7 Quick Takes for October 16

For the Seven Quick Takes roundup.

1. A giant has passed. On Monday, Chris Klicka, the longest-serving attorney at home school legal Defense Association, passed away in Colorado after a 15 year battle with multiple sclerosis. I will miss him. I worked for him briefly nine years ago before I moved to the litigation department, and his passion for encouraging Christian parents to disciple their children was truly amazing. Of the tributes that I saw on the web, I think I liked this one best. "The era of Chris Klicka" - I like that.


2. Thanks to the generosity of the Morgan family on my birthday, I actually bought a brand-new hardcover book this week. This is rare for me; most of my books are paperbacks that I have picked up second (or third or fourth) hand at library book sales. The book is Prospero Lost by L. Jagi Lamplighter, the wife of one of my favorite bloggers, John C. Wright. I am thoroughly enjoying it -- I like the interaction between old mythology and modern technology.

3. When I was single and living at the Hall house, I was a regular at local high school volleyball games. In fact, when I went away for two months to study for the bar exam, the local volleyball team gave me a signed program saying that they would miss my cheering. (I would usually come home from a game with my throat hoarse.) In the last month, I have gotten to go to two local games, and I have brought Addie with me. It's great fun to hear her cheering loudly for the team, especially when we sit over in the visitor section and cheer for the home team.

4. This week at our homeschool co-op, the military history class I teach was on two battles that I entitled "The Defense of Christendom” -- the Battle of Tours in 732 and the Siege of Vienna in 1683. I am really having fun teaching this class. The boys are very good at asking questions and coming up with interesting solutions to the battles. Next week, we discuss Henry V at Agincourt and Joan of Arc at Orleans. I'm going to show them a clip from Kenneth Branagh's Henry V to show them what a cavalry charge looks like from the perspective of the poor infantry waiting to receive it. I first saw Henry V in a homeschool class that I had in high school, and it's still one of my favorite movies.

5. I always enjoy Gene Veith's blog posts, and I really liked the one he did today about a book burning of Bibles scheduled for Halloween - but done by a Baptist church in North Carolina! I remember running into a King-James-version-only advocate at a homeschool conference a few years ago, and it was a rather unnerving experience, since he was so intense and single-focused. With all the problems and issues of modern Christianity, I just can't get too excited about the alleged perils of the NIV.

6. When I was a senior in law school at Oak Brook, my senior paper was on the International Criminal Court, which didn't actually exist yet, since the Rome Treaty had not been ratified by enough countries. The conclusion of my paper: “It is obvious that the purpose behind the International Criminal Court is valid. Too many dictators and strongmen in the world today are not subject to any prosecution for crimes which are decried by all civilized humans. There is truly a gap in jurisdiction. Under natural law and revealed law, their actions are sinful and should be punished by the civil authorities.
But such a complex problem is not susceptible to easy solutions. The current Statute, while well-intentioned, is an attempted 'quick fix.' The serious attack on sovereignty and the lack of protection for criminal defendants show that the Statute is too problematic to fully address the problem.”

Now that the ICC is actually in existence, I have been in favor of many of its actions. However, it will be interesting to see whether the Court actually decides to get involved in the Israeli -- Palestinian conflict, should the UN Security Council determined that either Israel or Hamas has not sufficiently reviewed their actions in the recent Gaza war. After all, we know that this is a "classic blunder."

7. Last night on NPR, I heard about book that I think could be fascinating. It's called "Buy Ketchup in May, Fly at Noon." It's a book on the best time to do everything. Sounds like it's chock-full of great little trivia. Just my kind of book.

Have a great weekend!

--DJ