More from Jefferson on Supreme Court

"Contrary to all correct example, [the Federal judiciary] are in the habit of going out of the question before them, to throw an anchor ahead and grapple further hold for future advances of power. They are then in fact the corps of sappers and miners, steadily working to undermine the independent rights of the States and to consolidate all power in the hands of that government in which they have so important a freehold estate." --Thomas Jefferson: Autobiography, 1821

Jefferson on the Supreme Court

"It has long been my opinion, and I have never shrunk from its
expression,... that the germ of dissolution of our Federal Government is in
the constitution of the Federal Judiciary--an irresponsible body (for
impeachment is scarcely a scare-crow), working like gravity by night and by
day, gaining a little today and a little tomorrow, and advancing its
noiseless step like a thief over the field of jurisdiction until all shall
be usurped from the States and the government be consolidated into one. To
this I am opposed." --Thomas Jefferson to Charles Hammond, 1821.

The Next Right Thing

Many years ago a wise grandfather told me "Lonnie, you want to try and fix the whole world. God doesn't call you to do anything but work to ensure your own backyard is in order." His point being that if God needs us for bigger things he'll let us know. In the meantime we just need to do the next right thing. 

I was reminded of this principle in my morning quiet time today when I read "Sovereign Lord, make clear to me Your agenda for my world. I want to cooperate with You on Your plan, not waste efforts on my plan."

Mr. Frog, the water is getting hotter!

California lists 800 substances with a "1 in 100,000 chance of causing cancer or birth defects over a 70 year period" This is from Prop 65, the law that authorizes the list. California boldly claims that these substances are "known to the State of California to cause cancer." That same "knowing state" is now considering a new gun law that sets limits on ammunition purchases and imposes stiff penalties on people who do not report stolen guns. Supporters "knowingly" proclaim that the law will save "untold lives". I am not sure which bright anti-gun politician came up with that notion. However, the law has broad support from the usual suspects. The Califonia sheep are in full follow mode and it appears that the people of California are going to let this go through.

2nd Amendment supporters beware,  the temperature is fixing to be turned up on the frog in the water.

Being a Judge Means Never Having to Say You are Sorry..

Years ago there was movie called Love Story. It was a chick flick on steroids that yielded the mantra that has come down to us, "love means never having  to say you're sorry." Donald Trump has adopted this as a guiding principle in his life and he has been soundly criticised for it. However, Trump thinking that he has no need to say he is sorry will not hurt us.

However, there is an entire branch of government that has this as its motto... and it can and does hurt us. This is the mantra that "being a judge means never having to say you are sorry (or wrong)". This mantra has been enshrined in an ancient legal concept called "stare decisis" (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precedent) which literally means "to stand by decisions". The practical effect is that courts do not spend a lot of time looking at a case if they feel that stare decisis applies. For example, the "most abominable decision" ever reached by the Supreme Court was the Dred Scott case that held that blacks could not be citizens. The court never overtuned this  awful decision, rather it was left to the implementation of the 13th and 14th amendments to correct the evils of this case.

While stare decisis is a good thing in principle, the major goal of the law is not "the law", rather it is "justice". The entire legal profession needs to grasp this concept again. When stare decisis precludes justice, it is the responsibility of the judiciary to say "I'm sorry" and make things right. If they don't, then constitutional amendment may be in order.

Bloviation is a National Pastime

One of Bill ‘Reilly’s Words for the Day is ‘bloviate’. I must confess, I only watched the first 15 minutes of the first presidential debate last night. ‘Bloviation’ was in full swing! I doubt anything that was said after I turned it off would have changed my mind, so  I was able to abstain with a clear conscience. This morning the talking heads were “debating” who won the “debate”.  Who won the debate is irrelevant. As a nation we have lost the “debate” when the choice for president will be decided by who has the lowest “negatives”.

Raising the B.S. Flag

My son is a genius... no joke, his IQ is that high. However, when he was in high school and at the University of West Florida and living at home, he used to make some fairly controversial assertions at the dinner table. We finally devised a technique to call him back from the intellectual wilderness. It was called the B.S. Flag. Whenever someone at the table had enough, they would raise their right hand as if taking an oath. Whereupon the rest of us would follow suit. He did not appreciate it, but it was generally enough to change the topic. It would seem that it is way past time for university administrators throughout the country to raise the B.S. Flag. Censoring conservative professors (Vanderbilt), taking down pictures of ex presidents (Princeton), out of control protests (Missouri and Yale) are all examples of students run amok. Everyone expects sophomoric outbursts from students... (I would hate for some of my letters to Congressmen in the 60's to surface.) But what we have going on right now is absolute B.S. It is time for those endowments and individuals who fund these institutions to raise the B.S. Flag by defunding them. As us old farts would say "money talks"... and no money talks louder!

