freedom

Do Non-Kooks Fret About Their Cellphones Being Tracked?

Companies, governments, individuals, angels, God, Satan -- who am I missing?

I saw this breaking on Drudge earlier, but he’s still linking back to his home page:

Makers of surveillance systems are offering governments across the world the ability to track the movements of almost anybody who carries a cellphone, whether they are blocks away or on another continent.

The technology works by exploiting an essential fact of all cellular networks: They must keep detailed, up-to-the-minute records on the locations of their customers to deliver calls and other services to them. Surveillance systems are secretly collecting these records to map people’s travels over days, weeks or longer, according to company marketing documents and experts in surveillance technology.

For sale: Systems that can secretly track where cellphone users go around the globe

And just so you know, your cell provider has been able to do this from day one. Read it all

Asylum for Homeschoolers

We have customers who finally had to move from Germany to another European country for the same reason the Romeikes moved to the US:

Uwe and Hannelore Romeike may have been considered outside the norms of civil society in their native Germany, but not in Morristown, Tennessee, where they and their five children now live. The Romeikes are homeschoolers who are determined to provide the education for their children, ranging in age from two to twelve. In Morristown, that is about as controversial as bass fishing, but in Germany it is a crime.

The Romeike's tale is big news today, with both TIME Magazine and The New York Times devoting major stories to their plight, and to the fact that a federal immigration judge in Memphis granted them asylum — and homeschooling is the reason.

As Campbell Robertson reports in today’s edition of The New York Times, the Romeike’s determination to homeschool their children ran into direct collision with German laws banning the practice: “Among European countries, Germany is nearly alone in requiring, and enforcing, attendance of children at an officially recognized school. The school can be private or religious, but it must be a school. Exceptions can be made for health reasons but not for principled objections.”

Source: Where Homeschooling is Outlawed — Asylum?

I am thankful for the freedom we have in the United States (yet) to educate our children according to the dictates of our conscience.

Sweden vs Homeschoolers?

Here’s a story I’ve been sitting on since December 22. I wonder what Christmas was like for the Johansson’s…and what’s happening with Dominic by now. I just did several Google searches and turned up nothing new.

An appeals-level court in Sweden has affirmed the “kidnapping” of a 7-year-old boy who was snatched by police from a jetliner as it prepared to take his family to their new home in India.

The days-old decision from the Administrative Court of Stockholm affirms the state custody of Dominic Johansson, who was taken by uniformed police officers on the orders of social workers even though there was no allegation of any crime on the part of the family, nor was there any warrant, according to the Home School Legal Defense Association.

The group, the premiere homeschool advocacy association in the world today, has been alarmed by the case that developed apparently because school and social services officials in Sweden objected to the homeschool program for the child.

[…]

“HSLDA is gravely concerned about this case as it represents what can happen to other families who might wish to homeschool their children,” Donnelly said. “Furthermore, in response to inquiries from HSLDA, Swedish authorities have cited the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child to explain and defend their actions.

[…]

In a posting at the Swedish newspaper Varlen Idag, Mats Tunehag, president of the Swedish Evangelical Alliance, worried about the injury being inflicted on the family.

“Annie is from a Christian family in India, and they had planned for some time to move there to live, work and to homeschool Dominic. Due to the harassment from Swedish authorities the trip was delayed. But finally in June this year they were on their way, sitting on the plane bound for India. Then the police came rushing into the plane – as if they were to apprehend dangerous terrorists – and snatched Dominic, saying he is to be taken into care. Can anyone imagine?” Tunehag wrote.

So…what happens here in the United States if the USA becomes a signatory of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child?

Source: Court endorses ‘kidnapping’ of 7-year-old

Year-Old Food

It’s been almost a year ago since I reported about the Stowers family in Ohio. Back then I wondered, “What’s the rest of the story, I wonder.” I still do.

Anyway, yesterday I came across this two-month-old update:A Family Finally Gets Their Food Back.

A family in northeast Ohio is rejoicing today after a judge has ordered the government to return their food to their home. It was almost a year ago, in December of 2008, that the Ohio Department of Agriculture and the Lorain County General Health District raided the Stowers home in Lagrange, Ohio. Officers, dressed in S.W.A.T gear, swarmed their small family farm searching for food they believed was being sold unlawfully.

I have been reporting and following this story since April of this year. Today is a small victory for the Stowers family and for Ohioans individual rights to eat food they feel is healthy and all-natural. The Stowers family operates a private food co-op supplying food to their neighbors that is near impossible to find at local grocers.

Did you now about the Food Modernization Act?

Make It Rocky Road

No, not ice cream.

The not-so-distant future here in the United States, as forecast by a Chuck Baldwin (whoever he is):

It is no hyperbole to say that the U.S. federal government has been on a “Ban God” bandwagon for the past 50 years. Whether it kicks prayer and Bible reading out of school, bars military chaplains from praying in Jesus’ name, burns Bibles in Iraq, removes state supreme court chief justices from their positions for posting the Ten Commandments, or threatens high school principals with jail for asking the blessing, the federal government has invoked the judgment of Heaven upon our country as surely as did Old Testament Israel.

Although the comfortable, sports-crazed, TV addicts probably aren’t paying attention, this country is on the verge of an implosion like you cannot believe. For anyone who cares to notice, the signs are everywhere.

First of all, Israel and Iran are on the verge of war. And right now, I’m not concentrating on the “why” or “who’s right or wrong” of the equation. I’m simply telling you, war between Israel and Iran could break out at any time. And when it does, the chances that it will not become nuclear and not become global are miniscule. Yes, I am saying it: the prospects for nuclear war have never been greater. […]

Secondly, America is on the verge of total financial collapse. By the end of this year, America’s budget deficit will stand at around $2 trillion. The debt gap is many trillions more than that. But the nail in the coffin for America’s fiscal health will be the decision by China to dump the U.S. dollar. Ladies and gentlemen, this will be the death knell for our financial stability and a painful lesson in sowing and reaping.

[…]

Third, the paranoia regarding the Swine Flu being demonstrated by both government and media spokesmen begs a giant push for some type of “government solution.”

[…]

Exactly how and when all of the above will actually materialize is yet to be seen. There is no doubt in my mind, however, that within the next few months, the world that we know today is going to vanish. And most Americans are totally unprepared for what’s coming.

If you are able to get out of debt, do it. If you need to scale down your lifestyle in order to be better prepared for difficult days, do it. If you don’t have guns and ammo, buy them.

Somehow, I don’t think he has FAFA solely in mind with that last sentence. If I’m right, I disagree with him. Vigorously. Biblically, in my view. (For the record, I do not agree 100% with Chuck Badlwin’s rhetoric and so forth. Not even close. I reference this article to expand your world view a bit — perhaps — but certainly not to endorse Mr. Baldwin or his theology.)

Anyway, you can read the full article here: It Is Going To Be A Rocky Road — it might do you some good.

Oh, you’re wondering what FAFA is, I suppose.

Firearm-Assisted Food Acquisition — another acronym of my very own arrangement and a PC-friendly way of saying hunting — Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh!! 🙄

Oh, having disclaimed Mr. Baldwin, allow me to claim Jesus and His Word:

“In the last days,
perilous times
shall come.”
2 Timothy 3:1
Above all, love God!