Sunday, November 10, 2013

Florida Keys Cloud Studies

When I stumbled upon this news article(below) it reminded me of a story my mother told me about how the military was caught doing 'pandemic studies' on the Keys when we lived there. As far as I know no one has reported what exactly was in the spray used back in the early 1980's. This next episode of spraying made headlines.

I have to wonder about certain people they interviewed for the article, though. "I don't begrudge them that they have to do this kind of thing, but at least give us a choice to not be here.''

Why the hell would ANYONE want to be anywhere near a government spraying spores on an open population?! 
"Army and Environmental Protection Agency researchers were trying to determine whether civilian Doppler and drug interdiction radars can tell the difference between a raincloud carrying moisture and a cloud carrying something more ominous."
What do they think is going to be in a cloud more ominous than what they're already putting there with HAARP?  And don't tell me hail because I'll laugh til I cry. The Florida Keys get about two inches inches of golf ball sized hail every year. Seriously. Cross my heart and hope to croak. We're talking about tropical islands, folks... If you think THAT's crazy then you ain't seen nothing yet.


Army Aerial Spraying Tests Panic,
Anger Florida Keys Residents

Jennifer Babson
Miami Herald Miami.com
4-22-2

BOCA CHICA KEY - They worry about allergies and immune system difficulties and ailments yet to be diagnosed.
 
A few bolted for points north; others shuttered windows and stayed inside.
 
Word that the U.S. Army was conducting biological and chemical detection tests off Key West last week -- using a crop duster to spray what it says are benign substances over a small swath of the Gulf -- set alarm bells ringing for some on this island chain.
 
''Monday I had my house closed up all day and the air conditioner running because I was concerned and I couldn't find out what was going on. The newspaper didn't say exactly where they were dropping,'' said Bill Eardley, a retiree who lives on Sugarloaf Key. "If I had known in advance, and I was concerned, I would have jumped in a car or plane and gotten out of here.''
 
Using a small plane to release egg white powder, clay dust, ethanol, irradiated vegetable spores and a chemical compound commonly found in drugstore cosmetics -- all designed to simulate more ominous compounds -- Army and Environmental Protection Agency researchers were trying to determine whether civilian Doppler and drug interdiction radars can tell the difference between a raincloud carrying moisture and a cloud carrying something more ominous.
 
The experiments -- concluded last week -- were deemed a success, though the Army still says it needs to conduct an additional $15 million to $20 million worth of testing in the U.S.
 
Researchers are hoping software could be attached to civilian radars like those used by the National Weather Service to alert military and civilian authorities to unusual chemical or biological events or attacks.
 
But some locals greeted the tests themselves as a kind of preliminary attack.
 
''The weirdest thing I heard from a couple of people was that spores can travel 1,300 miles. They said that there was a spore release in Texas that arrived in Florida,'' said Mickey Morales, an Army spokesman who was on hand for the drill. ``Some people have told me they have left the area or they have recommended to people that they leave the area.''
 
It probably didn't help matters locally that the Pentagon went public with details of the tests less than a week before they began.
 
AN EXPOSE
 
A few days earlier, a free Key West newspaper carried a front-page exposé on suspicious, Keys-photographed contrails that sources -- including an unnamed wife of a Navy service member -- insisted were actually ''chemtrails'' that could be the results of secret military experiments.
 
Some worried residents contacted the Army, the media, municipal officials, the EPA and U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson with their concerns -- prompting Nelson's Washington office to inquire about the nature of the tests, Morales said.
 
Last week, it was Morales' job to make the words ''military experiment'' seem palatable.
 
It was a challenge in some quarters.
 
''A lot of people have claimed they have read X, Y, and Z on the Internet,'' Morales said. ``Somebody called me on his cell phone and wanted to know if it was OK to go boating.''
 
Liz Holloway's neighbor on Sugarloaf Key ''evacuated'' to a place north of the Everglades when she heard the tests were imminent.
 
