Reminder: InFrequently Asked Questions will be taken down tonight for a full site redesign and software upgrades. IFAQ will be down at approximately 8:30 pm, and remain down until tomorrow morning.

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!!IFAQ will be down tonight for upgrades!!

InFrequently Asked Questions is undergoing a major redesign, and a series of upgrades. Among the improvements will be blogs available to visitors, forums, a nice graphical interface for leaving comments, and a new look. Even separate microsites for many of the more frequently visited topics. Lots of tools for you, the visitor to become a contributor to the site.

Oh, and I’ll be changing my username to my real name.

The changes are far more than cosmetic, and I’ve tweaked and tested for weeks, on a private test site. Once the new site is running, I’ll try even more new things, and I’ll deploy a public test site. A “sandbox”, if you will, where you’ll be able to test the new toys before I add them to the main site.

The new site will remain at the same old address, but it will truly be a whole new era for InFrequently Asked Questions. IFAQ will become much more than a blog, and will be as much your site as it is mine. Throughout March and April, page views increased exponentially each week, and I appreciate the attention. It is my hope that the new, more interactive website will be a reward to the regular visitors, and will build a more active, liberty loving community around the site.

The time of the outage will be tonight, following the softball game I’m coaching, presuming it isn’t canceled due to weather. Probably after 9:00pm, and I plan on staying up most of the night to complete it. It should be ready first thing in the morning.

Thanks so much for your patience and your visitorship. Enjoy the new site.

~ Rick Caldwell (the blogger formerly known as the blewsdawg).

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I’m just learning about this from the Examiner:

WASHINGTON - There’s an empty highchair sitting in the kitchen of the Arlington home of Nancy Hey and Christopher Slitor. It’s their daughter Sabrina’s highchair. But it’s been empty for two years because thieves disguised as Arlington County social workers and judges took her from her parents. She was stolen with no public scrutiny or accountability. Arlington County social workers used unproven allegations of neglect in April 2005 to justify removing then-3-week-old Sabrina from her parent’s home. Her parents were accused - anonymously - of starving Sabrina. And they were deemed unable to care properly for their daughter, even with the frequent help of Nancy Hey’s mother and a full-time nanny. After more than two years of legal wrangling with the county’s Child Protective Services (CPS), Arlington Circuit Court Judge James Almand terminated the couple’s parental rights in June 2007.

But they haven’t done anything wrong:

But nine months earlier, Sabrina’s parents were completely exonerated by Virginia CPS hearing officer George Walton, who noted in his official report that, despite the baby’s worrisome 10-ounce weight loss soon after her birth by Caesarian section, nothing in the her medical record indicated she had ever been in danger. There was also no evidence, Walton added, that Sabrina’s “failure to thrive” resulted from parental neglect.

In fact, the record showed the opposite: Nancy Hey – who suffers from a developmental disorder that makes it difficult for her to recognize non-verbal signals from others – and her husband fully cooperated with medical professionals and CPS workers throughout their ordeal. In any case, Sabrina was at her proper weight when she was taken away by county officials,…

Of course, one imagines the couple’s greatest sin was having the temerity to question the state, and assert their rights:

…two days after her parents told social worker Dana Zemke that they were retaining a lawyer.

Or, could this be why?

Arlington Judge Esther Wiggins Lyles signed the removal order with neither Hey nor Slitor even aware of the proceedings, much less being present to contest the decision. Sabrina went to a politically influential local professional couple with no training as foster parents, despite CPS requirements that foster couples be trained before being entrusted with children.

And this ruling by Judge Almand, as far as I’m concerned, is criminal:

Judge Almand later used the baby’s inappropriate removal to justify making the separation permanent, saying it would be too “traumatic” to return Sabrina to her natural parents.

So she can’t be returned because she was kidnapped in the first f***ing place?! What the hell kind of logic is that? If any private individual kidnapped an infant and held onto her for three years without using the force of government to do so, would they be permitted to keep her, because she’s been there her whole life?

I’ve been trying for days now, but I haven’t been able to determine who the politically connected foster parents are, but it does seem that Sabrina’s visits with her parents have been reduced to every other week for three hours, because the foster parents have moved to North Carolina.

