Abduhl Wali-i-Musi, accused of hijacking the Maersk Alabama and taking its captain Richard Phillips hostage, is led into a federal building in New York April 20, 2009. The sole surviving Somali pirate from the hijacking is being tried in New York and is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday morning. Collapse (Eric Thayer/Reuters)
The surviving Somali pirate was taken to New York City by the US Navy.
The smile might be a nervous one, then again he may be smiling because of the improvement in his circumstances.
So what will happen the next time four pirates are holding a hostage?
Which of the pirates will volunteer for the dangerous task of going aboard the US warship and negotiating with the Navy captain?
And which of the pirates will agree to stay behind and guard the hostage?
Actions have consequences. Rules of engagement have consequences.
Why don’t we just print up flyers and distribute them in the Somali coastal villages: Kidnap a merchant captain and win a free all-expenses-paid trip to New York City, with the possibility of becoming a US citizen!
Some years ago, the Shearer children were practicing their handwriting in their handwriting workbooks – the kind with the nicely spaced ruled lines to help in keeping the letters equally sized – but were finding the standard sentences more than a bit boring.
Cyndy had just run across a reprint of one of George Washington’s own schoolbooks. When he was sixteen, he had begun copying maxims for polite behavior into his schoolbooks. The rules described the behavior of a gentleman, and many claim that they greatly influenced Washington’s attitudes and standards for his own behavior.
(Just an aside, I have just finished viewing the John Adams mini-series, produced by Tom Hanks & HBO last year, 7 episodes, 8 hours 20 minutes running time. I highly recommend it, not least for its remarkable portrayal of George Washington!)
Where was I? Oh yes, handwriting.
Cyndy and the children found that they were having some very interesting discussions based on Washington’s maxims. “Show nothing to your friend that might affright him” kicked off a discussion about no tormenting guests with scary insects, etc.
Other rules address issues involving putting others first and self last – and other ways to show respect to those around us.
In 2002, we published Volume I of Handwriting by George with the first 27 of his 110 rules. Today, I am very pleased to announce the publication of Volume II with rules 28 through 55. Volumes III & IV will become available in May, and June.
Each volume is printed on 8″x10″ ruled sheets with space to copy each rule at least once, and often 2 or 3 times. There is also a framed space on the facing page where children are encouraged to draw their own illustration for the rule. Drawing time makes a nice break from handwriting practice!
Something astonishing happened on TV last Sunday – Easter Sunday ironically enough. One of the leading characters on a primetime TV action-drama show walked into a church and had a religious experience. More specifically than that, he “renounced his sins” and “accepted Jesus – with all my heart.”
One of the great parts about this story is that this development was completely unexpected, while at the same time plausibly and powerfully written, and with nuances and ambiguities left delightfully unresolved.
Mack Gerhardt is a member of The Unit. The Unit is a US Military special forces group. With the call sign, “Dirt Diver,” Mack is part of a squad led by Sgt. Jonas Blane (who’s the real reason that 24 used to be worth watching, and who’s probably responsible for Barack Obama being elected president – but that’s another story.)
Mack is not a boy scout. He has always seemed tightly wound. He’s married, with two daughters, but he and his wife Tiffy have been through more than their share of rough spots. Tiffy felt alone and abandoned during Mack’s long deployments and began (but then ended) an affair with the commanding officer of The Unit. Mack had at least one one-night-stand of his own, and when he found out about Tiffy’s affair, he nearly killed the Colonel. Last season, it looked as though Tiffy and Mack were getting a divorce, with Tiffy actually drawing up papers and delivering them to Mack.
They’ve since reconciled – thanks in no small measure to strong support from the wives of other Unit members. One of the strengths of the show is the blending and weaving of action plot lines with the domestic back-stories of the Unit members’ wives and families. Yet another strength of the show is the ensemble writing and acting.
This past Sunday’s episode was written by Dan Hindmarch, about whom I know very little. From the wiki entries, it appears that he’s been a writer on the show for several years now and that this script is the second time he’s received credit as the writer.
I don’t want to give too much away for those who have the time to watch at least part of the episode (or better yet, ALL of the episode, which is available online at the CBS website.
In an attempt to hook more viewers for The Unit, and to show you a remarkable bit of television from Easter Sunday, I’ve extracted Mack’s conversion from the hour-long show as a ten minute video:
Why is this significant?
