tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-115424492024-03-16T14:53:00.242-04:00Vital RemnantsObservations in Defense of the ObviousMartin Cothranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16452612266051351726noreply@blogger.comBlogger2804125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11542449.post-83646985467001143902024-02-23T14:13:00.006-05:002024-03-12T10:28:28.353-04:00Five Best Books on Classical EducationI frequently get the question from classical educators which books about classical education are the best. Here are my top five:1. A Defence of Classical Education, by R.W. Livingstone, 1917. This book is written by someone who was a prominent classical educator in the days when classical education was the primary mode of education, but was being called into question by advocates of educational Martin Cothranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16452612266051351726noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11542449.post-52416076238490023012023-03-06T17:34:00.016-05:002023-03-09T13:57:16.678-05:00For the 1,619th Time, No One Wants CRT Taught in SchoolsUntil about a couple of years ago, very few people had ever even heard of "Critical Race Theory," but today it is hard to find anyone who doesn't have an opinion about it.Another indication of its influence is that it also now has its own acronym: "CRT." An acronym is not only a letter-saving device designed to simplify words that would otherwise constitute a mouthful, but, for some people, Martin Cothranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16452612266051351726noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11542449.post-81877476812095143482023-01-04T19:13:00.004-05:002023-01-04T19:13:36.426-05:00The Republican Opposition's Gnostic Rebellion: Or, why McCarthy's opponents should stop acting like a bunch of liberalsMakis E. WarlamisThe failure of Kevin McCarthy to secure the speakership of the U.S. House certainly doesn't reflect well on McCarthy. It is his first test as a leader: can he secure the support he needs in his own party? If he can't win his fellow Republicans, how can we expect him to command leadership in a chamber in which the opposition party has almost as many seats as his own?Still, the Martin Cothranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16452612266051351726noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11542449.post-57455570115350113822022-12-05T16:32:00.005-05:002022-12-06T16:13:05.505-05:00Bring Back Wonder Bread: The Dietary Industrial Complex and the Food Allergy CrisisThe other day, I opened my refrigerator to retrieve the cream to put in my coffee, only to discover that there was, in fact, no cream. Instead, I was confronted with oat milk. Someone had been staying at our house and there turned out to be legitimate reasons for it being there, but it reminded me of something I have been bellyaching about for a few years now: the current prevalence of food Martin Cothranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16452612266051351726noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11542449.post-49571283215981370402022-09-13T11:13:00.004-04:002022-09-13T13:39:18.908-04:00Our Royal Double StandardI've always wondered what Queen Elizabeth must have thought of the modern world. She began her life as a member of the royal family with no clear path to the throne and probably no thought on her part that there would be. Then, through an event almost unthinkable in the world of royalty and in the world of that time—the abdication of a British sovereign—she became the heir to the throne, to whichMartin Cothranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16452612266051351726noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11542449.post-71194821984930478842022-09-07T16:43:00.004-04:002022-09-07T17:19:23.186-04:00Knowing the Liberal ArtsThere are many ways to argue. One of them is not to argue at all. This seems to be William Michael's preferred method. Michael and I have been arguing about the definition of classical education (sort of), and whether anyone but him has any business talking about it. His preferred method for making his case seems to consist of making an assertion (e.g. that I don't know what classical education Martin Cothranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16452612266051351726noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11542449.post-34196473907169636112022-08-31T11:35:00.009-04:002022-08-31T12:07:52.869-04:00Were Homer's Works Taught in Classical Schools? A Second Rejoinder to William MichaelOf the seven points William Michael makes in response to my response to his critique, one of the statements he makes is this: "There is no evidence of anyone ever studying Homer as part of any school curriculum in classical or Christian history." I'll have to hand it to him: he's doesn't pussyfoot around. He comes right out and says what he thinks. I have read this assertion about the Martin Cothranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16452612266051351726noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11542449.post-33769320290301248782022-08-29T15:55:00.005-04:002022-08-31T13:47:50.036-04:00The Definition of Classical Education: My Rejoinder to William MichaelMy last post was a response to William Michael, who critiqued a short promotional video I did for Memoria Press called "What is Classical Education?" Michael then published a rejoinder to my post. He begins his response by stating that I "ignored most of the content" of his video. Yeah, well, when responding to a video that is an hour and eleven minutes long (responding to my puny five Martin Cothranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16452612266051351726noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11542449.post-41007422035212323792022-08-26T22:27:00.000-04:002022-08-26T22:27:41.221-04:00Is Homer Classical? A Response to William MichaelYou shouldn't mind being criticized as long as the person doing the criticizing knows how to criticize. If he doesn't, then you feel obligated, not only to respond to the charges, but to point out what a bad job the critic did in trying to criticize you, which, admittedly, is sort of like giving the guy who is shooting at you lessons in how to operate his weapon properly. Good criticism leads to Martin Cothranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16452612266051351726noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11542449.post-47574793598756588672022-08-05T10:21:00.002-04:002022-08-05T11:11:15.283-04:00Careful you don't get whiplash. Progressives are now against censorship again.Censorship is acceptable when it restricts the free exchange of ideas, but not when it protects children from inappropriate material in a school library. In other words, they're kind of non-binary when it comes to logical consistency.A Utah school district is removing a number of books that have little to do with the purpose of schools and at least some of which are clearly intended to Martin Cothranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16452612266051351726noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11542449.post-86990927155208981572022-07-28T09:00:00.000-04:002022-07-28T09:00:00.205-04:00Republicans pleading nolo contedere on social issuesThe Achilles heel of the modern Republican Party is its unending attempts to avoid addressing all but the most pressing social issues in favor of a focus on abstract economic issues. The party still invokes the name of Ronald Reagan, but it has knocked off the third leg of the Reagan stool, which is one of the reasons it keeps tipping over.Reagan emphasized three things: Smaller government, a Martin Cothranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16452612266051351726noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11542449.post-38805743383753091872022-07-27T11:37:00.003-04:002022-08-05T11:05:15.236-04:00The Five Central BooksThere are five books that everyone who wants to become classically educated should aspire to read and understand. I have called them the "central" books because they seem to stand, historically, at the literary center of the learning of educated people in the English world. Here they are:Homer: by which we mean the Iliad and Odyssey, the book (they originally formed a diptych) that told the storyMartin Cothranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16452612266051351726noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11542449.post-46602201998847993482022-05-18T14:19:00.002-04:002022-05-18T14:23:50.845-04:00The Champions of Tolerance Go Medieval on a Louisville SchoolOver the last two or three days, the Tolerance Police have surrounded Christian Academy of Louisville, demanding that they give up their religious beliefs and come out peacefully.The latest development in this tolerance-induced hostage crisis was a news story in today's Louisville Courier-Journal (in which I am quoted) that quotes several people who charge that a Christian school is engaged in Martin Cothranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16452612266051351726noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11542449.post-13902507827717375162020-08-25T11:51:00.002-04:002020-08-25T11:51:51.857-04:00Are Bans on "Gay Conversion Therapy" Based on Reason and Evidence?A legislative panel held a hearing this morning to consider the issue of a ban on "gay conversion therapy." Here are a few questions lawmakers should ask before supporting a counseling censorship bill that would put legislators with no medical expertise in the position of judging appropriate medical treatments:First, supporters of the counseling censorship ban cite several specific practices thatMartin Cothranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16452612266051351726noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11542449.post-34223395570056203472020-06-06T14:48:00.001-04:002020-06-06T14:48:17.278-04:00The Roots of the World
G. K. Chesterton's observations about the attempt to uproot religion are just as relevant to the attempt to uproot our civilization:
The Roots of the World
by G.K. Chesterton
Daily News, August 17, 1907
Once upon a time a little boy lived in a garden in which he was permitted to pick the flowers but forbidden to pull them up by the roots. There was, however, one particular Martin Cothranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16452612266051351726noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11542449.post-52056724074372992262019-11-27T12:06:00.000-05:002019-11-27T12:06:29.056-05:00The Grievance-Mongers Should Leave Thanksgiving Alone
My new article at Intellectual Takout:
When you scoop that spoonful of mashed potatoes into your mouth this Thanksgiving, just think of all of the Indians that had to die so that you could enjoy turkey and dressing with your family.
Or at least that's how some would have it.
It wasn't too long ago that Thanksgiving was considered a time to celebrate the things we had in Martin Cothranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16452612266051351726noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11542449.post-20145216626118950652019-11-17T14:25:00.001-05:002019-11-19T14:23:38.180-05:00Saving the Quid Pro Quos from Bribery and Extortion
You just can't say that Latin isn't relevant anymore.
