Home Schooling

Ok, normally, if ever do I get offended at someone else’s approach to writing about things. But, for the first time, I found Michelle Malkin’s reaction to the View’s, Joy Behar’s supposed critical comments regarding home schooling as critical and offensive.

Offensive? I found Michelle Malkin’s use of profanity in reaction to the comments more offensive.

I watched the video. I didn’t find anything offensive other than a person expressing an uninformed opinion.

Is it anything to get mad about? No, in fact most home-schoolers will pay no attention to the comment as they are to busy being productive with their education and probably not having the time to watch a TV show like the view. In fact, I will take a risk and assert that Michelle Malkin took the comments out of context and created a straw man argument based on what she heard.

And people wonder why I have become a moderate? I think there are better things to write about…don’t you?

Addendum:

Looking at what I wrote I guess moderate was a bad choice of words….I am a Bible believing Christian. I am also a home school advocate. After 10 years of public school teaching I left because of the inhuman approaches that they were taking with Kids who had physical disorders. Cutting to the chase…my problem with Malkin’s response is that it was profane and didn’t attack the core issue. One of the reasons I have pulled away from the conservative "christian" movement is that it has become as ugly as the liberal side in using yellow journalism as a tool to make their points. And no it would not be okay if someone trashed another’s belief system (right or wrong).

Here is the thing that got to me…as Joy was getting on her rant about homeschoolers and we didn’t see Michelle Malkin deal with this either is that Elizabeth Hasselbeck stepped up to the plate and defended homeschoolers…and see the whole thing wasn’t about education..or even home schooling…it was about how the obama’s are going to school their kids…When I read Malkin’s article and link to the video…I had the impression it was going to be a major salvo against home schooling….I was disappointed….it wasn’t even much of an attack. I was rather disappointed….I like writing letters to folks who attack causes I support…..Thing is..if I am going to deal with a supposed boulder…then let’s make it a boulder…not a pebble….I was called demented by my supervisor as a teacher that it might be a better deal if we let a kid be educated at home especially if they aren’t learning anything at school.. and that if a kid came into my classroom I had a right to expect the parent to give a hoot about how their kid acted…….

Revised: 11/25/08

What do you do if you need to apply for Social Security Disability?

I have decided to expand a little bit and deal with somethings that I have become quite knowledgeable about…..

The question again:

What do you do if you need to apply for Social Security Disability?

Basically you have one of three options:

1)Hire an advocacy firm: If you do your research you can find a company who will act as an advocate for you. One such company is Allsup . I will save space trying to sell them. You can read there web site and you can also read here to get a better idea about the company also.

2) Hire a Lawyer who specializes in disability claims: This is the most expensive route in that they will require you to give up a percentage of your back disability earnings for a period of time. In certain cases though it may be necessary to hire someone to do this. Examples for this would be in issues where the injury or disability is such that a person may recover and return to work and the determination board determines that rehabilitation is possible. If you feel like this is wrong a lawyer may be able to help you make your case.

3)Do it yourself: This is the least expensive route. It does require you to do a lot of work in gathering documentation and filling out A LOT of paperwork (would you expect anything different from the goverment?) but in the end if you can meet some basic elements in your case then obtaining disability should be fairly easy.

The elements that you need to meet in order to qualify for disability are fairly narrow but are necessary to make your case. They are:

1) Having a known medical condition: You must be specific in what you are dealing with. You must be honest, specific and direct. Saying that you have a bad back is to general, but saying that your diagnosis is degenerative disk disease is more specific. Be sure to use the full diagnosis that your Dr. gives you rather than trying to make up your own name.

2) Demonstrating that you are unable to work: This comes from two issues you have to have: First being that you show a continued pattern over a period of time that you have been unable to hold a job down because of your condition. Second, your Doctor needs to verify that you, as a result of your condition are unable to work.

That being said, what I have said is not to be construed as legal advice but is strictly my opinion. I always reccomend as I did to ask questions and do your own research.

Edited: 11/24/08