Family Fun Watching the Debate

Ok, Ralphie got me up early (5:30) so I figured I would make my Monday morning run to the grocery store really early and beat the crowds!

(...Or sit here, drink coffee, and make a blog post..) Sigh. Well, life is to be lived, right?

Some families enjoy going to the movies. Others, a rousing game of Monopoly. Us, we watch the republican debates on T.V.

That is the only thing I can yell upstairs to the boys that is coming on TV and they will drop everything and come sit glued to the TV for 2 hours for. (wow, bad grammar, more coffee)

I know most of you are sick of the election and is still a year away. My dh only watched the debate in passing, saying, he is going to vote Republican anyway, so it doesn't matter that much. I begged to differ... these debates seem the best way to get to know these men. The best fast way. And I was very, very happy with how Fox ran the debate last night.

It is a limited format of course. So the goal is to get as much info out of them as you can in an organized fashion and I think Brit Hume and crew did an excellent job.

The best part of the debate, so good that I actually sent an email to Fox telling them!-- was before it even started.

They have a pollster, Frank Luntz, who organized a 'focus group' of 'regular people', about 25 of them. He had them all in a room and asked them questions about what they wanted from this debate, from these hopefuls.

What they said in those few minutes was more articulate, intelligent, honest and to the point than any rhetoric I have heard from the candidates and media pundits to date. In a nutshell:

We want:
leadership
vision
'stand up' for the Republican party and find our mission
honesty
Be like Reagan- have clear vision, clear goals, know where you are going and people (whether they agree with you or not) will know where you stand.

I could have cheered! and he next asked about Sen. Hillary. He had to, it turns out this woman is defining the 2008 elections in both parties. Dems candidate have to beat Mrs. Bill Clinton for the nomination. Reps have to beat her in the election- or so it is looking that way.

When he asked the focus group about her, you could see how much they were disturbed at the prospect of her being elected. One person said she is a socialist. Socialist? How many people here think she is a socialist, Frank asked excitedly.

Most every hand shot up.

There it is... they are honest enough to say this something we know is true but the media is afraid to admit... these people made honest sense and it was refreshing.

(Now if you are reading this and a socialist and are happy with Hillary, that is your right. But we need to think if socialism is really where we want our country to go. Seriously think about it. Read history... see where past countries have gone with socialism. This is real. And those are the roots of Hillary's philosophies.)

Wonderful these people could say what the media won't!

The debate itself, lots of highlights and side topics. We talked about Woodstock and how Senator McCain said he didn't make the concert because he was 'tied up' at the time.... :)--- Mitt Romney's new cool hair style, Rudy's attempt to cozy up to the 'values voters', Ron Paul's Libertarian views and Huckabee's no apologies supporting LIFE in all forms. What a treasure of topics!

The candidates made a good showing (imo) especially compared to past debates and appearances. No, I am not excited about all the rhetoric and campaign stuff. but this is our country. There is an election coming, warts and all. I love our two party system. Everyone has a right to be heard. Debates like these are giving us a chance to find out (in an imperfect fashion) about these imperfect men running.

We need a strong two party system and since the dems have all of the media (except talk radio) on their side the Republicans must get strong, fearless and decide what they believe, get the word out so we actually have a choice.

Last night was a good first step, plus we had lots of family conversation over our Chicken Marsala and pasta.

Fox by far and away does the best job with debates (makes it about the candidates, not the moderators)- and the next debate is in early December if you want to tune in. You can also email in questions for the candidates.. something we meant to do but never got around to.

Life Learning Magazine

I am really enjoying a new magazine that was suggested by my friend
Cay.---Hi Cay!!

She mentioned it on the UC list and said that when people asked her how she homeschooled, she could just hand them a copy and say "Read this."

It is called Life Learning Magazine

I have found the same thing! I have been reading some back issues online and found a very large percentage of it resonates with me. It reminds me a bit of reading the old Growing Without Schooling magazines. A friend gave me some issues when I began homeschooling and there was such a warm quality about them. These were published before the Internet, so moms would send in questions and problems, then in the next issue other moms would offer suggestions. What a beautiful community. They also had articles, etc.

This magazine began in 2002 and I started to read the back issues in PDF on line. I get so tired of the computer screen and wanted to be cozy. So I took the laptop and curled up on the couch while my dh watched the evening news shows. But the computer fan kept blowing hot air on me (or was that from the news shows?) and the screen still hurt my eyes.

I thought about printing out the magazine, but it was over 30 pages, with lots of color and ads and some stories I didn't need. So I printed, but selected only the pages I wanted and put in a soft back 3 ring binder.

Now I curl up and read away! I do think I will subscribe, to get a really nice magazine copy and also support them.

Here is one article that I just loved. It explains much of how I feel about interest-led homeschooling... with parents mentoring. As she said, this type of lifestyle does not mean parents are hands off. Self education is not the goal, but helping our children become self educated is. If that makes sense!

Click here for the article. This will take you to the magazine PDF file and scoll down to:
From Womb to World: Rethinking Self-Education by Katharine Houk.

I wish I could cut and paste it here or give a direct link, but am not sure how with pdf. It is well worth reading!

I may splurge and buy some back issues to curl up with.... instead of having to pick and print.