Thank you for all the info you have given these past weeks (or more). I have really enjoyed reading your blog. I am sure God has a plan for you to use the gifts he has given to you. Will be praying that you follow His leading and that He makes the paths clear.
judi
kidscattle.blogspot.com
I will certainly miss your work, but I can totally relate to the time and excellent mom thing! 
All the best...
How sad! I only realized a few weeks ago you were blogging again. Thanks for helping me with my decision Spunky. You're a good friend to home schoolers.
Wow...that was a pleasant surprise. I wish you all the best and know you will do what is right for you and your family. But I'll still secretly hope that involves at least a little part-time blogging. : )
Something to consider:
http://www.mpdailyfix.com/2006/
0...uency_does.html
God bless, and I've enjoyed reading you again!
btw, I was talking about the "Excellent Bloggers Award" not that you are taking a break when I said "that was a pleasant surprise." : )
Thanks so much. I understand more now and I appreciate the time you took to speak out (blog out?).
God Bless.
He'll faithfully lead.
My warmest regards, Spunky...
Dana, I knew what you meant! And you're a great blogger that deserves all the recognition you're now getting here and elsewhere.
To All...I've enjoyed getting back into the mix for this time and hearing what everyone had to say. My future will likely include blogging in some capacity, but how, when and where are still to be determined as I work through all the issues. My kids have a love/hate relationship with my blogging. They love it when I blog because I'm often too distracted to notice when they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing, but they hate it because I'm often too distracted to do what I'm supposed to be doing. So we'll see what happens in the weeks ahead.
I should also mention that I have an article coming out in the next issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine on the Civil War and what the war was over. That should be out in the next few weeks. This is a topic of personal interest to me and definitely relates to a lot of what is going in certain circles of homeschoolers. (I just can't seem to get away from controversial topics!)
Jim, I enjoyed your blog contributions and our exchange tremendously. Thanks for adding to the conversation.
I've made quite a few new connections that I never expected from this series of blog posts, including the interview with Phyllis Shclafly. So I'm as anxious and wondering as the rest of you what this all means.
But I know that if I continue to write, it'll be harder to know if that's what I'm supposed to do. So this break is a "moment of silence" to see if I should continue chattering on.
Here's an interesting perpective from a homeschool dad and basketball coach who comments on a recent rally held for Huckabee in St. John's Michigan. I read about this rally in the Wall Street Journal, but it was interesting to get an "insiders" perspective. (Warning: If you're a Huck fan, you might not find it as amusing as I did.)
http://ironink.org/index.php?blo...b=1&
disp=single
Great You Tube video!
HI Spunky, I greatly appreciate your "coming out" for this brief season to open my eyes to many things I was unaware of in the political arena. I totally understand the need to take time off, but want you to know you will be greatly missed....and THANK YOU!! I also gave you the Excellent Blog Award...simply because you have been such a blessing to me....God Bless you!
Deanne
As a homeschooling father and an Arkansas State Representative, I cannot believe the vitrolic lies and slander that gets spread in the political arena.
Huckabee has never been anything but extremely supportive of homeschooling in Arkansas and has gone out of his way to protect us from a very very powerful teachers union in this state.
You can believe twisted facts by bitter political rivals (including the interparty rivalries) if you wish. But the fact remains that with the exception of one legislator who was also a homeschooler, the rest of us know what Huckabee did for homeschooling in the state of Arkansas.
Please don't believe bitter political rhetoric. If it were not for Huckabee, we homeschoolers would be in severe shape in this state.
Sincerely,
Mark Martin
Arkansas State Representative
Spunky,
I really admire you and was so excited to find out that you were blogging again. So I am being selfish here when I say: please come back and continue to keep us informed. You are someone I feel I can trust.
I do understand trying to balance homeschooling with the other things you want to do.
Thank you for your comment Mr. Martin,
You said, "Please don't believe bitter political rhetoric. If it were not for Huckabee, we homeschoolers would be in severe shape in this state."
I have not believed the political rhetoric of anyone. I have done my own research and worked through the information available to arrive at my own conclusions.
If you would like to read my posts and discuss the substance of what is written and clear up any misconceptions that is most welcome. However, asserting that I have believed the the "bitter rhetoric" of others is not helpful to the discussion or your own credibility. It is simply not true. The article I recently posted by Jim Holt was secondary support for my own research. I do not know Mr. Holt, nor have I obtained any of my information from him or any of Huckabee's bitter rivals in Arkansas.
