Free Republic

Synopsis of podcast available at link: As the National Tea Party Convention convened in Nashville, pundits out of touch with the movement wondered whether it will become a third party and negatively affect the GOP. Absent in such pondering is an acknowledgment of the people's capacity for critical thought. While it is certainly true many have given politicians and parties too much benefit of too little doubt, times have shifted. The outcomes of the 2010 elections promise to be determined, at least in part, by an unprecedented application of non-partisan thoughtful deliberation.

Over a year ago, Mitt Romney was losing primaries to John McCain, and conservative pundits from Ann Coulter to Rush Limbaugh predicted the end of the GOP – Coulter went as far as promising she would campaign for Hillary Rodham Clinton if McCain became the party's nominee. By November 2008, the GOP had embraced a nominee who had considered switching parties twice, had opposed tax cuts, and had failed to advance an aggressive shift in a foreign policy that left the GOP discredited in an area it had always trumped in. It's not that McCain's willingness to reach across the...

Jessica Mattson said she hears a lot about "critical thinking" from her English teachers at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda. To the 18-year-old senior, the term refers to the skill of "reading deeper into what is written." It means more to Walter Johnson history teacher Nathan Schwartz. When Schwartz teaches about the rise of the samurai in Japan, he works with students not simply to memorize facts related to it but also to understand why it happened by employing the thinking skills of analysis, synthesis, application and reflection. But at the University of Virginia, Daniel T. Willingham, a psychology...

History and critical thinking are inseparable for a good education. If read merely as fiction, The DaVinci Code would be an interesting mystery story. However, when the claim is made, both in the book and in the ABC documentary, "Jesus, Mary and DaVinci," that a historical core lies behind the story, then it demands our attention. The DaVinci Code, with 6 million copies in print and a Time magazine cover, is a popularized version of what some radical theologians have been saying for some time now, as they have attempted to rewrite the early history of Christianity by relying on...

This diatribe examines the college textbook "Critical Thinking: Asking the Right Questions". The textbook purports to teach critical thinking skills to baccalaureate business students. What I found offensive throughout this course text was the use of conservative arguments as examples of POOR critical thinking skills, and the use of extremely liberal arguments as EXCELLENT examples of critical thinking. For example, the following passage was the first detailed example of POOR reasoning and critical thinking: Arguments for banning guns are mostly myths, and what we need now is not more laws, but more enforcement. One myth is that most murderers are...

Is The Truth Out There? A Journey Through Critical Thinking that Spans Man’s History, Origin and Place in the Universe by Darrick Dean (ISBN: 0-595-29185-6) From the history revisionists, to enviro-extremists- to science & God, see how its all connected in this guide to thinking clearly about all issues. Now available at iuniverse.com, amazon.com, booksense.com, buy.com, booksamillion.com, alibris.com, 1bookstreet.com, allbookstores.com and barnesandnoble.com. The word truth presupposes that there are unchanging facts and laws. Are there such things or are there valid, differing truths for each person or belief system? Take a look at your newspaper, the television programs you watch...

Why Young-earth Creationism is Patently Absurd http://www.geocities.com/darrickdean/absurd.html

This is a great easy-to-use guide and intro to a number of topics. The critical thinking tool kit in it is great! Is The Truth Out There? A Journey Through Critical Thinking that Spans Man’s History, Origin and Place in the Universe by Darrick Dean (ISBN: 0-595-29185-6) Now available at iuniverse.com, amazon.com, booksense.com, buy.com, booksamillion.com and barnesandnoble.com. The word truth presupposes that there are unchanging facts and laws. Are there such things or are there valid, differing truths for each person or belief system? Take a look at your newspaper, the television programs you watch or the books you read....