I DIDN'T forget

But, I did enjoy reading THIS again. I still feel this way.

Caucus Cacophony

Democrats to the left, Republicans to the right.

Funny how our rooms at the library were situated just so. We had a good turnout. 25 people where last time we had maybe 8.

I got to lead the meeting for about half the time due to Joan leaving to set her missionary apart. (good luck Jeffery)

I found myself in a strange position. Definitely one of the younger ones in the crowd, but also, one of the more knowledgeable on the whole delegate process.

We had a pretty good debate. It started out as 'oust all the incumbents' but I feel happy that I think we actually got some thinking going.

{After all, we know what happens when we get change for change
sake.}

{FYI: The Healthcare Bill had been passed for roughly 36 hours before President Obama signed it. This isn't the first time he broke his campaign promise though. As early as Feb. 2009 (just a few days after being sworn in) Politico reports his first case of signing just 3 hours after the bill was passed with many more in the last year}

I most wanted people to see that they needed to do research on their own and definitely do not rely on money-driven, misleading campaign material that ends up in your mailbox.

Ahh but I digress. Due to scheduling problems I did not run as as delegate this year, but Mike was elected as a state delegate and I am once again the Vice Chair of the Precinct. (Sounds half important doesn't it?) ;)

So how was your caucus Brenda, Amanda...any other Utahns?

How to be a delegate

To be elected a delegate you attend your neighborhood caucus meeting and declare your desire to run as a delegate. You can have someone nominate you but you can also nominate yourself. Different precincts are allotted different amount of delegates chosen by how many delegates in previous years were active and also dependent on your population. If there are more candidates than spots you may have to tell the group why you are interested in becoming a delegate to sway them to voting for you.

*Duties of a delegate*
To show up and participate in the respective political conventions. A state delegate will have a State convention to attend. These can be long events. They are usually longer when there is a statewide race being contested. If you have a race with several candidates of the same party running, you will have the opportunity to vote on candidates during the convention. There will likely be several rounds of voting to eliminate various candidates. A candidate must have a 2/3 vote to avoid a primary election. If a candidate is unable to get the needed votes the two remaining candidates will head to a primary election.

As a delegate you will be bombarded with campaign material and opportunities to meet the candidates. You will also receive lots of phone calls and mail. Consider this fun. It's like being a mini-celebrity. :) It is a good idea to really investigate the candidates so you know who you like best but also who your next choice would be. Sometimes first choice candidates get voted out in the first round.

One other 'bonus' is you will likely be on all the 'important' politician's Christmas card lists until the end of time. Think of this as wrapping paper.

Ok so I've been a bit tongue in cheek. But the important part is to see that the process weeds out so many candidates before the public gets a chance to even vote.

This year Bob Bennett is seeking reelection for Senator. He has at least 3 Republicans running against him (might be 4 I'm tired and can't remember). There is no guarantee that he will make it through the convention and who knows you might not want him too. The one thing to note though is that those with extreme views one way or the other will be vying for spots as delegates. And that sometimes kicks more mainstream candidates to the curb because they either have to 'act' like the extremist or risk getting ousted in convention. This is similar to what happened to Mitt Romney in the last presidential campaign. Most observers thought Romney would do better with a more mainstream group but since he had to get through the primaries that leaned heavily against him he had no chance.

Duties are similar on the county level but the effect is felt much closer. You will be deciding things like County commissioners, Treasurers, Auditors, Sheriffs and the like.

And, while usually there is just the one meeting per year, (Yes there will be one next year in the off election cycle and it is also very important to attend) you may be called upon to replace a candidate that has resigned for whatever reason. (We had two very high profile legislators this session do that very thing.)

Your term of service is 2 years. You get paid nothing. You can make a world of difference.

And really, it's a great spectator sport.

More Random

Not sure if a title like 'more random' should mean additional random items or things that may seem even more random than before. So I will do my best to fulfill both needs.

*Precinct Caucus meetings for both the Republican and Democrat Political parties in Utah are on Tuesday March 23 at 7:00 pm. Make plans NOW to attend.

*JUST FYI I gave up Farkle cold turkey and I don't miss it in the least.

*Why should you attend your neighborhood caucus meeting you ask? Well mostly because right now because of the way politics run in Utah a GREAT deal of decision making is done at party conventions. And the only way to have a say at the convention is to become a delegate.

*Update on my A place for everything and everything in it's place mantra. It is still alive, though took a crippling blow over the last month. Made quite a bit of progress today though and it feels good.

