Odds and Ends: No Place Like Home: For school, that is Speaking of Glorietta Homeschool '97 Bruce Merrick or Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, KC, MO., cited several statistics indicating homeschooling is on the rise. Government figures showed the number of children being schooled at home rose from 300,000 in 1991 to 1.3 million in 1996. But Merrick said that the number may be 50% higher. "Studies suggest that parents can do in two hours a day what it takes a school system an uncertain six hours to achieve,"he said. "One of the reasons Homeschool kids do so well on tests is because they know how to think analytically." He said there are "tons of research" that indicate children educated at home score significantly higher in the area of self-esteem than children from public schools. More than 65 studies have concluded homeschoolers performed academically either average or above average. "College admissions officers now recruit at Homeschool conventions and conference." (Christian News, 10/6/97, 3277 Boeuf Lutheran Rd, New Haven, MO 63068)
Gun Control Scheme: There seems to be no length to which the federal government gun-grabbers will go to end-run the Second Amendment? The latest attack on the Constitution comes in the form of "Gun Free Zones Act" passed by Congress last year. It creates a 1,000-feet "gun free" zone around every "school" in the country, making it illegal to possess a gun within that zone, whether in your car or in your home. BATF Director John Magaw has indicated that the ban could apply around home schools that are operated under state law. Thus the government has found a way to discourage home-schoolers from owning guns and gun-owners from home-schooling. With the miserable failure of government schools and the rise in the number of children educated at home, it might be hard to find a neighborhood where there is no home-schooling. You might find it impossible to go hunting without passing within 1,000 feet of one or more such "schools," and thus become a criminal in the eyes of the BATF. (Just how many more controls must shackle the American citizens before our country is defined as a police state?)
In San Antonio four home-school parents, who also own firearms, have sued Attorney General Janet Reno and the U.S. attorney for the western district of Texas asking that the law be stricken, or that home schools be exempt. (Reach Library, 2703 Mockingbird, Amarillo, Texas)
For A Better Reason: After being cheered to victory in a game Sunday, October 20, Four Dallas Cowboys players were cheered for a different reason Sunday night. They were baptized at Potter's House Church, in Dallas. Cornerback Deion Snaders, running back Emmitt Smith, safety Omar Stoutmire and offensive tackle George Hagamin were immersed one by one as about 4,500 people cheered. All four players have been attending the church, said Potter's House spokesman Larry Ross, and wanted to publicly profess their faith. (Dallas Morning News, 10/20/97) Note: The Dallas News deemed this event worthy of only 8 lines of print on page 16 of their Metropolitan section.
Will It Come Out?: "Numerous eye witnesses are not testifying regarding parties they attended where Governor Clinton snorted line after line and had sex with underage girls. It is also believed that his drug suppliers financed his campaigns. Clinton has been compromised. When all this comes out; and it will, it will precipitate the greatest domestic crisis America has faced since the Civil War. (Strategic Investment by way of Straight Talk, Box 960, Pigeon Forge, TN 37668)
UN Land Grab: Starting with Yellowstone National Park in 1979, UNESCO has designated 47 Biosphere Reserves in the U.S. covering 50 million acres. In order to designate sites and spheres under the UN programs, the U.S. must agree to manage these lands according to international dictates and objectives. That's another way of saying that the U.S. has agreed to limit our sovereignty to manage our own lands any way we want in pursuit of our national interests. All of this takes place without any publicity and without the American people knowing what is going on. The UN/UNESCO has as their next step the Wildlands Project, a plan to designate one-half of the U.S. as "protected areas or areas where special measures need to be taken to conserve biological diversity." The U.S. Senate has not ratified the biodiversity treaty, yet the bureaucrats are marching right ahead with the program. The program is already interfering with free enterprise and denying land owners the free use of their land. (The Torch, P.O. Box 795354, Dallas, Texas 75379)
A Separate Nation: Geronimo Pratt, a leader of the original Black Panther party, celebrated his recent liberation from prison with a call for black people to strengthen their families and work for a separate nation from the United States. "You can liberalize this nation, and, if not, I'm sorry, our children are going to continue to go to prison," he told an audience at St. Luke Community United Methodist Church in Dallas. He called for a referendum, similar to the 1995 secession attempt by Quebec, for black people to form their own nation. "We got scientists. We got doctors," he said. "We got everything. We could compete with every nation in the world." (Dallas Morning News, 10/22/97)
Survivor Record: While attention was given to the death of Mother Teresa and Princess Di, overlooked was the death of Viktor E. Franki on September 2. It was often reported that Frankl, an Austrian Jew, was the survivor of four Nazi "death" camps. Few reporters seem to notice that this statement is a contradiction, for if the purpose of these camps was to put people to death, how could one survive four of them? Most of the deaths in these work camps came near the end of the war when the Germans ran out of food an d medication, due to the efficiency of Allied Bombing. Frankl wrote 32 books, expounding his theory of finding meaning in life.
The Nuclear Myth: We are denied cheap electrical power because of the claim that nuclear reactors could poison or contaminate us. Nuclear energy is ultraviolet light. Nuclear light energy exists of the same EMF spectrum as do radio waves, visible light, microwaves, and infrared; no poison or contamination. Our submarine fleet has been powered by nuclear reactors for 40 years. It is the energy cartels; oil, coal, natural gas, electric utilities, that fear nuclear generated electricity, which would be so cheap it wouldn't even have to be metered. (Dakota nuclear, P.O. Box 121, Upham, ND 58789)