Several reasons: The Unit is mainstream network TV. One of CBS’ best shows. There has been a concerted effort to develop the characters as 3-dimensional human beings – not just superheroes. And the treatment of religion as a natural part of their lives as husbands, fathers, & friends has been seamlessly integrated into the show. This is quite rare. The popular culture usually dismisses religion by ignoring it. This is not necessarily malicious – perhaps it is just a reflection of the culture of those who produce network TV. Perhaps writers have been afraid to introduce real faith because it seemed un-natural. The role of religion in the story of The Unit is significant because it seems so natural and un-remarkable. THAT is remarkable!
I think this plotline is about as close to perfect as television can get. It is sparse but deep. The full story line is 14 minutes. All but about 30 seconds occurs in the sanctuary of the church. The interplay between the characters reveals the back-story, like peeling an onion. The visuals underscore and deepen the development. Even the music cues integrate to move the audience along. Of course we’re being played with, but it’s a great ride!
Mack starts out proclaiming that God sent him to speak to Nora. Ironically, Nora turns the tables on him. It appears that God may have sent Nora to speak to Mack. Don’t be too quick to dismiss Nora as a messenger of God. Her own sins do not necessarily invalidate the truth of what she says to Mack. Mack tells Nora God sent him to speak to her. She asks if he is without sin. When he quickly says no, she questions then whether God could have sent him. His answer is, “Who else would have sent me?”
Mack’s conversion at the surface level may appear to be simply an act – contrived to get Nora to reveal where she has placed the baby she has kidnapped from the hospital. But it feels more real than just an act. Mack is someone truly in need of, and searching for, forgiveness and redemption. Previous episodes have already established this development. Mack blames himself for the death of another Unit member, killed by a sniper while Mack was with him. Mack feels both anger and guilt for the breakdown of his marriage – now seemingly being restored. Mack wants to be a father to his daughters, but they resent his absences while missing him terribly.
If Mack has had a conversion, a renunciation of his sins, an acceptance of Jesus, it’s already clear that this is not going to immediately and magically resolve all of his problems. But the opportunity to see how he applies his new commitments in the context of his mission responsibilities suggests all sorts of interesting possibilities.
“I told her God sent me to help her. Could it be true?”
My commendation and kudos to Hindmarch, Mamet, and the cast and crew of The Unit.
footnote on David Mamet:
David Mamet created The Unit. He’s a noted American writer and director, best-known for his intense, staccato, heavily weighted, sparring dialogue. His hand, influence & voice (without taking anything away from the episode writer, Dan Hindmarch) are the reason The Unit remains such a compelling show.
Mamet is from Chicago, and has shown an increasing interest in his Jewish roots. He is apolitical, but wrote a remarkable piece in the Village Voice in March of 2008 titled, “Why I am no longer a Brain-dead Liberal.” It may have something to do with why The Unit no longer partakes of the casual dismissal of religion – but rather takes it and treats it seriously.
At times the abuse came in torrents, with the republican press referring to him variously as “a gambler, a cheapskate, a horsebeater, a dictator, and a most horrid swearer and blasphemer.” He was labeled “treacherous,” “mischievous,” and “inefficient.” He was said to favor “stately journeying through the American continent in search of personal incense” and to enjoy “ostentatious professions of piety.” he was, appearances notwithstanding, a “frail mortal”; no less was he “a spoiled child, despotic,” “a tyrannical monster.” It is a collection of terms that does not come readily to mind these days when the subject is George Washington.
A few months ago, Blue Collar Muse (aka Ken Marrero) recommended a book to me, Infamous Scribblers: The Founding Fathers and the Rowdy Beginnings of American Journalism by Eric Burns. I’ve been dabbling with it off and on for several months. It is a fascinating story – or rather a number of fascinating stories. Burns book is aptly subtitled, “The Founding Fathers and the Rowdy Beginnings of American journalism.” His book is divided into three parts and 21 chapters.
Part One is the history of the earliest colonial newspapers and includes an account of the founding of the 4th newspaper in colonies by James Franklin in Boston in 1721 (where his younger brother Benjamin later served as an apprentice) and the famous Zenger trial in 1735 in which the Royal Governor of New York attempted to suppress a newspaper which he found annoying and embarrassing.
