The Fake Lonnie Finch

http://www.kniferights.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1 http://www.kniferights.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=7&Itemid=29 It's real, ya'll.

Thanks for the tip, Stan! That's a super helpful and interesting website. Sorry about Keller ISD. Part of what lured us to Frisco was the ISD. But, I've got to say, we're not all that impressed. Yes, the test scores are high, but...this common core thing is ridiculously stupid. I'm still kind of in shock that Frisco has snuck it into the curriculum. But, it is what it is. And, I'm just thankful that we are free to pull our kids out of it and homeschool without being hassled by the state. I hope that you all can someday homeschool if you are leaning that way.

Yes, If only Carter'd had a backbone, perhaps it would have ended sooner. You have to at least commend him, though, for beginning the build up of the defense spending that allowed us to help crater the Soviet economy: "During the past 3 years, you have joined with me to improve our own security and the prospects for peace, not only in the vital oil-producing area of the Persian Gulf region but around the world. We've increased annually our real commitment for defense, and we will sustain this increase of effort throughout the Five Year Defense Program. It's imperative that Congress approve this strong defense budget for 1981, encompassing a 5-percent real growth in authorizations, without any reduction." -Jimmy Carter, January 23, 1980

Aside from trying to draw people offsides - which, admittedly, has become somewhat of a sport for me here - the underlying questions, as Thor writes, are worthy of discussion. I don't own guns. Most of my family and friends do. Some have permits to carry, and they do. None of them have criminal backgrounds. They fire their fire arms at gun ranges and while hunting. However, we do have run of the mill kitchen knives at the house, and two fairly young children. The drawers that house them still bear the child locks from years ago. But, both are now old enough to get into them. It's worrisome, to be sure. But, more worrisome, in my mind, is what happens after these events. There is sure to be a double standard here, while the real problems are swept away. I don't think gun ownership is a problem. I don't think knife ownership is a problem. I do think mental illness is a problem. And, the mentally ill kill and injure others because their visions of the world, and of where they fit into the world, are severely skewed...except in Venezuela, where then mentally ill are elected president. Now, I seriously doubt time will be wasted with knife-ownership leglislation after this thing the way there is always time wasted with gun-ownership legislation after mass crimes committed with guns. My problem is, when does mental illness get a serious discussion? And, if mental illness turns out not to be the cause of the attack, why can we not just bring ourselves to say, this is a bad kid who chose to do a bad thing? To tip my hand, I lean toward getting back to being able to institutionalize the mentally ill. Obviously, how the institutions are run would have to be far different than in decades past. On the crime end, I lean toward not being lenient toward kids under 18 in these cases. A kids who stabs or shoot 20 people? If he's not mentally ill, it will disgust me if they do not charge him as an adult for each person he assaulted.

Sometimes, when a player jumps offsides, one officials will throw a flag; at other times, several will. Whether one or several, it is, nonetheless, a penalty for offsides. As to our poor children...should they choose the path of murder or attempted murder, they'll have to get their guns and fancy knives elsewhere: we have none of the former and a poor, rather dull and kitchenly selection of the latter. I'm afraid that when the Tea Partiers worst nightmares about the decline of the country into self-survival chaos come true, I will have nothing to kill with or to skin and clean with. I'll be forced to go live with my wife's family in Mexico...and shop at the Comercial Mexicanas down there for survival!

I confessed early so it wouldn't go the full 36 pages. My only regret today is that I couldn't find a way to properly reference Brock Berglund's superior athleticism.

Dear Harry, I know we've personally discussed this in the past...but, I could not help myself. It is far too easy with this crowd. It was a slow morning at the office, and it happened so fast! Please, forgive me.

So, you think they will start with banning kitchen knives from being sold over the counter at Target and Crate & Barrell first? Or, will they set their sights on hunting and fish filleting knives at Cabela's, Bass Pro Shops, and Wal Mart?

It was, at minimum, shortly after OU hired him. But, Howard being Howard, he probably said it at Louisville as well. History shows his tenure at Louisville would likely be more book and movie worthy.

"Time is the only variable now." Howard Schnellenberger, 1995, in predicting that books would be written and movies made about his turnaround of the moribund Oklahoma football program.

Yes, let's see now. CBL's Newtown thread began at 1:17 p.m. on that day, 3 hours and 42 minutes after the incident. Incident this morning began at 7:15, they say, and my post was at 11:18. So, what's that...4 hours and 3 minutes afterward. So, where does that leave us? CBL reports bad gun news faster than I report bad knife news?

Yes, because if it had been a gun, the libs here would have waited 24 hours to comment, right?

I'd bet kids have more access to knives at home than they do guns. What can we do about it? Or, are the 2nd Amendment people correct in saying the it is the misuser of the gun/knife that is the problem, not the gun/knife itself?

Do the gun control people now become knife control people? http://stream.wsj.com/story/latest-headlines/SS-2-63399/SS-2-503968/

We'll see how it goes. Our daughter is in kindergarten at the school we pulled our son out of. She's a different type of learner than him, and is probably closer to the average kid than him. I don't expect that she'll score as highly as he did on the first rounds of standardized tests, which is fine. Something had to be done about him, and we did it.

