A Presuppositional Critique of Constructivism

Educational theories have roots. They have roots in broader philosophies, conceptions of the nature of reality, and the theories utilized in classrooms to teach have implications for broader society. The author takes a presuppostitional view and shows that all systems have most basic beliefs that are un-provable. So at the heart of any form of interpretive schema or paradigm is faith in that schema. The author discusses the role of theories of truth, how fact-constructivism embraces a relativist position that is self-refuting, and ultimately is untenable absent a suspension of laws of logic. The author argues in favor of revelation from God as axiomatic and demonstrates how logic can exist on that basis, whereas on a secular basis, philosophy cannot generate any True facts whatsoever. The author then looks at the educational theory of constructivism and examines the theory and practices it endorses it in light of the presuppositional critique and concludes that the relativistic nature of constructivism precludes it from being a philosophically acceptable approach for the Christian

The Growth of the Commerce Clause as Mechanism of Control

Article 1, Section 8, clause 3 of the United States Constitution states that “Congress shall have the power… To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes”. This short and simple statement has been progressively used, in combination with a few other powers both granted and assumed by various federal actors, to take greater and broader powers over the states and private citizenry. The original judicial understanding of the so-called Commerce Clause (differentiated from original intent) comes from the 1824 case of Gibbons v. Ogden, 22 U.S. 1. Through subsequent cases, the judicial understanding of the commerce clause is clarified. Then during the administration of Franklin Roosevelt, there seemed to be a change in attitude toward using an enumerated power to infringe on a police power, which is properly the role of the individual states. Through this new understanding of the power of the commerce clause, 20th century America sees unprecedented growth in federal regulation and criminalization on numerous fronts of civil society. This understanding continued until about 1995, when the Supreme Court struck down the Gun Free School Zones Act as unconstitutional. This began a shift in the way the Court saw the power of the commerce clause as elements of the federal government began to temper what they perceived their powers to be

Paul Rickert\u27s Tax Day TEA Party Speech - Lafayette Square, Washington, DC

Here is the text to my speech given at Lafayette Square, on April 15, 2009 at the National Tax Day TEA Party event. I had not concluded my remarks when the Secret Service shut down the event for safety concerns over a package being thrown over the fence onto the White House lawn. In the end it only had tea bags in it, but it effectively shut down the event

Slavery in the 21st Century

This paper briefly examines the modern practice of slavery. It attempts to demonstrate that slavery is a larger problem than most understand, does exist in the United States, and will outline some effective means to combat it

A Presuppositional Critique of Constructivism

Educational theories have roots. They have roots in broader philosophies, conceptions of the nature of reality, and the theories utilized in classrooms to teach have implications for broader society. Specifically, this paper discusses the problems of constructivist theory in the classroom. The author takes a presuppostitional view and shows that all systems have most basic beliefs which are un-provable. So at the heart of any form of interpretive schema is faith in that schema. The author discusses ontological and epistemological options and how shifts in philosophy change the order of the most basic beliefs, but not the fact that they are beliefs, nonetheless. The author discusses the role of theories of truth, and how a fact-constructivism embraces a relativist position that is self-refuting and ultimately untenable absent a suspension of laws of logic. The author argues in favor of revelation from God as axiomatic and demonstrates how logic can exist on that basis, whereas on a secular basis, philosophy cannot generate any True facts whatsoever. The author then looks at the educational theory of constructivism and examines the theory and the classroom practices it endorses it in light of the presuppositional critique

Legal Positivism: The Leading Legal Theory in America

The author discusses the transition in from a Natural Law base for American Jurisprudence to legal positivism

Combating Money Laundering

This paper discusses the modern problem of dealing with money laundering. Illicit occupations inherently create illicit incomes that must be given the appearance of legitimately earned income. The more government criminalizes activities of its citizens, the greater the need for laundering money

The Likely Effect of a Radiological Dispersion Device

With the end of the Cold War, the political and strategic relationships that undergirded the global balance of power were shattered. The powers that held nation-states together, like the USSR, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and others largely disappeared and to fill the vacuum left by the reduction of political authority, nationalist and religious identities emerged strong. As a result, the former USSR has broken into at least thirteen new countries, mostly along historic ethnic lines, Czechoslovakia into two, Yugoslavia, violently, into five along both religious and ethnic lines. These are only the most familiar examples, as there are many more. The threat of this type of strategic and geopolitical change is in the change itself. During this time, most significantly in the former USSR, much of the military hardware was sold off, traded, or stolen, to include radiological materials

Slow, Steady-State Transport with "Loading" and Bulk Reactions: the Mixed Ionic Conductor La2_2CuO4+δ_{4+\delta}

We consider slow, steady transport for the normal state of the superconductor La$_2$CuO$_{4+\delta}$ in a one-dimensional geometry, with surface fluxes sufficiently general to permit oxygen to be driven into the sample (``loaded'') either by electrochemical means or by high oxygen partial pressure. We include the bulk reaction O$\to$O$^{2-}+2h$, where neutral atoms ($a$) go into ions ($i$) and holes ($h$). For slow, steady transport, the transport equations simplify because the bulk reaction rate density $r$ and the bulk loading rates $\partial_t n$ then are uniform in space and time. All three fluxes $j$ must be specified at each surface, which for a uniform current density $J$ corresponds to five independent fluxes. These fluxes generate two types of static modes at each surface and a bulk response with a voltage profile that varies quadratically in space, characterized by $J$ and the total oxygen flux $j_O$ (neutral plus ion) at each surface. One type of surface mode is associated with electrical screening; the other type is associated both with diffusion and drift, and with chemical reaction (the {\it diffusion-reaction mode}). The diffusion-reaction mode is accompanied by changes in the chemical potentials $\mu$, and by reactions and fluxes, but it neither carries current (J=0) nor loads the system chemically ($j_O=0$). Generation of the diffusion-reaction mode may explain the phenomenon of ``turbulence in the voltage'' often observed near the electrodes of other mixed ionic electronic conductors (MIECs).Comment: 11 pages, 1 figur

Fuzzy cellular model for on-line traffic simulation

This paper introduces a fuzzy cellular model of road traffic that was intended for on-line applications in traffic control. The presented model uses fuzzy sets theory to deal with uncertainty of both input data and simulation results. Vehicles are modelled individually, thus various classes of them can be taken into consideration. In the proposed approach, all parameters of vehicles are described by means of fuzzy numbers. The model was implemented in a simulation of vehicles queue discharge process. Changes of the queue length were analysed in this experiment and compared to the results of NaSch cellular automata model.Comment: The original publication is available at http://www.springerlink.co