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Wednesday, June 03, 2020

Patrick White On Faith



 I think it is impossible to explain faith. It is like trying to explain air, which one cannot do by dividing it into its component parts and labeling them scientifically. It must be breathed to be understood.
— Patrick White, born in 1912


Lydia Davis is a writer for whom the subject is always, on some level, writing itself  




The meaning of doubt. "Unbelief needs the believer’s reflecting gaze to better understand itself" Belief 


'An icon and trailblazer': Australian fashion designer Anna Thomas dies

The publicity-shy designer was uncompromising on high quality clothing and counted NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian as a loyal customer.



Leading Thinkers Envision The Post-Pandemic World

“They describe a society that is clear-eyed about the disparities that have made this pandemic so much worse for some communities than for others. They call on us to sustain each other through mutual aid, understanding that our lives are all woven together in ways that may not always have been visible until now. They outline the necessity of protecting democracy, resisting authoritarianism, and paying attention to one another, filling in the spaces left by loss.” – LitHub




Reliable sources of information on Australian ties with China do not include the ultra-nationalistic PRC Global Times when it applauds Australia receiving a “slap to the face,” or the Vision Times, which reports that people have recovered from COVID-19 after reciting the “Nine Sacred Words” of the Falun Gong sect.  Nonsense spreads like wildfire through social media.  Those looking for objective or nuanced reporting have to work harder.


A Song Criticizing A Politician Tops The Charts In Poland – And Moments Later, It’s Completely Disappeared


Kazik Staszewski is a rock legend in Poland, and his song, “Your Pain Is Better than Mine,” hit a chord last week – or perhaps too many chords when it hit number 1 on a popular show. “Within minutes of the show ending, the results disappeared from the website of the show’s state-run broadcaster. Mr. Staszewski’s anthem had vanished, along with the rest of the chart.” One of the radio station’s many now-resigned hosts says, “even the Communist regime had more respect for the freedom of speech at Trojka than the current government has.” – The New York Times




THE PRIMARY SOURCES: The High Court’s decision opens the possibility that we will finally see the last pieces of factual evidence about The Dismissal.
PERMISSION TO BE YOUR WORST: Trump is a ferocious campaigner who will try to find ways to use both the coronavirus pandemic and George Floyd’s death to his advantage and, importantly, to make things worse for his challenger.