Parallel Spock

How to raise a high performing student with an ambition to participate in the economy as soon as possible? It sort of requires a heroic attention to idealism, which their concentration wanes if you ask them to do that. Books all high school and college students should read... This is my list. It's not in any particular order but it is a list of my favorites. If you're a parent to a tween, figure out how to carve out time for your child to read. Don't *force* them, instead figure out a way to encourage it, by suggesting repeatedly that they do it. Ask them to put the tech device down for one hour the first time they get started. I would start these by age 11. Not all can be read at that age, so go through the list and make wise choices. Obviously you and your child have been reading before age 11 but these are the books to transition to starting around 11. Buy one of the books below and just give it to them. I suggest Animal Farm as a starting point. Also here's a suggestion. I created a list of ten questions after each book, printed it out and asked my kids to take the quiz. I gave them a reward just for doing it (like a Texas Roadhouse gift card for example, but anything will do). Didn't matter if they scored 6 out of 10 or 10 for 10. I found my child who embraced these quizzes after each book did better in school than my child who pushed back a little bit. Call me crazy! (but the results are kids that score top of their classes in every subject). Animal Farm (Orwell) 1984 (Orwell) Fahrenheit 451 (Bradbury) To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee) The Road to Serfdom (Hayek) Intellectuals and Socialism (Hayek) (this short book is usually attached to the end of The Road to Serfdom but if not, it is public domain and you can search for the PDF). The Other Wes Moore (Moore) Socialism Sucks: Two Economists Drink Their Way Through the Unfree World Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck) Night (Elie Wiesel) A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens) The Wealth of Nations (Smith) The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald) The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck) Ulysses (Joyce) I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Angelou) The Demon-Haunted World (Carl Sagan) Economic Facts and Fallacies (Sowell) or Basic Economics (Thomas Sowell) (need an entire summer!) Lord Of The Rings (Tolkien) The Moon is Down (Steinbeck) The Myth of the Robber Barons (Folsom, Jr.) Capitalism and Freedom (Friedman) Doctor Zhivago (Pasternak) Atlas Shrugged (Rand) The Constitution of the United States Don Quixote (Miguel de Cervantes) Crime and Punishment (Dostoevsky) Macbeth (Shakespeare) Hannah Arendt "The Origins of Totalitarianism" Iliad (Homer) Odyssey (Homer) (recommend Iliad before Odyssey if possible) The Canterbury Tales (Chaucer) Paradise Lost (Milton) The Inferno (Dante) Common Sense (Paine) Cosmos (Sagan) The Catcher in the Rye (Salinger) The Old man and the sea (Hemingway) A Farewell to Arms (Hemingway) The Outsiders (Hinton) Tom Sawyer The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Brave New World (Huxley) Uncle Tom’s cabin (Stowe) The Scarlett Letter (Hawthorne) The Call of the Wild (London) The Red Badge of Courage (Crane) The Brothers Karamazov (Dostoevsky) The Hound of the Baskervilles (Doyle) The Closing of the American Mind (Bloom) A conflict of visions (Sowell) Who Stole Feminism (Christina Hoff Sommers) Here are four books all young ladies should read… All of life’s experiences, the good and the bad, are described in beautiful and instructive detail: The Secret Garden The Little Princess Little Women Anne of Green Gables - Live long and prosper.

@MuseumCommodore I did too. A little on a friend’s Commodore (mostly to show him what was possible) but I primarily used a TI 99/4A. The were both outstanding systems in that era. Anyone who did that, can set up their own router at home today. Everyone else has to call someone. 🖖

Yep! This would sound strange to anyone who got into computing from the year 2000 onward, but we really did spend hours and hours typing in BASIC code from computer magazines. In my case, it was on my Commodore 64. Who else did this?

@TheFigen_ I’m sure many of the reactions will be “how cool!” But this is more of a symptom of misguided teaching than great teaching. A little more:

Absolutely. When Franklin said “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom” he had this in mind… you must read to learn the ideals of Western philosophy and the principles of liberty. The other side calls it ableism which is very fitting once you’ve slid into that ideology. The need for “masters” as Franklin put it, is very strong in the democrat party. Welfare, entitlements, handouts and a perpetual serfdom is what Democrats seek, yet ~ 50% of our nation can’t see this??? Perplexing, no? Get your kids reading early on!

Before they all left twitter, I was accused of ableism whenever I said you need to be reading (and reading the classics). As humans, we’re very good at making excuses to avoid things we know would benefit us. If you want to flourish, intellectually & emotionally, you must read.

