Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Not a big deal


Almanac: Schopenhauer on sociability and solitude

“People are rendered sociable by their inability to endure solitude, that is to say, their own society. They become sick of themselves. It is this vacuity of soul which drives them to intercourse with others.”

What bomb would need to be dropped on the house for life all of a sudden to change direction ?


CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot hires private security operator married to lobbyist to run her security detail.

'Unhappy ending': on the hunt for a Shorten tell-all



Canadians leave their doors unlocked in the frozen north, W. says. They leave their hearts open! The law of northern hospitality means that you have to take anyone in who knocks at the door. It's exactly like the Law of the Stranger in the Bible, which Celan found so moving: 'The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as a home-born, and thou shalt love him as thyself'. Unconditional hospitality: that's what the Canadian house offers. Hospitality without condition!
You can know nothing of human society until you stamp the snow from your boots in a Canadian hallway, W. says. Until you've been downed a glass of vodka at a Canadian table. The storm gathers outside; but you are inside. The winds blow from the far north; but you sit warm by the fire. The snow lies deep; but you drink and sing with your Canadian hosts long into the night ...



They were the worst of times because they were the best of times; times in which dissent was forbidden, not by the dispersal of dissenters but by their assembly; times in which protest was refused, not by the containment of expression but by its freedom; times in which the people were kept in ignorance, not by narrow educational channels but by immeasurably wide ones; times in which we were made to forget the evils all around by hysterical remembrance of evils dead and gone; in which we were half-dead, not from neglect but from care, and half-mad, not from silence but from talk, and starved out of our wits from much too much to eat; in which want had the form of plenty, and dearth the form of glut, and no one could think their way out, not because there was too little time to think but because there was far too much.
There is in these times such an explosion of thinking, such licence to think and rethink, to think from all angles  and all perspectives, to think of ourselves and of others and of others like ourselves and of others unlike others, to think and think and think again, that we cannot any longer think straight.
the opening of Sinéad Murphy's forthcoming Zombie University

Game of Thrones wealth watch: Things are looking up for the Westeros economy


After the finale of the epic series, the economic future for Westeros looks bright. WARNING: SPOILERS


When American Capitalism Meant Equality Matt Stoller, Pro-Market

20,000 NSW Labor members to vote in 'historic' leadership ballot


NSW Labor will send more than 15,000 more than ballot papers to members to chose a new leader for the state party.




Terror-funding investigation uncovers syndicate that allegedly imported $9m worth of illegal tobacco

The criminal syndicate allegedly imported more than seven tonnes of illegal tobacco in an 18-month period.

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