''She has chronic fatigue syndrome and thought it might exacerbate her condition,'' Holloway said. ``Am I worried I am going to get sick 15 years >from now? Maybe. But who knows?''
 
LITTLE NOTICE
 
Holloway said she would have liked more advanced notice.
 
''My major problem was that I read the stuff in the newspaper and I called the agencies that were supposed to be responsible for the activity, and even their public information officers had no clue what was going on,'' she said. ``I don't begrudge them that they have to do this kind of thing, but at least give us a choice to not be here.''
 
Some in the Pentagon considered forgoing the public information campaign altogether, said Col. Stephen V. Reeves, program executive officer for the Chemical and Biological Defense program. Reeves was in the Keys Thursday to monitor testing.
 
'I received [a recommendation] from counsel, `Maybe we should just go ahead,' '' Reeves said. ``I decided not to do that. If we had been quiet about it and somebody had suddenly discovered it, it would have confirmed everybody's worst suspicions.''
 
The decision on how to publicize the tests apparently went all the way up the chain of command to Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld's office.
 
And so, last week, a steady parade of Keys residents was escorted to a blue tent pitched next to a government RV across U.S. 1 from the entrance to the Boca Chica Naval Air Field.
 
In an effort to allay local fears, Morales made a run to a local grocery, picking up an angelfood cake, Visine eyedrops and a mud mask of the kind used to combat acne -- all of which he said contained test ingredients.
 
''You can go to the supermarket and buy this stuff basically, except for the dead spores,'' he explained.
 
NOT SATISFIED
 
The explanation didn't entirely satisfy Debora Edholm, the wife of local Navy employee who says she has seen and photographed hundreds of ''chemtrails'' of dubious origin.
 
Thursday afternoon, Edholm and a friend were escorted down a winding and wooded path, past a fence that's usually chained and beyond the sharp cries of a mother hawk to the blue tent where researchers were communicating by radio with pilots and radar operators involved in the testing.
 
Next to radio consoles, maps and computer equipment were jars containing examples of the compounds the Army dispersed in the tests.
 
''I have done a lot of research on what vitamin supplements to take to combat the chemtrails. I get exhausted,'' Edholm explained. ``A lot of people down here are sick, you know. A lot of people think they are doing this to take out weak people. It's population control.''
 
 
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/community/states/florida/counties/ By  (This link is no longer working but it was included with the article.)

You Put Your Arms Around Me And I'm Home

This song by Christina Perri, "Arms," is yet another artistic reminder of how pleroma touches artists so frequently. Listen to the lyrics. It could be a love song to any one in particular but to me it sounds like it's to pleroma directly, thanking him for not letting us go. Beautiful.


Seeing Forever

From the Ballerina Project. Beautiful isn't it? What do you seen in the distance? 

 


Sunday, November 3, 2013

Schools Taken For a Ride and our Kids Pay the Toll

Another very informative lecture about Common Core and the application process taken by the states.




After learning about the UNCRC(United Nations Conventions for the Rights of the Child) I wasn't so terribly shocked to then learn that UNESCO (the UN, essentially) is writing the kids' curriculum now under Common Core.

The SAT's and ACT's are Common Core now. This makes me truly angry since my thirteen year old is such an ambitious little fellow. I don't know when he'll be taking his SAT's(probably in two years) or what college he'll attend but as I keep telling him, "Man, you live in interesting times."

She mentions the Earth Charter which is adored by Common Core proponents(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Charter) and wow, doesn't it sound a lot like the Georgia Guidestones??? Especially #4(that would be the UN taking over national parks, which they've already done), #5(Agenda 21/Regionalism/Sustainable Development), #6(precautionary as in 'let's spread barium aluminum mixture all over the skies to protect our current climate meanwhile ignoring the obvious problems associated with it'), and #7(planned parenthood and eugenics).

