— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who died in 1832
Moth to the Flame Lyrics: I can't help it, I'm a moth to the flame / I can't help it, I'm a mothto the flame / I can't help it, I'm a moth to the flame / I can't help it, I'm a, a / He's that kinda man.
“Everything tends toward catastrophe & collapse. I am interested, geared up & happy. Is it not horrible to be built up like that? The preparations have a hideous fascination for me. I pray to God to forgive me for such fearful moods of levity. Yet I would do my best for peace, & nothing would induce me wrongfully to strike the blow.”
~Winston Churchill, letter to his wife, July 28, 1914
“Go for it, never back down, and don’t give in, because there’s no greater satisfaction in life than using your gifts to help others and to contribute to your community and country.”
"I was taught to strive not because there were any guarantees of success but because the act of striving is in itself the only way to keep faith with life."
― Madeleine K. Albright, Madam Secretary: A Memoir
"The truth is more likely to be served by a canceled or aborted inspection than by a whitewash.” ― Madeleine K. Albright, Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948 - Dicish whitewashed realities ...
In an era that is so cynical about its politicians and leaders, it’s nice to know that Václav Havel even existed (we’ve written about him here and here). So we can be grateful to a new biography by Michael Žantovsky, Havel’s former press secretary, advisor, and longtime friend, for reminding us in his new biography Havel: A Life. Publishers Weekly called it “a vivid and intimate biography of the playwright-turned-statesman who came to embody the soul of the Czech nation.”
The man who was “the soul of the Czech nation”
At first, reading about his academic scholarship feels like seeing Sebald’s other face. These works are highly polemic and strict in their judgments, tonally opposed to the later fiction. The central idea underpinning many of them seems to be that all of the so-called scientific, economic, and social progress that followed from the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution was nothing but a concealed effort by the ascendant bourgeoisie to purge the Other, and specifically the Jewish Other, from Western society. Even Enlightenment concepts of objectivity and human equality were only a way to disarm the Jews of their culture by encouraging assimilation into supposedly “universal” values. In this view, the Final Solution is not a historical anomaly realized by sheer Nazi will; it is the only possible endpoint to a long and violent process that started when humanity began burning coal and looking at things under a microscope. You can argue this is a Marxist take or a Malthusian one, both deal in historical inevitabilities, but it certainly sounds more like a system of despair.
Aspiring Malthusian novelists should note that Sebald remains the genre’s sole practitioner - Glory to Lovely Loneliness
We’re often told that cutting corporate tax rates will lead to the creation of more jobs. We all want to see more jobs created but what does the evidence say about that? Australian economist and Member of Parliament Andrew Leigh has recently published new research on the subject which makes for interesting reading. His research looks at data for 1,000 profitable Australian firms, comparing their tax rates with the pace of job creation. The data shows that companies that pay less tax actually tend to create fewer jobs. We’re re-posting below part of a blog on his new research, available in full on the inequality.org website here. We encourage you to read the whole thing. As Andrew Leigh writes:
Moth to the Flame Lyrics: I can't help it, I'm a moth to the flame / I can't help it, I'm a mothto the flame / I can't help it, I'm a moth to the flame / I can't help it, I'm a, a / He's that kinda man.
“Everything tends toward catastrophe & collapse. I am interested, geared up & happy. Is it not horrible to be built up like that? The preparations have a hideous fascination for me. I pray to God to forgive me for such fearful moods of levity. Yet I would do my best for peace, & nothing would induce me wrongfully to strike the blow.”~Winston Churchill, letter to his wife, July 28, 1914
“Go for it, never back down, and don’t give in, because there’s no greater satisfaction in life than using your gifts to help others and to contribute to your community and country.”
"I was taught to strive not because there were any guarantees of success but because the act of striving is in itself the only way to keep faith with life."
― Madeleine K. Albright, Madam Secretary: A Memoir
"The truth is more likely to be served by a canceled or aborted inspection than by a whitewash.” ― Madeleine K. Albright, Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948 - Dicish whitewashed realities ...
“You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.”
― Mary Oliver
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.”
― Mary Oliver
In an era that is so cynical about its politicians and leaders, it’s nice to know that Václav Havel even existed (we’ve written about him here and here). So we can be grateful to a new biography by Michael Žantovsky, Havel’s former press secretary, advisor, and longtime friend, for reminding us in his new biography Havel: A Life. Publishers Weekly called it “a vivid and intimate biography of the playwright-turned-statesman who came to embody the soul of the Czech nation.”
The man who was “the soul of the Czech nation”
Madeleine Albright
Writing in the NY Times, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright writes that fascism and authoritarianism is once again on the rise in the world, bolstered by the autocratically inclined Donald Trump.
