OBAMA'S RELATIONSHIP WITH THE MAIN STREAM MEDIA

BLM AND THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP OF LAND

http://www.teaparty.org/blm-land-battles-reach-beyond-bundy-40992/

BLM land battles reach beyond Bundy

(Fox News) – It’s the most powerful agency you’ve never heard of — at least, until recently.

The Bureau of Land Management, the nation’s biggest landlord, found itself in the spotlight after a high-profile brawl with Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and another dispute with state officials over the Texas-Oklahoma borderlands.

But the seemingly obscure agency, which is in charge of millions of acres of public land, is no stranger to controversy. History shows the power struggle over property rights and land use is one that’s been fought — fiercely — ever since the bureau was created.

SPECIAL: Modern Day Patriots, this is the time to stand shoulder to shoulder with our forefathers in Lexington and Concord. We need the Tea Party now more than ever.

In the nearly seven decades of its existence, the BLM has struggled to find its footing and exert its power, pitted against a vocal states’ rights movement.

“The federal government already owns too much land,” Texas Gov. Rick Perry, one of the champions of that modern-day movement, recently told Fox News. He called for the federal government, and by extension the BLM, to “divest itself of a huge amount of this landholdings that it has across the country.”

The Bureau of Land Management was formed in 1946, consolidating two now-extinct agencies into one for the purpose of overseeing public land. In the beginning, the BLM mostly focused on livestock and mines. Its mission shifted, though, in the 1970s when it took on the role of mediator between commerce and conservation, and faced a second identity crisis in the 1980s. That’s when the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion gained new momentum in its push to return control of federal lands to individual states.

That “rebellion” may be underway once again, as states renew concerns about the amount of land controlled by the BLM. Congress also recently weighed in, with House lawmakers passing a bill in February that would prevent the BLM from buying new land.

Currently, the agency, which falls under the purview of the U.S. Department of Interior, oversees 247.3 million acres — or about one-eighth of the land in the country.

It also owns 700 million acres of on-shore federal mineral estates.

The BLM is responsible for managing a large spectrum of natural resources. The federal agency regulates logging, mining and fracking practices across the country. It also administers close to 18,000 permits and leases a year held by ranchers who graze their livestock on land managed by the federal government. The permits and leases they issue usually last a decade and can be renewed.

In 2009, regulation of public lands in Western states generated $6.2 billion.

By acreage, the agency’s largest stake is in Alaska where it owns 72.4 million acres. Nevada ranks second, with 48 million acres under the BLM, and then Utah, with 22.9 million acres.

In Nevada, rancher Cliven Bundy’s recent refusal to hand over his family’s cattle to the feds re-ignited the national debate over the BLM’s power.

On the heels of that controversy, more than 50 lawmakers from nine Western states came together to protest federal land expansion. The state leaders discussed ways to combine their joint goals of taking control of oil-, timber- and mineral-rich lands away from the federal government.

“It’s so much bigger than Bundy. There are issues … all across the West where the federal government is exerting control over things it was ever supposed to control,” Utah state Rep. Ken Ivory told Fox News. “The federal government was supposed to be a trustee. They do own the land. They do hold title to the land in trust … but they have a duty to dispose of the land with all states east of Colorado.”

Ivory says he wants the federal government to keep a promise it made in the 1894 Enabling Act that made Utah a state. He argues that public lands, except for congressionally designated national parks and wilderness areas, should be transferred back to the states.

So far, state lawmakers in Idaho, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming, Oregon and Washington are looking for ways to transfer land management back to the states.

Utah, though, has been the most successful. Lawmakers there passed a measure demanding the federal government extinguish title to federal lands, aside from national parks. Ivory was also the primary backer of the 2012 Transfer of Public Lands Act which established a model for the transfer of certain federal lands to the state in the coming years.

The Bundy case has been largely viewed as the first leadership test for new BLM Director Neil Kornze, who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate and sworn into office in April. The local land-use dust-up fed into a growing apprehension over just how much authority the BLM has and how far it is willing to go to maintain control.