@LangmanVince It is what he promised! Your premise is correct but it’s even worse I believe. I saw a stat that said premiums have risen 220% since 2015 and COLA over that same period is about 26%.

Barack Obama promised Obamacare would save the average family in America $2,500 a year! Instead, healthcare costs increased by 92% since it was passed, while median family income increased by about 13%. This is considered by most Democrats as Obama's greatest accomplishment!

@JamesWHankins1 @EncounterBooks You’re not kidding! Perhaps my other foot would be wiser at the cost of a very painful sibling foot.

@EncounterBooks did a wonderful job. As they say, it's a high-impact volume. Just don't drop it on your foot!

I suspect tampons in men’s restrooms are going to wind up in the toilet. It seems like an unwise decision, no? What legislator in their right mind believes they are advancing an enumerated right of the people with such legislation? Perhaps they don’t realize they have been elected in the wrong country and should quickly find a socialist or autocratic nation in which to contribute to the ruin of liberty.

BREAKING🚨: Maryland is seriously debating putting tampons in the MEN'S bathrooms at Baltimore Ravens and Orioles stadiums. Democrat Delegate Ken Kerr, who supports the bill, insisted the tampons must be “appropriately sized.” Republican Delegate Kathy Szeliga hit back: “What does ‘appropriately sized tampons’ even mean? Where exactly does a biological male put these?” This is where your tax dollars and priorities are going, folks. Clown world. 🤡

Excellent article. Thanks for sharing. I suspect Ben Franklin was right… only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. You see the perpetual unsatisfied need for entitlements and handouts in people who are unambitious. Are they free? You see it with people who can’t defend objective truth. I hear too many somewhat educated people say truth is subjective (not realizing subjectivity is opinion — “my own truth” is a false profundity). Even a person who can make a lot of money, but falls into the trap of affirmation, is willing to whittle away a bit of freedom for “likes.” Their insatiable need for affirmation, for likes, creates a habit of becoming a secondhand dealer in ideas — you parrot anything to go along with the mob all in the name of likes, while your liberty is stripped from under your feet. The re-emergence in some Universities of cultivating virtue through the teaching and discourse of Western ideals, the ancients, the underpinnings of our nation’s founding, philosophy, theology, gives me great hope. It truly does. 🖖

This 💯 “By failing to prioritize the formation of virtue, we have inadvertently cultivated a climate where the presence of a dissenting opinion is viewed as a threat rather than an opportunity for growth.” usatoday.com/story/opinion/…

@McCormickProf Logical questions. They deserve to be logically answered by all humans. The answer of course, is yes, they are human. Truth. We don’t get to make our own truth. We get to form our own opinions. Aborting a baby, is destroying human life.

Grok's description of a surgical (D&C) abortion: "Multiple passes with forceps are usually required to remove arms, legs, torso sections, and other parts. The skull is often crushed or decompressed if needed to facilitate removal. Suction and curettage follow to remove remaining tissue." Those arms that are sliced off ... are they human arms? Those legs, those torso sections, are they *human*? That skull that is crushed ... is it a human skull? Or is it some other kind of skull? The blood that's shed from those amputations and that crushing... if we tested it, what kind of blood would it turn out to be? Is it, perhaps, insect hemolymph? Is it fish blood? Canine blood? The blood of some different, unique species? Or is it human blood, the blood of a human being?

ICE agents shown ripping families apart and shooting people.

My copy of Volume I of The Golden Thread arrived. Wow! I was not expecting this... absolutely beautiful book, all 1200 glorious pages. It's comprehensive, it is filled with maps and pictures, and is put together better than any History textbook that I've ever seen. These two volumes should be required reading for all high school or college students! Hume, Macaulay, Churchill, Gibbon, eat your hearts out! Congratulations @JamesWHankins1 and Professor Allen Guelzo Looking forward to getting Volume II (Guelzo's work) next.

Wow! I scored a hardcover copy of Milton Friedman's There's No Such Thing As A Free Lunch for $20. 1st Edition, 1972. It's in perfect condition.

