Home schooling continues to be in the news on a number of fronts. The former Pennsylvania senator and Republican candidate for president, Rick Santorum, is getting hammered from all sides in the mainstream media because he is now perceived to be a viable conservative threat to the nomination of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.
Cameron Home School Case Update
February 27, 2012 By
Last Friday about 40 home school parents and teens went to the court hearing in Cameron, in Milam County, to show their support for the home school mom in a custody hearing in which her in-laws and her husband tried to convince the judge to take her three children from her and place them with the grandparents and father. Although the judge accused the mother’s attorney of being responsible for the “mob” in the courtroom, referring to the home schoolers supporting the mother, several who had been to previous hearings noted that the tone and tenor of the court and of the judge seemed to be more balanced than in earlier hearings. [Read more...]
National News – February 25, 2012
February 25, 2012 By
Federal Judge Strikes a Blow Against Regulatory Fascism
Posted by Leon H. Wolf
Via the Becket Fund we are informed that a Federal Judge (the same judge who ruled in 2010 that DADT was unconstitutional and ordered an openly gay service member reinstated to the military) has struck down Washington state pharmacy regulations that can only accurately be described as fascistic. The regulations in question declared that no pharmacy in the State of Washington was permitted to refuse to dispense Plan B on conscience grounds. That’s it; no requirement that the pharmacy be state funded (pharmacies, unlike hospitals, generally manage just fine without nurturing from the government teat), just a blanket law that you cannot refuse to dispense Plan B on conscience grounds.
Muslim families turn to home-schooling
By Daniel Jackson
Cilia Ndiaye vividly remembers her parents’ worries that she was suffering in public school because of her Muslim faith. Fellow students, she said, would mock her and tear off her hijab, the head scarf worn for modesty.
FBI caves: Mueller pulls Muslim material from offices
By Steven Emerson
It was just revealed two days ago that FBI Director Mueller secretly met on February 8 at FBI headquarters with a coalition of groups including various Islamist and militant Arabic groups who in the past have defended Hamas and Hizballah and have also issued blatantly anti-Semitic statements. At this meeting, the FBI revealed that it had removed more than 1000 presentations and curricula on Islam from FBI offices around the country that was deemed “offensive.”
Presidential News – February 25, 2012
February 25, 2012 By
20th Debate
By Gary L. Bauer
Last night’s debate in Arizona was the 20th time the GOP candidates have faced off. It was the last debate before Super Tuesday and could be the final debate of the primary. (I would not be at all surprised if an NPR-sponsored forum in Oregon next month is cancelled.)
A Primer for the Media and I Agree With Rick Santorum
Posted by Erick Erickson
The Drudge Report put up a story about Rick Santorum’s speech to Ave Maria University in which Santorum said Satan was attacking the United States. The speech was giving in 2008, but is largely consistent with statements he has given in the past few weeks.
Santorum Under Siege
By Gary L. Bauer
Senator Rick Santorum has been under siege by the mainstream media for several days now over comments he allegedly made about Barack Obama’s “faith.” Just to be clear, Santorum wasn’t talking about Obama’s faith, but his environmental policies, which are being dictated by the radical environmentalist movement. The “phony theology” Santorum was referring to was the left’s extreme environmental views, not Obama’s faith.
Sex, Lies and Rick Santorum – The politics of the double standard on social issues.
By MainStreet
When Barack Obama was campaigning for president in 2008, he declared that marriage is between a man and a woman. For the most part, his position was treated as a nonissue.
Battle lines are drawn over whether Obama is waging a war on religion
By Cheryl Wetzstein
There’s a war raging over the “war on religion.” President Obama’s public clash with U.S. Catholic bishops in recent weeks over the issue of health insurance coverage for birth-control services has ignited a wider debate over whether the administration’s policies such as gay marriage, abortion and employment-discrimination laws are running roughshod over religious freedom.
Will U.S. give Russia energy-rich Alaskan islands?
By Joe Miller
Obama’s State Department is giving away seven strategic, resource-laden Alaskan islands to the Russians. Yes, to the Putin regime in the Kremlin. … The seven endangered islands in the Arctic Ocean and Bering Sea include one the size of Rhode Island and Delaware combined. The Russians are also to get the tens of thousands of square miles of oil-rich seabeds surrounding the islands. The Department of Interior estimates billions of barrels of oil are at stake.
Texas News – February 25, 2012
February 25, 2012 By
Don’t mess with Texas quotas? – It’s time for the Supreme Court to negate affirmative action
By The Washington Times?
Defenders of racially-based preferential treatment argue that affirmative action was part of the original intent of the framers of the 14th Amendment. They should study more history.
Yes We Can… Indoctrinate Your Kids!
By Dustin Matocha
Did you know that Barack Obama thinks outside the box? That his favorite team is the White Sox? That his famous slogan is “Yes We Can?” That he’s “the man?” That’s what kindergarteners at an elementary school in Houston now know after being forced to learn a song praising the president.
iWaste in Fort Bend ISD
By WasteWatch
The Fort Bend ISD School Board recently announced plans spend an appalling $18 million to give 2nd through 8th graders iPads in lieu of traditional textbooks. Do they expect taxpayers to ignore their role as lead plaintiff in one of the school finance lawsuits?
Testing Champion
By Michael Quinn Sullivan
Suddenly it’s fashionable to be against the ridiculously expensive state-imposed public school testing regimen. Let’s not forget that just a year ago the House education committee wouldn’t even take a vote on a cash-saving proposal by taxpayer champion and State Rep. Dan Flynn (R-Van) to put the test on hiatus for two years.