In Texas, Attorney General Greg Abbott sent a letter to Kornze looking into allegations the BLM was eyeing a massive land grab in northern Texas. “Decisions of this magnitude must not be made inside a bureaucratic black box,” wrote Abbott, a GOP gubernatorial candidate.

The agency indicated that the land in question was determined to be public property. “The BLM is categorically not expanding Federal holdings along the Red River,” a BLM spokeswoman said in a written statement.

Attention on the Bundy-BLM battle has lately turned to racially insensitive remarks that Bundy made in several media interviews and appearances.

Conservative and libertarian lawmakers like Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, initially came to Bundy’s defense, calling his situation the latest example of big government overreach.  Both, though, have since scaled back their comments in light of Bundy’s remarks.

“Senator Paul spoke out against federal over-regulation and BLM handling of a situation,” Paul spokesman Doug Stafford said in a written statement. “He has never spoken to or met Mr. Bundy and is not responsible for the vile comments that come out of his mouth.”

Others say Bundy was at fault, failing to pay $1.1 million in fees for letting his cattle graze on government grass for more than two decades.

“I wish Mr. Bundy would mind his law requirements and not try to play to the television cameras about confronting the evil federal government,” former BLM director Patrick Shea told KSL TV. Shea has been on both sides of the land-use debate. He represented activist Tim DeChristopher who took on the BLM over the 2008 sale of controversial oil and gas leases in Utah.

The BLM has run into trouble elsewhere.

In March, BLM officials rounded up a horse herd in Wyoming after area ranchers and farmers complained that the herd grazed down pastures and damaged cattle rangeland. The horses were turned over to Wyoming officials. The state then quickly sold all 41 horses to a Canadian slaughterhouse. Animal rights groups protested the sale and slaughter.

A year earlier, BLM agents in Nevada announced they would be removing 50 wild horses from a herd that had grown too large to be sustained.

But the complaints go beyond horses. In 2011, several Utah counties filed a lawsuit against the agency over exceeding its authority by establishing wilderness protections without the consent of Congress.

Back in the nation’s capital, House lawmakers passed a package in February that includes a collection of public land access and restoration provisions. They also adopted two amendments that extend the length of grazing permits on federal lands to 20 years from 10 years and also allow expired or transferred permits to remain effective until new ones can be issued.

Calls to the BLM for comment were not returned.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/05/02/bureau-land-management-bundy/

BLM AND THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP OF LAND

http://www.teaparty.org/blm-land-battles-reach-beyond-bundy-40992/

BLM land battles reach beyond Bundy

(Fox News) – It’s the most powerful agency you’ve never heard of — at least, until recently.

The Bureau of Land Management, the nation’s biggest landlord, found itself in the spotlight after a high-profile brawl with Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and another dispute with state officials over the Texas-Oklahoma borderlands.

But the seemingly obscure agency, which is in charge of millions of acres of public land, is no stranger to controversy. History shows the power struggle over property rights and land use is one that’s been fought — fiercely — ever since the bureau was created.

SPECIAL: Modern Day Patriots, this is the time to stand shoulder to shoulder with our forefathers in Lexington and Concord. We need the Tea Party now more than ever.

In the nearly seven decades of its existence, the BLM has struggled to find its footing and exert its power, pitted against a vocal states’ rights movement.

“The federal government already owns too much land,” Texas Gov. Rick Perry, one of the champions of that modern-day movement, recently told Fox News. He called for the federal government, and by extension the BLM, to “divest itself of a huge amount of this landholdings that it has across the country.”

The Bureau of Land Management was formed in 1946, consolidating two now-extinct agencies into one for the purpose of overseeing public land. In the beginning, the BLM mostly focused on livestock and mines. Its mission shifted, though, in the 1970s when it took on the role of mediator between commerce and conservation, and faced a second identity crisis in the 1980s. That’s when the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion gained new momentum in its push to return control of federal lands to individual states.

