Why I Prefer Baseball by Daniel Henninger

Why I Prefer Baseball by Daniel Henninger

The road up in baseball is different. Promising teenagers go from high school into baseball’s minor leagues. They play for teams in places like Delmarva, Clinton and Greenville. They travel by bus and play before crowds not much bigger than what they had in Little League. They rise from A ball to AA (say, the Trenton Thunder) then AAA teams, which are in places most people have heard of, like Toledo, Fresno or El Paso.

Not only a good repudiation of the ungrateful football players, but an unintended criticism of the college pipeline for football players. Lots to think about there. 

I Understand Why They Knelt by David French

I Understand Why They Knelt by David French

So, yes, I understand why they knelt. I understand why men who would never otherwise bring politics onto the playing field — and never had politicized sports before — felt that they could not be seen to comply with a demagogue’s demands. I understand why even owners who gave millions to Trump expressed solidarity with their players. I understand why even Trump supporters like Rex Ryan were appalled at the president’s actions.

I hate that I have to agree with this, but David French is right.

Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder

Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder

What goes unexplored in Nomadland are the economic consequences of the cultural transformations that have shaped American life in the last 50 years. Bruder’s subjects are like a roadmap of that transformation. We’ve made divorce easy and more socially acceptable, but perhaps failed to warn people that it can “devastate your wealth,” as sociologist Jay Zagorsky noted in 2005 research published in the Journal of Sociology. “If you really want to increase your wealth, get married and stay married,” Zagarsky wrote. Bad marriages will happen, of course, and some really do need to end, but the financial consequences of these events are not the fault of the American economy—as the stories of Bob and Don illustrate. Similarly, we now know that the surest way into poverty, especially for a woman, is to have children without a husband, and to do so without completing high school. Some 40 percent of women living under such circumstances are in poverty—and they face a formidable array of obstacles to climbing out of the economic cellar. Can we assign blame for this to the American economy—or does the stark rise in the number of children born out of wedlock bear the real blame?

Interesting review of a book that purports to dive into the lives of those unfortunate "disadvantaged" while blaming America and its economic woes. 

“Human Life Is Punishment,” and Other Pleasures of Studying Latin by Frankie Thomas

“Human Life Is Punishment,” and Other Pleasures of Studying Latin by Frankie Thomas

English is constantly on my mind in Latin class. Unlike non-dead languages, Latin places no pressure on the beginner student to outgrow the training wheels of one’s native language. Spontaneous conversation is not the goal, and thank the gods for that. Even at the highest levels, all Latin study is undertaken with an eye toward translation. In this respect, it hardly qualifies as “learning a language” at all; it has more in common with my mother’s addiction to those maddening cryptic crosswords in The Nation. Or, for that matter, her fondness for the crime novels of Walter Mosley and Michael Connelly. Every Latin sentence is a mystery to be solved, and the joy of translation, as with all detective fiction, is the promise that life can be untangled and reorganized into something neat and orderly.

Beautiful defense of learning Latin.

An Open Letter to Ta-Nehisi Coates by Jason Hill

An Open Letter to Ta-Nehisi Coates by Jason Hill

I am saddened by your conviction that white people wield such a great deal of metaphysical power over the exercise of your own agency. In making an enemy of the Dream that is a constitutive feature of American identity, you have irrevocably alienated yourself from the redemptive hope, the inclusive unity, and the faith and charity that are necessary for America to move ever closer to achieving moral excellence. Sadder still, you have condemned the unyielding confidence in self that the Dream inspires.

This is probably the most well-reasoned defense of the American Dream I have ever read.

Straight Talk for College Women by Jennifer C. Braceras

Straight Talk for College Women by Jennifer C. Braceras

Workshops and training sessions will also do nothing to keep students safe if those sessions ignore the elephant in the room: the hookup culture. Academics and college administrators today operate under the assumption that alcohol-infused sex between virtual strangers is a matter of “private choice.” They fear that any warnings to avoid such risk-fraught encounters will be lambasted as old-fashioned or, worse, judgmental. They live in fear that if they tell the truth about alcohol and hookup culture, they will be accused of “blaming the victim.” So they refuse to give you tips that might actually keep you safe...

Wow. Refreshing dose of common sense, that apparently isn't so common.

'It Is Chilling to Hear...' by WSJ editorial board

'It Is Chilling to Hear...' by WSJ editorial board

It is chilling to hear from a United States Senator that this might now disqualify someone from service as a federal judge. I ask you and your colleagues to respect those in whom “dogma lives loudly”—which is a condition we call faith. For the attempt to live such faith while one upholds the law should command respect, not evoke concern.

We are starting to see a war on religious faith from the very top. What was once thought unthinkable in America is now happening.

How a Generation Lost its Common Culture by Patrick Deneen

How a Generation Lost its Common Culture by Patrick Deneen

Our students’ ignorance is not a failing of the educational system – it is its crowning achievement. Efforts by several generations of philosophers and reformers and public policy experts — whom our students (and most of us) know nothing about — have combined to produce a generation of know-nothings. The pervasive ignorance of our students is not a mere accident or unfortunate but correctible outcome, if only we hire better teachers or tweak the reading lists in high school. It is the consequence of a civilizational commitment to civilizational suicide. The end of history for our students signals the End of History for the West.

We need classical education more than ever. Our very existence depends on it.

Virtual Virtue by Victor Davis Hanson

Virtual Virtue by Victor Davis Hanson

In sum, the more prominent persons voice virtual virtue at no cost, the quieter ones know better and make the necessary adjustments that fit what they see and hear and conclude. The result of our two worlds is that the virtual virtue signalers grow ever louder only to reach deaf ears; while the quieter become even more cynical and detached in having to live what increasingly seems a charade.

The Left's version of cheap grace.

Here’s The Answer Rob Bell Won’t Give Aaron Rodgers About Salvation For People ‘In A Remote Rainforest’ by Peter Burfeind

Here’s The Answer Rob Bell Won’t Give Aaron Rodgers About Salvation For People ‘In A Remote Rainforest’ by Peter Burfeind

If indeed Christ proclaimed the gospel in Sheol/Hades to those who never heard in the Old Testament age, that would explain how “God overlooked” their ignorance. He didn’t excuse it or ignore it. He deferred it until the time his son would give them a chance to repent. I argue for a place in Sheol called Hyperidon (Greek for “overlooking”), distinct from Abraham’s Bosom and Gehenna, reserved for those who neither received nor rejected the Word, but simply never heard. God overlooked their ignorance until the proper time, when Christ preached to them.

Brilliant theological insight into the old conundrum about the Pygmy in Africa...

From Cicero to Trump, They’re All in Plutarch’s ‘Lives’ by Rebecca Burgess and Hugh Liebert

From Cicero to Trump, They’re All in Plutarch’s ‘Lives’ by Rebecca Burgess and Hugh Liebert

Plutarch also wrote his lives in parallel: He paired Greeks and Romans, concluding each presentation with a short “comparison” that prodded readers to decide which of the two was superior and in what respects. The point wasn’t to show that the Greeks were better than the Romans or vice versa, but to reveal the character of the competitors and nudge readers to form judgments about virtue.

This is why I love classical education so much!