The recent outcry by the Obama's campaign over unauthorized access into his passport, (Obama Passport Scandal) brought to mind one thought...the candidate and party who's solution to all is "more government" is complaining because government was bad. Now they will cast it as the administration's fault,  and that a government run by their administration will (of course) be better and not have these types of problems.

The unfortunate part of all of this is the State Department employee who opened the files on Obama, McCain, and Clinton are probably not direct hires of the current administration, but are more likely life-long government bureaucrats, who pretty much stick in the government regardless of which party is currently in power.

This incident concerns a passport which is a federal government document, and even though it is a clear violation of privacy, it is information that the government has created on its citizens for the purpose of security.

Now let's expand the problem and look at making health-care a part of this same government bureaucracy. The intentions are good and are designed for the well being of all, to provide nothing less than the best health care in the world. The government will have all of our medical records on file, from the smallest wart removal to the cancer that is ravaging our bodies. The government will help us make decisions for what is best for our lives and administer care with the utmost compassion. It sounds great!

It will be the same compassionate system that helps the poor out in times of trouble. We all know they would have to be the most compassionate bureaucracy in the system, right next to the streamlined and efficient Social Security administration...

The reality is that bureaucracy (more government) is not the answer to our problems just as Obama and Clinton have experienced lately. More government means more potential for abuse, because there is no good government except for the one that is limited with checks and balances.

Just think what the next election cycle could look like: similar security breaches in a national health-care system could end up dropping bombs like "this candidate had to be treated for STD's three times" and "this one is going through hormone replacement therapy." It could be interesting and really dirty, not to mention highly illegal. Is this what you want?

How do you pick a presidential candidate in the primaries? I used to think it was a process of examining what your values were and then aligning them with the candidates. Unfortunately it is hard to determine exactly what a candidate's own value system is in this current process, where most issue positions are determined by a 15 second sound bite.

I guess the next step is to research the position papers of each candidate found on their websites, but honestly some of their past decisions don't exactly match up with their policy positions. It appears that local, state, and congressional politics allow a candidate to hold and govern by one value system, while the presidential requires a different set of values. What or who is the candidate?

The next step is the presidential primary debates, where candidates can express their "current" policy positions and explain how they have developed concerning real issues (flip flopping). Each candidate can clearly differentiate themselves from the other by attacking one another over personas instead of issues, which further muddies the water.

Maybe I am naive, but I always thought it was a simple process of matching one value system up against the other. I guess it is easier to be a stampede voter, rushing heedlessly to the candidate of the moment!

We're supposed to be educated college students. We can do better than that, can't we? 

I have been watching some classic TV lately from my childhood...

I  was always a fan of the Gomer Pyle show. I noticed yesterday an uncanny resemblance of Gomer to Mike Huckabee. You be the judge!

(Check out more about Gomer Pyle Mike Huckabee here. 

I read the book "Kite Runner" by Kaled Hosseini back during the summer and was absolutely rivited to it for the whole week. Hosseini peals back the curtain to the culture of pre-taliban and post-taliban Afghanistan. As I read through the book and was hit in the face with classicism dealt through the tribal structures and the development of a young man from cowardice to strength, I was confronted with my own personal development and value structures. How do you grow up a young boy into a man! This was an excellent book and worth recommending to anyone who wants to gain a perspective of the various cultures of the middle east.

When the three founders started College-Cram.com back in 2002, we wanted to help students with the high cost of a higher education. Our primary focus was on a viable alternative to the over priced textbooks.

We started off by creating generic content (Cramlets) that covered the basic concepts in a particular subject i.e... Accounting, Finance, Algebra, etc. We put our heads down and started to producing content and programming it into Flash. We used our network of editor friends and other subject matter experts to review the content for quality and accuracy. We first launched College-Cram.com in January 4, 2004.

Since then we have been listening to the students and instructors from around the world. We eventually made College-Cram.com a free site and changed our entire revenue model, all along wanting to help students study faster and make better grades without the sacrifice of spending hundreds of dollars per semester.

In September of 2007 we re-launched College-Cram.com in the current version as a social learning site for students to take control of their learning and access the quality content we have produced through the years. We continue to create new content every day in the content-specific communities, honestly because we love learning and sharing our knowledge with others.