That “rebellion” may be underway once again, as states renew concerns about the amount of land controlled by the BLM. Congress also recently weighed in, with House lawmakers passing a bill in February that would prevent the BLM from buying new land.

Currently, the agency, which falls under the purview of the U.S. Department of Interior, oversees 247.3 million acres — or about one-eighth of the land in the country.

It also owns 700 million acres of on-shore federal mineral estates.

The BLM is responsible for managing a large spectrum of natural resources. The federal agency regulates logging, mining and fracking practices across the country. It also administers close to 18,000 permits and leases a year held by ranchers who graze their livestock on land managed by the federal government. The permits and leases they issue usually last a decade and can be renewed.

In 2009, regulation of public lands in Western states generated $6.2 billion.

By acreage, the agency’s largest stake is in Alaska where it owns 72.4 million acres. Nevada ranks second, with 48 million acres under the BLM, and then Utah, with 22.9 million acres.

In Nevada, rancher Cliven Bundy’s recent refusal to hand over his family’s cattle to the feds re-ignited the national debate over the BLM’s power.

On the heels of that controversy, more than 50 lawmakers from nine Western states came together to protest federal land expansion. The state leaders discussed ways to combine their joint goals of taking control of oil-, timber- and mineral-rich lands away from the federal government.

“It’s so much bigger than Bundy. There are issues … all across the West where the federal government is exerting control over things it was ever supposed to control,” Utah state Rep. Ken Ivory told Fox News. “The federal government was supposed to be a trustee. They do own the land. They do hold title to the land in trust … but they have a duty to dispose of the land with all states east of Colorado.”

Ivory says he wants the federal government to keep a promise it made in the 1894 Enabling Act that made Utah a state. He argues that public lands, except for congressionally designated national parks and wilderness areas, should be transferred back to the states.

So far, state lawmakers in Idaho, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming, Oregon and Washington are looking for ways to transfer land management back to the states.

Utah, though, has been the most successful. Lawmakers there passed a measure demanding the federal government extinguish title to federal lands, aside from national parks. Ivory was also the primary backer of the 2012 Transfer of Public Lands Act which established a model for the transfer of certain federal lands to the state in the coming years.

The Bundy case has been largely viewed as the first leadership test for new BLM Director Neil Kornze, who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate and sworn into office in April. The local land-use dust-up fed into a growing apprehension over just how much authority the BLM has and how far it is willing to go to maintain control.

In Texas, Attorney General Greg Abbott sent a letter to Kornze looking into allegations the BLM was eyeing a massive land grab in northern Texas. “Decisions of this magnitude must not be made inside a bureaucratic black box,” wrote Abbott, a GOP gubernatorial candidate.

The agency indicated that the land in question was determined to be public property. “The BLM is categorically not expanding Federal holdings along the Red River,” a BLM spokeswoman said in a written statement.

Attention on the Bundy-BLM battle has lately turned to racially insensitive remarks that Bundy made in several media interviews and appearances.

Conservative and libertarian lawmakers like Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, initially came to Bundy’s defense, calling his situation the latest example of big government overreach.  Both, though, have since scaled back their comments in light of Bundy’s remarks.

“Senator Paul spoke out against federal over-regulation and BLM handling of a situation,” Paul spokesman Doug Stafford said in a written statement. “He has never spoken to or met Mr. Bundy and is not responsible for the vile comments that come out of his mouth.”

Others say Bundy was at fault, failing to pay $1.1 million in fees for letting his cattle graze on government grass for more than two decades.

“I wish Mr. Bundy would mind his law requirements and not try to play to the television cameras about confronting the evil federal government,” former BLM director Patrick Shea told KSL TV. Shea has been on both sides of the land-use debate. He represented activist Tim DeChristopher who took on the BLM over the 2008 sale of controversial oil and gas leases in Utah.

The BLM has run into trouble elsewhere.

In March, BLM officials rounded up a horse herd in Wyoming after area ranchers and farmers complained that the herd grazed down pastures and damaged cattle rangeland. The horses were turned over to Wyoming officials. The state then quickly sold all 41 horses to a Canadian slaughterhouse. Animal rights groups protested the sale and slaughter.

