4th Grader Told to Write: "I am willing to give up some of my constitutional rights... to be safer" (!)

When his parents found this sentence scrawled onto a piece of paper in their 4th grader's backpack, they could not believe their eyes:

"I am willing to give up some of my constitutional rights in order to be safer or more secure."

The boy's classmates confirmed to his dad that they were instructed by the teacher to write this sentence, though the teacher is playing dumb and saying that the boy wrote this himself. Yeah right. I'm sure he'd think of that himself.

The real irony is that most public school teachers are Democrats. This reads like something Dick Cheney would make school children write. Then again, this happened in Florida, land of Jeb Bush.

Still I wonder if the teacher would have given this assignment to the students in 2004. And I don't wonder at all whether the progressive media and blogosphere would have jumped all over this in 2004; and I don't wonder at all whether they will now.

Can you hear the silence on civil liberties? On unchecked executive power? On wars and rumors of wars? On children dying in drone strikes ordered by the president? The sound of silence is DEAFENING.

What would you do if you learned that your child or niece or nephew had to write this in 4th grade as part of a school assignment?

Ron Paul homeschool curriculum anybody? It couldn't have come a moment too soon.

Obama keeps pushing the bipartisan religion of interventionism

Michael Scheuer is deadly accurate - foreign interventionism is a bipartisan religion (or disease, whichever you prefer). Too often, I believe, Americans think about Washington’s interventionism only as the actual physical intervention of U.S. military forces abroad in places where no U.S. interest is at risk. That activity certainly is intervention, but President Obama’s despicable decision last week to have his administration leak intelligence claiming that Israel has concluded an agreement with the government of Azerbaijan to allow its use of Azeri airfields for an air strike on Iran is just as much an unwarranted intervention by the United States government. Readers of this blog will know that I carry no brief for Israel, that I believe it is a state that is irrelevant to U.S. national interests, and one whose U.S.-citizen supporters are disloyal to America and involved in activities that compromise U.S. security and corrupt the U.S. political system. That said, Israel — l...

How Thorough a Brainwashing

Saw this on Facebook: Left this comment: It's more thorough of a wash job than that. They don't just believe they are not brainwashed, the question has never occurred to them and as long as they keep reading TIME and watching MTV, it's *impossible* for the question to occur to them. Oh brave new world, that has such people in it. EDIT: And one more thing-- don't ever stop considering what questions it is currently impossible to occur to you . This is what I've been thinking about a lot lately and I'm worried just how large and numerous my own blindspots are. The only solution is to be as intellectually curious as possible. To learn voraciously. To read things that challenge us. To read things that are hard for us to understand and then try to understand them. To expose ourselves to ideas far removed from our present culture and place on the timeline. Read old books. Read foreign books. Turn off the TV. You have already absorbed its biases and blindspots. ...

How To Gain More Twitter Followers

Earlier today, I wrote : "My goal is to write a book before the end of March. My goal is to spend no more than a week from start to publication, spending as much time as I need in order to get it done during that week. My goal is to give it away to you for free here on HumbleLibertarian.com. What's a goal you have? Something you may have been putting off for years? Something you could accomplish in one month if you were determined? If it's near-term enough of a goal, and specific enough of a goal, and you share it in the comments below, feel free to tell me how I can help you and I'll do whatever I can. If it's a libertarian / news / politics-related goal, my manner of help would be easy to determine. I could promote it, introduce you to someone via email, (etc.). If it's something apolitical like quit smoking cigarettes, start exercising, learn guitar, start a business, gain more Twitter followers, learn another language, eat a paleo diet, or...

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