Part Two traces the role of journalism in both forming, reporting, and inciting American opinion during the period 1750-1775, leading up to the rebellion of the colonies against the British government. There are fascinating stories about newspapermen and pamphleteers in Boston and New York, including Sam Adams (and his cousin, John – an attorney who occasionally wrote for the papers) and Thomas Paine.
Part Three (the Tumult of Peace) covers the violent, scurrilous, and rowdy period of American journalism from 1789 to 1800 when rival newspapers were founded and supported by Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. The newspapers were not used simply to promote the political ideas of their sponsors, but rapidly descended into character assassination and scandal-mongering. The scandals of Hamilton and Jefferson, though private, were quite real. Hamilton was caught in an adulterous affair, and Jefferson’s illegitmate children by his slave Sally Hemmings were a badly kept secret. The newspapermen were at first John Fenno (backed by Hamilton) and Philip Freneau (backed by Jefferson). They were succeeded by James Callender, Benjamin Franklin Bache (Ben’s grandson) and William Cobbett – all three scandal mongers who launched over-the-top attacks almost without ceasing.
The rowdy journalism of the 1790’s is what led to the Alien & Sedition laws and the prosecution and shuttering of newspapers by the Adams administration for “undermining the US government.” Adams later admitted it had been a huge mistake.
Burns’ subject is broad and he’s really telling multiple tales about three very different historical eras, but there is a great deal of commonality in the nature of journalism. Rowdy is an apt word. The book as a whole is a useful corrective to those who think the quality of American journalism has declined. Burns’ account shows that it has simply returned to its roots.
The budget deficits incurred by President Bush were excessive, and wrong.
The budget deficits enacted in the budgets adopted by the Republican-led Congress from 2000-2006 were excessive, and wrong.
President George Bush has completed his two terms of office and will not run for office again.
The Republican congressmen who voted for the budgets of 2000-2006 should be primary-challenged and replaced with fiscal conservatives. The Republican members of congress who voted for the Wall Street bailouts should be primary-challenged and replaced with fiscal conservatives.
The budget deficits already begun and planned for the future by President Barack Obama are outrageous, and unjustifiable.
The Democrats who voted for the budgets of 2006 and onwards should be opposed and defeated by fiscal conservatives. The Democrat members of congress who voted for the Wall Street bailouts should be challenged and replaced with fiscal conservatives.
The federal government of the United States is too large, and has become too oppressive. It violates the rights of citizens and strangles the productivity and creativity of the American workers and the American businessmen.
The ONLY way to increase the prosperity of the people of the United States is for American workers and American businessmen to be set free to use their ingenuity and creativity to produce more value. The biggest obstacle to this is the nanny state – the oppressively large and bewilderingly complicated regulations of the federal government.
We need less government, not more.
We need less government spending, not more.
We need less government taxation, not more.
The American people are finding their voice. We are crying out for relief. We are looking for leadership.
We do not need speeches about hope and change.
We need leaders with common sense. We need leaders who will reverse the growth of government over the past ten years… the past twenty years… the past thirty years.
Ronald Reagan was right. Government is not the solution. Government is the problem.
Greenleaf Press proudly announces the publication of Voices of the Renaissance and Reformation, edited by Robert G. Shearer. Voices includes 31 original source selections by 19 of the key figures from the Renaissance and Reformation.
The Renaissance selections include sonnets by Petrarch, a letter by Lorenzo de’ Medici, excerpts from the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, sermons by Savonarola, and excerpts from Machiavelli’s The Prince.
The Reformation selections include important writings from Martin Luther, John Calvin, and John Knox including autobiographical accounts of their own conversions. Also included are The 67 Articles of Ulrich Zwingli, the Schleitheim Confession by Michael Sattler, and the Reply of John Wycliffe to his Summons by the Pope to come to Rome.
We are particularly pleased to be able to include in this collection several recently published texts from the Reformation, including two letters from Conrad Grebel (the leader of the Anabaptists in Zurich) to Thomas Müntzer, the leader of the Peasant Rebellion, written in 1525. The letters of Grebel are included by permission from Herald Press of Scottsdale, PA.
Also included in the collection is a lengthy selection from William Tyndale‘s An Answer Unto Sir Thomas More’s Dialogue in which Tyndale eloquently defends his translation of the New Testament into English and his use of the words congregation, elder, and love (rather than church, priest, & charity) which More had charged were serious errors.