A year earlier, BLM agents in Nevada announced they would be removing 50 wild horses from a herd that had grown too large to be sustained.

But the complaints go beyond horses. In 2011, several Utah counties filed a lawsuit against the agency over exceeding its authority by establishing wilderness protections without the consent of Congress.

Back in the nation’s capital, House lawmakers passed a package in February that includes a collection of public land access and restoration provisions. They also adopted two amendments that extend the length of grazing permits on federal lands to 20 years from 10 years and also allow expired or transferred permits to remain effective until new ones can be issued.

Calls to the BLM for comment were not returned.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/05/02/bureau-land-management-bundy/

COULD THERE BE AN AMERICAN SPRING?

http://m.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2014/April/Expert-Warns-of-Americas-Coming-Arab-Winter/

Expert Warns of America's Coming 'Arab Winter'

CBNNews.com — Fri, 2014-04-11 14:38

One year ago, Islamic terrorists set off two bombs at the Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring nearly 300 people. 

Author and Islam expert Robert Spencer says that attack marked a resurgence of Islamic jihad on American soil.

When the "Arab Spring" revolutions began in Tunisia and Egypt in 2011, many in the West hailed the uprisings as the beginning of a new era of democracy and pluralism in the Middle East.

But that didn't happen. Instead, the region is less stable, more uncertain, and more violent than before.

On the anniversary of the Boston marathon bombing, Spencer has released his newest book, Arab Winter Comes to America: The Truth About The War We're In.

Spencer says the same radical Islamic groups that caused the "Arab Spring" in the Middle East are at work in America right now, exposing Americans to even more threats of jihad.

He warns that the country is shockingly unequipped to face this threat.

Study: Juvenile Crime Based on Morals, Not Poverty

http://www.movieguide.org/news-articles/study-juvenile-crime-based-on-morals-not-poverty.html

By Rachal Marquez, Contributing Writer

It has long been said that poverty-stricken environments are a major factor leading to crimes committed by adolescents.

However, the Peterborough Adolescent and Young Adult Development Study, conducted by Cambridge University, suggests that crime among teenagers is influenced as much or more by their morals as it is by their environments, including their economic background.

According to the study, nearly half of adolescent crimes are committed by a miniscule 3.8 percent of teenagers. This group of teenagers averaged 278 offenses each over the course of the five-year study, which followed the teenagers from the age of 12 through 16. It was also found that this small group committed the majority of serious crimes, especially property damage. In fact, 60 percent of crimes were committed by only 16 percent of youths in the study (which included the above 3.8 percent).

The most interesting part of the study, though, is not necessarily the concentration of crime within such a small percentage, but rather that the one of the strongest identifiers among those who committed more crimes was a simple weakness of morals. Many of the youths even admitted to reckless tendencies and a lack of a moral compass.

The teenagers’ acknowledgment of their propensity for crime may come as a surprise to some, but perhaps it shouldn’t.

While teenagers are still developing both physically and personally, they are also mature enough to be self-aware and conscious of their own decision-making. Some have said that since the brain’s frontal lobe – which is responsible for decision making, problem solving, and self-control – doesn’t finish developing until a person is in his or her early 20s, teenagers are more susceptible to poor judgment and possible wrongful activities. While this claim does make some sense, and a person’s teenage years are a time for continual, and often pivotal, development, it should also be said that adolescents still possess an incredible capacity for complex thinking and intelligent (even if not wise) consideration of factors and decisions. Whether or not they utilize that is a different matter.

However, there are some who do.

The Cambridge study also found that, in addition to the heavily criminal percentage of youths, there is a comparable percentage that is especially “crime-averse.” In contrast to the 16 percent who committed more than 60 percent of offenses, the 16 percent who were reported to have the strongest morals committed a measly 0.5 percent of offenses. According to the study, these law-abiding youths chose not to commit crimes not because they didn’t have the opportunity, or that they feared being caught and punished, but rather for the fact they believed it to be wrong.