*You may think it doesn't matter if I'm a delegate, someone else will do it. You are darn right someone else will do it. And it is very likely to be someone with extreme views on either side. You see those that go along with the flow and aren't passionate about any specific cause often just go along with the flow. BUT the conventions are SKEWED with people that do have passions and I can guarantee that they likely don't match with yours.

*I am addicted to Chick-fil-a's lemonade.

*Any restaurant that sells 'fake' lemonade should be put out of business.

*But I don't know anything about being a delegate. Well there is no time like the present to learn. And it is not really hard.

*First you must register as a member of the party that you want to be a delegate. But I don't want to register you say. Well, then you are letting other people that may or LIKELY may not have your best interests in mind.

*Second, if you run as a delegate...it is good to know the basics of what that will entail. If you don't know...let me know. I'll write a post.

*Third, remember you have JUST as much right as anyone else to run as a delegate. This is AMERICA and this is the purest form of politics.

*Fourth, I GUARANTEE your vote will count.

*I got rid of 3 huge garbage bags of clothes and toys today to the DI. And I feel fine!

*I think it's cute how much Mike loves his truck.

*To find out where your caucus meeting is check the county political party website. Just google it, it won't hurt.

* I should apologize for being so cantankerous about my stand on being a delegate, but I'm not going to. THIS is your life, your country, your opportunity to make a difference.

*Oh yeah, and have a good night.

More Unbelievable 'Twilight Zone' comments from Nancy Pelosi

Once again I am astounded by the Speaker of the House. See for yourself as Nancy Pelosi talks about the National Healthcare Reform Bill



More on the story here:

Nancy's Speech

The comment is about 5-6 paragraphs from the bottom.


Cue music now..doodoo doodoo...How stupid does she think Americans are??

Two Thumbs up for my Represenative--Richard Greenwood

I sent a letter to my Utah House Representative today. And he responded...FAST. I just thought I'd share:

Dear Representative Greenwood,

You may remember me, I had the opportunity along with my husband to discuss many issues with you in our home before you first took office. Of those issues public education took the fore front. I really appreciated the time you spent with us and your thoughtful conversation. I am writing you today to urge you to do all you can to fund public charter schools in a fair and equitable way. You may remember our conversation about the frustrations I was having with my son and daughter in our local public school. Let me tell you what has happened since.

My son starting in 2nd grade was bumped up a grade for his math studies. He excelled and did great with the accelerated studies until 4th grade. At that time we had a new principal and she was unwilling to facilitate the timing between classes to allow this opportunity to continue for my son and several other kids. At the time, it was arranged that my son’s 4th grade teacher would teach him the 5th grade material. My son’s teacher refused to do that as agreed. After working with both the teacher and principal for many months to solve this problem, the principal finally told me. “It is not a good idea to push a kid in math because he will run out of classes to take”. I was astounded by this because had my child had a disability, they would have been required to teach him at his level. As it was, he was excelled in a subject but they had no interest in furthering his education and this was to his detriment. He began to be bored and his citizenship grades greatly declined as the year went on. To me, this meant the principal and teacher were just not willing to put forth the effort to make something useful work. At that point I started looking around for other educational opportunities and found Venture Academy. It is a charter school in it’s second year and teaches expeditionary learning. You have several constituents that go to this school. What this means is that the goal is to intertwine the core classes in in-depth examination of a subject. They also do multi-age grouping for learning and encourage kids to be taught at the level they are ready for and need. This was a great solution for my family.

But, the story does not end there. Because of the distance to the charter school, I decided to put my kindergartner in our local public school. And would you believe what I found. Class sizes across the board (with the exception of kindergarten) had decreased from when my older kids attended. This was most impressive in the 6th grade class where 3 years ago there were 31-34 kids in a class and this year the beginning of the year class list had 28. Just ask any teacher if a decrease of 6 kids in a 6th grade class would make a difference. This decrease I believe is directly related to the opening of 2 charter schools in our district boundaries. In addition, I also found out that the principal has once again instituted the opportunity for students that are more advanced in math to take classes at a higher level than their grade. To me this can ONLY be attributed to the competition that was felt from several families leaving the school due to similar frustrations I had.

Charter schools are not for everyone, they are a piece of the puzzle and along with traditional public schools can help parents and students find the right fit for their education. Please do all you can to ensure these choices are available for all the kids in your district whether they go to traditional public schools or public charter schools.

Thank you for your service,

Kat(I put in my full name and address...but you don't really care now do you.)

