James Dobson & Arnold Schwarzenegger Outraged!

James Dobson, the ultra-right Christian poohbah who heads up the ultra-right Christian "Focus on the Family" organization is outraged.

Let's back up a bit. For some time, now, Dobson has been calling for Christian parents in California to pull their children from California's pagan public schools. "School 'em at home so they learn to love Jesus and count to ten at the same time," said Dobson. (Well, he didn't actually say that...)

In fact, though, Dobson wanted to bring California's public schools down! Get rid of 'em. Knock the system to hell! School your children at home!

Oops. A California appeals court has ruled that the state's education code says "parents must enroll their children in a public or private school. If they're being home schooled, they must be taught by a credentialed teacher or face possible fines or criminal charges."

Oops, again. Home-schoolers in California have been merrily disobeying the law because it hasn't been enforced. So, who needs teachers who know what they're doing? Any old parent can school their children? Right?

Wrong.

That's why Poohbah Dobson is "outraged." It's just heartbreaking that some 166,000 of California's home-schoolers may have to trot back into a regular classroom and learn how to get along with other kids and teachers and administrators, and how to discipline themselves to be on time and to actually follow a course outline and do what the teacher says.

Dobson thinks "The court is guilty of an imperious assault on the rights of parents." Wow, he is really pissed. "How dare these judges have the audacity to label tens of thousands of parents criminals -- the equivalent to drug dealers or pickpockets -- because they want to raise and educate their children according to their deeply held values."

Let's think about this a minute. For one thing, I'm not sure if I'd put drug dealers and pickpockets in the same category. But we'll not nitpick. Did the court really put parents in that category? No, the court followed California law. The parents put themselves in that category because they broke the law!

So, if the parents are breaking California law, then they must be some kind of criminals. We kinda have a rule, here in this country, that you can't break any old law you want to just 'cause you don't like it.

And would Dobson say what he did if parents wanted to teach their children Nazi values? Or Islamist fascist values? Or communist values? Should not those parents have the same right to home school their children according to Dobson's argument?

Isn't it interesting that this ultra-right Christian poohbah, who claims to walk the high road, is actually fighting for certain Christians to able to break the law?

And why would this ultra-right Christian poohbah, who claims to be so concerned about the "family," want to have unqualified, uncredentialed people teaching children?

You know the reason as well as I do. It matters not if the children of California learn anything so long as they learn the ultra-right Christian way of life. Dobson and his Focus on the Family doesn't really care about these children except that they grow up to be little "focussers" themselves. Dobson's not about education, but about indoctrination!

And he's nasty; he's not above threats: "This is an all-out assault on the family, and it must be met with a concerted effort to defend parents and their children. We will team with key allies and use every means at our disposal to make sure that not just every Californian, but every American, is aware of this miscarriage of justice. We will encourage them, by the hundreds of thousands, to make their voices heard on this matter."

Why is he so upset? Millions of people go through our public schools, and while some public schools need some help, most of these folks do all right (unless their parents are whacked-out ultra-right Christians who keep telling them that what they're learning isn't true).

Candi Cushman [Candi?], an "education analyst" for Focus OTF Action, inadvertently, perhaps, tells the world the truth - why Dobson and his ilk are so "outraged."

"This takes away recourse from thousands of parents in California who want to escape the government-enforced indoctrination in public schools. The Legislature recently passed a law that basically ensures that students get a one-sided, positive portrayal of homosexuality and same-sex 'marriage.'"

There you have it. It's all about homosexuals and gay marriage. That's the real basis of their outrage.

The trouble is that these ultra-right Christian poohbahs and their helpers lie. The law that Ms. Candi is talking about merely states that gay people should not be discriminated against. Now, is that so hard for people who claim to follow Jesus?

Hard to believe, isn't it?

Oh, almost forgot. Gov Arnie is also "outraged."

Why don't these outraged folks try to have the law changed instead of insisting that they have the right to break it?

[The following is a caption that appeared under a photo illustrating an AOL article dealing with this issue:

"Ellen Cate 7, solves an arithamatic problem... Ellen is home schooled by her mother." (My emphasis).

Methinks whoever wrote that caption was home schooled, too. Probably by a parent who is a mathamitics scholar.]