These results challenge the notion that poverty-stricken and crime-heavy environments are the biggest factor in teens committing crimes. Thus, while desperation can absolutely lead people, teenagers included, to commit crimes, environment is not the only, or even the most influential, factor.

A teenager’s propensity to commit crimes might lead to a tendency to label such youths as “amoral” or even “bad.” However, it’s not that simple.

Each person is a complex and unique individual with his or her own story. So, while their actions may be wrong, this doesn’t mean they don’t have the potential to do good, or that they can never change.

Perhaps, therefore, we should ask what might be the most influential factor in the moral development of teenagers. The Gospel of Jesus Christ and Christ’s instruction to “treat others how we wish to be treated” are vital here. The Gospel, filtered through the Bible and the power of the Holy Spirit, can transform hearts, minds, and behaviors. And, Jesus Christ’s admonition to treat everyone we encounter (including and especially teens) with respect and consideration is often the best example we can set in promoting moral behavior.

“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” – Proverbs 22:6.

- Source:  The Daily Mail

COMMON CORE'S UN AGENDA CONNECTION

“The philosophy of the classroom of one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next” is a wise statement attributed to Abraham Lincoln.

http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2014/05/thorner-and-oneil-why-teachers-parents-students-and-a-comedian-want-to-can-common-core.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FbYHz+%28Illinois+Review%29

THURSDAY, MAY 01, 2014

By Nancy Thorner and Bonnie O'Neil - 

Common Core is appropriately named. It is indeed “common”, and not the exceptional education system its promoters promised. Digging into its core we find problems with its design, philosophy, tactics by which it was implemented, and specific ideology which is liberally peppered throughout the various subjects.

One might speculate how this unproven program was sold to the governors of 45 states, without their having actually seen any of the Common Core curriculum. Much like the Affordable Care Act, Common Core was approved based on lofty promises and without a shred of proof it was superior to the program it replaced.

We do know states accepting Common Core were “forgiven” their contract with “No Child Left Behind”, which was appealing, because many school districts had not met their commitments to that contract and were eager to be excused from their obligations. Also, there was a financial “carrot” via “No Child Left Behind” federal money.

 

Big money speaks

Bill Gates and other big business tycoons saw an opportunity to make millions from the new system and donated huge amounts to help launch and promote it.  However, that was only part of Gates reason and not his real passion. When interviewed on national television, all Gates offered as to why he supported the new education system was the tired standard Common Core talking point that American students needed to compete globally. Hey, our country is a World leader; we already are competitive. What Gates failed to mention is his close association with the United Nations and that he bought into their one-world globalist agenda, which is directly tied to U.N. Agenda 21, Chapter 36 under Education, Public Awareness, and Training”. Common Core is the surreptitious takeover of public education by a handful of liberals, with Bill Gates prominent among them.

Would governors have approved Common Core if they had known beforehand that it embraces the "three E's of Agenda 21" which will become evident in an article to follow when discussing Common Core standards for Math, Language Arts, History, and Science: 1) Equality, meaning Common good, not individual rights; 2) Economy, meaning redistribution of wealth; and Environment, meaning animals have equal rights or even more rights than humans. That certainly does not sound like the philosophy under which our nation has prospered for centuries

Government control over state violates Constitution

“The philosophy of the classroom of one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next” is a wise statement attributed to Abraham Lincoln. Our wise forefathers knew the potential problems of a federal government or any “elitist” group dictating what every school child learns in classrooms across America, which is why they gave the responsibility of education to each individual state. There is an inherent danger in one small body of people deciding what every student in America will be learning in our schools.

How can any reasonable person not be concerned when Common Core violates the very intent of our Constitution and forefathers warnings? What happens if Common Core proves its critics right and test scores in all 45 states are lower, not higher? We know states, such as New York, that have been using Common Core for a couple of years, have experienced plummeting test scores, unhappy children, and furious parents. A large N.Y. teachers union blamed Common Core for creating education chaos in their state. How do students get back those wasted years?  How will our country redeem the loss?  