The selections from Martin Luther include the complete text of The 95 Theses (1517), as well as lengthy selections from his three great essays of 1520:
Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation ( Aug 1520)
On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church ( Oct 1520)
On the Freedom of a Christian (Nov 1520)
The selections from John Calvin include The Geneva Confession of 1536 and his Reply to Cardinal Sadoleto, written in 1539.
Editor Robert Shearer observed, “Textbooks provide an overview of a time period. A biography helps us to understand the significance of a historical figure, but if you really want to know the people and the times, you must read what they wrote in their own words.”
The source collection should prove to be a valuable resource for students of all ages who wish to study the Renaissance and Reformation, particularly for high school and college students.
When Cyndy started homeschooling our children in 1985, we talked (a lot) about what we wanted to teach them, and how. For the first few years, the basics of Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic were fairly obvious and straightforward – Cyndy had taken several education methods courses and already understood the phonics vs. whole-word controversies.
It took us a while to settle on an overall scope and a method for teaching history.
After several disappointing experiences with textbooks, Cyndy discovered that our children loved biographies (surprise!), and that textbooks were useful only as references to be consulted briefly for overview.
As we talked and thought about that, we were strongly persuaded that teaching history chronologically was the simplest, most direct, most effective way to cover history for our children. I had spent two years in college in a chronological humanities program, based almost entirely on original source readings (at Davidson College). My grad school experience was a delight when I discovered that Stanford offered a joint degree in History and Humanities. I joined a two-year seminar with graduate students from a variety of departments as we went through a two-year chronological humanities program, based almost entirely on original source readings.
As we started to speak to other homeschool support groups and at convention seminars, one of the most frequent first questions was, “Where do I start?”
Our answer was always the same: with the Bible and the history of Israel.
About a third of the books of the Old Testament are grouped together as “Historical” books (12 out of 39). In addition, over half the Pentateuch is devoted to the history of the Patriarchs and the origins of Israel. And all of the prophetic books contain some historical narrative, with over half of Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Daniel being devoted to history.
It is an understatement to proclaim that History is an important part of the Old Testament.
It is important that our children know the history of Israel. The best way to teach them the history of Israel is to read the Bible to them.
The Old Testament is neither too hard, nor is it too difficult for children to understand. Just because they don’t understand every detail (or the implications of every event) does not mean that there is not immense value in reading the stories of the Old Testament to them.
We have always begun our study of history with our children by reading the Bible to them and studying the history of Israel.
Parents often ask us, what reference books or resource material do you use to teach the Bible to children. We have always answered, “The best resource for teaching the Bible to children, is the Bible.” All of the books ABOUT the Bible are less important than the Bible itself.
It is the Bible that Moses is describing when he tells parents in Deuteronomy 6:6 & 7:
6 These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.
7 You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.
For years, we encouraged parents to read the Bible to their children, and for years parents kept asking us for a study guide that would help them teach the Bible to children. Finally, in 1994, AFTER we had written study guides for Egypt, Greece, Rome & the Middle Ages we wrote The Greenleaf Guide to Old Testament History.
I’ll repeat the assertion from the title of this post. This is a book you don’t need to buy. The important book is one you already have, your Bible. But, if you have decided to teach the history of Israel to your children AND to use the Bible as your text, you may find that The Greenleaf Guide to Old Testament History will be helpful to you.
It is NOT a workbook for students. It is a guide for parents and teachers. It organizes the historical books of the Old Testament into 180 daily readings (the length of one school year). The readings average one, sometimes two chapters a day. The basic pattern is to read the chapter from the Bible to your children. Then ask them to tell you the story in their own words. Then, we include some discussion questions that will help you to profitably discuss the chapter. If this sounds a bit like the Charlotte Mason principles of narration – that’s what we were aiming for!
And I’ll repeat, one more time, the title of this post: This is a book you don’t need to buy. The most important book you can teach to your children is the Bible.
If The Greenleaf Guide to Old Testament History has helped and encouraged families over the years to teach the Bible to their children, then it’s probably the most important book that Cyndy and I have done.
“equal protection can only be defined by the standards of each generation.”
– the Iowa Supreme Court, Varnum et al v. Brien 04/03/2009 p 16
The Iowa Supreme Court ruled that Iowa’s marriage law (which defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman) violates the state constitution’s “equal protection” clause. The unanimous ruling of the Supreme Court orders the state to begin allowing homosexuals to marry starting in three weeks.
