Happy As Kings

Salon.com: Home schooling: How we do it

The article at the link is the second in a series from Salon.com

Home schooling: How we do it -- What's the curriculum for our twin 5-year-olds? Greek myths, costumed trips to the Met and Lightning McQueen

So at least for a while, the bunny chasing and melon smashing, and the trips to the Bronx Zoo and the New York Hall of Science, were free of any explicit educational intentions, beyond the universal goals of all exhausted parents of small children: to get through the day without unacceptable acts of violence, while demonstrating that the world is full of cool and exciting stuff. But as the months rolled on and the 3-year-olds in Leslie's group turned 4 -- the age when most public-school kids head off to pre-K -- their parents began to face the inevitable question: What do we do now?

First installment:  Confessions of a home-schooler -- Call us crackpots, but our kids spend their days at beaches and museums, not in school

Reply to Oath Keepers post

For reasons beyond my knowledge, the comments section at the previous post would not accept this comment from me.  Because of that, it's going here.

1.  I acknowledged my authorship via the links.  In my comments, I spoke in 1^st person singular, and then provided links back to the blog.  If readers had bothered to follow the URLs, both the blog, and my authorship, would have been evident.  (my mother is out of the hospital, but care continues of course; thank you for your consideration)

 

2.  One does not pick and choose within the oath of office and say, “I will follow this part, but not that one.”  The oath requires protection and defence of the Constitution, and obeying the President of the United States and superior officers according to regulations and the UCMJ.  I did not claim that the officer oath included obeying the President, although apparently this is included in the oath National Guard officers take.

 

3.  The flag section of AR 670-1 begins on PDF-page 263/reg. page 240.

28–18. Wear of full-color U.S. flag cloth replica

 

4.  Unauthorized articles are unauthorized whether they are patches manufactured to resemble military patches in “subdued colors,” my co-worker’s red socks, your pink muumuu or an official item the wearer is not entitled to wear.  Intent is irrelevant.  Color is irrelevant.  The item is irrelevant.  Unauthorized is unauthorized.

 

5.  Encouraging soldiers, again, to pick and choose, and select which orders to follow does put unit morale at risk, as well as careers.   Whether the recommendation to pick and choose comes from a Yale graduate or from someone else is immaterial.  SAEDA doesn’t care who recommends the picking and choosing.

AR 381-12 Subversion and Espionage Directed Against the U.S. Army 
3–1. SAEDA incidents
i. Active attempts to encourage military or civilian employees to violate laws, disobey lawful orders or regulations, or disrupt military activities (subversion).
k. Participation by Army personnel in activities advocating or teaching the overthrow of the United States by force or violence or seeking to alter the form of Government by unconstitutional means (sedition).

 

6.  Comments are now moderated because I tired of the back & forth 'tennis game' with no progress.  If readers care to comment further on my opinions on this topic, they may do so at their own blogs.  

Oath Keeper badge on an Army uniform worn in Iraq

I just came across the picture that is said to be of an American soldier wearing an "oath keeper" badge on his uniform in Iraq.  If this picture is real (I've seen references to the uniform and gear looking "too clean" to have been taken in a war zone), it would show a violation of the Army regulation on the wear of the uniform.  All soldiers know that how the uniform is worn is controlled by regulation, and suggesting that active duty soldiers are wearing unauthorized items of such a nature, and approving of it, shows support for defiance of the regulation.

Army Regulation 670–1:  Wear and Appearance of Army Uniforms and Insignia  (337 pages worth of "do this ..., do not do that ...")

1–10. e. (1) The wear of a combination of civilian and military clothing is prohibited, unless prescribed in this regulation or other authorization documents approved by HQDA.

I presume that this would also apply to wearing civilian badges on an Army uniform.

A soldier sporting ultra-nationalistic patches on a uniform may seem "historically romantic" ("the revolutionary war was won by three percent") or "patriotically heartwarming" (Christian Embassy video in Pentagon) to people of similar opinions, but to me it indicates a breakdown of the discipline necessary for the safe conduct of operations in a war zone.  It also indicates to me a desire, on the part of some people sympathetic to the values of "oath keepers," to use the military services for anti-pluralistic propaganda.

Yes, I remember Viet Nam war era photos of soldiers with peace signs on their steel pots, and the Gulf War era photo of the young mother with a button picture of her daughter pinned to her helmet cover.  Inside each soldier is a regular person with a point of view, and those points of view are protected by the first amendment of the United States Constitution.  But the wearing of spurious insignia indicating allegiance to "oaths" that begin, "We will NOT obey orders to ...," is a purposeful challenge to the military chain of command. 

It also appears that the oath keepers want active duty service members to be oath breakers, in that all service members take an oath to "defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic ..."  If active duty oath keepers have to choose between a domestic enemy and the Constitution, which oath will prevail?

And we do all know that the person who gets in trouble for following this Hollywood moment is the trooper who falls for it, not the organization exercising its first amendment rights, don't we?

Edible food-like substance pantries

From Deborah at Antiquity Oaks:

Food, oh, food, where have you gone?

I just received an email requesting donations for a local food drive. The problem is that they are not asking for food. They are asking for the stuff that Michael Pollan describes as "edible food-like substances." Here's the list of requested donations:

Mac & Cheese

Cereal

Instant Potatoes

Jell-O

Hamburger Helper

Tuna Helper

Cake or Brownie Mix

Stuffing Mix

Pasta Mix

Soup Mix