Little impact on student achievement

A study published last month by the Brookings Institution concluded that the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) will have "little to no impact on student achievement.” Two statistical analysis of states with math mandates like Common Core and those with mandates unlike Common Core found that states whose standards were less like Common Core performed better on national assessments. As to states never adopting the standards (Alaska, Minnesota, Nebraska, Texas and Virginia), the difference in test scores were not noticeable in comparison to those states considered strong implementers of Common Core standards.

Author and journalist Dean Kalahar writes:

Common Core . . . may look delicious, but before you take a bite out of the apple, it might be a good idea to know a razor is inside; furthermore, the foundational philosophy of Common Core is to create students ready for social action so they can force a social-justice agenda.  Is that really what American citizens want for their children’s future? Have we not learned from the mistakes of other once prosperous countries that declined due to their experimenting with Socialism?

Critical thinking emphasized, even if age inappropriate

A prominent claim of Common Core is that students are being taught to be critical thinkers. However, minds of children develop at different paces. Educators have understood that for centuries, which is why curriculum in the past was designed with an age appropriate concept that is lacking in the new program.

The inconvenient truth is our children are being used as guinea pigs. Teachers have not been given appropriate instructions for teaching the new system, and rather than wait until it was thoroughly tested and teachers provided the necessary tools they needed, the experimental program was inflicted on an entire generation of American students, the majority of whom may suffer for many years.

A major concern is the reduced emphasis on memorization skills. Students now have to connect the dots and apply critical thinking in what experts are calling higher-order thinking necessary for preparing students for life after high school. The concern is how much the curriculum actually leads students into forming the author’s pre-planned conclusion. Are they being carefully guided into a desired thought pattern?  Evidence to support those parental concerns will be discussed in a subsequent article.

Remembering the plot of a short story is no longer good enough for children in the elementary grades. Today's students are being asked to apply critical thinking, even in Kindergarten and 1st Grade.  Consider the American classic "Charlotte's Web”.  Common Core requires First and Second grade students to understand and explain how the characters see the "world differently.”  Why does Fern see Wilbur in a different way than the Narrator does?  Young students are asked to explain situations beyond their scope of understanding.  

Consider a Common Core school assignment which asked children in the 6th grade to remove and replace two of the first ten amendments of the Constitution. The assignment stated that the Bill of Rights is outdated and may not remain in its current form any longer. This would be an impossible task for a 6th grader having no prior training as to how to amend the Constitution, further leading them to believe all that is needed to change the Constitution is a special committee.  In fact, why are young students being given the idea there needs to be changes in our Constitution in the first place?  We were taught that America’s Constitution was a remarkable document which provided us with the most amazing government in the history of our mankind? Curriculum should be planting seeds of national pride, not seeds suggesting a need for change.  

Moral teachings questioned and compromised 

Comprehensive sexuality education often goes unchallenged, that is, until people discover what it teachers. A Kansas father was shocked after discovering his 13-year-old daughter’s health curriculum -- part of her middle school's approved curriculum -- included a poster on which were references to vaginal intercourse, anal sex, and touching each other’s genitals, only later to discover that it was in line with what other schools around the country are also teaching.  Reporters dubbed this program “x-rated.”  Chicago, the third largest school district in the nation, is leaving no stone unturned. Within two years sex education will be coming to Chicago kindergartners as part of an overhaul of the Chicago public schools sexual health program.

Parents have been expressing concern that part of the critical thinking project is designed for young children to question the morals and teachings they have received at home and church.  One example occurred during a student independent reading time where kids were required to read a book that is "just right”, one girl’s choice was the Bible, but a teacher promptly took the Bible away. Parents encourage their children to respect and obey their teachers; what does an action like that suggest to a classroom of vulnerable minds?  It feels a lot more like what one would expect in Russia, China, or Afghanistan, not the United States of America. Why, what or who would encourage that extreme behavior from a teacher?     

