Anything that opposes art is probably immoral, even or especially when it wraps itself in the cloak of morality. The least we can ask of moral crusaders is that they are fighting for the highest good, and not merely advocating for their own special interests and personal benefit in and through alienating and disenfranchising others.…
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When all the rhetoric is cleared away, and one looks at America objectively, we see the same thing as in most the countries of the world – a tiny elite with all the power and money, and everyone else struggling just to get by. The reason is simple. The most powerful individuals and corporations have…
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I rarely get depressed. It takes extenuating circumstances to get me down, and then if there’s something constructive I can do about the problem, tackling it will make me feel better. However, I’ve been a bit lucky. My children weren’t squashed in an earthquake because the school they attended was built on the cheap. I…
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I know, we’re all sick of graphics with one-liners, but I was listening to a philosophy lecture and Rousseau’s words struck a chord. Here is a quote with some grit. It’s the type of statement we’ve heard so many times that it has become meaningless, like a song we’ve heard since we were children and…
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When I took Philosophy 101, way back when, I remember being struck by the fact that Socrates and his student, Plato, lived in B.C.. I’d sorta’ just thought B.C. looked more like, well, a movie starring Rachel Welch.
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Anyone who is involved in social media likely gets inundated with inspirational quotes, and some of these have become so common that they begin to underpin peoples’ daily conceptual framework. People start to believe them, and quote them. They are often used in the corporate environment, where they very conveniently function to silence dissent and…
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Haven’t done a political rant in a while, but this dreck needs to be slammed. Studies crop up here and there asserting that political views – whether one is liberal or conservative – are the inevitable consequence of biology, whether it’s genes or a generational flux. Such studies are bogus and irresponsible, and operate under…
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This kitsch is so good it hurts. It helps that most people assume the girl brandishing the masterpiece is also the genius behind it. We might like it less if the creator were a disheveled man in his forties who knew what he was doing, and pissed himself laughing while making it. So, let’s just…
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And now our blogs will feature ads. Businesses follow us, and businesses advertise on our blogs. Why not just cut out the middle man so businesses can advertise to each other? Incidentally, if you missed my post about all the businesses and other bogus “followers” I have, it’s here.
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Here is a sampling of my followers on wordpress.com. There are many more like this. In fact, I have over 400 followers, 90% of which I can be confident are bogus. They are just businesses or individuals spamming to get people to visit their blogs. It’s all just a little depressing. I deserve better than…
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Secretary of State John Kerry has been talking tough, standing firm, strutting and posturing, swollen with pride in American military power. And he makes me sick. On September 9th he accused Assad, “He sends airplanes to napalm children,” as if America hadn’t killed an estimated 200,000 Vietnamese, including children, with napalm. Later in his press…
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Frankly folks, I’m starting to foam at the mouth. This war seems like it’s going to be a huge disaster that could easily spread to Israel, Jordan, and Iran. And people aren’t talking about it. People are blithely sharing pictures of cutie kitties and shit on Facebook. They are quoting Buddhist ideas of accepting what…
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I’ve heard all this rhetoric before. Suddenly there’s the perfect opportunity to go to war with Syria, and Iran, with decade old rhetoric. Last time we wanted to go to war there was the question of WMDs. It was all about the WMDs. Saddam Hussein had them, and he might use them on US. We…
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Outside of China, that is. Culture shock is going to happen between Chinese tourists and local Thais. At first I thought nothing of it. I’ve seen it thousands of times before. But then I realized I’d only seen it in China. There was a family across the street from me and the little boy (around…
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Venting time. I haven’t ranted about climate change in a while. Get’s boring, no matter how urgent it is to fix the problem. The rhetoric gets tedious. Nobody wants to have to do the equivalent of going out and standing on a street corner with a “The End is Nigh” sign.
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A veritable treasure trove of previously undocumented quotes by famous artists, writers, philosophers and other major cultural icons has just been released. I took it upon myself to create easily-sharable graphics for each of them. If you want to share, these will fit perfectly as images on your facebook wall (if you download them and…
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I am J Sri Bhagovwid, but you can call me JSB, or “Funny Baba” or whatever. I have been invited as a guest poster on this blog. I conceived this idea to share. We may have to play the game, strap ourselves into our seats and get in line on the superhighway to sit in…
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Examining the rhetoric of the interrogators. Yesterday a post by American Lieutenant and “terrorist catcher” Chris Simmons, arguing that the “Prisoner’s Dillemma” technique for interrogation proved the “frailty of loyalty” in people, was freshly pressed. After reading his piece, some counterarguments came to mind. [Note that the following is not a criticism of the author – who…
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