The cool thing...he wrote back...FAST (within a half hour) didn't expect that on the second to last day of the session but that gives him 2 thumbs up from me. :)

I do remember visiting you and your husband several years ago in your home. I have enjoyed reading your comments and support what you have said. I have had others write me similar stories. I will do what I can to see that money continues to be spent on our charter schools.
Please let me know if there are any other issues that you feel need to be brought to my attention.
Richard


So...go on if you have an issue write to your representative...who knows what will come of it! To find your legislators in Utah go here: Utah Legislators

Awards

Today's awards are as follows:

The Clueless Politician Award goes to Nancy Pelosi, (D) Speaker of the House. If this award was given weekly she would win it nearly every time because she stuffs the ballot box. I have been astounded by the 'huh' things that come out of her mouth on a daily basis. Today's 'huh' moment comes with her comment that the election of Scott Brown (R) in Massachusetts, the bluest of blue states is 'not a referendum on healthcare'. Um...let's all say it now. CLUELESS. If it's not about healthcare itself it is MOST certainly about HOW healthcare reform is being brought about.

The Out of Touch Politician Award goes to Mr. Barack Obama and his white house crew. It's a two part award. First, the whitehouse lackey's that when asked by reporters what went wrong with the election after President Obama himself put his support behind Martha Coakley said, "Well we responded as soon as we could, if we had been asked for help earlier we would have helped." Funny thing was only 10 days ago Scott Brown was down by double digits in the polls. His numbers skyrocketed AFTER President Obama got involved. I'm not saying it's a direct result...but...well the result was as I said before...STUNNING.

Second part of the award goes to President Obama again for his actual speech at a campaign rally for Martha. {Someone get him a teleprompter STAT or he is liable to stick his foot in his mouth AGAIN}




The first 1:30 make my point.

The Best Come Back of a Politician Award goes to Scott Brown (R) Senator Elect from Massachusetts. His response to President Obama.

“Mr. President, unfortunately in this economy, not everybody can buy a truck,” Brown said in a statement. “My goal is to change that by cutting spending, lowering taxes and letting people keep more of their own money.”

And last...the Most Clued In Politician Award goes to Democrat Evan Bayh from Indiana

"If you lose Massachusetts and that's not a wake-up call, there's no hope of waking up." -- Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN), quoted by ABC News.

For a nice round up of the festivities go here.

Stunning...

That's what the election results of the special election for Ted Kennedy's Senate seat in Massachusetts was tonight. Senator Kennedy held his seat for 47 years and the last time there was any republican in the senate from the commonwealth was nearly 40 years ago in 1972. The election results were significant. Scott Brown (R) with 52 percent Martha Coakley (D) with 47. (1 percent went to an independent candidate).

What do I think this means?

That Americans are still Americans. It doesn't matter what party you are, debating bills behind closed doors won't fly. Bribing senators to pass bills in the middle of the night like they did with the senators from Louisiana and Nebraska won't fly. Ramming through a bill as huge and earth shattering as healthcare reform without proper opportunity for those that have to vote on it to even read it through much less study it--WON'T FLY.

Of course republicans will say this is a mandate to follow their lead and possibly shut down ALL reform and democrats will say that it was a poor run by a poor candidate and do all they can to get the bill passed before they seat this new senator. BUT what they SHOULD get from it is that Americans want GOOD legislation. Legislation that won't bankrupt us or our children and grandchildren. And we want honesty, uprightness, and a view for what is good and right from our politicians.

I'm not naive enough to think they will get the message, but a girl can hope right?

A Measly .03 Percent

POINT ZERO THREE PERCENT. That is the percentage of citizens of my 'great' city that voted in yesterday's primary election. Granted a goodly portion of our 35,000-37,000 residents (depending on where you look) are kids and not eligible to vote. BUT NOT THAT MANY. We had 1088 votes total for the mayoral candidates and assuming everyone that voted, voted for a mayor that is a measly .03% of our population making the choices for the other 99.97% of the people.

PATHETIC

and I better not hear any complaining around town.

Really?

On Tuesday September 8, 2009, President Barack Obama will have a televised speech specifically for school aged children throughout the country. Reportedly the speech will "challenge students to work hard, set education goals, and take responsibility for their learning."

Many school districts in Utah will be notifying parents if their school decides to show it, and many will provide 'opt-out' activities for those children whose parents don't want their children exposed to such political rhetoric.

Really.