Is Obergefell the "Law of the Land"

A lot of folks are saying that the Supreme Court Obergefell decision made same-sex marriage " the law of the land". A reminder is in order here, the Supreme Court does not "make law". The actual holding in the Obergefell case said "The Court, in this decision holds same sex couples may exercise the fundamemtal right to marry in all states." There are no Federal marriage laws and unless and until individual state legislatures change their state laws, county clerks who issue licenses contrary to the existing laws are actually violating the law. County Clerks are generally elected by the people and controlled by state legislatures... They are not beholden to Governors or judges. Truth is "the law of the land" relative to this issue is in limbo and if county clerks exercise their "fundamental rights", the litigation of same sex marriage is far from over.

"Fire, Ready, Aim" and other Inappropriate Responses

In the wake of the Supreme Court Obergefell decision people have been falling all over themselves with ideas on what to do, how to do it, and whether to do whatever it is that they think should be done. Everyone seems to have an idea and the range of ideas reflects the lack of order and unity that got us here in the first place. In my office we have taken to calling it the "Fire, Ready, Aim" syndrome. Perhaps spending a little time reflecting on how and why we got here might be in order. My boss posted a commentary today on our website that may be worthy of your time.  bit.ly/1L9r7lO 

Thoughts on Restoring Order to the Supreme Court

The dust has begun to settle on the recent Supreme Court Obergefell Decision that found a constitutional right to same sex marriage in the 14th Amendment. Regardless of your position on same sex marriage, any supporter of American democratic process should be concerned by the flawed and tortured constitutional logic of the Obergefell decision. As people on both the left and the right are beginning to understand this fact, they are also beginning to understand that the time may have come to exercise the provisions in our constitution that can be used to rein in a runaway judiciary. A hearing was held last week in the Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Oversight  to explore what remedies the Congress and the people might have in dealing with errant decisions by the Court. Dr. John Eastman and Mr. Ed Whelan both provided some excellent insight into the constitutional issues as well as some potential solutions. I commend the testimony of both these men to you.

Living in the Shadow of Mordor

Over this past weekend I got a chance to indulge in my love of the Lord of the Rings series. Hobbits and the Shire and the mythos of Middle Earth have captivated me since I first read the books 46 years ago. Yesterday I watched the last movie depicting the carnage exploding in the great last battle for Middle Earth. As I did it occurred to me that there are parallels between that mythical story and our own time.

You may recall that the story begins with Bilbo Baggins the Hobbit. Hobbits are given to a “live and let live” approach to life. Bilbo was living a comfortable life in the Shire when he was approached to leave the comfort of his surroundings to go on a dangerous adventure. In the course of his journey with an assortment of wizards, dwarfs and elves, Bilbo learns that there is evil afoot and that the shadow of evil is spreading daily. After many harrowing experiences, Bilbo safely retires to his comfortable life in the Shire and puts the reality of the growing evil and danger in the rest of Middle Earth out of his mind. Fast forward 20 or 30 years and Bilbo’s nephew, Frodo, is enlisted by the forces of good who are seeking to thwart the rapidly spreading evil of the Dark Lord of Mordor. It seems that while everyone in the Shire has been living the good life, the forces of evil have grown incredibly strong and they are on the verge of completely overtaking all of Middle Earth.

In the end, the forces of good in Middle Earth finally united in their quest to defeat the evil forces of Mordor. Good prevailed in Middle Earth, but not without great cost. As a nation, we have been “living in the Shire” for decades. We have enjoyed the “good life”. We have been oblivious to the opposing forces that have been growing ever stronger and are now casting an incredibly dark shadow over our land and around the world. We may find that in our time our path will parallel that of the good creatures of Middle Earth. We may find that we prevail, but only at great cost.

Digging Up Dead Generals

The furor over the Confederate flag and now over Nathan Bedford Forest and the burial places and statues of other long dead Confederate generals saddens me deeply. Should the Star and Bars fly over a state capital? I agree it should not. Should we dig up the bodies of every Confederate general and burn them? Maybe we can do as as the British did to Oliver Cromwell’s body, dig them up, hang them in chains and behead them. Surely those actions would smooth the angry waters and bring us together as a nation.  

