Full Text of Classics in Western Literature
... The Great Books provide valuable lessons in life, but unfortunately are not emphasized these days. Here are 40+ local HTML copies of books that every educated person should make an effort to read and be able to discuss intelligently.
Recent Posts: Local, Virginia, and Perspective FCTA Wonders:
(1) Is it worse to not learn because gov't schools are closed, or to not learn reading, math, and 1776 history when gov't schools are open? (2) Will Va. adopt destructive and expensive green energy policies like California? (3) Can U.S. citizens' trust be restored in government, corporate, and educational institutions? (4) Will the U.S. return to equal justice under the law?
2024-04-25 (Sch) Examiner: Equity-based TJ sinks to #14 Nationwide, by Stephanie Lundquist-Arora This year in US News' ranking of best public high schools, TJ places 14th, down from 5th in 2023, and 1st for three years before that. Its premier ranking occurred when Fairfax County's only magnet school's admissions were based on merit, not on "equity".
2024-03-26 (Sch) WJLA: Fairfax Co school staff vs teacher salary data, by Nick Minock The top 25 FCPS employees earn more than $200,000. The 'Chief Experience and Engagement Officer' earns a salary of $239,468. Teachers start at $56,000 with a bachelor's degree, rising to $80,000 after 15 years of experience.
2024-03-19 (Nat) Brownstone: American Capitalism Has Mutated Into Corporatism, by Jeffery Tucker In free enterprise, the old rule is that the customer is always right. But when government itself becomes a main and even dominant customer, the ethos of private enterprise is thereby changed. Enterprise turns its attention to serving its powerful masters in the halls of the state, gradually weaving close relationships and forming a ruling class that becomes a conspiracy against the public.
2024-03-14 (Tax) FCTA: Fairfax County Notice of Proposed Real Property Tax Increase Public posting, one half of page A5 in the Washington Times. Includes an average increase of 2.86 percent for residential and a decrease of 1.24 percent for non-residential real estate. Public hearing April 16, 2024 at the Gov't Center.
2024-03-06 (Rxx) Brownstone: In Health Care, We Are Flying Blind, by Jeffery A. Tucker In American healthcare, risk assessment has been outlawed (HIPAA in 1996; Obamacare in 2010) as regards to costs to the consumer, who thus has no guidance or incentive to make intelligent health care choices, and who must thus resort to internet searchs for healthcare advice.
2024-03-03 (SVa) Fx GOP: 14 Bills That Hurt Virginia Elections, Deserve Governor's Veto Virginia already has some of the worst election laws in the country, passed by Democrats starting in 2020. Fourteen more bad bills are ready for the governor to veto, including HB1454 and SB246: removing the identifying features used to distinguish between citizen and non-citizen driver's permits (so illegal aliens could vote).
2024-02-29 (Nat) Brownstone: The Consensus Conspiracy, by Thomas Buckley Both 'onsensus' and 'conspiracy' are defined as "a group of people thinking that something is most likely correct or good or the best way to do or think about something", differing only in psychological perception. So covid and climate change, for example, start out as consensus and eventually fall into the conspiracy category. Perhaps the real menace afoot today: the 'consensus theorist'.
2024-02-26 (Tax) Fx GOP: Real Estate Tax Rate Poised To Go Up. Is The Sales Tax Next? Fairfax County residents are bracing for a double-whammy to their property tax bills with a proposed 4-cent increase to the real estate property tax rate (to $1.135 per $100 assessed value) along with rising home valuations. (Compared to: Arlington $1.038; Prince William $0.966; Loudoun $0.875; Stafford $0.9175).
2024-02-20 (Sch) FXX Now: FCPS wins TJ admissions 'racial diversity' battle, by Angela Woolsey Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology's current 'racial diversity' admissions policy will remain in place after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider a lawsuit alleging that it discriminates against Asian students.
2024-02-19 (Nat) Brownstone: Schumpeter on How Higher Education Wrecks Freedom, by Jeff Tucker A book that pays high returns for decades with endless insights is Joseph Schumpeter's Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy (1943). He predicts the rise of today's credentialed managerial class, detached from the real-world consequences of the ideas they push, assuming unique cultural power and a united interest in constructing social and political systems that benefit themselves at others' expense.