Have I gone down the rabbit hole? Do you remember the song in South Pacific called "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught"? Basically it is saying that fear, hate and prejudice must be taught. We aren't innately this way but grow that way from the influences around us that teach us.

I think as an American Society we are doing a HUGE disservice to our children. All the way from Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid down to inflammatory talk show hosts and conservative activists. We are carefully teaching our children that opposing ideas, no scratch that, opposing people are bad, evil, wrong. Is it so hard to believe that two people with opposing ideas can both love their country...so much that all they want is the best for it?

Apparently yes, and we see that example in our leaders, in Nancy Pelosi's thrilling autobiography she mentions a story about wanting to buy a house when her and her family first moved to California. Finding the perfect house with the perfect yard, in the perfect location, she asked the homeowner why they were moving. It turns out the family was moving to Washington D.C. to take a position in the Nixon administration. When she found out they were Republicans she decided she couldn't buy the house after all because there was no way she would live in a house a republican owned.

What were her children carefully taught? We have example after example on BOTH political extremes of hate being carefully taught.

Right wing author/columnist/commentator Ann Coulter has books out such as Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism or How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must): The World According to Ann Coulter.
Obviously she has the right to speak her mind, but the approach she uses along with countless others is inflammatory, degrading and counterproductive to her position.

My question...what are we going to do to stop it? I am so tired of the arguments on both sides and frankly, the common phrase on both sides--'well the other side did it first' is just plain crap.

Are we back in Kindergarten? How about civil discourse. How about not jumping to conclusions. How about respect, Real respect. How about listening for a change before spouting off. How about teaching our children carefully. Carefully that all people have value. All people are children of a loving Heavenly Father. Carefully teaching them important truths that will guide them in making good and right decisions. Carefully teaching them that if you disagree with someone it doesn't make the other person a BAD person, it merely means they have a different opinion. Funny that we have been endowed by our creator with individual personalities and minds that DO NOT think the same. Do you think it chance? I don't. We have seen time and time again that growth comes from opposition. If we all agreed on every issue there would be no opposition. Without opposition there is no reason to progress, grow and become better.

I will be the First to admit that I am not President Obama's biggest fan. But darn it, I will NOT teach my children to hate him, to be disrespectful of him, or to diminish the office he legally and lawfully holds. Much of this furor was fueled by a Farmington Elementary showing a video about service to the kids. I don't agree with everything in the 'I Pledge' video. There are probably 5 or 6 phrases in that video that make me cringe. But darn it...there are another 3 minutes of pledging to do things that are right and good.

I pledge to find the good in opposing views and respectfully and carefully teach my children to treat all people with respect.

So its a party...

The Republican party. Yes I am a state delegate to the Utah Republican party. I am not a Kool-aid drinker...OK so I like Kool-aid, but I won't drink it because someone tells me too. I like to look at all sides of an issue. I am not a straight party voter. (Don't tell some of my 'friends' from the convention that though. I may be run out as a wolf in sheep's clothing). I'm really not though. At today's convention there were a few things repeatedly brought up that were labeled as Republican values, thoughts or ideals.

1. Limited Government

2. Strong Military

3. Personal Accountability~Ability

I believe in all of those things. Sometimes I have differing opinions when it comes down to the nitty gritty details, but that is to be expected. Just some thoughts about today's convention.

* I was stunned to meet my new 'friend' Richard who doesn't think women should hold political offices. I'm not sure to what extent, but he didn't think a woman should be a senator because they are 'often too emotional and have a hard time making tough decisions.' After expressing my astonishment. I argued that women have to make tough decisions all the time, and are easily as qualified as men to run. I argued that we aren't in such a 'great' place politically with the men we have elected. Really...woman shouldn't serve? Should we not vote either? Where do we get these throwbacks?

*We had to vote for a rule change so we could allow a 'reasonable' amount of balloons. What is a reasonable amount of balloons?

*A resolution to move the resolutions to earlier on the agenda (before all the politicians talk) was voted down. Who votes that down? As far as I can tell the resolutions never fully get looked at because stuck at the end of the agenda, we either loose a majority of the quorum or we are simply 'too tired' as the reason was stated last year to vote on them. Of course this year's resolutions had some really important things like voting to send a resolution to congress to support doing away with the Federal Reserve and return to a commodity backed currency. Not sure that's going to fly in today's high-tech economy. But alas, I will never know since I had to leave before the resolutions were debated.

