And yes, happy other holidays as well.

Just a quick update from the Friends of America team, we’re taking a break until the new year so we won’t be updating the site much.  There are quite a few breaking stories like the Blago appointment, the RNC chair race, the controversial satire CD and many more so we’ll defer to our hard working friends at Right Wing News, American Thinker and of course Michelle Malkin for keeping the posts rolling during this holiday season.

You can still reach our board member Shok_trauma via twitter.

And we still want Joey’s Bridge story to stay our top article for a while longer. (thanks to all who sent letters of support,  he’s loving home school so far)

admin Patriotism

One of our most precious guarantees as Americans is the “pursuit” of happiness: the striving, the effort, the longing to succeed and reaching deep inside until we find the will somewhow to perservere.  The passion for greatness;  for reward, be it material or not; the undying ambition to move forward - this is the foundation on which America is built.  That is how we got here, and that is how we’ll continue.

The following is a very serious letter from Mike S, a Friends of America contributor, and personal friend.  It’s not even my child and it makes me angry every time I read it.  In fact I’ve had to take several breaks while editing for that very reason.  It frighteningly demonstrates how the very thing that makes us great, our ambition, is not only being attacked with regularity, but being gradually squeezed out of us.

    My son, Joseph, is enrolled in the Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) program in the Clark County School district; specifically, he’s in the 3rd grade at Jo Mackey Academy of Leadership and Global Communication.  This is a magnet school, designed to attract the more intelligent kids from in and around the Las Vegas area. Also, because of the way it’s designed, it also serves the neighborhood of which it’s a part. It did, however, offer the promise of decent education for the students, which our neighborhood school lacked, so we enrolled him there.
    Near the end of September, we were informed that each third grader was to build a bridge and bring it in to class to share.  While I will admit that my family is a bunch of hyper-competitive over-achievers, the goal of this exercise was, to my mind, to learn about bridges.

Apparently, however, it was more a lesson in how to blend in with the crowd.

I had Joey research the different types of bridges that he could make. I had him make a determination as to which bridge he would like to make, and write a couple of paragraphs about why he wanted to use this type of bridge, and the advantages it has over other types. He chose a cable-stay bridge, like the ones in Boston, Dallas, and Rio. (They’re my favorite kind, too, incidentally.) So, paper written up, we drew out a plan. We figured out how tall we wanted our support pylons to be. We determined, mathematically, how long the cable would need to be that would support the platform. We decided what we were going to use as caissons. We determined the appropriate width and length of the bridge platform. A lot of work went into the planning. We went to Home Depot, purchased the appropriate hardware (3″ PVC pipe for the caissons, 3/4″ PVC pipe for the pylons, 1/4″ plastic-coated steel cable for the support cables, and a 4′ long board for the span. We carefully measured where to put the holes, drilled them, and fastened the cables through them. (What you see in the picture is one continuous cable, threaded like a shoelace, supporting the full weight of the bridge. It can hold several times its own weight, too.)

Here’s a kid who’s passionate about what he does, and takes pride in his work - and a Dad that’s committed to fostering the very best from his son.  That’s quality Father-son time right there, working on the science project together.  But if you believe “it takes a village” or that “fathers are only a coincidence” then this sort of thing infuriates you.

Joseph took his bridge to school, obvously quite proud of his creation.

His teacher then declared that his bridge was “overbuilt,” and that he “did not follow the spirit of the project.”

What exactly was the “spirit” of the project?  I thought it was to build a bridge? 

She asked the rest of the class if they thought Joey’s bridge was overbuilt, and they, whose bridges were suddenly completely overshadowed, agreed with her.

Reminds me of this incident earlier this year.

Joey started to cry, and agreed that it was overbuilt, so that the ridicule would stop.

That’s a heart-breaker right there: another dangerous young mind, fixed by the education system…

She gave him low marks on his bridge project, while giving a high grade to a kid who made a simple arch bridge out of Lego. (And, yes, it’s exactly what you’re thinking. Four small rows of Lego, then two rows spanning across to another column of Lego, 4 high. Total time to completion: 6 minutes if he had tried to color-coordinate them, which he didn’t.)

She then proclaimed that she was going to keep “the good one” to show the parents - a couple of popsicle sticks glued together to make the type of bridge you’d see when someone piles wood across a creek. It was most upsetting.

Joey, of course, was completely crushed. None of those kids learned anything about building bridges. None of them learned to really take pride in something, and see it to completion, and really put thought into it. And the teacher was the guiltiest of all.

We can add all sorts of commentary about this, but we’re going to let Mike sum it up:

I have discussed this with his guidance counselor. She admitted, directly, that the schools are more a form of babysitting for the children, and that mediocrity is what is taught. The kids who excel get squashed to keep them from getting too far ahead of the dumb ones.

