It’s been awhile, but I did want to bring back the five items of interest post for this evening. A few noteworthy things to bring up.
1. The Federal Government reach into education may not in the long run limited to public schools (aka Race to the Top), but Homeschooling United points out that the Feds are moving closer to regulating homeschoolers as well. They point out that the Home School Legal Defense Association is calling for opposition for an “big-government” education bill in the U.S. Senate – the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. They don’t see any direct threat to home eduacation, but note that the Federal intrusion is unwelcome:
HSLDA’s federal relations staff have read this 868-page bill, and we believe that while it does not directly impact homeschool freedom, the bill will 1) increase the federal role in education at the expense of state, local, and parental control, and 2) will greatly increase the pressure on states to align their curriculum and standards, resulting in de facto national education standards.
A vote will be taken on this bill in the Senate Education Committee, HSLDA lists all of the members one of whom is Iowa’s Senator Tom Harkin, please melt his phone lines at (202) 224-3254.
2. Iowa House District 30 Race, Caffeinated Thoughts reported that conservative activist Jim Carney was jumping into the race. He said one of the people who encouraged him to run was State Representative Kim Pearson (R-Pleasant Hill) who lives in the district. Carney thought it was an indication that she wasn’t planning on running. Pearson told me last night at the Iowa GOP Reagan Dinner that she is in fact undecided, but did reach out to several people to run if she decided not to. Apparently Carney jumped the gun. Pearson said that primary races are healthy for the process so she doesn’t seem concerned with his decision to run before she made her decision, but wanted to be clear she wasn’t recruiting a primary challenger for herself. Liberal blogger, John Deeth, opines why this particular match-up doesn’t make sense.
3. Iowa beats Michigan three years in a row. The Hawkeyes beat the 15th ranked Wolverines 24-16. Iowa’s defense really stepped up for most of the game. I will say the end zone call negating a Michigan touchdown was extremely iffy. I think he had it. Some of my UM fans who are friends may say that cost them the game. Just remember the previous three quarters and that the best they could have done was tie Iowa IF they made a two-point conversion if the TD had counted. So stop whining. Good recovery game for the Hawkeyes after the loss up in Minnesota. They move to 6-3 and are now bowl eligible.
4. Google Chromebooks – I’m trying one out after a friend lent me one of his. Color me impressed. I used it to liveblog last night and it worked perfectly. It’s definitely a paradigm shift, but one I think I’m ready to make. It’s fast, it doesn’t run hot mainly because you don’t have a ton of app processes running at the same time, and its battery lasts 8-10 hours. The only thing I don’t like about it is the mouse pad, but I have a wireless mouse that has just worked fine with it. I haven’t had a chance to try to use the webcam and microphone to see how that works, but those are features I rarely use. I think Google is going to give Apple a run for its money in future years with this product and the Android OS for smart phones.
5. Israeli President says that the clock is ticking on Iran, former Senator Santorum noted last night that big news will come out next week from the IAEA’s report on Iran’s nuclear capabilities. With Israeli Shimon Peres saying that makes me think that Israel is exteremly close to pulling the trigger on military action. If they do how will the United States respond?