The Great Debate at the End of the Universe
Before going to bed, I made the mistake of checking the news and found clips of “the debate.” I exhausted my vocbbulary of Americanisms drawn from Captain Billy’s Whizz Bang. Gee Whillikers. Holey Moley.
Category: Free Content
The Stoic Revolution….
I keep my FB account for a few reasons. I do occasionally get news of distant friends. Sometimes I can also share something from the Fleming Foundation, in the hope–usually vain–that it will attract a new subscriber–who feels our work is worth the quarter or fifty cents a day we charge.
Ask Mr Autodidact, NS 2: Faith Hope Charity
I have been asked more than once to clarify what is meant by faith, hope and charity. Faith and hope seem, in English at least, to overlap: If I have faith that my friend will pick me up for work in the morning, doesn’t that mean that I hope he picks me up?
The Autodidact: Latin Matters Conclusion
The American republic was founded, for the most part, by men with fine classical training, and anyone who takes the trouble to read the correspondence of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson will see that their conversation is studded with discussions of points of grammar, ancient history, and even the rhythm of ancient poetry. Jefferson and Adams, although old friends, belonged to rival political parties. What would our presidents have in common that they could talk about? Football? Reality shows on television?
Six Crises, Podcast Episode 0: Introduction
Dr. Fleming and Rex begin a conversation on the plunge of the United States into anarcho-tyranny and on the American refusal to look reality in the face without flinching. In the next six (possibly seven) episodes, they will take up, one by one, the key events that turned a naive American boy into a Jeremiah, First up will be the downing of the U-2 spy plane shot down in 1960.
Ask Mr. Autodidact
Karl White writes in to ask which translations of Herodotus and Thucydides I recommend. In some ways, I am not the best person to ask, since I do not spend much time reading translations, but I have used a number of translations of the historians for classes.
Autodidact: Homer’s Iliad I
So begins an epic poem that many readers even today regard as the best work of literature that has ever been written, equalled only by the Odyssey. I never cared for such judgments—the most important theologian, the 3 greatest western movies ever made, the world’s best hotdog. I leave the making of lists to newly wed brides who torture their husbands with “Honey Do lists” they post on the bathroom mirror.
The Autodidact, New Series I: Why Latin Matters, Part A
Anyone interested in the study of the ancient Greeks and Romans–the languages, the literature, history, philosophy, etc–may wish to visit the Autodidact on Fleming.Foundation.
Humpty Dumpty on Idiots
I continue to learn the most amazing things on Facebook–generally the things I thought I knew in grammar school and had to spend a lifetime unlearning. Today, someone recirculated a meme with the old wheeze that “idiot” comes from a Greek word meaning private citizen who did not take an interest in public affairs, to which a libertarian–very reliable people, libertarians, one knows what they are going to respond before a question is posed–that the polis was everything.
Humpty Dumpty: The New Blasphemy
In a previous light-hearted exercise in “revenge fantasy,” we touched upon the secular/blasphemous misuse of words with strong religious or cultural roots.