They’re all taught just to go along and get along, because sheep are much easier to control than thinking individuals. The idiots in the room set the pace for everyone else, instead of being allowed to fail on their merits, and the smart kids are punished. (I remind you - this was in the GATE class, not just run-of-the-mill 3rd grade. The kids in these classes are all in 5-9th grade reading levels, 4-10th grade math levels, and are very, very smart. They are being kept back because some of the children of the crack whores residents in that neighborhood get to send their kids to that school, and they don’t differentiate out the classes by ability.) 

This story, unlike many other, will have a happy ending, because of a Dad who is a man not a pansy, a true American, and most of all who’s an actual Dad that cares about his kid(s) and wants what’s best for them, not what makes them feel good right now, but what’s actually best.

Joey is starting homeschooling with Nevada Virtual Academy as of January 5th.

Public school is nothing more than a feeding ground for leftist, feel-good propaganda (it doesn’t matter if you learn anything, the only important thing is that you *think* you’re special!), where they turn children into mindless cattle.

Joey's Bridge

(Comment from MikeS: Sorry the picture is of such poor quality. My camera phone doesn’t take great snaps. You can see, however, that it’s quite the technological marvel, based off of the cable-stay model. It’s 4 feet long, to give you an idea of scale.)

[Comment from Friends of America admin:  This is just the type of issue that the Friends of America was established to respond to; however this event took place prior to the founding of this organization.

Our typical response would be to contact the school principal and teacher and demand an explanation, as well as contacting local and national media to attract attention to this situation.

If you have, or know someone who has, a similar experience, please contact the Friends of America.  You can email directly dan @ thefriendsofamerica.org or direct message our spokesman via twitter]

DMobile Patriotism

Just when you thought it was safe to put your shoes on and go about your day, we get this:

Where’d the bailout money go?

a more articulate version of this rant is available at HotAir

WASHINGTON – It’s something any bank would demand to know before handing out a loan: Where’s the money going?

Not exactly, they just want to know how to get the collateral if you default, but let’s continue

But after receiving billions in aid from U.S. taxpayers, the nation’s largest banks say they can’t track exactly how they’re spending the money or they simply refuse to discuss it.

Whoa, wait a sec, for a moment there I thought you said…oh wait, you did

“We’ve lent some of it. We’ve not lent some of it. We’ve not given any accounting of, ‘Here’s how we’re doing it,’” said Thomas Kelly, a spokesman for JPMorgan Chase, which received $25 billion in emergency bailout money. “We have not disclosed that to the public. We’re declining to.”

Translation: “thanks for the dough you suckers, have a nice day”

Ok, so it’s just JPM&C right, surely other banks will be more grateful and cooperative, right? (and don’t call me Shirley)

The Associated Press contacted 21 banks that received at least $1 billion in government money and asked four questions: How much has been spent? What was it spent on? How much is being held in savings, and what’s the plan for the rest?

None of the banks provided specific answers.

Excuse me WHAT?!

Yup, you heard right, NONE of them are cooperating, a few gave ambiguous answers like “we put all the money in a big pile and burn spend it all from there”

Now sure, you could stretch that, (ignoring common sense and your accountant friend that works at a bank) and it almost sounds believable, but you think they could have made some exception considering this was taxpayer money that they did absolutely nothing to earn or deserve?

Good thing the whole TARP idea came with strict oversight and accountability, or else we’d never be able to track that money.

Wait…don’t tell me….

Since it was such an “emergency” and “the world as we know it could end”, TARP was passed without most congressmen even reading it.  And per CNN, and anyone not voting for it was a “detached rich guy with a political agenda”…helloo, have you met Henry Paulson?

Read the full story if you like, but it doesn’t get any better.

Congress recently summoned a handful of bank execs and “asked” them to please start lending money.  Know why they asked them that?  Because that’s all they could do - ask.

Since Paulson decided to write checks to banks instead of buying an actual physical asset, toxic as it may be, we now have absolutely nothing to show for our money.

I have an idea for the next $350B - DONT SPEND IT!  But since that’ll never happen, how about this:

The US population is roughly 310 Million so you could cut a check for about $1125 to each man, woman & child in America.  At least then we’d know where it went.

DMobile Economic Bailout, Paulson, thievery

Ha! It’s that time of year again, time to [long drippy Christmas stuff edited].

One of my favorite things to do this time of year is go to a store, fight the crowds, etc just to have the guy, or gal, tell me “Happy Holidays” with their pasted on holiday smile.  And I respond with a resounding “Merry Christmas to you too!”, to which most of the time I get a relieved sounding “merry Christmas”.

That aside, here’s the point of this article:  December 25th is Christmas, whether you are a Christian, Jew, Atheist, Jedi, Muslim, or Martian.  You don’t have to celebrate it, you don’t even have to believe it, but December 25th is Christmas.  Just like December 26th is Boxing Day.  Now I don’t celebrate that, and unless you live in Canada or some parts of the UK you don’t either, but that doesn’t change the fact that Dec 26th is Boxing Day and December 25th is Christmas.