If you would like to believe that a Governor who increases regulation, imposes a waiting period, and who pays for testing instead of ending it is "supportive" of homeschooling, who am I to argue? But I do not consider it a postive event. Huckabee could have at least NOT signed the legislation signalling that he at least understood that this is a violation of a parents rights and such restrictions go beyond the jurisdiction of the state. After all, it was Governor Huckabee who opposed school vouchers because of the "control" it would give the state over private faith based schools. But for some reason, when the state funding is given to homeschoolers for tests, there is no protest that this gives the state "control?" What could be more private or faith based than a Christian homeschool? Sorry, that just doesn't make sense to me. Instead of fighting to eliminate testing and by offering to pay for it, Huckabee, by his own admission, imposed further state control. And for this Arkansas homeschoolers applaud him? Governor Huckabee was bold enough not to sign legislation that referred to "acts of God" and yet we see no such boldness and at least going on record objecting to this legislation.
If homeschoolers in Arkansas see that as a positive, again who am I to argue? But that doesn't mean I have to accept it in my presidential candidate or call him a "friend to homeschoolers."
Our nation is built on the free exchange of idea, it's a remarkable and humbling experience when a homeschool mom in Michigan gains the attention of a legislator in another state. Thanks for checking in and offering your thoughts. I welcome your thoughts on my articles but assertions that I chose to believe the "rhetoric" of others without some evidence to support your claim will likely be ignored in the future. Nothing personal, I just don't have the time or inclination to defend baseless assertions. Thanks!
Here's an interesting tidbit for those interested in Arkansas politics and Ron Paul fans,
Ron Paul won a straw poll in Benton County, Arkansas with nearly 37% of the vote. According to this blogger, it is "by far the largest Republican-voting county in the state. In the last primary election, twenty-nine percent of the Republican primary vote state-wide came from this single heavily-Republican county. Tonight, Ron Paul won the Benton County Straw poll with almost 37% of the vote. Mitt Romney was second with 22% and former Republican Governor Mike Huckabee, who is not as popular in the Northwest part of the state as some might think, picked up 21% of the vote. John McCain finished ahead of Rudy Guiliani who had only four votes. 142 votes were cast in an event which was attended by over 200 people."
While it does not indicate any future voting, I thought it was interesting that Ron Paul beat out any of the other candidates including Mike Huckabee in his home state.
http://arkansaswatch.blogspot.co...ld-for-
ron.html
I'm also reading rumors that Ron Paul took at least half the delgates in Louisiana. The other delegates united together (combination of other candidate supporters) just to keep Paul from taking all of them. Louisiana is complicated and official results (hopefully with explanation will be out later) but it's clear that Ron Paul is a favorite to many in the south. How long can the media ignore him and the fact that a lot of people including homeschoolers like him and are very strong in their support?
I'm loving your posts - you have a talent for politics, Spunky. I agree with you on the videos at YouTube. This year we may have the most educated voters ever - all because life is too busy for TV and I would hardly know a thing about the candidates if it weren't for the internet!
Thanks Sprittibee, I never watch televsion and haven't for nearly 20 years. But this You Tube stuff has been fun way to catch the highlights and bloopers of the campaign that I might otherwise miss. Like Clinton falling asleep the other day.
Spunky,
Anybody can twist a situation to appear other than what it actually is by ripping it out of context.
Take for example a very dear friend of mine, Jim Bob Duggar, who is no longer in the state legislature. At the time there was going to be a fuel tax, there were two proposals the first for 7% and a compromise alternative for 3% was proposed. One of them was going to pass. Mr Duggar is opposed to anytax increase, but if he failed to vote for the 3%, then the 7% would be passed. What should he do? He could count, he knew that if the 3% passed, that would strip off enough votes to cause the 7% to fail. But he also knew that if the 3% failed, the 7% would pass with a veto proof majority. What did he do? He voted for the 3%. What would you do? Don't be so sure unless you have been there. Regardless, Mr. Duggar didn't support a tax and infact adamently opposed them. To accuse him of "voting for a tax" is a half truth, which we know is not the truth at all. But you see how things become twisted?
The same situation goes for Mr. Huckabee and all the half truths the uninformed and haters drag out against him. Very often Mr. Huckabee was faced with 75%+ of the legislature being Democrats. The could override his veto at will, and almost always did with few exception. And when they failed to override one of his vetos, the made him pay dearly by either passing an even more aggressive version of the bill after making back room deals to fund pork projects for the few Democrat dissenters, or worse. They would viciously kill pro-life legislation the Governor was pushing as "payback" for the veto. Politics is not as cut and dried as we would like it to be. Hard decisions have to be made.