*We had an excellent guest speaker. Ken Blackwell former secretary of Ohio and Mayor of Cincinnati. He brought a message of helping people understand their potential rather then settling for a handout. It was a very good speech and I had no problems giving him a standing ovation. There is so much hand clapping going on at these occasions sometimes it is not always sincere, this was.

*It is really hard to pick a candidate....sometimes they all seem like shades of gray and there is no way to tell whether you are getting the real low down on a candidate. Smear handouts, claims of misrepresentations and outright lies abound. Who to believe? I won't tell you my method for deciding.

All in all it was a political convention, a strange animal, an interesting experience~~~But very AMERICAN. And I'm all about America.

My take on Governor Huntsman.

It was annouced Saturday that Utah's Governor Jon M Hunstman Jr. has been nominated by President Barack Obama for the position of Ambassador to China for the United States of America. See link here for more information.

Here is my take on the latest in Utah Politics.

1) It is a bit irritating when you vote for someone only to have them bail on the job 5 months later.

BUT...
2) I think he is VERY qualified for the Job of Ambassador to China.

3) When he ran for Governor I was NOT a fan of Gov. H. As a County Delegate to the Republican convention, my first impression of the man was 'plastic', 'entitlement', 'kingish'. I was very upset that he refused to come to Ogden to debate Nolan Karras (and others) during the primary. HOWEVER, I have found him to be a REALLY GOOD Governor. This is a man who just days (maybe hours into his term) had to deal with a natural flooding disaster near St. George. Has had to deal with a legislature that slants FAR right of his moderate views, and has fortified Utah for the hard times.

Some things I have liked about him:

*He has fortified education spending like no other governor in (Utah) history.

*He lowered the corporate sales tax significantly to be more in line with surrounding states. The consequence has been HUGE growth in businesses in Utah. Some I can think of off hand are Amer Sports, Hershey, Proctor & Gamble. All of have opened either corporate headquarters, manufacturing plants or distribution points in the last few years.

*He has taken on tough issues like the environment. I know he has done some crazy (stupid?) things there too, like the whole cap and trade agreement. Please someone explain in terms I can understand why that makes sense because I can't grasp it. BUT, on the other hand FAR too many republican members act like the environment is a democrat issue and they are not to be bothered with it. Well guess what the environment is a people issue. It is what we breathe, what we see, and what we are. We MUST pay attention to it so our kids are not strapped with health care costs like asthma and so we can continue to entice businesses to come here. I drove through California a couple of years ago and saw first hand the pollution around L.A., Utah because of its mountain setting is headed for that ugliness if we are not careful. We definitely need to preserve and keep clean our environment.

*Gov. Huntsman has taken on the Nuclear Waste lobby head on. He even once said he'd chain himself to the trucks /tracks if they tried to bring spent nuclear fuel rods into the state. He has stayed firm and unmovable on that important point.

*He has been proactive throughout the downturn in the economy. Calling special legislative sessions to stay on top of budget concerns rather than making drastic cuts because he waited too long.

*He has been fearless in implementing his ideas. Going to a 4 day work week was not too popular, and he did it just before an election. That takes courage.

*He pulled out the stops to get Real Salt Lake a major League Soccer Stadium built in Utah. There was a HUGE uproar about that, but I think he did exactly the right thing. The tax funds contributed to the stadium came directly from a tax set aside for tourism. It did not come of school funding or health care or anything else it was from a tax that could ONLY be used for supporting tourism. I think this is a wise use of the money as the stadium in only a short while is repaying the benefits by booking concerts, and international soccer matches. When they hosted Real Madrid and they didn't even have their stadium they had people from all over the world flying in to see the game. Controversial? Yes, but he stood firm.

In short I DID change my view of him and I think he has been an excellent governor. Does that mean I agree 100% with everything he has done? NO, but if I did don't you think there would be a problem with one or the other of us? Disagreement is central to a working society, its how we work out the differences that matter.

4) That said, I would have liked to see him stay on the job and work on some other pressing issues like health care and immigration.

5)Like I said before he is VERY qualified to be the Ambassador and that job will be of GREAT importance in a time that our economy is so closely connected to the world's largest population. It makes me feel better to have a person that appears to have high morals, high standards and a great work ethic tackling the issues.

6) For the future--I think if like speculation suggests that he might run for president someday, I think the move could only help him.

7) I'm not sure about Gary Herbert. There are a few things that bother me, but I had doubts about Gov. Huntsman too so I'll let things play out before I pass judgement.