Everyone has symbols and other things that rub them the wrong way. I personally find it disturbing  that friends and relatives have chosen to put the gay rainbow flag over their profile pictures. In their zeal to celebrate the  gay marriage decision they have apparently overlooked the egregious over reach of the Supreme Court. Even though I passionately disagree with these people, I choose not to demean, berate or unfriend them. I am for keeping them as friends. The minute I began to view others only through the lens of what I am against, I cease to be an influence to them for what I am for.

Bishop Sandy Greene is an Anglican Bishop and a  very wise man who I am blessed to be able to call friend. Some years back I got to  spend an afternoon in a motel coffee shop chatting with him. In the course of our conversation Sandy made one of the most profound statements I have ever heard. He said, “When that which unites us is that which we are against, we are doomed to failure.”

The recent successes of LGBT proponents is an object lesson in what happens when a  group coalesces around “what they are for”. For about 40 years they have been executing a unified plan in pursuit of a well defined goal. Like them or not they are an object lesson of what happens when people have unity of purpose.

Yesterday I was a volunteer at an event with speakers that included Tim Tebow and Dinesh D’Sousa along with my boss David Fowler. In the course of the afternoon I got an opportunity to talk with a lot of folks. I was deeply  saddened that many of the people I spoke to were much more concerned and vocal about what they were against. The truth is until we can UNITE around what we are for, our effectiveness in society will be severely hampered.

Strangers in a Strange Land

Jonathan Rauch recently opined in the New York Daily News that unless Christians conform to the spirit of the times, we will find ourselves “cultural strangers in our own land,” 

Newsflash to the world, Christians are "strangers in this world". We have been “predestined to be conformed to the image of (God’s) Son,” Jesus Christ, not a world system or social trends at enmity with God (Romans 8:29, Romans 12:2, James 4:4). 

We have lived for a long while in a culture where Christian beliefs were valued. Those who held and lived by these beliefs were respected. This no longer the case. Athletes like Tim Tebow or Russell Wilson have been publicly ridiculed for their beliefs. Politicians are daily pilloried because their Biblical values place them at odds with society at large. Disdain for Christians is in vogue and nearly universal.

When we get discouraged in this world run amok it is well to remember Jesus words, 

"If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. (John 15:18-19)".

True haters will hate. True lovers will love. As for me and my house we choose to serve the lover of our very souls and his name is Jesus.

What's Integrity Got to Do With It

When our boys were teenagers, like all parents Carol and I would occasionally found ourselves in conflict with them. At these times, they would often ask,”Well why don’t you just give me a list of what you want me to do and I’ll do it?”  The problem was that the boys were looking for a list of “things” that constituted acceptable behavior. We were looking for them to have a “heart change” such that they would choose to make acceptable choices.

Potential presidential candidates are daily engaged in discussions of the issues facing our world and our nation. They are all trying to come up with a list of “things” that will make them acceptable choices for our next president. The truth is that for any solution they might propose to any given issue, 40% to 50% percent of the people in America will agree and roughly that same percentage will disagree. This dichotomy has led to the gridlock we have experienced I recent years. So the question arises, is there a better way to select our government officials.

There was a time in the not too distant past when integrity was considered to be a very important discriminator in voting decisions. In recent years, integrity has taken a back seat to policy positions and perceived effectiveness. What has been the result of this shift?  A variety of polls indicate that around 80% of Americans distrust our government. Another way of saying this is that 80% of Americans feel our government lacks integrity. The disgust of Americans with our current government would seem to indicate that the importance of integrity needs to be revisited. In my opinion the perceived integrity of a candidate is as important as their policy positions.

What might happen if a candidate ran on a platform of restoring integrity to government? I believe if the people actually believed him or her, that candidate would win by a landslide. 

Don't Spend Time Next to the Cheese

Some years back a fine preacher named Chuck Comella gave a fine analogy of how we stay fresh and life giving. Seems his sister had brought him some very good, albeit smelly cheese. Now Chuck tends to put things in his refrigerator uncovered and he put his fine cheese next to an open pitcher of orange juice. Imagine his surprise when he drank his orange juice only to discover it tasted like cheese.

The point was that when we spend time in prayer and reading our Bibles, we can expect to "smell" more like Christ. The concept holds true in much of life, I.e if we run with the dogs, we'll likely get smelly and have fleas.

Perhaps it's my impending 68th birthday or watching the daily left-right hate fest, but I am totally frustrated with the utter lack of 'communication' in today's political climate.

A while back the Director of The Family Action Council of TN posted an op-ed in the Nashville newspaper, The Tennessean, questioning same sex marriage and laying out a rational case for traditional marriage as he saw it. The furor that it generated was unbelievable. The first 38 comments in response were dripping with vile insinuations and ad hominem attacks that left me shaking my head.

