volt fan. A 12-volt air compressor. If you have a baby I would have a 12-volt refrigerator to keep milk cool.
This week we will stay with thoughts on communication that would be beneficial in having to leave in a hurry. Communications are important, you need to know about what made you leave your home, what the traffic is like, which direction is safe to go, and keep up on the dangers in front of you. Radio in the vehicle is very important. If you are convoying, how about hand held radios so you can talk to each other? FRS or Murs are good choices, the old faithful CB don’t forget that as an option. Truckers on the CB should be a good source of info. Having a plan is important, if you are convoying talk out a plan with an alternate route with everyone in the group. Have a meet up place if you all get separated. But purpose before you start not to leave anyone behind.

I think this great, this Country for all the things it has done right, it has raise several generations of rebellious brats and useless kids. This is something that should be made mandatory. If a parent does not do it to their child they are the ones that should be arrested for child abuse. Let me qualify the statement, i'm not talking about abusing your child, i'm talking about spanking them. The Bible speaks to this in many places.
Pro 13:24 He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.
Pro 29:15 The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.
Pro 22:15 Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.
Pro 19:18 Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying.
Pro 23:13 Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.

Study finds minorities more likely to be paddled August 20, 2008 - 5:57am
Map shows number of students receiving corporal punishment, by state, school year 2006-2007.
By LIBBY QUAID AP Education Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Paddlings, swats, licks. A quarter of a million schoolchildren got them last year _ and blacks, American Indians and kids with disabilities got a disproportionate share of the punishment, according to a study by a human rights group.
Even little kids can be paddled. Heather Porter, who lives in Crockett, Texas, was startled to hear her little boy, then 3, say he'd been spanked at school. Porter was never told, despite a policy at the public preschool that parents be notified.
"We were pretty ticked off, to say the least. The reason he got paddled was because he was untying his shoes and playing with the air conditioner thermostat," Porter said. "He was being a 3-year-old."
For the study, which was being released Wednesday, Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union used Education Department data to show that, while paddling has been declining, racial disparity persists. Researchers also interviewed students, parents and school personnel in Texas and Mississippi, states that account for 40 percent of the 223,190 kids who were paddled at least once in the 2006-2007 school year.
Porter could have filled out a form telling the school not to paddle her son, if only she had realized he might be paddled.
Yet many parents find that such forms are ignored, the study said.
Widespread paddling can make it unlikely that forms will be checked. A teacher interviewed by Human Rights Watch, Tiffany Bartlett, said that when she taught in the Mississippi Delta, the policy was to lock the classroom doors when the bell rang, leaving stragglers to be paddled by an administrator patrolling the hallways. Bartlett now is a school teacher in Austin, Texas.
And even if schools make a mistake, they are unlikely to face lawsuits. In places where corporal punishment is allowed, teachers and principals generally have legal immunity from assault laws, the study said.
"One of the things we've seen over and over again is that parents have difficulty getting redress, if a child is paddled and severely injured, or paddled in violation of parents' wishes," said Alice Farmer, the study's author.
A majority of states have outlawed it, but corporal punishment remains widespread across the South. Behind Texas and Mississippi were Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Florida and Missouri.
African American students are more than twice as likely to be paddled. The disparity persists even in places with large black populations, the study found. Similarly, Native Americans were more than twice as likely to be paddled, the study found.
The study also found:
_In states where paddling is most common, black girls were paddled more than twice as often as white girls.
_Boys are three times as likely to be paddled as girls.
_Special education kids were more likely to be paddled.
More than 100 countries worldwide have banned paddling in schools, including all of Europe, Farmer said. "International human rights law puts a pretty strong prohibition on corporal punishment," she said.
In rural Drew, Miss., Nickolaus Luckett still remembers the paddlings he got in fifth and seventh grades. One happened when he called a teacher by her first name, the other when a classmate said, wrongly, that he threw a spitball.
"I didn't get any bruises, but they still hurt, and from that point on, I told myself and my parents I wasn't going to take any more paddlings," said Luckett, who is about to be a sophomore at the University of Mississippi.
It's not an easy choice. In many schools, kids can avoid a paddling if they accept suspension or detention, or for younger kids, if they skip recess. But often, a child opts for the short-term sting of the paddle.
And sometimes teachers don't have the option of after-school detention, because there are no buses to take kids home later.
During the three years Evan Couzo taught in the Mississippi Delta, he refused to paddle kids, offering detention instead. But others _ teachers, parents, even kids _ were accustomed to paddling.
"Just about everyone at the beginning of the year said, `If he or she gives you any trouble, you can paddle them. You can send them home, and I'll paddle them. Or you can have me come out to the school, and we can both paddle them.'
"It's really just a part of the culture of the school environment there," Couzo said.
There is scant research on whether paddling is effective in the classroom. But many studies have shown it doesn't work at home, said Elizabeth Gershoff, a University of Michigan assistant professor of social work.
"The use of corporal punishment is associated almost overwhelmingly with negative effects, and that it increases children's problem behavior over time," Gershoff said.
Children may learn to solve problems using aggression, and a sense of resentment might make them act out more, Gershoff said.
The practice is banned in 29 states, most recently in Delaware and Pennsylvania. While some education groups haven't taken a position on the issue, the national PTA believes paddling should be banned everywhere.
"We teach our children that violence is wrong, yet corporal punishment teaches children that violence is a way to solve problems," said Jan Harp Domene, the group's president. "It perpetuates a cycle of child abuse. It teaches children to hit someone smaller and weaker when angry."
___
On the Net:
Human Rights Watch: http://www.hrw.org/.


You want a picture of inflation here it is
NY restaurant uses 1933 prices; Steaks: 90 cents August 20, 2008 - 7:07am
NEW YORK (AP) - An Italian restaurant in Harlem that once counted Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett as regulars has turned back the clock 75 years.
Patsy's Restaurant in East Harlem celebrated its 75th anniversary Tuesday with 1933 prices, including a 12-ounce New York cut steak and grilled salmon for 90 cents and a slice of pizza for 60 cents. Most beverages cost 10 cents.

Experts don't see return to cheap food soon Dan Looker Successful Farming magazine Business Editor 8/19/2008, 1:18 PM CDT Economists, farmers and food industry experts told a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing in Omaha Monday that demand for corn and soybeans for biofuels will continue to drive food costs higher, even though rising energy costs in general are the main cause of food price inflation. "Up until the last two years, energy prices affected agriculture primarily by influencing production costs: Particularly fertilizer and diesel prices. But now that we have linked energy and commodity markets, both production costs and crop demand are influenced by energy prices," said Bruce Babcock, an agricultural economist who heads the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University. Babcock told the field hearing run by Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) that increasing ethanol mandates mean corn farmers will have built-in demand for between 25% and 30% of their crops. He expects corn prices to stay above $3.50 to $4 a bushel for the next five years. If crude oil prices stay above $100 a barrel and good weather drives corn prices below $4 a bushel, Babcock expects ethanol to look so profitable that more investment in ethanol could occur, even beyond government mandates. Babcock sees livestock prices increasing over the next year or two to cover these higher feed costs, mainly because of a likely cutback in production in the U.S. and in countries exporting to the U.S. Dave Moody, president of the Iowa Pork Producers Association, said that even with record cattle and hog prices this summer, some livestock production businesses have not been profitable. Moody said that hog producers may benefit from a new technology, corn fractionation that separates oil and the germ before dry mill ethanol production. That could improve the feed quality of ethanol co-products, eventually benefiting producers. Moody called for more federal support for research on that technology. Jim Jenkins, a cattle rancher and restaurant owner who is chairman of the Nebraska Ethanol Board, acknowledged the hard feelings among crop and livestock producers over the expansion of ethanol. "There's lot of emotion. People have lined up and drawn a line in the sand," he said. Jenkins said the marketplace should be allowed to adjust to higher grain prices and he questioned whether a return to federally subsidized cheap food is really better than continuing economic incentives for biofuel production "With $2 grain, we faced an overfattening of cattle," Jenkins said. Restaurant operators have long complained of having to trim excess fat from beef, he said. Jenkins cited university researchers who argue that corn use in feeding cattle could be cut up to 40%. And, he said, there is ample forage to replace some of that corn with better pasture and rangeland management. Nebraska is about 50% grass, he said, yet less than a tenth of the state's ranches are fully using more intensive grazing methods. And more corn stalks could be grazed in winter, he said. Jenkins acknowledged that producers of nonruminant animals such as hogs face bigger challenges with rising feed costs. Food manufacturers are being forced to pass rising commodity prices on to consumers, said Bill Lapp of Advanced Economic Solutions in Omaha. Until two years ago, food price inflation was running a little over two percent per year and when weather caused short-term price spikes, food companies absorbed the cost to maintain market share. But in 2007, food inflation in the U.S. was 4.9%. So far in 2008 it's been 7.6%, he said. He expects an average rate of food price inflation of nine percent between 2008 and 2012. http://www.agriculture.com/ag/story.jhtml;jsessionid=RKRKNCLOBDYBNQFIBQ4SBHQ?storyid=/templatedata/ag/story/data/1219170056212.xml