Dr. Terry Bratton testified before an Alabama State Education Committee that "the new education measure has a specific and radical agenda."  He accused Common Core of promoting an acceptance of homosexuality, alternate lifestyles, radical feminism, abortion, illegal immigration, and the redistribution of wealth. That certainly sounds like a liberal’s dream platform.  He went on say that“Alabama places a priority on family and Christian values. We don’t want our kids taught to be anti-Christian and anti-Catholic and anti-America,” said Bratton. "We don’t want our kids to lose their innocence, beginning in preschool and kindergarten, by being taught that homosexuality is okay and should be experienced at an early age.”  I think he speaks for most American parents!

Bratton also railed against what he called ideas of “social justice” woven into the Standards. He said such teachings are “contrary to traditional American notions of justice in the United States Constitution" and lamented that kids were told “America is an unjust and oppressive society that should be changed.” It is unclear if Dr. Bratton provided proof of all his claims.  However, we do know that there is a strong connection between the authors of Common Core and extreme radical education groups whose goal is to teach social justice to students in our schools. This website explains that connection in more detail.

What does history tell us?  (Need to find the link, Bonnie.)

Historian David Barton of Wallbuilders has also made some important points worth considering.  He suggested we look back in history and consider Americas’ first teaching principles. The primary goal was to “teach religion, morality and knowledge”. The second goal was the role of faith in teaching important thinking skills.  The historian noted that religion was so important that new states being admitted to the union were required to embrace “religion, morality and knowledge,” which is why these elements made it into many states’ constitutions.

Barton blamed the 1960s Supreme Court decision for changes that stripped religion out of schools and morality out of society. Soon after that decision, other laws were amended or enacted which allowed for more sexually implicit media opportunities. STDS, underage pregnancies, and violence skyrocketed. The unfortunate “cause and effect” of that specific court decision is obvious and remains evident today. We are all reminded that elections have serious consequences that reverberate through society for decades, causing us to more fully appreciate the importance of an educated voter. While morality is best taught at home, to be more effective, it should be reinforced at school and throughout every other avenue of learning opportunities. Common Core is another step down in our nation’s declining moral state.    

Concluding thoughts

You know something is really wrong, when a comedian can no longer laugh or joke about an issue. Consider Louis C.K., who is also a father, and whose children have been adversely affected by Common Core. Check out his story in the New York Daily News.

In conclusion, there is little doubt in our minds that Common Core was developed by a determined group of liberals in accordance with a United Nations education agenda.  No wonder our state governors were not given any facts, examples of curriculum, or proof that this new education system matched their expectations.  But now that the facts are known, where is the massive outcry to stop this radical new education program? Oh, its out there in most every state and gaining momentum.  But there needs to be an even louder and stronger opposition. Will you dedicate some of your time to be a part of that essential movement to stop this liberal agenda?  Contact your state representatives and educate them on the facts, and ask for their help in closing the door to Common Core.

Summary of U.N. Agenda 21 related articles by Nancy Thorner and Bonnie O'Neil:  

Article 1: http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2014/03/thorner-oneil-un-agenda-21-designed-to-spawn-a-one-world-government.html#more

Article 2:  http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2014/03/thorneroneil-are-you-under-attack-by-un-agenda-21.html#more

Article 3: http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2014/03/un-agenda-21-impacts-private-property-rights-and-freedom-article-3.html#more

Article 4:  http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2014/04/preamble-common-core-dates-back-to-the-marxist-socialist-paradigm-of-un-charter.html#more

Article 5: http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2014/04/ready-thorner-and-oneil-how-common-core-caused-moms-to-become-activists.html#more

Sent from my iPhone

STUDENT TAKES A STAND FOR FREEDOM TO BE WHATE AND MALE

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/04/30/going-viral-princeton-university-students-bold-response-after-allegedly-being-told-repeatedly-to-check-your-privilege/

Going Viral: Princeton University Student’s Bold Response After Allegedly Being Told Repeatedly to ‘Check Your Privilege’

Tal Fortgang, a freshman at Princeton University, says he has been ordered to “check your privilege” by his “moral superiors” several times this year because he happens to be a white male. In a column in the Princeton Tory, Fortgang takes on the ideology he says ”assumes that simply because I belong to a certain ethnic group I should be judged collectively with it.”

