Isaac Waisberg 🇮🇱 🇦🇺

Reading as Horsemanship: asundayofliberty.com/2026/07/10/to-…

"We invariably find in the man of true culture a deep respect for forms. He approaches even those he does not understand with awareness that a deep thought lies in an old observance." -- Richard M. Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences

Who would you have been in early modern Europe? theodramatist.com/early-modern-e…

@LeoRWong The opening stanzas now (iwpbooks.me/2026/06/09/ver…). In Brazilian Portuguese, by the way. Compare to: patreon.com/azforeman/post….

@iwpbooks In the language of your current residence, @iwpbooks, thank you.

To @LeoRWong. iwpbooks.me/2026/06/15/wha…

“Brilliance in controversy is a corrupting accomplishment. Always to play to win is to take one’s standards from one’s opponent, and local victory comes to displace every other consideration.” Michael Oakeshott

"Horace locates the citadel of happiness in his own breast. Keep thine heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. It is the heart which is the source of all joy and all sorrow, of all wealth and all poverty." anthologialitt.com/post/horace-th…

@MartinCothran @ArchieG1946 Amen! Albert Jay Nock on a classical liberal arts curriculum:

Outside the US embassy in Tel Aviv. #Bringthemhomenow

Beyond belief: Likud’s Knesset speaker gave an order today to evict all hostages’ and bereaved family members from the Knesset guest area, by brute force. Netanyahu supporters abroad, what the hell will it take for you to understand he has gone rogue? How much longer, for heaven’s sake?

cf. William James, The Will to Believe, gutenberg.org/files/26659/26…

Wrong to Believe on Insufficient Evidence? Contra Clifford: maverickphilosopher.typepad.com/maverick_philo…

Teaching science as a humanities subject open.substack.com/pub/rafechampi… Two generations ago Jacques Barzun wrote that science teaching in the junior colleges of the US goes on to swell the ranks of the two great classes of modern men, the single track expert and the scientific ignoramus. This makes us think about the place of science teaching in a general education. The sciences are humanities and they belong in the college curriculum. Accordingly, they should be introduced into it as humanities, at the earliest possible moment. How? I have some tentative suggestions to make, but first I want to stress the urgent need to do better. The worst danger of science teaching in the way it is being done at present is the creation of a large, powerful, and complacent class of college-trained uneducated men at the very heart of our industrial and political system. Possibly one of the conditions that enabled the collapse of democracy in Germany during the 1930s was the split among three groups: the technicians, the citizens, and the irresponsible rabble.

This weekend, after paying my respects to the Lifshitz and other families, I watched with pain and confusion as a blind, programmed machine of hatred launched a vicious social media attack on bereaved Israeli families—grieving parents, siblings, and children—simply for accepting condolences from me, "the other side." For over 35 years, I have built bridges, engaged in dialogue, and fought for a future where Israelis and Palestinians recognize each other’s humanity. I’ve never given up hope, even as this conflict has gone from bad to worse. And yet today, those who dare to stand for dialogue—who still believe in humanity—are under systematic attack by political forces who thrive on this conflict, feeding on division, exploiting fear, and ensuring that both Palestinian and Israeli societies remain trapped in endless war. This is not our destiny. Neither Palestinians nor Israelis are condemned to live in eternal grief. But change requires something radical: the courage to feel each other’s pain. To acknowledge the suffering of the other side, to view suffering not as a political weapon, but as a human truth. I have faith that our common humanity will defeat these forces of hatred, and end this conflict—no matter how long it takes.

Classroom technology consists of a piece of chalk and a blackboard eraser. —Jacques Barzun, "What is a School?" hudson.org/node/30450 @HudsonInstitute

"Rage and frenzy will pull down more in half an hour than prudence, deliberation, and foresight can build up in one hundred years." Edmund Burke

Fighting Hamas is just, even when innocents are inadvertently hit, as long as you are *aiming* at the terrorists and not at the innocents. But intentionally starving a population, murderers and innocents alike, is immoral. Even if only 10 Gazans were innocent, that would still be wrong. Need I quote the source?

Medieval scribes used a number of different methods to correct mistakes and omissions. This one used the figure of a man pulling the omitted portion of the text towards the place it belonged - 1st half of the 15th century, Brit. Lib, Arundel 38, f. 65r