I suppose that you could counter that a politician should vote against the tax, even though it means an even higher tax would be the result. I suppose that you could say that a governor should veto a bill knowing that it will be overridden and result in a partisan backlash that kills pro-life legislation and perhaps costs countless babies lives for NOTHING. You could advocate those things. But I won't.
A person can make value judgments about people and situations that they only have the slightest of detail. And they make judgements that are counter to the majority of those on the battlelines like Jerry Cox. You can do that. But I won't. I've been there. I KNOW where Mike Huckabee stands. He is absolutely a defender of homeschooling.
Mr. Martin, The Arkansas Constitution provides for men and women of Arkansas to pursue their own happiness. Article 2 says,
“Freedom and independence. All men are created equally free and independent, and have certain inherent and inalienable rights; amongst which are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty; of acquiring, possessing and protecting property, and reputation; and of pursuing their own happiness. To secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. ”
I understand what you're saying regarding Mr. Duggar, but equating compromises over the differences in a fuel tax to a compromise of the freedom of parents to pursue their own happiness and restricting their freedom doesn't cut it for me. A Governor's job is to defend his state's Constitution.
By Huckabee's own admission he only used the veto a few times. In a 2006 interview he said,
"I've only vetoed a few pieces of legislation in 10 years, most of which were because of they were unconstitutional and I had a clear reason to withhold them."
His own reason for employing the veto is interesting. Clearly there were times he was willing to risk a political backlash to stand on Constitutional principles and in the legislation referring to "acts of God" theological reasons as well. However, in this case given that the parents' rights were clearly being violated Huckabee compromised instead. It wasn't just their state constitutional rights and freedom but, according to HSLDA, so were their 14th Amendment rights.
"Arkansas is now one of only 12 states to impose a deadline for beginning home schooling or requiring parents to provide advance notice to public school officials of their decision to do so. Because of this restriction, parents who encounter intolerable conditions at the public school, such as imminent danger to the safety or welfare of their child, will have to wait at least 14 days before withdrawing the child to begin home schooling or else face truancy charges for unexcused absences during the 14-day waiting period. No such restriction exists for parents who decide to immediately remove their children to attend a private or parochial school in Arkansas. This raises serious issues regarding the right of parents to direct the education of their children and equal protection of the law as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution."
If Huckabee lacked the political will to veto this legislation on Constitutional grounds as he said he did with other bills or the leadership ability to convince the Democrats in the legislator that this was a violation of the citizens' Constitutional rights, he did have at least one other option available. He could have let the bill go without his signature signaling that he recognized this fact and that these added restrictions violated their fundamental rights and exceeded the jurisdiction of the state. The Arkansas Constitution says in Article 6,
"If any bill shall not be returned by the Governor within five days, Sundays excepted, after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law in like manner as if he had signed it; unless the General Assembly, by their adjournment, prevent its return; in which case it shall become a law, "
The bill would have become law in five days and Huckabee would have been on record standing up for the Constitution. So there was a third option available which he used in a 2004 tax bill, yet he didn't use it regarding the fundamental rights and freedoms of Arkansas homeschooling parents. We don't even see that "token" opposition and Huckabee acting principle. That's what a "defender" of homeschooling does. What good is a Governor who says he believes in a parents rights but then signs legislation violating those rights without at least some sort of stand against the state's imposition.
Again, he was strongly against vouchers because of the control it gives the state, but yet when it comes to parents in homeschools he compromises? This just doens't make sense? As a candidate, Huckabee, is asking people to make a value judgment and elect him President based on a "faith that defines Him." He said his faith wouldn't let him pass vouchers, but yet it let's him pass this legislation against homeschoolers? This is especially troubling, when one considers that it was ONLY homeschoolers that had the waiting period. Parents who opted for a private school did not have this restriction placed upon them.
Mr. Martin,
Governor Huckabee is asking for our vote. An examination of Huckabee's record on key issues is part of determining if he is an acceptable candidate.
I am sure Huckabee would like us to just take the word of Jerry Cox and ignore the solid evidence that refutes his homeschool record. But some of us are not that easily swayed. If Arkansas homeschoolers think it's acceptable to have a leader that compromises their contitutional rights and imposes restrictions upon them, that's fine by me. But when this leader then moves onto the national stage it's a whole new ball game. And here in Michigahn we like our homeschool freedoms and don't want a President who compromises them just because democrats threaten to impose legislation. No thanks! That may be how Arkansas politics works, but we northerners are a bit stubborn and we like to fight for our rights and want our leaders who do so as well.