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U.S. still naked to EMP threatNew emergency plan doesn't address alarming nuclear scenario in revised disaster response
Posted: August 21, 20081:00 am Eastern
By Chelsea Schilling© 2008 WorldNetDaily
Electricity grids down, uncontrolled fires from exploding gas transport systems, no communication to call for help, no water to battle fires: It's all part of a catastrophic scenario some scientists predict could happen under an electromagnetic pulse attack – and the Department of Homeland Security's 83-page emergency plan includes no mention of EMP or how it might respond to such an attack.
When WND contacted the Department of Homeland Security, a representative explained why a course of action was not included in the National Emergency Communications Plan – a strategy that relies heavily on the ability of authorities at all levels of government to communicate using radios, computers and other electronic devices that could be disabled by an EMP attack.
"When we look at the strategic threat picture, when we look at patterns of criminal activity that all levels of government show, when we look at what is ultimately going to involve limited resources, we have to get to a point where we prioritize," DHS spokesman Russ Knocke said. "We prioritize based upon threat vulnerability and consequence. As we speak today, there's nothing in the threat picture that would suggest an imminent EMP attack."
However, Congress has expressed concern regarding the threat of EMP. A top scientist warned the House Armed Services Committee in July that America remains vulnerable to a "catastrophe" from a nuclear electromagnetic pulse attack that could be launched with plausible deniability by hostile rogue nations or terrorists.
William R. Graham, chairman of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack and the former national science adviser to President Reagan, testified before the committee and issued an alarming report on "one of a small number of threats that can hold our society at risk of catastrophic consequences."
He identified vulnerabilities in the nation's critical infrastructures, "which are essential to both our civilian and military capabilities."
Not taking the steps necessary to reduce the threat in the next three to five years "can both invite and reward attack," Graham told the committee.
Knocke said EMPs are considered in a broad federal playbook released in January for how the federal government will manage incidents of all types called the National Response Framework, or NRF.
The 90-page document includes the following:
It provides an overview of the roles, responsibilities and jurisdictions of key partners at the local, state and federal levels who implement the framework.
It emphasizes planning structures for effective response.
It offers tips for individuals and households, such as reducing hazards in and around their homes, preparing emergency supply kits, creating household emergency plans and reducing demands on land-line and cellular communications.
The NRF provides general guidelines for dealing with emergency events. However, the plan includes no mention of how the nation would respond to an EMP attack or widespread electrical and electronics failures that could effectively cut communication lines between each level of emergency responders by disabling computers, satellites, radios, radar receivers and even traffic lights and electronic ignition systems in cars.
EMP is a pulse of energy that can be produced from non-nuclear sources, such as electromagnetic bombs, or E-bombs. Some experts claim an electromagnetic pulse shock wave can be produced by a device small enough to fit in a briefcase. But the most threatening and terrifying type of EMP attack could come following a blast from a nuclear weapon 25 to 250 miles above the Earth's surface. Like a swift stroke of lightening, EMP could immediately disrupt and damage all electronic systems and America's electrical infrastructure. A detonation over the middle of the continental U.S. "has the capability to produce significant damage to critical infrastructures that support the fabric of U.S. society and the ability of the United States and Western nations to project influence and military power," said Graham.
"Several potential adversaries have the capability to attack the United States with a high-altitude nuclear weapon-generated electromagnetic pulse, and others appear to be pursuing efforts to obtain that capability," said Graham. "A determined adversary can achieve an EMP attack capability without having a high level of sophistication. For example, an adversary would not have to have long-range ballistic missiles to conduct an EMP attack against the United States. Such an attack could be launched from a freighter off the U.S. coast using a short- or medium-range missile to loft a nuclear warhead to high altitude. Terrorists sponsored by a rogue state could attempt to execute such an attack without revealing the identity of the perpetrators. Iran, the world's leading sponsor of international terrorism, has practiced launching a mobile ballistic missile from a vessel in the Caspian Sea. Iran has also tested high-altitude explosions of the Shahab-III, a test mode consistent with EMP attack, and described the tests as successful. Iranian military writings explicitly discuss a nuclear EMP attack that would gravely harm the United States. While the commission does not know the intention of Iran in conducting these activities, we are disturbed by the capability that emerges when we connect the dots."
An EMP assault could prove devastating because of the unprecedented cascading failures of major infrastructures that could result. Because of America's heavy reliance on electricity and electronics, the impact would be far worse than on a country less advanced technologically. Graham and the commission see the potential for failure in the financial system, the system of distribution for food and water, medical care and trade and production.
"The recovery of any one of the key national infrastructures is dependent upon the recovery of others," he said. "The longer the outage, the more problematic and uncertain the recovery will be. It is possible for the functional outages to become mutually reinforcing until at some point the degradation of infrastructure could have irreversible effects on the country's ability to support its population."
In an earlier report, the commission even went so far as to suggest, in its opening sentence, that an EMP attack "might result in the defeat of our military forces."
Knocke said DHS is highly concerned about the threat of nuclear attack and other disasters.
"At present, our highest priorities are things like preventing nuke attacks, as well as working with state and locals to build up their capability to prevent and respond to things like IED events or catastrophic natural disasters," he said. "As it relates to what our greatest preoccupation is, we're doing everything we can to try to prevent a nuclear or radiological attack on our soil that would have the most severe impact in terms of loss of life or economic consequence."
When WND asked Knocke if DHS has a specific strategy to deal with an EMP attack, he said, "Not as we speak today. No."
Asked if the department has considered creating a plan to address EMP threat following Congress' concern about such an attack, he replied:
"The risk picture is ever changing. There's nothing in the strategic threat picture today that tells us there's an imminent EMP threat. That could change down the road as whatever circumstances in the world evolve. So, I am not telling you that it might never be among the highest priorities. We've actually looked at this issue, and we've looked at the entire spectrum of issues that we have to contend with when it comes to homeland security. But we have to prioritize. We're not in the business of being all things to all people at all times."
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=72801

Hoekstra Receives 110th CongressFriend of Homeschooling Award
By William A. Estrada, Esq.Director Federal Relations August 15 2008
Rep. Pete Hoekstra receives the 110th Congress Friend of Homeschooling Award from Will Estrada, director of HSLDA’s Department of Federal Relations.On July 31, 2008, HSLDA’s Federal Relations staff presented Representative Pete Hoekstra (MI) with the 110th Congress Friend of Homeschooling Award. Since 1998, HSLDA has presented the award to members of Congress in recognition of their efforts to protect parental rights, homeschool freedom and limited government during each session of Congress.
The award is usually given at HSLDA’s Legislative Summit for homeschool leaders held every other year in Washington, D.C. However, Mr. Hoekstra was managing the floor during debate about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that night, and could not attend.
Representative Hoekstra has been a tireless friend of homeschoolers since he was elected to Congress in 1993, and especially in the 110th Congress. In April, 2007, he successfully introduced a procedural motion on the House floor to strike language in H.R. 362 which would have moved federal education policy in the direction of national standards and curriculum. He introduced H.R. 1539, the “A PLUS Act,” which would substantially decrease the federal government’s role in education. He has additionally been the lead sponsor of the Parental Rights Amendment.
“Homeschooling serves as a worthwhile option for parents to assume a direct role in the education of their children,” Hoekstra said. “It can be a positive experience that enables children to realize a successful future.”
“Representative Hoekstra’s support for homeschoolers is unparalleled in Congress,” said Mike Smith, president of HSLDA. “The representative has been instrumental in the success of homeschoolers in fighting discrimination by the military for those enlisting, and for fair treatment for those enrolling in college. He has been tireless in working to eliminate unequal treatment for homeschoolers by the Social Security and Veterans Affairs administrations. At the same time, he has been at the forefront in advocating for the position that Congress does not have any authority over private and homeschools. Congressman Hoekstra is truly a hero to homeschoolers everywhere.”
Past recipients of HSLDA’s Friend of Homeschooling award include Representative Marilyn Musgrave (CO), Representative John Hostettler (IN), Senator John Ashcroft (MO), and others.
http://www.hslda.org/default.asp?bhcp=1

