Cinema Thursday: The Miseducation of America with Charlotte Iserbyt

Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt (pronounced Izzer-bee), former Senior Policy Adviser in the US Department of Education during the Reagan administration, was interviewed in May of 2011 about the miseducation of America.  It’s not so much an interview as it is her telling the story of what has gone on in education.  Please listen with both ears and your mind, you’ll need them.  There is so much information in this video.  I really felt that my brain drowned in information (that’s a good thing).

Charlotte Iserbyt’s website is deliberatedumbingdown.com.

Charlotte Iserbyt: The Miseducation of America Part 1-Full

Read the Transcript: America’s Road to Ruin

Read more of Iserbyt & others’ work here.

Charlotte has also written the book The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America which is online for free.   It is a chronological history of the past 100+ years of education reform.  It contains a lot of research including government plans and policy documents from her time in the Department of Education.

Watch Now: Farmer Wins Against Monsanto!

Mercola.com is offering a free viewing of the documentary David versus Monsanto, about one farmer who fought Monsanto and won.

The video is only available until November 10th, so watch it quickly!

Hey, Remember Me?

Hey there everybody!  I have not posted in a very long time.  There are plenty of reasons why, but let’s just say I have a Life and it has been demanding Attention.

A nearly spent bee balm blossom.

As for new developments around here, Chunky has gone to freezer camp.  It was a hard decision, but it was the right one.  The girls are bald from all the “attention”.  No, I didn’t do it myself, an experienced friend took him away in a box and brought him back in a bag.  I haven’t seen it yet, since I’m not sure how I’d handle it, but curiosity may override my squeamishness.

The little chickens turned 3 months old on the 18th.  The original crew turns a year old on the 27th and they’ll have been here a year on the 29th.

The young’uns.

Our garden got started on June 23rd.  I’m looking forward to pole beans, summer squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, basil, and whatever beets the rabbits don’t get.

Our sort-of Back to Eden garden.

I’m not abandoning Madame Agrarian, I just can’t say how frequently I’ll post.  Thanks for hanging in there!

Now Presenting: The Chicks!

All seven chicks hatched by 7:00pm yesterday!  We have one Black Australorp, three Buff Orpingtons, and three mixes.

I’d read that once you hear the chicks peeping in their shells, they’ll hatch within 24 hours.  I went to check and see if I could hear them, and I could!  Out of curiosity, I lifted Honeybun up to see if they’d pipped.  There was a little black chick flopping around under her!

A Buff Orpington chick just before it broke free.

One of the chicks hatched in my hand.  So precious.

On Saturday they moved to their broody coop.  Honeybun is glad to have grass to scratch in.

This photo was staged, but it's still adorable.

  The chicks are dry and fluffy, and the little family is in their new coop.  It’s all good.

This post was linked to the Homestead Barn Hop!

Hatching on Day 20!

We have a chick!  I can hardly wait til it’s dry and fuzzy so I can hold it!

The First Chick

Check back later for updates.

Honeybun is Broody!

I am so excited, my Buff Orpington Honeybun is broody!  As soon as I get a lil broody coop rigged up for her, I will give her some eggs to hatch!

The story:  Yesterday Honeybun was sitting in her nestbox grouchily.  Thought nothing of it.  But then, when I went to close up their coop for the night, she was still there.  She puffed up and growled at me when I touched her.  Well, I took the eggs she was sitting on (and felt very guilty) and picked her up to see if she’d pulled out any feathers.  Yes, she had.  I put her back inside and closed the coop.

Big, scary floofball.

This morning, she had settled in a different nest box.   I petted her a bit but then she got up and ran outside.  I was thinking, Oh no!  I’ve broken her broodiness!  But she was walking around the run all floofed out, and the other chickens (even the boys) were being really polite.  Eventually she went back in and settled down.  Que angry squawking.

Don't mess with a broody hen!

This is the coolest thing ever!