How Much Will This Boondoggle Really Cost?
By Dustin Matocha
With news that the Texas Department of Transportation is exploring a new passenger rail line from Austin to Houston, taxpayers should be frantically clinging to their wallets. If history is any indication, it’s going to have a boondoggle of a price tag.
THSC PAC Endorsement – February 24, 2012
February 24, 2012 By
This week THSC PAC endorsed:
Elsa Alcala
Office: Judge, Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 8
Website: judgeelsaalcala.com
Justice for Families
February 23, 2012 By
I wrote last week about a custody case in Cameron, in which a father and his parents are seeking to take his children from their mother on the basis that she had homeschooled the children. The case continues tomorrow and has served to remind me of the continuing challenge that parents—and particularly home school parents—face, which is the challenge of justice in regard to their rights as parents to make decisions for their children. [Read more...]
Mama’s Don’t Let Your Kids Grow up to be . . . Home Schoolers?
February 21, 2012 By
In my last post I mentioned that I had given testimony in a custody case in Cameron in which the attorneys for both the father and his parents were attacking home schooling and arguing that the mother should not have custody of her children because she homeschooled them and “isolated” them. The attorneys made these arguments in spite of testimony from several teachers regarding the outstanding character and academic excellence of the children. [Read more...]
Presidential News – February 18, 2012
February 18, 2012 By
Santorum Surge Continues
By Gary L. Bauer
The latest Rasmussen national poll finds Senator Rick Santorum leading the GOP race by double digits over Governor Mitt Romney. Here are the results of Rasmussen’s poll of likely Republican primary voters:
Santorum 39%
Romney 27%
Gingrich 15%
Paul 10%
Santorum’s Surge is Real
By Gary L. Bauer
Santorum’s surge is real. Three national polls released in the past 24 hours have Senator Rick Santorum essentially tied or leading Governor Mitt Romney in the Republican presidential contest. As a result, Santorum has overtaken Romney in the RealClearPolitics.com average of polls.
Only Solution to ObamaCare’s Tyrannical Attack on Religious Freedom is Full Repeal
Posted by Senator Jim DeMint
Well, we can’t say they didn’t warn us. Nancy Pelosi famously decreed that Congress must first pass ObamaCare to find out what’s in it.
Rick Santorum: No longer such a long shot
By Brian Montopoli
After Saturday’s Maine caucuses, we’ve come to something of a lull in the Republican presidential race. The next nominating contests don’t come until February 28, when there are primaries in Arizona and Michigan. There is only one debate scheduled before those contests, on February 22 in Arizona. Other than that there’s not much action until Super Tuesday, on March 6, when ten states hold their contests.
How Dumb Do You Think I Am?
Posted by Michael Hammond
We don’t have all the specifics. But it is pretty apparent that Obama’s “deal” on contraceptives is a trick. As to Catholic institutions, Catholic hospitals and universities would pay insurance companies premiums, which would pay for contraceptives and abortifacients. Evil doesn’t become good because it’s laundered through a third party.
Obama to Increase Spending Again
Posted by Daniel Horowitz
On Monday, Obama is slated to release his annual budget proposal for FY 2013, along with a 10-year budget (2012-2021) outlook. One would think that after talking incessantly about cutting spending, Obama would spend less money next year than this year. Yet, in Obama’s world, a spending cut means spending less than you were slated to spend, even though it is still higher in nominal terms.
Team Obama Fumbles Ruling, Offends Catholics
By Scott Rasmussen
Every sports fan knows that close contests are often decided by mistakes rather than heroics. In this year’s Super Bowl, Tom Brady threw just one interception, but Eli Manning didn’t throw any. Manning’s team won.
Santorum Surging
By Gary L. Bauer
The latest Fox News poll finds Senator Rick Santorum surging into a tie with Governor Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination. In the final two days of polling conducted after Santorum’s sweep in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri, Santorum and Romney both earned 30% support, followed by Gingrich at 16% and Paul at 15%.
Rick Perry rises from the ashes at CPAC – ‘Chance to offer a strikingly different view of America than the Democrats’
By Jerome R. Corsi
Former Republican presidential candidate Gov. Rick Perry called for his party to run against Obama this year by adopting the theme “to take this nation back.”
Santorum Strong In Ohio
By Gary L. Bauer
For the second time in as many weeks, there is polling data suggesting that the strongest Republican candidate in Ohio is not Mitt Romney but rather Rick Santorum. A Rasmussen poll released this morning finds that Barack Obama leads Mitt Romney 45% to 41% among likely Ohio voters, whereas Santorum and Obama are tied at 44% each.
National News – February 18, 2012
February 18, 2012 By
The Demise of the Tea Party is Greatly Exaggerated
Posted by Ned Ryun
Certain people keep opining that the Tea Party is all but dead, but those who wish for the demise of the Tea Party are missing the emerging new political infrastructure where Tea Party groups have set aside rallies for political action. Consider Wisconsin to determine where the Tea Party is going in 2012 and beyond.
Feds shut down Amish farm for selling fresh milk
By Stephen Dinan
The FDA won its two-year fight to shut down an Amish farmer who was selling fresh raw milk to eager consumers in the Washington, D.C., region after a judge this month banned Daniel Allgyer from selling his milk across state lines and he told his customers he would shut down his farm altogether.