I have TWO important points to express related to this. I apologize in advance for the lack of brevity. Florida leading the way We really can’t overstate the importance of what Florida has built here in terms of leading the way across the country in how to build and enhance the best Universities in the nation and the world. Don’t get me wrong, other states are following the lead and making great progress, but what Florida has achieved is truly remarkable - in terms of what it means for students and the next generation of decision makers in our country. Not only does Florida represent just an unbelievable value for residents with in-state tuition rates that are affordable for any family, but it does so with institutions that rank among the best in the nation. There is NO compromise, absolutely zero, for a qualified Florida kid in attending a Florida University. Sure, branch out to great out-state institutions when your scores are so high that you’ll earn enough merit to mirror the cost it would be for a Florida school, but Floridians are quite frankly at a huge advantage (Note: I am not currently a Florida resident - my views are unbiased). The Florida legislature has also made capping the number of out-of-state students who can be admitted to Florida universities a priority (and the legislature seeks to cap it even more). I think that’s a bad idea if it goes too far — I encourage the legislature to abandon that aim. Bringing in top talent from a pool of students across the nation is HOW you ensure the Florida schools deliver a top notch classical education with thinkers from around our nation, and then letting those students pay it forward by contributing to a durable liberty in our nation. I’m not saying you can’t set some regulations in this regard, but you should abstain to regulate it further… think about what insulating these universities to only Florida residents will do to the schools (reduce attraction from top talent; reduce the overall outcomes). Let the universities dictate their mix of in-state vs. out-of-state; if you want to set limits on overseas attendees, that’s fine but be thoughtful. A 90/10 mix (in-state to out-of-state) is more than fair enough to the residents of Florida. Florida teaching students via a pro-Western civilization framework that emphasizes the underpinnings of our nation’s founding, in the context of ancient philosophy, culture, history, traditions, and pro-liberty tenets. Importantly, there is no better example in the United States of the strengthening educational quality of a University than what the University of Florida is accomplishing through its new school @ufhamilton . Many other Universities within Florida are also quite excellent, but the Hamilton example at UF is a prime example of excellence that other institutions across the nation should take note of and implement. Drilling into the University of Florida as an example, with its Hamilton School and the programs of Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law; Great Books & Ideas; American Government, History, Literature, and Law; War, Statecraft and Strategy; and the Jewish Classical Education program, the Hamilton School seeks to prepares students to address the biggest challenges facing governments, businesses and communities around the world, through a pro-Western classical educational approach that will better prepare those students for a life of meaning - this is critically important as these kids will influence government and public policy, law, business, finance, and more -- ensuring those students have a pro-capitalist, pro-liberty educational framework is of the utmost important to our society today. As schools like Harvard, Brown, and other top tier IVYs have lost their way in understanding the importance of emphasizing the logic, rationality, and durability of liberty that our nation’s founding principles were built on, and how the ancient philosophers’ ideas are intertwined with a durable freedom, and those schools have ushered in an era discriminating against certain student cohorts, allowing students to be physically assaulted, stalked, and harassed, on campus, and repeatedly denied access to campus buildings, Florida schools on the other hand are instead (1) ensuring all student groups can peacefully demonstrate, peacefully debate, and that no idea is off-limits in a civilized discourse, and (2) teaching students why principles of terrorizing groups of people is the antithesis of virtue, is the antithesis of Western civilization, and instead is teaching students how to recognize the value and virtues of advocating for liberty. The Hamilton School at UF has managed to pull in some of the greatest and leading professors from around the nation into this program. For example, 40 year Harvard professor, Professor James Hankins @JamesWHankins1 , considered one of the world’s leading and renowned academics in the study and teaching of history, philosophy, theology, literature and political thought, and is known as a global academic expert in Italian Renaissance Studies. University of Florida’s hiring of Professor Hankins is quite frankly astonishing. Harvard’s loss is Florida’s gain. I just cannot tell you how excited I am that my own son (who is a graduating high school senior, out-of-state) has been invited to have the opportunity to study in the Hamilton School and the great University of Florida. I truly thank the University for admitting him. My son is visiting your school in just over a week from now — I urge you to impress him and impress upon him, so that he chooses the Florida Gators as his home for the next few years! I cannot thank enough, the great governor of Florida, @RonDeSantis for leading the way with installing the Hamilton School at UF, former Florida Supreme Court Justice Charles Canady for stepping down from @flcourts to lead and direct the Hamilton school (BRAVO!), Professor Hankins, Professor Guelzo, Professor Skjönsberg, and professors Armstrong, Bailey, Bunzel, Buono, Casanova, Chandran, Collins, Crowcroft, Datchev, Davies, Dusenbury, Englert, Frankel, Gassman, Goldman, Green, Halo, Harvey, Herwig, Hulme, Kaminski, Keiser, Kelly, Laderman, Levovitz, Leggiere, Li, Lim, Lowenstein, Marshalek, McPherson, Mead, Michta, Ricca, Rogachevsky, Rubenstein, Siljak, Smith, Stinnerford, Stone, Taliaferro, Vozar, Warmke, Whitham, and Zubia, along with the entire faculty supporting the Hamilton School and the rest of the University of Florida staff. Lastly, I thank the great Ben Sasse @BenSasse whose vision and leadership for the University during his tenure as its President and as a professor, helped usher in this era of greatness for the school and for our nation. While the Honorable Senator Professor Sasse contemplates his contributions to this world, and celebrates the joy in spending time with his family, I must proclaim that what he has done to advance the interests of children into great thinkers and great advocates of freedom, what he has done to create a durable freedom through the spirit of developing children into virtuous adults, is an accomplishment that will live on far into the future. “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done” (Carton sacrificing his life for the betterment of others in A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens) - those words fit you Mr. Sasse. God bless you. From the bottom of my heart, thank all of you for being a major answer to advancing the spirit and minds of great students and leading our nation's Universities away from their deceptive path of tormenting minds, instead to enlightening them to the morality of sustained Liberty. After all, the continuity of our existence, especially as a free people, depends on the well-being of children. 🖖