This is abduction. Period. The criminality of it has been obscured by the state’s cloak of legitimacy, which in my view makes it all the worse. Call it anything you want to call it, but this is an abduction, enabled by Judge James F. Almand.

Continue reading " Judge James F. Almand, Who The Hell Do You Think You Are? "

…but Moneyrunner over at The Virginian has characterized my position on government schools this way in a comment thread on one of his blog posts:

You seem to be happy with the way the schools manage the issues of school uniforms as well as scientific questions. If there are people who disagree you invite them to take their children elsewhere at their expense and enroll them in private schools.

It requires great intellectual gymnastics to arrive at a conclusion that I am happy with any aspect of the way government manages schools. It gets even more ridiculous, considering that his comment was a reaction to my comment, which began with this statement:

I’ll answer this the same way I answered Vivian’s question about school uniforms. I believe in the separation of school and state. This way, families are able to decide whether to send their children to schools that teach Intelligent Design, Creationism, Darwinism,or any other theory.

I’ll endure any criticism of my positions. But when a misinterpretation of my thoughts is cut from whole cloth like this, I’m calling bulls***.

So let me erase all doubt about what I think of what to do about government schools. I realize that we’re a long way from what I want, but I would like government out of the business of providing education. I want schools privatized and marketized. I don’t want government schools merely handed over to another monopoly handpicked by government officials. I want them subject to market signals. I want them competing. I would like families to choose the schools their children attend. And, I would let the taxpayers keep the money that is currently taken by force for the purpose of paying for the schools.

It’s that simple for me. I know the politicians, bureaucrats, and unions won’t permit anything like this to happen without a huge fight. But I don’t think there is a way, under the government school monopoly, to resolve the disputes over the way schools are run.

Continue reading " It’s Been A While Since I’ve Skewered Another Blogger… "

Harry Reid redefines the word voluntary.

Continue reading " Check Your Premises, Senator "

Luther Allison was one of the great guitarists that seem to influence a lot of rock and soul acts, but never get much attention. He may have been an influence, along with Buddy Guy, on Jimi Hendrix. At times, he sounded more like a rock guitarist, at other times more like a soul singer. He was part of the Chicago blues scene during the 60’s, learning from the likes of Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf.

Continue reading " Blues n Boogie Weekend - Luther Allison "

I’ve held off on posting about this long enough. What’s happening in Texas with the polygamist sect is pure Bravo Sierra. Let’s begin with what we now know is a lie: the call that initiated the raid.

The caller was not a 16 year old victim of incest and sexual abuse. She was a 33 year old woman with a history of placing bogus reports of abuse, just like this one, against unusual religious sects. She’s a crusader. She has decided that she knows what a legitimate religion is, what a legitimate lifestyle is, and what a legitimate family arrangement is. And she has taken it upon herself to use the government’s force to enforce her view of these things on those who live otherwise.

Then, you have the social worker who took the call and reported it to the police. she’s another crusader. She’s at least an honest crusader, as far as I can tell. She either runs, or works for, an organization set up precisely to help people leave cults like the one that was raided. She was probably eager to believe any salacious report that came across her desk right from the start. This, compounded by the fact that the bogus caller reported details that rang true to the social worker. Reports are that the crusading caller had been talking to another social worker who had escaped this compound for two years. She is a talented crusader.

Next are the government social workers with Child Protective Services. Do they ever get anything right? Ever? Anywhere? CPS does nothing other than tear families apart under the pretext of protecting children. Since the justification for their very existence is protecting children from abuse, it only stands to reason that their definition of “abuse” might be a little… to be generous, let’s call it… aggressive, maybe?

Then we have the police. Any old reason’ll do to put on the armor, load up the assault weapons, and drive the armored personnel carriers, eh? Sounds like fun. Rights and individual liberties are kinda dry subjects compared with an armed raid against a compound. Besides, there are perverts in there, raping kids!

Right?

Now that the bogus report has been exposed, one would believe that the right thing to do might be to return these 416 kids to their families, huh? That isn’t what’s happening, though. Now that they have the kids out of there, it’s time to take DNA samples! It’s time to find somebody who’s been raped! Since the one who called was false, that is.