So, I repeat: 

December 25th is freakin Christmas!

Get over it

DMobile Personel, Values Christmas, common sense, political correctness

So after all the calls to congress, late night senate sessions, more calls to congress, being on hold & disconnected at the white house, it’s come to this.

Yeah, we’re pretty frustrated.  We did everything legal.  We called, we petitioned our representatives and some of them even listened and we voted to NOT provide tax money for failing car companies.

And the president says, that’s ok boys I got yer back.

Too angry to type, this editor has thrown his shoes…and pen…and keys…and laptop-no wait, that was expensive.

Several questions have come up:

Did the Whitehouse tell anyone that “if congress doesn’t help, we will”?
If so, did the UAW walk away from negotiations knowing that they’d get paid anyway?

I happen to watch some video of GWB2 durring the 2000 primaries & election - wow what a different man that was.  It made me really sad acutally to contrast that guy with the now bought and beaten man we know as President.  He’s been given one more chance to stand on what’s left of his conservative principles…and he won’t do it. 

I really miss the GWB I voted for in 2000.  I really do, I liked that guy.  Not as much as people seem to like Obama, but pretty close.  I had really high hopes for him and our nation after that election. 

Got a bit off-topic but my point is, that here’s a final chance (and not many people get one) for redemption of his principles - I wish he’d take it.

NOTE:  This editor does not hate domestic cars, or UAW workers, and wants no one to be fired right before Christmas.  HOWEVER - the right principles and the right decision, are always the right principles and the right decision.

DMobile Economic, Patriotism, Policies, Political, Values automakers, Bailout, George Bush

Things we’re moving pretty quickly the last few days and updating every detail into the blog just wasn’t a good choice.  I’ll try to sumarize the events below:

Wednesday 12/10

 - House of Representatives passes bill authorizing $14 Billion to automakers
 - Senator Shelby (R, AL) gathers support for a filibuster if needed
 - Senator Corker (R, TN) publishes an “amendment” to the bill, a bit more palatible to conservatives.
 - The Friends of America action team begins emailing, calling & faxing Senators

Thursday 12/11

 - Senate aranges for procedural vote on auto bill
 - Senator Corker pushes his amended version and enters negotiations with UAW
 - Nearly finalized, Corker and UAW reach an impasse and negotiations end
 - Senate takes a procedural vote on the original bill and it fails by vote of 52-35

The drama continues, and now you’re up to speed

DMobile Patriotism

Well you can fight or you can run,
hide under a rock till the war is won,
play it safe and don’t make a sound,
but not us
we won’t back down

DMobile Patriotism

Here’s a perfect example of the differnect in attitudes that I tried to explain last post:

My Mom & sister [years of drama ommited] - My mom emails me regarding my sister, who’s unemployed, saying how “its a bad time to look for a job”…Well hang on a sec mom & sis, let me stop you there.  See I think that one of the best times to look for a job is WHEN YOU DON”T FREAKIN HAVE ONE! 

Anyone disagree?

DMobile Economic, Values Attitude, Economy, Personal, Values

Ok, so I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what is the core, root, fundamental difference between Conservative and Liberal ideologies.  Not the politics, social or even fiscal policies that result, but the actual core principal that defines the difference and here’s what I came up with:

Which side of right/left you land on depends on how you view this equation:

results = effort

Yup, that’s it.  We could extrapolate to the more complex equation:
results=((knowledge+skill) x attitude) x effort.  But that’s beyond the scope of this article.

It seems to me that the core difference in people goes way deeper then Republican/Democrat or Conservative/Liberal - it really comes down to “do you believe that desired results only come from appropriate effort, or do you believe that some results should be attainable regardless of effort?”.

I’ll try to give some examples:

Self esteem: Specifically related to child rearing & public education - is self esteem to be earned (results = effort) or is it to be nurtured & given - ex: everyone gets a trophy (results<>effort)
Minimum wage: The “make minimum wage a living wage” argument is based on results (having a living wage) not being equal to the effort (of actually doing something to earn a living wage)
US Automakers:  It seems that they want the results of being a viable auto company, with out the effort of actually maintaining profitability while making products that compete in the world market.
“Wealth redistributionists”: Same concept as before, they seem to want the results of having more money, without doing the effort of somehow earning it.
Minorities: Many minorities want the results of being thought of as equal or rather, having their minority status be a non-factor but aren’t willing to do the effort of actually thinking of themselves as equal, and not making their own status be a non-factor, to themselves.  Don’t agree? Then just ask the next Jew you meet how his “minority” status has affected him.

I could go on, but I wont.

So the question I have for you is:  Do you believe that results=effort?

DMobile Values responsibility, Values, welfare