Hardly the Last Word

I’m down to the last ten papers in this round of freshman comp grading.? I’ve been grading instead of blogging.? I’m very much tired.

This was the perfect time for book three of Consolation to come along.? We all know that, five days and change from now, when the federal election commission declares the votes tallied and one of two men president-elect, the nastiness that characterizes a presidential campaign is going magically to disappear, and one of the two [...]

That about sums it up.? I’m battling a cold, and Mary’s home sick with a stomach virus.? Micah for the moment is healthy, but I know full well that can change.? And neither Mary nor I slept much at all last night with Mary’s frequent trips to spew forth the unfortunate fruits of the stomach [...]

It’s fun, really, if one throws one’s self into it.? Money has no value at all when hoarded, and it has no staying power when spent.? Political and military power are illusions: they rely on chains of command that become weaker as one uses power more visibly.? Fame is ultimately insignificant: it lasts but a [...]

I have to give credit where credit is due first–in the course of a conversation after Thursday’s Boethius class with a student of mine, I found myself articulating the beginnings of this post as an answer to a good question about disagreements with one’s classmates.? So if that student is reading, thank you for beginning [...]

Why the Devil Takes Visa
First of all, thanks to Robert, one of this blog’s best readers and a friend of mine, for tracking this essay down and linking to it on his own blog.? It’s a classic in my mind, and I’m glad to revisit it for this blog.
Rodney Clapp has been, for many of [...]

When we left the house yesterday morning I forgot the camera, or this would be a Micah pics post.
We started out the day with a trip to Washington Farms in Watkinsville, where we enjoyed a petting zoo, a hay ride, a walk through the pumpkin patch, a slide made of PVC rollers, and a corn-box, [...]

I’m usually reticent to link to my own posts, but I do feel the need to note that, six months ago, I noted that the GOP only gives two farts about abortion in the months leading up to a presidential election:
One Issue or No Issue?
They’re laying on the guilt like it’s 1992 this time around.? [...]

Some time between my turning the laptop off this morning to get Micah ready for school and my sitting down at Panera to grade a couple papers before going to work at Bogart Library, the site’s hit counter went over ten thousand.? I’m in the five-digit club, it seems.
Now I know full well that the [...]

David Iglesias on Attorney Firings
I hadn’t heard much about this since the SCLM gave it a cursory treatment and dropped it (compare, if you will, Bush’s firing attorneys to Clinton’s receiving sexual favors), but this interview was fascinating, so I figured I’d put it up here.
In the interim (I usually let posts gestate, which often [...]

It’s interesting how different classes take the same questions in entirely different directions.? In today’s comp classes we discussed book one of Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy, and along with the text I wrapped up the session with a fairly straightforward question, namely what human nature is.
For Boethius, human nature has to do with the telos [...]

The Media’s Enduring Pro-McCain Double-Standard
The Class War Before Sarah Palin
I know these stories are old news, but I prefer to comment on news a bit after the sizzle has subsided–it keeps my entirely stupid statements contained somewhat.? (That’s not to say I won’t make ‘em, but I tend to be a hair more cautious when [...]

We took on Milton’s “On Education” today, and although it took some prodding, eventually both classes were impressed with the sheer audacity of Milton’s claims (even before he gets to the 41 or so practices, languages, and bodies of knowledge one should master before turning 22).? “The end then of learning,” Milton begins, “is to [...]

As it turns out, I’m a college English teacher.? Now while David Horowitz might try to lead folks to believe that college humanities professors live lavish and luxurious lives living on the labors of the populace and doing no work ourselves, that’s actually not true.? As a grad student at least, I can’t remember the [...]

If the title of this one surprises you, you haven’t been paying enough attention to the ways politicians speak to crowds.? Even if a candidate’s own party has controlled most of the branches of government for most of the last decade, you can put money in the bank that he will blame most of the [...]

I won’t make the (blatantly false) claim that I’ve never talked ugly about people, but as a rule I don’t like it.? That goes for talk about myself, talk about my friends, and even talk about folks who compete against me.? The world of a graduate student is one of competition, and I am not [...]

When I play softball, I bat left-handed. When I shadowbox, I do so southpaw. My lesson plans start with the left margin, and when I write a paper, I left-justify. Stupid reason? Yes. Am I running out of material? Yes. But with 24-hour news networks trying to find [...]

As a teacher, I know full well that I don’t know everything important, and the logical implications of that are that I should listen to people who find my ideas inadequate and, if they can provide alternatives that are more adequate, even if I had not thought such things before, that an honest person should [...]

Frankly, I think that’s why I’m a teacher: I believe, deep down, that people are capable of more than they are at the moment, and I think that a proper course of education can realize potential for thought and discernment.? The problem is that there are people in the world who work at the opposite: [...]

I hate to be the latest person to complain about fall break’s disappearing, but it really did throw off my Plato syllabus.? I packed entirely too much of the ending into the last day–in one session we attempted to discuss Plato’s theory of civil law and his conception of interior slavery and the reincarnation section.? [...]