@WallStreetMav This is empirically true. Premiums up 220% during the time since ACA was passed; COLA up 26% over that same period. The math is not mathing.

16 years ago Obama set off the largest spike in healthcare prices in American history. The “Affordable” Care Act became one of the most expensive laws ever passed, needing constant increases in taxpayer subsidies in order to artificially keep prices down. Obama’s legacy is a scam. Follow: @WallStreetMav

Intelligence failures enabled 9/11, not airport screening. When you have a foreigner visiting the country on an extended stay, they take flight lessons and tell the flight instructor they are not interested in the dynamics of landing the airplane, you’ve got all the ingredients that should have illuminated the red flag. Making flying harder for citizens born and raised in the country, didn’t and does not contribute to safety from outside actors who are seeking the ruin of our nation. Congress: pass legislation that brings airport security back to airports and local law enforcement. There is nothing patriotic in the Patriot Act.

When TSA has been tested, it has failed to stop up to 80 percent of weapons smuggled through security. TSA to this day has never actually prevented a terrorist attack. There is not a single documented case of a terror plot foiled by TSA. On top of that, TSA was formed in response to 9-11, but 9-11 was not a failure of airport security. Airport security had basically nothing to do with it. So while this stand off over TSA funding continues, keep in mind that the agency shouldn't exist and is historically terrible at its job. We should privatize airport security again. Then it can't be used as a bargaining chip by politicians.

@DefAMustRead Incredible. I could live in that room 🖖

@RussLarson Blow is my current library. I've got a lot of things moving around right now, as I relocate based on Library of Congress classifications. But I always said that this was it. This enormous room was all I would ever need. Now I will have twice as much 😅 & I realize I was lying

My aunt just called. She & my uncle have decided they are ready to be old - downsize, sell their home, move to the beach. He wants me to have his library 😳 approximately the same size as mine is currently. This summer, I will have more than 5,000 books in my library 🥹

The words of Lord Acton have never been more relevant in modern U.S. history than in the 21st century: "I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favourable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any presumption it is the other way against holders of power, increasing as the power increases. Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal responsibility. Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority." We absolutely need to get Congress back to everyday American citizen. What we see instead with middle-income salaried congresspeople is wealth building beyond anything imaginable for the common low-income and middle-income American.

Did you know that @Delta had a special “stand alone service” for members of congress? It’s no wonder Congress has never supported things like term limits They enjoy all the perks of power too much

@JonathanTurley Outstanding! 🖖

It is my pleasure to serve as the keynote at the unveiling of the new Benjamin Franklin bust at the historical Union League in Philadelphia on March 31st. I will be discussing my book Rage and the Republic, which discusses Franklin's role in our founding. foundingforward.org/event/celebrat…

@evanwch @SenRandPaul Neither are you. Does that invalidate your arguments, your opinions, and your wisdom? Does it invalidate the Senator's? x.com/RussLarson/sta…

@SenRandPaul You will never be President

Repeal and replace Obamacare.

@SenRandPaul x.com/RussLarson/sta…

The ACA act is to America what Jason was to Camp Crystal Lake: patently destructive, yet the kids hung around anyway for some inexplicable reason (okay, we all know why). Premiums are up 220% since the time the ACA act was passed. The cost-of-living increased 26% during this same period. The ACA literally created the "health insurance industrial complex." Profits go to the health insurance companies (which they deserve to make under the framework of the law) and doctors and clinics provide less personal care. Hmmmmm 🧐 Time to jettison President Obama's signature socialist legacy triumph and build a revised solution that incentivizes competition for clinics, competition for doctors and healthcare workers, competition for insurance, without government interference. Mr. Obama can keep his monstrosity of a library in Chicago for his legacy.