As I sit here working on our tax return for 2008, I would like to take a moment to thank you, my fellow tax-payers. I am not one of those people who will say to you that we have all these children and “have never taken a penny from the government.” Who are those people kidding anyway? We get a nice chunk of change every spring when we file our taxes. A chunk that is paid for by you, my... Read more

I received this very kind award from Mairin. “These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.” I’ve pared it down to three.... Read more

When people ask me if my kids wouldn’t prefer going to “regular” school, I try and control my laughter. Read more

That times were more innocent and we all sang silly songs about dragons and things. #1 didn’t quite believe me when I was singing “Puff the Magic Dragon” and told her it was a real song. Silly girl. Hasn’t she learned anything by now? I had to drag her to the computer room and make her listen to it. Twice. I’m not sure that qualifies as child abuse, but it’s pretty darn close. Read more

This morning, the main stream media are reporting that the measures paying for contraception have been dropped from the latest version of the Economic Stimulus Plan due to “overwhelming public pressure on the White House”. Coolness. Now if we could just get them to give up on that ACORN thing. Read more

Fox News is reporting this morning on another item in the President’s Economic Stimulus Plan. There’s a $4.2 Billion dollar provision for “neighborhood stabilization”. I sat and scratched my head over that one for a while until a Congressman from Louisiana revealed that that is the wording used to funnel money to ACORN. That’s right. The same ACORN still being investigated for voter fraud and voter registration irregularities will now be getting a “Thanks, guys! Job well done!” from our... Read more

I think I must be a moron, because I’ve been reading parts of the Obama Economic Stimulus Bill and I can’t figure out how some of this stuff qualifies as “Emergency Economic Measures”. I’m sure that to some people, these are worthy causes, but they are not economics issues. My first complaint is how difficult it is to actually get a copy of the proposed bill. I’ve been looking all weekend and can only find excerpts of it. If the... Read more

New math books arrivedThe fight disappears for nowMiquon, Singapore Done with Saxon MathMind-numbing, soul-crushing booksMath is again fun Problems that challengeDelight, puzzle, and make growHappiness returns Read more

Yesterday’s video of actors making their personal pledges to the new president got me thinking about what the job of an actor really is. An actor’s job is to be a blank piece of paper. His job is to publicly be completely free from personal character so that he may use the words and actions of the writer to tell a story. His job is to start with a clean slate and then proceed to “draw” upon it as he... Read more

“I pledge to be a servant of our President….” So say Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher and a host of other Hollywood celebrities in their new “I Pledge” campaign as they swear their loyalty (fealty?) to the new President. I have chills, and not the good kind. Why does this feel like deja vu? I have seen videos of people in times past, celebrities and glitterati, swearing their love and devotion to a charismatic leader before this, and it never... Read more