What's up with that--legislative edition

My state Senator has been sending me weekly updates of this year's legislature. Don't get me wrong, I am appreciative of his efforts to stay in contact with his constituents, but some of the things that are going on Utah's State Capitol...are mind boggling, some stupid, and some maddening and of course the odd good idea. Here's a slice of what's going on from my point of view.

SUBJECT: FEDERAL STIMULUS--STATUS--UNSTIMULATING

So the federal government in all of their government glory has passed a
TRILLION dollar stimulus package...we already know none of us really has a clue what a gianormous number that is...spending $ 1million per day since the day Christ was born would only add up to about 3/4 of a trillion dollars. NASA says 1
trillion seconds would be more than 31 MILLION years. CNN delved into what
a trillion dollars means and you can find more on YouTube it's
staggering!The crazy thing is...no one really knows where all that money
is going. My senator sent me 8 PAGES of proposals to where that money might go in the state of Utah. But does anyone really know how long it is...some reports say 600, some 800, some over 1000. The devil is in the details and nobody even
knows WHERE the details are much less WHAT. There was less than 48
hours to review it after the final draft and many house members complained that
they didn't have time to review it. How could you?? Even my senator hasn't
had a chance to review Utah's piece of the pie. He says, "Our staff is working on an analysis". The 8 pages of where the money will go..it is what you might call a great Bedtime Stimulus for amnesics...it will definitely cure the ailment.

SUBJECT: ETHICS BILLS--STATUS--INCOMPLETE

I'll give some credit for effort. Two ethics bills HAVE passed the senate
this week. One, saying a retired politician can't use left over campaign
money for his own personal use...DUH. And two, a politician must
report any gifts over $10 and meals over $25...BIG WHOOP!

What we are MISSING...is the obvious elephant in the room. Politicians
should NOT be able to become paid lobbyists for at least a year after leaving
the legislature. It may surprise some to find out that last year's Speaker
of the House (who was quite popular among legislators though not popular enough
to get re-elected) is now a PAID lobbyist for the tobacco companies. Is it
any wonder that Utah has the 34th highest (16the
lowest) Tobacco tax in the nation? Now you know that I questioned WHERE
that tax should go...but it is a no brainer to make it higher. Tobacco is a health
detriment not only to those that use it but EVERYONE in the vicinity.

SUBJECT: CLAY'S LAW (Making it mandatory for insurance companies to cover Autism related Disorders)--STATUS--STILL HANGING IN THERE BUT AT RISK OF BEING DEFEATED

PROS: Children who are no routinely denied coverage and in turn therapies
for Autism Spectrum disorders would now have the opportunity to receive life
changing therapies that would not only help the child, but the family, AND
the community. This article explains how research based therapies that are currently available could save the state $1.8-$2.7 million dollars per child that is treated successfully. That is HUGE...we can pay for it now and get the benefit of
a child's life changed, a family life perhaps saved and a community debt
avoided or we can pay for it later, with higher medical bills, education
bills, criminal bills. See what the senate is saying about it here.

CONS: Hmmm...I guess there could be some (government intervention, modest
premium boosts--but this one to me seems that the pros far outweigh the
cons.)

SUBJECT: SINGAPORE MATH GRANTS--STATUS--POSSIBILITY

I looked into this program a bit when I heard my kid's school would be
using the method for their math classes. I read a lot of good reviews...but was
a bit surprised that it was a method that was used most often by homeschoolers. I can't really say whether or not it is a better method than what they used at our last school. I am happy that it has been good for Tim. He hasn't been bored and seems to be learning well...same goes for Sierra. So while I don't know if it is the solution to all our countries math problems, I do think it is a good step to allow for schools to test it out if they like, because that just adds another 'choice' for parents and kids in
their education.

SUBJECT: LIQUOR LAWS--STATUS--HAVE WE GONE DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE???

Apparently we have passed a law that our beer can now be 'heavy beer'
meaning resellers will be able to sell beer with more than 3.2% alcohol
content outside of the State liquor store. (currently and alcoholic drink
over 3.2% alcoholic content can only be sold in the state liquor store.) BUT
we are also on the way to passing the Zion curtain (meaning restaurants
would have to build a 10 ft wall around any place that prepared alcoholic
drinks.) As Alice said, "It would be so nice if something would make
sense for a change."

To contact your Utah State Legislators:

House Members & Senators

My experience is they really do listen...they won't always vote like you want them to, but that doesn't mean you can't make a difference--that, however, is fodder for another blog post.

I'm ready to scream at blogger and its weird formatting tonight...sorry if this is bizzare.