Fast forward to last week when Pope Francis' encyclical "Laudato Si" was released. I read it and was immediately impressed by his loving and reasoned thesis that the ills of the world are traceable to our failure to acknowledge God's plan for mankind, nature, and the earth. While I disagreed with a lot of his conclusions, I do feel the document could certainly form the basis for the start of a meaningful dialogue. Hence I was deeply disturbed by many comments in response that attacked the pope as a pedophile, the institution of the church, liberation theology, socialism, communism, etc.... missing his major point entirely.

My boss often says that the left and the right both have it wrong. The left believes that if we have programs and policies that help the less fortunate all will be well. The right believes that if we implement the right economic policies and tax structures all will be well. Both see government as the answer. During the 2008 campaign, Shane Claiborne was asked by a young lady in the audience whether he favored John McCain or Barack Obama. His response was priceless, "It doesn't matter who gets elected, we'll still be engaged in damage control... As long as we put our faith in man and not in Jesus we will still have a problem.."

Resurrection Sunday

Each year the highlight of Resurrection Sunday for me is our sunrise service. Our church is highly favored in that we have a beautiful campus that borders the Harpeth River and the sunrise service is held in field just a few feet from the river. I like to wake up very early to get there as the band sets up. This year was no exception except that I woke up very, very early… 4am… for  a service that doesn’t start until 6:30!! So I did what any man does when he has unplanned time on his hands, I turned on the television! I was just in time to catch the Easter Mass from St. Peter’s  Square. As I listened to the Pope recite the Mass with tens of thousands there, it occurred to me that the basic form of the Mass was described by Justin nearly 2000 years ago.  The majesty of that  ancient service in that ancient place with thousands of people, my brothers and sisters, overwhelmed me and brought tears to my eyes.

But then it was time for me to go “down by the riverside” to worship. As I backed out of the driveway, I marveled at the beautiful full moon lighting the country landscape behind our home. It took me back to a time several years ago when I was in a Ugandan village that was literally at the end of a cow path. There were no lights, no tv’s, no radios, just the sound of a thousand East African Christians who for two days, night and day, sang songs worshipping the same God that was praised in St. Peter’s. These Africans, most first generation Christians, praised with a fervor and a passion that was overwhelming. The memory of that night and the next morning still moves me years later.

So after a moonlit drive I finally got “down by the riverside” where I watched the mist rising on the Harpeth River and the sun coming over the horizon. Slowly around 800 or 900 of my closest friends came down and waited with me for it all to begin. I would think that the tradition of a service like we experienced is only a couple of hundred years old. The “liturgy of the service was to sing good  old Southern songs like “When the roll is called up Yonder”, “I’ll Fly Away” and other songs best sung to the accompaniment of banjo’s and guitars. All this was followed by a fine sermon culminating in an altar call to which about 10 or 15 people responded and changed their eternal destiny. It was  a great start to the Sunday celebrating Christ’s resurrection.

So what’s the point here. These separate experiences are a reminder that today 2 billion people celebrated the resurrection of the same Jesus in a variety of equally valid ways and despite their differences they are all our brothers and sisters. In a time when Christians are under attack all,over the planet it is even more important to celebrate our unity in Christ!

Thoughts on Common Core

Common Core is a hot topic and generates a lot of hoopla. However, when folks on both sides of the issue are pressed, they tend to provide simplistic explanations that do little to illuminate the debate.  

Supporters of Common Core argue that if you are against it then you must be for our children living in the “intellectual darkness” of inferior standards. Those in the opposite camp argue that Common Core is a “Big Brother” top down initiative from politicians in Washington and a gross over reach by the Federal government. Both these explanations are simplistic and ignore the reality of the situation.

The truth of how Common Core came to be is quite complex and is thoroughly documented in many well researched papers on the Internet. If you are really interested, I’ll be happy to provide links to thoughtful and generally non-hyperbolic discussions of the topic.

That said, I offer the following points:

1)      The historic education standards used in Tennessee and other states are content standards, i.e. the standards define the information or content that we want students to master.  Common Core differs markedly in that it is a “process standard” designed to teach children to “think” and “solve” problems critically.