Tal Fortgang, Princeton University

“There is a phrase that floats around college campuses, Princeton being no exception, that threatens to strike down opinions without regard for their merits, but rather solely on the basis of the person that voiced them. ‘Check your privilege,’ the saying goes, and I have been reprimanded by it several times this year,” the student writes. “The phrase, handed down by my moral superiors, descends recklessly, like an Obama-sanctioned drone, and aims laser-like at my pinkish-peach complexion, my maleness, and the nerve I displayed in offering an opinion rooted in a personal Weltanschauung.”

“‘Check your privilege,’ they tell me in a command that teeters between an imposition to actually explore how I got where I am, and a reminder that I ought to feel personally apologetic because white males seem to pull most of the strings in the world,” he continues.

Fortgang then explores his family’s history to figure out where his “privilege” comes from:

Perhaps it’s the privilege my grandfather and his brother had to flee their home as teenagers when the Nazis invaded Poland, leaving their mother and five younger siblings behind, running and running until they reached a Displaced Persons camp in Siberia, where they would do years of hard labor in the bitter cold until World War II ended. Maybe it was the privilege my grandfather had of taking on the local Rabbi’s work in that DP camp, telling him that the spiritual leader shouldn’t do hard work, but should save his energy to pass Jewish tradition along to those who might survive. Perhaps it was the privilege my great-grandmother and those five great-aunts and uncles I never knew had of being shot into an open grave outside their hometown. Maybe that’s my privilege.

Or maybe it’s the privilege my grandmother had of spending weeks upon weeks on a death march through Polish forests in subzero temperatures, one of just a handful to survive, only to be put in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp where she would have died but for the Allied forces who liberated her and helped her regain her health when her weight dwindled to barely 80 pounds.

Perhaps my privilege is that those two resilient individuals came to America with no money and no English, obtained citizenship, learned the language and met each other; that my grandfather started a humble wicker basket business with nothing but long hours, an idea, and an iron will—to paraphrase the man I never met: “I escaped Hitler. Some business troubles are going to ruin me?” Maybe my privilege is that they worked hard enough to raise four children, and to send them to Jewish day school and eventually City College.

Perhaps it was my privilege that my own father worked hard enough in City College to earn a spot at a top graduate school, got a good job, and for 25 years got up well before the crack of dawn, sacrificing precious time he wanted to spend with those he valued most—his wife and kids—to earn that living. I can say with certainty there was no legacy involved in any of his accomplishments. The wicker business just isn’t that influential.Now would you say that we’ve been really privileged? That our success has been gift-wrapped?

The real problem with the notion of automatic “privilege,” he explains, is you have no idea what their struggles have really been or “what they may have gone through to be where they are.”

“Behind every success, large or small, there is a story, and it isn’t always told by sex or skin color. My appearance certainly doesn’t tell the whole story, and to assume that it does and that I should apologize for it is insulting,” Fortgang writes. “While I haven’t done everything for myself up to this point in my life, someone sacrificed themselves so that I can lead a better life. But that is a legacy I am proud of.”

“I have checked my privilege. And I apologize for nothing,” he concludes.

Fortgang is from New Rochelle, N.Y., and plans to major in either history or politics.

His column has received both praise and criticism. One commenter told Fortgang that as a “white male, you are most likely ignorant of the ingrained racism or sexism that lives in society today.”

“You want to play oppression olympics? What about the millions of blacks enslaved in America for 300 years, who then had to deal with segregation and Jim Crow while new immigrants were allowed to assimilate into white culture within one or 2 generations,” another wrote.

One commenter on the College Fix website replied, “From a black guy (although my pic doesn’t show it), good for him. And nicely said.”

Read his entire column here.

(H/T: College Fix)