wrote in message
...
On Sep 3, 4:21 pm, "Ed Huntress" wrote:

Ed Huntress
I just do not think it is one of the powers delegated to the Federal
Government. I think that is one of my powers.

Great. Now, why aren't you doing it?

Ed Huntress
Great, it is much worse than I thought. Ed has found a way to know
exactly what I do. Is that from a government database or some
commercial one?

?? Are you going to deliver a speech to the nation's school kids about
working hard and being responsible? That's what you're responding to. You
said it was "one of your powers."

Ed Huntress

I was responding to the Federal government teaching about working hard
and being responsible.

This isn't a matter of Federal powers. This is the President excercizing his
right to free speech. We all have that power, president or
candlestick-maker. Do you deny him that right?

I am saying that teaching moral values to my
kids is one of my powers. And that delivering a speech about working
hard and being responsible is usurping my ability to teach moral
values to my children.

How is a speech denying your ability? Does that apply to all speech you
don't agree with? Are you suggesting that others' rights to free speech
don't apply if you don't like the speech?

I think it is the parents responsibility to
teach moral values to their kids. I do not think teaching moral
values is some thing delegated to the Federal government by the
Constitution. Teaching moral values comes extremely close to teaching
religion. Again not something I want the Federal government teaching.

This isn't the Federal government teaching moral values. This is the
President voicing his opinion about the positive consequences of staying in
school and of studying hard. If you want to make a morality play out of it,
go ahead. But it just sounds like common sense to me, and it's a matter of
efficacy rather than one of morals.

There is no reasonable or sensible objection to that. As usual, Dan, you're
more interested in confounding a perfectly sensible thing with the most
bizarre arguments one could imagine.

Which tells us that this is not your real objection. Whether you know what
your real objection is remains an open question. I suspect it's that you
don't want anything to confer legitimacy to anything Obama says, in any way
you can think of. But that's only a suspicion.

Working hard is not something I value. Working intelligently is not
the same thing. I would rather have my children question how thing are
done and find better ways, than to value working hard. Hard work is
greatly overrated.

Well, I could say that tells us a lot, but I'll restrain myself. g If you
want to tell your kids that, tell them. Tell them why you disagree with the
President's point. Tell them to avoid working hard, for all I care.

But there's nothing to prevent you from telling them that all you want. If
you think your kids won't be exposed to ideas you disagree with, you are
nuts. And if you want to prevent someone else from saying those things, you
don't really believe in Constitutional principles.

I think you're blowing smoke, that all you want to do is de-legitimize the
President, both in the eyes of kids and that of everyone else, no matter
what he says. The thing you fear the most is that he's successful and that
people come to believe in his ideas. But that's just an opinion, as you say.

--
Ed Huntress