A screenshot of some info in the lecture:


That's about the Math. The LA was just as bad if not worse, saying that 'college ready' by Common Core standards would be at about the 7th grade level.

I learned something quite surprising in the video which I don't know why it didn't occur to me before now to make the connection what with all the pay-for-grades, but the kids in our virtual school(FLVS) are constantly asked to evaluate and grade their teachers' performance and skills. This is done through The Tripod Project. It is a distinctive part of Common Core which is supposed to motivate the teachers to do better but the fact of the matter is, if a kid is pissed at their teacher, what do you THINK they're going to say??! They're KIDS for cryin' outloud! This is just about as ridiculous a thing to ask a kid to do as anything in the CC curriculum so far. Actually, it's the worst thing. Why? Because why should the children be asked to grade their teacher? The child is not qualified in any way to judge such a thing no matter how you word the questions. Children are emotional and fickle little beasties and with the psychologists writing the questionnaires you can bet they're formulated to have a certain bent to them in the end. It's psychological tuning. They can make the results say whatever they want in order to justify pulling a teacher's pay down.

http://stopcommoncore.com/ StopCommonCore is being added to the Human Rights Sites and Organizations area on this blog as of tonight. I encourage you to visit and spread the word. 

Here is a fantastic list of documents which spell out what Common Core is and is not. 
http://stopcommoncore.com/show-me-the-evidence-toc/evidence-standards/

Here is a long list of state initiatives to stop Common Core and links to their sites: 
http://stopcommoncore.com/get-connected/

 


Saturday, November 2, 2013

MRI's for the classroom? Common Core Chaos

Common Core bypassed Congress entirely. It even bypassed the education boards because the states wanted the money so badly they raced to put in their applications. It was attached to the stimulus bill in 2008. And then grades dropped even more. hmmm... 

I think that Glenn Beck's breakdown of the entire political situation is absolutely spot on. Please watch.  

Thankfully, he dug deep on the funding of Common Core and listed a few of the big ones like GE and the Bill and Linda Gates Foundation. ahhh smell the stench of rotting, over-vaccinated brains in the classroom yet? 



Here are examples of Common Core, looking directly at textbooks, both LA and Math and contrasting them with 'old school' textbooks. I grew up with the old school texts and this 'new math' that my twelve year old was being taught the past two years was making him absolutely miserable until I taught him the way I originally learned and we started using outside sources(NON Common Core!) like Khan Academy to study and practice those concepts. I don't even understand the new math, honestly. They take a two digit multiplication problem and turn it into some convoluted rocket science disaster of a mess. It's driving kids crazy. They don't understand simple things because it's so severely overcomplicated in how they're being taught now.



I had enough of the language arts my twelve year old was being taught. I pulled him out and am currently teaching him myself. We're reading all sorts of wonderful books now and he's writing funny short stories using his spelling words. He's discovering he has a talent to write scary stories. Would he have ever found this talent if I hadn't stepped in? I really don't believe so. His poor brain was overwhelmed with useless nonsense they were trying to cram down his throat.

Regionalism??



Regionalism AKA Agenda 21. 

They've renamed this monstrosity of an excuse for genocide quite a few times now the past few years.

Monday, October 28, 2013

Pleroma Playing Tag


Yes, this is how it feels. A nudge, a tap, and then Ha HA! I call it mental glomping. It's like being pounced on. He does it just to get your attention. Sometimes it can be for something serious and other times it's just because he's in a playful mood. 



No matter how many times I watch this I always laugh myself silly.

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Common Core and Throwing Money at Schools

My local newspaper is toeing the line regarding the county commissioner of education's exciting New Plan to pull our "C" rated schools up to "A" level within a few years. Fantastic. What is this plan?

The article is quoted as stating that "increasing staff learning and growth and providing support and resources to students and staff" will get the ball rolling in the right direction. Oh, and throwing more money at everyone. 

