Posted by Valerie on July 9, 2011
A little late? No, but in the providence of God right on time!
I have prayed for this day and am so happy to see it here.
South Sudan
July 9, 2011
There has been much suffering in South Sudan and may be more to come. May the Lord pour out mercy and grace upon this new nation, so that many will turn to Christ and live. May God’s people from all over the world be provoked to enter this open door, rejoicing and demonstrating the love of Christ in every practical way.
Posted by Valerie on
We have to read more and think harder.
Keep reading real books. Read mysteries with slow and sometimes scary paths of discovery that lead to logical ends.
Keep reading fiction and poetry. The best of it tells truths about life and human nature that textbooks will never explore. Read beautiful descriptions that make your breath catch in wonder.
In big bites or small, keep reading the foundational documents of our culture. The Bible. The Institutes of the Christian Religion. The Magna Carta. The Mayflower Compact. The Articles of Confederation. The Declaration of Independence. The Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787. The Constitution. The Federalist Papers, The Anti-Federalist Papers. The debates in the Congressional Record.
Read a lot less stupid news, a little less smart news, and a lot more of the source documents of present day culture. Read court decisions on subjects that interest you. (They aren’t that hard.)
Keep doing math and don’t skip geometry. (We like Life of Fred for all ages!)
Study logic and then study it some more. Know most fallacies when you see them.
Debate with people you love, who love you. Don’t be afraid; a difference of opinion is not inherently poisonous.
Watch a documentary and think hard. Watch a good drama and think harder.
Listen to more good music and less fleeting trash.
Hold onto what is precious with all your heart and mind and both hands, because there is one who will steal it away if the door is not closed to him.
Have children and give ‘em all you’ve got and all they’ll take. Give a hand up to the next generation in every way you can.
And trust. If what we see here crumbles, something else will arise. Civilizations have crumbled before and John 3:16 implies the promise that is everywhere in Scripture.
Posted by Valerie on July 8, 2011
The verdict for Casey Anthony came in this week, and while I know that we are supposed to applaud and affirm the jury’s verdict, this is troubling.
”If they charged her with other things, we probably could have gotten a guilty verdict, absolutely. But not for death, not for first-degree murder. That’s a very substantial charge.” — Juror Jennifer Ford
According to what the media is saying, that sounds about right, doesn’t it?
But this jury was given all of the following options for a verdict:
- first degree murder
- second degree murder
- manslaughter
- third degree murder
- aggravated manslaughter of a child
- aggravated child abuse.
- child abuse.
Each juror received his or her own copy of Judge Perry’s instructions, with each of these verdict options in bold type, followed by detailed elements and definitions for each.
How could a juror not know this? Did they not read the instructions, or did they not understand them?
Posted by Valerie on July 7, 2011
I would like to ask a Florida jury two questions.
First, if the prosecution proposed that Caylee had been taken by a stranger who had previously researched methods of murder and how to make chloroform, had carried her dead body in the trunk of a car of which he alone had custody (while explaining the odor to friends as roadkill), had an astonishingly high level of chloroform in his trunk, had put Caylee’s body in a plastic garbage bag inside a laundry bag that matched one in his own house and had then thrown her into a swamp near his house with her mouth and nose sealed with duct tape (using a rare brand that matched tape in his own house) would those circumstances add up to any sort of unlawful killing, beyond a reasonable doubt?
Second, what one or two pieces of evidence would have been needed, more, to make this into a killing that was either 1) premeditated or 2) preceded by some act of aggravated child abuse, beyond a reasonable doubt? (Acts of aggravated child abuse would include things like putting duct tape on faces and putting babies in trunks.)
I think Casey Anthony was acquitted primarily because she is pretty, and because she is a mommy. Pretty girls, and especially pretty mommies, just don’t do what Casey did.
I find the phrase “merely circumstantial evidence” really disturbing in this context. Historically, we as a people have been comfortable making inferences from circumstantial evidence. Murderers don’t consistently offer much in the way of direct evidence like eyewitnesses, surveillance video, or even fingerprints and DNA.
Most murderers hide their actions and then cover their tracks as well as they can. Historically, most murders have not been solved in test tubes but in human minds drawing inferences from known facts and behaviors. Our system of jurisprudence has a strong foundation in Christianity and the Bible, both of which have historically accepted various forms of circumstantial evidence as legitimate witnesses.
I think that we are seeing the fruit of a powerful and tragic cultural evolution. First, definitions are evolving. “Beyond a reasonable doubt” has become “beyond imagination,” “moral certainty” has become “absolute certainty,” and “circumstantial evidence” seems to mean approximately what “red herring” used to mean.
Secondly, we are being pushed toward the belief that all forms of behavior are just points on an endless spectrum of legitimacy, so that we feel compelled to believe the nurse who testified that every possible emotion could be a form of grief–including joyful exuberance.
