You're welcome. I'm a long-time subscriber to Chronicles, but new to this website and I notice that some participants get a little carried away when they disagree. I believe that two parties can disagree without being disagreeable.

My wife is Italian on her father's side. (Her mother is a Buckley, but not those Buckleys.) I'm Polish on my mother's side and have deep roots in America on my father's side. I agree that Italian is a beautiful language.

Thanks for the kind words. Unlike you, there are some who cannot see beyond the superficial. I am inured to the empty words of those who jump to conclusions upon reading a few lines of a posting, especially when seeing the moniker KMarx, and then see only "Red"! At that point what rational thinking there is goes out the window on their part. Perhaps someone should tell them that actors and professional wrestlers among others often assume monikers for effect and not necessarily as an expression of a philosophy.

I am not a conservative, liberal, libertarian, etc. I see myself as eclectic. I know it sounds logically inconsistent to some but as I see life no philosophy holds absolute truth in an ever changing and often unfathomable world. I take each matter as it comes in the context of the circumstances within which it develops.

The present administration is full of pseudo-conservatives just as the last administration was full of pseudo-liberals. Neither one had the best interests of the American people in mind. They were too caught up in what was best for their "friends".

BTW: There are some who think I am unable to distinguish between a neoconservative and paleoconservative. If I were forced to throw my lot in with either, there would be only one choice - paleos.

Regarding Latin, I have been out of circulation for a number of years and had heard that Latin is no longer taught in most schools. When I was in high school in the 60's Latin was quite a common and popular discipline. I also took a nation-wide test in Latin as a freshman and scored in the 97 percentile. Such a test can serve as an indication that the teacher was or was not doing his or her job properly.

As my roots are Italian, I wanted to learn the language too but had the opportunity to take only one semester. My grandparents spoke various Italian dialects. I have heard other Italians who spoke the Tuscan dialect, which was chosen as the official dialect in part because of the number of writers who wrote it. It is an absolutely beautiful language with an incredible flexibilty within which to express things in a such coloful way that cannot be expressed in English. From what little I know of Italian I know this, if I had the choice of my primary language, it would have been be Italian.

Concerning economics, here is a link about the bailout sent to me by a former Washington Bureau Chief of Investor's Business Daily (a real conservative):

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/29/miron.bailout/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

(You may have to copy this reference into your browser.)

As for Latin, educated via eight years of Catholic elementary school and four years of Catholic high school in the mid-West, I had two years of that language. (I think there was a plot to turn me into a priest. On registration day, they wouldn't let me sign up for any other foreign language. "Your are recommended for Latin." And there was no acceptable argument otherwise.)

I wasn't a very good student of Latin (and was not a good candidate for the priesthood, either). I struggled to get a "C." However, I scored in the 87th percentile on a nation-wide Latin test my sophomore year. The test was in Latin, but the content was Greek and Roman mythology. Now there was a subject that I knew. The test consisted of passages in Latin followed by a series of questions in Latin that had to be answered in Latin. My knowledge of mythology combined with the little Latin that I knew, allowed me to do a creditable job on the test. After that, my Latin teacher (a nun) was sure that I was capable of better than C work. She was probably correct, but the course material didn't interest me like mythology did. When I went to college, I took two years of Italian, the closest language to Latin, which was not offered. I got Cs in Italian, too. My Italian professor subsequently became a Catholic priest.

"I teach Latin, and I was recently talking to an Italian about Latin curriculums in Italy. He said that before graduating high school Italian students must be able to translate texts from Seneca and Cicero which American university graduates in Classics have difficulty with."

Things have changed since I graduated high school. I studied Latin for three years and found it a richly rewarding study indeed. It forces one to learn the grammar of one's language. It forces one to reason. It also gives those of us who have interest in the origin of English words a powerful basis within which to work. During my high school days we did in fact have to translate Cicero, Caesar and a bit of other material whose authors escape me.

"As a society, we need to focus less on a useless education which costs 20-50k a year, and rather on basic education in the classics, and in trades."

Though I am undereducated compared to certain posters on this site, I fully realize that the classics are indeed important if we are to have a defined identity as a culture. They are a must to understand how we arrived at this point in time. They can serve as a guide as to what type of future we should seek. However, I must disagree with the last statement of yours to this point: education in science, mathematics and technology are a sine qua non for any nation that wants to compete in this world. The classics however can serve as a guide as to how we should use the knowledge we derive from these other disciplines.

That is perhaps a great understatement. College graduates in English could not pass a rudimentary exam which 8th graders in 1910 were required to pass, and did so with a fraction of the funding present in modern "education".

I teach Latin, and I was recently talking to an Italian about Latin curriculums in Italy. He said that before graduating high school Italian students must be able to translate texts from Seneca and Cicero which American university graduates in Classics have difficulty with.

As a society, we need to focus less on a useless education which costs 20-50k a year, and rather on basic education in the classics, and in trades.

"kmax this is a conservative site and we are paying customers. please go back to your own blog and leave us conservatives alone. we don’t like you or your comments. And don’t try to brown nose Dr. Wilson either."

A conservative site! Your posting makes it sound more like a mutual admiration site.

I'm glad to see you're so open-minded.

Paying customers, I'll bet.

I couldn't care less if you like me or my comments. If those who run the site do not want opposing views then have them post a note to the effect that only those who agree with the management are welcome! In that case I'm sure those of different opinions would gladly not waste their time here.

As far as Dr. Wilson is concerned, I agree with a lot of what he says. Agreeing is not brown nosing.