About HSLDA
Home School Legal Defense Association is a nonprofit advocacy organization established to defend and advance the constitutional right of parents to direct the education of their children and to protect family freedoms. Through annual memberships, HSLDA is tens of thousands of families united in service together, providing a strong voice when and where needed.
HSLDA advocates on the legal front on behalf of our members in matters which include conflicts with state or local officials over homeschooling. Each year, thousands of member families receive legal consultation by letter and phone, hundreds more are represented through negotiations with local officials, and dozens are represented in court proceedings. HSLDA also takes the offensive, filing actions to protect members against government intrusion and to establish legal precedent. On occasion, HSLDA will handle precedent-setting cases for nonmembers, as well.
HSLDA advocates on Capitol Hill by tracking federal legislation that affects homeschooling and parental rights. HSLDA works to defeat or amend harmful bills, but also works proactively, introducing legislation to protect and preserve family freedoms.
HSLDA advocates in state legislatures, at the invitation of state homeschool organizations, by assisting individual states in drafting language to improve their homeschool legal environment and to fight harmful legislation.
HSLDA advocates in the media by presenting articulate and knowledgeable spokesmen to the press on the subject of homeschooling. HSLDA staff members are regularly called upon for radio, television, and print interviews, and their writings are frequently published in newspapers and magazines across the country. HSLDA’s own bimonthly magazine, The Home School Court Report, provides news and commentary on a host of current issues affecting homeschoolers. And its two-minute daily radio broadcast, Home School Heartbeat, can be heard on nearly 500 radio stations.
HSLDA advocates for the movement by commissioning and presenting quality research on the progress of homeschooling. Whether it’s in print, from the podium, or on the air, HSLDA provides insightful vision and leadership for the cause of homeschooling.
Home School Legal Defense Association . . . tens of thousands of American families working through more than 50 dedicated staff members to preserve each other’s right to homeschool . . . together, “Advocates for Family & Freedom.”
Frequently Asked Questions

Who we are
1. What is the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA)?
HSLDA is a nonprofit national membership organization of families who homeschool their children. HSLDA is organized as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, tax-exempt organization under the rules of the IRS.
The Federal Relations Department (formerly known as the National Center for Home Education) is a department of Home School Legal Defense Association that focuses on federal legislation, grassroots lobbying, and research.

2. Where is HSLDA located?
We are located in Purcellville, Virginia, about 40 minutes west of Washington, D.C.

3. Where does the membership money go?
We are a nonprofit organization, so membership fees go to our operational expenses. No profits inure to the benefit of any employees or board members. (See Mission of HSLDA.)

4. Is HSLDA a Christian organization?
Yes; however, HSLDA’s mission is to protect the freedom of all homeschoolers. Although our officers and directors are Christians, HSLDA membership is not limited to religiously based homeschoolers. We respect parents' rights to make the appropriate choices for the upbringing of their children. We have no agenda to make all public and home-based classrooms religious or conservative. Our primary objective is to preserve the fundamental right of parents to choose home education, free of over-zealous government officials and intrusive laws. We do put on a national conference annually and invite the board members of state organizations with whom we have worked for many years. Most, if not all, of those organizations have Christian leaders, but many serve all homeschoolers regardless of religious affiliation, as we do.

Relationships:
5. What is HSLDA’s relationship to the Home School Foundation (HSF)?
The Home School Foundation is a related organization of HSLDA. HSF was founded by HSLDA to provide assistance to homeschooling families in need, preserve parental freedoms, promote homeschooling, and support like-minded organizations. (See HSF’s home page for more information.)

6. What is HSLDA’s relationship to Patrick Henry College (PHC)?
HSLDA’s board of directors founded PHC as a college that emphasizes the apprenticeship model of education and will positively impact our culture.
Patrick Henry College opened its doors on September 1, 2000 to prepare and develop leaders who will fight for the principles of liberty and our home school freedoms through careers of public service and cultural influence. The College's distinctives include a deliberate outreach to home schooled students; practical apprenticeship methodology; financial independence; a general education core based on the classical liberal arts; a dedication to mentoring and discipling Christian students; and a community life that promotes virtue, leadership, and strong, life-long commitments to God, family and society.
The College’s board of trustees is completely separate and distinct from HSLDA’s board of directors and the College operates independently of HSLDA. Michael Farris is chancellor of the College, and is General Counsel of HSLDA directing litigation and federal legislative efforts.
Although Patrick Henry College and HSLDA are separate and distinct organizations, our board’s purpose for founding the College remains the same and HSLDA continues to support Patrick Henry College financially and structurally. Specifically, HSLDA donates use of facility space and a portion of the revenue earned from advertising, publications, and interest income to the College. This support is based upon our belief that it is not enough to rely solely on the defense of homeschooling in the courts and in the legislatures in order to maintain our freedom to homeschool and control the upbringing of our children in the future. We must be proactive in providing virtuous leaders in government and other key spheres of influence in order to preserve our freedoms.(See also Michael Smith’s Washington Times op-ed "A New Generation of Moral Leadership")

7. What is HSLDA’s relationship with local and state homeschool organizations?
While HSLDA has no official relationship with any local or state homeschool groups, we do provide groups the opportunity to offer HSLDA membership at a discount to their families. Additionally, we work closely with many groups to monitor legislation that may impact homeschooling.

Where we stand:
8. Why does HSLDA support efforts to constitutionally define marriage as between a man and a woman?
The following answer is an excerpt from a letter written by HSLDA Chairman of the Board and General Counsel Mike Farris:
. . . We are a Christian organization (see answer to question number 4 above). This colors our way of thinking about many things. Fundamentally, it is reflected in what we believe is truth.
All truth is God's truth. Man's knowledge is limited. We think we know something only to find that future generations have found that we really didn't know what we are talking about.
The truth is that God created the family. It is God's view of the family that is reflected in our western civilization and in our law until very recently. If we tear down this God-based view of the family, then all of the God-based principles in our society are ultimately at risk.
The reason we have parental rights is because our law assumes that God gave children to parents, not the state. If we eliminate the assumption of God from our law, parental rights and human rights themselves are impossible.
I was in the Soviet Union in 1988 arguing for parental rights and religious freedom with the government of the USSR. They asked, "Where are such rights based in any international legal document?"
I answered, "If rights are based on man-made documents they are not rights, they are privileges. What man makes, man can change."
Only if rights come from God is it illegitimate for man to take another's rights.
It is impossible to say that the God of the Bible would sanction rights of homosexual marriage. Thus, there is no such right in a God-based theory of rights. Any man-made theory of rights is no theory at all. ... HSLDA is not willing to move into an era of human privileges. We believe this would jeopardize our liberty to teach our children at home and bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Blessings,
Michael Farris

9. Does HSLDA seek to control the public debate of homeschool issues nationwide?
While we are actively engaged in public debate regarding homeschooling, we do not seek control of the public discussions surrounding homeschooling. Our communications goal regarding mainstream media is simply to promote, honestly and fairly, the merits of home education, for the good of homeschoolers universally. We also generally promote awareness of legal and legislative issues impacting homeschool families. In order to provide timely information to media on demand, HSLDA has employed a professional director of media relations. We view media work as integral to a serious organizational effort to inform the general public about the many positive aspects of homeschooling. In recent years, the media have shown particular interest in our studies on the effectiveness of homeschooling. The hundreds of news stories referring to these studies have been good for all homeschoolers, not just members of HSLDA.

10. Does HSLDA promote exclusively Christian homeschool support organizations?
We do not. Over 500 support groups participate in our group discount program. Religion is not a criterion for participation. We work in conjunction with secular and religious groups alike to promote and protect home education freedoms.

11. What is HSLDA's position on charter schools and public school independent study programs?
The mission of Home School Legal Defense Association has always been to defend the rights of families who desire to privately homeschool their children. Homeschooling through charter schools or public school independent study programs is actually a form of public education, and thus falls outside of HSLDA's mission. It is our longstanding policy not to accept as HSLDA members families whose children are enrolled in such a public school option.
Parents have the right to choose whatever form of education they wish for their children. However, we urge those considering charter schools or public school independent study programs to count the cost, making sure they are fully informed.
To date, most charter school programs and all public school independent study programs have been enacted with restrictions regarding religious education. This means that it is unethical and possibly illegal for any religious education to occur during the process of teaching any academic subject through these programs. For example, religious content in a history or English class covered by the official program would be a statutory violation. (This would not be a constitutional violation by the parents—only the government can violate the Constitution. The Constitution has been interpreted to permit but not require states to fund religious education as a component of a broad general program. This means that whatever the state statutes say is binding. If the statutes ban religious instruction in programs funded by the government, then program participants—including homeschooling parents—who teach religious content are violating the law.)
Keep in mind that programs receiving government funding can be directly regulated by governmental standards. For example, teaching homosexuality as an acceptable alternate lifestyle may well soon become a universal requirement for public schools—including charter schools and public school independent study programs.
We understand that the financial pressures faced by families today make publicly subsidized educational programs very attractive. But if accepting government subsidies forfeits your right to teach your children in the way you desire, that price is very high indeed.
HSLDA support tax deductions for all educational expenses, similar to deductions for charitable giving or educational tax credits. But even tax deductions would be unacceptable if the mechanisms adopted allow any governmental interference or regulation of content in homeschool programs. Both HSLDA's experience and the combined history of our nation and western civilization continually demonstrate that with government funding comes government regulation. The price is too high.

12. What is HSLDA’s position on access to public school facilities and activities?
HSLDA’s board of directors has remained steadfast in focusing our resources on maintaining and advancing the freedom of homeschoolers from public school oversight. Therefore, the board will not allow HSLDA to use our resources to force public school districts to allow homeschool children access. Recently, several states have enacted legislation requiring public school access for homeschoolers. HSLDA takes a neutral position when legislation of this kind is introduced, unless the legislation would impose additional regulations on all homeschool students not participating in the public schools.