2)      Anyone who has tried to solve a 3^rd grade Common Core math problem knows  that assessing Common Core is much more complex that just grading a multiple choice test. Since we now want to assess “how” the student thinks, we must use artificial intelligence algorithms that have not been properly researched or tested for this purpose. The Common Core tests are being developed by a consortium called the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC). A full review of this group is beyond the scope of this brief narrative. However, representatives from the testing companies are prominent among the members. These tests are expected to raise the cost of student testing significantly (along with profits to the testing companies). The increased costs for this testing have been largely hidden from the public and legislatures. These increased test costs are highly significant in a time when most states are faced with budgetary limitations.

3)      In order to be eligible for the administration’s “Race to the Top” initiative, states had to agree to implement Common Core. In the quest to secure “Race to the Top” funding, Tennessee signed on for Common Core very quickly. So quickly in fact that the adoption was rushed and not well thought out. Many teachers feel they were inadequately prepared for the implementation. Despite the fact that it is implemented in Tennessee classrooms, we are still utilizing the previous TCAP exams. Although the test data from last year has been very slow to emerge, it appears that these tests results suffered during the last class year. Our legislature has wisely held off implementation of the PARCC testing. However, this puts our children in a very precarious position of once again being tested to the new Common Core standard with tests designed for the old state content standards.

4)      During my interface with classroom teachers in the 2013-2014 school year, I was told that Common Core “shoe horns” all the students into a prescribed “proper ways of thinking”. Most of the brightest students already develop unique problem solving paths and several teachers I have spoken to feel that the Common Core rubric adversely affects them by forcing them into “appropriate” ways of thinking that do not make sense to them. Having tried to follow the Common Core “appropriate ways of thinking” to solve problems, I can totally relate.

In summary:

·         The people pushing Common Core the hardest may be more motivated by profit or the promise of Federal funding than our children's well being.

·         Rather than blindly pushing Common Core, our state administrators might want to look at the evidence where it has been attempted. Most of the evidence I have found is either inconclusive or negative.

·         The legislature needs to take a close look at the cost impact of PARCC testing and its impact on our students and education budgets with an eye to scrapping the Common Core all together. 

·         As parents and concerned citizens we need to get the facts and be prepared to counter the loud (and well funded) forces who are pushing Common Core.

As a very respected national educator put it at the 2013 American Education Research Association (AERA) conference, “When the world's largest software company (Microsoft) and the world's largest testing company (Pearson) are the biggest proponents of Common Core, it should give one pause to wonder why.”

The Tennessee Legislature will again address the Common Core during the next session. As concerned parents, grandparents, and community leaders we need to make sure we understand the issues and share our concerns with our legislators in a respectful, informed manner.

Lastly, According to the Heritage Foundation, the federal government provides just

9%-10% of the funding for public education in the states, yet it is the source of 41% of the administrative

compliance burden for the states. Perhaps the time has come to do a cost benefit assessment on the impact of accepting Federal funding. 

PBear Goes to School

For the last year and a half I have been going to school, but not like you might think. In May of 2012 a colleague of mine at Middle TN State University, asked if I would join a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant project on which he was working. This grant, called Master Teacher Fellowships, was designed to support exceptional high school science and math teachers who teach in under served rural schools. The five year project was designed to give them additional skills to help them to become mentors and raise the competency of other teachers in their schools.

Part of the original grant proposed industry participation in the project for two reasons. The first was to explore how industry could become more involved in supporting education. The second was to provide an opportunity for an 'outsider' to observe teachers in the classroom and share these observations in a report. In other words I was sent back to school. Like many of us, I assumed that school was about like it it was when I was there. Let me be the first to tell you things have changed dramatically since I graduated from high school in 1965. But I would go on and say that if you have children in K-12 right now, things are much different than you remember them.

Most people seem to agree that education in our country is in disarray as reflected by the fact that only 37% would rank U.S. Public schools as good or excellent. At the same time, 77% would rank the school where their child attends as good or excellent. Clearly there is a huge disconnect. The truth is that by most objective measures our education system is in need of reform and the school your child attends may well have systemic issues of which you are unaware.

Many people blame the problems with the education system on the teachers unions, “non-caring, unqualified teachers”, and a tenure system that is believed to protect under performing teachers. This view has permeated the “group think” of a great number of Americans who now demand “accountability” for our teachers. This focus on teacher accountability has resulted in ignoring many other substantive problems that contribute to the overall problems within our education system.

The reality is that numerous research studies confirm that the number one strategy for improving school performance is parental and community involvement. This is true regardless of whether the school is affluent or poor, rural or urban, multicultural, etc. The first step in getting involved is to become aware of what is really happening in your school district. An ever burgeoning cadre of bureaucrats are running our schools and they need to be accountable to parents and the community. Your participation can help make that happen.