Uh huh. Right. I'm no dummy. I can read exactly what's there. See all these 'improvements' they're talking about for Polk County really only mean one thing: money in the pockets of certain people who handle the money it's going to involve to supposedly implement these 'improvements.'
I'm not jaded. I just woke the hell up. It's just a money game; creating jobs for themselves especially. Our economy is crap and they're off trying to create jobs which AREN'T GOING TO HELP THE KIDS!!!!!!!! You can't fix something if you haven't got a clue about what's WRONG!!!


This is a load of crap. Don't throw more money at the problem and don't implement Common Core. Get back to the BASICS.

My (now)home schooled kids were pulled out during fourth and fifth grade due to the ridiculousness going on in class. Always catering to the lowest denominator and babyfying the kids all across the board.

We brought them home and now they have excelled far beyond our wildest dreams. One is doing college at the age of thirteen and the other is not far behind his big brother.

Here are the three biggest reasons why public school is the cesspool it is:

1) Apathy
2) ... which is spawned by 'busy work'
3) and not being realistic about which kids are college bound or not.

Now this doesn't mean that some kids won't spontaneously bloom and suddenly jump onto the path of the college bound, but I don't think that keeping the entire class on the same pace is realistic. It bores the interested kids and keeps everyone dumbed down. And then you wonder why more kids aren't 'college ready.' hmm...

Also, let's be honest here, shall we, about college? The new high school diploma is a bachelor's degree. Colleges are simply money making operations right now, only in it for themselves, since the industries they're accredited to give degrees in don't have enough positions to fill in this country.

Our jobs are being outsourced but college is still being pushed as a great idea for EVERYONE!

WAKE UP!!! This is not sustainable in our society.

Kids need to learn basic skills(through 10th grade) and then go into the college track if they're willing and able. Otherwise they can go into vocational/trade schools and get a good job. The last two years of high school really only exist for those kids who are on the college track. Look at the curriculum and prove me wrong.

I don't know the last time I've seen a cashier or bank teller use Pre-Calculus or Chemistry.


Also, the previous article about this topic in the newspaper online and everyone's comments were deleted. Here's today's article. Let's see what happens to it.

Actions speak louder than words and in this case I think the Ledger spoke volumes about their agenda to protect the money makers at all cost.

Saturday, October 19, 2013

A New Road Less Terrifying

"And the new man reigns by love, by faith, by perfection, by patience, and by wisdom. Yet his king is the light mind, who is king of all. He reigns over it as he wishes." 

~Manichaean Literature

Quite a bit happened over the past few days with my youngest(12yo) boy with school and it's led me to make decisions I never thought I'd be strong enough to make. I'm brave. I'm fearless. I have taken on the responsibility of teaching this boy 8th grade US History for the rest of the school year. Yes, yes, REAL home school. He was virtual schooling up until now, curriculum and teachers provided by the county. 

Emotionally, as of Friday I was a wrecking ball of nerves after fighting with the county administration for virtual schooling over his Final Exams for 7th grade Civics. (He's worked ahead and is going into 8th now.) Long story short, there is no such thing as letting a child fail anymore. No Sir. Nope. Now, you either make a 60% or above on your Mid Term Exams and your Final Exams(apiece) or you fail the entire course and have to retake it. OR you can retake the Exam itself. Well, when a teacher resets the exam before even talking to the parents it kinda takes the whole 'choice' out of everyone's hands, don't you think? That's precisely what happened on Friday.

As a rule, we do not allow do-overs or resubmissions. We've always let our kids suck it up and take the failing grade so they learn from it. And until now we've never run into this 60% policy of this virtual school. With the elder boy(13yo) being such an overachiever the lowest grade he's ever made on a midterm or final was a C. John is not his brother. John has problems memorizing facts and dates and definitions. History is BORING!!!! Ergo, his grades in that class have always been on a slippery slope. I get it. I totally do. I was the same way in history classes all my life.