13. What is HSLDA’s position on homeschool students’ use of special education and related services benefits through the public schools?
Special education refers to instruction or assistance in traditional academic areas such as math, language arts, etc. Related services, on the other hand, are aids to a child—like speech therapy, occupational therapy, and physical therapy. These services indirectly improve a child’s ability to learn, but are separate from traditional academic curricula. HSLDA believes the parent whose child receives related services at the public school is still a home educator.
HSLDA will assist homeschool families seeking related services that have been denied because of homeschooling. We view this as a basic fairness issue in that homeschool students in private school states are entitled to related services according to the U.S. Department of Education, but those in homeschool states are not. HSLDA will not assist homeschool students to obtain access to special education in the public school (see number 6, above, for the reason).

14. Is HSLDA politically active?
HSLDA's mission is to protect and advance the liberty of parents to educate their children at home. Membership dues will never be used for any other purpose.
However, few of us homeschool just for the sake of homeschooling. We homeschool our children because we believe it is the best path for their own future and for the impact that they can have on our nation and the generations that follow. Yes, we want our children to have excellent skills and godly character. But skills and character are designed to equip our children to accomplish great things for God and for the good of our nation.
To help our member families equip the next generation for active, effective citizenship, HSLDA founded Generation Joshua in 2004. A division of HSLDA, Generation Joshua is funded by direct contributions and by Generation Joshua's own modest membership dues. Generation Joshua is not funded by HSLDA membership dues. Please visit Generation Joshua's website at www.generationjoshua.org.
Generation Joshua has three main components, each designed to teach homeschooled teens important aspects of civic involvement: (1) civics education, (2) nonpartisan political activity, such as voter registration drives, and (3) active involvement in the campaigns of a few candidates prayerfully selected by HSLDA's board of directors for their character and their positions on issues of importance to our members.
All candidate campaign activity is funded by HSLDA-PAC, an affiliated federal political action committee created by HSLDA in accordance with federal law. Under federal law, HSLDA may endorse federal candidates in communications to our members and we may solicit our members for contributions to HSLDA-PAC. These PAC contributions will be used to place Generation Joshua teens on selected federal campaigns under the direction and guidance of Generation Joshua staff.
Our children will not grow into leaders just because we hope for that result. They will become leaders who do great things for our nation only if we give them vision and a hands-on opportunity to learn.

15. What does HSLDA’s Federal Relations Department Do?
What does HSLDA’s Federal Relations department (formerly National Center for Home Education) do? The Federal Relations Department supports state homeschooling leaders and HSLDA members by keeping watch and taking quick action on national homeschool issues. (See the Federal Relations home page for more information.)

16. Does HSLDA take a position on the United Nations?
We do not have an official position regarding the United Nations. However, it is accurate to say that we’ve become more and more concerned about the sovereignty of the United States vis-à-vis the United Nations as expressed by its policies on religious liberty, human rights, children’s rights, and the family. The UN Treaty on the Rights of the Child is an example of the UN’s view of the family. We oppose the UN Treaty on the Rights of the Child because it would strip parents of much of their authority to educate, train, and nurture their children according to the dictates of their conscience.

17. Does HSLDA take a position regarding gun ownership?
We do not take a position on gun ownership. In 12 states, homeschoolers operate as private schools under the private school law of that state. Many states and the federal government have laws that make it illegal to have a gun within 1,000 feet of any school. After concerns expressed by member families who live within 1,000 feet of a school and own guns, we asked the United States Attorney General’s Office whether this law applied to private homeschools or not. The United States Attorney General’s Office has indicated that the law does not apply to these private homeschool situations.

18. Does HSLDA take a position on the use of Social Security numbers?
We do not have a position. However, some of our member families object to obtaining Social Security numbers for their children in order to get a dependent’s deduction on their income tax return. Until several years ago, the IRS would accept alternative forms of identification to obtain the deduction. However, the law has now changed to allow ONLY a Social Security number to be used as the identification required for a deduction. The National Center for Home Education is discussing with members of Congress the possibility of introducing a bill that would again allow families to use alternative forms of identification to obtain the deduction.


FDA: Irradiating spinach, lettuce OK to kill germs August 21, 2008 - 3:07pm
By LAURAN NEERGAARD AP Medical Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Consumers worried about salad safety may soon be able to buy fresh spinach and iceberg lettuce zapped with just enough radiation to kill E. coli and a few other germs.
The Food and Drug Administration on Friday will issue a new regulation allowing spinach and lettuce sellers to take that extra step, a long-awaited move amid increasing outbreaks from raw produce.
It doesn't excuse dirty produce, warned Dr. Laura Tarantino, FDA's chief of food additive safety. Farms and processors still must follow standard rules to keep the greens as clean as possible _ and consumers, too, should wash the leaves before eating.
"What this does is give producers and processors one more tool in the toolbox to make these commodities safer and protect public health," Tarantino said.
Irradiated meat has been around for years, particularly ground beef that is a favorite hiding spot for E. coli. Spices also can be irradiated.
But the Grocery Manufacturers Association had petitioned the FDA to allow a list of fresh produce and other foods to be irradiated as well _ starting with leafy greens that have sparked numerous recent outbreaks, including E. coli in spinach that in 2006 killed three people and sickened nearly 200.
The industry group wouldn't name salad suppliers ready to start irradiating. But it expects niche marketing to trickle out first _ bags of spinach and lettuce targeted to high-risk populations such as people with weak immune systems "who right now may be afraid to eat uncooked produce," said GMA's chief science officer Robert Brackett.
"It's one big step forward in improving the safety of fresh produce," he added.
A leading food safety expert said irradiation indeed can kill certain bacteria safely _ but it doesn't kill viruses that also increasingly contaminate produce, and it isn't as effective as tightening steps to prevent contamination starting at the farm.
"It won't control all hazards on these products," cautioned Caroline Smith DeWaal of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
She questioned why the FDA hasn't addressed her agency's 2006 call to require growers to document such things as how they use manure and ensure the safety of irrigation water. Irrigation is one suspect in this summer's nationwide salmonella outbreak attributed first to tomatoes and then to Mexican hot peppers.
"We are not opposed to the use of irradiation," DeWaal said. But, "it's expensive and it doesn't really address the problem at the source."
Won't zapping leafy greens with X-rays or other means of radiation leave them limp? Not with today's modern techniques and the right dose, the FDA decided.
The FDA determined that irradiation can kill E. coli, salmonella and listeria, as well as lengthen the greens' shelf life, without compromising the safety, texture or nutrient value of raw spinach lettuce.
E. coli actually is fairly sensitive to radiation, while salmonella and listeria require more energy. While irradiation doesn't sterilize, the FDA ruled that food companies could use a dose proven to dramatically reduce levels of those germs, a dose somewhat lower than meat requires.
But consumers shouldn't consider irradiation a panacea, either. While E. coli and salmonella tend to affect more people and make bigger headlines, consumer advocate DeWaal has found that norovirus contamination is a leading cause of produce outbreaks.
The irradiation rule goes into effect Friday. The FDA still is considering industry's petition to allow irradiation of additional produce. The grocery manufacturers group will push for other greens, such as Romaine lettuce, to be next, so that producers could irradiate bags of salad mixes.
While irradiated foods initially caused some consumer concern, FDA's Tarantino stressed that the food itself harbors no radiation.
"There is no residue, there's nothing left and certainly no radioactivity left," she said.
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=111&sid=1464143

Is Norway putting relations with Russia in jeopardy?
In the wake of the South Ossetia crisis, a number of Norwegian politicians now openly admit they fear conflicts with Russia in the North. Meanwhile, economic, human and defence relations with between the two countries are closer than ever.
Norwegian defence officials have repeatedly said that cooperation with Russia is developing positively. Similarly, political contacts between Oslo and Moscow are getting better and better. Over the last couple of years, both Moscow and Murmansk have been promoted as vital power centres for Norwegian business.
Still, a number of prominent Norwegian politicians now cast doubt over future relations with the Russian neighbour.
Norwegian hardliners
As reported by BarentsObserver last week, leader of the Norwegian Conservative Party, Ms. Erna Solberg, sees the Russian intervention in Georgia as evidence of Russia’s Great Power aspirations – aspirations which could eventually pose a threat against Norwegian positions in the High North.
Member of the Norwegian Parliament Defence Committee, Mr. Per Ove Width, goes even further, saying that he does “not exclude the possibility of a direct attack on Norway”. The representative of the rightist Progress Party says to newspaper Aftenposten that a conflict between Norway and Russia could develop following dangerous situations in fisheries or the oil and gas industry.
-And the Russians do not hesitate to use force, diplomacy comes afterwards, Mr. Width adds.
Even former foreign minister Jan Petersen from the Conservative Party now say that the developments in the Caucasus shows that Russia is willing to use force to achieve political gains and that this use of force could be used “unexpectedly”.
Ally of USA
The Norwegian statements, all from the political opposition, come in a situation when Norway’s long-time ally USA are about to bring freeze political relations with Russia. State Secretary Rice in a statement last week said that Russia might not be able to restore its reputation on the international arena, RIA Novosti reports.
At the same time, the Wall Street Journal writes that the USA might increase its defence budgets following the South Ossetia conflict.
Meanwhile, politicians both in Brussels and several of the biggest European countries have taken a softer approach, highlighting the devastating effect of isolating Russia.
Barents Sea
Potentially, the colder relations between Russia and its western neighbours could have negative effects also in the European High North. Standing on the threshold of an economic and industrial boost, the Norwegian-Russian borderlands would suffer heavily from a return towards less contacts and openness.
Only more cross-border cooperation, investments and contacts can help Russia integrate in European affairs. Processes like the establishment of visa-free travel and facilitated labour movement must be continued despite the problems in the Caucasus.
http://www.barentsobserver.com/is-norway-putting-relations-with-russia-in-jeopardy.4501964-28235.html