This post was linked to the Homestead Barn Hop!

3 Articles You Should Read

I’ve been meaning to do a post about each one of these articles but decided just to give a link and my take on it.

Taiwan destroys US meat laden with growth-boosting drug

Here’s an idea: instead of Taiwan legalizing ractopamine so the USA will play nice, how about we ban ractopamine too?  Otherwise it just sounds like a kid being pressured to do drugs so that their peers will accept them.

Photo credit: Jiri Hodan

5 great reasons to kick your soda habit

With friends like these, who needs enemies?  Not only will soda inflate your dental bills, it can also give you cancer, fry your brain, and pollute your water!

Farming communities facing crisis over nitrate pollution, study says

Industrial agriculture is showing its Mr. Hyde side.  Nitrates from fertilizers and animal manure are polluting California’s Central Valley water supply and causing massive damage to the residents’ health.  Hopefully farmers will realize how dangerous this is and pursue nontoxic methods.

Articles are from MSNBC

This post was linked to the Homestead Barn Hop!

Cinema Thursday #9: Ammonia Ridden Pink Sludge

If you’ve gone to a news site lately I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “pink slime.” And it’s no wonder!  70% of ground beef in the U.S. contains this pureed, disinfected goop!  Maybe it really is “safe” at least in the sense that it’s been cleaned, but that begs the question: Why does our beef need to be sterilized?!

To the lady in the video below who stated that use of pink slime does not need to be disclosed because “It’s beef.”  The beef has been soaked in ammonia!  Ammonia is the additive!

On the bright side, McDonalds has decided not to use soylent pink anymore.  Because obviously no one would order a supersize McSlime with a large ammonia to go, please.

Read more:

School Children Served Pink Slime for Lunch

McDonald’s Announces End to ‘Pink Slime’ in Burgers

Step Aside Mom–School Can Feed Your Kid Better than You

In North Carolina, a 4-year-old student’s lunch was inspected and deemed unfit.  So, the cafeteria gave her lunch and sent her home with a lunch bill for $1.25.

Photo credit: Yoppy (Flickr)

Because, obviously, cafeteria chicken nuggets are more nutritionally suitable than a turkey and cheese sandwich, a banana, some potato chips, and apple juice.

After the incident, a school manager said: “It sounds like the lunch itself would’ve met all of the standard.”  Duh.  Grain+meat+dairy+fruit sounds pretty USDA satisfactory to me.

Really, the major problem isn’t with the lunch, it’s with the authority structure.  It all boils down to what does the government have authority over?

“A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.  This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.”

-Thomas Jefferson

Government’s job is to keep us safe and free, not to inspect our lunches and tell us what to eat.  And it’s our job to hold them to that.

Read more here:

Backyard Farming – School Lunch Shenanigans

The Blaze – N.C. Food ‘Inspector’ Sends Girl‘s Lunch Home After Determining It’s Not Healthy Enough

Carolina Journal Online – Preschooler’s Homemade Lunch Replaced with Cafeteria “Nuggets”

This post was linked to the Homestead Barn Hop!

I Have Blog Buttons!

Don’t know if you’ve noticed it or not but here they are:

<a href=”https://madameagrarian.wordpress.com/&#8221; target=”_blank”><img src=”https://madameagrarian.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/madameagrarianbutton-1.jpg&#8221; alt=”https://madameagrarian.wordpress.com/&#8221; width=”125″ height=”125″ /></a>

<a href=”https://madameagrarian.wordpress.com/&#8221; target=”_blank”><img src=”https://madameagrarian.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/madameagrarianbutton-2.jpg&#8221; alt=”https://madameagrarian.wordpress.com/&#8221; width=”125″ height=”125″ /></a>

What do you think? I made them myself, using this tutorial. Thanks Amy!  I may make a couple more so that you can pick and choose.  Any ideas?

(As a side note, my web designer brother says that they are banners, technically speaking.  He would know.)