So, each generation gets to define its own version of law and morality?
How’s that working out?
You all do realize that the 20th century was the bloodiest century in all of human history, don’t you?
Moral relativism is a recent development. It is unsustainable. It is logically incoherent.
Thankfully, the court did acknowledge another fundamental political reality:
“While the constitution is the supreme law and cannot be altered by the enactment of an ordinary statute, the power of the constitution flows from the people, and the people of Iowa retain the ultimate power to shape it over time.”
The people of Iowa retain the same ability to correct its Supreme Court’s assault on marriage which was available to the people of California.
I was fourteen years old in the summer of 1969, the summer when we landed on the moon. I was at summer camp in Chattanooga when Apollo 11 touched down in the Sea of Tranquility. The astronauts weren’t scheduled to walk until an hour or so after “lights-out,” but everyone knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime moment of history. Those running the camp rigged up a TV for all the campers in the gym, perched on top of one of the basketball goals and with a crazy tangle of extension cords stretched out to power it.
The images we watched were in black & white, and fuzzy, but clear enough for us to be able to see the white space-suited form of Neil Armstrong as he climbed down the ladder of the lunar excursion module and stepped onto the surface of the moon. And we heard his words clearly: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Like thousands of other fourteen- year-old boys, I found NASA’s manned space program fascinating. I could rattle off all sorts of details about the rockets, the spacecraft, the astronauts, and their equipment.
This summer will be the fortieth anniversary of the first man on the moon. There are three very good books just published that tell the story for children very well. And it is a story worth telling them. It is one of the great accomplishments of the 20th century and of American ingenuity and technical prowess. It took only eight years from John F. Kennedy’s announcement of the goal in May of 1961:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kza-iTe2100
The first of the three is Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 by Brian Floca. Moonshot has wonderfully detailed, technical information on the front and back flyleaves, but the strength of this book is the simple, direct text, and clear illustrations that tell the story of the flight of Apollo 11 from the time the astronauts suit up until the time the splash down, back on earth, a week later.
The text of Moonshot is written so that children age 4-7 can easily understand the details of how we went to the moon. Interspersed among the illustrations that show what the astronauts are doing are pictures of a family intently watching the TV coverage. Here are a sampling of the interior pages:
This is a great book for younger readers. Although it pains me to admit my age, this is the perfect book for me to read to my grandson to introduce him to the Apollo program.
The second book is one of the pop-up books that I always find fascinating. When the paper engineering of a pop-up book is married to the story of the Moon Landing, you have a special kind of magic!
Moon Landing has six elaborate and fascinating pop-up scenes depicting key episodes from the race to the moon.
There is the Redstone rocket launching the first US manned flight, the Gemini flight and first spacewalk, a spectacular spherical moon, a detailed articulated space suit, and the lunar module on the surface of the moon. Booklets, flaps, and fold-out pages offer readers a additional intriguing facts, and a peek inside and behind the scenes.
The last of the three books is Team Moon, with the wonderful subtitle, “How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon.”
Team Moon opens, not with shots of the astronauts on the moon, but rather with pictures of hundreds of people gathered to watch the grainy black & white TV pictures beamed back live from the moon. There is a shot of several dozen workers at Grumman (who built the Lunar Lander) crowded around a TV. There is a shot of thousands of New Yorkers gathered in Central Park watching an outdoor TV screen. There is a crowd in Milan, Italy watching a TV on the sidewalk of a café – and there are the anxious faces of the team at mission control watching the coverage as well.
After a brief background on Kennedy’s announcement of the goal, the book begins a detailed account of the landing attempt and the six challenges (most unexpected) faced by the crew. The first challenge was an overloaded computer began failing and sounding alarms. The second challenge was that the landing area was littered with boulders and Armstrong had to fly the Lander past it to a safer spot. But there was very little margin in the fuel supply. In simulations, he had always landed with over 2 minutes reserve left. On the real landing attempt, the flight controllers called out the 120 second warning, then the 60 second warning, then the 30 second warning. Armstrong finally got the Lander down with only 18 seconds of fuel left in reserve. I won’t give away the other problems, but suffice it to say , that there was a lot of fancy footwork going on in Mission Control that was not reported at the time!
This is a great book for any kids who have an interest in the space program and the history of Apollo. The 80 pages are laid out with full page photography on every page – and a very engaging text.