We don't applaud when our Governor offers to pay for a test that they shouldn't even require homeschoolers to take. We don't applaud when a Governor requires parents to take the test or face truancy charges. We don't applaud when the state imposes parents to wait to take THEIR children our of state schools. We don't applaud and we don't elect them to higher office.
Huckabee's record speaks louder than Jerry Cox and the others. The only spin is coming from the video that promotes his record as positive and ignores the facts that tell us the truth, not just about his homeschool record but an education agenda that advances federal and international control in education.
Mr. Martin and others following our conversation, I bumped it up to its own post so that others can learn and participate.
Here's the link
http://spunkyhomeschool.blogspot...s-
huckabee.html
The YouTube video you posted reminds me of how people twist the truth to make it appear different than it really is. I must say that this blog proves my point very well. Mr. Martin was right on with his comments, and all of the slander you have thrown at Huckabee is ridiculous.
I can only hope that people will eventually come around to see what a big mistake they've made. It may take four or eight years of Obama in the White House to convince people, but Huckabee was our only hope in this race.
Paul Weyrich (a founder of the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority, and the Council for National Policy) is a former Romney supporter who, too late, has seen the truth. Here is a quote from the WORLD Magazine article "Divided We Stand":
"In a quiet, brief, but passionate speech, Weyrich essentially confessed that he and the other leaders should have backed Huckabee, a candidate who shared their values more fully than any other candidate in a generation. He agreed with Farris that many conservative leaders had blown it. by chasing other candidates with greater visibility, they failed to see what many of their supporters in the trenches say clearly: Huckabee was their guy."
Looking at all of our overall freedoms and values, Huckabee was clearly the best candidate. When we get so narrow minded as to only look at one issue, we are in for trouble.
Looking at our overall freedoms and values, Huckabee was clearly the best candidate FOR YOU but that doesn't mean he was the best candidate for me. That's what this blog series was about. In a free country examining the record of a leader is not slander it is prudent and necessary.
Teens4Hucakbee if you would like to provide a substantive rebuttal to the issues I've raised that is welcome, but just as I've repeatedly said to
readers who have left comments, throwing around an accusation of slander is not helpful to the discussion nor does it represent you very well.
If Weyrich feels that he has made a mistake in not backing Huckabee that's great. But he is one man with one opinion. I am one mom with one opinion. Those that would like to base their opinion on Weyrich are free to do so, and those that base their opinion on what I think are free to do so. But for Weyrich to say that other leaders SHOUlD have backed Huckabee undermines the very premise of freedom in this country. No one is compelled to back anyone.
You have also drawn an erroneously conclusion from my posts. I am not so "narrow minded" as to only look at one issue in order to make my decision. But this is a largely a ONE issue blog so it makes sense that I would focus on that aspect here. But to move from that fact to the conclusion that I determined my vote based on this one issue is flawed reasoning. The fact of the matter, is that you don't know exactly how I determined my vote. You only know part of the reason I rejected Huckabee.
That said, people are free to make their choice based on ONE issue. That doesn't mean "we are in trouble," far from it. There are many people who decide their candidate simply on the "life" issue. Are they wrong? Not in a free country they're not. Only in a country that believes that people must vote on some predetermined standard are they wrong. In America, we have no such standard and they are not wrong to be one issue voters if that is what they would like to do.
I appreciate your perspective and thank you for sharing it with me.
Blessings
P.S. As far as Mr. Martin goes, he was not able to defend his remarks accusing me of slander. He backed away from them and moved to the fact that Huckabee was basically a "one issue" Governor regarding abortion and legislators who opposed Huckabee used the fact that he was pro-life to their advantage by threatening to change the abortion laws if they didn't do what they wanted. Read Mr. Martin's comments in the next post and you understand it a bit better. Would you like to assert that Huckabee's "one issue" was too narrow and we're headed for trouble because of it???
Update on Weyrich,
It seems he can't really make up his mind about all of this. First he was for Romney for Prez, then he dramatically switches to Huckabee and signs the protest ad against Mitt for Veep, now he backs away from that and says that he'll take it all private. It seems as though the man isn't sure what to think about it all. Personally, I'm not sure that his endorsement/switch is worth a whole lot right now.
http://www.theamericanmind.com/2...om-no-mitt-ads/
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