So, what about you and me? Do we have any responsibility to tell the government that they do not have unlimited authority? After all, what happened here is that they received a report about one rape victim, then rather than rescue the one who has been allegedly raped, they seized all the children from the community where she reported to live. And you don’t see anything wrong with that, because this isn’t a community like the one where you live. You’re starting to sound a little like the crusader we began the story with.

We’ve been hearing reports that the authorities have found underage girls who’ve been raped. Then again, these same authorities told the media a couple of weeks ago that they had identified children who knew the girl who placed the call. Since that girl doesn’t exist, can we safely assume that those reports were false? Why now should we believe anything these authorities tell us?

Continue reading " Texas Blues "

Learned from Vivan that Virginian blogger Bert Berlin of James River Maven is running for the Richmond School Board. Andhe has listed a set of admirable goals. I hate to be a wet blanket, but I fear his good intentions are wasted. The NEA is a six foot five linebacker standing in the way of any efforts to accomplish even one of Bert’s honorable objectives.

For example, Bert’s first objective is to “Restore public trust in the operation of Richmond Public Schools.” So far, so good. The NEA would like the public to have trust in the government schools that are their bread and butter. But the NEA’s support for a goal like this one breaks down here:

We must demand accountability from all our public servants.

Any effort to hold teachers accountable for anything at all will be blocked at all costs. And the person who tries, by god, wants your kids to be stupid.

Bert’s second goal, “Win the confidence of all parents in Richmond that their children can receive a high quality education in Richmond Public Schools”, is likewise subverted by the NEA. No, the NEA is not opposed to high quality schools, and I’m sure the organization would favor winning the confidence of parents. What they do oppose is the tough measures that would accomplish this.

Some teachers suck. The parents know which teachers in their kids’ schools suck. Parents will not have confidence in the schools until the teachers who suck are fired. The NEA will not allow this to happen. Some kids are violent thugs. Concerned parents know who the violent thugs in their kids’ schools are. Parents will have no confidence unless the violent thugs are removed from the schools and shipped to reform schools. The NEA opposes this at every turn. Some schools suck. Parents know when their kids’ schools suck. The administrators of these schools have no incentive to improve, when they will be funded the same even if they suck, and if they’re bad enough will receive even more funding. Parents will have no confidence in schools they cannot actively choose to leave. The NEA thinks this is the worst of all possible proposals.

Bert’s third objective is “Demand excellence from our students, teachers and administrators”. You can demand excellence. You will onlyu get excellence if excellence is incentivised. The NEA believes that better teachers will show up in districts that have higher pay and better benefits. They’re right, but once they get to these districts, they are paid based on seniority, rather than performance. Their payraise will be exactly the same in one year, two years, or five years, whether they are the best or worst teacher in the district. Performance based pay for teachers and administrators is anathema to the NEA.

Bert’s fourth objective is my favorite. “Involve the entire Richmond community”. He goes on to specify involving parents, among others. This is a real sore point, because parental involvement includes things that teachers and administrators don’t want from parents. Criticism. Even constructive criticism is rejected, or occasionally dragged kicking and screaming into implementing only when backed into a corner. Parents who complain are not malcontents. They’re advocates for their kids. Those are your involved parents, but the teachers and administrators don’t want to hear it. The parental involvement they want is volunteers who cut letters out of construction paper for the bulletin boards. this is what the NEA stands for. The NEA is the collective that acts as their enabler. The NEA is the collective that acts as the firewall between teachers and the concerns of truly involved parents.

Good luck, Bert. I really mean that. But if you hope to accomplish any of your stated goals, you need the NEA to be rendered impotent. You’ll need plenty of allies on the school board who will help you tell the NEA to pack sand. I doubt you’ll have it. The only solution I see is separation of school and state.

Continue reading " Good Luck With That, Bert "

Derek doesn’t sing. He just plays the slide guitar like no other. He’s the nephew of Butch Trucks, longtime drummer/percussionist from the Allman Brothers Band. Trucks currently tours and records with ABB, and he has his own band. He also sets aside time to tour with his wife, Susan Tedeschhi. Busy guy. But when your this good, I guess you would be. Speaking of Susan Tedeschi, here she is, helping the band cover the old Derek and the Dominos song “Anyday”. Bobby Whitfield and Eric Clapton shared the lead vocals on the original, and this one is pretty good too.