His teacher held the password for the last part(there were three parts) of the Final hostage until he retook the second part. He did better on the second part by a good twenty points. GREAT! Not that it's any real indication of learning since quite a few of the questions were the same the second time around and the night before I made sure he looked in his lessons and found the correct answers to figure out what happened on the test. Of course he did better the second time around! He had access to some of the same questions and had time to look up the correct answer. This is kind of a no-brainer to me.

Anyway, hubby and I were not happy and vented to every administrator you can think of with the county and the main company itself which provides the curriculum the county contracts from on a yearly basis. It's a respect issue, I feel. I think it's disrespectful to expect a kid to be happy about retaking a test because he didn't get the information the first time around and then letting it all be about the company's numbers during auditing. And that is exactly what it's about. (K12.com has a minimum of 80% by the way. On EVERY assignment, not just the tests. Imagine the stress being in school there!) Life doesn't give you do-overs and neither should school. It's a bad way to practice for 'real life' after high school. My kids totally get our philosophy and happily abide by it because they understand its worth. It helps them push harder to do better in the future.

So I decided to take the high road and home school John in 8th grade US History. We'll get a signature from a teacher at the end of the year and submit it to the county and that will be that. This is an adventure that is quite a bit less terrifying since it'll only be one class but still, when I went to the library this afternoon to find a starting point I was looking at four shelves of books for the main core topics and could only guestimate what would be best based on the time frame of the topic. 

Monday is a long way away still in my mind. I have some work to do and some decisions to make about how to make this more digestible for my boy. I want to do some old school kind of learning to help him with reading and vocabulary and writing but still teaching him the subject. I came home with five books dealing with and leading up to the Colonial era and I guess that's where we'll start. We'll compile a bibliography for his homeschool portfolio as required. Read, write essays, research using the Library of Congress for students, find things he's interested in learning about on his own and he can report it however he wants.... I'd like to make it more easy going than the cyber pressure he's been feeling in school. Not sure how successful I'll be or if I'll turn into a raving beast when confronted with his bad spelling. I don't want everything to be graded. I'd rather have an 'unschooling' approach to the final result but have structure because of John's lack of enthusiasm about the subject. 

Who knows, maybe he'll bloom within the new freedom and find that History isn't such a dry thing after all? 

I am breathing deep and finding that calm inside myself to understand that perhaps this is what this child needs right now. So what if we spend a month doing absolutely nothing but reading cool historical books and figuring things out, right?!! Oh well. We'll have fun reading and talking about the books and anything cool he discovers. Then maybe we can get a timeline going up on his cork board and put things into perspective in a more logical way for him visually. 

I'd love to do the same thing with him in English but fear I'd be biting off more than I can chew at the moment. As it is, the second semester of his LA class can't be opened yet because the curriculum hasn't been published yet. Why? Common Core is about to crash and burn in the state of Florida and the school can't figure out what to do. I know, right? It's insane!! He should be done with the second semester of this year's LA in six weeks and instead, we're still waiting for the school to retract it's head from it's sphincter and take a look at reality. People don't want Common Core. Competition is a good thing, keeping everyone on the same level is BAD. It pulls everyone down.

This momma is ready to learn whatever the journey is willing to teach. Hopefully a little boy is willing to go out and find the lessons he wants to learn best. 

 "He breaks off from his teacher and the brothers. He always wants to go in and come out alone, a solitary man. He will always walk alone. It is a sign that the closeness of his brothers does not persuade him." 

~Manichaean Literature

And this is the way of gnosis, entirely. It is a solitary pursuit when it's all said and done. We take cues from the world around us which are available but we must apply it to our heart and sort out the gold from the chaff.

Cat's Eye Nebula, Hubble telescope


Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Flora

It's nearing that time of year again....

Can anyone name this related flowering plant? It only blooms when in the perfect environment in perfect conditions.



These are pictures of my mother's plant. When she moves it to the other side of her porch it refuses to flower. Talk about picky!!