Today, we are in a new era, testing whether the democratic banner can remain aloft amid terrorism, sectarian conflicts, vulnerable borders, rogue social media and the cynical schemes of ambitious men. The answer is not self-evident. We may be encouraged that most people in most countries still want to live freely and in peace, but there is no ignoring the storm clouds that have gathered. In fact, fascism — and the tendencies that lead toward fascism — pose a more serious threat now than at any time since the end of World War II.
Albright’s book, Fascism: A Warning, comes out next week.
See also The 14 Features of Eternal Fascism and fighting authoritarianism: 20 lessons from the 20th century (which became this bestselling book).
A history of loneliness The Conversation
Jim Caviezel said he chooses to star in films he believes will "bring the most souls to Christ" after God delivered a heartbreaking message to him when he played the role of Jesus in the 2004 film "The Passion of the Christ."
"When [God] came close to me in 'The Passion' when I was on that cross, [He said], 'They don't love me. There are very few,'" Caviezel told The Christian Post. "I was like, 'Well, I'm going to love You, and I'm going to tell You that I love You.' Tell it publicly, I don't care. I'm less afraid of ISIS than I am the media.""That's why our Lord is so alone — His creatures do not love Him"
More Than 75 Percent of Earth’s Land Areas Are ‘Broken,’ Major Report Finds Motherboard
Jim Caviezel said he chooses to star in films he believes will "bring the most souls to Christ" after God delivered a heartbreaking message to him when he played the role of Jesus in the 2004 film "The Passion of the Christ."
"When [God] came close to me in 'The Passion' when I was on that cross, [He said], 'They don't love me. There are very few,'" Caviezel told The Christian Post. "I was like, 'Well, I'm going to love You, and I'm going to tell You that I love You.' Tell it publicly, I don't care. I'm less afraid of ISIS than I am the media.""That's why our Lord is so alone — His creatures do not love Him"
More Than 75 Percent of Earth’s Land Areas Are ‘Broken,’ Major Report Finds Motherboard
Does Going To Concerts Improve Your Health?
Beijing’s biggest funeral parlor held an open day last Thursday that featured a virtual reality simulation of death, reported The Beijing News — though it left some wondering why you would want to experience death prematurely.Visitors could don VR glasses and earphones to experience having a seizure at work, a failed paramedic rescue, and entrance into the afterlife. Funeral parlor employee Dong Ziyi told The Beijing News that the immersive experience “enables people to better cherish the beauty of life.”In addition to the death experience, visitors can use VR to explore funeral services with a five-minute session that goes through corpse delivery and storage, mortuary preparations, the memorial service, and cremation — a tour that would take an hour in real life.
Cold River experience S*xStone dimention By Liang Chenyu from Sixth Tone, one of my favorite media outlets.
At first, reading about his academic scholarship feels like seeing Sebald’s other face. These works are highly polemic and strict in their judgments, tonally opposed to the later fiction. The central idea underpinning many of them seems to be that all of the so-called scientific, economic, and social progress that followed from the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution was nothing but a concealed effort by the ascendant bourgeoisie to purge the Other, and specifically the Jewish Other, from Western society. Even Enlightenment concepts of objectivity and human equality were only a way to disarm the Jews of their culture by encouraging assimilation into supposedly “universal” values. In this view, the Final Solution is not a historical anomaly realized by sheer Nazi will; it is the only possible endpoint to a long and violent process that started when humanity began burning coal and looking at things under a microscope. You can argue this is a Marxist take or a Malthusian one, both deal in historical inevitabilities, but it certainly sounds more like a system of despair.
We’re often told that cutting corporate tax rates will lead to the creation of more jobs. We all want to see more jobs created but what does the evidence say about that? Australian economist and Member of Parliament Andrew Leigh has recently published new research on the subject which makes for interesting reading. His research looks at data for 1,000 profitable Australian firms, comparing their tax rates with the pace of job creation. The data shows that companies that pay less tax actually tend to create fewer jobs. We’re re-posting below part of a blog on his new research, available in full on the inequality.org website here. We encourage you to read the whole thing. As Andrew Leigh writes:
One of the chief arguments that the [Australian] government makes for a lower corporate tax rate is that it would spur job creation. As a Labor Party member of the Australian Parliament and a former research economist, I was curious to test the claim that companies which pay less tax create more jobs. Looking across large U.S. firms, Sarah Anderson and Sam Pizzigati’s analysis for the Institute for Policy Studies found no evidence that companies which paid a lower effective rate of tax generated higher levels of employment. If anything, the relationship was the opposite — the low-tax firms generated fewer jobs (though they did pay their executives more).
Using data for about 1,000 profitable Australian firms, I compared effective tax rates with the pace of job creation at each company.”