With the social learning aspect now in College-Cram.com, any student or instructor can participate by producing their own notebook entries, or by sharing their class notes with all. Social learning now depends on the members, not just the three founders, and it is exciting to see individuals join in each day. Keep up the good work and continue to spread the word about the exciting learning experiences found at College-Cram.com. 

P.S. check out our latest press coverage in our home paper "To these three entrepreneurs, the last minute creates a golden opportunity."

 

I thought it might be good to acknowledge those friends, family, and overall supporters of College-Cram.com. We have been experiencing some of our best growth the last month and most of it is due to the support we get from others. So here go the shameless acknowledgements: 

• Merlot.org
• Gateway to Educational Material (GEM)
  
• Mathforum.org
• Homeschool Math
• eLGG
• Librarianchick
  
• Read/WriteWeb
  
• Down to Earth Jewelry

All of these sites have helped College-Cram.com by either promoting us to teachers and students, through written articles, or just by been there for moral support. Thanks for making this one of our best school starts ever.

We have been watching and learning as users continue to access and participate at College-Cram.com. We are experiencing some rapid growth since we converted the site from a content repository to a social learning environment. With these changes our search traffic is continuing to climb up each week, with more users finding and learning what they need to be successful in school.

In the last weeks we have tweaked College-Cram to include:

• An improved layout to high-lite the user toolbar for easier access to the full capability of College-Cram.com
• More efficient search to emphasize the presentations to find the content you want and need.
  
• Added "Chew on These 'Chick-lets' - Create, Connect, and Learn" to the header to further demonstrate how College-Cram.com can become an integral part of your learning experience in school.
  

These are some powerful tools available for students to allow learning but also the connecting and creating of learning resources for one another. If you are new or old take a few minutes to check out these new improvements

All right I had some time on my hands this weekend, so the girls and I started a cooking project. I love to cook and I especially enjoy getting my daughters involved. We have been vegetarians for over two years now and love eating vegetables and also trying out new recipes.

I had been eyeing in one of my vegan cook books the process for making wheat gluton to make setain and then flavor it like sausage. It seemed harmless so we tried. First off, it was a whole lot of fun and we were happy with what we made. We got our recipe from one of my favorite vegan cookbooks "La Dolce Vegan!: Vegan Livin' Made Easy" by Sarah Kramer.

The recipe for the wheat gluton called for 2 cups of wheat flour and 2 cups of all purpose flour with 1 3/4 cups of water. You mix it and then knead it for a minute. Then let it rest for 30 min. Once you have taken a little nap, you start washing the dough in a pan of water squeezing the dough until the water turns milky white. You dump out the water saving the dough and repeat the washing until the water is not milky white, then do it twice more. You now have wheat gluton that can be used to make faux meat. The girls thought it looked like old chewing gum when we were finished washing it.

We then followed Sarah's recipe for making a sausage broth.  It was wonderful! We all got a good lesson in creativity and also in the chemistry of cooking. Oh, we took our faux sasuage and then made a wonderful vegan lasagna with it. We will be eating it later this week.

I just recently came across the National History Day organization that is trying to help students and instructors to move beyond the dates and facts of historical events. The idea is to encourage students to discover the real history of everyday events. History is full of stories, songs, documents, recipes, movies, pictures, artifacts, furniture, landmarks, ghost stories, myths, and the list goes on. Here is a little excerpt from the NHD website explaining why they think everyday is National History Day."

When is National History Day? Every day is National History Day. Because history is made every day. We are teaching students that history is not just about the names and dates of people and events from 200 years ago but about the stories that happen every day in communities around the world. National History Day’s year-round programs culminate in a national contest every June.

My daughter will be looking at a song "Songbird" that was created by a series of poems written by kids in a concentration camp in Czchekoslovakia. She will be detailing her finding here at college-cram.com for all to enjoy. Let's all take some time and blog about current events or collect stories from parents or historical figures, and make our own history on College-Cram.com 

We launched the new site last week and we have watched hundreds sign up already. As new members sign-up and use college-cram.com we are continuing to watch and learn from all of you. So keep watching out as we add new aspects to the site to help you find what you need and connect with other learners.