Bio

Check out my podcast/blog Three Drink Minimum here: http://3drinkmin.blogspot.com/

Also available on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/three-drink-minimum-podcast/id565694601

The only podcast where you get to listen to two conservatives discuss culture, religion, and life after they’ve had three drinks. No more, no less. Too few and we’d lose our nerve, too many and we’d lose our lunch.


People FreeWifiDuringSermon is Following (4)



People Following FreeWifiDuringSermon (4)



Conversations FreeWifiDuringSermon is Following (76)

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Conversations FreeWifiDuringSermon has Started (44)

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FreeWifiDuringSermon's Profile

FreeWifiDuringSermon
Name:
FreeWifiDuringSermon
Hometown:
Cincinnati, OH
Joined:
Apr 7, 2011

Recent Comments

FreeWifiDuringSermon

Barack Obama's gangster nickname should be Barry Pineapples.

FreeWifiDuringSermon

Joseph Eagar

FreeWifiDuringSermon

On 3. Since you insist on making the utilitarian argument, I'll relate my experience:  I had a traditional liberal arts education in high school and college.  We read very little that was written after 1950. Now, I write for a living,  and do it better than most of my colleagues. I've created research reports, blogs, and marketing copy on top of all the e-mails that every office job requires these days. Do you see a connection? ·

Not really.   <snipped for word limit>. · 18 hours ago

You've refuted nothing. Let's do another lap. You believe informational texts will better prepare students for the type of writing they'll need to do in the working world.  I believe reading and analyzing classics produces higher quality writers because they know what great writing looks like.  In raw utilitarian terms, reading and writing about Shakespeare and Homer made me a more productive participant in the economy.  It didn't matter that I wasn't trained in "business writing". In fact, it may have helped that I wasn't trained in it. 

FreeWifiDuringSermon

Joseph Eagar

FreeWifiDuringSermon

On 3. Since you insist on making the utilitarian argument, I'll relate my experience:  I had a traditional liberal arts education in high school and college.  We read very little that was written after 1950. Now, I write for a living,  and do it better than most of my colleagues. I've created research reports, blogs, and marketing copy on top of all the e-mails that every office job requires these days. Do you see a connection? ·

Not really.   <snipped for word limit>. · 18 hours ago

You've refuted nothing. Let's do another lap. You believe informational texts will better prepare students for the type of writing they'll need to do in the working world.  I believe reading and analyzing classics produces higher quality writers because they know what great writing looks like.  In raw utilitarian terms, reading and writing about Shakespeare and Homer made me a more productive participant in the economy.  It didn't matter that I wasn't trained in "business writing". In fact, it may have helped that I wasn't trained in it. 

FreeWifiDuringSermon

Joseph Eagar

FreeWifiDuringSermon

On 3. Since you insist on making the utilitarian argument, I'll relate my experience:  I had a traditional liberal arts education in high school and college.  We read very little that was written after 1950. Now, I write for a living,  and do it better than most of my colleagues. I've created research reports, blogs, and marketing copy on top of all the e-mails that every office job requires these days. Do you see a connection? ·

Not really.   <snipped for word limit>. · 18 hours ago

You've refuted nothing. Let's do another lap. You believe informational texts will better prepare students for the type of writing they'll need to do in the working world.  I believe reading and analyzing classics produces higher quality writers because they know what great writing looks like.  In raw utilitarian terms, reading and writing about Shakespeare and Homer made me a more productive participant in the economy.  It didn't matter that I wasn't trained in "business writing". In fact, it may have helped that I wasn't trained in it. 

FreeWifiDuringSermon

Joseph Eagar

FreeWifiDuringSermon

<snip for word limit>

1, I suppose is true.  2, I disagree with; people need to learn to identify fallacies associatively as well as logically (just read any thread here on libertarianism and you'll see the limits of using just logic alone).

3, I'm not sure I agree; given the amount of job-related writing people have to do these days, informational texts might be more useful to developing the proper prose than classical texts.

As for 4, it's not like anyone's proposing students read textbooks. · 2 hours ago

On 2, can you link the thread you're referring to? Want to understand your argument.

On 3. Since you insist on making the utilitarian argument, I'll relate my experience:  I had a traditional liberal arts education in high school and college.  We read very little that was written after 1950. Now, I write for a living,  and do it better than most of my colleagues. I've created research reports, blogs, and marketing copy on top of all the e-mails that every office job requires these days.  Do you see a connection?

FreeWifiDuringSermon

Joseph Eagar

FreeWifiDuringSermon

Some might say an education that prioritized classical texts over informational texts would make a student FAR BETTER at differentiating truth from lies than the average person. · 49 minutes ago

Why?  That statement seems absurd at face value.  · 15 hours ago

Well, a few things:

1. The quality of the prose in the classics is going to be far better than a modern informational text. Reading superior prose is like push-ups for your brain.