On "This Week" with George Stephanopolous, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney tried to defend the Democrats rhetorical strategy last week of shifting their terminology. After focus groups showed that the Latin expression "quid pro quo" didn't elicit the negative feelings that terms such as "extortion" and "bribery" did, these latter two terms Martin Cothranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16452612266051351726noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11542449.post-37706881705518021662019-11-16T10:22:00.001-05:002019-11-16T10:22:33.983-05:00The New New Criterion: A College that Still Thinks Beauty (and Truth and Goodness) Matter
I don't know why I received it so late and why I received two copies, but the November issue of The New Criterion is out and, as usual, contains some interesting things, including Roger Kimball's always excellent "News & Comments," in which, this month, he talks about Hillsdale College's new Christ Cathedral, which he rightly calls a "signal event at an important academic institution."
TheMartin Cothranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16452612266051351726noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11542449.post-5195430587490574312019-11-10T14:02:00.001-05:002019-11-10T15:18:29.118-05:00The Questionable Major Premise in the Case Against Trump
Whether you think that Trump acted unethically, or criminally, or impeachably (is that a word?), what exactly is the argument? I have often said that, when you are trying to analyze an argument in real life, the first thing to do is to figure out the major premise of your opponent's argument.
All arguments have one big, universal premise. In the argument,
All men are mortal
Martin Cothranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16452612266051351726noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11542449.post-67387052983297541102019-11-07T16:30:00.002-05:002019-11-07T20:28:58.844-05:00How to Interpret an Election--And How Not To
Sometimes it seems as if the interpretation of election results has about the same objectivity as an astrological forecast. In the case of the recent state elections in Kentucky, Virginia, and Mississippi, the analyses we have are mostly the customary partisan interpretations--either that they showed that Trump was weak because of the loss of Matt Bevin in Kentucky, or that Republicans did Martin Cothranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16452612266051351726noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11542449.post-26301110955982420642019-10-07T14:47:00.001-04:002019-10-07T15:58:27.707-04:00Three Questions about Impeachment
There are three questions to ask about impeachment: 1) Did the President commit a crime? 2) If the President committed a crime, is it an impeachable crime? 3) Are the Democrats running the impeachment process qualified―ethically or politically―to judge him.
Did the President commit a crime? I'm not sure we know this. I think a lot of people think he acted unethically, but not all unethicalMartin Cothranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16452612266051351726noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11542449.post-31437641392739920042019-09-25T23:02:00.000-04:002019-09-26T11:22:14.442-04:00Matt Bevin and His Fashionable Media EnemiesThe fact that there is liberal bias in the mainstream media is not exactly headline news, nor is the idea that it has been going on a long time. But there is one noticeable difference in the liberal media now as opposed to, say, twenty years ago.
It used to be that reporters saw themselves as unbiased and were just unaware of the attitudes that made their way into their stories. But that Martin Cothranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16452612266051351726noreply@blogger.com46tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11542449.post-26108120387859662742019-08-17T12:33:00.001-04:002022-10-07T13:35:29.741-04:00Woodstock was the coming out party for the Worst GenerationMy column on the 50th anniversary of Woodstock is up at Intellectual Takeout:
It is the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, and we're already being subjected to dreamy reminiscences about it from people whose accounts cannot really be relied upon because they are based largely on memories of people who were in a drug-induced stupor.
If you were on drugs, Woodstock seemed great. Of course, if Martin Cothranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16452612266051351726noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11542449.post-26969068690943611772019-08-05T23:05:00.000-04:002019-08-05T23:05:15.927-04:00Blaming Everyone but the Shooter
I hate to employ the word because it is so overused, but left-wing progressives are having one big meltdown over the shootings in El Paso and Dayton. Now there are a lot of appropriate responses to the shootings, such as sorry, grief, and anger. And note that none of these reactions is political in nature.
The most remarkable thing about the reaction of liberal Democrats is that it is Martin Cothranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16452612266051351726noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11542449.post-3371488373444146592019-07-14T16:39:00.000-04:002019-07-14T16:39:35.390-04:00The Democrats Fake Outrage on Immigrant DetentionSo let me get this straight: The Democrats--who supported exactly the same immigration policies during the Obama administration and who have been pushing for open borders (a policy which even the U. S. House, which they run, has not passed) and telling the world of their intentions to provide free medical care to all immigrants and thereby issuing a global invitation for people to come here--are Martin Cothranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16452612266051351726noreply@blogger.com2