Russia sends aircraft carrier to Syria
The Russian aircraft carrier “Admiral Kuznetsov” is ready to head from Murmansk towards the Mediterranean and the Syrian port of Tartus. The mission comes after Syrian President Bashar Assad said he is open for a Russian base in the area.
The “Admiral Kuznetsov”, part of the Northern Fleet and Russia’s only aircraft carrier, will head a Navy mission to the area. The mission will also include the missile cruiser “Moskva” and several submarines, Newsru.com reports.President Assad in meetings in Moscow this week expressed support to Russia’s intervention in South Ossetia and Georgia. He also expressed interest in the establishment of Russian missile air defence facilities on his land.The “Admiral Kuznetsov” also last year headed a navy mission to the Mediterranean. Then, on the way from the Kola Peninsula and south, it stopped in the North Sea where it conducted a navy training exercise in the immediate vicinity of Norwegian offshore installations
http://www.barentsobserver.com/index.php?cat=58932

Russians dig in but still promise Georgia pullout
By MIKE ECKEL, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 6 minutes ago
GORI, Georgia - Russian forces lingered deep in Georgia on Thursday, digging trenches and setting up mortars a day before Kremlin officials promised to complete a troop withdrawal from this former Soviet republic.
But a top Russian general said it could be 10 days before the bulk of the troops left, and the mixed signals from Moscow left Georgians guessing about its intentions nearly a week after a cease-fire deal.
Strains in relations between Russia and the West showed no improvement. NATO, Moscow's Cold War foe, said Russia had halted military cooperation with the alliance, underscoring the growing division in a Europe that had seemed destined for unity after the Soviet Union collapsed.
Western leaders remained adamant that Russia remove its troops and do it quickly. "The withdrawal needs to take place, and needs to take place now," Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House's National Security Council, said in Crawford, Texas.
While refugees from the fighting over the South Ossetia region crammed Georgian schools and office buildings, a scattering of people left in a half-empty village said they were badly in need of basics.
"There is no bread, there is no food, no medicine. People are dying," said Nina Meladze, 45, in the village of Nadarbazevi, outside the key crossroads city of Gori. She said she stayed because she could not leave elderly relatives behind while other villagers fled to the capital, Tbilisi.
She said the village has been virtually abandoned since the war broke out. "I cannot go on like this anymore, I cry every day," she said.
Russian troops still controlled nearby Gori, which straddles Georgia's main east-west road, and the village of Igoeti about 30 miles west of Tbilisi. On the road between Gori and Tskhinvali, South Ossetia's battered capital, Russian soldiers built high earthen berms and strung barbed wire in at least three spots.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev promised earlier that his forces would pull back as far as South Ossetia and a surrounding security zone by Friday.
Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov reiterated that late Thursday, saying the troops would begin pulling back toward South Ossetia on Friday morning and be finished by day's end.
But the commander of Russian land forces, Gen. Vladimir Boldyrev, said it would take about 10 days for troops not involved in manning the security zones to complete their withdrawal to Russia, moving "in columns in the established order."
That suggested Russian soldiers could still be holding territory in Georgia up to the end of August.
The European Union-sponsored cease-fire says both Russian and Georgian troops must move back to positions they held before fighting broke out Aug. 7 in South Ossetia, which has close ties to Russia. The agreement says Russian forces also can be in a security zone that extends 4.3 miles into Georgia from South Ossetia.
Russian troops are also allowed a presence on Georgian territory in a security zone along the border with Abkhazia, another separatist Georgian region, under a 1994 U.N.-approved agreement that ended a war there.
Around Georgia's main Black Sea port city of Poti — outside any security zone — signs seemed to point to a prolonged presence. Russian troops excavated trenches, set up mortars and blocked a key bridge with armored personnel carriers and trucks. Other armored vehicles and trucks parked in a nearby forest.
Officials in Poti said the city had been looted by the Russians over the past week. Associated Press journalists saw Russian troops carry tables and chairs out on armored personnel carriers Thursday as residents protested. An AP photographer and TV crew were briefly detained by armed soldiers near Poti, who seized their digital memory cards and videotapes.
Poti Mayor Vano Taginadze said Russian troops were setting up new roadblocks and "moving around in the city and looking and searching in different places." Residents in Poti demonstrated against the Russian presence, waving red-and-white Georgian flags and banners and shouting "Russian occupants go home" in English.
Some Russian troops and military vehicles were on the move, including 21 tanks an AP reporter saw heading toward Russia from inside South Ossetia. Elsewhere, tanks, armored personnel carriers and trucks were seen moving in both directions on the road from Gori to Tskhinvali.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner hailed the report of tank movements.
"We are waiting ... for the Russians to respect their word," Kouchner told reporters in Paris. "We waited twice with dashed hopes. This time, it appears that there is at least the beginning of a fulfillment."
Outside the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, several ethnic Georgian villages were burning Thursday — many days after fighting ended — and bore evidence of destruction from looting. Some Ossetians said they were not prepared to live alongside ethnic Georgians anymore.
"It's not they, it's we who will erase them from the face of Earth," said Alan Didurov, 46.
Renowned conductor Valery Gergiev, who is Ossetian, led a requiem concert for the dead Thursday night in Tskhinvali — part of an effort to win international sympathy for Russia's argument that its invasion was justified by Georgia's attempt to regain control of South Ossetia by force.
"We want everyone to know the truth about the terrible events in Tskhinvali ... with the hope that such a thing will never again happen on our land," Gergiev said before the concert, held in front of the badly damaged South Ossetian legislature before a crowd flanked by two armored personnel carriers.
In a move sure to heighten tensions, a U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer loaded with humanitarian supplies headed toward Georgia through Turkey's straits between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. It was the first of three U.S. warships carrying blankets, hygiene kits and baby food to Georgia.
Paul Farley, a spokesman at the U.S. naval base in Crete, said all three would reach Georgia "within the next week." He did not give their exact destination.
The United States has carried out 20 aid flights to Georgia since Aug. 19. The U.N. estimates 158,000 people have fled their homes.
"We anticipate staying as long as there is need and helping to set up the economy, because it's very important that the economy begins to take on its normal aspects. But it depends on our ability to do full assessments throughout Georgia," Henrietta Fore, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, told reporters Thursday in Washington.
___
Associated Press writers Bela Szandelszky and Raul Gallego in Poti, Sergei Grits in Igoeti, Christopher Torchia in Gori, Yuras Karmanau in Tskhinvali, and Jim Heintz, David Nowak, Maria Danilova, Jill Lawless and Steve Gutterman in Moscow contributed to this report.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080822/ap_on_re_eu/georgia_russia

Dollar surge will not stop America feeling the effects of a global crunch
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Two alerts landed on my desk this weekend from the elite markets team at Goldman Sachs. One was entitled "The Dollar Has Bottomed!". Those betting on an imminent disintegration of American economic and political power may have to wait another cycle. Rival hegemons are falling like ninepins.
The US dollar index hit an all-time low in March. It crept slowly upwards in the early summer before smashing through layers of resistance over the past month.
The surge against sterling, the euro, the Swiss franc and the Australian dollar is one of the most spectacular currency shifts in half a century. "Something fundamental has changed," said the bank. Indeed.

