Homeschooled Kids and Stapled Dogs

Some wonderful news: My li'l brother Zach is getting out of his Orwellian junior high so he can be home-schooled! Now this used to be something done only by hippies and religious nutbars but with the state of North American public schools today, who can argue that home-schooling isn't possibly our last hope for the future? Kids need to learn and grow, and you can't do that in a school system full of absentee teachers (yes, you read that right - lots of teachers just wander in and out of their classrooms as the spirit takes them), special-ed programs that are really just daycare services, and a curriculum that doesn't even include history most of the time. Home-based learning could be the wave of the future. Maybe every home will have a Phonics Monkey.

Now, some definitely-not-wonderful news: My good friend Alan has lost someone very special to him - his girlfriend - simply because she attends a church that doesn't approve of Mormons. The church leadership wants her to go back to her abusive husband, and keeps a cultishly close eye on her at all times. The church leaders told her, point-blank, that Mormonism is "of Satan", and she is endangering her soul by consorting with one. They ordered her never to speak to him again. She was also expected to apologize to her entire congregation for dating him in the first place. This woman is an intelligent mother of four, but the church has convinced her that she is their child and must bend to any demand they make of her. And they think Mormonism is of Satan? Give me a break. Satanic Panic has ripped apart yet another promising and beautiful relationship that could have lasted a lifetime for two very deserving people.

Now for some news that is both good and bad: My grandparents took their newly-adopted dog, Shadow, to the vet for the first time today. Shadow was a neighborhood tramp whose owners completely ignored her; my grandparents have been feeding and sheltering her for years (you could say she adopted them). This past Christmas, my mother phoned up Shadow's owner and convinced them that Shadow was better off in a warm, safe home with owners who actually, um, notice that she's alive.
Anyway, it turns out that Shadow was spayed years ago - but her owners didn't bother to take her back to the vet to have her staples removed! Poor Shadow had to lie there and suffer having three-year-old metal staples taken out of her belly.
The bad news is that there are people lazy and cruel enough to do this to a "family pet". The good news is that there are people like my grandparents who, in their 70s, are happy and willing to take a neglected dog like Shadow into their home and make her a part of their lives. She is very much loved and extremely happy now.