Quite honestly, artichoke, I think there's a large difference between ... hmm ... requesting harmonious behavior from an adult child in return for a rent-free place to stay, and attempting to punish them into it. It sounds like your consequence for not waking up early enough is getting woken up, as opposed to taking away their car keys for a week. It sounds perfectly reasonable to me. When I moved back home, I didn't have my own bedroom (there just wasn't a spare bedroom), and my mother wanted me to not stay up after midnight so as not to keep my younger siblings awake.

Yep. Or honestly, this is something where I could seriously consider joining the military as a desperation move (assuming physical condition passed muster.) It definitely gets you a paying job a hell of a long way away.

what what what i am never eating yoghurt again

Oh my God, I thought I'd found every nutty underbelly of the internet a long time ago, but this is amazing.

Maybe the lawyer can convince the court to accept the grandparents. It does seem that she's already tried that.

All of these comments about meeting a spouse in study groups makes me really wish I'd participated :D

Yep. I mean, how much more explicit can you get than "Of course they will help her get her birth certificate. All she has to do is _____".

You did not. You showed that it was easy to get a copy if one was filed in the first place. If one was never filed in the first place, it is not easy.

Here is information on how to get a delayed birth certificate, which she was told she needed: http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/english/passports/information/secondary-evidence.html I quote from the article: If she cannot get the birth attendant to sign or an affidavit from the parents, she is rather out of luck. Scrolling further down, in all cases people are told that they MUST have someone who has personal knowledge of their birth to sign. An older blood relative OR anyone else who has personal knowledge of the birth is required.

Here's a link: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2015/0212/Alecia-Pennington-can-t-prove-she-s-an-American-or-even-exists.-What-would-you-do The birth certificate can be obtained online IF one is filed in the first place. According to the article, she received a certified letter that they have searched and there is no record of her birth. Could she be lying? Of course she could. But her story is plausible and saying "it couldn't happen that way because she could get another birth certificate" is flatly wrong.

She was told she needed 3 documents verifying her age and citizenship. She does not have them. Attestations from the parents and the midwife are frequently used in these situations, but if her parents are refusing to give them, there is not much that she can do as far as that goes. As far as "what will it benefit", I would suspect that after repeated attempts to get her parents to sign a document saying she is who she says she is, she is hoping to either shame them into signing a document or get legal assistance.

No, people are jumping on it because (if true) it's a repulsive thing to do to a kid.

My friend Power has been stressed all week. The boss keeps making him work over time.

Especially since frequently in an elementary school math setting, it is the blind leading the blind mentored by the blind.

Honestly? I'd drop the class if it's not too late to take a W. If it needs explaining, it's easy to explain that you signed up for an online course and found out the format was really, really not a good idea.

Yes. I think a more important skill to learn about college and the working world is that you need to put in as much time as it takes. I don't say "ok, I studied my 6-9 hours for this 3-credit class, that's enough. I'm turning in the homework now even though it's only half done."

I've seen people argue that somehow having a birth certificate was going to enable the government to "register" your child. These people were usually pretty far down the path of paranoia, but they exist.

https://homeschoolersanonymous.wordpress.com/2015/02/11/james-and-lisa-pennington-respond-to-identification-abuse-claims/

This course begins as an introduction to logic in a mathematical sense, then moves on to mathematical techniques of proof (including proof by induction), and then briefly discusses some interesting topics from early number theory and real analysis (the last two weeks, which are not part of the basic course). Unless you have considerable experience with algebraic proofs, I suspect you will find a fair amount new material in this course.

Yeah. Even if they are looking at what the bright guy did because they're stuck, they should be saying "wait, why did you flip the inequality there?" so the bright guy can say "because I divided by negative 2" instead of just mindless copying.

If you're finishing the year with your fourth grader I'd strongly recommend retesting afterwards for placement. She may end up placing into 6th grade instead (although I would not push her if she does not). MaryAnn: Horizons now goes through Algebra 1. It's a solid course, has good reviews from the people who've used it. A student who's used it should be able to do pretty much any alg 2/geometry.

And as we've just seen, extremists without a religion can be dangerous as well. The real enemy is extremist viewpoints -- the sort of black-and-white thinking that leads to "The only good ____ is a dead ____"

I am not Umsami, but I would not consider talking about ISIS as anti-Muslim rhetoric. But I have seen examples of: i) Communities campaigning against local Muslim groups building mosques. ii) Local communities claiming that somehow teaching about Islam and what it believes in a world history class is indoctrination into Islam. I am specifically not referring to having students say a prayer or memorize Koran passages (which I do consider religious indoctrination), but rather to learning factual material about the religion -- similarly to discussing Christianity and Christian beliefs, while discussing the Roman Empire under Constantine or similar historical places where Christianity played a role. iii) Claiming that somehow halal food is unfit for non-Muslims to eat and attempting to get companies to stop manufacturing and selling halal food. (This showed up more in Australia, but some in the US as well -- example: http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/10/campbells-soup-goes-halal-with-approval-from-hamas-linked-isna). Here's a list giving more examples of the kind of anti-Muslim rhetoric: http://www.pfaw.org/rww-in-focus/the-right-wing-playbook-anti-muslim-extremism (Yes, it's a left-wing site. But they link to the statements for everything they're talking about). This sort of rhetoric (especially the ones who want to propose laws against a specific religion) does considerable damage as far as alienating young Muslims. It feeds into the religious extremists and fuels the paranoia about the west being out to eliminate them and their religion, making recruitment of young, disaffected men easier. As far as "Why don't moderate Muslims denounce the extremists?" They do. Here's a WashPo article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/01/02/why-dont-more-moderate-muslims-denounce-extremism/ (again, yes, left-wing, but sources are cited if you do not believe what they are saying).

I saw this on facebook early this morning. I am horrified anew at every step. :(

Yeah, a lot of different things. I change when new research invalidates my previous opinions. If I don't care, I don't bother to look up the research, but about things that are important I try to stay up-to-date on new research.