US industry is now super-competitive, if small. Mid East funds are drawing up shopping lists of Wall Street takeover targets. Airbus and Volkswagen are shifting plant to America to escape crushing labour costs.
US exports have risen 22pc over the past year, outstripping Chinese growth. The US non-oil trade deficit has shrunk by two fifths since 2002. It is now running at $300bn a year. This is 2.1pc of GDP.
The other note advised clients to "Take Profit on Globalization Basket", especially on Eastern Europe currencies. Goldman Sachs has quietly dropped its talk of $200 oil. Even Russia's petro-rouble is now deemed suspect.
The twin missives more or less sum up the dramatic change in mood sweeping financial markets since it became evident that the entire bloc of rich OECD countries has succumbed to the delayed effects of the credit crisis.
Japan contracted by 0.6pc in the second quarter, Germany by 0.5pc, France and Italy by 0.3pc. Spain recalled the cabinet last week for an emergency summit. New Zealand and Denmark are in recession. Iceland contracted at a catastrophic 3.7pc in the second quarter.
"The whole decoupling thesis has started to come apart at the seams," said David Bloom, currency chief at HSBC. "Canada is frozen over. We have Arctic conditions in Sweden, and the UK is falling off the white cliffs of Dover."
The UK economy is not my brief, but I see that hedge funds are circulating a report from the US guru Jeremy Grantham predicting a very bad end to Gordon Brown's debt experiment.
"The UK housing event is probably second only to the Japanese 1990 land bubble in the Real Estate Bubble Hall of Fame. UK house prices could easily decline 50pc from the peak, and at that lower level they would still be higher than they were in 1997 as a multiple of income," he said.
"If prices go all the way back to trend, and history says that is extremely likely, then the UK financial system will need some serious bail-outs and the global ripples will be substantial."
For months the exchange markets ignored this impending train crash, just as they ignored the property bust in Europe's Latin Bloc, or the little detail that UBS alone had just lost the equivalent of 8pc of Switzerland's GDP. All they cared about in the currency pits was the interest rate gap: US low, Europe high.
Now the paradigm has flipped. The Fed may have been right after all to slash rates to 2pc. The European Central Bank may have panicked by tightening in July. Note that the elder Swiss National Bank did not do anything so rash.
Bulls now believe America is turning the corner. Financial stocks are up 20pc since early July. Some "monoline" bond insurers have risen 1,200pc in a month as fears of Götterdämmerung give way to sheer intoxicating relief, and a "short-squeeze". Such are bear-trap rallies.
Regrettably, I remain beset by gloom. The US fiscal stimulus package that kept spending afloat in the second quarter is running out fast. There is nothing yet to replace it. The export boom cannot keep adding juice as the global crunch hits. My fear is that the US will tip into a second, deeper leg of the downturn, setting off a wave of savage job cuts. This will start to feel more like a real depression.
The futures market is pricing a 33pc fall in US house prices from peak to trough, based on the Case-Shiller index. Banks have not come close to writing off implied losses on this scale.
Daniel Alpert from Westwood Capital predicts that a mere 28pc fall would alone lead to a $5.4 trillion haircut in US household wealth, and leave lenders nursing $1.25 trillion in losses. So far they have confessed to less than $500bn.
Meredith Whitney, the Oppenheimer's bank Cassandra, predicts a gruesome 40pc fall in prices. If so, expect prime borrowers facing negative equity to start throwing in the towel en masse. "I do not think we are near the end of writedowns. I continue to see capital levels going lower, and stocks going lower," she said.
So no, this painful ordeal is far from over. We are not witnessing a dollar rally so much as a collapse in European and commodity currencies. The race to the bottom has begun in earnest.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/08/18/ccview118.xml

Depression survivors: 'We lived the hard way' By MARIANN MARTIN mmartin10@jacksonsun.com • August 17, 2008
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Nell Daniel-Miles can still see that penny on the street, a copper disc of untold riches for a child growing up in the Great Depression. "It was the first penny I ever had," Daniel-Miles said. "And I grabbed it up and ran down the street to the store, squeezing it in my hand. "Once I got to the store, I just stared at the different kinds of candy behind the counter. Because I wanted the candy, but I hated to turn loose of that penny." Daniel-Miles is among a waning number of West Tennesseans who remember what it was like to grow up in the Great Depression, which began with the crash of the stock market in 1929 and continued until the beginning of World War II. And as people today talk about high fuel prices, rising food costs, unemployment, economic downturns and recessions, Daniel-Miles and other children of the Depression say things are not nearly as bad as they were when they were growing up. "You hear all these highfalutin people on TV talking about a recession - they don't know what a recession is," said Daniel-Miles, who was 13 when the stock market crashed. "We didn't have anything back in those days, but we didn't think about it because no one else had anything."
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Flawed comparison At least some economists agree with Daniel-Miles. According to Parker Cashdollar, a professor of economics at the University of Tennessee Martin, the definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters of declining gross domestic productivity. "We have actually had growth in the last two quarters," Cashdollar said. "That doesn't mean that there aren't problems out there with the price of energy, the housing crisis and the unemployment rate. "But it isn't even comparable to the Great Depression, especially when you look at the unemployment rate. Most of the 1930s was just really bad." West Tennesseans who lived through the Great Depression agree the world is a different place than it was in the 1930s.
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'Nothing to lose' Nell Daniel-Miles, now 92, knows what it was like to grow up poor during the Depression, but she does not remember those days as being terrible. "We had everything but money," said Daniel-Miles, who now lives at St. Mary's Manor in Jackson. "But my parents didn't lose any money because they didn't have nothing to lose." She grew up in Jackson, living on Lexington Street with her parents and a brother and sister. Her father worked at Southern Engine Boiler Works on Royal Street, but the company went out of business soon after the Depression started. After that, he worked as a painter and paper hanger, Daniel-Miles said. "We never went hungry, even if we just had potatoes and beans to eat," she said. "Since we lived in Jackson, we couldn't grow anything, but had to buy everything we ate." Daniel-Miles said she remembers her dad walking eight blocks to buy coal for his family. He would pay 35 cents for a bag and carry it home on his back so the family could stay warm during the winter. "People don't believe how hard it was," Daniel-Miles said. "But we were loved and protected." Her mother sewed all their clothes from clothes the neighborhood children had outgrown, she said. "A lot of people talk about sewing clothes from fertilizer sacks, but we didn't live on a farm, so we didn't even have those," Daniel-Miles said. Her brother had to quit school to go to work, but she was able to graduate. They ate biscuits or peanut butter and crackers for lunch. If a child was lucky enough to bring a dill pickle to school, the students passed it around and everyone took a bite. "We didn't have any toys, but we made our own fun," Daniel-Miles said. "We used tops off fruit jars to make mud pies and played hide and seek and kick the can." Daniel-Miles also remembers listening to President Franklin D. Roosevelt give his fireside chats on the family's little Sears radio. "I will never forget the name of his dog, Fala," she said. "And he would say, 'All we have to fear is fear itself.'" In 1936 Daniel-Miles went to work at Woolworth's, where she worked nine- or 10-hour days, six days a week. She earned $4 a week, which was a lot of money back then, she said. "Even a dime was a whole lot of money," Daniel-Miles said. "I still pick up every penny I see because if you have 10 pennies, you have a dime." Daniel-Miles married Ernest Daniel in 1938, and they moved into two rooms on Lafayette Street. "We didn't have anything but a two-eyed burner and some pots and pans," she said. "That is what is wrong with people today - they want to go right to the top and buy these expensive homes. No wonder they lose them."
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Sharecropper's son William Smith lives in Beech Bluff with his four dogs and one cat. He is 90 years old and still grows a garden every year and takes care of his yard. And on most summer afternoons, he can be found sitting on a swing in the back yard, with a fan blowing over him. "I don't like being inside if I don't have to," Smith said. "We grew up without air conditioning, and I don't mind the sun." He grew up in Luray, and his family moved from one farm to another during his childhood, sharecropping for various farmers, he said. "We lived the hard way," Smith said. "We did all the work while the farmer sat under the shade tree. And then we gave him half the money for the crops. "But I thought those were some wonderful times, and I wouldn't mind going through them again. We didn't know there was a depression because we didn't have any money to begin with." Smith said his family always had enough to eat. They grew their own fruits and vegetables and hunted and fished. "We bought sugar and flour and coffee from the store, but this was pretty much all," he said. "We even raised our own corn and ground it for cornmeal." They hunted and ate rabbits, squirrels, opossums and raccoons, Smith said. They also picked up chestnuts and hickory nuts in the fall. "Even if we didn't have anything else to eat in the winter, we always had nuts and parched corn," Smith said. His mother sewed clothes for the whole family, he said. Most of them were made from flour sacks and fertilizer sacks. "People think they have these fancy T-shirts nowadays, but they didn't have nothing on us," Smith joked. "Our shirts would say Tennessee Rose or Daybreak Fertilizer with a picture of a rooster crowing on the back." One pair of shoes would last them the whole year, because they would go barefoot most of the time, even when there was frost on the ground, he said. Smith started working in the corn and cotton fields when he was 7 and "big enough to reach the plow handle," he said. His brothers and sisters would race to see who could pick the most cotton in a day. "We got in the field by the time we could see and stayed there until dark," Smith said. "I remember striking matches to look at the scales to see how much cotton we picked. "The reason I know work don't kill people is because if it did, I'd have been dead a long time ago." Smith did go to school but only when his dad didn't need him in the fields, he said. He repeated the third grade for seven years because he attended so infrequently. Finally, when he was 19, he quit going to school. "I knew the third-grade books pretty well by that time, but never could make it all the way through," he said. "If I had got to school more, I would probably have been president or something." He said there were no local doctors in those days and most people were healthy. He broke his arm three times as a child, but his grandmother set it each time. "It was as good as new," he said. Even with all the work, Smith said, they had time to play in the gullies on the farm and make wagons from old boards and trees. His brother loved to play with June bugs and would tie several of them on strings and let them fly around his head, Smith said. "He would have five or six at a time, but I never played with them that much," he said. Christmas gifts were usually a stick of candy, an apple and an orange, Smith said. But he said he doesn't remember complaining about the lack of toys or gifts. "No one else had anything, either," he said. "If we had it, we had it, but if we didn't, we didn't. And nobody threw a fit about it."
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Confusing farm policy Fred Robertson grew up on a farm in Enville and was 18 when the Great Depression started in 1929. "Even if we didn't have anything, we always saw people who were poorer than we were," said Robertson, who lived with his mother and sister. "But people that worked were able to get by. "There was no such thing as welfare, and neighbors helped each other out." If someone got sick, the women in the community would take turns spending the night and bringing food, Robertson said. Even though some people blamed Herbert Hoover for the Depression, Robertson said he wasn't sure it was Hoover's fault. But he did vote for Roosevelt when he ran for president. "I've been sorry ever since," he said. "If you look back over his record, he really didn't do that much to help America, and he brought in this whole welfare mess." Robertson said he remembers when the New Deal began to be implemented. That year, the government offered to pay $12 an acre if a farmer plowed under half of his cotton crop. "I had worked really hard that spring and planted 12 acres of cotton," Robertson said. "That was a lot of cotton for one man to take care of." So he decided to plow up six acres of his cotton, and the government paid him $72 for it. That fall he picked two bales of cotton from the other six acres, he said. He took it to the gin and was paid $68 for the cotton. "I got more out of what"
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Feeding big families Mary Kathryne Winn was born in Savannah in 1920, the youngest of 11 children. Her father was a self-educated teacher, and her mother worked at the post office in Savannah, Winn said. "We had a big family, so we didn't have a lot of extras," she said, speaking in a phone interview from her home in Memphis, where she now lives. Winn said she remembers playing dress-up with her brothers and sisters while she was growing up because they didn't have many toys. "We had a room that we used for our pretend games," she said. "We would pretend to be movie stars and act out movies." Winn said they lived close to the Tennessee River, and she and her friends would go down to watch the steam boats come in at the landing. She also would work in their large garden. "As the youngest, I probably didn't have to do as much," Winn admitted. "My older brothers and sisters did a lot of the work I plowed up than what I gathered," Robertson said. "The government has confused me ever since then."
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Crash dashed dreams John Graham was only 3 years old when the stock market crashed, but the disaster that his family experienced changed the course of their lives, he said. His family was living in Birmingham, Ala., and his father had just invested in a laundry business. But in 1933, the banks closed, taking with them every penny his daddy had in the business. "He didn't own his house, and all his money was in the business," Graham said. "So he went down to the bank and gave them the key to his laundry business. Then he loaded the family up and went back to Iuka, Miss." The Grahams lived there until 1937, as his dad tried to find work as a salesman. But the family never went hungry because they had a large garden, Graham said. "You didn't think about being poor, because everyone else was poor," he said. Graham said he still remembers when his dad strapped him and one of his playmates onto the plow and together they plowed the garden. Graham also would help hoe and do other chores in the garden. "I hated picking bugs off the beans and sweet potatoes," he said, shuddering at the memory. "You had to shake them into this can and let them die." In 1937, Graham's father got a job in Jackson as a delivery man for Tom's Toasted Peanut Co. He moved the family to Jackson in 1938, and conditions improved slightly for the family, Graham said. But his parents always worried about saving money and insisted on paying cash for things they bought. "It becomes instilled in you," Graham said. "You don't spend more than you have."