And, here’s DTB jammin’ with Johnny Winter.

Covering Muddy’s “Good Mornin’ Little School Girl”

Continue reading " Blues n Boogie Weekend - The Derek Trucks Band "

That’s right. It’s the same John Mayer who sings “Your Body Is A Wonderland.” But he put together this power trio with Pino Palladino and Steve Jordan, and started playing blues-rock. Sometimes they sound quite unique, at other times they sound just like Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble. His solo work still has a pop music sort of atmosphere that I can’t warm up to, but the work he does with this band is really good stuff. But, just to show he has real blues chops, he hangs out on stage in this next clip with somebody named Buddy Guy.

You can kinda tell a self taught guitarist from one with lots of training. Those with the training go out of their way to put their technique on display, which is okay. But your self taught guys, like SRV, Hendrix and Mayer, they don’t waste a note. They just fill a lot of space, hit the notes that fit the song, and transition from riff to riff on the fly.

Continue reading " Blues n Boogie Weekend - The John Mayer Trio "

That’s right. It’s the same John Mayer who sings “Your Body Is A Wonderland.” But he put together this power trio with Pino Palladino and Steve Jordan, and started playing blues-rock. Sometimes they sound quite unique, at other times they sound just like Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble. His solo work still has a pop music sort of atmosphere that I can’t warm up to, but the work he does with this band is really good stuff. But, just to show he has real blues chops, he hangs out on stage in this next clip with somebody named Buddy Guy.

You can kinda tell a self taught guitarist from one with lots of training. Those with the training go out of their way to put their technique on display, which is okay. But your self taught guys, like SRV, Hendrix and Mayer, they don’t waste a note. They just fill a lot of space, hit the notes that fit the song, and transition from riff to riff on the fly.

Continue reading " Blues n Boogie Weekend - The John Mayer Trio "

The great and versatile Gatemouth.

Continue reading " Blues n Boogie Weekend - Clarence “Gatemouth Brown "

Discovered exactly what Hillary Clinton would be doing at 3 a.m., when that call about national security, or perhaps mortgage rates, does finally come in.

Continue reading " About That Three a.m. Call… "

Image source: Roderick T. Long with a tip o’ the hat to FARB at the Malcontent

Continue reading " Well… Maybe "

Even with the crappy video quality, the Nevilles really shine.

Continue reading " Blues n Boogie Weekend - The Neville Brothers "

So Bill Maher has apologized for what he said about the Pope. For a quick reminder, here’s what he said last week:

And then the apology from last night:

So he acknowledged that calling the Pope a former Nazi was inaccurate, because he was forced into the Hitler Youth as a teenager. And, that much is inaccurate, but it was far from Maher’s main point, anyway. When it comes to the track record of the Catholic Church where pedophilia is concerned… Maher was right!

Continue reading " Get Offended If You Want, But Maher Was Right "

Not so much blues as blues-ish, I suppose. But the Meters, in the 60’s and early 70’s, were sort of the transition from blues and jazz into funk. The lineup included Art and Cyril Neville, and would later go on to morph into the Neville Brothers.

And here they are with more New Orleans greats, Professor Longhair, Dr. John and Earl King.

Continue reading " Blues n Boogie Weekend - The Meters "

This is a topic that comes up every now and then in the blogosphere, and consensus among bloggers is difficult to find. It’s the ethics of blogging without attribution to one’s real name. Earlier this week, a local blog kind of mentioned it in passing in a blog post.

AN UNOFFICIAL COAST GUARD BLOG is looking to add to its stable of contributers. We’re looking for good writers who can offer a unique perspective about the Coast Guard and the changing world within which the Service operates. Ideally, you’d post under your own name and be supported by a chain-of-command that understands new media and blogging. Of course, the cynic in me would say that the ideal seems to be moving further afield, and I’m beginning to think I’d at least entertain the idea of pseudonymous blogging…

And that, dear reader, is not a good sign…

A little background. One of the authors of that site over yonder posted an entry that his Coast Guard chain of command pressured him to remove from the site. He complied, and subsequently resigned from the blog, also under pressure. So, CGBlog, a strict adherent to the school of thought that blogging under anything other than one’s legal name is a no-no, is now discovering one of the reasons people do just that. So now, it has at least entered their minds to consider permitting it.