Thirdly, I suspect that a societal distrust of logic and certainty is leaving us less comfortable with the process of making logical inferences and more susceptible to the powerful effects of TV and movies.
On this last point, we might hear that just as Sue left Bob alone in his office, she watched Jane enter, heard a shot fired, and then heard a loud crash. When Bob is later discovered dead on the floor, this evidence compels the inference that Jane is the murderer.
But haven’t we seen Jane exonerated a thousand times on TV? We especially remember the episode where Sebastian Supersleuth discovered that the shot was actually fired from across an alley, from the window of a man who had long rented under a secret identity, biding his time in patient wickedness for the ideal moment to take Bob’s life. In a culture where logic and certainty are becoming increasingly distasteful, might not this story have a powerful impact as it leaves its images in millions of memories?
When a baby falls into a pool, a mother calls 911, even and especially when the baby is found non-responsive and without a heartbeat. The only exception is the case where the mother has helped the baby into the pool and watched her drown. I don’t know Caylee’s exact cause of death (duct tape is most plausible), but reasonable doubt just doesn’t allow for an accident in this case.
What would you ask a jury?
Anthony Verdict May Signal Death of Circumstantial Evidence
The Casey Anthony Brand Wins
Worse Than O.J.! [by Marcia Clark]
Casey Jury Brainwash: On Sequestration
Casey Anthony Juror: ‘Sick to Our Stomachs’ Over Not Guilty Verdict
Casey Anthony Juror Says the Jury Wanted to Find her Guilty, but the Evidence ‘Wasn’t There’
Posted by Valerie on September 25, 2010
One of the blessings of being a homeschooling mommy who’s also a bookseller is that for much of the last 15 years I have had the opportunity to touch, examine and evaluate most of the books that have been published for children, including many that are scarce or very hard-to-find.
In my travels, I’m not only thinking of what I can sell, but I’m also steadily working on building a children’s library for my family’s future. As I find better books in every subject, I remove some that I like less and so increase the overall quality of the library. As time passes, there are fewer and fewer books that I have not seen, so content exchanges occur less and less often.
I made one yesterday! I have a new favorite book for teaching children both the history of mathematical symbols and counting and calculating in other bases!
How to Count Like a Martian by Glory St. John is well-illustrated, clear, logical, thought-provoking and frequently humorous. That’s just the level of quality that I like to give my kids!
But what about you and your kids? How to Count Like a Martian was last printed in the 1970’s, so–like cigarettes, alcohol and pornography–it’s illegal for sale or distribution to young children.
As a result, those who understand the law and want to obey it are throwing some of the final remaining copies in the garbage. I have a copy for me, but it’s not likely that I’ll ever find one for you.
See This is What We’re Reading and check out the discussion here and here.
Just because this is old, does not mean that it is outdated. Just because a book is old does not mean it is not good. Are we seriously having this cultural argument in the twenty-first century? Well, to my astonishment, I guess we are!
Just because it is not feasible to reprint 100,000 copies doesn’t mean that the last few hundred would not be very good for some of this nation’s children.
Consider that with CPSIA, the cultural agreement is that we should not have another Robert Schneck. “Schneck has been math crazy since elementary school, when he remembers devouring a book called How to Count Like a Martian, which described the various ways that different cultures handle numbers.”
What possible value could such an experience hold against the theoretical possibility of a medically unimportant variance in lead levels should Robert’s baby brother choose to chew on his book?
How to Count Like a Martian has been recently recommended for educators to use with children in the following resources:
- Math Through Children’s Literature: Making the NCTM Standards Come Alive, Kathryn L. Braddon, Nancy J. Hall, et al., 1998.
- Applying Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development to Mathematics, Bobby Ojose, The Mathematics Educator 2008, Vol. 18, No. 1, 26-30
At this writing, it is not possible to buy any copy of this book for less than $40 online. A nice copy in a dust jacket will set you back over $100.
You’d be buying from a seller who either doesn’t like the law or doesn’t know the law, but you’d be paying more than you should. If you remember your studies in economics, supply and demand, you know that this book would be more affordable for more families if selling it were legal and unrestricted and, especially, if fewer inventory sources were not obediently discarding literal tons of high quality vintage children’s books.
Kids don’t read old books. Do they?
Educators don’t use old books. Do they?
A math book from 1975 couldn’t be useful to anyone. Could it?
Legislators assumed these statements, but never asked the questions.
It would have made much more sense for Congress to mandate face masks and protective clothing for all children under the age of 12 who want to explore the great children’s literature of the 20th century. At least that would have been fun and interesting for the kids, for the first day or two.
Don’t get me started on the wonderful Thomas Y. Crowell Young Math series. And why should I? As long as there’s a single set of dry textbooks being published, we have all the math we need for the next generation.
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Filed Under: CPSIA