Armed 85-year-old woman makes intruder call cops August 19, 2008 - 11:07am POINT MARION, Pa. (AP) - An 85-year-old woman boldly went for her gun and busted a would-be burglar inside her home, then forced him to call police while she kept him in her sights, police said. "I just walked right on past him to the bedroom and got my gun," Leda Smith said. Smith heard someone break into her home Monday afternoon and grabbed the .22-caliber revolver she had been keeping by her bed since a neighbor's home was burglarized a few weeks ago. "I said 'What are you doing in my house?' He just kept saying he didn't do it," Smith said. After the 17-year-old boy called 911, Smith kept holding the gun on him until state police arrived at her home in Springhill Township, about 45 miles south of Pittsburgh. The boy will be charged with attempted burglary and related offenses in juvenile court, Trooper Christian Lieberum said. He was not identified because of his age. "It was exciting," Smith said. "I just hope I broke up the (burglary) ring because they have been hitting a lot of places around here." http://wtop.com/?nid=456&sid=1462598

Beware the $7,500 'tax credit'
The housing rescue credit may prod some new homebuyers. But the money must be repaid, and the program probably won't be enough to jump start housing market.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Washington policy makers and housing industry insiders hope a new tax credit for first-time home buyers will get the moribund housing market moving again.
But most analysts agree that the program is more of a band-aid than a cure-all for the battered real estate market. What's more, others are quick to point out that the credit must be repaid, which means it's actually an interest-free loan that could get some homeowners in trouble.
"It's one of those things that are more complicated than it seems at first blush, said Allen Fishbein, director of housing and credit policy for the Consumer Federation of America. "Consumers have to make sure they understand the credit thoroughly.
The $7,500 credit is for people buying their first homes, and was passed as part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 and signed into law in July. To qualify for the full $7,500, individuals must earn less than $75,000 annually, while couples may earn up to $150,000. Individual buyers with income of up to $95,000 and couples with income up to $170,000 are eligible for a partial credit.
The Senate Finance Committee estimates that about 1.6 million people will use the credit.
The housing industry pushed for the program. "Breaking the log jam of unsold homes is something we are very much behind," said Richard Dugas, president of builder Pulte Homes, at a news conference to discuss the program. First time home buyers represented about 20% of the market for new homes in 2007.
Realtors are also behind the credit. "[It] will help chip away at inventory levels, stabilize prices and spur [sales] activity," said Richard A. Smith, CEO of Realogy, the parent company of both Coldwell Banker and Century 21.
The industry has had success with tax credits in the past. In 1975, Congress passed a $2,000 credit for home buyers (about $8,200 in today's dollars).
"Buyers flocked to market and cleared out a then-record inventory of homes," said NAHB president Sandy Dunn. But that credit did not have to be repaid.
And the impact should extend beyond first time home buyers, according to Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors. A boost in demand for starter homes means that those sellers will be able to trade up to bigger, more expensive places, and so on up the chain.
How it works
Buyers who have not owned a home in the past three years can take a tax credit worth 10% of a home's sale price, up to $7,500, whichever is smaller.
The credit is good for homes closed on after April 9, 2008 and before July 1, 2009, and can be taken on taxes filed during 2008 or 2009. Even buyers who bought a home before the bill passed, but after April 9, can claim the credit.
Unlike tax deductions, which only offset taxes by lowering taxable income, the tax credit is a straight dollar-for-dollar deduction of your tax bill. So a buyer who would ordinarily pay $8,000 in taxes would pay just $500.
It's also "refundable," which means if a buyer's taxes are less than $7,500, the government will send them a check for the difference. For example, if a couple's income generates a tax bill of $5,000, the government will refund all of that plus $2,500.
Buyers must start paying back the loan within two years, at a rate of no more than $500 a year for 15 years. When the the home is sold, any outstanding balance will be repaid from the profit; if it's sold at a loss and the difference will be forgiven.
And some argue that mortgage lenders will take the credit into consideration, making it easier for buyers to get a loan.
"[The $7,500 reserve] will make borrowers less likely to fall into default," said Ken Goldstein, an economist with the Conference Board, since it gives them a nest egg should they run into trouble. Still, that assumes that buyers will sock the $7,500 away rather than spend it.
No cure
Indeed, the credit comes with plenty of caveats from economists and industry analysts.
"It's not going to provide first-time home buyers with cash up front," said the Consumer Federation of America's Allen Fishbein. "You have to apply to get the credit after the fact. There's a delay before you get the financial advantage."
And there are concerns that borrowers may treat the credit as a windfall, spending it as if it doesn't have to be repaid.
"It may appear to be free money," said Fishbein. "Consumers have to have their eyes open about how this works."
Other economists caution that while the credit may be helpful, it's hardly a solution to the crisis.
"It will not turn things around," said Jared Bernstein, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute. "Given the economy, it will only push a precious few first-time home buyers over the edge right now."
Plummeting home prices will blunt any impact that the credit may have, according to Nicholas Retsinas, director of the Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies. As far as he's concerned, the market is simply too soft right now for a modest measure like this to make a big difference.
"The challenge right now is as much willingness to buy as affordability," he said. "The market still has this psychological barrier because people think prices will be lower tomorrow. I don't think this can overcome that barrier."
http://money.cnn.com/2008/08/15/real_estate/buyers_tax_credit/index.htm?postversion=2008081811&eref=yahoo

