In past years, I have from time to time attempted to write and post a diary of my reading. Unfortunately, I always tried too hard, picking books I thought would either interest or improve my readers. This time, I am going to note, simply, erratically, and occasionally relevantly, what I am reading and whatever stray thoughts have cropped up.
Lest you should think that verse shall die,
Which sounds the Silver Thames along,
Taught on the wings of Truth, to fly
Above the reach of vulgar song;
“I hate the working class,” my godfather, an artist who painted dream landscapes and equally apolitical still lifes, liked to say between sips of lukewarm tea, I fear only half in jest. I thought of him the other day, when a neighbor’s ancient water main – expanding from violent summer heat, or else dislodged by one of the minor earthquakes we get every so often in Palermo – leaked into my ceiling and I rushed out in search of somebody who could stop the flooding. I don’t know, perhaps Switzerland, Holland, or some other kind of Germany is an exception,...
In this episode, Dr. Fleming turns to discussing Dante’s Moral Code. Is it Christian? Is it Florentine? What is the overall moral scope (and argument) of the Commedia? Does friendship play a role? How is that seen through classical and Christian eyes? Original Air Date: August 20, 2019 Show Run Time: 24 minutes Show Guest(s): Dr. Thomas Fleming Show Host(s): Stephen Heiner This Podcast is available for Silver subscribers and higher. Christianity and Classical Culture℗ is a Production of the Fleming Foundation. Copyright 2019. All rights are reserved and any duplication without explicit written permission is forbidden.
Although he’s back on Twitter as of this writing, recently the tech giant locked gun scholar John Lott out of his account. He’s been the main source for my writing on guns and politics for two decades. And when it came out I reviewed his main book, “More Guns, Less Crime” – great title – as well as one of his other books. Lott’s “crime”? He actually read the New Zealand mass killer’s “manifesto” and quoted its socialist and environmentalist sections. That violated New Zealand’s policy of banning all discussion of the killings. But since when do New Zealand’s policies...
Anyone with one eye half open is aware that American cities have become jungles of violence and sewers of vice. Unfortunately, most of the remedies proposed are worse than the disease. The only possible way out lies with changes more radical than Eastern Europe undertook at the end of the Cold War.
I have never hidden my impecuniousness from the gentle reader, indeed I have flaunted it on occasion. And I do so again now, because otherwise the image I’m about to conjure up – with me on the deck of a large yacht, champagne glass in hand, exchanging pleasant inconsequentialities with the other guests – would reflect badly on the reputation of Wednesday’s Child. This kind of story only makes sense if the narrator is poorer than the proverbial church mouse, and yes, I qualify. I’m as poor as Browning’s “ghostly cricket, creaking where a house was burned,” if you remember...
Chris Cuomo has finally succeeded in attracting public attention. Cuomo was with his family in a bar on Shelter Island, New York, when a Dittohead stranger approached him and made the mistake of calling him “Fredo”—a not very imaginative nickname coined, apparently, by Rush Limbaugh. Cuomo exploded
I don’t own a TV. But during the last week I occasionally have been watching the TV news, which has been dominated by the killings in El Paso and Dayton. FoxNews has been defensive; even Tucker Carlson, by far the best host. CNN, which is nothing but lies. As Tucker said, CNN and other networks – as well as the NY Times, WaPo, etc. – replaced the Russia Hoax with the Racism Hoax. Although I haven’t watched it continuously, which would have landed me in nearby Hoag Hospital’s psych unit, from what I could tell CNN never mentioned the Dayton...
I’ve seen a lot of different iterations of “conservatism” in my life, so I think I’ll pass on the new National Conservatism movement, which just held a conference in Washington, D.C. The least they could have done was hold the shindig out there in the “nation,” somewhere down in Flyover Country. How do you find out if it “plays in Peoria” if you’re not in Peoria? I’m also allergic to using “nationalism” instead of “patriotism.” Dr. Fleming criticized “nationalism” here. He makes the salient point that “nationalism” erases localism. It’s ironic the National Conservative movement is run by something called...