Yes. The Coram Deo route is less than $5k a year, though: http://www.coramdeoacademy.org/content/signature-tuition-2014-2015 The only draw back to me is the Christianity aspect. We already go to a Bible-based church, so it's not like my kids aren't learning about God and Jesus and whatnot. What I want, but don't have enough money socked away to have, is a school that is just a school. Public schools seem to waste too much time because they have to dumb down to a common denominator-level of the overall student body. Private schools, the less expensive ones, are religious-based, which I don't mind, but I don't overly want either. You can't cheaply avoid it, though, it these here parts. I've spoken with these folks, but they don't begin until the 6th grade. I like their Senior Tutorial where the students have to write and publicly defend a paper: http://www.cambridgedallas.org/faith-culture-series/tutorials/ http://www.cambridgedallas.org/faith-culture-series/senior-tutorial-2014/ That's why I'd toyed with the idea of trying to get a private school going that is focused on academics. Crazy, right?

No more high heating bills in the winter!

Exactly. And financing it by growing bananas and pineapples here in North Texas! With the best of luck, the polar ice caps will have put New Orleans and Houston completely underwater. The more you look into it, the better this climate change thing is looking! When did Al Gore miscalculate all of this to happen?

Read the Constitution again. Legislative branch makes the budget, not the Executive: Article I, Section 8: The Congress shall have power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; To borrow Money on the credit of the United States; To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes; To establish a uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States; To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures; To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current coin of the United States; To establish Post Offices and post Roads; To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries; To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court; To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations; To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water; To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years; To provide and maintain a Navy; To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces; To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions; To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress; To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; —And To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

"This would require an area of 170,000 square miles, about the size of California. Now, that’s still a pretty big area, but it’s getting smaller all the time. (Not that we ever wanted to meet all of our demand with wind, anyway.)" I'd be perfectly happy with replacing the population of California with wind farms to help lessen the cost of energy. The coasts are going to be underwater when the polar ice caps melt anyway, so let's get a head start on moving the population out of there now!

If you aren't the type that has to see it right when it is released: West of the Rockies (Lewisville): http://www.fandango.com/cinemarkmovies8_aaovv/theaterpage East of the Rockies (McKinney): http://www.fandango.com/cinemarkmovies14_aacbp/theaterpage The McKinney one is where we take our young 'uns for all the kid flicks without having to pay high ticket prices. As a bonus, if you've got kids, it is really close to those Towne Lake Recreation Area across from McKinney High. They have playgrounds, picnic areas, walk/jog paths, and those Swan and Duck paddle boats. Great way to kill weekend hours with the kids (or, grandkids).

When I was a kid in the 70s and 80s, I think they called the Tea Party crowd Libertarians. What it looked like to me, though, is that it was just adults who wanted to smoke dope, have no social judgement rendered upon their decision to leave their wives and kids for their secretaries, and didn't want to pay taxes. Assholes, basically.

Agree on the public school teachers. I've got a cousin who teaches 3rd Grade in Tulsa. No way I could go through what she goes through - parents and kids on one end, administrative and state politics on the other. As far as time, my son can get through his daily assignments within four hours. I usually end up doubling the work load on him. But, he soldiers through it, and spends most of the afternoon playing games on my phone until I'm finished working.

Yes. I know. When they took whatever the district tests were for first graders in Frisco, he scored in the 90th percentile in all subjects. In the fall, he took the Iowa and was above 75th percentile for all tested subjects. He's got it down. The red flag flew for us when he came home crying about math, a subject where he excellent on both the Frisco and Iowa test, scoring over 90% in the math areas of both. So, I had him bring home some of his assignments. I'd never seen anything like it. Just with simple addition of mulitple digit numbers, there were number lines, boxes, charts, and a bunch of other things. Last year, we had already taught him how to add double and triple digit at home, lining them up, starting on the right hands side, carrying anything over 10 to the next number, etc. I made an appointment with the teacher to talk about it. I also went online and discovered this was all part of the common core math that Texas had supposedly rejected. Well...guess what? They're teaching it anyway. After beating around the bush about it, I told the teacher that my son already knew how to add and subtract (and multiply) single, double, and triple digit numbers and that he was going to answer the questions that way because...Texas wasn't supposed to be using common core. Well, his math grade dropped in the first six weeks from 95 to 75. I told my wife, "It's enough. We're pulling him out before they ruin him." He was miserable and crying all the time with his math assignment,whereas before it was his favorite subject. It's just one of those things where I didn't feel like fighting with the school about it. I have the time and space at the office to work with him and let him work; so, it was a no-brainer. I'm not concerned about his social experience at school because he already plays soccer, baseball, piano, goes to weekend Chinese school, and church on Sundays. Plus, he still plays with the kids in the neighborhood when he gets home. He's gets plenty of socializing. Again, if he wants to go back in the fall, we'll let him. Although, I am leaning towards one of the half-school/half-home school situations they have going like at Coram Deo. If I had the time and money, I'd just organize and start a private school. Subject would be - Math, Reading/Writing/English, Science, and Foreign Languages, probably Spanish, Chinese, and/or Hindu because of the immigrant population here. If anything, it would probably be like the Chinese school he and my daughter go to on the weekend - filled with foreign students and a few other white kids. That seems to be the score at Piano for them as well. Most recitals are full of Indians, Chinese, Koreans, Russians...then a few white or hispanic kids.

I'm 44. The leftist I knew railed against Reagan and Thatcher as they won the Cold War.