Housing starts dip to lowest level since March '91
By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER, AP Business Writer 1 hour, 16 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Construction of homes and apartments fell in July to the lowest level in more than 17 years, the government reported Tuesday.
The Commerce Department said that builders broke ground on 965,000 housing units on an annualized basis. That was down from a pace of 1.08 million in June and the weakest showing since March 1991.
However, July's performance was better than analysts expected. Wall Street economists forecast that housing starts would drop to a pace of 950,000.
Still, the latest housing figures continue to show a badly battered housing market, one of the biggest problems plaguing the already shaky national economy.
The report showed that construction of single-family homes in July fell by 2.9 percent from the previous month to a pace of 641,000. That was the lowest since January 1991, when the economy also was in distress.
New home construction last month was down a sharp 39.2 percent compared with July 2007, illustrating how much ground the housing market has lost in the past year.
Construction of apartments and other multifamily dwellings also fell sharply in July, after a large jump in the previous month due to a change in New York City's building codes. That change, which went into effect July 1, gave a rare lift to overall housing construction in June.
Housing permits in July fell to a rate of 937,000, a 17.7 percent drop from June, but still above analysts' expectations of 925,000. Permits are considered a reliable sign of future activity.
Homebuilders are hoping the housing rescue package approved by Congress last month will boost the dismal real estate sector. The law includes a temporary $7,500 tax credit for first-time homebuyers that essentially works out to a 15-year, interest-free loan.
The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo housing market index, released Monday, remained at a record low of 16 in August for the second consecutive month. Readings below 50 indicate negative sentiment about the market.
But one measure of longer-term sentiment improved slightly: a measure of builders' sales expectations in six months rose two points to 25.
Still, homebuilder Toll Brothers Inc. reported dismal quarterly results last week when its revenue fell 34 percent and its order backlog plunged 52 percent.
Shares of several homebuilders, including Toll Brothers, D.R. Horton Inc. and Pulte Homes Inc., dropped Monday, partly due to renewed fears about the financial health of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080819/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/housing_starts_8;_ylt=AmwruSrUYUV2AbqkBUgbCkNv24cA

Wholesale prices rising at fastest pace since 1981 By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, WASHINGTON - Wholesale inflation surged in July, leaving prices for the past year rising at the fastest pace in 27 years, according to government data released Tuesday. The Labor Department reported that wholesale prices shot up 1.2 percent in July, pushed higher by rising costs for energy, motor vehicles and other products. The increase was more than twice the 0.5 percent gain that economists expected. Core prices, which exclude food and energy, rose 0.7 percent. That increase was the biggest since November 2006 and more than triple the 0.2 percent rise in core prices that had been expected. In other economic news, the Commerce Department reported that housing construction fell in July to the lowest pace in more than 17 years. Builders broke ground on 965,000 housing units at a seasonally adjusted annual rate last month — the weakest showing since March 1991 — as the housing industry continues to struggle with falling sales and rising mortgage foreclosures. The bad news on wholesale prices followed a report last week that consumer prices shot up by 0.8 percent in July, leaving consumer inflation rising at the fastest pace in 27 years. The July price pressures reflected in part the big surge in energy costs during the month that pushed crude oil prices to a record of $147.27 per barrel and sent gasoline pump prices to an all-time high of $4.11 per gallon. Crude oil prices have fallen by more than $30 per barrel since then, raising hopes that the surge in inflation will soon abate. However, the price spikes in a number of areas seen in July raised concerns that the prolonged surge in energy prices was beginning to show up more broadly throughout the economy. Such a development would put the Federal Reserve in a severe bind. The central bank would like to keep interest rates low to give a boost to the badly lagging economy, but Fed officials may feel pressured to start raising rates in an effort to make sure inflation does not get out of control. For July, wholesale energy prices jumped by 3.1 percent following a 6 percent gain in June. That increase reflected big jumps in the price of natural gas, home heating oil and liquefied petroleum gas, which offset a 0.2 percent dip in gasoline costs. Food prices rose by 0.3 percent in July after a 1.5 percent surge in June. Beef prices jumped by 7.4 percent, the biggest increase in nearly four years. Milk prices shot up by 5 percent, the biggest gain in a year, while soft drink prices rose by 2.4 percent, the largest increase in four years. Excluding energy and food, the 0.7 percent rise in core inflation reflected big gains in the prices of passenger cars and light trucks, pharmaceutical preparations and plastic products.http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080819/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/economy


Man at center of gun ban case registers revolver
August 18, 2008 - 1:56pm

WASHINGTON - The man who sued to overturn Washington's handgun ban has successfully registered his revolver, ending a more than 30-year wait to keep the weapon in his home.

Dick Heller walked out of D.C. police headquarters Monday, clutching a yellow firearms registration certificate stamped "approved." He gave the thumbs-up sign, grinned and said, "Victory!"

Heller won approval for his .22-caliber revolver a month after coming to police headquarters to be fingerprinted and take a firearms proficiency test. Police approved the weapon after completing a background check.

Heller was the plaintiff in the Supreme Court case that struck down the city's 32-year-old handgun ban in June. He has since sued the city again, saying its revised regulations remain too restrictive.


http://wtop.com/?nid=596&sid=1441828

Rice warns of new Iron Curtain
Analysts see few options for penalties
Kelly Hearn (Contact)
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Despite harsh warnings by U.S. officials, Western nations have a slim range of options for punishing Russia for invading Georgia without damaging international institutions and their own interests, former U.S. officials and analysts say.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday that Washington and its NATO allies would not let Moscow destabilize Europe or split the Continent with a new Iron Curtain.

"We have to deny Russian strategic objectives, which are clearly to undermine Georgia's democracy, to use its military capability to damage and in some cases destroy Georgian infrastructure and to try and weaken the Georgian state," she told reporters on her way to a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.

NATO is expected to issue a statement Tuesday condemning Russia for responding to Georgian attacks in the disputed region of South Ossetia with a full-scale invasion. Washington has excluded Moscow from discussions among the Group of Eight industrial nations over Georgia, and Miss Rice and President Bush have made clear Moscow's application for membership in bodies such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) could be at risk.


A member of the Russian Emergency Ministry carries a bag of flour delivered as food aid on Monday to the Georgian city Gori. (Agence France-Presse/Getty Images)

NATO has already barred a Russian ship from joining a multinational anti-terrorism exercise in the Mediterranean and did not agree to a Russian request for an emergency meeting of ambassadors on the crisis in the Caucasus.

Asked whether such steps would have an impact on Moscow, Toby Gati, a former special assistant to President Clinton for Russia, said she doubted it. "You can't punish people when punishment means denying them something they wanted but weren't getting," she said.

Ms. Gati said the Russians think that Western nations for years have offered them empty promises for membership in international institutions such as the WTO.

"The Russians are at the point where they don't believe we will give them any benefits," she said. "In that context, threatening to withhold something doesn't give you any additional leverage."

Critics of the Bush administration's response to the Russian attacks have also called for Russia to be banned from the G-8. But Ms. Gati said denying a major economic power membership in the body would only weaken the institution and reduce Western leverage over Russia.

Others said Congress could vote down pending legislation dealing with civilian nuclear cooperation between Washington and Moscow, meant to bolster nuclear research in both countries, or oppose future arms control talks.

This might hurt the United States as much as Russia.

"Nuclear negotiation should not be held hostage," said Strobe Talbott, a Russia expert and president of the Brookings Institution. "It is in our own interest that strategic arms reductions talks and other forms of arms proliferation and arms control measures continue."

Dimitri Simes of the Nixon Center, another Washington think tank, said the Bush administration could play hard ball by asking Interpol to investigate money laundering by Russia's ruling elite. But that could cause blowback for U.S. companies, he said.

"If Interpol were to look at accounts and properties of Russian officials, such as mansions in Miami beach, or brownstones in Kensington, the Russian ruling group would take it personally and there would be retaliation against European and U.S. investment and business people in Russia," he said.

Georgian officials have listed a number of possible responses to the Russian attack including a request that the 2014 Winter Olympics not be held in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.

The European Union could also terminate a visa program that facilitates Russian travel to EU member states, said a senior adviser to Georgia's president, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

"There should be a positive carrot and stick approach," the adviser said. "Punishment isn't the right word. The West needs to show this kind of behavior has costs."

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/aug/19/rice-warns-of-new-iron-curtain/

A New Way To Buy A Home: Online

WASHINGTON - Homes are sitting longer on the market, and the inventory is piling up. One man sees it as a business opportunity.

At bidEup.com, people can actually buy or sell a property with the click of a mouse.

David McNairy, a former attorney, says he invented bidEup after seeing all the inventory sitting on the market unsold.

Just like eBay, you can choose a buy-now option -- or put in an offer that is legally binding. You can also email the seller questions, apply for a mortgage or put in an offer.

"For the first time, an online transaction of a high price good is as legally binding as if it took place off-line," McNairy says.

The site has only been up for a few months, so there are just a few properties up for sale. But McNairy says the concept is "a real powerful tool for the future."