Force kids to take more math?

Just returned from hearing Mr. Coroon’s gubernatorial campaign pitch for requiring two more credits of math and science for Utah high school graduation. This aimed as response to claims a thousand math/science related jobs lie unfilled for lack of qualified applicants. Trouble is we’re already requiring seniors who hate math and are not good at it to take algebra, trig, or calculus classes 99% of them will never use again in their lives.

If we need better or more math classes to prepare kids who are so oriented, then let’s provide them. But no more just adding required-class burdens to pretend we’ve fixed a problem. That is already not working and it will only do more damage to push math-challenged kids into more math classes. Leave them the two hours for use in music, literature, mechanics ... something they have interest in and aptitude for.

The Great Millennial Time

THE GREAT MILLENNIAL TIME

Election time’s come with the snow
Elephants rage and donkeys fret.
The former group proclaims reform
of health care laws, taxes and debt.

But they’ve been just as profligate.
Creating ills they now bewail.
Both elephants and donkeys quake
lest “throw the rascals out” prevail.

The econ’s stuck, stock market’s down,
radical gays want marriage banns;
our border South’s awash in blood
and myriads live employment sans.

We drift afar from virtues prized
by founders who laid out the plan;
the god in whom they put their trust’s
become a stranger in the land.

But those with vision still can see
that prophecies are being fulfilled;
That troubles, earthquakes, wars, disease
are harbingers that god has willed –

preceding when he comes again
to brush away the dross and grime
to set aright the affairs of men
and bring the great millennial time.

We take these precious names

LEAVES OF LIVES

We take these precious names
as leaves of lives, faded and worn,
ethereal as the beams of morning sun
yet representing beings known and loved.

Having weight and taking space
in unseen realms we know not of,
and yet we do know Father’s grace
extends to them in special place.

That they might with us share one day
the light and truth the Father gives,
perfected by His son’s own life ,
who died yet still, exalted lives.

Is grandpa here or can he come her still?

GRANDPA'S CABIN

(A Weber Winter Day)

Hopeful, we labor on through knee deep snow.
Some steps the crust holds firm, other sink in
to leave us puffing down the drift filled road.
Tin roof awakens tales of long ago.

The family camped in tents, the cabin rose.
River bank, bridge, and grove were all his too.
He pondered here the tree-filled site he chose.
His soul found peace, eyes rested by the view.

Anxious, I light, relight the fire...no flame.
The wood we brought too green, the woodpile wet.
Freezing, must we retreat the way we came?
With bark and bits at last a fire is set.

O glorious, sylvan, sun-splashed afternoon!
E'en birds keep silence here, or else have flown.
High window seat - whiteness below in tune.
A space, a time, a peace not elsewhere known!

The river rippling sends the only sound.
Silence awakens awe of God's display.
Waters, escaping bars of ice and snow,
on ceiling cast a shimmer through the day.

Is Grandpa here, or can he come here still?
To see his children's children here at play?
To see God's gifts bestowed by his good will,
or share the shimm'ring sunlight's bright display?

Social Security rule favors the rich over the working man

If you claim SS retirement benefits at the earliest age, but continue to work, you have a strict limit on what you can earn before you begin to owe one of every two dollars reimbursement to SS at the end of the year. However, if you live on investment income – even triple digit income – you need not reimburse SS at all.

Given the current crisis about SS funding, this loophole should be the first closed. Incredible that Congress set this up to penalize the person who has to continue working and reward the rich who can live on investments without personal labor.

Plato’s philosopher king idea has bad company.

Many men of their own reasoning have concluded with Plato that that men cannot govern themselves wisely. Unfortunately many of these such as Hitler, Ghengis Kahn, Ceasar, Napleon, Rousseau, Marx have determined that special men have talents to govern and should be in charge, e.g. Plato’s philosopher king, Hitler’s Ubermensch. History teaches that righteousness and obedience to \the Lord lead to prosperity with freedom; that man-designed utopias inevitably fail. Put succinctly by Book of Mormon prophets: Obey God and prosper in the land. Disobey and be cut off from his presence – bringing despair and desolation. America began with men of vision who put their trust in God, but is now steadily losing its way by trusting in the widsom of men – in particular Obama who has announced to the world that America is not a Christian nation.

Or interest in this regard is The Overton Window, a NY Times Best Seller by Glenn Beck. It’s a fun, fast-moving tale of political intrigue, which examines the ideas of Thomas Payne, Jefferson, Adams, Franklin and Plato, Marx, and others on how to solve man’s self-governance problems.