So let’s establish working definitions of anonymous and pseudonymous. I’m not consulting a dictionary, here, I’m defining a distinction as I define the two terms, in the context of internet communications. First, anonymous blogging is using a false name that a user does not use anywhere else on the internet, and makes no attempt to tie to one’s real name. Pseudonymous blogging is using the same pseudonym on one’s blog that one uses to place comments on other blogs, and on web 2.0 platforms like Digg and YouTube, and/or connecting the pseudonym to the author’s real name. I’m certain these definitions are not correct, but it establishes a distinction in how I perceive the two terms.

Under those definitions, I used to blog pseudonymously, and still do here. Although I blog under my real name at Tidewater Liberty, because that is a blog that is tied to the Tidewater Libertarian Party. On other blogs, I use the name blewsdawg Rick Caldwell. I do this, because I’ve been using the name blewsdawg since I started blogging in April 2002, and have established that pseudonym on various social networking and other web 2.0 sites ever since. All the content I’ve ever contributed to the web prior to joining Tidewater Liberty has had that moniker attached to it. If I drop it unceremoniously in favor of my real name, Rick Caldwell becomes unaccountable for a six year history of blogging and other web content publishing. Certainly that couldn’t square with the ethical purists who would insist upon using one’s real name at all times.

A couple of reasons went into my decision to use the blewsdawg pseudonym. First, I’m not the only Rick Caldwell to be found in a Google search. I am the only blewsdawg. So, a unique pseudonym, used in all web content creation is a far better form of attribution and accountability than the use of a real name that belongs to dozens of other people in the world.

Second, Although I want my ideas out there, under discussion, I have no desire whatsoever to be a public figure. I was a singer in a small time local band twenty years ago, and I got a small, tiny, infinitesimal taste of what it’s like to be in the public eye. No thanks. When I first began blogging, there weren’t as many of us as there are now, and I just didn’t want to risk this blog making mine a recognizable face here in Tidewater. Now, it’s clear that that isn’t a problem, but then it was not such a certainty.

Third, I didn’t want my employer to worry that I would blog about them. Now, it’s been six years, and I’ve made no mention ever of my employer, so if I’m ever asked, I can point to that fact, and should be able to continue unmolested. But with no history to point to, in order to demonstrate that my employment is not a topic of my blog, It was a concern at the time.

These concerns are lightweight compared to the pressures that so many other bloggers confront. There are lots of reasons for not wanting to connect one’s real name to one’s blog, and I just don’t think it’s my place to judge another for that decision. I do think attribution and accountability are critical. If you’re not going to blog under your real name, a pseudonym should be used, and it should be the same one used for all web content created for public consumption.

Continue reading " About Anonymous/Pseudonymous Blogging "

Seriously, how is a leader of a major political party any different than a mafia cappo?

Levar Stoney, Executive Director of the Democratic Party of Virginia, apparently covered up for five Dem volunteers who slashed the tires of about 100 vehicles rented by the GOP. This incident occurred in Wisconsin during the Kerry-Edwards campaign in 2004.

This doesn’t surprise me. He’s a Democrat. A thief by definition. He believes that the force of government should be used to extort money from me, in order to pay for other people’s health care. He bleieves my guns should be taken away from me. He believes that a percentage of my every transaction, brick and mortar or online, should be confiscated from me, in order to pay for welfare, section 8 housing, social security, WIC, art that can’t be sold on the free market, and grants to universities studying the mating habits of insects.

If he doesn’t believe in all of these things, it’s a shoo-in that he believes in most, or at the very least some of them. And every time there is a political campaign anywhere in the state of Virginia, it is his job to cover up the role of his particular gang in all of these crimes. So what’s a few tires to him?

Continue reading " Silence of the Dems "

I apologize for the lack of content this past week. The season begins for my daughter’s softball team on Tuesday. I am the head coach of the team, and I spent much of this week preparing the girls for the upcoming games. I have some catching up to do next week, and I promise I will. I have a lot to say about this past week’s events, and although I’ll be mighty late, I will get some words out next week. No B ‘n’ B Weekend this week, either. I’ll get back to that next week, as well.

~Regards, blewsdawg Rick Caldwell

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