2. Simply consuming information won't improve your ability to evaluate the strength or weakness of an argument.  Learning the fundamentals of logic and how to identify common fallacies (as you do in the liberal arts tradition) will do that.

3. The purpose of Language Arts/English Lit courses is to give students a) broad understanding of culture & art b) the ability to communicate and persuade clearly and effectively. Focusing more on informational texts seems like it detracts from a) significantly and at best will not improve on b).

 4. Informational texts are already read in History, Science, and Civics classes.  Why do students need more of it? Most modern textbooks are boring and/or represent a liberal worldview. 

FreeWifiDuringSermon

Joseph Eagar

Illiniguy

Read the white paper, then come back. I'm not saying this to diss you, but there are too many things about this program that we don't know about. ·

It strikes me as biased by liberal arts thinking.   Their point on informational texts is a perfect example; the problem with prioritizing classical literature over informational texts is that students never learn to differentiate truth from lies, a skill they must subsequently learn as adults.

 · 3 hours ago

Some might say an education that prioritized classical texts over informational texts would make a student FAR BETTER at differentiating truth from lies than the average person.

FreeWifiDuringSermon

Agreed. I also hate how every glass of ice water or iced tea has that obviously fake plastic ice in it.  I know, you have to shoot the same scene over and over and can't have the ice melt to nothing over a 3 minute scene in a cafe.  But the alternative is more jarring to the viewer than the alternative and how hard is it to replace the ice in a drink in between takes?

FreeWifiDuringSermon

ObamaHug-Gate didn't win him any points with me. On substance, Christie strikes me as ignorant on economic policy (quite a bit different from fiscal matters).  However, can you think of anyone who you'd rather have negotiate anything on your behalf? Next car/house/tv I buy, Christie's coming with me.

FreeWifiDuringSermon

Fred Cole

Jager

This is not really that big a change from existing law. The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (signed by Reagan) stated that all employers had to insure that their new hires fill out an I-9 form to verify their work status. [snip]

The only proposed difference is that the employer must now take information that they must already collect and spend five minutes electronically filing it.  

That is utterly incorrect.

First of all, every time I fill out an I-9 at a new job, I'm annoyed that I have to prove my identity just so we know I'm not an illegal immigrant from Mexico.  

But its not just filing that information, although a central federal government database of who has what job should be offensive to anyone who believes in limited government or personal privacy, they have to run a background check on you.  And your employment is conditional on passing that background check.  Which means the office girl who inputs the information better put it in right or you can't work. · May 8, 2013 at 10:25pm

Sexist! Why can't it be a middle-aged woman of color?

FreeWifiDuringSermon

All this is ridiculous though, don't these idiots know that the appreciation of ethnic food (even if its an imperfect representation of the cuisine as a whole) is a crucial step in the process of integrating of a different culture into America and ultimately increases harmony and all that crap? 

FreeWifiDuringSermon

Foxman

KC Mulville: Well if you think I'm not going to enjoy my Guinness on St. Patrick's Day, y'er all a bit mistaken. · 13 minutes ago

I wonder how many people know that corned beef and cabbage is not big in Ireland. · 27 minutes ago

I heard that corned beef only entered the Irish diet in America because it was cheap and available at many a Kosher Deli in New York and other metropoli where the survivors of the Potato Famine settled.

FreeWifiDuringSermon

tabula rasa: I'm leaving the world of politics for a moment on a side-trip to the world of new verbs created by children (I posted on this a couple of days ago).

My granddaughter often asks members of the family to "inside-out" or "right-side-out" pieces of her clothing that are "wrong-side-out."  [Query:  Why are kids incapable of taking off a piece of clothing without leaving them wrong-side-out?  And they say there are no universal truths.] · 16 hours ago

Edited 16 hours ago

Along that line, my 4-year-old refers to "tomorrow morning" as "tomorning"

FreeWifiDuringSermon
Bob Laing: I like the idea of a politician that openly visits strip clubs. Odds are, he's gonna be pretty up-front with you about what he thinks.  Too many politicians on the right claim to be squeaky clean but turn out to be degenerates.  At least with this guy, what you see is what you get. · 16 minutes ago

I've often wondered what it would be like to shoot candidates up with sodium pentathol before they walk into an interview or better yet debate one another.

FreeWifiDuringSermon

On the issue of strip-clubs in general, they (along with prostitution, pornography, most recreational drugs, and the show Glee ) fall into the category of stuff I wished did not exist at all but would never make illegal because they're that much worse for all involved when prohibited. 

I'm a pretty severe social conservative, but (with the exception of  general defense of life, liberty, and property) I'm not so sure how helpful the codification into law of my moral values would be. 

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